Race & Hollywood

With this month-long programming event, TCM examines the varied concepts, stereotypes and imagery of African-Americans as represented in classic Hollywood cinema. Film historian Donald Bogle serves as special consultant and will appear on-air to introduce and discuss the films in the series, which range from D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) to Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996, TCM premiere). Reflecting changing attitudes over the decades are such landmark movies as The Jazz Singer (1927), Gone With the Wind (1939), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Bright Road (1953), and Shaft (1971, TCM premiere). TCM will also be airing interviews with notable African-American actors and film industry professionals who will share their perspectives.

The series represents a study of how African-Americans have been portrayed by Hollywood, and the cultural impact of this depiction upon American society. Its goals include tracking the history of the movies' relationship with African-Americans, and provoking thoughtful discussion and debate about how this relationship has evolved and where it stands today. In this festival, TCM puts this aspect of film history into academic context. Donald Bogle will take each film and dissect it, providing viewers with his insight. For example, Bogle will discuss films like Cabin in the Sky and why the film was important to black and white audiences during World War II.

Bogle is one of the foremost authorities on African-Americans in film and the author of prize-winning books including Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films; Blacks in American Films and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia; Primetime Blues: African-Americans on Network Television; the biography Dorothy Dandridge, which became the basis for the TV movie starring Halle Berry; and Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, which recounts what happened before the cameras rolled and after performers left the studio. Bogle adapted his book Brown Sugar: Eighty Years of America's Black Female Superstars into a four-part documentary series for PBS. He has taught and lectured at universities and museums around the country and contributed to such publications as Essence, Film Comment, Spin, Ebony and Freedomways.

by Roger Fristoe

For additional photos and video on TCM's "Race and Hollywood" Festival, visit AOLBlackVoices.com.


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