Screens Fade to Black : Contemporary African American Cinema

The triple crown of Oscars awarded to Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, and Sidney Poitier on a single evening in 2002 seemed to mark a turning point for African Americans in cinema. Certainly it was hyped as such by the media, eager to overlook the nuances of this sudden embrace. In this new study, author David Leonard uses this event as a jumping-off point from which to discuss the current state of African-American cinema and the various genres that currently compose it. Looking at such recent films as Love and Basketball, Antwone Fisher, Training Day , and the two Barbershop films—all of which were directed by black artists, and most of which starred and were written by blacks as well—Leonard examines the issues of representation and opportunity in contemporary cinema. In many cases, these films-which walk a line between confronting racial stereotypes and trafficking in them-made a great deal of money while hardly playing to white audiences at all. By examining the ways in which they address the American Dream, racial progress, racial difference, blackness, whiteness, class, capitalism and a host of other issues, Leonard shows that while certainly there are differences between the grotesque images of years past and those that define today's era, the consistency of images across genre and time reflects the lasting power of racism, as well as the black community's response to it. CONTENTS......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Celebrating the 2002 Oscars......Page 12 Defining African American Cinema......Page 14 A New Racism: Popular Culture and Colorblind Discourse......Page 19 Toward an Understanding of the New Racism......Page 24 2 The Ghettocentric Imagination......Page 34 Baby Boy......Page 37 Antwone Fisher......Page 51 Training Day......Page 62 Prison Song......Page 71 Conclusion......Page 85 3 Is This Really African American Cinema? Black Middle-Class Dramas and Hollywood......Page 88 Drumline......Page 95 Love & Basketball......Page 108 Brown Sugar......Page 116 Good Fences......Page 124 Conclusion......Page 132 4 Blackness as Comedy: Laughter and the American Dream......Page 136 Soul Plane......Page 139 Bringing Down the House......Page 144 A White Man’s Burden? Redemption in Post-Civil Rights America......Page 148 Barbershop......Page 152 Barbershop 2......Page 166 Undercover Brother......Page 172 Bamboozled......Page 181 Conclusion......Page 186 The 2005 Oscars......Page 188 Just Scenery: Authenticating Hip-Hop and the American Dream......Page 191 White Stories, Black Face: My Baby’s Daddy and Love Don’t Cost a Thing......Page 197 The Longest Yard......Page 199 Erasing Race and Whitening Pictures......Page 200 Crossover Appeal: Transcending African American Cinema......Page 203 Cinematic Opposition in a Barren Marketplace......Page 205 Conclusion......Page 208 Appendix......Page 212 Bibliography......Page 216 Index......Page 222 This book examines how African American directors have depicted racial issues since the mid-90s, revealing the ways in which they both consciously avoid and sometimes utilize racial stereotypes