{"id":4412,"date":"2017-12-09T10:42:46","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T17:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/?p=4412"},"modified":"2017-12-09T10:44:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T17:44:08","slug":"future-black-filmmaking-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/future-black-filmmaking-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the future of Black filmmaking look like?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A scene from the 2012 film \u00a0\u2018Middle of Nowhere.\u2019 (TIFF)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Bee Quammie, Macleans<\/p>\n
December 7, 2017<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
From the click and whirr of 35mm film projectors to the laser-sharp crispness of digital cinematography, Black people and stories have long lived on screen. Across generations and geographies, from past to present, what can be said of how Black cinematic identities have formed\u2014and how will they evolve in the future?<\/p>\n
The depiction of Blackness on film has been a complex matter for decades. Global film industries have been shaped by the dominance of whiteness, displayed in everything from who holds gatekeeper positions to the covert or overt racist expectation that stories satisfy the white gaze. Hollywood\u2019s first spoken film, 1927\u2019s\u00a0The Jazz Singer<\/em>, was itself an exercise of Black erasure through the utilization of blackface. This dominance has impacted which stories get told, how they\u2019re told, and by whom.<\/p>\n But a palpable shift is underway. \u201cTo put Black subjects at the centre of cinema, to make Blackness the focus of the identification and worship that defines film stardom, is to take as a given that Black lives matter,\u201d Toronto International Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey writes\u00a0in an introductory article\u00a0<\/a>about\u00a0the Black Star retrospective program,<\/a>\u00a0which is celebrating a century of Black film at Toronto\u2019s TIFF Bell Lightbox until Dec. 22.<\/p>\n It also serves as a reminder that Blackness is not a monolith, and that Hollywood is not the only thriving film industry in the world. In Nigeria, Nollywood\u2014the country\u2019s cinematic institution\u2014pumps out 1,500 movies a year and\u00a0has surpassed Hollywood to become the second-highest volume-generating film industry<\/a>, behind India\u2019s Bollywood. In Emily Witt\u2019s book\u00a0Nollywood: The Making Of A Film Empire,<\/em>Nigerian documentarian Femi Odugbemi explained that colonialism shaped the early narratives of Nigerian film, and independence from Britain in 1960 ushered in a new wave of self-definition that was expressed through the medium. \u201cPeople who were the consumers began to become the storytellers \u2026 There were a lot of films in Nigeria through the years, but none spoke our voice,\u201d he said. \u201cNone recognized our existence as a distinct culture, as a distinct civilization, a distinct aspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n After being the backdrop for numerous Hollywood classics and blockbusters like\u00a0Dr. Doolittle<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Casino Royale<\/em>, the Caribbean has also started to come into its own creatively. The 1972 film\u00a0The Harder They Come,\u00a0<\/em>screening at Black Star, was a cinematic success in Jamaica due to its authenticity. \u201cBlack people seeing themselves on the screen for the first time created an unbelievable audience reaction,\u201d said director Perry Henzell in Barbara Mennel\u2019s book\u00a0Cities and Cinema.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cNo films with or by Jamaicans in general, or Black Jamaicans, or poor Black Jamaicans for that matter, were available before\u00a0The Harder They Come,<\/em>\u201d added Mennel.<\/p>\n And in an effort to create a cohesive film industry across the region, entities like the\u00a0Trinidad and Tobago Film Company Ltd have created grant programs<\/a>\u00a0to support local filmmakers. The Toronto-based\u00a0CaribbeanTales organization<\/a>\u00a0is working to provide the foundation for a sustainable Caribbean\/diasporic film industry. The CaribbeanTales International Film Festival makes an effort to showcase films that not only share the stories of Black and brown people, but also show the intersections of class, gender, sexuality, and ability.<\/p>\n A scene from 1972 Caribbean film, \u2018The Harder They Come.\u2019 (TIFF)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Indeed, Black filmmakers and other creatives have always had the skill, the talent, and the drive to shape their works, but accessibility and opportunity will be the game-changers that push the evolution of Black cinema. From YouTube serving as a DIY home for independent films and web-series to the ever-expanding world of entities like Netflix and Amazon, entering the market is becoming more accessible. This not only impacts the aspirations of creatives, but it also impacts the choices available to audiences, and both aspects germinate something new in the other.<\/p>\n Take Nollywood, for instance. Gone are the days when you had to rely on obtaining a DVD of your favourite flick\u2014Netflix now hosts a wide selection of Nollywood titles, opening it up to fans around the world. Through accessibility for creatives and audiences, new ideas and expressions of Black life on film will continue to broaden and take new shape.<\/p>\n And Amazon Studios has announced it will produce an original series based on Jamaican-born author Marlon James\u2019s Man Booker Prize-winning novel,\u00a0A Brief History of Seven Killings,\u00a0<\/em>which details the real-life attempted assassination of Bob Marley in 1976, and weaves a fictional tale of the political and cultural aftermath. The adaptation will be directed and co-executive produced by Melina Matsoukas\u2014the chief director of HBO\u2019s\u00a0Insecure\u00a0<\/em>who has made a name for herself through working with artists like Beyonc\u00e9, her sister Solange, and Rihanna\u2014with James writing the script and co-executive producing as well. Pushing Black people and other people of colour to the forefront is a given with Matsoukas, and her passion for piercing through the status quo of Hollywood is apparent. Coupled with the hands-on partnership with James himself, it\u2019s exciting to anticipate what will be revealed through this series, and what doors it will open in both the literary and cinematic worlds\u2014and hopefully it paves the way for more creations from underrepresented authors, more stories that shake up the assumed normalization of whiteness, and more works that come to life on screen with people who reflect diversity both in front of and behind the camera.<\/p>\n Film festivals are also doing their part. Toronto-based Kenyan-Somali filmmaker Samah Ali\u00a0recently made waves with her short film\u00a0hyphen-nation<\/em><\/a>\u2014<\/em>a kaleidoscopic documentary about the Black Canadian identity featuring five Black Canadian women of varying heritages\u2014<\/em>recently screened at this year\u2019s Regent Park Film Festival. It\u2019s Toronto\u2019s only free film festival, and one that centres films that\u00a0\u201cbreak stereotypes and show that no one place or person has just one story.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWe really want to show different narratives that you wouldn\u2019t normally see through other means, through the mainstream media,\u201d said festival programmer Sojin Chun. Through the efforts of film festivals providing space for new visions, and the efforts of filmmakers like Ali who utilize their platform to share their truths, an awakening will arise in terms of which stories of Black life are worthy of being told\u2014and we will undoubtedly see more creators be inspired to share the tales that live inside of them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n