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African-American women and African-American gay and lesbian women have also made advances directing films, in Radha Blank's comic The 40-Year-Old Version (2020), Ava DuVernay's fanciful rendition of the children's classic A Wrinkle in Time [1] [58] or Angela Robinson's short film D.E.B.S. (2003) turned feature-length adaptation in 2004.
The film industry's pioneers include Alice B. Russell, Eslanda Robeson, Eloyce King Patrick Gist, Zora Neale Hurston, Tressie Souders, Madame E. Toussaint Welcome, Mrs. M. Webb and Birdie Gilmore whose contributions occurred when both African American women and men took on the role of director, producer and screenwriter. [9]
In the early days of cinema, African-American roles were scarce and often filled with stereotypes. Pioneers like Oscar Micheaux, one of the first significant African-American filmmakers, countered these narratives with films like The Homesteader (1919) and Body and Soul (1925), which were part of the "race film" genre and tackled issues such as racial violence, economic oppression, and ...
Monica J. Freeman (born 1947) is an independent Black feminist filmmaker and arts administrator.. Freeman earned her MFA from Columbia University.According to one article, "In the early '70s, Monica Freeman's documentaries heralded a new generation of Black women producing independent films about Black women."
To date, Nnegest Likké is the first African American woman to write, direct and act in a full-length movie released by a major studio, Phat Girlz (2006) starring Jimmy Jean-Louis and Mo'Nique. For a much fuller accounting of the larger history of black women filmmakers, see Yvonne Welbon's 62-minute documentary Sisters in Cinema (2003). [52]
The acclaimed director opened up about the challenges of gaining entry to film festivals as a Black filmmaker.
[1] The most important of these filmmakers was groundbreaking auteur Oscar Micheaux, whose films Within Our Gates (1920), with "its head-on confrontation of racism and lynching,"The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), about black homesteaders struggling for survival against the Ku Klux Klan on the Midwestern plains," and Body and Soul (1925 ...
The couple made films and pictures that recognized African American contributions to World War I. Under the banner of the Touissant Motion Picture Exchange, they made Doing Their Bit in 1918. Between 1917 and 1918, The Touissant Pictorial Company published A Pictorial History of the Negro in the Great War, a memorial book that featured Jennie's ...