African American Women Filmmakers: Creating Counter Cinema
The portrayal of African American women in media is problematic. These portrayals usually surface as one-dimensional caricatures. When African American women are portrayed they are usually desexualized, hyper-sexualized or victimized. They are almost always portrayed as objects in service of male-hood or white womanhood. In applying a black feminist theoretical framework, informed largely by the work of Barbara Smith, Jacqueline Bobo and Gloria Gibson-Hudson just to name a few, I compare the subjectivity and sexuality of African American women in mainstream film versus independent films by African American women filmmakers. I argue that African American women filmmakers have created a counter cinema in response to negative representations that continue to surface in mainstream cinema. Mainstream films, even those by African American males, continue to replicate images that negate the subjectivity of African American women. Independent African American women filmmakers have created an independent counter cinema in order to battle these debilitating stereotypes. This research topic and others like it give voice not only to the filmmakers who often go unacknowledged but also to the women these filmmakers seek to venerate.
School:
DePaul University
Department:
African and Black Diaspora Studies
Research Advisor:
Frances Gateward
Department of Research Advisor:
African American Studies
Year of Publication:
2007