Black cinema will become sustainable when it separates itself from Hollywood, filmmaker Arthur Jafa told roughly 30 people Wednesday. The event, hosted by the Department of Africana Studies, was entitled "The Critical Sorrow, Catastrophic Ecstasy and Convulsive Beauty of Modern Black Cinema and Visual Practice."
Held at the George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space at Churchill House, the dialogue was part of a series of conversations about the arts in black culture. The discussion involved perspectives that often get "eclipsed in public discourse," said Corey Walker, associate professor and chair of Africana studies. Greg Tate, visiting professor of Africana studies, proposed the discussion to Walker and suggested his old friends Arthur Jafa and Richard Blint as participants, he told The Herald.
Black cinema "actively engages all the expressive traditions" in the black community, said Jafa, a filmmaker, cinematographer and visual artist who lives in Los Angeles.
While film was once less conservative, today's forms do not allow for as much room for play, he added. "In the context of media, black people are not able to say what they feel," Jafa said.
Black cinema is very "preoccupied" and "curious" about the black experience, said Blint, a writer, critic, educator and lecturer who lives in New York City.
"Cinema is the mechanism for the mediation of reality," Jafa said. Motioning with his hands, he spoke of the need to create "a space for black people to play" without limitations. But it is a challenge to sustain black cinema in an environment of capitalism and Hollywood, Jafa said. The constraints of authority figures and power dynamics can negatively affect cinematic freedom, he added.
"We have so many stories to tell," Jafa said of the black community. People in Hollywood do not want, and even fear, a greater presence of black people in cinema, he said.
Black cinema has a history of "one-offs," successful one-time endeavors that are not repeated, Jafa said. Two examples of one-off films are Bill Gun's "Ganja and Hess" and Theodore Witcher's "Love Jones," Tate said.
Though the University of California at Los Angeles had an "incredible outpouring of black cinema" at one point, nobody has sustained this success — a feat that would require significant funding, Jafa said.
Andrew Colarusso MAT'13 disagreed with Jafa on this point. "Money is not the crucial element to sustainability," he said. "The creative vision is always ours," he added, citing Dave Chappelle as an example of a black man who started with a vision and little money.
Charles Cobb Jr., visiting professor of Africana studies, expressed concern about creating a space in Hollywood for black cinema.
"I don't know if there is any good news" regarding sustaining black cinema in the future, Tate said.
While Jafa said he does not "have a problem with what Hollywood is doing," there needs to be cinema that offers something different.
Tate, Jafa and Blint all chose not to see "The Help," a Hollywood film that features black maids during the Civil Rights era, Tate told The Herald. The movie seems like a "racist reactionary throwback to a time when the only roles for actresses were maids," he said.
"Don't pay for it," Blint said.
There is work to be done in black cinema when it comes to the differing narrative expectations from practitioners and audiences, Blint said. "Black filmmakers are waiting for black audiences."
The three made many cultural references to influential black figures. Jafa said he was "profoundly impacted" as a child seeing comedian Richard Pryor recite poetry. Pryor had the "freedom to do what he wanted to do," Jafa said.
Blint quoted novelist James Baldwin, who influenced Blint's PhD dissertation.
Jafa referenced the "mind-boggling" Chappelle, who made frequent references to race on his television show. Many people embrace Chappelle in popular culture, he said.
Blint said he "laughed in complicated ways" while watching Chappelle perform, prompting laughter from the audience.
"I love Dave Chappelle," he added.
