ETS 154 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Mario Van Peebles, Gordon Parks, William Wyler
2 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Hollywood"s representation of african americans has relied on racist myths, stereotypes and caricatures going as far back as the 1910s. Plantation genre of films set in the antebellum south comes out of traditions in american literature and historical discourse at the turn of the twentieth-century. Slave stereotypes have become inscribed in hollywood narrative and imagery such that even films outside of the plantation genre reveal the legacy of this racist tradition in african. American representation: blacks as lazy, infantile and contentedly subservient to white authority, blacks as vicious criminals/rapists in need of white suppression. The birth of a nation (d. w. griffith, 1915) Hollywood"s first feature-length studio production (twelve reels and almost three hours long) which also established the racist template for hollywood"s plantation genre . Based on thomas dixon"s novel the clansmen (1905) and inspired by president woodrow wilson"s five-volume history of the american people (1902). Became first feature film shown in the white house.
