{"product_id":"black-manhood-on-the-silent-screen-hardcover","title":"Black Manhood on the Silent Screen - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eGerald R. Jr. Butters\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early-twentieth-century motion picture houses, offensive stereotypes of African Americans were as predictable as they were prevalent. Watermelon eating, chicken thievery, savages with uncontrollable appetites, Sambo and Zip Coon were all representations associated with African American people. Most of these caricatures were rendered by whites in blackface. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFew people realize that from 1915 through 1929 a number of African American film directors worked diligently to counter such racist definitions of black manhood found in films like D. W. Griffith's \u003ci\u003eThe Birth of a Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, the 1915 epic that glorified the Ku Klux Klan. In the wake of the film's phenomenal success, African American filmmakers sought to defend and redefine black manhood through motion pictures. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGerald Butters's comprehensive study of the African American cinematic vision in silent film concentrates on works largely ignored by most contemporary film scholars: African American-produced and -directed films and white independent productions of all-black features. Using these \"race movies\" to explore the construction of masculine identity and the use of race in popular culture, he separates cinematic myth from historical reality: the myth of the Euro American-controlled cinematic portrayal of black men versus the actual black male experience. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough intense archival research, Butters reconstructs many lost films, expanding the discussion of race and representation beyond the debate about \"good\" and \"bad\" imagery to explore the construction of masculine identity and the use of race as device in the context of Western popular culture. He particularly examines the filmmaking of Oscar Micheaux, the most prolific and controversial of all African American silent film directors and creator of the recently rediscovered \u003ci\u003eWithin Our Gates\u003c\/i\u003e--the legendary film that exposed a virtual litany of white abuses toward blacks. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlack Manhood on the Silent Screen\u003c\/i\u003e is unique in that it takes contemporary and original film theory, applies it to the distinctive body of African American independent films in the silent era, and relates the meaning of these films to larger political, social, and intellectual events in American society. By showing how both white and black men have defined their own sense of manhood through cinema, it examines the intersection of race and gender in the movies and offers a deft interweaving of film theory, American history, and film history.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.88 x 8.26 x 5.74 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 28, 2006\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42132103430279,"sku":"9780700611973","price":80.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/662fa4c9f8a6e62226ce679e87a48f82.webp?v=1732623781","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/black-manhood-on-the-silent-screen-hardcover","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}