HIST 168
Black Film History Spring 2025
Division II W Writing Skills

This course will examine the history of African American cinematic production since the silent era. By examining the work of Black filmmakers and cinematic representations of African Americans more broadly, we will explore a variety of key questions throughout the course of the semester, including: How did Black filmmakers address social and political questions in their work? How did filmmakers engage with and refute dominant cultural and Hollywood images of African Americans? What role did movie theaters play in the social lives of Black communities? How did film critics shape understandings of Black cinematic expression? What transformations occurred in the images of African Americans in film across the twentieth century? What role did filmmaking play in the Black Freedom Struggle? In addition to viewing a sampling of films, we will engage with a variety of scholarly and popular writing on the history of African American filmmaking, filmgoing, film criticism, and filmic performance.