scholarly journals Black British Women Filmmakers in the Digital Era: New Production Strategies and Re-Presentations of Black Womanhood

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Herbert
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Film History ◽  
Women Filmmakers ◽  
New Production ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Black Womanhood ◽  
Video Sharing ◽  
Black British ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
British Cinema

Abstract The story of Black women in British mainstream cinema is certainly one of invisibility and misrepresentations, and Black women filmmakers have historically been placed at the margins of British film history. Up until the mid-1980s, there were no Black female directors in Britain. Pioneers like Maureen Blackwood, Martina Attille and Ngozi Onwurah have actively challenged stereotypical representations of Black womanhood, whilst asserting their presence in Black British cinema, often viewed as a male territory. In the 2010s, it seems that the British film industry remains mostly white and masculine. But the new millennium has brought a digital revolution that has enabled a new generation of Black women filmmakers to work within alternative circuits of production and distribution. New strategies of production have emerged through the use of online crowdfunding, social media and video-sharing websites. These shifts have opened new opportunities for Black women filmmakers who were until then often excluded from traditional means of exhibition and distribution. I will examine these strategies through the work of Moyin Saka, Jaha Browne and Cecile Emeke, whose films have primarily contributed to the re-presentation of Black womanhood in popular culture.

Olive and me in the archive: a Black British woman in an archival space

2021 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Oumou Longley
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Complex I ◽  
Women's History ◽  
Social Consciousness ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Black Womanhood ◽  
Black British ◽  
External Impact ◽  
Therapeutic Space ◽  
Women’S History

This article aims to explore how the archival life of Olive Morris might radically rebuff the devaluation of Black womanhood and identity in Britain. Harnessing a Black feminist framework, I approach Lambeth Archives, where the Olive Morris Collection is found as a therapeutic space. Through an understanding of Olive as complex, I disrupt hegemonic expectations of Black women and propose that within the space of this research, Black womanhood be allowed the freedom of self-definition. In a conglomeration of the documents and voices of the community that remembers Olive, marginalised epistemologies are legitimised. Their sometimes-conflicting accounts generate an unbounded image of Olive as a figure of Black British women’s history that harbours meaning as it is mobilised in social consciousness. Incorporating my own auto-ethnographic reflections, I explore the internal and external impact of Olive and my existence in this archival space.

From zones to Zoom: Shakespeare on screen in the digital era

2021 ◽  
pp. 018476782110083
Author(s):  
Sarah Hatchuel ◽  
Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
Production And Distribution

This introduction explores the consequences of the digital revolution on the production, distribution, dissemination, and study of Shakespeare on screen. Since the end of the 20th century, the rise (and fall) of the DVD, the digitalisation of sounds and images allowing us to experience and store films on our computers, the spreading of easy filming/editing tools, the live broadcasts of theatre performances in cinemas or on the Internet, the development of online archives and social media, as well as the globalisation of production and distribution have definitely changed the ways Shakespeare on screen is (re)created, consumed, shared, and examined.

scholarly journals Cultural discourses and practices of institutionalised diversity in the UK film sector: ‘Just get something black made’

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 1111-1127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive James Nwonka ◽  
Sarita Malik
Keyword(s):  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Institutional Diversity ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
Black British ◽  
Funding Mechanism ◽  
British Cinema ◽  
Diversity Agenda ◽  
New Cinema ◽  
The Uk

‘Diversity’ is an evolving dimension of discursive debates within publicly funded parts of the UK media. This article considers how representations of racial diversity in cinema were articulated in a particular moment in recent history. It traces the relationship between the broader New Labour neoliberal agenda of the late 1990s and the UK Film Council’s (UKFC) New Cinema Fund, the key funding mechanism for supporting black British cinema at the time. The authors suggest that the New Cinema Fund’s ‘institutional diversity’ agenda represented a symbolic effort by both the UKFC and UK public service broadcasters to redevelop black British film vis-a-vis a plethora of cultural imperatives oriented around the notion of ‘social inclusion’. The nature of this intervention, it is argued, was strongly influenced by the 1999 Macpherson Report, which identified ‘institutional racism’ within the fabric of the UK’s organisations. The article examines how such an ‘institutional diversity’ agenda emerged within the production context of a BBC Film/UKFC production, Bullet Boy (2005), thus generating a rearticulated black British cinema that was deeply imbricated in the highly politicised contexts outlined.

A Second hand Kind of Terror

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisha Gaines
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
House Staff ◽  
The Political ◽  
Johnson Administration ◽  
White House ◽  
Black Womanhood ◽  
Black Sexuality ◽  
John Howard ◽  
Previous Scholarship

Chapter Three considers the political, racial, and social crises plaguing the late 1960s by reading Soul Sister, Grace Halsell’s 1969 memoir. A freelance journalist and a White House staff writer for the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, Halsell was also a protégé of John Howard Griffin, who famously passed for black in 1959. While previous scholarship on Griffin has wrestled with his place as an enduring icon of racial empathy, this chapter details Griffin’s previously unknown mentorship of Halsell. Bolstered by extensive archival research, this chapter demonstrates how Halsell prepared for her performance of black womanhood by relying exclusively on Griffin’s instruction without any advice from black women. The chapter also situates Halsell’s blackness within important discussions around the contentious relationship between racial equality and 2nd wave feminism. Ultimately, Halsell’s six-months as a black woman in Harlem and Mississippi during the burgeoning black power movement ironically reveals grotesque assumptions about black sexuality, authenticity, and class.

Black British drama, losses and gains: the case of Shoot the Messenger

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarita Malik
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Linear Form ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Social Realism ◽  
Television Drama ◽  
Black Representation ◽  
Black British ◽  
British Drama ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
The One

This chapter contributes to the debates around television drama and black representation that are presented in this book collection. It focuses on Shoot the Messenger (STM) (BBC2, 2006), which was heavily promoted by the BBC as a ‘bold’ and ‘thought-provoking’ television drama. The one-off ninety-minute BBC Drama production focuses on the psychological journey of a Black schoolteacher, Joe Pascale (portrayed by David Oyelowo), accused of assaulting a Black male pupil. This chapter discusses how stylistically, STM’s non-realist techniques, non-linear form and overt constructedness depart from the traditional modes of social realism that have prevailed in Black British television drama. Moreover, it breaks with British television drama traditions in terms of production, having an almost totally Black cast and written and produced by two Black women: Sharon Foster and Ngozi Onwurah respectively.

Reducing the incidence of stillbirth in black women

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 297-305
Author(s):  
Sarah Esegbona-Adeigbe ◽  
Wendy Olayiwola
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Stillbirth Rate ◽  
Black British ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Uk

Black and black British women have an increased risk of stillbirth in the UK. The stillbirth rate for the UK in 2017 has reduced to 3.74 per 1 000 total births. However, mortality rates remain high for black or black British women, despite stillbirth rates for these groups reducing over the period 2015–2017 from 8.17–7.46 per 1 000 births ( Draper et al, 2019 ). These facts raise the question of why these trends continue and what steps can be taken to address this issue. This paper explores the possible reasons why black and black British women continue to be at increased risk for stillbirths. Recommendations will be made on reducing the risk of stillbirth and the importance of tailoring health services for black and black British women. For the purpose of this paper, the term ‘black women’ will be used for black and black British women.

From New Black Realism to Tyler Perry

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kameron J. Copeland
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Black Masculinity ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Black Womanhood ◽  
Successful Approach ◽  
Female Audience

In the midst of a revival of gospel theater aimed at Black female Christian audiences, Tyler Perry mastered a successful approach to Black independent gospel plays. Eventually, Perry transferred his work to the film screen, exploring the struggles of Black women in their relationships with Black men. While his depiction of Black men has garnered much controversy, Perry characterizes Black masculinity throughout his romantic storylines using a formulaic approach seeking to uplift his predominately Black female audience, while exploring the faults and various tropes of Black masculinity. In Perry’s female-oriented romantic storylines, Black men are usually categorized as an affluent shape-shifter, neglected love interest, transformed hard worker, crooked hoodlum, or Black messiah redux. Throughout this study, Perry’s usage of these characterizations is explored. Unlike 1990s New Black Realism films, which could have driven the explosion of female-oriented gospel-themed works, Perry fuses Black theological perceptions of manhood with a patriarchal-centered exploration of Black womanhood.

“Something a bit more personal”: Digital storytelling and intimacy among queer Black women

Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1434-1456
Author(s):  
Dominique Adams-Santos
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Black Womanhood ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Sexually Explicit ◽  
Cultural Texts ◽  
Discursive Strategy

Coming-out stories are important cultural texts wherein individuals articulate and interpret experiences of identifying as sexual minorities. Yet, much of the extant literature on coming-out stories examines narratives by white, middle-class gay men and lesbians. Critical inquiry into coming-out stories told by privileged queer subjects points to the formulaic and normative characteristics of their narratives, where sexual difference is downplayed or challenged. The goal of this article, then, is to ask whether and how coming-out narratives told by queer Black women conform to or depart from the “coming-out formula story.” Using an intersectional approach to narrative analysis, this article investigates the performative and discursive strategies that 50 women use in telling their coming-out stories on YouTube. Findings show that queer Black women’s use of intimate candor—the performative and discursive strategy of publicly revealing interior, often sexually explicit, aspects of the self—is a means through which women center desire and queerness; articulate a vision of queer Black womanhood; and complicate the coming-out formula.

scholarly journals Formulating Black Womanhood: A Study on Beyoncé’s Hip-Hop Song Lyrics in Beyoncé Platinum Edition Album

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Ika Ayu Larasati
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Social Background ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Black Womanhood ◽  
Mother And Daughter ◽  
Song Lyrics ◽  
Music Lyrics ◽  
The Relationship

This article aims at understanding the Black womanhood concept through Hip-Hop song lyrics, since song lyrics are not only a part of art but also a media to express people’s feelings, education, therapy and entertainment. This article also helps the readers to understand that sexuality portrayed in Hip-Hop song lyrics stands for something and has a function because music is related to the social background, message, function, and effect generated from the artwork.The qualitative method and interdisciplinary approach are used in conducting this article, which involves the literature, history, culture, sociology, and to enhance the understanding of multi-ethnic America, especially about Black womanhood. The article starts with introduction, a discussion about African American culture in general. To produce an up to date writing, the article choses the recent popular singer, Beyonce. In finding Black womanhood concepts in Beyonce’s lyrics. One thing that also needs to be highlighted is Black women’s sexuality.The findings are about Black womanhood from Beyonce’s standpoint, such as the Black woman’s self-definition, the sisterhood, the relationship between mother and daughter, and the relationship with Black men. In addition, since it highlights the Black woman’s sexuality in Hip-Hop that is based on Beyonce’s songs, it indicates that recently Black women began to realize that they have power over their own body.Keywords: Black womanhood, sexuality, Hip-Hop music, Lyrics

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