Expanding the Black Film Canon2019

If the sheer diversity of recent hits from Twelve Years a Slave and Moonlight to Get Out, Black Panther, and BlackkKlansman tells us anything, it might be that there&;s no such thing as &;black film&; per se. This book is especially timely, then, in expanding our idea of what black films are and, going back to the 1960s, showing us new and interesting ways to understand them.When critics and scholars write about films from the Blaxploitation movement&;such as Cotton Comes to Harlem, Shaft, Superfly, and Cleopatra Jones&;they emphasize their importance as films made for black audiences. Consequently, Lisa Doris Alexander points out, a film like the highly popular, Oscar-nominated Blazing Saddles&;costarring and co-written by Richard Pryor&;is generally left out of the discussion because it...