Indiana University Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies
Black Camera
VOL. 21, NO. 1
Director’s Notes
The Power and the Story
Drifting on a memory
Ain’t no place I’d rather be
-Isely Brothers
S even years,
with all its magi-
cal and spiritual
implications,
have passed. It
has been that long
since I drifted in
the Black Film
Center/Archive as
its director.Dur-
ing that time, the country and the culture
have changed, mostly for the worse. This
sends some of us in search of truer things
that strengthen our resolve to resist arro-
gant injustice, and to anchor us against the
hostile tide. Looking back, the last seven
years have been filled with wonderful op-
portunities to highlight the power of film
to expose and enlighten, while preserving
stories that sustain our lives. Without sto-
ry, as filmmaker Haile Gerima reminds us,
we are easily trampled in the underbrush
of history and absorbed in its master nar-
rative. The Black Film Center/Archive,
founded in 1981 by Phyllis Klotman un-
der the aegis of the Department of African
American Studies and the late Herman
Hudson, has worked to disseminate and
preserve those stories and the knowledge
that film, in its best iterations, convey.
Proudly, The BFC/A has played an inte-
gral role in establishing what we now call
Black Film Studies. Part of my role has
been to push it forward .
This issue recounts the activities of
continued on page 2
A Micro Journal of Black Film Studies
The Black Film Center/Archive
ISSN 1536-3155 Spring/Summer 2006
Troubling The Waters
A Conversation with Manthia Diawara
by Audrey T. McCluskey
IU alumnus, Manthia Diawara was inter-
viewed by Audrey T. McCluskey, Director
of the BFC/A during his visit to campus.
Diawara is the Director of the Institute
of African American Affairs and Profes-
sor of Comparative Literature and Film
at New York University. He is the author
of several books including: Black African
Cinema (1992), Black American Cinema
(1994) In Search of Africa (1998) and We Manthia Diawara
Won’t Budge (2004).
you achieve that. I find that Africans often
Audrey T. McCluskey: Manthia, wel- become more conservative here than they
come back to your alma mater! We are are in Africa because of the fact that in
delighted to have you. Africa today, different ethnic groups leave
Manthia Diawara: Thanks, it is good to their villages and meet in the city and mix;
be back. It has been a few years. modernity is going on. When the same
Africans leave an African city in Nigeria
ATM: I know that in your work as a film- or other places, and come to America or
maker and scholar, you do a lot of travel- France, they are very traditional and are
ing between Africa, Europe, and the US. very conservative with their kids. I’m not
You have lived in these places and prob- sure that’s a good thing. It’s one thing to
ably feel at home wherever you are. This go home with their kids but these kids to
reminds me of a recent article on the New me are American My children are Ameri-
York Times about African parents who im- can children. They are Black Americans.
migrated here a few decades ago, sending For me, they grow up here, they are part of
their children back to their native coun- the struggle here and they face racism that
tries in Africa to attend school. They are all Blacks experience.
finding that their children are becoming
too “Americanized.” continued on page 2
MD: That’s right. I read that and know
that people actually advise you to send Also inside this issue:
your children to Africa so they can learn BFC/A Retrospective . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
the African ways. There is a notion that
you are not an African child when you are Issues in the New Nigerian Cinema . . 6
born in America or in France. So, in order The Constant Gardener: A Review . . 12
to become a better African child, which
Hustle and Flow Response . . . . . . . 13
basically means to be part of the commu-
nity, to respect the elders, to obey the tradi- Black Women Filmmakers Forum . . 15
tion, you are not considered African until
 Page 2 Black Camera
Director’s Notes
continued from page 1
the BFC/A’s last seven years, a highlight of which has been the
growth of the archive, particularly the number of special named
collections and our expanded focus on African diaspora cinema.
We feature an interview with Manthia Diawara, a filmmaker and
scholar who bridges African and African American cinema, and an
insightful essay by Akin Adesokan on Nigerian Cinema. Profes-
sor Adesokan introduced the films in our recent film series, ‘“Nol-
lywood:’ Nigerian Cinema on the Rise.”
As I prepare to pass the torch to the very able Dr. Michael
Martin, I am reminded of the countless people who have enhanced
my experience at the BFC/A. Although there are too many to
name here, without them this journey would not have been so full
of pleasure and drifting memories.
-Audrey T. McCluskey, Director BFC/A
 Special Collection Acquisitions 
2000-2006
S. Torriano Berry Collection- June 2005
St. Clair Bourne Collection- September 2002
William Greaves Collection- October 2003
Alile Sharon Larkin Collection- January 2003
Jesse Maple Collection- June 2005
Edward Mapp Collection- June 2000
Black Film Center / Archive Endowment
We appreciate your generous contributions to the BFC/A Endow-
ment to support collections development and special projects.
Name
Address
Please mail your check (payable to BFC/A Please check box:
Endowment Account No. 37-AS59-02-2): ‫ ٱ‬Benefactor
BFC/A Endowment - IU Foundation ($1,000 and above)
c/o IU Foundation ‫ٱ‬Patron ($500 and above)
Showalter House ‫ ٱ‬Supporter
1500 N. State Roade 45/46 Bypass ($200 and above)
Bloomington , IN 47402 ‫ ٱ‬Friend (any amount)
Volume 21, Issue 1
Diawara Interview
continued from page 1
ATM: This has remained a troubling divide of the ancestral wa-
ters exacerbated by perceptions that Africans are being favored
by White America.
MD: Yes, that’s true. So I want [my children] to learn African
culture, but I want them primarily to learn Black American cul-
ture here, not only to get ahead but also to defend themselves
against racism. That’s important to me.
ATM: That thought brings me back to something that you said
earlier about meeting poet Ted Joans in France and your friend-
ship with him.
MD: Yes.
ATM: He seemed to be telling you to go to America because
they [the French] don’t like you [Africans] here. They liked
him because he was from America. How did you understand
that complicated notion?
MD: At that point, I took it as a poetic statement. I said: “This
guy’s crazy all the time.” He was a kind of an older brother,
and so wise. I had to listen to him. I saw an opportunity in
his advice. He said, “Go to America because they will accept
you all there, and they don’t like us there. Leave France be-
cause they don’t love you here, and they like us here.” Lit-
erally I understood it, but I didn’t understand at that time the
complicity that he was creating between us, the bond that he
was creating between us—that is, we wink at each other, we
know where something worked for someone in this place or
that place. He had that kind of intelligence, and I didn’t know
that. I didn’t know that he was telling me: “Young man, you
are not an American here. You will make it in America, but you
won’t make it here. And I want you to make it, so this is what
I’m going to advise you to do even though I don’t like America
myself.”
ATM: That was in 1974…?
MD: 1974. I always apply this statement to affirmative ac-
tion because the way affirmative action is conceived nowadays,
where there is an attempt to dilute the concept and bypass Afri-
can Americans and get people from India, Africa, everywhere.
ATM: Yeah. A broad, ahistorical lumping of people to divide
and conquer.
MD: You have to figure out how you can keep the spirit of af-
firmative action while at the same time build this complexity
when, if a Nigerian can do the work sometimes, you go with a
Nigerian because you know that the White professors may not
go for an African American and that Nigerian would have to
work to be an African American later and so on. So you have to
continued on page 9
 Volume 21, Issue 1 Black Camera Page 3

The Black Film Center/Archive presents:

“‘Nollywood’: Nigerian Cinema on the Rise”

Osuofia in London Thunderbolt ‘Magun’ Agbéké

Feb. 7 Feb. 14 Feb 23

Feb. 7 Osuofia in London (Part One), (2004), dir. Kingsley Ogoro. Running time: 110mins
Osuofia is a farmer often at odds with his demanding family. When he receives the news of the death of his
brother in London, an under-prepared Osuofia sees an opportunity to escape the troubles of home and enrich
himself from the huge bequest of his late brother’s will.

Feb. 14 Thunderbolt: Magun (2001), dir. Tunde Kelani. Running time: 105mins
Thunderbolt: Magun tells the story of Ngozi, a young wife who, because of her job as a school teacher, has
to divide her time between two towns. Her husband suspects her of infidelity, and when she is discovered to
be suffering from a deadly affliction, her marriage and life are at risk.

Feb. 23 Agbeke, (2004), dir. Abbey Lanre; prod. Bukky Wright. Running time: 120mins.
A rich but childless man takes advantage of a naïve girl, and dies thereafter, but not before his own barren
wife claims to have become pregnant at last. Agbeke, the girl, is separated from her child who grows up
as Tobi. When the teenage Tobi develops a serious illness, the question of who will donate a spare kidney
arises, bringing a long-neglected Agbeke back into the foray.

Dates: Feb. 7th, 14th, and 23rd

Time: 7:00 pm (7:15 for Agbeke)
Place: Theatre Room 251 (245 for Agbeke) in the Radio and
Television Building next to the main library parking lot
Cost: Free and open to the public.

Co-Sponsored with POAET and African Studies

 Page 4 Black Camera Volume 21, Issue 1

ASankofaExperience...
The BFC/A looks back on the major events during the
years 1999-2006

“My decision [to “Looking Back, Moving Forward”

study filmmaking]
was a reaction 1999-2000
to racism and
exclusion and
a kind of self
defense”
Ethiopian-American filmmaker Haile Gerima screens
Adwa and gives key note lecture on black filmmaking at
the international festival titled:“Films of the African Di- Devil in a Blue Dress (1999) screening and discussion
aspora: Bridging Culture through Film” with director Carl Franklin

2000-2001

Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998) screening with IU graduate Gerald “Real to Reel: Urban
question and answer featuring screenwriter/producer/ Harkness gives lecture and Hip Hop Culture in
actress Tina Andrews titled: “The Art and Pas- American Film” film se-
sion of a Filmmaker” ries and panel discussion

“No, I didn’t decide to be

different. I decided this
is what I wanted. I said,
2001-2002 ‘Man, I’m tired of this,’
and it turns out I seem to
have a populist touch.”
“Is He Crazy? The Humor and Genius of Richard
Pryor” film series with keynote lecture by writer
James Alan McPherson titled: “Crazy like a Fox: “Kickin’ Science: An Evening With Melvin Van Peebles,”
The Vernacular Style of Richard Pryor” Artist-in-Residence

Academic/Cultural Projects
Occasional Papers Series Volume 1: Urban Testimonials- Hip Hop Culture in Film
by Audrey T. McCluskey and Tyrone Simpson
Frame by Frame III: Filmography of African Diaspora (forthcoming IU Press)
edited by Audrey T. McCluskey
Imaging Blackness:Film Poster Art and Racial Representation (forthcoming IU Press)
edited by Audrey T. McCluskey
“Imaging Blackness”- National Touring Exhibit of BFC/A Poster Art (check website for details)
 Volume 21, Issue 1 Black Camera Page 5

“...I think that ...far

too often we don’t
realize where we’ve
come from...we’re all
African people...we’re
2002-2003
decendents of slaves
and our ancestors went Screening of the The Screening of The Gilded Six Bits
through holy hell for us Black Beyond with di- (2001) with filmmaker Booker T. Mat-
rector S Torriano Berry’s tison. Part of Zora O’ Zora! A Cel-
to get where we are” book signing
“An Evening with Spike ebration of the work of Zora Neal
Lee.” McCluskey pres- Hurston
ents Lee with the Oscar
Micheaux Distinguished
Achievment Award

2003-2004

William Greaves intro- Screenings as part of the poster exhibit include:

“Imaging Blackness 1915- Lumumba (2000) and Afrocentricity (2000). Dr.
duces Ralph Bunche: 2002” poster exhibit at the
An American Odyssey Edward Mapp delivers lecture titled, “African Amer-
IU Art Museum exhibit icans in Cinema: An Enduring Odyssey,” in conjunc-
(2001)
tion with the exhibit

2004-2005

Film Series- Afri-

cana Women Film-
makers: Spotlight on Salem Mekuria conducts workshop on documentary film-
Julie Dash making and screens her films Sidet (1991) and Deluge
(1995)

2005-2006

Film Series-Nollywood: Ni- Black Women Filmmakers

gerian Film on the Rise Forum: An Alternative Aes-
thetic and Vision with Alile
Film Series- Back in the Day: “Race” Movies in Sharon Larkin, Jessie Maple,
Black Hollywood and Yvonne Welbon
 Page 6
Issues in the New Nigerian Cinema
By Akin Adesokan
Professor Akin Adesokan lecturing
on Nigerian cinema
The new cinema in Nigeria has
been receiving a lot of attention in the
last few years, through writings and fea-
turings at film festivals as well as con-
ferences. Much of this interest arises
from the sheer power that the cinema is
expected to wield as an economic force,
next to Hollywood in the United States
and India’s Bollywood, in terms of the
scale of production. Predictably, and for
this reason, it has been labeled ‘Nolly-
wood.’ Very few of the commentaries
bother to describe the films in any intel-
ligible manner or even historicize them.
Mere familiarity with the Nollywood
label does not prepare anyone for films
made in several Nigerian languages, nor
does it draw attention to the vast use of
video and digital technologies as mark-
ers of new social identities outside of
filmmaking. Nor, for that matter, is the
relationship of these films to television
stressed as an aesthetic issue. There
are write-ups that routinely but vaguely
class the films as ‘straight-to-video’ or
‘home videos,’ the sort of vagueness
that, paradoxically, is to be encountered
when even the filmmakers talk about
their works.
This tendency cannot be divorced
from the general attitude to cultural pro-
ductions in contemporary Africa, which
sees any form as dazzlingly new, for the
Black Camera
moment, and apt to soon loose efferves-
cence and disappear once its ostensibly
utilitarian end is achieved. One is thus
reminded of the ancient saying about the
continent as the perpetual site of new
things.
The truth is that the cinema had been
in existence for about seven years when
the critic Jonathan Haynes published an
essay titled, “Nigerian Cinema: Struc-
tural Adjustments.”1 Haynes had sever-
al concerns in that important piece, but
the most central, in this writer’s view,
was to demonstrate the effects of the
regime of global economic deregulation
on the vibrancy of a filmmaking prac-
tice that had none of the institutional
support usually available to filmmakers
in French-speaking West Africa. This
concern was clear from the title; the
economic deregulation process went by
the name of Structural Adjustment Pro-
The questions of
superstition and occult
imagery have not been
resolved...
gram, or SAP, its telling acronym. It was
part of the neo-liberal economic agenda
administered by the transnational corpo-
rate capital complex through the Inter-
national Monetary Fund with variations
in different parts of the ‘global south.’
In Nigeria, the deregulation consisted in
the devaluation of the currency (which
is still on a downward slide after almost
two decades), the control of interest
rates, and the removal of government
subsidies from public corporations.
The Nigerian cinema was a public
(‘national’) institution more by pre-
sumption than practice, and the film-
makers discussed by Haynes had ideas
that were compatible with neither the
expectations of bureaucrats—the puta-
tive administrators of the industry—nor
Volume 21, Issue 1
the suppositions of critics who analyzed
their works. It seems ironic from this
distance in time that Haynes’s essay fo-
cused not on the then-incipient cinema
driven by video technology but on the
final gasps of the 16 to 35-mm celluloid
tradition. The irony loses poignancy
when one observes that those films of
the late 1980s were already in the pro-
cess of grafting their aesthetics on the
technology of video, which would ex-
plain the structural and aesthetic prob-
lems identified in the essay. In one
crucial passage, Haynes made the fol-
lowing observation: “…[O]ne will not
truly be able to speak of Nigerian Film
until the rift between the Yoruba film-
makers and the rest of the filmmaking
community is overcome” (111). The rift
in question had to do with the convic-
tion of Yoruba-language filmmakers of
the late 1980s that their works subsisted
on an audience that they had created and
cultivated, and the feeling of academics
and bureaucrats that much of these films
purveyed little beside superstition and
false consciousness, the latter a Marxian
terminology.
In the last ten years, those who fol-
low the developments in cinema in Ni-
geria have seen a different, more mud-
dled picture. There is such a thing as
a Nigerian film now, although when we
say this we usually turn a blind eye on
the films made in Hausa language in and
around the northern city of Kano, which
are Nigerian but still very different. The
questions of superstition and occult im-
agery have not been resolved, and the
Yoruba filmmakers of Haynes’s recall
are not quite the dominant players in
the current dispensation. It is true that
the bridge across that rift has been pro-
vided in the works and person of Tunde
Kelani, arguably the best-known of the
director-producers in Nigeria.
Kelani, 57, has directed and pro-
duced eight video-based films between
1993 and 2005, excluding two cellu-
continued on page 6
 Volume 21, Issue 1 Black Camera Page 7
Issues in the New Nigerian Cinema
continued from page 6

loid features, one of which he only produced. As an active and private broadcasting has since become a catalytic feature
filmmakers he commands a stable, consistent, and formalized of mass media in Nigeria.
structure—Mainframe Productions. His cinematic practice is The earliest films were produced on shoestring budgets
firmly rooted in Yoruba cultural identity even when he makes that the established filmmakers, who were accustomed to cellu-
a foray into a cross-cultural ambience, as in the film Magun: loid filmmaking with all its costs, could not embrace. Granted
Thunderbolt, his first ‘English-language’ film. At the same that technical expertise was lacking in most cases, those early
time (a suitable Nigerian phrase), he travels regularly to film films suffered more from an inability to the requisite capital
festivals inside and outside the continent. In 2004 he was the than from an inability to tell a good story. Acting in Nigerian
subject of a mid-career retrospective at the New York African cinema has always been excellent, if often quite theatrical, but
Film Festival, and in Los Angeles later in the year. One of his the overall quality was greatly affected by the technology of
films, Agogo Eewo (The Sacred Gong), was screened around shoulder-borne video camera.
the United States as part of an African trav- Even the breakthrough work of this peri-
eling series. For a country with a od, Living in Bondage (1992) produced and
But there is a limit to holding up an indi- directed by the electronics merchant Kenneth
vidual filmmaker as the paradigmatic figure widely misunderstood Nnebue, was technically flawed. Its success
in a context as stunningly diverse as Nigeria. international image derived in part from its appeal to an audi-
There are producers such as Francis Onwo- and quite susceptible to ence broader than the ones that the Yoruba
filmmakers had pleased for years. The story
chei, Kingsley Ogoro, Kabat Esosa Egbon
and others who work the European circuit, resentment from outsiders, of Paul, a jobless man who becomes rich by
while being active in Nigeria-focused initia- the self-adulation is not sacrificing his wife to a secret cult, Living in
tives like filmmakers’ cooperatives and gov- Bondage cannily mixed a dramatic example
ernment-sponsored professionals’ retreats
entirely useless. of personal tribulation with the pervasive
and workshops. There are actors’ caucuses presence of Pentecostal fervor, and through
and cliques unevenly spread across Lagos, Onitsha, Aba, and the judicious deployment of English subtitles rendered the
Osogbo; in sprawling markets of Idumota and Alaba cartels and Igbo speech accessible in the multi-ethnic context of Nigeria.
mafias proliferate as regularly as the videofilms are released. In Haunted by the wife’s ghost to the point of mental breakdown,
terms of actual productivity, these different formations put out Paul finds deliverance in a Pentecostal church. On this purely
over a thousand titles in a year, although given the scarcity of didactic level, the film was an unqualified success. The rest is
reliable statistics in Nigeria, this estimate is at best rough for a cinematic history, an on-going rehearsal and one of the most
sector firmly in private hands. Their target markets spring from fascinating in contemporary Africa.
the road-side tuck-shop to transnational trade networks that the Little of this history has received the kind of rigorous at-
anthropologist Brian Larkin has questionably characterized as tention that it deserves3. Instead, what abound are celebratory
‘disembedded from the official global economy’2. claims regarding Nigeria as a ‘force’ in filmmaking circles.
The introduction of SAP had two immediate effects on the Hence the chest-beating honorific of Nollywood, ‘the third
economics of filmmaking in the middle of the 1980s. In the first largest film industry in the world’, as an otherwise well-mean-
place, hitherto-active filmmakers like Ola Balogun, Eddie Ug- ing commentator recently opined4. For a country with a widely
bomah, and Bayo Aderounmu (with whom Kelani had worked misunderstood international image and quite susceptible to re-
as a cinematographer) found it difficult to fund new films. When sentment from outsiders, the self-adulation is not entirely use-
they were able to complete a project, the costs of postproduc- less. In the rest of this essay, I attend to misconceptions whose
tion, which could only be done abroad, were too prohibitive. correction I judge as crucial to a productive engagement with
Even if the filmmakers could hope to sell these works to local the videofilm practice.
television stations for broadcast, there was the other effect of It is common to describe these films, indeed the cinema
SAP. The Nigerian National Television Authority, NTA, was of Nigeria, as apolitical. This is unhelpful. The sense of the
one of the public corporations from which subsidies had been political implied in such descriptions is conventional. The
withdrawn, and most of the television producers were increas- films are political, but not always in the explicitly anti-imperial
ingly looking elsewhere for work. mode which we see in much of better-known African cinema,
In the early 1990s, there was an exodus of professionals from Ousmane Sembène to Jean-Marie Teno. Politics here is
from the television houses. But as it happens in such situations, conceived philosophically as a sub-category of morality, so it
this was also the time that video and digital technologies were is a foundationalist kind of principle, over and above specific
becoming more and more available and affordable (deregu- political or social situations. There is some truth in the assump-
lated, in fact, like the economies of the developing regions), tion that, since volatile political themes do not often or easily
continued on page 8
 Page 8 Black Camera
Issues in the New Nigerian Cinema
continued from page 7
interest spectators eager for escapist and fantastic plots, film-
makers who cater to a mass audience are quick to keep such
representations at arm’s length.
However, such is the proliferative character of the video-
films produced in Nigeria in terms of themes, notions of the
cinematic image, and genre that no approach is absolutely fore-
...the (mostly uncritical) use of Pentecostal
Christian ideas and ‘traditional African’
practices is better engaged than
disparaged.
closed. This industry may be far from integrated for now, but
the very fact of an incremental form requires the practitioners
to conceive of a material, a videofilm, as a commodity. This
means that it must show potential for commercial viability.
Once a particular film achieves success through its combina-
tion of certain factors, the formula becomes a basis for other
stories.
When Kelani revamped the institution of monarchy as a locus
of political desire in the three-part Ti Oluwa Nile (The Land Be-
longs to the Lord), his first film released between 1993 and 1995,
and later in Saworoide (1999), he also re-engineered the skin-deep
proclivity for the allegorical among Yoruba-language filmmak-
ers, with whom he shares a cultural template. These days, in any
number of Yoruba-language films, the king sits resplendent in his
grandeur on the screen, even if mostly pressed to share his au-
thority with the law court and political Big Men. The recognition
that women’s motives could be presented as starkly as in Glamour
Girls (dir. Nnebue, 1994/95) also led to a whole genre of English-
language films, of which Zeb Ejiro’s Domitila (1997) is perhaps
the most controversial.
Even the consolidation of the videofilm as a genre is an ex-
ample of this; everyone embraced this new formula once it was
discovered that its economic success could double as artistic
niche. Within this kind of logic, it is safe to speculate that directly
political themes are not an anathema, all risks considered. There
is enough evidence already.
In such films as Akobi Gomina (The Governor’s Heir, 2003),
Alaga Kansu (The Council Chairman, 2003), Mr. President
(2004), and the eponymous Omasiri and Makan (both released in
2002), political issues are either foregrounded or integral. More
and more films are turning toward ‘dirty deals’ in the political
capital, Abuja. It is not to the advantage of the videofilm form to
constantly import a notion of the political derived from the cul-
tural-vanguardist practice of African cinema. Surely there is much
that Nigerian videofilms stand to benefit from an acute sense of the
ideological and political forces shaping global relations, which is
Volume 21, Issue 1
to be found in different registers in the works of Sembene, Youssef
Chahine, or Jean-Luc Godard. But it is more productive to relate
to the phenomenon of videofilm on the terms of its open-ended-
ness, and see its tendency to proliferate as the strategic basis of
such engagement. In any case, the films’ ground of foundational
politics, which is seen in the (mostly uncritical) use of Pentecostal
Christian ideas and ‘traditional African’ practices is better engaged
than disparaged. It is about everyday human choices in socially
volatile circumstances, so it embodies the moral force of a human
example.
Nigerian videofilms are also often disparaged as being overly
didactic and full of moralisms, when not obsessed with simplistic
saccharine romance and domestic trivia. This is a question of form
which cannot be avoided, and it is related to the earlier critique
about ideological ambivalence. Like that critique, however, this is
again a conventional view of a form that subsists on a foundational
view of social processes. We would be relating appropriately to the
complexities of the form if we viewed those spectacles of family
romance and magic-suffused allegory as complex (even confused)
attempts to address deep moral issues.
The films are about good and evil but not always in the tra-
ditional sense in which this binarism has congealed to be identi-
fied as melodrama. Good deeds are often seen to be rewarded or
praised, but evil or deviant conducts may receive no more than
telling rebuke or ostracism (the lot of distrustful Yinka in Kelani’s
Magun) or retributive justice (which is why the political stalwart
Chief Makan has to go to jail, in spite of having the film named
after him!)
These concerns are real, but they need not be viewed as per-
manent because the terrain is broad and open to fresh ideas. More
urgent concerns, it seems to me, should lie elsewhere. Even be-
fore conception, the films are being made to serve social purposes.
Twenty-first century politics turns on some important social is-
sues. These include questions of economic development, the threat
posed to the human community by epidemics like HIV/AIDS, bird
flu, and other still to be identified, the concern about sustainable
development and ecological catastrophe, trade-for-aid, pervasive
militarism, and bio-political surveillance masked as war on ter-
rorism. These are global issues with varying relevance or topi-
cality; in African societies, each of them is crucial and crucially
linked to everyday political or social choices. At their beginning,
some Nigerian films were generated through a close identification
with social issues like gender inequalities, prostitution, etc. Their
didactic treatment of these subjects drew upon the strong tradi-
tion of artistic populism that rendered a topic attractive to a mass
audience within familiar aesthetic standards. Now filmmakers are
required, through funding possibilities, to use their films to combat
AIDS and attack the phenomenon of child soldiers.
Important as such critiques might be from the point of view
social responsibility, it is a debatable issue that a form ought to be
burdened by these economistic calculations so early in its life. In
continued on page 11
 Volume 21, Issue 1
Diawara Interview
continued from page 2
look at these complicities and this was
what Ted Joans was trying to make with
me. He is in France and it works well
for him, and he sends me to America.
ATM: That’s a wonderful complicity.
Let’s now talk about film and filmmak-
ing. I recently saw your new film Dias-
pora Conversations (2000).
MD: Diaspora Conversations.
ATM: There is such a contrast with your
film and a film we just screened in our
series. We featured films such as Raoul
Peck’s Lumumba (2000), and Wil-
liam Greaves was here to screen Ralph
Bunche: An American Odyssey (2001).
But then another film in the series that
was troubling to some was Little Sen-
egal (2001) by Rachid Bouchareb. Do
you know the film?
MD: Little Senegal, yes, I know that
film. You have to make a decision. I
made a decision to be part of the African
American community. The director of
Little Senegal made a decision to say
that Africans and African Americans
have nothing in common and he want-
ed to make [the film] to prove that. If
you notice in the film, toward the end
all the relations break down except for
the Black American woman and an Arab
woman and nothing that was taking place
between Black Africans and African
Americans came to fruition. The film
is consistent with the usual French pro-
paganda to say that it’s America that’s
racist, America is where nothing works
and even African Americans have noth-
ing to do with Africa and so on. It was
very troubling to me, too. But I love the
idea of a film that sends an African to
America to look for his roots.
ATM: A great notion.
MD: I love this idea! But suddenly the
film begins to give moral lessons to Af-
rican Americans.
ATM: Your film comes from a vastly
different point of view. It’s still about
Black Camera
those cultural connections and feelings.
MD: Right. My position is not roman-
tic. My position is that Africans and
African Americans, first of all, share
similar fates. With all the problems in
Africa, people think that African Ameri-
cans have something to do with it in the
sense that they stereotype them and they
say “Yeah, Black people are this, Black
people are that.” So, problems in this
country, too, sometimes reflect on the
image of Africa. We need to struggle,
to fight together, to do things together,
and I don’t want to do this romantical-
ly. I think that if you go to Africa as an
My position is not
romantic. My position is
that Africans and African
Americans, first of all,
share similar fates.
African American and get rejected, you
should not be surprised because in Af-
rica, people have gone through several
changes. This idyllic fixed Africa is not
there. So if you go to the Motherland,
you must remember that the Mother-
land has already been colonized by Is-
lam, by French people, by different par-
titions of the nation-state—then where
are you going to go? But if you take
history into account and look at contem-
porary realities and as a Black Ameri-
can you say: “I feel implicated by the
situation in Africa. I want to go and do
something.” So you go and first you get
rejected. “Who are you? I don’t know
you.” You know, that’s what people do
to each other. When an African comes
here, first African Americans will reject
you. You are not like the Africa they
had imagined and then somewhere the
African-American goes to Africa and
it’s not what the African-American had
imagined. So that initial rejection to me
is so normal. It’s ok. But then if you
Page 9
really want to work together, you get to
know each other. You create a new re-
lationship, and it’s this new relationship
that’s most important to me and this is
what I have created with African Ameri-
cans.
ATM: Do you think your film actually
moved to that position?
MD: Yes, because I went to Africa with
Danny Glover and Clyde Taylor and
then we met Ted Joans there. Ted Joans,
to his credit, knew Africa better than the
rest of them. He’s been going there for
years. Everybody laughs, everybody
loves him. But first, Danny and Clyde,
they raise their questions about Africa,
which is the kind of rejection that I’m
talking about and Africans do look at
them in certain ways. Once they got to
know each other, people realized what a
kind person Danny Glover is. He never
really acts like a star. He’s just such a
normal person.
ATM: Yeah, you can tell that.
MD: And then Clyde Taylor is the same
way. So they gradually began to come
home because they began to know each
other as human beings, not as Black
Americans and Africans. It was a very
rewarding thing to see. Through the
documentary, we ourselves got pos-
sessed by African rituals and it trans-
formed us and that includes me.
ATM: It is a really a powerful film to
teach; to create a dialogue among dia-
sporan Africans, like the dialogue Af-
ricans and African Americans don’t of-
ten engage that followed your talk. We
share the same space, but we don’t often
engage each other.
MD: That’s a shame because when you
look at what African-America can do for
Africa, it’s incredible. African Ameri-
cans are in the most powerful country in
the world and they have an incredible,
powerful lobby in Washington D.C.
They can influence America in its deci-
continued on page 10
 Page 10
Diawara Interview
continued from page 9
sions toward African countries—wheth-
er it’s trade, politics, or getting rid of
dictators—African America can make
America do things for Africa. Africa,
too, can do incredible things for Afri-
can-Americans in terms of finding one’s
roots, one’s identity—African cultures
and their contribution to the world cul-
ture. Not only music and art but also a
kind of [African] humanism. The idea
in Africa that we are a family. It’s not
because you are an old person that we
have to cast you out, put you in the old
folks home, everybody takes care of you.
That family relation would be a very im-
portant notion in America.
ATM: Yes, there is acceptance of this,
but there’s still a resistance to becoming
acculturated.
MD: What I still try to do is to show is
that Africans do not know Black Ameri-
cans. They don’t know much about slav-
ery, they don’t know much. The only thing
that they know about Black America that
is important is the stereotype. The things
that they see on CNN: people getting ar-
rested, people with guns, rap music and
this kind of thing.
ATM: And that brings us back to film.
MD: Yes. That’s right!
ATM: Because film can produce or dis-
rupt stereotype. I was in South Africa re-
cently and was surprised by what Africans
are actually watching on television and at
the cinema.
MD: Unfortunately, it is bad films. Bad
films with negative stereotypes with Black
people as thieves, as drug dealers and so
on.
ATM: Where is this coming from? Amer-
ica?
MD: It’s coming from America most-
ly—mostly American old movies and
new movies—but not enough redeeming
images. Black filmmakers can make an
incredible contribution to changing the
image of Black America in the world—
Black Camera
specifically in Africa. Showing also that
this is the country where W.E.B. Dubois
was born. Martin Luther King, Malcolm
X and these people have contributed more
to the changing world history than any
philosophy in the world. Africans do not
know these figures, these giants and Ida B.
Wells; they do not know Angela Davis and
so on. Documentaries, films like Eyes on
the Prize (1987), fictional films on these
issues would be very, very good [to show]
in Africa. Making films on Africans who
have civilizations, who have rich cultures,
showing them in Black communities—
these are things we can do. We don’t have
the power to change the world right away,
but as academics and professors and with
our relations to people like Danny Glover,
we can do things like that. Danny Glover
not only is helping filmmakers like Ous-
mane Sembene, he also gave one million
to TransAfrica to work to change US pol-
It killed independent
cinema but it did not
replace it with a new
artistic cinema that people
could describe...
icy toward Africa and Haiti and Central
America and South America.
ATM: What do you think about the con-
tent of a lot of the films coming out of
other parts of Africa these days? Is there
a kind of homogenizing of the stories and
plots? Is that globalization all over again.
(I say again because we often forget that
the slave trade was global and so was co-
lonialism).
MD: That’s right, its this new global-
ization. That’s what’s happening. They
only make films that are not threatening to
[power holders] and African filmmakers
have learned to respond to that. It’s a gift
to the global market—something light.
Something easy to consume. So the best
African cinema was actually being pro-
duced when I was writing my book [Afri-
Volume 21, Issue 1
can Cinema] back in the early nineties. I
should have paid more attention to that.
ATM: What is your assessment of current
African American cinema?
MD: I was at a conference recently and
many of these ideas here are not just mine.
But the thrust of the discussion was that
Black American independent cinema of
the ‘70s and ‘80s—particularly around
UCLA, called the LA Rebellion with
filmmakers like Charles Burnett, Billy
Woodbury, Julie Dash etc. These film-
makers were using films in a very pow-
erful manner. They drew their resources
from the Italian neo-realism, from African
cinema, Brazilian cinema—but they had a
Black aesthetics that one could compare
to Black music—you know, the Blues, the
vernacular. They were working within
the community and they were creating a
film language that produced some clas-
sics like Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (1977)
and Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama (1976).
Then came Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have
(1986). Very edgy. Very interesting.
Also, independent—and it’s a movie that
could be shown in movie theaters—and
the argument was made at the conference
that that changed the force of Black cine-
ma. People just threw everything out until
Spike Lee and they began to watch Spike
Lee and he becomes the Black filmmaker
because of She’s Gotta Have It. The argu-
ment continued that in a way that was both
positive and negative for Black cinema. It
was positive because Black filmmakers
were shown on the big screen and She’s
Got to Have It was a watershed film. All
the Spike Lee films brought to people’s
attention many Black actors who are now
great actors—Halle Berry, Sam Jackson,
all these guys. But it was unfortunate be-
cause it did not lead to a new language of
Black cinema. It killed independent cin-
ema, but it did not replace it with a new
artistic cinema that people could describe
as they could describe the LA Rebellion
films, for example. Our whole conference
was based on the question of where we
are going after She’s Gotta Have It.
continued on page 11
 Volume 21, Issue 1 Black Camera
Diawara Interview
continued from page 10
ATM: It’s an interesting and provocative discussion because there
are certainly more Black filmmakers than ever right now, more
blacks making a living in the film industry, not to mention the
recent academy awards to black actors. But is the quality better or
worse? What is black cinema doing for black people?
MD: Yeah. That’s exactly what they were saying. Black film-
makers are interested in one thing—to be a filmmaker and to go
to Hollywood and make money. So they left behind the com-
munity to go to Hollywood. You make films that compromise
and leave behind certain artistic and political concerns. This
was the argument at the conference. I was fascinated by some
of these ideas.
ATM: Potent ideas.
MD: We said Black cinema is dead. The film they showed was
like Kasi Lemmons’ The Caveman’s Valentine (2001) Films
like that, that’s what was shown and, you know, people say
“Where is that edgy Black cinema beyond the Hollywood cin-
ema?” But again, people say “Every Black filmmaker wants to
go to Hollywood, that’s the problem.”
ATM: But a filmmaker with real passion wants to make films-
most of them have Hollywood dreams—but the new technol-
ogy—internet, DVDs, digital cameras, and lower costs create
more options. I wonder if we are creating new models of suc-
cess in filmmaking.
MD: Well, you know, that’s what’s happening in Nigeria.
The Nigeria video films, they used to make them literally for
$2,000. Now the price has gone up because they are making a
lot of money. Now it’s got to be at least $25- 50,000, so they
make these films and it’s a huge market right now. It’s like a
$70 million a year market—
ATM: Yes, it is often compared to what has happened in In-
dia.
MD: It’s like India, but the paradigm is very interesting be-
cause remember in the ‘80s, Black writers used to do this.
They would write books published by the Black press and they
would distribute them themselves. With the development of
video and the potential of video, digital video cameras, I think
what you just said—DVD, movies can be created and they can
be sold on alternative markets and a new cinema can be born.
At least that is the hope.
Page 11
Issues in the New Nigerian Cinema
continued from page 8
one sense, this demand is a reflection of the integrated role of the
arts as social phenomena, and cultural brokers in the 20th century
had many field days perorating on the functionality of African arts.
In another sense, Nigerian videofilms stand at the crossroads of
capital as casualties of their own success.
At this strange pass, how much can one hope to see by way
of the auteur tradition that preserves the independence of a film
as a singular work of art? Is not this social requirement a way
of further severing the form’s open-ended, inclusive politics from
the critical traditions in global cinema? Or, to take a more opti-
mistic view, does this suggest a reconfiguration of the politics of
mass forms on a global level, in very much the same way that
new technologies and the wide dispersal of peoples are unsettling
entrenched cultural notions?
Akin Adesokan is an assistant professor of Com-
parative Literature at IU
1
Haynes, Jonathan. “Nigerian Cinema: Structural Adjustments”, Re-
search in African Literatures, Vol. 26, No. 3, Fall 1995, 111.
2
See his “Degraded Images, Distorted Sounds: Nigerian Videos and
the Infrastructure of Piracy”, Public Culture, Vol. 16, No 2, Spring 2004,
293.
3
For an early attempt to characterize the films along thematic lines,
see Nigerian Videofilms, Jonathan Haynes (ed.), Jos: Nigerian Film Cor-
poration, 1997. Contributors included Larkin, Onookome Okome, film-
maker Afolabi Adesanya, and others.
4
Toyin Akinosho, “Don’t envy the South Africans” (Artsville), The
Guardian on Sunday, Online edition, March 6, 2005.
Submit an Article for Black
Camera
For more information regarding contributing writer submis-
sions please contact:
Damien Strecker, Graduate Assistant for the Black Film Center/
Archive email: dstrecke@indiana.edu; phone: (812) 855-6041
 Page 12
The Constant Gardener
A Review
By Damien Strecker
The Constant Gardener (2006), di-
rected by Fernando Meirelles, is a film
that tries to mix love, suspense, and po-
litical consciousness. While the narrative
succeeds in conveying the first two objec-
tives, the political aspect is ripe for inter-
rogation. While it does attempt to shed
light on the negative tendency of Western
governments to value life on a relative ba-
sis, there remains problems with the Eu-
ropean idealism, as well as the lack of a
developed African character.
The story centers on Justin Quayle
(Ralph Fiennes) and Tessa Quayle (Acad-
emy Award winning Rachel Weisz), an
English couple living in Kenya. Justin, a
diplomat, is an unassuming public servant
who avoids confrontation at all costs. Tes-
sa, a passionate, pro-active idealist, inves-
tigates the dealings of a foreign pharma-
ceutical company that is conducting drug
research on unsuspecting Kenyans. Her
detective work leads to trouble and Justin
is compelled to find the courage to con-
tinue his wife’s whistle blowing efforts.
The issue of a pharmaceutical compa-
ny’s trial testing drugs on humans is tack-
led as an international conspiracy driven
by greed. While this particular scenario
of drug testing was created for the plot,
it underscores a general theme to which
the historical record can attest. That is, in
the eyes of many white policy makers, an
impoverished African life is not worth as
much as a European or American life. One
need not be a paranoid conspiracy theorist
to make the logical leap that something
similar to The Constant Gardener could
exist today. Giving small pox infested
blankets to Native Americans, promoting
opium addiction in China, and testing the
effects of syphilis on black men in rural
Georgia is a random snapshot that illus-
trates the point. Supposedly ‘civilized’
countries have shown a long track record
of not valuing the lives of non-whites. In
Black Camera Volume 21, Issue 1
general, the plot encourages genuine re- put into proper context, leaves the aver-
flection on this discrepancy in regards to age audience member feeling as though
the respect of life. the situation is hopeless because of the ir-
In addition to the broad issue of the rational blood lust and feuding going on
worthiness of life, the film focuses on ‘over there’ instead of an example of the
white guilt and the idealism necessary for complex Muslim-Christian relations in the
change in Africa. This is a position that ig- region. The filmmakers could have devel-
nores the structural reality of the situation. oped a more nuanced African perspective
In truth, the English “white guilt” can still by perhaps making Arnold a central char-
be highly profitable as well as palatable, in acter.
the form of Kenyan coffee grains and tea The solution given by the film in-
leaves. Economic policy is constructed volves Europeans looking inward and
accordingly. While the tag line, “Love. changing their moral outlook instead of a
At Any Cost,” has a nice romantic ring fundamental critique of the system initi-
to it, it ultimately sends the message that ated by intolerance of the status quo. This
only if enough do-good Europeans had the “love conquers all” solution, combined
right amount of brotherly love, the unequal with the paucity of African characters
power structure could be challenged. The of substance leaves much to be desired.
reality suggests otherwise. According to
the CIA Fact book, 67% of the nation’s Damien Strecker is pursing a
gross domestic product goes towards the Master’s degree in AAADS and is a
repayment of debt and the unemployment graduate assistant at the BFC/A
rate is around 40%. With these sorts of
embedded disadvantages fostered by or-
ganizations such as the International Mon-
etary Fund, one would be foolish to invest
hope in the concept of Europeans em-
bracing love as the answer. This
idealism that relies on the moral
pangs of Europeans for change is
a feel-good thematic ploy on the
part of the writers that fails to ac-
knowledge the powerful entities
behind the widespread scenes of
poverty shown in the film.
Along with not offering a
structural critique of the issues
facing Kenya, there is not a sin-
gle African character that is de-
veloped thoroughly. Aside from
Arnold (Hubert Kounde), who
dies early in the film, the only ex-
posure the audience has to Afri-
cans is in examples of corruption,
extreme poverty (sometimes in
a voyeuristic fashion), and un-
mitigated aggression. This gives
the impression among audience
members that Africans are more
of the problem than the solution.
The scene involving the Suda-
nese raiders on horseback, not
 Volume 21, Issue 1 Black Camera
A Pulse Response
Hustle and Flow
Is it Hard out Here for a
Pimp?
The Memphis group, Three 6 Mafia and their protege Fray-
ser Boy recently took home the 2006 Academy Award for Best
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
with “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp.” Used in a crucial scene
for the film Hustle and Flow, the song has raised discussion in
regards to its depiction of pimping and the implications for the
Black community. The BFC/A posed this question to several IU
students:
“How do you feel about the song ‘It’s Hard Out
Here for a Pimp,’ winning an Academy Award?”
The film’s tagline reads, “Everybody gotta have a dream.” In
the case of Terrance Howard’s character Deejay, the scope of
his dreams are extremely limited due to a lack of an equality of
opportunity. It is telling of the broader societal situaton that
within the ghetto, some of the only percieved options out are
via music or sports. I think the song should not be judged too
harshly in that it tries to capture the essence of the struggle to
survive amidst limited circumstances that is usually lacking in the
largely cartoonish popular images of the Black pimp.
-Damien Strecker, grauduate student, AAADS
I have a problem with any music, or movie for that matter, that
would glorify such a despicable profession without critique of
the larger social issues that contribute to the crime. I think
that pimping is one of the highest crimes that a black man can
commit, because he is willingly exploiting the women who have
already been dehumanized in this society. It’s sad that this image
has been glorified in the pop culture marketplace. Historically,
African Americans at the Oscars have been awarded for roles
that conform to the America’s archetypal fantasy of “black life.”
So far, the academy has “awarded” us for staying in our roles:
a mammy, a handy man who risked his life for German nuns,
a child-abusing poor woman who found salvation in a white
southerner, a dirty cop exposed by a good white cop, an enter-
tainer, and now, a pimp. Because of the scarcity of black roles in
pop culture, I am disturbed when the exalted images are ones like
these.
-Asha French, M.F.A. candidate,
Creative Writing program
Page 13
I am becoming increasingly disappointed that everytime some-
thing Black is portrayed or praised in the mainstream public
eye, it involves stereotypical or outright negative images. An un-
critical eye can easily be led to believe that gangs, pimps, drugs,
and prostitution are the Black status quo. It is not enough that a
“Black song” has won when the song in question happens to glo-
rify a pimp culture that will undoubtably be imitated by misguided
Blacks and their white counterparts. This is not cause for celebra-
tion.
-Garlia Jones, playwright and graduate student
AAADS
The fact that these men were black is critical in the acclaim and
accolades they receive for this song. Would whites, Latinos or
Asian Americans be awarded for such a song? I would find such a
scenario hard to believe. Also, the accepted exploitation of wom-
en, foundational to this song, is disturbing to say the least. The
physical, sexual, and mental abuse associated with prostitution
and pimping is deemed as a regrettable but ultimately understand-
able means of survival in the ghetto. The academy has awarded a
song that promulgates a misinformed, muddy theme at best. One
can only hope that this is seen for what it is by our society: the
proclamation of African Americans as agreeably sexualized, vio-
lent, and crude. With messages like this, they are telling the coun-
try wholly that the African American predicament is a product of
their culture instead of an historical legacy of inequality.
-Jeremy Gilmore, graduate student, AAADS
I’m amped. All the uproar over the issue shows people are still
trying to ignore the biggness of hip-hop. Three 6 Mafia may not
be the particular type of hip-hop I am in to, but I have mad love for
anyone bringing hip-hop to different audiences and mediums. That
power can be tapped into to get more relevant stuff out there.
-Versiz, slam poet/hip hop artist who
performs regularly at IU
From left to right: Jordan “Juicy J” Houston, Paul “D.J. Paul”
Beauregard, and Cedric “Frayser Boy” Coleman
Page 14 Black Camera Volume 21, Issue 1

The Black Film Center/ Archive Presents

Yvonne Welbon Jessie Maple Alile Sharon Larkin

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

4:00 pm - Woodburn 120
Forum: An Alternative Aesthetic and Vision

6:00 pm - Rawles Room, Woodburn Hall

Reception

7:00 pm - Radio/TV 245

Film Screenings: Mz. Medusa (1998), 29 min.
A Different Image (1982), 52 min.
Introduced by the filmmaker, Alile Sharon Larkin. Discussion to follow.

Thursday, April 6, 2006

6:30 pm - Woodburn 120
Film screening: Will (1981), 72 min.
Introduced by the filmmaker, Jessie Maple Patton. Discussion to follow.

8:30 pm - Woodburn 120

Film screening: Sisters in Cinema (2003), 57 min.
Introduced by the filmmaker, Yvonne Welbon. Discussion to follow.

All events are free and open to the public

Co-Sponsors: African American and African Diaspora Studies, Office of Academic

Support and Diversity, and the Creative Writing Program
 Volume 21, Issue 1 Black Camera Page 15

Black Women Filmmakers Forum: An Alternative Aesthetic and Vision

By Paul Heyde
Hollywood has been a difficult place, to say the least, for black
women to break through as filmmakers. Only a few—including
Euzhan Palcy, Darnell Martin, and Cheryl Dunye—have direct-
ed a Hollywood feature film. However, others have managed to
make their films through bypassing the traditional film industry
and producing their films independently. Three of these filmmak- Filmographies*
ers—Jessie Maple, Alile Sharon Larkin, and Yvonne Welbon—are
pioneers who have greatly contributed to the advances of black Jessie Maple:
women in the ongoing struggle for representation. The BFC/A is Methadone: Evil Spirit or Wonder Drug (1975-1976)
happy to welcome them as participants in our first Black Women Black Economic Power: Reality or Fantasy? (1977)
Filmmakers Forum.
Will (1981)
Jessie Maple began her career in film as an apprentice film
Escape Artists (1982)
editor for Shaft’s Big Score (1972) and The Super Cops (1974).
She then became a union cameraperson for television stations in Swish (1984)
New York City, helping to open the International Photographers of Twice as Nice (1988)
Motion Picture & Television (IATSE) to black women. In 1974, Kiss Grandmama Goodbye (1992) – cinematographer
Maple and her husband, Leroy Patton, founded LJ Film Produc- “It’s You” [music video] (1997)
tions, Inc. and produced a number of short documentaries, includ-
ing Black Economic Power: Reality or Fantasy? (1977). Maple’s
1981 film, Will, was the first feature-length independent film made Alile Sharon Larkin:
by an African-American woman and with Twice as Nice (1988), Your Children Come Back To You (1979)
she also became the first to direct two. A Different Image (1982)
The film career of Alile Sharon Larkin began in the late 1970s My Dream is to Marry an African Prince (1984)-producer
while working on a Masters degree in film and television produc- What Color is God? (1986) – producer
tion at UCLA. Her first film, Your Children Come Back To You Miss Fluci Moses (1987)
(1979), describes the struggle of a young African American girl Dreadlocks and the Three Bears (1992)
choosing between her aunt’s wish to adopt a European lifestyle Mz Medusa (1998)
and her mother and her African heritage. Larkin received critical The Blessing Way (2000) – cast
acclaim for her second film, A Different Image (1982), which won
first prize from the Black American Cinema Society. As a co-
founder of the Black Filmmakers Collective, Larkin helped to pro- Yvonne Welbon:
duce My Dream is to Marry an African Prince (1984). Later, she Monique (1991)
formed NAP Productions to develop quality educational video and
The Cinematic Jazz of Julie Dash (1992)
television for children. They include Dreadlocks and the Three
Missing Relations (1994)
Bears (1992) and Mz Medusa (1998).
The relative newcomer, Yvonne Welbon, made her first film Mother of the River (1995) – associate producer
Monique in 1991. Following this, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself (1995)
with a concentration in film and video in 1994 and obtained her Compensation (1999) – associate producer
Ph.D. in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University in 2001. Living with Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 (1999)
Dr. Welbon’s oeuvre includes many films that focus on black Stray Dogs (2001) – producer
women’s lives, such as The Cinematic Jazz of Julie Dash (1992), Stranger Inside (2001) – associate producer
her tribute to African American filmmaker, Julie Dash; an exami- E Minha Cara [aka That’s My Face] (2002) – co-producer
nation of an elderly black lesbian’s life and meaning to the gay The Taste of Dirt (2002)
community in Living with Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 (1999); and Sisters in Cinema (2003)
her latest work Sisters in Cinema (2003), a history of black wom-
en filmmakers. Sisters in Cinema has inspired a website created
*All films directed by the filmmakers unless otherwise noted
by Welbon as “a resource guide for and about African American
women feature filmmakers”: http://www.sistersincinema.com/
Together, their work offers an alternative aesthetic and vision
about what it means to be a filmmaker.

Paul Heyde is the BFC/A Archivist and

Head of Public and Technology Services
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plus V.I.P. invitations; framed certificate
□ Student Friend ($15 or more) Subscription to Black Camera

Enclosed is my check for $ __________________ . Send my gifts and BLACK CAMERA to:
Name
Address

Please mail this coupon with your check payable to: I.U. Foundation - c/o BFC/A

We invite you to send inquiries to: Visit our Web Site at:
Black Film Center/Archive http://www.indiana.edu/~bfca
812.855.6041
Fax: 812.856.5832
email: bfca@indiana.edu

Black Film Center/Archive

Nonprofit Organization
Smith Research Center 180-81
2805 E. 10th Street U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, IN 47408 Permit No. 2