Soul Searching

by Sieving, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780819571335
• ISBN10: 0819571334
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-02
• Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr

Summary

The sixties were a tremendously important time of transition for both civil rights activism and the U.S. film industry. Soul Searching examines a subject that, despite its significance to African American film history, has gone largely unexplored until now. By revisiting films produced between the march on Washington in 1963 and the dawn of the "blaxploitation" movie cycle in 1970, Christopher Sieving reveals how race relations influenced black-themed cinema before it was recognized as commercially viable by the major studios. The films that are central to this book--Gone Are the Days (1963), The Cool World (1964), The Confessions of Nat Turner (never produced), Uptight (1968), and The Landlord (1970)--are all ripe for reevaluation and newfound appreciation. Soul Searching is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics and cultural movements of the 1960s, cinematic trends like blaxploitation and the American "indie film" explosion, or black experience and its many facets.

Author Biography

Christopher Sieving is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia. His articles have appeared in various journals, including The Velvet Light Trap and Screening Noir.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The March on Hollywood: Gone Are the Days and the Integration Picture	p. 11
Ghetto Travelogue: The Cool World, Harlem, and the New American Cinema	p. 43
The Concessions of Nat Turner: The Instant Demise of the Black Prestige Picture	p. 83
The Battle of Cleveland: Uptight and the Urban Black Revolution Film	p. 119
Black Hollywood Meets New Hollywood: The Landlord and the Racial Impasse Film of 1970	p. 161
Conclusion: 1960s African American Cinema and the Birth of Blaxploitation	p. 201
Notes	p. 209
Bibliography	p. 243
Index	p. 255
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