Magic Lantern Video & Book Store
Afro-American Film Festival
![poster for Walt Disney's musical feature film "Song of The South" [1946]](images/pWDsongofthesouth-orange-big.jpg)
This webpage was built without racist beliefs or intent. You will notice that anything
seeming to be racist herein was filmed or written by others 50 to 100 years ago.
Books
 | "Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of A Jazz Pianist From Cafe Society To Hollywood To H.U.A.C." [2008] by Karen Chilton Univ MI Press 9x6 hardcover [9/2008] for $19.77 |
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"Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide" [2008] by Josiah Howard FAB Press 9¾x7½ pb [6/2008] for $18.45 |
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"The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation In American Animated Short Films, 1907-1954" [2008] by Christopher P. Lehman Univ MA Press 9x6¼ hardcover [2/2008] for $23.96 |
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"Brown Sugar: Over One Hundred Years of America's Black Female Superstars" [2007] by Donald Bogle
featuring profiles of Marian Anderson, Pearl Bailey, Josephine Baker, Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Beyoncι, Lisa Bonet, Dorothy Dandridge, Aretha Franklin, Whoopi Goldberg, Pam Grier, Jasmine Guy, Lauren Hill, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Eartha Kitt, Queen Latifah, Leontyne Price, Ma Rainey, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Donna Summer, Ethel Waters, and Oprah Winfrey Continuum 'updated' 9¾x6¾ pb [6/2007] for $28.75 |
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"We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black At The Movies, 1986-2006" [2007] by Esther Iverem Da Capo Press 8¾x6 pb [4/2007] for $14.00 |
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"Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema" [2007] by S. Torriano Berry & Venise T. Berry Scarecrow Press 8½x5¾ hardcover [1/2007] for $85.00 |
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"Women of Blaxploitation: How The Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture" [2006] by Yvonne D. Sims McFarland & Co. 8¾x6 pb [9/2006] for $31.50 |
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"The Great Black Way: L.A. In The 1940s & The Lost Negro Renaissance" [2006] by R.J. Smith PublicAffairs pb [8/2007] for $11.53 PublicAffairs 9¼x6½ hardcover [6/2006] for $26.95 |
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"Black Lenses, Black Voices: African American Film Now" [2005] by Mark A. Reid Rowman & Littlefield 9x5¾ pb [4/2005] for $22.95 Rowman & Littlefield 9x6 hardcover [4/2005] for $83.00 |
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"Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood" [2005] by Donald Bogle One World/Ballantine 8x5 pb [1/2006] for $10.85 One World/Ballantine 9x6 hardcover [1/2005] out of print/used |
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"Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture" [2004] by Krin Gabbard Rutgers Univ Press 9¼x6¼ pb [5/2004] for $22.95 Rutgers Univ Press 9½x6½ hardcover [5/2004] out of print/used |
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"Black Directors In Hollywood" [2003] by Melvin Donalson Univ TX Press 8¾x6¾ pb [12/2003] for $29.95 Univ TX Press 9x7 hardcover [12/2003] out of print/used |
 | "America On Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality At The Movies" [2003] by Harry M. Benshoff & Sean Griffin Wiley-Blackwell 2nd Edition 9½x7½ pb [1/2009] for $35.95 Wiley-Blackwell 9½x6½ pb [10/2003] for $39.15 Wiley-Blackwell 9¾x6¾ hardcover [10/2003] for $112.69 |
 | "Colored Pictures: Race & Visual Representation" [2003] by Michael D. Harris, Forward by Moyo Okediji Univ NC Press 10½x6¾ pb [2/2006] for $26.25 Univ NC Press 10¾x7¼ hardcover [3/2003] out of print/used |
 | "Why We Make Movies: Black Filmmakers Talk About The Magic of Cinema" [2003] by George Alexander
interviewees include Camille Billops, Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Ernest Dickerson, Antoine Fuqua, Haile Gerima, William Greaves, Reginald & Warrington Hudlin, Malcolm Lee, Spike Lee, Doug McHenry, Stanley Nelson, Euzhan Palcy, Gordon Parks, John Singleton, George Tillman Jr., Robert Townsend, Melvin Van Peebles, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Forrest Whitaker, Fred Williamson & others Harlem Moon 9¼x7½ pb [2/2003] for $15.95 |
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"Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences In Film" [2003] by Paula J. Massood Temple Univ Press 9x6 pb [1/2003] for $22.95 Temple Univ Press 9½x6 hardcover [1/2003] for $72.50 |
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"Black Manhood On The Silent Screen" [2002] by Gerald R. Butters, Jr. Univ Press of Kansas 8¼x5¾ hardcover [10/2002] for $35.00 |
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"Literary Adaptations In Black American Cinema: From Micheaux To Toni Morrison" [2002] by Barbara Tepa Lupack Univ Rochester Press 9¼x6½ hardcover [9/2002] for $65.00 |
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"Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks In American Films" [1973 bestseller, rev 2001] by Donald Bogle Continuum 4th edition 9x6 pb [12/2001] out of print/used Continuum 4th edition 9x6¼ hardcover [9/2003] out of print/used |
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"Prime Time Blues: African Americans On Network Television" [2001] by Donald Bogle FS&G 8½x5½ pb [2/2002] out of print/used FS&G 9½x6½ hardcover [2/2001] out of print/many used |
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"Reel Racism: Confronting Hollywood's Construction of Afro-American Culture" [2000] by Vincent F. Rocchio Westview Press 9x6 pb [12/2000] for $37.00 out of print/used |
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"The 50 Most Influential Black Films: Movies That Changed The Way We See America" [2000] by S. Torriano Berry, with Venise T. Berry Kensington/Citadel 9x6 pb [11/2000] out of print/used |
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"Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision" [2000] by Natalie Zemon Davis Harvard Univ Press 8x5 pb [3/2002] for $20.50 Random House of Canada 8x5½ pb [9/2000] out of print/used Harvard Univ Press 8½x5¾ hardcover [9/2000] out of print/used |
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"Black Film As A Signifying Practice: Cinema, Narration & The African American Aesthetic Tradition" [2000] by Gladstone L. Yearwood Africa World Press 8¼x5¾ pb [1/2000] for $21.95 Africa World Press 8¾x5¾ hardcover [1/2000] out of print/used |
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"Struggles For Representation: African American Documentary Film & Video" [2000] Edited by Phyllis R. Klotman & Janet K. Cutler Indiana Univ Press pb [1/2000] for $24.95out of print/used |
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"On The Real Side: A History of African American Comedy" [1999] by Mel Watkins Covers historical folktales, blackface minstrelsy, race records, and all-black shows & films; featured performers include Stepin Fetchit, the Amos 'n' Andy show, Bert Williams, Moms Mabley, Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy & Bill Cosby Lawrence Hill Books 9x6 pb [5/99] for $13.22 |
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"What It Is... What It Was!: The Black Film Explosion of The '70s In Words & Pictures" [1998] by Gerald Martinez, Denise Chavez & Andres Chavez Miramax Books 10¾x8½ pb [10/98] out of print/used |
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"The Black 100: A Ranking of The Most Influential African-Americans, Past and Present" [orig 1993, rev 1998] by Colombus Salley
Beyond the obvious – Martin Luther King, Jr. #1 & Frederick Douglass #2 – Afro-Ameri-can artists & entertainers who made this list include Paul Robeson #24, Langston Hughes #34, Alex Haley #48, James Baldwin #49, Richard Wright #50, Zora Neale Hurston #52, Bill Cosby #62, Duke Ellington #67, Louis Armstrong #68, Toni Morrison #73, Lorraine Hansberry #77, Oscar Micheaux #81, Maya Angelou #85, Dick Gregory #88, Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis #91, Harry Belafonte #92 & Marian Anderson #94 Citadel Press 9x6 pb [rev 1/98] for $18.21 Citadel Press hardcover [2/93] out of print/used |
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"Black Film / White Money" [1996] by Jesse Algeron Rhines Rutgers Univ Press 9x6 pb [5/96] for $22.95 Rutgers Univ Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [5/96] for $59.00 |
 | "Framing Blackness: The African American Image In Film" [1993] by Ed Guerrero Temple Univ Press 9¼x6¼ pb [11/93] for $21.24 Temple Univ Press 9&frac13x6½ hardcover [11/93] out of print/used |
 | "Black American Cinema" [1993] from A.F.I.; edited by Manthia Diawara Routledge 9x6 pb [8/93] for $29.95 Routledge 9½x6¼ hardcover [8/93] for $115.00 "Black American Cinema Reconsidered" [2006] from A.F.I.; edited by Manthia Diawara & Mia Mask Routledge 9x6 pb [12/2006] for $24.95 Routledge 9x6 hardcover [12/2006] for $85.00 |
 | "Making Movies Black: The Hollywood Message Movie From World War II To The Civil Rights Era" [1993] by Thomas Cripps Oxford Univ Press 9¼x6¼ pb [5/93] for $44.99 Oxford Univ Press 9½x6½ hardcover [5/93] out of print/used |
 | "Redefining Black Film" [1993] by Mark A. Reid Univ CA Press 9x6 pb [2/93] for $19.95 Univ CA Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [2/93] out of print/used |
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"A Separate Cinema: Fifty Years of Black-Cast Posters" [1992] by John Kisch & Edward Mapp, Preface by Spike Lee, Introduction by Donald Bogle Noonday Press 11x8½ pb [11/92] out of print/many used FS&G 11&fracx9 hardcover [11/92] out of print/used |
 | "Black Cinema Treasures: Lost and Found" [1991] by George William Jones Univ North TX Press 9½x6¼ pb [2/97] for $17.95 Univ North TX Press 8¾x6¼ hardcover [8/91] for $29.95 |
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"Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and The American Cinema" [1991] Edited by Lester D. Friedman Univ IL Press 8¾x6 pb [4/91] for $22.00 Univ IL Press 9½x6½ hardcover [4/91] out of print/used |
 | "Frame By Frame, Volume I: A Black Filmography" [1979] by Phyllis R. Klotman Indiana Univ Press 8¾x6 pb [2/98] for $64.95 Indiana Univ Press 9¾x6¾ hardcover [12/97] out of print/used "Frame By Frame, Volume II: A Filmography of The African American Image, 1978-1994" [1997] by Phyllis R. Klotman & Gloria J. Gibson Indiana Univ Press 9x6 pb [6/97] for $39.95 Indiana Univ Press 9¾x6¾ hardcover [6/97] out of print/rare |
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"Slow Fade To Black: The Negro In American Film, 1900-1942" [1977] by Thomas Cripps Oxford Univ Press pb [2/77] for $34.99 Oxford Univ Press hardcover [2/77] out of print/used |
http://www.amazon.com/Mixed-Race-Hollywood-Mary-Beltran/dp/0814799884/
http://www.amazon.com/High-Contrast-Gender-Contemporary-Hollywood/dp/082232041X/
Afro-American Filmmakers
Charles Burnett
browse Charles Burnett on DVD IMDb listing
Wikipedia
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"Killer of Sheep" [original 1977; re-released 2007]
Long considered a prime example of independent film-making; taught in film schools while until recently not availabale for viewing (due to music rights restrictions). A black man in South Central Los Angeles is disconnected from his wife and his son & daughter and is unable to sleep, while working long hours at the local slaughterhouse. Produced, written, directed & edited by Charles Burnett; starring Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett, Eugene Cherry & Jack Drummond; won FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin International Film Festival (1981); listed on the first National Film Registry (1990) full credits from IMDb official movie site New Yorker/Milestone b&w DVD [11/2007] 2 disks for $29.99 this DVD set also includes four short films by Burnett and his second feature film: "My Brother's Wedding" [shelved 1983; released 2007] A black man working at a dry cleaner in South Central Los Angeles agrees to be best man for his ambitious lawyer brother, whom he despises. Produced, written & directed by Charles Burnett; starring Everett Silas, Jessie Holmes, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Ronnie Bell, Dennis Kemper & Sally Easter; full credits from IMDb |
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filmmaker Spike Lee
browse Spike Lee on DVD AFI Profile video
posters
IMDb listing
Wikipedia
'race' filmmaker Oscar Micheaux [1884-1951]
| Oscar Micheaux, the son of freed slaves, worked as a Pullman porter and homestead farmer, and wrote autobiographical novels; when Hollywood wouldn't buy his stories, he took up filmmaking in 1919 (at age 35). He was more skilled at marketing movies than at making them, yet the 40-plus films that he produced over a 30-year span shed valuable light on the harsh realities of African American life. His career began to fizzle, along with race films, in the late 1930s, and he died in obscurity. Two-thirds of Micheaux's films are lost, and those surviving are mostly truncated by censorship. |
Magic Lantern's Oscar Micheaux Page
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filmmaker Clarence Muse [1889-1979]
IMDb listing
Wikipedia
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director Euzhan Palcy of France
IMDb listing
Wikipedia
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director Gordon Parks [1912-2006]
browse Gordon Parks on DVD IMDb listing
Wikipedia
Gordon Parks Center for Culture & Diversity [est. 2004]
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writer-director-actor Tyler Perry
browse Tyler Perry on DVD IMDb listing
Wikipedia
official website
Tyler Perry Studios [est. 10/2008] in Atlanta, GA
http://whydidigetmarriedtoomovie.com/
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actor-filmmaker Robert Townsend
browse Robert Townsend on DVD
official website
IMDb listing
Wikipedia
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Melvin Van Peebles
browse Melvin Van Peebles on DVD IMDb listing
Wikipedia
"The Story Behind Baadasssss!: The Birth of Black Cinema"
[Columbia/M.V.P. Sept 2004]
Behind-the-scenes look at the making of both "Sweetback" [1971] and "Baadassssss!" [2004];
video/DVD not available;
full credits from IMDb
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"Baadassssss!" aka "How To Get The Man's Foot Outta Your Ass" [Sony May 2004] Mario's documentary/homage to his father's historic 1971 film that was key in birthing Independent Black Cinema. Co-written & directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles (based on the book, below) Sony widescreen color DVD [9/2004] for $17.99 Sony color VHS [1/2005] out of prodn/used B.B.E. soundtrack CD [6/2004] out of prodn/used full credits at IMDb official movie site {requires Flash} movie entry at Wikipedia |
 | "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: A Guerilla Filmmaking Manifesto" [2004] by Melvin Van Peebles Thunder's Mouth Press mass pb [8/2004] for $11.86 |
 | "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" [indep April 1971] Written, co-produced, directed & edited by and starring Melvin Van Peebles, with Simon Chuckster, Hubert Scales, John Dullaghan & young Mario Van Peebles Xenon color DVD [1/2003] for $17.99 Xenon color VHS [2/2002] out of prodn/used Stax soundtrack CD [11/99] 2 disks / out of prodn/rare full credits at IMDb movie entry at Wikipedia 11"x17" white poster from Amazon for $9.99 screenplay, diaries & soundtrack CD Interlink pb [9/96] out of print/used |
Melvin's son actor-director Mario Van Peebles
browse DVDs at Amazon: as director & as actor IMDb listing
Wikipedia
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actor-director Spencer Williams [1893-1969]
browse Spencer Williams on DVD IMDb listing
Wikipedia
"Blood of Jesus" [1941] adapted & directed by & starring Spencer Williams
"Go Down Death" [1944] directed by & starring Spencer Williams
"Juke Joint" [1947] directed by & starring Spencer Williams
portrayed Andrew H. Brown in the "Amos 'n' Andy" TV series [CBS 1951-53]
 | "Spencer Williams Collection" on DVD [2004]
Echo Bridge Home Ent. DVD [1/2004] 4 movies for $4.98 includes "The Bronze Buckaroo" [1939] written & directed by Richard C. Kahn, starring Herb Jeffries, with Spencer Williams as a henchman; "Blood of Jesus" [1941] adapted & directed by & starring Spencer Williams; "Go Down Death" [1944] directed by & starring Spencer Williams; and "Juke Joint" [1947] directed by & starring Spencer Williams |
Links
70's Blaxploitation fansite
African-American genre at Internet Movie Database
"Midnight Ramble: The Negro In Early Hollywood" pages
Black Film Center / Archive [est. 1981] at IU-Bloomington
A Cinema Apart: African American Film Memorabilia 1920-1959
blackfilm.com {last update June 2008}
Black Hollywood Education & Resource Center [est. 1996] in Los Angeles, CA
'Black Folks Make Movies' race films lecture/fansite
Separate Cinema Archive [est. 1972] in Hyde Park, NY
Black Film History website [est. 2004]
Black Entertainment Television [est. 1980]
Black Flix website (est. 1/2002]
Ajenbte: Urban Entertainment website [est. 1998]
Black Film and Video Network in Canada {website gone 2009}
Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame [est. 1973] in Oakland, CA {website expired 2008}
Pan-African Film Festival [Feb 2004 = #12] in Los Angeles, CA
The African American Cinema Society & Archive [est. 1976]
![Hollywood Black Film Festival [Feb]](images/HwdBFF.gif)
![The National Museum of African American History and Culture [opening 2015] in Washington, DC](images/AfroAmericanMuseumDC.jpg)
Visit Our Other Online Film Festival Pages
Magic Lantern's Afro-American Film Festival Pages << you are here
Atomic Film Festival Page at Spirit of America
Ayn Rand Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Beatnik Film Festival at Maison d'Κtre Philosophy Bookstore
'Biker Movies' Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Existentialist Film Festival at Maison d'Κtre Philosophy Bookstore
Films Noir Festival at BlackHat Mystery Bookstore
Gangster Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Hollywood Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Human Rights Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Movie Musicals Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Muscle-Head Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Oscar-Winning Western Movies Page at 'Readers of the Purple Sage'
Philosophy Film Festival at Maison d'Κtre Philosophy Bookstore
Pirate Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Political Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Railroad Film Festival at Spirit of America
'Rat Race' Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Road Movies Film Festival at Magic Lantern
Samurai Films at Magic Lantern
'Shakespeare On Film' at Magic Lantern
Sherlock Holmes Film Festival at BlackHat Mystery Bookstore
Sports Film Festival Page at Magic Lantern
War [& Anti- War] Film Festival Pages at Magic Lantern
Western Movies Film Festival at 'Readers of the Purple Sage'
Magic Lantern's Afro-American Film Festival Pages
on this page: short history books filmmakers links
on page two: actors & actresses collections documentaries selected movie music
on page three: selected films & TV
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