“Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971” looks back at the key moments in the little-known history of black American cinema, and in particular the hundreds of independent feature films made until the 1960s with African-American actors for an African-American audience, called “race films”when racial segregation was still in effect in theaters.
The exhibit, which highlights works largely ignored by major Hollywood studios and audiences at the time, opens with a recently rediscovered reel from 1898 showing two black vaudeville actors embracing.
“Are you ready to hear this secret? That we black people have always been present in American cinema, from the beginning“, launches the director Ava DuVernay, during a press conference.
“Present not as caricatures or stereotypes but as creators, producers, pioneers and enthusiastic spectators”she adds. “We should have shown this long before.”
“Regenerationis the second major temporary exhibition at the Oscar-winning Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum, which has come under heavy criticism in recent years for its lack of diversity.
Among the exhibits are jumbled together: the Oscar of Sidney Poitier, the first African-American to win the prestigious best actor statuette in 1964 for “The lily of the fields”the tap dances of the dancing duo the Nicholas Brothers or even a costume worn by Sammy Davis Jr in the film “Porgy and Bess”.
“Dark Manhattan”
“I was surprised because I was not aware of the existence of these feature films before starting the preparation” of this retrospective in 2016 and to explore the archives of the Academy, explains to AFP the curator, Doris Berger.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t we know regarding this? We should know!'” she continues. “These are really gripping films and proof that African American artists had all kinds of roles and there were lots of different stories.”
Audiences can now see carefully restored footage of works such as the musical western “Harlem on the Prairie”, the comedy horror “Mr Washington Goes To Town” or the feature film of gangsters “Dark Manhattan”.
But a lot of “race films” of which only the promotional posters remain have been lost forever.
When Hollywood offered black actors of the time supporting roles in “butlers and + mamas + (black nanny, often slave, of wealthy white American families, editor’s note)”, this type of independent films offered them roles “of lawyers, doctors, nurses and cowboys”note Doris Berger.
“It’s proof (that Hollywood) might have been so much more diverse and exciting”she adds.
The end of the exhibition focuses on the rise of the “blaxploitation“, a genre of the 70s that put African-American actors in the spotlight, launched by black director Melvin Van Peebles, who died a few months before the kickoff of “Regeneration“, just like Sidney Poitier.
Belated but essential tribute
The exhibition is part of an effort by the Academy to respond to criticism of its lack of representativeness, embodied by the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, which in 2015 pointed to the lack of black artists in Oscar nominations.
The institution has since doubled the number of women and people from ethnic minorities among its members.
Beyond informing the general public regarding the “race films”“Regeneration“also has the merit of having challenged certain black American directors.
“If I had known – regarding the actresses and all that – I would have had a completely different vision and approach to cinema”says director Charles Burnett.
“This work needed to happen. It is long overdue. This is important and essential work,” abonde Ana DuVernay. “This exhibition highlights the generations of black artists whose footsteps we follow”.
