Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film

Culture and the Moving Image

by Paula J. Massood

This work shows how popular films reflected the massive social changes that resulted from the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural south to cities in the North, West, and Mid-West during the first three decades of the 20th century. By the onset of the Depression, the Black population had become primarily urban, transforming individual lives as well as urban experience and culture. The text probes into the relationship of place and time, showing how urban settings became an intrinsic element of African American film as Black people became more firmly rooted in urban spaces and more visible as historical and political subjects. Illuminating the intersections of film, history, politics, and urban discourse, it considers the chief genres of African American and Hollywood narrative film: the black cast musicals of the 1920s and the race films of the early sound era to blaxploitation and the hood films as well as the work of Spike Lee toward the end of the 20th century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Paula J. Massood is Professor, Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, City University of New York.

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. This book was very informative and interesting. It managed to make its content both intriguing and accessible while still delivering a lot of knowledge. While the book would make more sense if you've seen the films it discusses, it does a nice job of giving enough background information so it will still be comprehensible if you haven't.