Indeed, it is a wonderful revelation in the history of world cinema that immensely talented women filmmakers from Africa and the African diaspora are making it big in innovative cinema. They are not only challenging old cinematic prescriptions, they are also using their superior art of cinema to create and establish new visions of their people and the world. The journey of black female filmmakers began in 1922 when Tressie Saunders, a black female director, made the exemplary film ‘A Woman’s Error’. It was the first such attempt at the time to decolonize the gaze and ground the film in black female subjectivity. Yet today, even after a long history of evocative work, black female directors have had a long, slow road to the director’s chair, where only a handful of black filmmakers have been able to break down racial barriers in Hollywood.
But in addition to Hollywood, many of the black women of Africa and the United States have known how to stand out in the respect of world cinema. In fact, filmmakers like Julie Dash (a native of New York City) long ago won the Best Cinematography Award for her highly acclaimed film “Daughters of the Dust” at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. , Cheryl Denye from Liberia has received worldwide fame and recognition with her film The ‘Watermelon Woman’ (1996), which happens to be the first African-American lesbian feature film in the history of world cinema. Another filmmaker, Safi Faye from Senegal, has several ethnographic films to her credit that brought her international recognition and won several awards at the Berlin International Film Festivals in 1976 and 1979. In addition, there are independent black female filmmakers like Salem Mekuria from Ethiopia who produces documentaries focused on her native Ethiopia and African-American women in general. In 1989, Euzhan Palcy became the first black woman to direct a mainstream Hollywood film, ‘A Dry White Season’. Despite all this success, it remains true that the state of things is not so rosy for African-American filmmakers. A documentary called “Sisters in Cinema” by Yvonne Welbon has tried to explore why and how the history of black women behind the camera has become strangely dark throughout Hollywood.
“Sisters in Cinema” is the first unique documentary in the history of world cinema that attempts to explore the lives and films of inspiring black filmmakers. To commemorate the success and colossal achievement of black women. women filmmakers throughout the centuries, a 62-minute documentary by Yvonne Welbon called “Sisters in Cinema” appeared in 2003. The film attempted to trace the careers of inspirational African-American filmmakers from the early 20th century to the present day. The first documentary of its kind, ‘Sisters in Cinema’ has been hailed by critics as a strong visual history of the contributions of African-American women to the film industry. A tribute to African American women who made history against all racial and social barriers.
While being interviewed, filmmaker Yvonne Welbon admitted that when she set out to make this documentary, she hardly knew there were black female filmmakers other than African-American director Julie Dash. However, in search of those inspiring directors, she set out to explore the fringes of Hollywood, where she discovered a phenomenal film directed by an African-American woman, Darnell Martin. Aside from that movie ‘I Like It Like That,’ she discovered only a handful of movies produced and distributed by African-Americans. That said, the monopoly of Hollywood by white filmmakers, producers, and distributors kind of inspired her to go down the path of independent filmmaking. Surprisingly, here she discovers a wide range of really remarkable films directed by an African-American woman outside of the Hollywood studio system and thus she discovered her sisters in film.
Within the 62-hour documentary, the careers, lives and films of inspiring women filmmakers including Euzhan Palcy, Julie Dash, Darnell Martin, Dianne Houston, Neema Barnette, Cheryl Dunye, Kasi Lemmons and Maya Angelou are showcased, along with rare, in -In-depth interviews interwoven with film clips, rare footage, and production photos and videos of the filmmakers at work. Together, these images give a voice to African-American female directors and serve to illuminate a story of the phenomenal success of black female filmmakers in world cinema that has remained hidden for far too long.
Most recently, the Eighth Annual Black Women in Film Festival was held in New York City in October 2005. It was another notable event showcasing exceptional feature films and documentaries, as well as short films made by Black filmmakers such as Aurora. Sarabia, a fourth-generation Chicana (Mexican-American) from Stockton, CA, Vera J. Brooks, a Chicago-based producer, Teri Burnette, a socialist filmmaker, Stephannia F. Cleaton, an award-winning New York City newspaper journalist, and Adetoro Makinde, business editor of Staten Island Advance, first-generation Nigerian-American director, screenwriter, producer, and actress, among others. And more recently, from February 5 to March 5, 2007, there has been a Black History Month celebration by the Film Society of Lincoln Center & Separate Cinema Archive, in which the center presented “Black Women Behind the Lens”.
A seething documentary, “Black Women Behind the Lens” celebrates the uncompromising cinematic labors of love created by a group of courageous African-American women. Gifted with exceptional determination and a fearless spirit, these Black filmmakers were committed to speaking truth to power while offering alternatives to the stereotypical images of Black women found in mainstream media. They turned to guerrilla cinema, an artistic rebellion against the long-established grid of Hollywood, and have challenged old cinematic perceptions, using their art to erect new visions of their people, their heritage and their world. Leading theorists, sociologists, writers and directors say it’s good to know that filmmakers from Africa and the African diaspora are challenging old film prescriptions and creating their own visions in the cinema they love to make.
Yet while a significant number of women in Africa and here in the United States have been able to carve out successful careers in film, the obstacles are particularly daunting. The problem, says Elizabeth Hadley, chair of Women’s Studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., isn’t particularly about black women making movies, but about questions of marketing, distribution and financing. As a result, most of these women find money independently and work on shoestring budgets. However, all said and done, it is quite encouraging to know that at least some of these women dare to decolonize the Hollywood gaze and base their films on black female subjectivity. Any attention or recognition that arises when these women wish to communicate their ideas about Black history and heritage, with an emphasis on the women’s experience, should be welcomed!