Blog #1 Sunken Place 112A

 Ramone Wagner

01/12/2022

Af Am 112A

Blog Assignment #1

In this first blog assignment, I’d like to highlight some of the main takeaways I have taken from the first couple lectures and material thus far in our first two weeks of instruction. The class's goals are to highlight the agency of blackness within cinema throughout history and how it has evolved and developed over time, dating back to the beginning of black representation in horror films. The first couple lecture sessions were laying foundation and overview of the black horror aesthetic. Professor mentions roots of black horror, referencing her very own late mother and how she was the first horror fan in her life, and how it wasn't until after the mother's passing that she was able to grasp the idea of horror being an outlet and coping mechanism for confronting traumas within one's reality, in an “imaginary” extended kind of way. From there we dive into previewing some historical black horror projects, such as The Birth of Nation of 1915. This movie was understood to be a groundbreaking film for cinema/Hollywood moving forward, containing, at that time, new film elements such as wide shots, being immersive, etc. Of course, within the film, blackness was represented in a horrible light, depicting the black man as monstrous and predatory, influencing the terror that permeated against black societies for centuries to come. This was in a sense of our first exposure to the grand power and influence that cinema and media in general has within our country's history, and beyond. This, we learned, is the main theme of the imagery of blackness within early films, delegitimizing reconstruction efforts of African Americans during those times. After time, these false depictions were combatted in many ways, one main way being black artist attempting to create their own films, thus through a black lens, black made horror. Prof credits novels and works like crediting herself in “The Good House”, and “Tales from the Hood”. We then get to the point of recognizing the typical horror character tropes, that often are limiting and furthermore degrading/dehumanizing in a way: such as the sacrificial negro where the character has no purpose beyond being the first to die and another is the magical negro/spiritual guide whose job is only to impose spiritual insight, wisdom to white characters. These mischaracterizations are often still prevalent in cinema today and so it is an ongoing battle to properly represent and liberate black characters within film, specifically horror. The class is just getting under way; we have watched/read a few horror works such as Horror Noire, Lovecraft Country, The Comet by W.E.B Duboise, and most recently a screening of the great Get out. Getting our feet wet into the ideologies of American history relative to black horror cinematography, and black culture altogether.