What do films teach us has been one
of the hardest questions that I have been asked to answer during this course, I’ve
had to really think and consider what have I’ve learned so far while watching
these films. Films teach us about the many different narratives,that are relevant to everyone
from a place of objectivity and sometimes subjectivity. As Bell Hooks told us, stories hold power and
only hearing one side or one person’s perspective can lead to ignorance. Truth
is revealed by many different perspectives. Compared to the progress made in
education and employment we as African Americans have struggled to gain control
or even entry into how we are portrayed in the media. More often than not we’re
not in the board rooms, we’re not the script writers, or the casting directors
etc., and therefore we are not authentically represented, our stories not being
told from our perspective. In this course films have taught me that black image
is multi-dimensional and has many different diverse layers because we as people
are very diverse. These films have taught me to question the status quo, more
importantly taught me to challenge the image of black characters in mainstream
media. For example the movie Sweet Sweetback required me to reexamine the notion of
black masculinity. Sweet Sweetback attempts to destroy the boundaries of femininity
and masculinity. Here we have a male prostitute, who is quiet and docile, he’s
submissive, told when to have sex and furthermore the leader of a biker gang is
none other than a white female.
Another example of gender blending is seen in the movie Superfly, the main character embraces a variety of categories, he is very metro-sexual and flashy while still being very tough and gangster. Too often we shy away from stereotypes but the only way to combat them is with reality and different perspectives.
Films have the power to open our
minds and see things from another perspective. My reality can be vastly
different from someone else, but until I am made aware of this I will always be
ignorant of that. One of the most important things that films teach us is how
to engage and can make you question ideologies thought to be set in stone.
The following is an interesting video I saw about how black people are always the first to die in movies, yet the orators manage to connect this to the harsh reality of what it means to be black in America,
