'African American Cinema' refers to films created for, by and about black Americans. They are made with African American casts and are typically marketed towards African American audiences. Black Panther is a piece of African America Cinema, but to understand why this is important it is vital to take a look back at the history of the culture surrounding these films.
The short film 'Something Good - Negro Kiss' was made in 1898, and the first African American appeared in a narrative film in 1909. Prior to this, white actors would play black characters in blackface, and while this did continue on for a long time afterwards, progress was being made to give African American people more of a voice in Hollywood. William D Foster's The Foster Photoplay Company in Chicago was one of the earliest studios to feature African Americans. Starting in 1915 and continuing until 1950, African American filmmakers and production companies would partner with independent companies to produce what were called 'race films', which were films with African American casts that were primarily marketed towards African American audiences and were made on much more limited budgets than their Hollywood counterparts. 'Race Films' typically help to promote middle-class values, such as 'Tribal thinking', contentment with a low standard of living, anti-intellectualism and criminality. These ideals all reinforce extremely negative stereotypes about people of colour, however they were made in response to racism, not in favour of it. Novelist Oscar Micheaux's second film 'Within our Gates', (1920) was a direct response to the obscenly racist KKK propaganda film 'Birth of a Nation' (1915). Micheaux would go on to be named one of the most prolific black filmmakers of all time due to his work in this era, writing, directing and producing forty-four feature-length films between 1919 and 1948.
Furthermore, stereotypes continued to plague the media as African American actors would almost always play a certain archetype. For example, the 'Mammy' stereotype is one of an older black woman who dedicates herself to taking care of a white family in a motherly role, which links back to slavery, which was abolished in 1865 but there were still obviously tensions in the United States which would eventually lead to the civil rights movement. During the civil rights movements of the 1950's and 1960's, African Americans stood up against injustice in favour of equal rights. This time was incredibly important for cinema as it was during this era that the first black movie star emerged in Sidney Poitier. He got an oscar nod for his 1958 film 'The Defiant Ones.', which as part of its narrative suggested that racial harmony was a 'means to an end'.
The '#oscarssowhite' campaign was started by twitter user and activist April Reign on January 15th 2015 as an immediate response to the fact that all 20 of that year’s academy award’s acting nominees were white actors. The hashtag went viral, prompting responses from many African American creators, influencers and public figures. Despite the widespread campaign, in 2016 the academy again nominated 20 white actors for their acting awards, causing the hashtag to become relevant once again.
Following this second backlash, the academy said that the voting body, which was previously made up almost entirely of white men, would be changed into a much more diverse team. This change was made after critics stated that the academy‘s preference towards white actors and films was due to the homogenous nature of the voting body. Because they were all white men, they could not properly identify with or relate to projects and performances by people of colour, which were typically centred around issues that marginalised communities face, and so they were forgotten and swept aside in favour of more easy-to-relate to white actors. As of June 2020, the Academy board announced that it had actually surpassed its goals of inclusion, and the new 2020 member class was “45% women, 36% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 49% international from 68 countries.” Despite this, the campaign was still relevant when it came to acting nominations for the 2020 Academy Awards. They included only one person of color: Cynthia Erivo for her performance as Harriet Tubman in ’Harriet’, which arguably affirmed a long-standing trend for Black actors to be recognised at the Oscars only for playing enslaved characters or fulfilling racist tropes, harkening back to the racist stereotypes that had plagued African America cinema since it’s inception.
As for Black Panther (2018), it was an incredibly important landmark in African American Cinema. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios, it is the 18th film in the MCU. Being part of the immensely popular and box-office dominating Marvel Cinematic Universe (owned by Disney), it was inevitable that they would eventually adapt the character of Black Panther from the Marvel Comics. The film was directed by Ryan Coogler, who had previously worked on films such as ‘Creed’ which also starred Michael B Jordan. It was co-written with Joe Robert Cole, and it stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther alongside Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis. In Black Panther, T’Challa is crowned king of Wakanda following his father’s death, but he is challenged by Killmonger (Jordan), who plans to abandon the country’s isolationist policies and begin a global revolution. Coogler’s creative control over the project is what really set it apart, as it allowed him to weave a world, characters, and narrative that captivated audiences all over the world. This film is a monument in African-American representations and culture, as it’s predominantly black cast and crew make the film extremely authentic and the issues raised within the film much more personal and relatable for the films target audience of marginalised groups. Being part of such a large franchise, it‘s messages
are able to reach an incredibly vast audience. The representations of people of colour within the film are positive, as even the ‘villain‘ of the text can be understood and emphasised with. The film deals with complex issues both big and small, however unlike it’s ‘race film’ origins it overcomes the harmful sterstereotypes and instead preaches new, more progressive ideologies that have furthered African American cinema and paved the way and inspired an unfathombale amount of new creative filmmakers and visionaries to change the narrative previously set by the industry and make it much more positive and uplifiting for their communities, providing solidarity and a sense of unity.
In recent years, campaigns such as Black Lives Matter have gained immense amounts of popularity across the globe as minority groups fight against the systems that oppress them. This film is reflective of this fight, using its superhero genre to create physical altercations that are representative of the issues plaguing society. ‘Black Panther’ released at the perfect time in this case, as despite all criticisms it is no doubt a very powerful and uplifting film for the groups who identify with it, and this movie, this hero, has become a symbol of hope, power, and a symbol against injustice.