Week #6--Films from the African Diaspora

Week #6—Films Throughout the African Diaspora
As the organization of the screening schedule suggests, Killer of Sheep is very much a response to the so-called blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Burnett’s film is more focused on defying the conventions of films that were circulated heavily through the mid-‘70s than what is identified as the template for this genre, Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Moving outside of a conventional narrative structure, Killer of Sheep presents an episodic tale of its protagonist, who is becoming increasingly apathetic due to fatigue from the long hours he works at a demanding job that pays a substandard wage. The structure of the film also offers a portrait of a community suffering from moral decline by way of deteriorating resources, children who don’t obey their inattentive parents but mimic their behavior, and women whose gratifications are continuously denied, whether it be intimacy or validity of one’s opinion. These details are what make Burnett’s film more than just a mere response, but as an example of how cinema can honestly convey conditions that threaten the human condition.

In his essay, as well as his interview with bell hooks, Burnett communicates his urgency to express his concerns amidst an increasing landscape of Black images onscreen that deny reality and entice a vicarious engagement that can be potentially dangerous. He writes,

The commercial film is largely responsible for affecting how one views the world. It reduced the world to one dimension, reducing taboos to superstition, concentrated on the ugly, creating a passion for violence and reflecting racial stereotypes, instilling self-hate, creating confusion, rather than offering clarity; to sum up, it was demoralizing…In essence, this cinema is anti-life; it constantly focuses on the worst of human behavior to provide suspense and drama, to entertain” (224).

Burnett offers this observation amidst a situation where a middle-class presence and effective Black leadership has disappeared from these communities. He and his colleagues, the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers, wanted to establish a cinema that documented these realities in a fictional setting. What was at stake for Burnett and this collective was control over resources, images, and the presentation of reality that emphasized the vitality of history and memory. The characters in Killer of Sheep, including Stan, are primarily migrants from the South. While many narratives about migration reflect on what people gain when they relocate, Burnett is more concerned with what is lost in regards to culture and values, as well as why they are afraid to confront their immediate past.

History and memory are as important in Euzhan Palcy’s Sugar Cane Alley. To escape the plight of the cane fields, José learns to converge his ability to learn within a formal setting with the ancestral knowledge he gains from an elder in Black Shack Alley, Medouze. The tension between these two settings is articulated in a different context in Stuart Hall’s essay, “Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation. “ When watching this film, think of how Hall’s discussion of presence Africain, presence European, and presence Americain is identified within the narrative. Also, given these concepts, focus on the stark contrast between Fort-de-France and Black Shack Alley, as well as how Ma Tine and José adjust as they transfer between these different environments. In the scenes where José is at school, think of the constant conflict between cultural memory, as represented by José’s knowledge from Medouze’s stories, and official history, which is offered by these formal institutions. Finally, Keith Warner’s essay about the adaptation of Sugar Cane Alley from novel to film references how audiences from Martinique and throughout the Caribbean celebrated the film after it had become popular amongst international audiences. What are moments in the film in which Black people in Martinique, particularly in Fort-de-France, reflect this mentality?