Americans are interested in the “history” of the American nation. Interested, not so much in what happened in the past but in indulging in recreations of an idealized past, often through film. History 57B is a history course focused on analyzing the narrative of American History as imagined and created by Black cinematographers, screenwriters, producers who work in Hollywood and as independent artists. The course asks and hopes to answer a series of questions. If viewers learn about the nation’s past through film, as created by black artists, what do they learn? What themes and experiences of black life in America are celebrated in the flickering images of films about the nation’s past? How is the story of race, gender, class, nationality and labor understood through film by black artists? Lastly, how are we to understand the sometimes drastic differences between how black cinematographers and historians tell the story of the American past?
- Teacher: Allison Dorsey