ABOUT THIS BOOK

Although overlooked by most narratives of American cinema history, films made for purposes outside of theatrical entertainment dominated twentieth-century motion picture production. This volume adds to the growing study of nontheatrical films by focusing on the ways filmmakers developed and audiences encountered ideas about race, identity, politics, and community outside the borders of theatrical cinema. The contributors to Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film examine the place and role of race in educational films, home movies, industry and government films, anthropological films, and church films as well as other forms of nontheatrical filmmaking. From filmic depictions of Native Americans and films by 1920s African American religious leaders to a government educational film about the unequal treatment of Latin American immigrants, these films portrayed—for various purposes and intentions—the lives of those who were mostly excluded from the commercial films being produced in Hollywood. This volume is more than an examination of a broad swath of neglected twentieth-century filmmaking; it is a reevaluation of basic assumptions about American film culture and the place of race within it.

Contributors. Crystal Mun-hye Baik, Jasmyn R. Castro, Nadine Chan, Mark Garrett Cooper, Dino Everett, Allyson Nadia Field, Walter Forsberg, Joshua Glick, Tanya Goldman, Marsha Gordon, Noelle Griffis, Colin Gunckel, Michelle Kelley, Todd Kushigemachi, Martin L. Johnson, Caitlin McGrath, Elena Rossi-Snook, Laura Isabel Serna, Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, Dan Streible, Lauren Tilton, Noah Tsika, Travis L. Wagner, Colin Williamson

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Allyson Nadia Field is Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago.

Marsha Gordon is Professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University.

Jacqueline Najuma Stewart is Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago.

REVIEWS

“Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film illuminates what is hidden right in front of us. Like cable or YouTube today, nontheatrical films have left evidence of a broader expression beyond commercial films and examining them through the lens of race gives us a peek into a less homogenous and more realistic world. This collection of essays reminds us to reclaim this space as culturally valuable and, in a sense, take the power back by shifting perspective to explore an overlooked reality, not a marginal one.”

-- Shola Lynch, Curator, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library

“This collection of essays—with its range of topics and archival discoveries—is essential reading for anyone committed to, or even remotely interested in, the study of cinema. Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film uncovers buried treasures that are part of the long-standing tradition of moving image storytelling—a tradition that did not always aspire to mainstream Hollywood recognition, but succeeded alongside it.”

-- Rhea L. Combs, Curator of Photography and Film and Director of the Center for African American Media Arts, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

"Brimming with sharp insights and archival discoveries, this valuable book opens up a world unknown to most and offers a look at American society in the 20th century, far from the artificial gloss of Hollywood cinema."

-- W. W. Dixon Choice

“An informative collection of works, the volume deftly illustrates the breadth, reach, and influence of nontheatrical films that centre race and ethnicity. As a bonus, a rich collection of videos discussed in the book is available for use in classrooms, particularly for instructors of film or race and ethnic studies who desire to use movies to explore specific themes…. Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film serves as a handy reference for scholars, researchers, and students and as a helpful reminder of the hidden gems showcased outside the theatre.”

-- Maryann Mamie Erigha Ethnic and Racial Studies

“Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film not only...opens up a number of exciting avenues for future research, but also provides readers with the concrete steps, tools and materials needed to continue this work. I hope that this volume will serve as a productive starting point for many future studies.”

-- Carolyn Condon Jacobs Screen

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Note on the Companion Website ix
Foreword. Giving Voice, Taking Voice: Nonwhite and Nontheatrical / Jacqueline Najuma Stewart xi
Acknowledgments xxv
Introduction / Allyson Nadia Field and Marsha Gordon 1
1. "A Vanishing Race"? The Native American Films of J. K. Nixon / Caitlin McGrath 29
2. "Regardless of Race, Color, or Creed": Filming the Henry Street Settlement Visiting Nurse Service, 1924–1933 / Tanya Goldman 51
3. "I'll See You in Church": Local Films in African American Communities, 1924–1962 / Martin L. Johnson 71
4. The Politics of Vanishing Celluloid: Fort Rupert (1951) and the Kwakwaka'wakw in American Ethnographic Film / Colin Williamson 92
5. Red Star/Black Star: The Early Career of Film Editor Hortense "Tee" Beveridge, 1948–1968 / Walter Forsberg 112
6. Charles and Ray Eames's Day of the Dead (1957): Mexican Folk Art, Educational Film and Chicana/o Art / Colin Gunkel 136
7. Ever-Widening Horizons? The National Urban League and the Pathologization of Blackness in A Morning for Jimmy (1960) / Michelle Kelley 157
8. "A Touch of the Orient": Negotiating Japanese American Identity in The Challenge (1957) / Todd Kushigemachi and Dino Everett 175
9. "I Have My Choice": Behind Every Good Man (1967) and the Black Queer Subject in American Nontheatrical Film / Noah Tsika 194
10. Televising Watts: Joe Saltzman's Black on Black (1968) on KNXT / Joshua Glick 217
11. "A New Sense of Black Awareness"? Navigating Expectations in The Black Cop (1969) / Travis L. Wagner and Mark Garrett Cooper 236
12. "Don't Be a Segregationist: Program Films for Everyone": The New York Public Library's Film Library and Youth Film Workshops / Elena Rossi-Snook and Lauren Tilton 253
13. Teenage Moviemaking in the Lower East Side: The Rivington Street Film Club, 1966–1974 / Noelle Griffis 271
14. Ro-Revus Talks about Race: South Carolina Malnutrition and Parasite Films, 1968–1975 / Dan Streible 290
15. Government-Sponsored Film and Latinidad: Voice of La Raza (1973) / Laura Isabel Serna 313
16. An Aesthetics of Multiculturalism: Asian American Assimilation and the Learning Corporation of America's Many Americans Series (1970–1982) / Nadine Chan 333
17. "The Right Kind of Family": Memories to Light and the Home Movie as Racialized Technology / Crystal Mun-Hye Baik 353
18. Black Home Movies: Time to Represent / Jasmyn R. Castro 372
Selected Bibliography 392
Contributors 401
Index 403

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