Prominent Filmmakers and Connections to Map – Influences and Partnerships in Production
Howard University:
Bradford Young
Ava DuVerney
Jenn Nkiru — influenced by Kahlil Joseph
Ernest Dickerson
Malik Sayeed
New York University:
Terence Nance – Linked in by Ummah Chroma
UCLA – L.A. Rebellion:
Haile Gerima
Arthur Jafa
Charles Burnett
Barbara McCullough
Julie Dash
Larry Clark
~Maybe~ Performers: Barbara-O, Sy Richardson in L.A. Rebellion films; Childish Gambino, Grace Jones, Storyboard P, Kamasi Washington – high concept actors that repeatedly show up in this sort of work
The first step is to find the research and refine it to works on just the production processes, the collaborations, and the aesthetic/productive lineage that is being passed on. I think I will do this using a few shorter essays rather than a standard research paper.
There would be one on the L.A. Rebellion in its time, one on the contemporary Howard connections, and one on the interests, inspirations, production processes, and aesthetics that have been passed down this lineage through Haile Gerima and Arthur Jafa.
The second step is to create a graphic visualization using visualization software to represent the bare bones connections. The graphic visualization is not intended to contextualize– just quickly represent the information that would usually take reading through the essays to parse out all of the overlapping of collaborative work between projects that is going on here. I am absolutely scared this may get very messy, and my method will be the wrong decision, but it’s experimental, after all. If I try, and I’m not happy with it, I figure at least I have done all the work I need to try again with something else. I will likely have to limit the representation of collaborative production projects to major works of the filmmakers in question since there are so many, but I will make that decision once I get there. I may also decide to do two visualizations– L.A. Rebellion and Howard– then a third graph with just major crossovers.
- L.A. Rebellion, generally speaking, was influenced by Third Worldist Filmmaking Practices and Italian Neorealism against Hollywood standards. I need to go back and find the research on their development and flesh out a summarized combination of the work that has been done on their inception and development.
- Howard University collaborations function in much the same way, and many of them were taught by Haile Gerima of the L.A. Rebellion. There is a connection that can be mapped not only through the two groups in terms of influence but also between each other in terms of collaborations and production projects– then and now.
- Are there any conclusions that can be tentatively drawn from the research that might be more easily conveyed through this map? In other words, does the map succeed, on some level, in quickly relaying the productive and aesthetic connections within this lineage?
- Finally, the goal of this project is to dive into the research once more and pull those important details concerning process and sensibilities into fleshed out works. I still want a portion of this project to have the fuller historical context available should readers be interested. Compiling the research and creating the chart are my first priorities, then.
- However, I have a bonus question that I am after if I can get to it during the course of this project: Does looking at what productive and aesthetic conventions that have been passed down through the Howard/L.A. Rebellion lineage tell us anything about how collaborative practices have needed to adjust within this historical moment more generally? In other words, if we are treating those practices, interests, and formal sensibilities that still resonate as crucial within revolutionary orientations towards black filmmaking as a controlled variable, what is newly resonant for revolutionary black filmmakers that wasn’t before? What seems less important now?
L.A. Rebellion, Howard Cinematographers, and (a) Lineage of Black Film Aesthetics 