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Cleopatra Jones

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Jack Starret who was an actor/director directed Cleopatra Jones . Max Julien and Sheldon Keller wrote the screenplay. The film starred Tamara Dobson who was a former fashion model; she had worked in Vogue, Essence, and Ebony Magazines. Cleopatra Jones was made after Warner brothers had seen the success of films like Shaft and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song . Though the film as many elements of a Blaxploitation film, Cleopatra Jones doesn’t use sex to attract an audience. The film is relatively modest with no explicit sex or nudity. The film instead relies on the action of the story to attract an audience. The film feels like a James Bond story, there are elaborate car chases, the villains are extravagant, and like James Bond, Cleopatra Jones doesn’t hide, she is a hero to the cops and the community around her.               In the film Cleopatra is a hero for the black community. In the street scenes she is recognized and received positively. She is a strong b
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The History of Racial Stereotypes

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     African Americans have been depicted as inferior since the beginnings of the film industry. In earlier films, characters that represented people of color reinforced the prevalent racists attitudes of the day. They were often seen as objects of ridicule not to be taken seriously unless they were sacrificing themselves for their white masters. A film that really exemplifies this way of depicting African Americans is Birth of a Nation (1915) by D.W. Griffith. Birth of a Nation  cemented five major stereotypes to the silver screen. The Uncle Tom, Coons, the Mammy, the Tragic Mulatto, and the Black Buck.    Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Shirley Temple in the Little Colonel (1935)   The Uncle Tom depicts a black character that is subservient to their white masters. They are overeager to please and gain approval of whites. The Coon stereotype depicts a black character that is clownish, very exaggerated and not portrayed as intelligent. The stereotype is connected to the
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History of Black Film

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To combat the negative stereotypes that the film industry reinforced; African Americans created an independent film movement, "Race Films". African American creatives wanted to bring truer identities, cultural customs, and aspirations to the screen. The creation of the Lincoln Motion Picture Company (1916-21) was a response to this need to have accurate representation.   The company was founded by a Black actor Noble P. Johnson and his brother George Johnson. They were among the first independent black race film companies. They produced many different genres, from action, drama, to westerns and more. They distributed their films nationally and created an all-Black exchanges, offices the booked films to theaters, in cities like Chicago New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C, Atlanta, St. Louis, and New Orleans. Though they were successful for a while they began to encounter problems that led to its end. They began to have exhibition problems; many theat
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Cotton Comes to Harlem

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Ossie Davis directed Cotton Comes to Harlem . Ossie Davis was an actor, writer; he studied drama with Rose McClendon Players in Harlem, New York City. The screenplay was based off of a book by Chester Himes, which was adapted for the screen by Arnold Perl and Ossie Davis. Cotton Comes to Harlem was one of the most commercially successful films produced by Hollywood starring Black actors. The film was produced on a budget of $1.2 million and earned $5.2 million during its North American release. Cotton Comes to Harlem was the 22 nd highest grossing film of 1970. Ossie Davis chose to film the movie in Harlem and employed many of the locals as extras and crew, making it a film about a community, filmed by the community. Cotton Comes to Harlem was considered by many as the first Blaxploitation film. It depicted Black Power and the power that black people can utilize by the methods of self-determination. The film paralleled humor and drama, which attracted a large
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