Fire and Desire
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€92.99
A01=Jane M. Gaines
Author_Jane M. Gaines
belonging
bette davis
biracial
birth of a nation
black filmmakers
Category=ATFA
Category=JBSL
cinema
desire
diversity
embodiment
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family
film
george p johnson
inclusion
independent
inheritance
interracial
james baldwin
kiss
marginalized
miscegenation
mixed-race
movies
nonfiction
oscar micheaux
purity
race films
recognition
resemblance
richard s robert
riot
segregation
self
sexuality
silent
surprise
unexpected
what happened in the tunnel
within our gates
Product details
- ISBN 9780226278742
- Weight: 624g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 01 Feb 2001
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In the silent era, American cinema was defined by two separate and parallel industries, with white and black companies producing films for their respective, segregated audiences. Jane Gaines's highly anticipated new book reconsiders the race films of this era with an ambitious historical and theoretical agenda.
Fire and Desire offers a penetrating look at the black independent film movement during the silent period. Gaines traces the profound influence that D. W. Griffith's racist epic The Birth of a Nation exerted on black filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux, the director of the newly recovered Within Our Gates. Beginning with What Happened in the Tunnel, a movie that played with race and sex taboos by featuring the first interracial kiss in film, Gaines also explores the cinematic constitution of self and other through surprise encounters: James Baldwin sees himself in the face of Bette Davis, family resemblance is read in Richard S. Robert's portrait of an interracial family, and black film pioneer George P. Johnson looks back on Micheaux.
Given the impossibility of purity and the co-implication of white and black, Fire and Desire ultimately questions the category of "race movies" itself.
Fire and Desire offers a penetrating look at the black independent film movement during the silent period. Gaines traces the profound influence that D. W. Griffith's racist epic The Birth of a Nation exerted on black filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux, the director of the newly recovered Within Our Gates. Beginning with What Happened in the Tunnel, a movie that played with race and sex taboos by featuring the first interracial kiss in film, Gaines also explores the cinematic constitution of self and other through surprise encounters: James Baldwin sees himself in the face of Bette Davis, family resemblance is read in Richard S. Robert's portrait of an interracial family, and black film pioneer George P. Johnson looks back on Micheaux.
Given the impossibility of purity and the co-implication of white and black, Fire and Desire ultimately questions the category of "race movies" itself.
