FILM
Black Women Mounting the Marquee
Film Forum’s salute to trailblazing African-American actresses
Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in Otto Preminger’s 1954 “Carmen Jones.”
Cheryl Dunye (right) with Guinevere Turner in Dunye’s 1996 “The Watermelon Woman.”
BY NICHOLAS BOSTON
The prolific James Baldwin,
one of the most influential
American writers
of the 20th century,
employed a variety of genres in
his literary mission to lay bare the
structures of racism. He authored
novels, plays, memoir, poetry,
screenplays, political commentary.
But, movie reviews? One of Baldwin’s
lesser discussed outputs is
a short but multi-layered book
FILM FORUM
FILM FORUM
about movies titled “The Devil
Finds Work.” Published in 1976, it
revisits a diverse selection of Hollywood
box office successes, with
and without Black cast members,
analyzing entire plotlines, as with
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”
(1967), or plucking out isolated
performances or the screen presence
of particular icons for scrutiny.
Characteristically Baldwin, the
criticism is interwoven with the
author’s personal recollections of
responding to movie images. He
describes the icons and images
that informed his sense of self.
Baldwin’s aim is to instruct readers
in the myriad ways that Hollywood
movies, and the industry in
general, are instrumental in normalizing,
promoting even, a racial
hierarchy in society.
The Devil in the essay’s title is
therefore Malcolm X’s blue-eyed
Devil, the term the civil rights leader
used in his early years of activity
in the Nation of Islam to name the
racial oppressor, but it could also
be thought of as Baldwin himself,
devilishly carrying out his intellectual
work of desacralizing Hollywood’s
screen images.
I was introduced to “The Devil
Finds Work” in a college film studies
class. Now that I am myself a
professor of Media Industry Studies,
I occasionally assign it to be
read in one of my classes. And now,
it is compelling for me to consider
what Baldwin might have to say
about the month-long film festival
opening January 17 at the Film
Forum, “Black Women: Trailblazing
African American Performers
& Images, 1920–2001.” The festival
includes a number of the films to
which Baldwin gives his attention
in “The Devil Finds Work.” The series
is programmed by the film historian
Donald Bogle, who has authored,
most recently, “Hollywood
Black: The Stars, the Films, the
Filmmakers,” and Ina Archer, a
film preservationist and independent
filmmaker.
“This is a great moment where
we’ve seen another robust and
varied flourishing of Black women
before and behind the camera and
across media in the independent,
art, and Hollywood cinema,” Archer
said. Their goal is therefore
“to see and reevaluate the legacy of
➤ BLACK ACTRESSES, continued on p.25
January 16 - January 2 24 9, 2020 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
