Wow! eBook
The A to Z of African American Cinema: 84
Author(s): Torriano S. Berry (Author), Venise T. Berry
- Publisher: Scarecrow Press
- Publication Date: 2 Sept. 2009
- Language: English
- Print length: 450 pages
- ISBN-10: 0810868717
- ISBN-13: 9780810868717
Book Description
On 4 July, 1910, in 100-degree heat at an outdoor boxing ring near Reno, Nevada, film cameras recorded-and thousands of fans witnessed-former heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries reluctant return from retirement to fight Jack Johnson, a black man. After 14 grueling rounds, Johnson knocked out Jeffries and for the first time in history, there was a black heavyweight champion of the world. At least 10 people lost their lives because of Johnsons victory and hundreds more were injured due to white retaliation and wild celebrations in the streets. Public screenings received instantaneous protests and hundreds of cities barred the film from being shown. Congress even passed a law making it a federal offense to transport moving pictures of prizefights across state lines, and thus the most powerful portrayal of a black man ever recorded on film was made virtually invisible.
This is but one of the hundreds of films covered in
The A to Z of African American Cinema, which includes everything from The Birth of a Nation to Crash. In addition to the films, brief biographies of African American actors and actresses such as Sidney Poitier, James Earl Jones, Halle Berry, Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Denzel Washington, and Jamie Foxx can be found in this reference. Through a chronology, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, an introductory essay, a bibliography, appendixes, black-&-white photos, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on actors, actresses, movies, producers, organizations, awards, film credits, and terminology, this book provides a better understanding of the role African Americans played in film history.Editorial Reviews
About the Author
S. Torriano Berry is an award-winning independent filmmaker who has created and executive produced the anthology series Black Independent Showcase and Black Visions/Silver Screen: Howard University Student Film, two half-hour made-for-television movies, The Light and When It’s Your Turn. He is the creator of the science fiction anthology series The Black Beyond, and his feature-length horror film EMBALMER, is available on Netflix He is an associate professor in the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University.
Venise T. Berry is the author of three best-selling novels: Colored Sugar Water, All of Me, AVoluptuous Tale, and So Good, An African American Love Story. She is coauthor of The 50 Most Influential Black Films and coeditor of Black Culture & Experience: Contemporary Issues and Mediated Messages and African-American Culture: Contemporary Issues 1996. She is currently completing a memoir entitled Driven and finishing her fourth novel Sansara. She Berry is currently an associate professor in African American Studies, and journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.
