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Black people star at Film Academy - 31st August 2022

In the US, the Academy of Motion Pictures has been criticised for failing to recognize the significance of African Americans in the film industry. However, “Regeneration” – a new exhibition - focuses on the part played by Black people from cinema’s early days in the 1890s to 1971.

At the opening, film director Ava DuVernay highlighted the historic importance of Black people to cinema, in sharp contrast with the stereotypes of the time.

Ava DuVernay: "They illustrate in this exhibit a long hidden fact. Are you ready for the secret? That we, Black folks, have always been present in American film, right from the start. Present not as caricatures and stereotypes, but as creators and producers and innovators and eager audiences."

In preparing Regeneration, unseen film clips of Black actors starring in respectable roles were uncovered. Typically, Black actors were given limited roles as lawbreakers, servants or comic fools.

Raúl Guzmán, from the Academy Museum, realises that current conversations about skin colour were happening then too.

Raúl Guzmán: "Many of the conversations that we have about representation, really were happening at the beginning of cinema. I think many audiences saw the potential of cinema to really change how people and their communities were perceived."

Among the clips on display is one of Hattie McDaniel collecting her “best supporting actress” Oscar for her role in the classic, “Gone with the Wind.” Due to the prejudices of the time, McDaniel was obliged to sit separately from her fellow actors at the ceremony. She’d previously been unable to attend the film’s premiere as it was shown at a “Whites only” venue.

It’s anticipated that the Academy’s exhibition will open the debate about Black representation in films. It might also inspire Black filmmakers both in front of and behind the camera.

Ava DuVernay: "For the first time, we can now see the grand sweep of Black American filmmaking in cinematic artistry, in all its richness and daring, in all its defiance and exuberance. We should have seen it long before now, but this is the day it begins."