African-American Studies Collections

Filmography: N

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NADINE GORDIMER: A CHIP OF GLASS RUBY.
1988. 20 minutes.
Interview. Short story writing. South African Literature. Muslim Indians in South Africa. Nadine Gordimer.

"The celebrated South African writer describes her short story about the relationship of a Muslim Indian couple in south Africa in the 1950s. With clips from the film version of the story, the author describes how she writes and why she wrote this particular story, and comments in their role of writing in the social and political context of South Africa."
Notes: Directed by Ross Devenish. Executive Producer, Christopher Davis. Researcher, Maggie Millman. Camera, Simon Kossoff. Film Editor, Harry Kyle.


NATIVE SON.
1950. 91 minutes.
Drama. Richard Wright. African-American authors. Directed by Pierre Chenel.

Richard Wright plays Bigger Thomas, the central character in his celebrated novel. This is a very interesting film of Wright's great work of fury and frustration. Because the author helped with the screenplay and plays the chief protagonist, we have to assume that the interpretation suited him. Shot in black and white in Chicago, Mexico and Argentina, the film has the quasi-documentary look of the late '40s noir and problem dramas. The acting, including Wright's, is fairly amateurish, though all of the actor's fit the types of the book -- they look the parts they play. This film is definitely an important, little known, work and should be viewed by those interested in Wright's work. With: Jean Wallace as Mary Dalton, Nicholas Joy as Mr. Dalton, Gloria Madison as Bessie Mears, Charles Cane as Britten, George Riguad as Farley, George Green as Panama, Willa Pearl Curtiss as Hannah, Gene Michael Jan Erlone, Ned Campbell as Buckley, Ruth Roberts as Mrs. Dalton, George Nathanson as Joe, George Roos as Scoop. Lewis MacKenzie as Stanley, Cecile Lezard as Peggy, Charles Simmonds as Ernie, Leslie Straugh as Buddy, and Lidia Alves as Vera.
Notes: Screenplay by Chenal and Wright with Dialouge by Wright. Photographed by A. U. Merayo. Edited by George Garate. Music by John Elhert, song The Dreaming Kind by Lillian Walker Charles, and vocal quintette of the Katherine Dunham Company. Produced by James Prades.


NATIVE SON.
1986. 112 minutes. (V1481).
Directed by Jerrold Freedman.

Native Son is one of the truly great works of the 20th century. It's passion and power is both overwhelming and frightening. The film of Native Son can only be described as tense melodrama. Though the script follows Wright's narrative quite closely the characterization of Bigger Thomas as a victim totally distorts his rage and anger. What we get is a story about an unfortunate mistake. Victor Love, physically and emotionally could have been a much better Bigger if the script had better definition, and more honest rage. With: Matt Dillon, Elizabeth McGovern, Carroll Baker, Oprah Winfrey, John Karlen., John McMartin, Geraldine Page, Lane Smith.
Notes: Screenplay by Richard Wesley. Photographed by Thomas Burstyn. Music by James Mtume.


NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY.
1987. 60 minutes. (V2819).
Documentary. Produced for Films for the Humanities. Directed by Kilberg.

A good overview of the history of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) the first wholly black theater company in the United States. When it was established in 1967 with support from the Ford Foundation it began a history of developing black theater talents of every type -- writers, directors, actors, set artisans. The NEC has in fact been the source of many of the most black familiar actors and actresses in films and television today, many of whom are interviewed in this program. One of the NEC's most important functions was to act as the home of many of the finest black plays of the last 30 years -- Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play and Ceremonies In Dark Old Men; Joseph Walker's River Niger and Home by Samm-Art Williams. The NEC's founders were playwright, actor and director Douglas Turner Ward, actor-producer Robert Hooks and Gerald Krone the administrator. The company's first production was Turner's Day of Absence and Happy Ending.
Notes: Among those interviewed: Douglas Turner Ward, Robert Hooks, Gerald Krone, Hallie Wilson, Esther Rolle, W. McWire Lowry (of the Ford Foundation), Charles Fuller, Frances Foster, Lloyd Richards (DEan of Yale School of Drama), Clayton Riley (critic), Barbara Ann Teer, Michael Schultz, Rosalind Cash, Ed Burbridge, Denzell Washington, Lonne Elder III, Sylvester Leaks, and Joseph Papp, and Edmund Cambridge.


THE NEGRO SOLDIER.
1944. 42 minutes. (V320).

An Office of War Information film about black soldiers from 1776 to World War II. It is an interesting look at the official view of the black soldier. The film is filled with positive images of black soldiers and much of it was probably rejected by large segments of white audiences, especially in the South. Everything is squeaky clean, the handsomest soldiers are scene in combat, in church , with family and friends. It is propaganda for a particular segment of the home front audience. As such, it must have been effective among those who did see and identify with it.


NEVER TURN BACK: THE LIFE OF FANNY LOU HAMER.
1980. 58 minutes. (V913).
Directed by Bill Buckley.

A documentary account of the life of civil rights activist Fanny Lou Hamer. With footage of Ms Hamer in her home town, and of her daily life.
Notes: Written by Tracy Sugarman. Narrated by Debbie Allen. Illustrations by Sugarman. Produced by Sugarman and Buckley.


NEW JACK CITY.
1991. 101 minutes. (V3091).
Black Directors -- Crime melodrama -- Drug drama. Directed Mario Van Peebles.

1986, New York City. A young drug operator and his group of "talent" make a move to become the kingpins of the New York drug scene. They take over a huge ghetto apartment building and build a drug making complex -- computer center, "drugstore," and a junkie's den called the "Enterprise" room. Calling themselves CC and B they introduce crack as the drug of choice and become big time -- strong enough to take on the Italian Mafia. This is another retelling of rise of a brutal, cunning crime lord, but the new orientation is that they are enterprising, vicious young blacks. Mario Van Peebles, the director, deliberately evokes and salutes the crime genre pass, their are obvious and subtle references to classic films in the genre. Movies on TV have helped to create these exciting monsters. A quartet of police officers aim to put the gang and it's charismatic leader, Nino Brown, down. New Jack City moves crisply and is handsomely photographed but the thing that moves it along most is the inventive, attractive gangster played by Wesley Snipes. Snipes (Mo' Better Blues, King of New York, and Jungle Fever) is quickly becoming one of the most exciting young stars in the movies. With: Ice T as Scotty Appletree, Judd Nelson as Nick Peretti, Bill Nunn as T, Chris Rock as Pookie, Allen Payne as Gee Money, Michael Michele as Salina, Russell Wong as Park, Bill Cobbs as Old Man, Vanessa Williams as Keisha, Tracy Camilla Johns as Unique.
Notes: Screenplay by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper. Story by Thomas Lee Wright. Music by Michel Colombier. Photographed by Francis Kenny. Box-office gross: $39,383,300. The story line of this film is based on a lot of films (including De Palma's Scarface and films like Public Enemy and Little Caesar but it is quite similar to the recent The King of New York (V2885). The music soundtrack include songs by Ice T, Christopher Williams and 2 Live Crew among others.


NIGHT JOHN.
1996. 96 minutes
Historical Drama. Slave Drama. Novels into Film. African-American Directors. Directed by Charles Burnett.

When John, an intelligent, rebellious slave is brought to an ambitious, determined planter's South Carolina plantation, he brings with him knowledge of two things dangerous to the other slaves and feared by the slave's owners- knowledge of freedom [he had been a runaway to the North] and the ability to read. Each of these things is something that upsets the balance of the place. When John offers to teach reading and writing to the others he initially meets resistance and fear - the cost to a slave caught reading and writing was often exorbitant -- including even death. The one exception to this dread of knowledge, a willful, determined young slave girl named Sarney. The girl's spirited pursuit of and desire for knowledge draws the two of them towards one another like a magnet. What they provide one another with is a sense of faith and values nothing can destroy. Charles Burnett is probably the least well known of the major African-American directors working today, but he may be the best.. This film is richly told, magnificently acted yet simple and subtle. Burnett's cast brings the characters to life as complex human beings burdened by the horrors and tragedies of slavery as an institution. Nothing is overstated, and the most emotional moments of the film are achieved without strain. This is a very, very fine film boosted by the remarkable cast that includes: Beau Bridges, Carl Lumbly, Lorraine Toussaint, Bill Cobbs, Kathleen York, Gabriel Casseus, Tom Nowicki, Joel Thomas Traywick, and introducing Allison Jones as Sarny. Bridges gives one of his very best performances while Carl Lumbly is nothing short of remarkable. With: Patty Mack as Evelyn, Deborah Duke as Lethe, Danny Nelson as Rev. Osee Rush, Monica Ford as Egypt, Gerald Brown as Joseph.
Notes: Music by Stephen James Taylor. Teleplay by Bill Cain from the book by Gary Paulsen.


NIGHTFIGHTERS.
1994. 52 minutes.
Documentary. 332nd Fighter Group, Tuskegee. African-American Airmen, World War II.

"The story of a group of black pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen, who saw combat during the Second World War. The 332nd Fighter Group has a history which sets it apart from that of any other air force fighter groups in the Second World War: all personnel, from pilots of ground crew to surgeons were black. They confounded a whole series of expectations and prejudices that existed in America in the thirties and forties about the abilities of black Americans. They excelled as pilots and became a crack unit, showing great courage and skill and achieving where other fighter groups had failed. Yet, despite this, they were segregated on the ground and in the air from the white flyers whose lives they protected."
Notes: Amongst the surviving pilots and participants interviewed: Lt. Col. Span Watson [former pilot, trainer at Tuskegee], Alfred "Chief" Anderson, Dr. Roscoe Brown, Jr., Lt. Col. Herbert E. Carter, Lt. Col. Luke Weathers, Dr. Alan Gropman [Historian, Air Force], Capt. Louis Purnell, George Barnett [bomber co-pilot], Lt. Col. Lee Archer, Lt. Col. Harry Sheppard. Narrated by Constantine Gregory. Camera by Les Young and Steve Buckland. Edited by Edward Roberts and Heather Morley. Written and produced by Jeremy Bugler. Directed by Madonna Benjamin.


NOTES FOR AN AFRICAN ORESTES.
1970. 75 minutes.
Documentary. Cinema Verite. Cinematic Essays. Narrated in English and with English subtitles for segments spoken in Italian. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

This film is like a work in progress -- a cinematic essay about Pasolini's desire to make a modern Oresteia using an unspecified African nation as a background and African actors or peoples as his cast. His idea is to put Aeschylus' masterpiece into a twentieth century context by showing how universally its dramatic schema can be applied. Using a combination of documentary footage of horrific scenes from the Biafran War of 1970 and footage shot in varied places in Africa Pasolini attempts to find the perfect African substitute for Greece and the perfect faces for the roles of Agamemnon, Electra, Clytemnestra and the Chorus. At some point midway through this clever visual story boarding, he thinks of other options -- a jazz version featuring black American actors for example. This is a fascinating work. The notion of making a film about a film can be a sublime indulgence when done as wittily and inventively as this film. The film's weakness is of course is in it's political posturing. We get the Pasolini "Freudian-Marxist-Christian" world view in abundance in the English narration. The tone of the narration, or at least the narration script, would define politically correct in '90s.
Notes: The music is written and performed by Gato Barbieri. Barbieri is on sax with Donal F. Moye on drums and Marcello Melio on bass. The young African men in the Rome sequences are students from the University of Rome. Most indications are that the African footage takes place in Nigeria though it is mostly inferred because of the Biafra scenes.