Table of Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• The Pathmakers: Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles
• Chapter 2
• The Visionary Actors: Ossie Davis, Sidney Poitier
• Chapter 3
• Black Urban Action Films and Mainstream Images: Gordon Parks Jr., Ivan Dixon, Fred Williamson, Hugh A. Robertson, Ron O'Neal, Gilbert Moses, Raymond St. Jacques
• Chapter 4
• Black Sensibilities and Mainstream Images: Berry Gordy Jr., Stan Lathan, Jamaa Fanaka
• Chapter 5
• Michael Schultz: The Crossover King
• Chapter 6
• Spike Lee: The Independent Auteur
• Chapter 7
• Keeping It Real (Reel): Black Dramatic Visions: Charles Burnett, John Singleton, Matty Rich, Mario Van Peebles, Ernest Dickerson, Albert and Allen Hughes, Doug McHenry, David Clark Johnson, Preston A. Whitmore II, Tim Reid, Robert Patton-Spruill, Darin Scott, Hype Williams
• Chapter 8
• And Still They Rise: Black Women Directors: Euzhan Palcy, Julie Dash, Leslie Harris, Darnell Martin, Kasi Lemmons, Millicent Shelton, Troy Beyer, Cheryl Dunye, Maya Angelou
• Chapter 9
• Not without Laughter: Directors of Comedy and Romance: Oz Scott, Topper Carew, Richard Pryor, Prince, Robert Townsend, Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Wendell B. Harris Jr., Reginald Hudlin, Martin Lawrence, Theodore Witcher, George Tillman, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, Christopher Scott Cherot
• Chapter 10
• Off the Hook: Comedy and Romance with a Hip-Hop Flavor: Reginald Hudlin, James Bond III, George Jackson/Doug McHenry, Rusty Cundieff, F. Gary Gray, Paris Barclay, Lionel C. Martin, Ice Cube
• Chapter 11
• Redefining Crossover Films: Kevin Hooks, Bill Duke, Carl Franklin, Thomas Carter, Forest Whitaker, F. Gary Gray, Antoine Fuqua
• Filmography
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index

Promotional Information

This book offers a first comprehensive look at the work of black directors in Hollywood.

About the Author

Melvin Donalson is Associate Professor of English at Pasadena City College and Adjunct Professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles. He is also a filmmaker, whose work has been shown at nine film festivals and broadcast on Showtime Network's Black Filmmakers Showcase.

Reviews

"Donalson's pioneering text ... will become an indispensable resource for general students, undergraduate and graduate students, and the general reader. It will be a major contribution to American and African American film studies and popular culture." Wilfred D. Samuels, Associate Professor of English, University of Utah