Daily Double: Film Genres for $400
I have a special challenge question for everyone out there:
I challenge you to name a single Black science-fiction film.
Rules and Guidelines:
1. The contemporary definition of "Black Cinema" is contentious at best. For the sake of argument, Black Cinema shall be defined accordingly:
"A film that concerns itself with the Black experience, either directly within the plot through the struggle between characters, or indirectly, informed through the story's encompassing universe."
Meaning, that there must be some element of community present in the film, tacitly or not. A solo Black character does not constitute the basis for the film being "Black" unless that character is in some way tied to a community that identifies them as Black.
2. The contemporary definition of "science-fiction" is a broad genre by its own right. Therefore, to bound the discussion, I shall define science-fiction accordinly:
"Realistic speculation about possible future or contemporary events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the laws of nature and significance of the scientific method." (Robert Heinlein)
By comparision to fantasy:
"Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible." (Rod Sterling)
3. Exemptions:
- Sayle's Brother from Another Planet
I list this to get it out of the way. To my knowledge, this is the only film I can think of that somewhat satisfies both conditions, albeit problematically.
Other than Sayle's film, I believe it will be rather difficult to come up with another eligible film, which is the entire point of this challenge.
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Why do am I going to all the trouble of setting up this challenge? Because I'm afraid its impossible to beat (outside of Sayle). And I believe it is important to consider. Why? I submit for your consideration that following:
Individuals are informed by and for all intensive purposes, products of, their society; more precisely the culture within the larger collective society to which they identify themselves with. Individuals, in turn, ultimately author the products of culture and society: books, poems, songs, sitcoms, advertisements, fashions, philosophies, political ideals and movements, etc. In short, people distill their social environment into a form of expression.
If we accept this view as true, then it would be theoretically possible to interpret an individual work, and identify the cultural influences present within. Standard art history analysis.
If we look individually at the genres of Black cinema and science-fiction, I maintain that we will find little to no overlap between the two. Meaning, that the cultures producing Black cinema and science-fiction find no intersection in prior or contemporary society.
The reason why I find this worrisome is twofold:
Firstly, science-fiction is generally considered analogous to the future, or dreams of the future. That is to say, the collective cultural imagination of what we hope the future to be (utopian), believe it probably will be (speculative), or fear it may become (dystopian).
Secondly, if there is no consideration of the Black experience found within the realms of science-fiction genre, what does that say about the Black community's place in the future? Could it be interpreted that the collective cultural imagination produces a future without a tangible, cohesive Black community? Or more abstractly, could it be interpreted that the collective cultural imagination responsible for Black film does not see itself in the future?
In short, this boils down to the question: why aren't people making Black science-fiction movies?
Question asked, I should follow-up with the nuance: filmmakers vs. studio excutives. What does and doesn't get made is determined as much by those in control of the capital required to produce a film as the writer and director who envision and author the work. That is to say, hypothetically it would be possible that there are a fair number of Black sci-fi scripts floating around waiting to be optioned and green-lighted. After all, studio execs are notoriously bad at judging the tastes of the consumer-market...
That said, wouldn't America want to see a Black sci-fi movie? Would you?
I challenge you to name a single Black science-fiction film.
Rules and Guidelines:
1. The contemporary definition of "Black Cinema" is contentious at best. For the sake of argument, Black Cinema shall be defined accordingly:
"A film that concerns itself with the Black experience, either directly within the plot through the struggle between characters, or indirectly, informed through the story's encompassing universe."
Meaning, that there must be some element of community present in the film, tacitly or not. A solo Black character does not constitute the basis for the film being "Black" unless that character is in some way tied to a community that identifies them as Black.
2. The contemporary definition of "science-fiction" is a broad genre by its own right. Therefore, to bound the discussion, I shall define science-fiction accordinly:
"Realistic speculation about possible future or contemporary events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the laws of nature and significance of the scientific method." (Robert Heinlein)
By comparision to fantasy:
"Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible." (Rod Sterling)
3. Exemptions:
- Sayle's Brother from Another Planet
I list this to get it out of the way. To my knowledge, this is the only film I can think of that somewhat satisfies both conditions, albeit problematically.
Other than Sayle's film, I believe it will be rather difficult to come up with another eligible film, which is the entire point of this challenge.
----------
Why do am I going to all the trouble of setting up this challenge? Because I'm afraid its impossible to beat (outside of Sayle). And I believe it is important to consider. Why? I submit for your consideration that following:
Individuals are informed by and for all intensive purposes, products of, their society; more precisely the culture within the larger collective society to which they identify themselves with. Individuals, in turn, ultimately author the products of culture and society: books, poems, songs, sitcoms, advertisements, fashions, philosophies, political ideals and movements, etc. In short, people distill their social environment into a form of expression.
If we accept this view as true, then it would be theoretically possible to interpret an individual work, and identify the cultural influences present within. Standard art history analysis.
If we look individually at the genres of Black cinema and science-fiction, I maintain that we will find little to no overlap between the two. Meaning, that the cultures producing Black cinema and science-fiction find no intersection in prior or contemporary society.
The reason why I find this worrisome is twofold:
Firstly, science-fiction is generally considered analogous to the future, or dreams of the future. That is to say, the collective cultural imagination of what we hope the future to be (utopian), believe it probably will be (speculative), or fear it may become (dystopian).
Secondly, if there is no consideration of the Black experience found within the realms of science-fiction genre, what does that say about the Black community's place in the future? Could it be interpreted that the collective cultural imagination produces a future without a tangible, cohesive Black community? Or more abstractly, could it be interpreted that the collective cultural imagination responsible for Black film does not see itself in the future?
In short, this boils down to the question: why aren't people making Black science-fiction movies?
Question asked, I should follow-up with the nuance: filmmakers vs. studio excutives. What does and doesn't get made is determined as much by those in control of the capital required to produce a film as the writer and director who envision and author the work. That is to say, hypothetically it would be possible that there are a fair number of Black sci-fi scripts floating around waiting to be optioned and green-lighted. After all, studio execs are notoriously bad at judging the tastes of the consumer-market...
That said, wouldn't America want to see a Black sci-fi movie? Would you?