This is a collection of interviews with many of the men and women who defined blaxploitation--a genre of films produced mainly in the 1970s that were marketed to a predominantly black audience. Among those interviewed are such icons as Jim Brown, Antonio Fargas, Gloria Hendry, Jim Kelly, Rudy Ray Moore, Ron O'Neal, William Marshall, Glynn Turman, Melvin Van Peebles and Fred Williamson.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, Dresden Technical University, language: English, abstract: In this paper, it is my objective to examine the characterization of black Americans in Blaxploitation movies to evaluate its influence on the image of African Americans. Not only the cinematic image is to be questioned in this concern, but also the real impression these movies gave to their viewers which also had an impact on the real life, social experience. Thereby, we can differentiate between the black image it produced for blacks, and the impression it left on the white spectators. For this purpose, I will firstly explain the phenomenon of Blaxploitation, its content and structure and name some examples. After that, the historical and social background of this genre is to be analyzed in order to explain how it could emerge and why it vanished as quickly as it came into existence. The depiction of African Americans in film before the 1970s is as important for further comprehension as is the rising political consciousness in the 1960s United States of America which found expression in the Civil Rights Movement. After I have shown the background knowledge concerning Blaxploitation, the description of the image of black people depicted in these movies will follow by analyzing the film “Shaft” and collecting other significant characteristics of this illustration in the genre in general, using the literature on this topic. The analysis will be divided into a plot analysis and a film analysis, whereby the plot will show characteristics which are visible by a mere reflection of the storyline and setting. The film analysis afterwards will have to find said aspects in selected scenes from the movie itself. As the most appropriate books for the paper’s intention, I chose “Framing Blackness” by Ed Guerrero and “Black and White Media” by Karen Ross. Another interesting work, which suits as an informal guide to various Blaxploitation films, is the book “That’s Blaxploitation!” by Darius James. Furthermore, the role and portrayal of women in these films is to be observed concerning the books by Ross and Guerrero and the analysis of “Shaft”. On this basis, I want to consider in the end whether the genre of Blaxploitation had a more positive or negative impact on the cinematic and real image of African Americans, whereas this conclusion will presumably not be a simple statement of good or bad. Moreover, it is to be seen whether and how it influenced the social life of American black citizens and the future cinematic illustration of African Americanism. [...]

Dazzling, highly stylised, excessively violent and brimming with sex, blaxploitation films enjoyed a brief but memorable moment in motion picture history. Never before, and never since, have so many African-American performers been featured in films, not in bit parts, but in name-above-the title starring roles. Here's a new and appreciative look back at a distinctly American motion picture phenomenon, the first truly comprehensive examination of the genre, its films, its trends and its far-reaching impact, covering more than 240 Blaxploitation films in detail. This is the primary reference book on the genre, covering not just the films' heyday (1971-1976) but the entire decade (1970-1980). Includes: film posters and ads

Beyond Blaxploitation is a much-needed pedagogical tool, informing film scholars, critics, and fans alike, about blaxploitation's richness and complexity.

This important book of essays chronicles the rise of African-American cinema. Subjects include: Spike Lee, Eddie Murphy, Laurence Fishburne, blaxploitation and its influence on modern film, and the social impact of film in the African-American community.

This book offers a critical survey of film and media representations of black masculinity in the early twenty-first-century United States, between President George W. Bush’s 2001 announcement of the War on Terror and President Barack Obama’s 2009 acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. It argues that images of black masculine authority have become increasingly important to the legitimization of contemporary policing and its leading role in the maintenance of an antiblack social order forged by racial slavery and segregation. It examines a constellation of film and television productions—from Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day to John Lee Hancock’s The Blind Side to Barry Jenkin's Moonlight—to illuminate the contradictory dynamics at work in attempts to reconcile the promotion of black male patriarchal empowerment and the preservation of gendered antiblackness within political and popular culture.

Based on author's dissertation (doctoral) -- University of Wisconsin at Madison.