Afro Promo - Black Cinema Trailers 1946-1976
by Jenni Olson
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Jenni OlsonDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-31
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Other Cinema
Movie Reviews of Afro Promo - Black Cinema Trailers 1946-1976
Movie Review: So-So Afrosplo
Summary: 3 Stars
Selection, quality and cultural 'impact' are less than I expected. I really like Other Cinema offerings, own about 6-8 discs that they put out. This is my least favorite of what I've bought from them. (Animal Charm is good place to start.) This label's offerings are very very cool, and I love that this is put out by them and is part of the fabric of their fringe/experimental/cultural dvd oddities. Maybe I expected too much from this afro/blaxsploitation trailer compilation. Appreciate having the disc.
Summary of Afro Promo - Black Cinema Trailers 1946-1976
Alternatively trashy and poignant- and sometimes just plain hard to believe these days- here's an irresistible program of Black Cinema trailers that trace its evolution throughout its most crucial period, 1946-1976. Filled with insights on race and social dynamics, this fascinating compendium of Coming Attractions explores an extensive range of stylistic approaches- Blaxploitation, Comedy, Music Bio, Plantation Drama- and more- all smartly organized by genre, or viewable as one outrageous joyride through motion picture history. Beyond mere camp, these marvelously condensed gems crystallize a range of African-american identities and personalities, tracking the meteoric careers of Sidney Poitier, James Earl Jones, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, Pam Grier et al through their bold performances in movies both hugely popular and practically forgotten.As its title suggests, Afro Promo shows how images of African Americans have been promoted in the movies represented by this no-frills compilation of 31 "coming attraction" preview trailers. The title is slightly misleading (the earliest trailer is actually for the 1951 basketball feature Harlem Globetrotters), but curators Jenni Olson and Karl Knapper have covered most of the essential territory regarding African Americans in post-World War II American cinema. The postwar years saw the rise of popular black musicians in movies (including Nat "King" Cole and many other beloved performers in 1958's St. Louis Blues) and this trend led to "social conscience" dramas like The Defiant Ones, Raisin in the Sun, and A Patch of Blue as the civil rights movement of the 1960s progressed and black actors like Sidney Poitier became bankable box-office stars. The relative seriousness of these prestige dramas eventually gave way to the more blatantly commercial prospects of "Blaxploitation" cinema in the 1970s, and most of the trailers included here hail from that vibrant, entertaining period of filmmaking, when "Blaxplo" hits like Cleopatra Jones, Foxy Brown, and Blacula were showing in theaters along with more "respectable" black-oriented films like Sounder (1972) and Gordon Parks's 1969 drama The Learning Tree. Several milestone films are not represented here (including Shaft and Superfly), but some of these trailers serve as curious reminders of fascinating obscurities (like Jack Arnold's 1975 "Blaxplo" Western Boss Nigger and the Ossie Davis-directed 1972 drama Black Girl) that have never been available in any video format. And while all of these films deserve a place in movie history, the trailers themselves have their own historical value as collectible memorabilia, rescued from destruction and (in many cases) appearing with scratches, dirt-specks, and hastily repaired film-breaks to indicate various degrees of age and neglect. A sub-menu separates all 31 trailers into eight convenient categories (Blaxploitation, Music, Historical, Poitier, etc.), and while it's obvious that Afro Promo was rather crudely assembled from whatever was available (and an introductory essay by Yale scholar Terri Francis is mysteriously missing from the special features), it still qualifies as a lively introduction to the good, bad, and ugly trends in African American film.
Bonus features include two shorts from the "Other Cinema" archive of alternative cinema: Roger Beebe's Famous Irish-Americans is a playfully humorous look at Black-Irish heritage that calls into question the tyranny of racial classification, and Christopher Harris's Reckless Eyeballing (2004) is an experimental art-film that uses repetitive, impressionistic treatment of solarized black-and-white footage to explore racial identity as depicted through images of African American outlaws. It's likely these interesting shorts would never be seen outside of college film classes and experimental film festivals if they weren't curiously included on this DVD. --Jeff Shannon
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