Harlem Uncut and Partially Unscripted

by Jessica Sellin

This past Thursday, November 11, the Center for 21^st Century Studies hosted Paula Massood, Leonard and Claire Tow Professor of Film Studies at Brooklyn College, and Professor of Film Studies at The Graduate Center, the City University of New York (a condensed version of her extensive and impressive résumé).  She is the author of Black City Cinema: Visualizing African American Urban Experiences in Film (2003) and editor of The Spike Lee Reader: An Anthology (2008). Her current project, and on which her presentation was based, is “Living in the City: Harlem’s Representational Turn Towards Marketable Shock.” (Massood made sure to note that this is a working title, still under construction.)

First, I must start by saying that this was by far my favorite presentation of the year, and not just because of the posh setting in the Golda Meir Library’s conference center, or the smell of hot cider ruminating through the room.  I have to admit that when I first saw Massood, a petite Caucasian woman, approach the podium, I wondered what her take on the subject matter would bring.  Needless to say, she took little time to define a clear stance and delved right into the material.  She began her chronicling of a 1930s – 1960s Harlem through a genre known as the “photo-text” in which printed photographs were accompanied by text that provided an overview into the harsh living conditions of “America’s black capital” (a term coined by 1940s author Michael Carter).  As has become the case with art in general, still pictures soon became inadequate in expressing the suffering of the masses, and artists like Sidney Meyers (still photographer) and Shirley Clarke (dancer/choreographer) turned to film.

In a time where we find movies like The Blair Witch Project (I regret having to reference this, but it serves my point well) and The Hurt Locker to be avant-garde in their “cinema as reportage style,” many neglect to realize that this style of film is actually the re-emergence of a form established by cinematic greats such as the Lumière Brothers.  In keeping with this style of “cinema as reportage,” Sydney Meyer’s The Quiet One  (1948) follows the life of a young African American youth through his tumultuous home life, detention at a school for boys, and subsequent treatment for psychological trauma.  The film, a combination of fiction and documentary, is filled with real content, but is voiced over by an actor playing young Donald’s middle-aged, white psychiatrist from the Wiltwyck School for Boys (the irony of which is certainly not lost on Massood herself).  Similar in style, Shirley Clarke’s The Cool World  (1963) follows a young African American youth as he struggles with familial and economic problems, finding that the only way out of his situation is violence.  Because the film contains both actors and non-actors (real people), an immediacy created by the use of handheld cameras, and on-site shooting, it drew attention at the time because it did not follow conventional Hollywood films.

Join the Center Friday, December 10^th for the final presentation of the fall 2010 semester, with speaker Arthur Kleinman, M.D. (Anthropology at Harvard University), who will be discussing his forthcoming book, “Deep China: Remaking the Moral Person in China Today.”