{"id":568,"date":"2017-02-08T19:47:18","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T19:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/?p=568"},"modified":"2017-02-08T19:47:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T19:47:18","slug":"to-encourage-and-uplift-entrepreneurial-uplift-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/2017\/02\/08\/to-encourage-and-uplift-entrepreneurial-uplift-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"To “Encourage and Uplift”: Entrepreneurial Uplift Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this chapter, To “Encourage and Uplift”: Entrepreneurial Uplift Cinema<\/em>, the\u00a0author, Allyson Fields, traces filmmaking practices of several Black filmmaking entrepreneurs in Chicago and NYC. She focuses on William Foster, Peter P. Jones and Hunter C. Haynes to demonstrate how Black entrepreneurs used moving picture technology and how it differs from those working in the South.\u00a0She\u00a0argues that entrepreneurial filmmakers showed African American uplift and presented them\u00a0as people who were modern, civically engaged individuals. Underlying themes in many of these films were of social and economic progress as well as possibility. These entrepreneurs invested in the progress of race by supporting the African American motion picture industry.\u00a0Many black film companies emerged in the late 1910s, but only a few were able to produce and distribute a completed film because competition was tough as well as the growing tensions between black and white filmmakers.\u00a0Films were seen as an effective and economical way of demonstrating African American culture and advancements.<\/span><\/p>\n

Black entrepreneurs in the early 20th century were expected to have the social responsibility to create social impact. The burden of representation fell on Black business men and women to counteract image of their whole race\u00a0because they were able to make money and use cinema as a tool for uplift. Business men and women were involved because they were economically autonomous\u00a0and used uplift rhetoric.\u00a0Moving pictures once were known to have racist depictions and stereotypes which further marginalized people.Uplift filmmaking entrepreneurs worked primarily within black communities making films for black audiences.\u00a0\u00a0They wanted to counteract the racist images of the Black people and their community, and instead showing them as respectable, economically independent, civic-engaged individuals in society.\u00a0The uplift model<\/b> emphasized self-help, mutual progress and economic\u00a0autonomy (independence).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few entrepreneurs who made a lasting impact in their community and in Black Uplift Cinema:<\/p>\n