By St. Clair Bourne (1943 - 2007)

To be a politically conscious filmmaker of African descent living in the “New World” is to realize that history is really multiple “versions of reality.” Despite what the corporate media tells you, there really isn’t one objective . Aside from the political implications, multiple “histories” which also makes documentary filmmaking more interesting.

Contemporary African-American documentary filmmakers now have the artistic opportunity (if not yet the financial resources) to explore a wide range of subject matter but it was not always that way. Back when I started making films during the late 1960’s in the United States, documentaries about the civil rights movement were being made by well-intentioned White filmmakers who often the Black perspective. They discussed “those people” (African-Americans) to viewing audience the filmmakers assumed was white. When the fear of Black violence prevented mainstream media from sending white reporters to cover stories in Black areas during the urban rebellions/riots, they hired and assigned Black reporters. Then “integration” began in television and in television. At a certain point, the Afro-centric point of view, while not unchallenged, became accepted as a valid way of looking at both historical and contemporary life. Black faces appear on American television with frequency.

Still, there are problems. For most of the Black filmmakers of my generation, the documentary was the primary means of political media expression but as the American government’s political stance has drifted to the right since the mid-1970’s, the flow of money for production and broadcast time for more political documentaries have all been cut back. At the same time, the impact of entertainment elements in the television news has influenced the attention span of the viewer. The overt political documentary as we knew it - once a source of information and inspiration is an endangered species. In its place are cheaply-produced celebrity biographies, fake “reality-TV”, police “chase”shows and big-budget corporate-supported cultural series. All over the world, but especially in the United States, the economic ruling class who now own most of the newspapers and TV networks tend to define past and present events from the perspective that validates their actions. The mainstream media still demonizes black subjects.

Many Black documentaries often challenge this by making documentaries that give an alternative perspective to help present a reality that is helpful politically and psychologically. One group now three years old, The New York-based Black Documentary Collective (of which I am a member) provides people of African descent working in the documentary film and video field the opportunity to meet socially; network professionally; promote each other’s work, exchange ideas in order to generate productions and advocates on issues impacting Black documentary-makers. Even within this movement, there may be a clash between the “uplift” desired by the African-American audience and the filmmaker’s desire to explore new artistic and political ideas.

What we can do is portray clearly and articulately as we can how our subjects see the world and the forces that affect them. If the filmmaker achieves that, it will be a vision of the world people can react to and discuss. Everyone should have the right and opportunity to see themselves reflected within the media where they live. The mainstream has proven that it is incapable or unwilling to do that so it is up to us, the independents, to fill that vacuum.

This article was written for the 2003 Festival do Rio Film Festival catalog.

Thanks to Robert Bahar for sharing this via Doculink.