Black Lenses, Black Voices is a provocative look at films directed and written_and sometimes produced_by African Americans, as well as black-oriented films whose directors or screenwriters are not black. Mark Reid shows how certain films dramatize the contemporary African American community as a politically and economically diverse group, vastly different from film representations of the 1960s. Taking us through the development of African American independent filmmaking before and after World War II, he then illustrates the unique nature of African American family, action, horror, female-centered, and independent films, such as Eve's Bayou, Jungle Fever, Shaft, Souls of Sin, Bones, Waiting to Exhale, Monster's Ball, Sankofa, and many more.

By Mark A. Reid

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 1 Early African American Film, 1912-1940 and Beyond
Chapter 3 2 Black Family Film: The 1990s
Chapter 4 3 Black Action Film after Twenty Years
Chapter 5 4 Two African American Horror Films
Chapter 6 5 Black Female-Centered Film
Chapter 7 6 Black Independent Film: Haile Gerima's Sankofa
Chapter 8 Bibliography
Chapter 9 Selected Filmography