Long before Denzel Washington or Spike Lee, generations of pioneering and revolutionary black directors shaped American cinema and sought to fight stereotypes, shows, until April 9, an exhibition at the Oscars museum in Los Angeles.
Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 looks
back on key moments in the little-known history of black American cinema, and in particular on the hundreds of independent feature films made until the 1960s with African-American actors for an African-American audience. , called “
race films
”, when racial segregation was still in effect in theaters.
The exhibit, which spotlights these works largely ignored by major Hollywood studios and audiences of the time, opens with a recently rediscovered reel from 1898 showing two black vaudeville actors embracing.
“
Are you ready to hear this secret?
That we blacks have always been present in American cinema, from the beginning
“, launches the director Ava DuVernay, during a press conference.
“
Present not as caricatures or stereotypes but as creators, producers, pioneers and enthusiastic spectators
,” she adds.
“
We should have shown this long before.
»
Read alsoBy integrating Ava DuVernay, the Oscars want to correct the image of an overly white and masculine Hollywood
“
Regeneration
” is the second major temporary exhibition at the Oscar-winning Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum, which has come under heavy criticism in recent years for its lack of diversity.
Among the exhibits are jumbled up: the Oscar of Sidney Poitier, the first African-American to win the prestigious statuette for best actor in 1964 for
Le Lys des champs
, the tap dancing duo of the Nicholas Brothers dancers or even a costume worn by Sammy Davis Jr in the movie
Porgy and Bess
.
Les Lilies des Champs trailer
"
I was surprised because I was not aware of the existence of these feature films before starting the preparation
" of this retrospective in 2016 and exploring the archives of the Academy, explains to the AFP the exhibition curator, Doris Berger.
"
I asked myself, 'Why don't we know anything about this?
We should know!
'
” she continues.
"
These are really gripping films and proof that African-American artists had all kinds of roles and there were lots of different stories
."
Audiences can now view the carefully restored footage of works such as the musical western
Harlem on the Prairie
, the comedy
or the gangster feature
Dark Manhattan
.
But many “
race films
” of which only promotional posters remain have been lost forever.
When Hollywood offered black actors of the time supporting roles as "
butlers and mamas (
black nannies, often slaves, to wealthy white American families, editor's note
)
", this type of independent film offered them the roles
of "lawyers, doctors, nurses and cowboys
," notes Doris Berger.
"
It's proof (that Hollywood) could have been so much more diverse and exciting
," she adds.
The end of the exhibition focuses on the rise of "
blaxploitation
, genre of the 70s that put African-American actors on the front of the stage, launched by the black director Melvin Van Peebles, who died a few months before the start of
Regeneration
, like Sidney Poitier.
Read alsoSidney Poitier is dead, Hollywood loses a new star and a hero of the black cause
Belated but essential tribute
The exhibition is part of an effort by the Academy to respond to criticism of its lack of representativeness, embodied by the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, which in 2015 pointed to the lack of black artists in Oscar nominations.
The institution has since doubled the number of women and people from ethnic minorities among its members.
Beyond informing the general public about "race films",
Regeneration
also has the merit of having challenged certain black American directors.
"
If I had known - about the actresses and all that - I would have had a completely different vision and approach to cinema
," says director Charles Burnett.
“
This work had to take place.
It's only too late.
It is important and essential work
, ”abounds Ana DuVernay.
“
This exhibition highlights the generations of black artists whose footsteps we follow
”.
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