Films racially-charged / with minority images?

[Stefen]

This thread just proves my point that xixax is one of the whitest places on the internet.

What is that supposed to mean?

What you talkin about willis?

You were right on cue Godardian.

[ono]

These are all really such brilliant suggestions.  I should clarify though, that this is for a Minorities in Communications class, not a film class.  At first, I wanted to get away from more common films, and all the ones mentioned are ones I've either seen or wanted to check out anyway.  But now I'm wondering if getting more obscure is even the right idea here.  Basically I want to make things easy for myself while having fun with it, because the class wasn't that fun.

I've wanted to see Ali for ages, ditto for Dirty Pretty Things, Far From Heaven was just a gorgeous film, perfect suggestion which I may seriously consider.  Those other two you mentioned I haven't even heard of, so it looks like I've gotta do my research there.

[NEON MERCURY]

los t

in transsssslation

is a rascits
film.........


BONZAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Born Under Punches]

Want an idea for racially charged films?  Here's one.  W.E.B. DuBois once spoke of the concept that exists amongst black Americans that I believe all minorities in America have to deal with.  It is the concept of twoness in which one person is a part of two cultures as an American and as an African-American.  If you want a film to go with that, there's Oscar Micheaux's 1925 film Body and Soul.  That movie is a practical allegory to twoness.  I'm not sure how available it is, so you'd have to look high and low to find it.  But if you want some obscure movies, the find some directed by Oscar Micheaux.

[soixante]

James Toback's Black and White deals with matters of race in a multi-faceted way, and it's also a film that has not been widely seen or discussed.  It also features Elijah Wood getting upset when his girlfriend Bijou Phillips hooks up with a man of color at a party.  It might also be interesting to look at two of Toback's earlier films, The Gambler and Fingers.

I've also noticed that Robert Altman's films (ranging from MASH to The Company) feature unflattering portrayals of African-Americans.

MASH -- a black sergeant at the beginning is depicted as a sadistic buffoon.

California Split -- after Elliott Gould and George Segal win big at poker, they are mugged by (you guessed it) a black man.

Short Cuts -- a black woman is depicted as an anally-retentive buffoon; Joe Robbie, a thuggish black criminal, threatens white woman Jennifer Jason Leigh and her white husband Chris Penn at a jazz nightclub, and talks during the set to disrupt Tom Waits' listening experience, then threatens Waits when he asks him to be quiet.

Kansas City -- Harry Belafonte plays Seldom Seen, a gangster who commits an act of almost unthinkable brutality.

The Company -- a black dancer argues with artistic director Malcolm McDowell in an obnoxious way, then quits the company.

[MacGuffin]

The story takes place in alternative America where the blacks are members of social elite, and whites are inhabitants of inner city ghettos. Louis Pinnock is a white worker in a chocolate factory, loving husband and father of two children. While delivering a package for black CEO Thaddeus Thomas, he is mistaken for a voyeur and, as a result, loses his job, gets beaten by black cops and his family gets evicted from their home. Desperate Pinnock takes a gun and kidnaps Thomas, demanding justice.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114928/

[jklivin]

My Beautiful Laundrette (d. Stephen Frears) is an interesting look at race, class, and sexual orientation in London. It also is a ghetto drama, so there is a whole tradition in which to contexualize it.