PERFORMING ARTS

Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World

by Wil Haygood
Knopf. Oct. 2021. 464p. ISBN 9780525656876. $30. FILM
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Lights, camera, action—Haygood (The Butler: A Witness to History) demonstrates how despite racism and oppression, Black artists have made formidable contributions to Hollywood. This engaging, approachable work offers a broad overview of how Black filmmakers and actors persevered to find their place in an industry mired in racism. Although other works go into more detail on, for instance, Oscar Micheaux’s prolific film oeuvre, Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar win, or the Blaxploitation movement, Haygood provides a more wide-ranging look at how these moments in Black history are tied to events of the time and to the personal stories of these individuals. This work also discusses more recent Black U.S. films, including Barry Jenkins’s Oscar-winning Moonlight and Jordan Peele’s smash hit Get Out.
VERDICT Chronicling Black contributions to film in the United States, this is an engaging, well-crafted work that will appeal to pop culture fans, film geeks, history buffs, and academics.
Reviewed by Kelly Karst, California Inst. of Integral Studies, San Francisco , Dec 30, 2021
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