20th Century Film

The earliest iteration of rudimentary film, also called moving pictures, was a form called chronophotography. The first subject to appear in this rudimentary moving picture was a Black man riding a horse. In other words, Blacks have had a role in film since its beginnings. Unsurprisingly, the earliest depictions of Black people were less than favourable, and often utterly degrading and dehumanising. Other times, the Black figures in the films were white actors in Blackface. Yet this is not to say that Blacks were largely passive objects of the film industry. Within a few years of D.W. Griffith’s release of his propaganda-focused nightmare Birth of a Nation (1915), author-turned-filmmaker Oscar Micheaux released Within Our Gates (1920) a film which countered and corrected Griffith’s vision of racial violence. Nonetheless, the roles available to Black actors in the film industry were (and remain) limited. Thus Black relationship to, participation in, and creation of film is long and complicated. With the creation and availability of television, room for Black engagement and representation increased, even though the nature of that representation wasn’t always progressive.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

21st Century Film

Thanks in part to the influence of the 20th century’s waves of protest and their various fights around representational politics and systemic oppressions, as well as the rise of Cultural and Film studies as recognized scholarly fields, film in the 21st century shows a bit more awareness of its representational politics and impact. Likewise, the rise of social media and the consequent proliferation of film reviewers spread round the globe forced serious filmmakers to reckon with socio-political tides on a much larger and often more explicit scale. Building upon the lessons of previous eras like the Blaxploitation, film studios in the 21st century increasingly sought Black audience dollars and pounds by producing films featuring more empowering portrayals, with increased visibility and diverse stories. This is not to say the film industry embraced diversity politics on a wholistic level. Though there was a proliferation of Black actors, writers, and directors at the beginning of the millennium, there remain very few Black people in higher positions of authority within the studio industry. Similarly, some of the empowered portrayals amounted to a form of tokenism while others reproduced harmful stereotypes; the funding around Black stories remains volatile, contingent upon whatever cause is socially trending.

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Documentaries

Documentary isn’t just about truth—it’s about whose truth gets told, and how. Early documentaries tended to view people of colour through a zoological lens, thereby reinforcing racial hierarchies and white supremacist ideologies, even as they claimed “objectivity.” Indeed, like fictional film, some of these items were explicitly political in their intentions and framing (see, for example, Roosevelt in Africa [1910] and the Empire Series [1925]) while others did this work subtly. Even beyond content, the formal choices in documentaries (editing, voiceover, camera angles, music) can subtly reflect racial biases or resist them. For instance, Voice of God narration often reinforces a white, male perspective as the dominant norm. Declarations of objectivity support notions of authority while privileging white Western modes of knowledge. Beginning in the latter 20th century, Black filmmakers like Marlon Riggs, Ava DuVernay, Stanley Nelson, Raoul Peck, and Shola Lynch began using documentary as a form of counter-narrative. These filmmakers often combine archival material, personal testimony, and creative storytelling techniques to disrupt traditional documentary forms, offering counter-narratives that reclaim agency and history. In doing so, they not only expand the possibilities of documentary as a political art form but also assert the necessity of Black self-representation in a media landscape historically shaped by erasure and distortion.

Television

In the early-to-mid 20th century, television was overwhelmingly white, both on screen and behind the scenes. When people of colour did appear, they were often limited to minor, comic, or deeply stereotypical roles; Black characters were cast as maids or buffoons (e.g., Amos 'n' Andy) or played by white actors in "blackface." While shows like Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Sanford and Son offered the first glimpses of Black family life and urban culture in the 1970s and 1980s, their stories still relied upon caricature to make Blackness palatable to white audiences. Racial representation broadened a bit in the 1990s by centring middle-class Black experiences and addressing racial and cultural issues more directly. In the 21st century, the rise of cable, streaming platforms, and social media has allowed for a more diverse range of voices and stories. These shows challenge monolithic portrayals, offering nuanced explorations of identity, racism, community, and cultural heritage. However, mainstream television remains haunted by systemic barriers and tokenism, often falling short in sustaining diversity across genres and behind-the-scenes roles.