Paper short abstract:

This paper considers black diaspora film and filmmaking practice as mechanisms for the radical transformation of education. It examines how oppositional cinematic representations can spark critical consciousness and how filmmaking practice can put emotional intelligence at the center of learning.

Paper long abstract:

At the first Third World Film-makers Meeting held in Algiers in 1973, participants resolved that cinema could be influential, "because its essential importance is at one and the same time artistic, esthetic, economic, and sociological, affecting to a major degree the training of the mind" (1995 p.1-21); It continues indigenous and African storytelling traditions. Today, there are robust canons of African, black diaspora, and third cinema, which should be preserved and archived. Yet when coupled with filmmaking practice, they can become living history as tools in the application of critical pedagogy.

Critical pedagogy supposes that individuals are not merely spectators but also participants in their education and thus able to become critically conscious. Visual scholars explicate the element of choice in filmmaking practice. Filmmakers make choices around the film's narrative and aesthetic, working with actors and crew, working responsibly in communities and environments, and the ideological impact of their films. These choices are a form of agency; they are a process of social-emotional learning.

As we work to transform education, so that it may undo oppressive systems and promote self-realization for all, we must discuss the value of representation through artistic practice. Cinematographic language should not only be used to create oppositional representations of the black diaspora but also involve those that they're intended to liberate.

Please note: My presentation will integrate short film clips - to be determined - to support arguments raised in the paper. 


1. "Resolutions". Third World Filmmakers Meeting. New York: Cineaste Publishers, 1973. Print.