"Black films have championed Black lives for 100 years..."
The New Republic, a national magazine on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts, "with an outsized influence on American political and cultural thinking" published a feature article written by Artel Great, the George and Judy Marcus Endowed Chair in African-American Cinema Studies and Assistant Professor of Critical Studies in the School of Cinema. The article, "Black Cinema Matters" is an incisive and expansive piece that speaks to the social and racial justice issues facing our nation today and the indispensable role Black cinema plays in helping us understand this critical moment in American history. The article also unveils elements of new research that puts Black cinema's origins as early as 1896 and includes revealing details about James Young Deer and the first Black women directors. Professor Great's research in this article has never been written about in a popular magazine or shared in public scholarship.