Vintage Sand Episode 24: Doing the Right Thing, Volume II

Vintage Sand

In this episode, the second part of our exploration of African Americans in film, Team Vintage Sand shifts its focus to the people behind the camera. Remember that it was not until Gordon Parks directed his autobiographical "The Learning Tree" in 1969 that Hollywood released a major film by a black director. What followed in its wake was the mixed blessing of “Blaxploitation” in the early 1970’s, which in turn inspired the first major wave of black directors, led by Spike Lee and John Singleton in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Now, at the turn of a new decade, we are witnessing a golden era for Black filmmakers, led by the commercial and artistic successes of artists like Ryan Coogler, Ava Duvernay, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele and many others. And we are also beginning to see, especially through the efforts of Tyler Perry, the first major studios created and owned by African-American artists and financiers. Our goal in this episode is twofold. On one hand, we talk about some of the lesser-known and forgotten work by some of these major directors. At the same time, we try to call attention to more obscure films, such as Charles Burnett’s "Killer of Sheep" (1977), Ivan Dixon’s one-of-a-kind "The Spook Who Sat by the Door"(1973) and Julie Dash’s incomparable "Daughters of the Dust" (1992, obscure no longer, thanks to Beyonce’s "Lemonade" film). Our hope is simply to open and perhaps reopen some doors for our audience. As with our previous episode, we are hoping that our listeners will share our experience in having the opportunity to re-examine their own assumptions and to look for different lenses through which to view this rich and complex history.