Citation:

Hooks, Bell. "Micheaux: Celebrating Blackness" Black American Literature Forum 25.2 (1991): 351-360.

Content and Relevance of Work:

Bell Hooks' article, "Micheaux: Celebrating Blackness", explores the way in which Micheaux used his films to challenge conventional racist representations of blacks. She contends that Micheaux, however, was not interested in simply responding to racist white films by portraying positive images of blacks; he wanted to portray blacks as complex characters defined by their experiences and their emotions and not by their color. Hooks focuses on another one of Micheaux's films called Ten Minutes to Live. She argues that in the film nothing is as simplistic as it may appear in everyday life and that perceptions can easily be manipulated. By exaggerating these complex images of black people and black society Micheaux was able to provoke his audience and make people reevaluate the way in which they approached race and color. The result in Hooks' mind is a celebration of blackness. Although this article focuses on another one of Micheaux's films Ten Minutes to Live, it nevertheless provides an original opinion on Micheaux's complex representations of blacks in his films and thus a possible manner in which to approach Micheaux's other film, Body and Soul. Bell Hooks' would most likely argue that Micheaux was anything but racist against his own kind in creating films such as Body and Soul. On the contrary, he promoted black pride and wanted society to view black men and women as multifaceted beings who should not be restrained by the color of their skin. Hooks' article can help explain why Micheaux refrained from presenting blatantly positive images of blacks in his film Body and Soul; it was more important to Micheaux to portray blacks as intricate characters who could be both good and bad depending on their experiences and feelings. Micheaux saw race as playing little role in a person's proclivity for being good or bad and wanted to convey this in films such as Body and Soul. Hence, the existence of negative images as well as positive images of blacks in the film.