Gaines, Jane “Fire and Desire: Mixed Race Movies in the Silent Era” Chicago:
Univ. of Chicago Press. 2001.
     Fire and Desire asks what ‘‘we want from a theory of film that takes race into account,’’ a question that has barely been broached. In her book, Gaines insists that the ‘‘black’’ umbrella commonly used to describe even the smallest portion of black blood gives a false unity to the ongoing feeling of self and other that truly  informs the cultural tradition of race movies. Gaines warns that “to overlook the whiteness in race movies may be to claim them for a pure but impossible blackness” (271). This book shows that although race films are thought to be black films, for blacks, by blacks, there is no such thing as a pure black film. Every race film had white influence, and for the most part were produced, directed, and distributed by white people. Her main point is that what is thought to be pure black cinema is really just a mixed space, with cultural influences intersecting other cultural influences. Gaines does not hold up Oscar Micheaux’s, or any other race film as examples of an ‘‘authentically black’’ cultural representation, but always focuses, theoretically and historically, on the mixed nature of these films, to the basic fact that the light-skinned heroes of these films are only black by virtue of the positive application of blacks made by race movies of the time.
Gaines does not argue against the importance of race films for the African American community, but rather shows that even though a movie was meant for blacks, they were immensely influenced by whites. What is commonly thought to be independent black films are really mixed films, with a multitude of different cultural influences.  Fire and Desire sets the stage for a more mixed approach to the history and theory of race in film, and shows the importance that the reader understands this when viewing race films from the silent era.