Directed by Marlon Riggs • Documentary • 1991 • 88 minutes
An essential companion to Ethnic Notions, Color Adjustment explores black representation in the age of primetime television. Deconstructing cultural touchstones from Amos ’n’ Andy to The Jeffersons to The Cosby Show, this cogent and provocative documentary illuminates how, as portrayals of African-American lives and families became increasingly mainstream, they remained no less insidious, peddling a fantasy vision of the black experience and the myth of the American Dream.
Up Next in African-American Docs
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Affirmations
Directed by Marlon Riggs • Documentary • 1990 • 10 minutes
An exploration of Black gay male desires and dreams. Affirmations starts with an affectionate, humorous confessional and moves on to a wish for empowerment and incorporation.
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Decade of Fire
Directed by Gretchen Hildebran, Vivian Vazquez • Documentary • With Carmen Rosado, Hetty Fox, Robert Foster • 2020 • 76 minutes
Decade of Fire covers a shocking but untold piece of American urban history, when the South Bronx was on fire in the 1970s.
Left unprotected by the city government, ...
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How to Eat Your Watermelon in White C...
Directed by Joe Angio • Documentary • With Spike Lee, Mario Van Peebles, St. Clair Bourne, Gil Scott-Heron • 2005 • 85 minutes
Melvin van Peebles’ remarkable life story reveals an artist and a man whose groundbreaking impact on film, politics and pop culture remains, forty-five years after the r...
