ABSTRACT
Black women’s history in cinema is precarious at best. From the birth of the medium in the nineteenth century, Black women have been shoved into corners, trotted out only to fulfill stereotypes under the gaze of cis white and Black men. The nuances of the Black female experience have been used as punch lines or tropes of shame, while historically the camera lens remained out of the grasp of Black women. That narrative began to shift and bend in the 1970s and 80s during the LA Rebellion with films like Alile Sharon Larkin’s A Different Image and with Kathleen Collins’s 1982 drama, Losing Ground. In the midst of this unpacking came Beyoncé’s 2016 film, Lemonade. It was and still remains a striking and powerful work that unveiled the darkest and most intimate aspects of the notoriously private entertainer’s life. Lush and poignant, with cinematography that draped the singer in crimson washes, Knowles-Carter laid herself bare to the world. Using film, she revealed all of her truths, including the miscarriages, infidelities, and insecurities—aspects of Black womanhood that we are told to keep hidden away. Lemonade shattered shame.
