Hollywood and independent black cinema

The development of black cinema over the past generation is reflected in a growing number of book-length commentaries. ¹ Among the contributions to this rapidly growing body of literature are Manthia Diawara's anthology Black American Cinema and Ed Guerrero's Framing Blackness. ² Diawara brings together essays by a host of prominent literary and film scholars, whereas Guerrero employs a historical survey format to analyse the black film image. There seems to be a consensus among black film scholars that contemporary black cinema encompasses films produced both in and out of Hollywood. Nevertheless, several themes pertaining to the history and theory of black cinema can be identified in black film commentaries which suggest a specific role or function for independent black cinema. By focusing on these themes I want to examine more closely the concept of contemporary black cinema implicit in recent criticism.