While I was writing my paper, the thought came to me that the director of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 Göran Hugo Olsson made the documentary with an assumption in mind that hindered the potential of the film in my opinion. The assumption I believe he had was that the audience is as familiar with Black culture and history as he is and in some instances he thinks we aren't as knowledgeable as him.
As for me, a part of that audience, I do know about Black history but culture is a different matter and because of that, I did take issue with some aspects of the film. The parts of the film that had to do with history, I enjoyed and was able to take something home from it. The culture parts (commentators) of the film were harder for me to grasp.
Now, Olsson tells us the documentary is that of the Swedish perspective and that may be true, but the film certainly gives us Olsson's views. During the Q & A with Olsson, he sort of gave me the impression that he wanted to shock and surprise people with this footage as if we Americans don't know anything that took place at that time. That may just be my opinion. Olsson seems to be somewhat naïve when it comes to American perspective. This is a big country and it's nothing new that different parts of the country have different perspectives on topics. I have the 1990's White Southern Californian Girl perspective which is pretty much Olsson's perspective-the outsider, except he grew up at the time all this was happening which has an advantage. My perspective hasn't changed over the years; it's just become more informed. Olsson's film didn't provide any new information for me; it did show me images I hadn't seen before, but not different types of images, if that makes sense.
Anyway, I think I've rambled on. So for those of my fellow classmates who had difficulty with some of the ways this film was made, I think this is the underlying cause to all those issues, not that it changes anything.
I did think it was really interesting to see footage that was taken by somebody outside of U.S. culture. In a way, that seemed to allow us to see things that would normally be filtered in mainstream U.S. media. If U.S. people had seen this footage back in the 60's and 70's, it may have had a huge social impact. I don't think this kind of stuff was available in the mainstream back then.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me want to see current footage that is taken from other perspective in regard to contemporary events like the War on Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder how that footage would differ from what is displayed in local and mainstream media.
What do you think?