On this edition of Your Call, University of Chicago cinema professor Allyson Nadia Field discusses her new book, Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History.
Tracing the rediscovery of Something Good, the first known film to depict African American affection, Professor Field reveals how this powerful and enduring depiction of Black love has resonated with contemporary audiences and reshaped the history of American cinema.
Guests:
Allyson Nadia Field, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago, and author of Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film & The Possibility of Black Modernity and Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History
Resources:
Chicago Tribune: How America’s earliest films were based in minstrelsy
PBS: Silent Film Shows Earliest Depiction of On-Screen Black Love
PBS: How a 20-Second Film of Black Performers Kissing in 1898 Was Rediscovered. And Why It Matters.
UChicago News: Silent film of Black couple’s kiss discovered, added to National Film Registry
