Black is-- black ain't [electronic resource] : a personal journey through black identity /

Riggs, Marlon T.

Atkinson, Nicole.

Badgley, Christiane.

Independent Television Service.

California Newsreel (Firm)

moving image

San Francisco, CA : California Newsreel,

c1995.

eng

American culture has stereotyped black Americans for centuries. Equally devastating, the late Marlon Riggs argued, have been the definitions of "blackness" African Americans impose upon one another which contain and reduce the black experience. In this film, Riggs meets a cross-section of African Americans grappling with the paradox of numerous, often contradictory definitions of blackness. He shows many who have felt uncomfortable and even silenced within the race because their complexion, class, sexuality, gender, or speech has rendered them "not black enough," or conversely, "too black." The film scrutinizes the identification of "blackness" with masculinity as well as sexism, patriarchy and homophobia in black America.

Director/producer, Marlon Riggs ; co-producer, Nicole Atkinson ; co-director/editor, Christiane Badgley ; co-editor, Bob Paris.

African Americans