Larry, Thank you for your thoughtful and informative response. I'm glad to know this is very much on the radar screen of California Newsreel, even if not so much on those of the usual backers.
On the positive front, since we do own all of those mentioned except "Color Adjustment," at least I know I'm in a good position to steer the prof to the best available sources... and to encourage him to keep on with Ethnic Notions. Even if in need of updating, it still spurs discussion, which is the point. Grazie, Susan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lawrence Daressa Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011 3:41 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Videolib] Ethnic Notions-esque film? Dear Susan, Dear Susan, Like you, Newsreel has felt the need to update "Ethnic Notions" almost since its release in 1987. To that end,, we collaborated with Marlon Riggs to produce both "Color Adjustment" which brought the story up to 1990 and "Black Is...Black Ain't," a more introspective examination of myths of black identity, released in 1994, the year of his death. The first part of "Race - The Power of an Illusion," 2004, was designed as a historic overview of the social construction of race. "What's Race Got to Do with It?" 2006, looked at racial attitudes on a then-contemporary college campus. As you rightly observe, most of the releases over the past two decades have addressed more specific examples of racial stereotyping. For example, Newsreel has just acquired "White Scripts and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in Comic Books." Future African American Production The 314 respondents to our survey of high-volume, institutional users of African American documentary conducted last year, expressed a clear desire for an update along the lines of "Ethnic Notions;" more than half, in fact, said they would "definitely use" a film on the "Myth of the Post-Racial Society" in their classes or organizations. This was second only to "The Criminalization of Black Youth" in topics respondents labeled as "urgently needed. We have sent these and other findings from our 30 question needs assessment to the major backers of African American documentary, ITVS, PBS, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and HBO, but none have acknowledged receipt. It is our suspicion that they may have resented statistics on the media desires of their constituents as an incursion on their legerdemain to decide what films get made. Therefore Newsreel has decided to try to produce these films ourselves or to spur their production by others. Thanks for your continued use of what has probably been the most widely used title in our 43 year history. Best Wishes, Larry, for California Newsreel VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
