If you’re wondering how attending Elvis Mitchell’s lectures at Harvard would partly feel, then it’s your cue to put on this weekend’s Netflix documentary release Is That Black Enough For You?!? Taking a studious, in-depth look at the late 60s and mainly the 70s, the American film critic breaks down each bit of Black cinema during a decade that is deemed glorious and ‘golden’.
Talking head interviews of Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Whoopi Goldberg, Laurence Fishburne, and others with a prime focus on the era’s greatest actor, Harry Belafonte (who eventually hung up his acting cape), further analyze the role and importance of onscreen Black representation.
Netflix describes the documentary as follows:
In this illuminating documentary, film critic and historian Elvis Mitchells details the influence of Black cinema in the 1970s.
-Is That Black Enough For You Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-
Picking apart every possible genre, sub-genre and whatnot, the significance of Mitchell’s analysis of the subject matter is summed up in Margaret Avery’s words from the documentary, “As a little girl, all I saw in the movies were people that didn’t look like me. So I didn’t really believe that I could even become an actress.” The same message has been carried forth into a rather ‘accepting’ and ‘inclusive’ 21st century.
While discussing the relative greatest hits at the time, the critic picks on his as well as the other talking head participants’ personal takeaways of what it means for them to be Black, especially in an industry that has continued to smear stereotypes and reductive images of their race. Striking even harder for the same reason, after the decade is mapped out in front of the viewer, one would question, have things really changed much? The documentary hands you out a solid “not really’ and only in comparison makes the issue all the more poignant.
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The movie comes off almost as an academic verbal essay because it meticulously dissects each and every element. However, since a large ground needs to be covered, those things add up (not to be dismissive of the hardships faced by very real people). Merely looking at the standpoint of the general public, such comprehensive documentaries are rarely meant for everybody because not everyone can sit through such detailed and painstaking narratives. Nevertheless, I would still urge you to sit through it and watch this piece of scholarly marvel.
Mitchell doesn’t so as much raise questions about why despite the glistening impact the decade had in serving as the premium origins of the Black cinematic focus, it eventually still died out. It’s rather a celebratory and exhaustive announcement of the glory held by the decade that led to the formation of the subgenre Blaxploitation, serving as a reminder of what the pioneers had to go through as their efforts have often remained unsung.
Is That Black Enough For You?!?: Final Thoughts
Digging into the visible rise of the rivalry between the two actors of the age – Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier – Mitchell breaks down the two faces of Black cinema. The former, who endlessly kept turning down films owing to the stereotypical visage of the Black characters and the latter, who went on to bag awards and acceptance in the mainstream by giving in to the same image (during the initial years). The title itself, which is yet another reference to a 1970 Blaxploitation film, highlights the mirroring politics of power play as soon as race becomes a factor to be played with in movies.
At the end of the day, each of us movie-goers seeks to find a relatable character onscreen so that the catharsis so generated in the end is even more heartfelt. Yet, imagine going to the movies and never being able to find a character who looks like you, speaks to you (or, in some cases, even see them speak on the screen at all).
The same dehumanized stance can easily creep into one’s life from the screen, especially when notable filmmakers repeatedly harked on the very lack of identity when it comes to Black people.
Interestingly, this documentary releases on the same date as the theatrical release of Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a movie primarily based on Black identity on all levels. And though such representative narratives give us some hope, comments and reactions of a specific group in public dragging down a movie simply for being “too black” in the mainstream (even though there’s no such thing) once again make one ponder, when will the playing field be levelled for good? Regardless, these remarks can never put an end to the extent of heroism felt in the basic act of representation.
Is That Black Enough For You is now streaming on Netflix.
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