Illuminating black cinema: Shadow and Act

It’s a common gripe that there just doesn’t seem to be any black films around, or at least you never seem to hear about them. The mainstream media doesn’t cover the work of black actors, writers and directors very much, and we all know that black characters in Hollywood are usually criminals, sassy best friends or the first guys to be picked off by the monster. And so we wander around in the dark, unaware of where the talent is.

One group of film fans is trying to change that by celebrating the work of black artists and holding the studios to account.  The blog Shadow and Act was founded earlier this year by Tambay Obenson, a writer and director from Brooklyn with the aim of “covering cinema of the African Diaspora”.

The blog is a one-stop shop for black film news, from casting updates on the latest blockbusters to low-budget releases, with new posts several times a day. Short YouTube clips mingle with thoughtful opinion pieces on the state of cinema, which are always interesting, often quite depressing and usually funny. Television and theatre are also featured, as well as wider issues concerning race.

Tambay is joined by other writers from America, and Wendy Okoi-Obuli (known as MsWOO), a screenwriter from London. The site’s remit is very wide and, perhaps unsurprisingly, in reality most of the news featured is from America.

Wendy does try to get a British perspective across, but this is often a hard job. She says: “I don’t think there’s a particularly huge amount of news coming out of the UK, at least, not as much as I’d like. Most of what is going on seems to be on a small scale and, sadly, promotion and marketing is not the strong point with many low budget ventures.”

But what British news is making the headlines? “Apart from black Brits in US productions, I think the biggest newsmaker at the moment would be someone like Noel Clarke,” Wendy says. “I’m not his target demographic, but I admire his work ethic and tenacity. He’s a maverick, he’s proactive. There are other black filmmakers out there who are doing things, but they’re usually working with such tiny budgets that virtually everyone’s working for free.”

Although the majority of news is coming from the US, that doesn’t make the situation there much more positive, and the writers at Shadow and Act do not shy away from this. The comedy dross of the Wayans family, for example, doesn’t get a free ride just because they are African-American and successful, and the choices studios make involving black characters and themes, as well as how they promote the end products, are heavily criticised. Wendy says: “Venting feels good! Blogging was made for venting.”

Despite this, the tone of the site is upbeat. With interesting titbits posted daily, it is well worth a look for anyone who wants to keep up to date with gossip.

Go to Shadow and Act

2 Responses to “Illuminating black cinema: Shadow and Act”

• Good for them. They deserve all the recognition they get because it’s a very useful site.

  On a related note, it’s unfortunate that actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sophie Okenedo, Idris Elba and others have to travel across the Atlantic to find work.

  If black Americans think they’ve got it bad, they should take a look at what’s going on elsewhere where it’s even worse.

  JJones says
  November 4, 2009 at 12:58 am

• Congrats to Tambay, Wendy, and the rest of the Shadow & Act crew. I’ve been a long time reader of their site.

  Cheers!

  Astaro says
  November 3, 2009 at 4:40 pm