Caron Knauer’s recent publication, American Slavery on Film, is part of a Hollywood History series published by Bloomsbury/ABC-CLIO. Professor Knauer who teaches English at LaGuardia Community College, chose ten films, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1914) to Harriet (2019), to examine historical and contemporary depictions of the resistance, rebellion, and resilience of enslaved African Americans in the United States from the Antebellum period to Emancipation. In this episode Caron talks with Ann Matsuuchi, a librarian and faculty member at La Guardia, and Sherry Antoine, executive director of AfroCROWD. All three have a deep interest in the subject and in the role and importance of popular culture and in reference sources in education. They do a great job of getting us listeners to want to watch and learn more the films and filmmakers and writers they talk about.
Sherry Antoine, MPA, is the executive director of AfroCROWD (Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia), an initiative which seeks to increase awareness and the number of people of African descent who actively partake in the Wikimedia and free knowledge, culture and software movements.
Ann Matsuuchi is currently working on writing about filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles and a book about writer and critic Samuel R. Delany with CUNY/SUNY colleagues Beth Mannion, Lavelle Porter, and Kenny Roggenkamp. She continues her valuable work with the Wikimedia New York City chapter on finding new ways of using Wikipedia in educational and media contexts, especially in the age of AI.
Caron Knauer was associate producer of the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale. She helps produce screenings and events for Black History Month at LaGuardia Community College. On her web site, there is a comprehensive timeline whose emphasis on rebels, resistance, revolts, laws, films, and the resilience of African Americans provides a vital historical resource.
A couple of related links to topics from the episode:
- On the critique that the only African American film projects that Hollywood is interested are slavery-related: https://blackgirlnerds.com/has-the-black-slave-narrative-overstayed-its-welcome-in-cinema-lets-talk-about-it/
- The recent adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_(TV_series)
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