The power of images: The confrontation of violence and the construction of black manhood in the films of Gordon Parks

Abstract

This dissertation studies the life and art of American filmmaker Gordon Parks, Sr., to argue that four of his films, all centered on black men, explore how black men in America might attain greater agency through self-awareness, particularly in the context of racialized violence. The films under consideration are The Learning Tree (1969), Shaft (1971), Leadbelly (1976), and Solomon Northup's Odyssey (1984, a television feature). The study opens with the author's reflections on the intersections between his own life narrative and the model for black masculinity that Parks presents. A review of the literature reveals that past studies of Parks' work have primarily centered on his photography, and discussions of his films have rarely sought to understand them as a coherent body of work. Based on an analysis of these films as a coherent body, as well as on Parks' continuous self-examination through his memoirs, the dissertation proposes understanding Parks' model for black masculinity in America as a cycle in three parts: invisibility, emergence, and ascendance. Invisibility is characterized as a state in which black men may be utterly repressed yet may seek peace from violence; emergence denotes a condition of struggle and self-reflection during which black men may seek creative self-expression; and ascendance describes the status of a fully self-actualized black man who values himself and his familial sources, successfully navigates his social context, and aims to "teach what he knows" to his community. The motion through these phases is complex: individualized, incomplete, socially conditioned, cyclical, non-sequential, sometimes regressive, and sometimes progressive. In articulating these possible spaces for black manhood, Parks seeks to demonstrate through his films that positive change is tied to honest evaluation of racism, personal strength through reflection and creative self-expression, and non-violent action. The dissertation attempts to demonstrate that Parks' black-centered films were an extension of his autobiographical writings and another method to communicate to black and white audiences his vision of a positive expression of black manhood.