It’s both impossible and unfair to expect any one film to try to explain the entire history of African-Americans in cinema.  But I tell you what, ‘Classified X’ is as close as they come.

This documentary, written and narrated by Melvin Van Peebles, traces the history of blacks in cinema, and how movies, Hollywood studio movies, were not remotely immune to portraying the stereotypes that were prominent in the culture at large.  I think I’m part of the last generation that had ‘Mammy’ in their Tom and Jerry cartoons and Bugs Bunny in blackface; ‘Classified X’ brings back all those clips and some that are even more blatant than that.

The senior Van Peebles uses his own career and childhood memories growing up on the South Side of Chicago as the backbone for their story.  It both makes sense and in a way I think limits the power of the narrative.  He’s being completely accurate when he says his film ‘Sweet Sweetback’ convinced Hollywood to create the blaxploitation era; at the same time it still feels like a little bit of a Humblebrag.

That nitpick aside I genuinely feel this is required viewing for anyone with a remote interest in the history of black cinema.  I caught in on Netflix Instant but I imagine there are other ways to see it since it’s a documentary…