Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking
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Book Presentation:
In the early 1900s, so-called race filmmakers set out to produce black-oriented pictures to counteract the racist caricatures that had dominated cinema from its inception. Richard E. Norman, a southern-born white filmmaker, was one such pioneer. From humble beginnings as a roving "home talent" filmmaker, recreating photoplays that starred local citizens, Norman would go on to produce high-quality feature-length race pictures. Together with his better-known contemporaries Oscar Micheaux and Noble and George Johnson, Richard E. Norman helped to define early race filmmaking. Making use of unique archival resources, including Norman's personal and professional correspondence, detailed distribution records, and newly discovered original shooting scripts, this book offers a vibrant portrait of race in early cinema.
About the Author:
Barbara Tepa Lupack has written extensively on American literature, film, and culture. She has authored or edited more than 20 books and taught at universities within the United States and abroad.
Press Reviews:
"Thoroughly researched and crisply written. . . The first book-length work on Norman, Lupack's monograph clearly delineates the Norman Company's importance . . . [Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking's] most profound contribution lies, perhaps, in how it illuminates the fraught economics of race filmmaking . . . ."
-Journal of American History
"Lupack's book provides a wealth of archival information about this vibrant moment in film history . . . . [This] is a solid contribution to regional film studies and race film business practice, and will appeal to scholars, students, and film-buffs alike."
-Black Camera
"Grounded in impressive archival research, Barbara Lupack's book offers a long overdue history of Richard E. Norman and the filmmaking company he established early in the twentieth century. Lupack's ability to describe Norman's films—and the work that went into their production—reanimates them for readers and stresses their role in shaping early African American cinematic representation."
-Paula Massood, author of Making a Promised Land: Harlem in 20th-Century Photography and Film
See the publisher website: Indiana University Press
See the complete filmography of Richard E. Norman on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
The Othering of Women in Silent Film (2023)
Cultural, Historical, and Literary Contexts
Subject: Silent Cinema
Silent Serial Sensations (2020)
The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema
Subject: History of Cinema
Vision/Re-Vision (1997)
Adapting Contemporary American Fiction To Film
Subject: Technique > Adaptation
Take Two (1994)
Adapting the Contemporary American Novel to Film
Dir. Barbara Tepa Lupack
Subject: Technique > Adaptation
> On a related topic:
Writing Himself Into History (2000)
Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, and His Audiences
by Pearl Bowser and Louise Spence
Subject: Director > Oscar Micheaux
The Afterlives of Kathleen Collins (2021)
A Black Woman Filmmaker's Search for New Life
Subject: Director > Kathleen Collins
King Vidor in Focus (2024)
On the Filmmaker's Artistry and Vision
by Kevin L. Stoehr and Cullen Gallagher
Subject: Director > King Vidor
Rex Ingram (2014)
Visionary Director of the Silent Screen
by Ruth Barton
Subject: Director > Rex Ingram
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