Editor’s Notes

This issue marks the beginning of the third year of Black Camera’s publication and maintains and further substantiates the critical, innovative, and scholarly standard of the journal.

However challenging, the preceding two years were productive. Black Camera established a bona fide and distinctive international niche among film studies journals. The first issue (vol. 1, no. 1) was comprised of commissioned essays by prominent film scholars, among them Roy Armes, Jane Bryce, Kenneth W. Harrow, Keyan G. Tomaselli, and Keith Q. Warner. Together, the essays reflect the geographical scope and thematic concerns of the journal.

The second issue (vol. 1, no. 2) featured the first installment of essays and interviews from Africultures—a unique research entity and extraordinary resource devoted to the study of African cultural and artistic practice. In liaison with the prominent film critic and director of publications, Olivier Barlet, our partnership with Africultures has yielded in short order a remarkable and critical dossier of writings translated from French to English for Anglophone readers. We expect this partnership to grow in the years ahead and, with it, our knowledge of filmmaking and cinema in francophone Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. This issue also featured a Documents section, consisting of programmatic statements and manifestoes that account for black filmmaking as an art form, cultural and political practice, and historical activity. Published to date are the “Niamey Manifesto of African Filmmakers” (1982), the “FEPACI Master Report 2009,” the “Resolutions of the Third World Filmmakers Meeting, Algiers” (1973), and “The Algiers Charter on African Cinema” (1975). The current issue features the “FeCAViP Manifesto” (1990).

Issue three (vol. 2, no. 1) is distinctive for the variety of critical essays and the compelling cover photographs of performance artist Jefferson Pinder, who engages with editors Martin and Wall in a lengthy conversation about his artistic practice.

The publication of issue four (vol. 2, no. 2) represented Black Camera’s first special issue guest edited by L.H. Stallings—Beyond Normative: Sexuality and Eroticism in Black Film, Cinema, and Video. Along with the evocative image on the cover, Blue Lady by artist Aja Roache, the contents of this issue included provocative essays and an interview by specialists in the field.

Importantly, in recognition of this record of scholarly achievement and productivity, Black Camera received an Honorable Mention by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ), as the runner-up for the 2010 Best New Journal Award, which was presented at the Modern Language Association Annual Conference in Los Angeles (January 2011).

On the administrative side of the journal, and of particular importance to Black Camera future contributors, we have codified our protocols to expedite the review process and ensure timely feedback.

Finally, I am pleased to inform readers that, in partnership with Indiana University Press (IU Press), we are launching a second major publication initiative—Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora. This book series is devoted to the study of African and black diasporic filmmakers and seminal and distinctive films engaging with black life in the global diaspora. The series will document and constitute a written archive of black filmmaking through in-depth analyses of feature and short narrative works, documentaries, and experimental films of enduring historical, cultural, and aesthetic importance. More on the book series is forthcoming in a future issue of the journal and via the promotional materials developed in conjunction with IU Press.

Together, these publication projects—Black Camera and Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora—will contribute in the years ahead to the development of a seminal collection for the study of black film and filmmaking.

We anticipate a promising future for Black Camera and welcome your continuing support and suggestions to make it even better and of greater interest and utility.