Editor’s Notes

With the release of Volume 9.2 of Black Camera, we close out our ninth year of publication for what is now recognized as the premier scholarly film journal of its kind, documenting the cinematic experience in the Black diaspora.

Like the previous issue of Black Camera, 9.2 is hefty, beginning with three disparate and distinct articles: Mary C. Schmitt’s interrogation of the documentary Malcolm X: The Real Story, Ayshia Elizabeth Stephenson’s consideration of Haile Gerima’s Ashes and Embers, and Nathan Seeley’s homage to the late African American filmmaker, writer, actor and cultural critic, Carlton Moss.

Next in the queue, are three Close-Ups. First, is “Black Images Matter,” which features a critical introduction by guest editor Ellen C. Scott. Following this, are four trenchant essays which address: the thematic of fugitivity in the long history of freedom struggles in the work of visual artist Carrie Mae Weems; the trope of the “wailing woman” in the A&E production of The First 48; how videos of police violence legitimize the surveillance state; and the preservation of media artifacts in Black women’s mobilizations in response to police violence.

Following, are two Close-Ups devoted to contemporary African cinema: the first, edited by Haseenah Ebrahim and Jordache A. Ellapen, engages with an array of cinematic developments, including “new audiovisual cultures,” transnational production, representations of womanhood and masculinity in postapartheid South Africa. Among the eight essays that comprise this Close-Up, consider readings devoted to the films Tsotsi, The Wooden Camera, Zulu Love Letter, Yesterday, and cane/cain, among others. The second Close-Up, edited by Molly Krueger Enz and Devin Bryson is of no less importance, as it addresses the infrastructure, politics, and conditions of the exhibition of contemporary Senegalese cinema. This Close-Up features essays on filmmakers Alain Gomis, Adaurs Sie, Joseph Gaï Ramaka and Nicolas Sawalo Cissé as well as Sheila Petty’s take on the documentary by Ousmane William Mbaye, Kemtiyu—Séex Anta.

As you have come to expect from our featured Africultures and African Women in Cinema dossiers, Olivier Barlet and Beti Ellerson’s contributions warrant your attention.

No doubt, as readers of Black Camera, you have observed our continuous deployment of the Close-Up as a platform for in-depth study of regional and national cinemas and movements, as well as to examine issues of timely concern. We will continue to use this format to address such cinematic developments as they arise and command our attention. Of particular interest to us, and we hope to you, our readers, are Close-Ups currently in-development, among them programmatic texts and manifestos that theorize and enunciate principles of cinematic practices in the Black diaspora; contemporary developments and the renaissance of Caribbean cinema(s); and the work and contribution of film training institutes in Africa such as IMAGINE in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Now, on to Volume 10.1.