Editor's Notes

Marking the ninth year of Black Camera's publication, this issue features four articles: Amadou Fofana and Bruce S. Hall critique Abderrahmane Sissako's multi-award-winning film Timbuktu (2014) to unpack what appears to be at once an admonition and call to action by one of Africa's finest filmmakers. Next, Albert Fu and Martin Murray engage with Invictus (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2009) to explore how feature films based on true events produce modes of collective remembrance only tangentially related to historic reality. Reighan Gillam then addresses how the stigmatization of black hair is woven into Venezuela's racial aesthetic regime through a close analysis of the main character in Pelo Malo / Bad Hair (dir. Mariana Rondón, 2013). And, lastly, Olivia Landry examines the possible intersection of blindness and colorblindness in Nigerian-German film director Sheri Hagen's Auf den zweiten Blick / At Second Glance (2012).

Also of interest in this issue is the editor's conversation with Haitian-Canadian writer Dany Laferrière during his visit to the Indiana University Bloomington campus.

This issue, with considerable fanfare, showcases a lengthy Close-Up, "Beyoncé: Media and Cultural Icon," guest edited by Stephanie Li. Following her incisive introduction that begs the question, who is Beyoncé?, author Eric Harey analyzes three specific transformative moments in Beyoncé's star. Emily J. Lordi investigates how Beyoncé's changing conceptions of work ethic illuminate her transformation from pop star to artist to activist, while Mako Fitts Ward explores the ways in which Beyoncé's contributions have impacted the "New Niggerati"—a cadre of Black cultural producers engineering American popular culture. Marquis Bey then seeks to demonstrate Beyoncé's insurgency within the Black normal; Dinah Holtzman questions the Carters' embrace of egalitarian erotic practices; and Alicia Wallace offers a close reading of "Formation" to expose the contradictions in Beyoncé's work under capitalist practices. Aisha Durham's piece follows, examining the various identities Beyoncé embodies in her music videos, and how these representations call attention to class performances of racialized gender and sexuality by Black women. The Close-Up concludes with Tiffany E. Barber's discussion with Salamishah Tillet on Beyoncé's popularity and her performance(s) of blackness and Black womanhood.

Also for consideration explore the dossier on the 2017 FESPACO Pan-African film festival, a film review of Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep (1977), an archival spotlight by BFC/A archivist Ronda L. Sewald on the forgotten legacy of jazz musician Phil Moore, as well as the archival news and research sources our readers have come to expect.

This issue also marks a period of transition for the assistant editorship position. Rachelle Pavelko, who has been with us for the past year, departed in July to begin the next leg of her academic journey as Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication at Bradley University. We welcomed Zachary Vaughn who replaces her invaluable contributions and steady hand, and expect no less of Zach, who is a doctoral candidate in the Media School at Indiana University. His research interests focus on media representations of marginalized people along such critical categories of race and ethnicity, citizenship, and globalization. An avid Cubs fan, he remains surprised that he saw a World Series win by his beloved Cubbies. Welcome, Zach, and a warm welcome back to our readers and good-bye and good fortune, Rachelle.