Cinema of the Oppressed: An Interview with Francisco Newman

Abstract

Independent filmmaker Francisco Newman began his career as a journalist at KQED Public Television in San Francisco. His films include Staggerlee: A Conversation with Bobby Seale, Leader of the Black Panther Party (1970); Ain't Nobody Slick (1972) featuring Angela Davis; and Virgin Again (2000), a retelling of New Testament gospel set in contemporary Los Angeles, with an African-American Christ, a Latina Mary Magdalene, and a feminist perspective on religion and sin. As Adjunct Professor of Film Studies at Chapman University, Newman taught "History of Documentary Film," "History of African-American Cinema," and "Film Production and Cultural Heritage." He is also the eponymous hero of Francisco, the novel written by his wife, Alison Mills Newman, and published in 1974 by Reed, Cannon, and Johnson. Francisco and Alison are the parents of five children. Harryette Mullen interviewed Francisco Newman in Los Angeles on August 15, 2002. Francisco Newman died May 22, 2003.

Independent filmmaker Francisco Newman began his career as a journalist at KQED Public Television in San Francisco. His films include Staggerlee: A Conversation with Bobby Seale, Leader of the Black Panther Party (1970); Ain't Nobody Slick (1972) featuring Angela Davis; and Virgin Again (2000), a retelling of New Testament gospel set in contemporary Los Angeles, with an African-American Christ, a Latina Mary Magdalene, and a feminist perspective on religion and sin. As Adjunct Professor of Film Studies at Chapman University, Newman taught "History of Documentary Film," "History of African-American Cinema," and "Film Production and Cultural Heritage." He is also the eponymous hero of Francisco, the novel written by his wife, Alison Mills Newman, and published in 1974 by Reed, Cannon, and Johnson. Francisco and Alison are the parents of five children. Harryette Mullen interviewed Francisco Newman in Los Angeles on August 15, 2002. Francisco Newman died May 22, 2003.

MULLEN: We're going to talk about the films, but let's start with some background information. Let's get your full name, and when and where you were born.

NEWMAN: My full name is Francisco Toscano Newman. I was born February 13, 1945, at Children's Hospital in San Francisco.

MULLEN: Did you grow up in San Francisco?

NEWMAN: As a child, I lived in San Francisco for five years, then I grew up in Berkeley from age five until I went to college.

MULLEN: Can you tell me a little about your family, your parents, your grandparents, and where they came from?

NEWMAN: Okay, starting on my mother's side. My mother's maiden name is Eleanor Gordon. Eleanor Gordon Newman. She grew up in Chicago and Bangor, Michigan. Her mother grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and her maiden name, my grandmother, is Dahmer. My mother's brother was Vernon Dahmer. He was a civil-rights activist in Mississippi who registered people to vote.

MULLEN: Was his house firebombed?

NEWMAN: That's the one.

MULLEN: I have read about this.

NEWMAN: The Klan firebombed his house in the middle of the night as the family slept. He got his shotgun and fired back at them. He stayed in the burning house, holding off the attackers so his family could escape out the back door. He burned up. He perished in the flames.

MULLEN: Oh yes, it's terrible!

NEWMAN: The kids got out, his wife got out. It took his wife thirty years to take the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan to court. Finally he went to jail.

MULLEN: At last! [To read more about this case, see http://www.stop-the-hate.org/dahmer.html.]

NEWMAN: My father is an Afro-Cuban. He was born in Havana, Cuba. He came to the United States when he was five. He grew up in Florida. Then, I don't know how he got to California. Well, he was in the Navy, stationed at Treasure Island in San Francisco. He was a chief petty officer in World War II. He had something to do with cooking food. He met my mother, I think, in Chicago. They got married and had five kids. I'm...