The latest incarnation of the "Black Experience in Film" spotlight

Quite a few years ago -- I think it was about 2006, TCM had a spotlight looking at Hollywood's view of Black Americans, with Donald Bogle sitting down with Robert Osborne to discuss the movies. Bogle was on again back in July for the presentation of Uncle Tom's Cabin and several other movies on slavery; also, that 2006 spotlight was the first of several looking at the cinematic presentation of various minority groups.

TCM pretty much cycled through all the minorities you can think of, so it's time to go through them again for a new generation. This month, every Tuesday and Thursday night in prime time, members of the African-American Film Critics Association will be presenting (I'm guessing interviewed by Ben Mankiewicz although the article doesn't make that clear) movies on the Black Experience in Film.

This one is a bit different from the old on in that the one Bogle presented was specifically about looking at Hollywood's portrayal of Blacks, which means that things like the old "race movies" were specifically not part of the discussion. And indeed, this month's spotlight kicks off with one of those race movies, Oscar Micheaux's Within our Gates at 8:00 PM. And at the end of the month, there's going to be a night of "Black Stories from Around the World".

That having been said, considering how few movies studio-era Hollywood made looking at the Black experience, it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of the movies in this spotlight are those you might expect. Tonight's lineup, for example, also includes the 1934 version of Imitation of Life, which got a good intro from Bogle in the previous spotlight. A Raisin in the Sun, Sounder, and Carmen Jones also show up, but thankfully, I don't see Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in the spotlight.