Prior to reading Joanne Dowdy's except on Black Women and Literacy in Featured Films, I was taught to analyze movies limited to its cinematography. For instance, I was taught to identify and analyze camera shots and angles to better understand why the director made that shot. However Dowdy takes cinema to another level as she analyzes black women identity of a particular era in film. Dowdy discussed that, " rules and roles create social expectations...[which] was believed [were] the natural order of things..." (166). She described popular black films like "The Color Purple", "Saving Isiah", and "Sarafina" that portrayed black women having different kinds of literacy going through trials and truimphs. I identified with the movie "The Color Purple."
In the movie "The Color Purple", Celie had her life dominated by her husband because she was unintelligent. However, Dowdy sheads light saying, "Goldberg's portrayal of a woman who makes a way out of no way is both compelling and informative,"(171). Though Celie could not read and write, she found inner strength doing other things. Eventually, Celie became the owner of a sewing store. Dowdy also included the film taught that "there are many ways to be functional in the world without reading and writing skills,"(172). This film showcased the talent black women possessed.
Moreover, these popular films opened not only the doors for black women to be stars in movie production but showcased the many alternative literacies black women were known to posess. In "The Color Purple", Celie could not read but she could sew. Dowdy discussed the movie literacy we need to have to analyze the dialect, location, and era of black movies to understand how bigger society thinks of us. Besides that I enjoyed reading her except.
Shaniqua Smiley
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