Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1014407
16 CINEMONTAGE / Q3 2018 THIS QUARTER IN FILM HISTORY by Edward Landler I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood- movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids — and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. — Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952) Over the decade leading to 1973, with the progress achieved by the civil rights movement, a greater awareness emerged in the African-American community of its own history and culture. Despite this growth of self-worth, pride and initiative giving strength to the idea of Black Power, the systemic practice of inequality and oppression of minorities continued to afflict American society — just as it has become obvious that it persists to this day. The years following the 1963 March on Washington witnessed spontaneous civil unrest in our cities, along with the persecution and assassination of figures who offered insight and effective leadership: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. Like today, adding fuel to protest and political action was this country's involvement in questionable wars CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 Fear of a Black Planet The Spook Who Sat by the Door. United Artists/Photofest