Mitchell begins by wondering if Poitier was a bit of a sellout compared to Belafonte, but concludes with a generous tribute to his staying power and prolific later career as a director. In a shrewd turn of phrase, he says that this black Hollywood is a “de facto underground economy and culture”.įrom the golden age and the war, Mitchell takes us onward to the era of the counter-culture and civil rights, the rivalry between Harry Belafonte (who refused to take stereotypical roles) and Sidney Poitier, who became white Hollywood’s acceptable face of African American stardom. Here there are black people on screen, who are not necessarily the servants or comic buffoons, but heroes, villains, lovers, children and parents. To watch this documentary is to be taken by Mitchell through the political looking-glass (though more Philip K Dick than Lewis Carroll) into an alternative reality unguessed at by the white mainstream.
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