and all of them were profitable. jengo unchained made $160 million. lincoln made $182 million. 12 years a slave only made 56 million, but it only cost 20 million to make. so it made twice as much of its budget, which is ruffly the same. so this sort of mini up surge has provoked a lot of debate and discussion. and then also in youtube shorts and different series. we are continuing that conversation today. all of our panelists have written about, reviewed, taught courses on and consulted for

films about slavery. catherine clinton will be coming back to the united states this fall. she's the author of numerous books about gender, race and the american civil war, including biographies and she's edited the diaries and memoirs of suzi king taylor and mary chestnut. professor clinton serves on the advisory committees and the virginia ses quill centennial commission. i'm imagining we're going to hear about some of that experience today.

john insgo is university professor at the yooumpbunivers georgia. he is the co-article thor of appalachian civil war. he is currently the editor of the new georgia enviek encyclopedia. the processor recently wrote a book in southern autobig ra fill and is currently working on a book on appalachia and film. braen da steven son has receivabled as the chair of the department of history. she is author of the award-winning monographs life in

black and white, and the contested murder of latasha hardens. her newest work, what is slavery, will be published by quality press in 2015. professor stevenson is the recipient of several research funding awards, including support from the melon foundation, the smithsonian institution and the american association of the university of women. so clearly a group of slackers. >> all right. thank you, megan. i think i'm here because i teach a course on slavery in fact film and fiction. we start with birth of a nation. move through the several plantation mellow dramas of the

1930s, films like jezebel, the shirley temple epics, and, of course, gone with the wind. just showing clip frs these and then move onto wault disney's song of the south made just after the war in 1946. and then jump up to the modern era with the 1990s. so another spurt of movies about slavery. a lesser known film and beloved put on by oprah winfrey among others. in using these films as measures of racial progress or the lack there of, hollywood in the 1930s was very much entrenched in the lost cause approaches to slavery. slaves are background figures. they are supporting casts.

they are often mere comic relief who, for the most part are very benign and well-meaning but also firm and authoritative. not much had changed by 19 46. it's at least distributed by water disney company. it designated considerable controversy when it came out. race had become by 1946 and the post-war era than it had been in the 1930s. it took until the early '70s before it was banned. disney finally gaifr in to

political pressure. now is a video that was smuggled to me by a former student of mine who live ins japan where you can see it with japanese subcultures. and that works beautifully there to look at song of the south with japanese subtitles. the subtitles only appear when they sing. they can understand the spoken voice, but once the singing starts, they need subtitles. i think it isgk an interesting film because it is a milestone o&y7orts. as politically incorrect as it is in many ways, it is also the first film to take a black character and make him the central character around which the plot revolves.

it also makes him the most simple they wa simpympathetic and wisest charar ef. never the less, he is a contended slave there. but it is interesting to teach that with students and look at the ways in which someways it advances the cause as far as the prominence of slavery, including the slave's center stage. and, still, some of the old guard assumptions. by the '50s and '6 0s, hollyw, d based on race, things like pinkie, the defient ones. on up into the 19 6 0s, you get guess who's coming to dinner.

so it was a real leap into the modern films. i don't really deal with roots or that other great film of the is the 1970s. but with these modern films, i thought i'd throw out a couple of things that strike me as worthy of discussion. one is the gender dimension here. i thought with this panel, gender might not get much play and i better cover it. slai slaves are totally desexualized. they're urnly very single, a sexual figures.

you never see them as parents. and, yet, for all of that, there are several other films that do make the plight of several women. two of these put women in front and center. the journey of august king, it's one i'm particularly interested in because it's set in appalachia. it's set on a novel by john eally, who has done a whole sban of historical novelists covering appalachia haste ri. set in 1815, very early.

there there's a strong attraction between them. this father,/owner,/lover is determined to go to no end to mount a man hunt to go after her. there's tremendous resentment at a time and place in which slavery is far more an anomaly than it is the norm in mountains of north carolina and the early frontier era. the early is beloved. it's a ghost story. i'm sure most of you know that. ghost story of sorts dealing with the long term psychic scars of slooavery set in 18723.

it is based very much on the abuses. who when cornered by slave catchers, murdered one of her own children and tried to kill another. it's based on the real life case of margaret garner in 1856. and then in this 1873 version, she appears to be haunted.

>> i think part of what they do so well is feature female. it's the most macho treatment of slavery ever put on a film. they're as far-fetched and other the top. the plot is fuelled by an attempt to rescue the most tormented slave wife played by kerry washington. it makes for some of the fill ms most poignant moechlts and absurdly happy ending. in 12 year, it's the harassment.

it earned an academy award. it's also one of the few films other than roots, i can't think of any other film that has actually documented or dramatized the separation of mothers from their children. as you all remember, the sale, she's separated from those two children and solomon become it is means from which he tries to comfort this woman. it also occurs to me that as central as these fugitive narratives are, on american slaifr ri. it's part of what has been translated into screen. it's counted among the great slave that areties.

but it doesn't involve an escape. his release came by legal and political dealings that happen brad pitt shows all of this in motion. one of that is in beloved. again, a flash back in crossing the really harrowing scene in which in crossing the ohio river, she actually gives birth to the baby girl that she will sub sesequently kill when slave catchers are out to get her.

and in the other, the typical in hollywood, you get the name of the slave's name. it's very much her journey, as well. despite the fact that the in real life, there are for p far fewer women that's cape than men. but we've seen very little of that translated to screen so fair. i think it's very curious that white women really ruled the roost. think of betty davis in jezebel. scarlet o'hara and her mother, that really are the authority figures over the shrivels.

in song of the south, it's an elderly wid cole. doe. and then shirley temple which stevens finds appalling or ludicrous or both. it's only in rekrernt slaves where we have strong masters. uncle tom's cabin appeared the year before 12 years a slooif. .

this very cruel and sadistic owner. it makes you wonder how many of these lmts had comet through in stowe's novel published a week before. i'll leave it at that and turn it over to catherine. >> when i first began my work on the plantation south, one of my mentors insistd that i go see and accompanied me to go see the film mandingo in times square in 1975. the year it was a top ten box office hilt. the scholar also featured a

billboard that was an escort service that was 1-800-calltara. i was made aware of the way films could influence attitudes. launches my career, mandingo was appearing in the midst of a real revival of revisionist literature on slavery. mandingo was followed bring the publication of roots. and after the 1976 publication, the 1977 mini series appearing on tv. this year, i had a thesis both not just the novel in the film and the first mini series, but the multiple mini series that came after it.

he was drawn to this topic because of the role of slavery in the american past. the appearance of such films as jango unchained and lincoln, most certainly, 12 years a slave and this month, by british director assante. these raised the ability of scholars and students within the campus bubble. but to reach outside of the halls of the academy and discuss this with a larger public audience: this intersects with a time of larger questions about our role within society. the american academics to prove they are engaged in public service and dialogue. i certainly became aware of the

past few decades. most recently, the conspirator. certainly one of the best gamuts of all on screen includes the ex-tras in the 1983 film. oil know many of mine had interpretations of the slavery by the occlusion or the omission of african american presence. i, myself, was impressed with the film. i was overwhelmed by its artistar artistry and impact. i did meet with sally field wofs interested in someone whofsz more obsessed with mary lincoln than she was.

i would have appreciated more come plexty. i thaublought the film makers d powerful job. as i discussed with an interview during civil wartimes. i remember defending tony kuchner who can defend himself. i did a very brief stint as trying to write for the very small screen, pitching and being hired to write paed-for-tv movies during the 1990s. what i learned how was collaborative the film business was.

how challenging and impossible it is. the contraband scenesment i would say the arc of the film's narrative does create problems. and how many of us would like our manuscript to go before a focus group. and if you think that's what a peer reviewed man ewe manuscript is, it's a much more difficult ideal. i think all of the discussion of

lincoln is mr interpretations of the complexities of race. i must confess social media has also had a powerful influence on me when i found a facebook conversation with two scholars. i was enlightened and enraged. a lively fashion that merits tarrantino's film. taking it at face value. i found the 3d distracting chlts but the narrative was compelling in that slave holders being portrayed as blood suckers who drained the life out of enslaved persons to promote their unholy empire struck a cord.

on balance, i was not taken with tarrantio's. i was astonished. by those of us that know the film, it's a frame by frame, freakish homage. german slave catcher. german-speaking concubine, the powerful drive of couples to reunite. i could go on and on, but these would be measured against the categorical, especially the tourture from the bridge on the river quia. but this landscape had a 425 million world box office.

i don't think we really think about things in terms of box office. but we need to think about the way in which multiplex is a complex thing influencing the historical imagination and certainly has begun to dom nate pop ulular culture. the topic of slavery has been part of our scholarly work and imagination for decades. yet, as any occasion created the kind of public engagement that the film 12 year also slave has engendered with the ordinary people we encounter of everyday life. wemp taken by surprise.

i'm a fan of the moment who also appeared in the butler. but in lincoln, he appears as corporal ira clark. and he repeets lincoln's words back to him from the gettysburg address. again, accuracy, authenticity, over african american issues has been widely discussed. but no one has been more showcased than yango who out shown even steve mcqueen. this is, in some ways, ironic payback.

trying to introdusz pat sill's perspective, she was crowded out. she was cut off by her male co-interview wees. the actress has not only won an oscar for her performance, she has erned a showcase to project a platform. her speech, for example, to the black women in hollywood awards ceremony available on youtube, offers a wide and full examiexaf her politics. stares into the mirror. rubbing at her face as if she might scour her color away. an image that stays with the

viewer long after the happy ending is contrived. it certainly echoes yango's speech. this very week, we mourned the loss of ruby d. particularly women. she spent a lifetime struggling against boundaries. looking at her career, she had a remarkable performance in roots. but she, herself, commented on the limitations imposed on her during her five-decade film career. i remember her amazing interpretation that she was one of a dozen actors who contributed to the 2003 documentary. we can learn from her more than

half century of the commitment to her kravt. you may live to see a younger generation reap rewards. yesterday's opening plenary discussed the beguilement of the opening archives. just as seth rockman is an article kooifl optimist, i'm proclaiming myself a sinmatic antipessimist. i've been teaching courses of american icons of late. rather than disputing this, i

think it's better to interrogate these tales, these myths, legends. scholars are interlocking sir kuts of dissemination. many of us work so long to try and convey time and place. we have at our disposal incredible films, incredible inspirational performances which speak powerfully. screen interpretations of slavery, like so many compelling aspects of america's past will continue to blossom with or without the academy. thank you. >> yes, that's interesting.

we'll talk about that later. good afternoon. my opening remarks focus principally on the general contribution of 12 year also slave in relationship to other films. and, also, a film about slavery, and, also, particularly about his portrayal of women in the film. steve mcqueen significant contribution to slave through his oscar-winning 12 year also slave is not due to a singular step or leap forward in screen depictions of enslaved life. his version of the story is not notable because it is the first to render its audience an unsympathetic view of america's most notorious institution from the perch into it harrowing depths.

these character saizations have already been demonstrated. likewise, crucial character elements of 12 years a slave december prat ex-concubine and her counter image both are found in diane carol's portrayal of pupon and encouraged to love. while many were stunned with the cruelty of slave mistresses, this reality was more than adequately rendered by suzanne george in richard fleischer's 1975. moreover, solomon himself in mckweeb's portrayal is a worthy protagonist.

>> all the of these important elements have been part of tv and big screen movies since at least the 1970s. and we heard from john earlier, of course. of course, we haven't everyone di even discussed the slavery in other worlds. stamping the institutions and its brn factors with the savrage, vie lant brutality. that lose no room for civilized comprehension.

12 years a slave is a master work with a gut wrenching story that is enraging and eventually, uplifting. it is still a flawed and incomplete master work. this should come as no surprise. how could one film involve millions of persons derived from tens of different ethnic cultural back grounds to say nothing from an ever-expanding and contracting landscape that encompass hundreds of thousands of miles. the screen writers, is that is john ridley, who also won an

oscar and our director's lack of intracan sills into the institution and those touched by it let telltale signs, not only in the film's telltale portrayals, slave resis tense, slave labor in the diverse rows of enslaved women, but also an accurate contextualization of v and betrayal of the lives of free people of color. as well as looking at a farmer who was actually not very wealthy. as a result, the film's audience is left to believe, mistakenly, that slaves on various plantations in farms on which solomon lived did not have close ties to one another or function as communal units. that slave resis tense was rare and experienced largely confined to the actions omen and that

free men and women in the north were, indeed, free and equal to their white neighbors. the effect of these emissions in this film is a dramatically told autobig ra fill that, none the less, lacks a story develop. . >> you have served as a consultant for film and i want you to know that they did not use a historical consultant on that film, at all. so, yes, i will slam him.!ñ how well does steve mcqueen capture solomon's palette in the film, 12 years a slave. he e piet miezs a loss.

eliza had believed that her sexual relationship with her owner would protect her and her family since he had promised to free all of them. instead, she and her children are separately and she is never able to see them again. eliza mourned her losses bitterly throughout the north part of the saga. the director deploys eliza's defeat as one response toç slavery that solomon absolutely rejects. eliza is utterly vanquished to survive long enough for the hopeful day of freedom. that solomon is dernled to see again no matter what hardships he has to endure. the roles of e lirks, za in

uncle tom's cabin, belle and kizz in roots, and for example, framed fictionalized and docudrama depictions. screen writers and directors have effectively employed hearth reaching scenes of the loss of slave children that are experienced by slave mothers and fathers in the loss of kizzy, for example, to convey to their audiences the psychological cruelty of the constitution. and the whipping to death of the fugitive slave woman whose baby has to be delivered post moral tum. indeed, the only image in the post-roots film era that rivals the slave mother is the sexualized slave woman. most parly the slave concubine

as can be seen, for example, in the characterers of kizz in roots, bet sill in the courage to love. notably, the mother and concubine protagonists often are invested in one character as in the case of eliza. and most of the others above producing a multiple victim image of enslaved womanhood. in the latest of hollywood films, the concubine, not surprisingly, remains the most important black female character.

consider for example the roles of enslaved women in the award-winning fim ms from the 2012-13 season. in lincoln, the concubine of famed abolitionist tha derks us stooemps and elizabeth keckly are the fim ms only two women of color characters. likewi likewise, are either concubines or prostitutes. while steve mcqueen's portrayal of enslaved women served as much needed recovery, he still readily adocuments this favorite hollywood troep of the black woman as sexually bound to powerful white men in 12 years a slave.

remarkably, unlike the narrative, all of the enslaved women who have sub stan rnl roles in mcqueen's film, adaptation, are concubines. certainly, there is some merit in the inclusion of these women stories in any realistic film act slavery. most enslaved girls and women were sexually ha rauszed and who abused. yet this abuse did not all define their lives. this point is one in which mcqueen repeat dpli fails to make. in this film, he offers no counter or additional image of bonds women's lives. nor does he aufr multidimensi multidimensional views he prechbts.

solomon chose to emphasize more. why doesn't mcqueen? thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. now we have a little bit of time, i think, if you all would like to discuss amongst yourselves or respond to elements of each other's comments? >> i didn't like lincoln the vampire slave. while it does suggest that slave holders are blook sucking, you know, it also only portrays slaves as vampire meat. there is nothing else that they do. they're just kind of goofy, hang

around and drag around in a dance and they don't know they're about to be devoured. that's them. and i thought that thavs ridiculous. that's even more ri duck louse than anything, i think, is that they were sort of just going into the plantation home and having a bell that ends up in them being sucked to death. sorry. >> my husband loved it, though, i have to say. my husband absolutely loved it and i absolutely hated it. >> i still think it's, you know, i know for a fact that tony kuchner was very crushed having this film come out the year before his film. he wanted to be able to say that his film was the first film to look at lincoln in 40 years. but at the same time, i think if you believe that lincoln vampire was a film about lincoln, you're, instead, i see it as a

film act legends and fantasies in this young, eastern european director using the troep of american history. i thought once in a while, he hit something that i found really enjoyable. i think part of it is that it got people debating and disz cussing. so much of the time, i say he gives us an opportunity. you know, it's that npr moment where they're going to call you up and say is it accurate? is it inaccurate? if the director projects a certain vision, for his film and wants to defend it, then i think we often can debate it. but i'll be honest. you know, my great eest concern

with steve mcqueen is i was living in the u.k. and i kept hearing him on interviews before the film came outment. and he would say it's a film about love. >> right. >> and i was sort of okay with that until i listened to the rest of the interview. it wasn't a film about -- >> no, it's not about love. i'm addressing that as a feminist. i also can say he also said, by the way, that he thought the role of the planter who was played by benedict cumberbund, he's quoted as saying that. it's the bealty of evil argument.

i think anything that allows that kind of ability, it's, like, thank you, film makers for being so fantastic. and so we can jump on and make their claims. there were no films for a while. i'm going to ask you, do you think a bad film, therefore, should not have been made? >> yes, i do. i do. >> that's fine. you're from l.a. how can you think that? >> you know what, steve mcqueen is a very interesting person. he does a couple of things which are very annoying. one of them is that he really denies the fact that people have done any film on slavery before. he says repeatedly, and i saw him on an event for b.e.t. and on the panel with all the actors and the writer and all of that.

and he just would say repeatedly, this is the first time a film like this has ever been made. this is the first time that we're looking at slavery. i said well, what happened to all of the other? secondly, rerepeatedly said no one from britain could do this film, except a black woman who was not born in the united states could play pat sill, which i think is absolutely ridiculous, as well. and then thirdly, because he didn't do his research and because he did not have his his xx yoon work with him, he would say that the story between them was a love story. stop. no. it was not. the guy was crazy. he was brutal. he was on the frontier working really hard, or working his slaves really hard, trying to make it.

around, so, he was very sadistic. this doesn't have anything to do with love. i think he really flipped back the time in terms of looking at these relationships across the racial line when he sees it. although, thankfully, it doesn't come across that way in the fit m. >> there was discovering the women in slavery had a fees about mirror a slave. >> exactly. >> in north carolina. >> so we all have historical examples. but bart of it is when you put a film together. and i take their point. but i would also like to say that i did feel that his film was an artistic achievement. at the same time, when you mentioned, megan, the box office issue. i found so many of my friends coming to me and saying can i go to see this? will it upset me too much? >> yes, you will be upset.

yes, you must go see it. in a way, i thought it was interesting when people were questioning when they're going to see arnold and people like that. in other words, i will say, also, on jengo, that it was quite interesting in terms of male slaves that samuel l. jackson did the moegs amazing job. who knew it was him when you first saw the film. and, yet, he was never singled out. so the politics, back to the director, also said there was no film before it that ever dealt with slavery. and he particularly went after roots. it was an interesting issue. that he was, in a way, saying that was, you know, a soap opera. and now i'm doing the real thing. but all of these, i think, allow

us to debate it. not in terms of film, but in terms of pop filler per sengss. >> well, i don't think that it's about slavery. it's a fant sill. it's a fantasy. reality in that film that dealt with slavery at all. i looked at it and i laughed at it. i thought it was really funny. you know, and interesting. the costumes were nice. but for me it was just not a film about slavery at all. i know quentin tarantino was upset because of what historians wrote about that and said it wasn't about slavery and he seemed to be upset when steve mcqueen's film won for best picture and people applauded it as this great film. i do think as i said in my comments that it's a master work. without a doubt it's an incredible film and achievement. you know, but there are some things, nothing is perfect and so i look at particularly the way in which he deals with women because in solomon's narrative,

it's very clear in which the way that patsy is framed, depicted. he talks -- he doesn't mention love. love is not part of it. it's not what he's talking about. he is talking about a man who owns her body, wants to own her soul. and feels it's his right to do so and acts accordingly. but i was really interested in the early films that you talked about, john. because i really had forgotten about them. i teach -- well some of them -- because i teach a class on slave narrative, novel and film. i looked at the early "uncle tom's cabin" for example. and some of the other ones. but i had forgotten shirley you know? i love shirley temple. the shirley temple version. i had seen "song of the south" and i saw it as a child in the south growing up. so it was really cool to hear when i teach in the fall now. fantastic.

>> it's also interesting to me that they raise no hackles, nobody. we think of the lost cause, nostalgia, sentiment for slavery as being a southern thing. it was an american thing. >> right. >> hollywood had no qualms about making them. nobody had any qualms about seeing them and treating them as classics. and making them box office hits. of course there was some controversy with both "birth of a nation" and "gone with the wind" but it was naacp, relatively minor, a drop in the bucket compared to the great acclaim and popularity. that they enjoyed for multiple replays over the years. that tells us something. >> it does. >> because we keep doing "uncle tom's cabin" i think at least three times, as a film probably but i think post it will be interesting to see now to see uncle tom's cabin done again. it would.

>> as you say, he does dedicate his book to harry beecher stowe, solomon northrup, and then harriet beecher stowe in which she defends her book and document that comes the year after, she cites him as saying this is the red river in louisiana that i'm speaking about so there is a kind of connective tissue between the two of them. >> another thing "12 years a slave" does, we see slaves working. >> we do. >> pictured in the cotton fields and the sugar -- >> you've got to see it. does anybody in the audience know that film? it's really a fabulous film. it wasn't a big box office film at all. but it is magnificent. >> they are harvesting cotton in april in the opening scenes of "gone with the wind" so historical inaccuracy. >> much more cinematic.

>> when you look and see that he only has eight slaves including solomon northrup then you realize how in some ways the film is just a little off in terms of it and then his house is on the national registry. >> it's in louisiana. >> it is -- i can't pronounce it correctly. it is in that parish but it is a small, tin roof, roofed house, you know, so we lose this sense of why epps is really pushing his slaves so hard because he is on the frontier, you know, on this sugar cotton frontier. he's got a few slaves only. his first home is actually owned by his wife's uncle and so he's

a man on the make in other words, you know, he's that yoman farmer trying to break out and become a planter. that's a really interesting part of a story that we miss because we see cumberbotch and he is clearly a planter and has everything. so people say therefore he is kind and gentle and whatever. we miss out this guy who we just see as a crazy person is also someone who is pushing everyone beyond recognition of what is humanity to produce all of this cotton so he can then move up to where cumberbotch is. >> you rarely see small slave holders. >> you do. >> i think journey -- >> i didn't know that film. i'm definitely going to see that. >> you can also see the skin game. make sure you see the correct version because if your students look up the french one it will not work well in discussions.

>> i'm not losing tenure over that. >> right. >> it seems this would be a good time to turn to the audience for questions. if you have a question, please raise your hand. yes, jeremy? stand up. here comes the mike. >> jeremy neely missouri state university. to pick up on your comment about small slave holders one film i haven't heard mentioned yet is "right with the devil" the 1999 film which i think one of the most interesting characters is holt whom the pro confederate guerrillas with william contrell used as a spy in various capacities. i was wondering your thoughts on that ratation of slavery. >> i haven't seen that film but i'll go see it next week. ride with the devil? >> teaching it i think as i've taught it in northern ireland, they love it because it is about ethnicity and religion.

and i've seen and also it is about the, why one is fighting the war beyond slavery. >> the missouri kansas frontier. >> and you have the ex-slave who is with his master on, you know, on the battle front in "hiding guerrilla" and it is a very complicated, interesting tale. he is telling it with his version of the war which is powerful. we can come up with 20 more -- "the beguiled," wonderful clint eastwood film. but with african-american women, white women, more women than men. like it should be. there aren't enough parts or roles for women but i think, and you're mentioning for example "ride with the devil" i'm always

refracking through looking at the roles of women and i thought jewel was a particularly weak character, the actress who played -- i am just saying that often i think the -- as looking at film they're often just looking, here we want a big screen. we want the kids to come in. i've written about belle as being a bosom movie that you're trying to get heaving bosoms and get young teenagers in to see austin, mixed race austin. >> that's what i thought. you should see it with "pride and prejudice" with kyra knightly and then -- >> but these film makers are much like the publishers we encounter today. what is the state of the business? what's its future? can we attract people to it? i think it's good for us to be very critical but a period, making period is very expensive. film makers don't like it. television doesn't like it. you know, if someone comes to you saying, we want to do a

reality show set on an antebellum southern scene, you might just as i have said, great. because part of it is anything that i think gets the debate and discussion out there -- my sons came up with the idea a few years ago i should take plantation mistress to hollywood and say real housewives of the old south. and i know -- but at the same time we joke and we -- but i still say i am really serious, the debate and for example the mel gibson film "the patriot" you know, we all hate it. at the same time you are sitting there and these little freshmen come in and why are you here? what is your interest? and they saw a film. part of it is to get people excited about the past even if it's not our past, nobody's

past., some fantasy past. >> american history tv in primetime with our lectures in history series. first a class on the reconstruction and civil rights eras. a look at how the civil war has been remembered in the last century and a half and later a lecture on president lyndon johnson's war on poverty. next melvin ely compares the reconstruction and civil rights eras. it's just over an hour. here we are at the end of the semester and it strikes me as a good opportunity maybe to compare the