Opengender

The low-budget commercial success of New Black independent filmmaking was undoubtedly as important in creating the economic conditions for the emergence of Queer cinema as was the economically successful recirculation of queer identities through mainstream advertising, publications, and TV. Lee's independently produced and aesthetically challenging She's Gotta Have It (1986) made more than a respectable return in an era of considerable economic insecurity in the film industry; proving anew that cheaply produced films aimed at young, black (males) could be very lucrative (Proctor, 1991). The film was criticised by black feminists for reproducing stereotypes of black female sexuality (Simmonds, 1992; Jones, 1991), but hailed in black and mainstream media as a cultural as well as economic breakthrough. 1991 was a "watershed" year (Proctor, 1991: 9) for black filmmaking which. initially, showed a new diversity of themes in films ranging from the genre-spoof A Rage in Harlem to The Five Heartbeats (about a doo-wop band, rather than gangsters). Those black directed films which made most significant returns, however, shared familiar themes and iconographies: rap, youth, and urban catharsis. Proctor regretfully saw "resuscitations of blaxploitation-era tendencies to urbanize and criminalize" (9) in what Jones (1991) dubbed the 'ghetto aesthetic' exemplified by New Jack City, and Boyz N the Hood. Phillips (1996) noted a negative aesthetic and thematic shift between blaxploitation and the 'new wave' of black film. Whilst both utilise a ghetto setting, the representation of "brotherhood" central to the earlier blaxploitation cycle had been replaced by internecine warfare.

Instead of pride, and love and success, its themes were murder, getting even, police harassment, drive-by shootings and the incessant violence of gang warfare [...] there is no moral vision [...] and no sense of a wider context. (Phillips, 1996: 26)

Whilst an insistence "on the exigency for collective memory and self-actualization" (Proctor, 1991: 9) in films informed by the feminist and black politicised film-aesthetic of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Daughters of the Dust (1991), was critically respected, they did not make the same kind of money.

New Black Cinema's aesthetic was based on 'marginal attractiveness' (formerly known as 'exoticisation') and the celebrity personas of hip hop. Winokur (1995), arguing for more open reading practices and against the prioritisation of avant-garde over mainstream black film practice, nevertheless doubted the claims of 'multiculturalism' to an inclusive plurality of representation: "Marginal attractiveness does not mean cultural inclusion" (30). A number of critics noted that black directors working in the mainstream may have relatively limited control over their own representation of black people. Jones argued that representation of black culture in black-directed mainstream film may be as "uncharacteristic" as that by whites, and also noted the relative absence of women and women's agendas in this non-redemptive 'ghetto aesthetic.'

In fact, of the films scheduled for wide release, only three [...] do not concentrate on the contemporary urban ghetto. Only one [...] contains a valuable leading role for a Black female actor. And none are directed by Black women. (Jones, 1991: 31)

Whilst in the 'ghetto aesthetic' genre, women were occasionally raised to the relative equality of status as psychopathic killers in films such as New Jack City, such women remain "contextually impotent" (39). The economic and representational "ghettoization" of New Black cinema "ignores the existence of a Black community beyond these narrow confines — inclusive of women as valuable participants — as well as films that refuse to cater to these prescriptions" (43). Features directed by or foregrounding women such as Just Another Girl on the IRT (1992) and Mi Vida Loca (1993) were also read as subordinating women to the already problematic 'ghetto aesthetic' (Jones, 1991).

The British context produced few black directed features. In common with the rest of Europe (and the world) Britain has been unable to compete with the slick American product and US domination of distribution and exhibition infrastructures. "The public don't want British or other European films. What they want are American ones" (Petley, 1993: 29). Commercial success is confined more or less to romantic period dramas marketable as a commodified form of 'Englishness.' Black (and lesbian) production is particularly difficult to fund and is mainly in short form and supported through arts organisations and C4 projects. In 1991, of 23 British feature films, 15 were funded, but only 2 were black productions (Gould, 1993: 11). These statistics have not significantly improved. Terrordrome (1993) was black directed and financed on the US independent model but, in common with most British independent film, it was commercially unsuccessful (Gould, 1993: 11).

Perhaps as a result of differences in production context, black British film does not show the same aesthetic homogeneity as its US counterpart, however. Gilroy (1993b) described a difficulty in defining black aesthetic production in either film or TV in that "the growing diversity inside the black communities and the divergent patterns of their economic life make the easy assumption of racial or ethnic homogeneity look either foolish or dishonest" (31). This is no doubt equally true of the US but free-market production conditions in the US tend to efface such complex multiplicity in favour of marketable stereotypes. Financially, C4 productions had been the best hope. The commercial success of My Beautiful Launderette (1985) seemed to herald improving conditions for British Asian as well as potentially for gay filmmakers but commercial conditions remained recalcitrant. Isaac Julien's part-grant funded Young Soul Rebels (1991), the first British black gay feature, had a less successful reception both critically and financially. Gurinder Chadha's C4-supported Bhaji on the Beach (1993), the first British feature directed by an Asian woman, depicted a diversity resistant to stereotyping in an episodic, realist, mode and was well received. However, as with queer TV, whilst directors may attempt more diverse representations of British cultures, C4's productive context tends to condition a remarkable aesthetic homogeneity.