The Emory Cinematheque Presents: Bamboozled

About this event

University Event Topic: Arts

School: All Emory University

Department / Organization: Arts at Emory,Film & Media

Event Open To: All (Public)

Contact Name: Ted Davis

Contact Email: theodore.davis2@emory.edu

The Emory Cinematheque Presents:

Bamboozled

November 18 at 7:30 p.m. in White Hall 208

2000 | Run Time: 135 min. | 35mm

Directed by Spike Lee

Introduced by Dr. Alessandra Raengo (Georgia State University)

On a budget of ten million dollars and shot primarily on Mini-DV, Spike Lee wrote and directed the script for this funny and parodic examination of television targeting Black audiences. Lee wanted to experiment with the new technology and tapped Ellen Kuras to serve as the film's DP (Kuras also shot

4 Little Girls

and

Summer of Sam). He notes, ̶ 0;…digital video was a good aesthetic choice because it's a film about a television show…using Mini-DV suited this film pe rfectly because we had a lot to do on this shoot and we needed to move" (The St. Louis American).

Released in 2000,

Bamboozled

garnered a split reception of its meaning, significance and impact on filmmaking and Black representation. In her book

Critical Race Theory and Bamboozled< /em>, film scholar Alessandra Raengo suggests that the film may be the blackest film ever made, writing: "This is the case visuall y but is also revealed in the way the film showcases how blackness has been built throughout the history of US media; visual, material, and c onsumer culture; and the history of the senses." Adds film criti c Duane Dudek, "Bamboozled

paints a port rait of a corporate plantation where the slaves now have stock options" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). And as media scholar Beretta E. Smith-Shomade concludes, "Black progress comes at a price-the price to see the show or the price to be the show. E ither way, it seems from

Bamboozled, someone h as to pay."

Bamboozled

stars Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Rapaport, Yasiin Bey, Tommy Dav idson, and Savion Glover. Professor Alessandra Raengo of Georgia State University will introduce the film and lead the Q and A.