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Part of
A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery: The Atlantic world and beyond
Edited by Karen-Margrethe Simonsen, Madeleine Dobie and Mads Anders Baggesgaard
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXVII] 2025
► pp. 229–252

Chapter 13
Cinematic slavery

A genealogy of film from 1903 to 2020

This chapter is a transnational genealogy of how dramatic, fictional movies and television shows from 1903 to 2020 have represented transatlantic slavery. It highlights lesser-known movies by comparing hegemonic Hollywood productions to marginalized and counter-hegemonic film industries. This history of representation is organized into seven heuristic categories: (1) plantation dramas before World War II alongside adaptations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, (2) African-American interventions in the 1920s and 30s, (3) Hollywood’s attempt at integration in response to the Civil Rights movement, (4) international Marxist cinema from Cuba and Brazil to Italy and France, (5) Pan-African cinema made during the 1970s to 1990s, (6) neoliberal and evangelical movies since the 1990s, and (7) new movies by an emergent generation of multiethnic filmmakers.
Keywords: slavery, Third Cinema, Pan-African film, Hollywood, neoliberal, Cinema Novo
Article outline
  • Early plantation dramas
  • Screening integration
  • From Marxist cinema and cinema Novo to Pan-African cinema
  • From neoliberal evangelism to transnational black film and television
  • Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
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