The Emory Cinematheque Presents: Clockers

The Emory Cinematheque Presents: Clockers October 14 at 7:30 p.m. in White Hall 208 1995 | Run Time: 128 min. | DCP Directed by Spike Lee Introduced by Dr. Paula Massood: https://www.brooklyn.edu/faculty-staff/paula-j-massood/ (Brooklyn College CUNY)

Clockers opens as the first film Spike Lee directed that he did not actually write. Adapted from Richard Price’s book Clockers, Lee taps cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed to re-imagine Black urban life set in the cross hairs of nonsensical violence. Using grainy film stock and differentiating dolly shots, Lee focuses on a group beyond the Black middle class. The film feels reminiscent to his 1983 thesis film, Joe’s Bedstuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads but with a 1990s sensibility and ownership.

Clockers emerged at the beginning of what has been described as both a renaissance of Black filmmaking and a new Black exploitation period. This period was kicked off in 1991 with the releases of New Jack City and Boyz in the Hood. The success of these films encouraged Hollywood to produce several narratives of Black, urban, and poor communities with violence as the central figure. Clockers aims to counter this wave.

In her book, Black City Cinema, film professor Paula J. Massood talks about how this film “self-consciously examine[s] hood film conventions to explore the history of black migration.” She argues elsewhere, “Lee constructs a version of the contemporary African American city that concurrently acknowledges its history of migrations while avoiding the nihilism of many contemporary hood films set in similar locations. In the process he expands the boundaries of current African American cinema...” Clockers introduces actor Mekhi Phifer and stars Harvey Keitel, John Tuturro, and Delroy Lindo.

Dr. Paula J. Massood, Dean of the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, will introduce the film and lead the Q & A afterwards.