Abstract
ABSTRACT Mass media representations of the American inner city in the postindustrial period have simultaneously disseminated and reinforced a stigmatising vision of black urban life. In film, the overproduction of criminal and racialised images mystified the source and nature of the social and economic problems faced in America’s hypersegregated urban cores. These images cleaved to conservative definitions of the black urban ‘underclass’ and presented the distresses of the inner city as largely self-inflicted and irredeemable. This article considers the treatment of black urban life in postindustrial Chicago in the films of documentarian Steve James. It argues that James’ films, beginning with the commercially successful Hoop Dreams (1994), presented an alternative, and ultimately progressive, vision of black city life by carefully depicting the racially unequal organisation of urban space. It also explores how the director’s portrayal of endurance and survival in the face of urban inequity helped subvert sweeping and oversimplified narratives of the postindustrial city.
Published Version
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