What You See Isn't Always What You Get

Abstract

Representations of slaves in films appeared in American movies from the beginning of the century. Within the cinematic discourse of slavery, I decided to concentrate exclusively on representations of slaves and people of colour in Hollywood cinema, beginning with W.H. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915), which represents for many one of the peaks of stereotypical depictions of slaves and African Americans in cinema. It is also important to discuss representations of slaves in non-Hollywood films, however, this area has not been researched to the extent as to which slavery representations in Hollywood have been researched. In this paper I will address three films coming from a counter-Hollywood stance, Lars von Trier’s Manderlay (2005), Werner Herzog’s Cobra Verde (1987), and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991), all deal with the topic of slavery and have slave characters. The two European films, Manderlay and Cobra Verde are criticized many times for their racist and stereotypical depictions of slaves and slavery, and both films have been accused of disregarding the feelings of the African Diasporic communities and the Ghanaian community (in Cobra Verde).