{"title":"\"A New Form of Black Genre Communication\": Video, Urban Development, and the Ensemblic Production of a Black Soap Opera","authors":"Nicholas Forster","doi":"10.2979/filmhistory.34.3.05","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article demonstrates how the soap opera Personal Problems reveals a crucial yet overlooked moment of Black media production in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tracing the evolution of the show from radio drama to television program, I illuminate how video technology, generic innovation, and collaborative networks provided the foundation for new representations of Black life. While scholarly accounts typically focus on Hollywood and the LA Rebellion, I argue that the crew's location shooting animated a critique of New York City's media-focused urban redevelopment policies while challenging the broader inequities of creative industries. The trajectory of Personal Problems serves as a model for rethinking Black film history.","PeriodicalId":426632,"journal":{"name":"Film History: An International Journal","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Film History: An International Journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2979/filmhistory.34.3.05","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT:This article demonstrates how the soap opera Personal Problems reveals a crucial yet overlooked moment of Black media production in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tracing the evolution of the show from radio drama to television program, I illuminate how video technology, generic innovation, and collaborative networks provided the foundation for new representations of Black life. While scholarly accounts typically focus on Hollywood and the LA Rebellion, I argue that the crew's location shooting animated a critique of New York City's media-focused urban redevelopment policies while challenging the broader inequities of creative industries. The trajectory of Personal Problems serves as a model for rethinking Black film history.