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Ben Caldwell | |
|---|---|
 Caldwell in 2019. | |
| Born | 1945 (age 77–78) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | UCLA |
| Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, Educator |
| Years active | 1973 - present |
| Style | Experimental, Documentary |
Ben Caldwell (1945) is a Los Angeles-based arts educator and independent filmmaker.
A native of New Mexico, Ben Caldwell was first introduced to the visual arts at an early age. As a youth, Caldwell would help his grandfather project movies at a small theater in New Mexico. Working with his grandfather allowed Caldwell to develop an affinity for filmmaking. His early exposure to film inspired him to pursue an education and a career in filmmaking.
Working with his grandfather was not the inspiration that pushed Caldwell into filmmaking. During his childhood, war movies were very popular and they peaked young Caldwell's fascination. While enrolled in a two-year animation course under the Disney company, Caldwell was drafted and sent to Vietnam. Caldwell decided to buy a camera while in Japan so that he could photograph his counterparts in the military and document what soldiers faced in the Vietnam War. He has hundreds of pictures which he may or may not incorporate into a future project about war and the soldiers that suffer from combat. Taking pictures while in the military not only allowed Caldwell to document one aspect of the war, but it also gave him the opportunity to familiarize himself with the camera.
After serving his time in the military, Caldwell then enrolled in courses at Phoenix College in Arizona studying photography and other forms of media. After collaborating with other students and professors, Caldwell was encouraged to pursue an M.F.A in film. Professors at Phoenix noticed that Caldwell was attempting to tell stories with his still photography and suggested that he look into studying film. Caldwell then applied and was accepted into many different Masters programs, and decided to attend UCLA. Caldwell studied filmmaking at UCLA, receiving his M.F.A in 1976. He studied film alongside Charles Burnett, Julie Dash and Billy Woodberry, as part of a group of young artists who were to change African American independent filmmaking — a cultural phenomenon sometimes called "The L.A. Rebellion." Caldwell contributed largely to the L.A. Rebellion Movement creating films that focused on black culture in Los Angeles, California.
The idea of black film students attending UCLA was not embraced by everyone. Those who opposed their presence, did not hesitate to express their deeply rooted discontent. As a result, the L. A. Rebellion was born. Black filmmakers were making their voices heard through their art. Much of their art consisted of pieces that focused on politics that effected the black community, praised black culture, and pushed for unification among the human race. When asked in an interview, Ben Caldwell stated that the L. A. Rebellion set out to “emancipate the image” of black people.
Caldwell studied filmmaking at UCLA, receiving his M.F.A in 1976. He studied film alongside Charles Burnett, Julie Dash and Billy Woodberry, as part of a group of young artists who were to change African American independent filmmaking — a cultural phenomenon sometimes called "The L.A. Rebellion." Caldwell contributed largely to the L.A. Rebellion Movement creating films that focused on black culture in Los Angeles, California. While studying film at UCLA, Caldwell produced, wrote, directed, filmed, and edited his most revered piece “Madea." This film explores the development of a child's mind during gestation. At the time that he wrote this piece, Caldwell was entertaining the possibility of there being another Earth in a parallel universe. When he was attending school in Arizona, Caldwell created a still photography piece which equated the black woman's body to Earth. Once he began studying film, Caldwell adapted his still photography project into the short film. Over the course of his career, Caldwell has made other experimental shorts such as "I & I: An African Allegory" and "Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification," which would fall under the category of Experimental Documentary. The shorts that he has written and/or worked on have focused on social issues that directly effect the black community. In a time when Blaxploitation dominated the black film industry, Caldwell and other black visionaries had different stories to tell.
Caldwell taught several years at CalArts and became a major force in CAP (Community Arts Partnership). [1] In 1984, he founded KAOS Network, a community arts center dedicated to providing training on digital arts, media arts and multi-media, at the heart of Leimert Park, historic center of the Los Angeles jazz culture, now hosting a diverse multi-ethnic multimedia arts center. KAOS Network was designed to empower the youth of the community and is the only organization of its kind in South Central Los Angeles where inner-city youths can participate in hands-on courses in video production, animation, web-site development, video teleconferencing, CD ROM production, and use of the Internet. KAOS is also home to WORDshop, a weekly workshop for hip-hop artists, dancers, singers and visual artists. Each week over 150 youths participate in workshops and programs at the center. In addition to these workshops, KAOS Network has videotaped community events and produced documentaries for the state of California. KAOS Network is committed to creating a community of young people who are dedicated to learning new technologies, acquiring employable skills and participating in digital arts and new media training.
“For Whose Entertainment” is another piece by Caldwell that is yet to be distributed. Co-Produced by Artie Ivie, this film is a critique on Black comedians and their work. Caldwell poses the question of who are Black comedians attempting to appeal to and entertain the most, Black audiences or white audiences? Caldwell acknowledges this piece as a piece full of anger and discontent with the social norms surrounding Black comedy and has yet to share it with others. Howard University has expressed interest in using this film as a means to show film students the mixed feelings about Black comedy.
When asked why he decided to go in a more political direction with his work as opposed to creating mainstream type films such as Romance or Action films, Caldwell stated that he does not aim to create political films. With his work, Caldwell aims to create films that people will have to watch more than once in order to truly understand it. Caldwell also creates films where the audience notices something new each time they watch it. Caldwell does not want to make the standard Hollywood-like films, but instead wants to create films the way Black and African musicians make music. Caldwell strives to capture the natural flavor of Black music and translate that into films. Ben Caldwell states that the focus of his films are not political, they are instead cultural. By way of his art, Caldwell hopes to bring people closer together, explore, and preserve the unique culture of African Diaspora.
Ben Caldwell has major plans for the future that are in the works right now. He and his company are working to create autonomous cars which will not only drive itself, but it will also equip the driver and their passengers with films that they can watch. This will not only revolutionize driving, but it will also revolutionize the way audiences consume media. In addition that, Caldwell is working on repurposing old phone booths around Los Angeles, making them stations where people can Skype with one another. Caldwell hopes to utilize the new Metro line that will be constructed by 2020. The Metro line will go directly through South Los Angeles, which is still a predominately Black portion of the city, and therefore Caldwell aims to us it as a host for his multimedia projects, creating a platform for young artists to showcase their work to those who travel through their neighborhoods.
Julie Ethel Dash is an American filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author, and website producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA. Through their collective efforts, they sought to put an end to the prejudices of Hollywood by creating experimental and unconventional films. The main goal of these films was to create original Black stories and bring them to the main screens. After Dash had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Stemming from the film's success, Dash also released novels of the same title in 1992 and 1999. This film even inspired Beyoncé, arguably the music industry's most influential artist, with her 2016 album titled Lemonade.
Charles Burnett is an American film director, film producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. His most popular films include Killer of Sheep (1978), My Brother's Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990), The Glass Shield (1994), and Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (2007). He has been involved in other types of motion pictures including shorts, documentaries, and a TV series.
Leimert Park is a neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California.
The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leading university had combined the study of theater, filmmaking and television production into a single administration. The undergraduate program is often ranked among the world's top drama departments. The graduate programs are usually ranking within the top three nationally, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Among the school's resources are the Geffen Playhouse and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the world's largest university-based archive of its kind, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015. The Archive constitutes one of the largest collections of media materials in the United States — second only to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Its vaults hold more than 220,000 motion picture and television titles and 27 million feet of newsreel footage. The film, television, and digital media program is one of the most prestigious film programs in the world. It is the most selective film school as the film and television major selects about only 15 freshman out of thousands of applicants and a handful of transfer students.
Haile Gerima is an Ethiopian filmmaker who lives and works in the United States. He is a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. His films have received wide international acclaim. Since 1975, Haile has been an influential film professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is best known for Sankofa (1993), which won numerous international awards.
Bush Mama is an American film made by Ethiopian-American director Haile Gerima, part of the L.A. Rebellion movement of political and experimental black cinema in the 1970s. It was released in 1979 though made earlier, in 1975.
Teshome H. Gabriel was an Ethiopian-born American cinema scholar and professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in Los Angeles. Gabriel was considered an expert on cinema and film of Africa and the developing world. A colleague at UCLA, Vinay Lal, noted that Gabriel was "one of the first scholars to theorize in a critical fashion about Third World cinema."
Zeinabu irene Davis is an American filmmaker and professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. In 1985, she received her M.A in African studies at UCLA and went on to earn her M.F.A in Film and Television production in 1989. Davis is known as one of the graduates and filmmakers of the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African-American students who studied film at UCLA. Through their collective efforts, they sought to put an end to the prejudices of Hollywood by creating experimental and unconventional films. The main goal of these films was to create original Black stories and bring them to the main screens. Her works in film include short narratives, documentaries and experimental films that focus heavily on the African American female perspective.
The L.A. Rebellion film movement, sometimes referred to as the "Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers", or the UCLA Rebellion, refers to the new generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School in the late-1960s to the late-1980s and have created a black cinema that provides an alternative to classical Hollywood cinema.
Billy Woodberry is one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion. He is best known for directing the 1984 feature film, Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), which was honored at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Alile Sharon Larkin is an American film producer, writer and director. She is associated with the L.A. Rebellion, which is said to have "collectively imagined and created a Black cinema against the conventions of Hollywood and Blaxploitation film." Larkin is considered to be part of the second wave of these revolutionary black filmmakers, along with Julie Dash and Billy Woodberry. Larkin also co-founded the Black Filmmakers Collective.
Clyde R. Taylor is an American writer and film scholar, who is an emeritus professor at New York University. His scholarship and commentary often focuses on black film.
Barbara McCullough is a director, production manager and visual effects artist whose directorial works are associated with the Los Angeles School of Black independent filmmaking. She is best known for Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (1979), Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space (1980), Fragments (1980), and World Saxophone Quartet (1980).
Carroll Parrott Blue was an American filmmaker, director and author. Based in Houston, Texas, she was part of the L.A. Rebellion film movement. She was noted for her documentary film and interactive multimedia works, particularly for her project The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing. Blue was a research professor at the University of Houston. She worked to preserve and celebrate the history of the African American community in Houston.
A Different Image is a 1982 film directed, written, and edited by Alile Sharon Larkin that explores body image and societal beauty standards through the eyes of a young Black woman on a journey towards self-worth.
Darnell Hunt is an American sociologist and academic administrator. As of September 1, 2022, Darnell Hunt is UCLA's executive vice chancellor and provost. He has served as the dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is also a professor of Sociology and African American Studies, and the former director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. He is the author or editor of four books, and annual reports on the lack of diversity in the film industry.
Joyce Annette Madkins Sumbi was an American librarian. She was the first African-American administrator in the LA County Library system.
Melvonna "Mel" Marie Ballenger was an American director, producer, and writer who created activist short films, known for her involvement in the L.A. Rebellion film movement. She died at the age of 48 from breast cancer.
António Ole is a multi-medium Angolan artist, among the best known in the country. He represented Angola at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.
