Anna Everett, the author of a book praised for rewriting the history of black film criticism, will speak about the challenges of publishing new scholarship in the field at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, at the University of Rochester. The lecture by Everett, associate professor of film and TV history and theory at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is free and open to the public.
In Returning the Gaze: A Genealogy of Black Film Criticism, 1909-1949 (Duke University Press), Everett revised American film history with the discovery of the work of all-but-forgotten black film critics during the early-20th century. Her 2001 book focused on a wealth of early critical writing on the cinema by black cultural critics, academics, journalists, poets, writers, and film fans.
During her talk, titled “Symptoms of an Archive Fetish: Notes on Returning the Gaze,” Everett will outline her current book project, Inside the Dark Museum: An Anthology of Black Film Criticism, 1909-1959. It will be the companion volume to Returning the Gaze. Her lecture, sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies at the University of Rochester, will be held in the Gamble Room of Rush Rhees Library on the University’s River Campus.
Besides Returning the Gaze, Everett is the author of numerous books and articles. At Santa Barbara, she also is associate professor of new media studies, and is director of the Center for Black Studies. She is founding and current editor of Screening Noir, an online and print newsletter of African diaspora film, video, and digital culture.
For more information, contact the Frederick Douglass Institute at (585) 275-7235.