Abstract
This dissertation examines the representation of Black women in three 21st century
biopics by African American female directors: Julie Dash’s The Rosa Parks Story (2002),
Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014) and Kasi Lemmons’s Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of
Madam CJ Walker (2020). I argue that the representation of Black women in these biopics
reflects an effort to deconstruct the image of Black womanhood by undermining negative
stereotypes and hegemonic narratives grounded on sexist-racist oppression prevalent in
mainstream film. Yet, at the same time, this dissertation also shows that the
representation of Black womanhood in these three films is marked by what Patricia Hill
Collins calls “controlling images,” which overshadow these efforts to transform Black
feminist politics. Two factors can be attributed to these reactionary politics: the first factor
resonates with what Black scholar and theorist, W.E.B. Du Bois, termed “double
consciousness,” introduced in The Souls of Black Folk (1903). Du Bois’s concept speaks
to the politics of representation and how these politics are marked by the internal conflict
of former enslaved people battling to see themselves outside of the imperial gaze whilst
also striving for what bell hooks calls an “oppositional black gaze.” The biopics that are at
the centre of this dissertation exemplify these politics as the agency and voice of these
Black female directors are sometimes supressed. The second factor that speaks to the
reactionary politics that sometimes govern the Black feminist practices of these visionary
directors is that the epistemology of naming Black women is complex as it is marked by
what Hortense Spillers calls “overdetermined nominative properties.” As such, renaming
or deconstructing sexist-racist myths or naming is an intricate process as these markers
are rooted in history. This dissertation ultimately shows that overturning and reinventing
myths about Black womanhood remains a challenge in the Black feminist discourse.