In Focus: Exploring Black Representation in Entertainment
After back to back years of #OscarsSoWhite, 2016 has opened up promising new opportunities for black Americans in entertainment. In this special series, The Takeaway is exploring the history and rise of African-Americans in television, film, and theater.
Thought lost for decades, work has begun recently to restore "Cane River," a little seen film by Horace Jenkins, a black director who died months after the film's premiere in 1982.
His comedies captured uncensored attitudes at the emerging intersection of race and culture, and early programs like "The Jeffersons" would go on to inspire new generations of writers.
As part of a special new series, we're looking at the ways directors, actors, and producers are challenging standards and pushing boundaries across all genres in the field.