Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa

“…despite a judge ordering the toddler’s release.”

Yes! It really is amazing to go back through the trade presses and see this happen in realtime. I own your book and have to get around to reading it soon. It looks amazing!

Just finished teaching this. The more I think about it, the more I really believe BoaN is a precursor to the fascist aesthetics of the Nazis. So much of the film is about the spectacle of orderly and anonymous white crowds moving in unison (juxtaposed to the "mob" of Black people).

Sure. But I actually think this is one of those moments where diagram very much overlaps. It's a moment where a film directly shaped and impacted history, and to me, that's an important way of understand what we study as film historians.

Great point! I've been really conflicted about this in the past. I've settled on these reasons for still teaching it:

1. It is an important historical text, even if it not for the reasons usually described. It revitalized the Klan and its censorship was the NAACP's first national campaign...

‘Shiraz,’ a Silent Spectacle of India, Returns (Published 2019)

Preparing to teach Shiraz (Franz Osten, 1928) next week and the golden rule—"for every interesting film there's a @jhoberman.bsky.social article"—continues to hold true.

www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/m...

Tune in today for @ckunzelman.bsky.social discussing material from his new book on Assassin's Creed, coming up in 20 short minutes on @romchip.bsky.social's Twitch channel.

This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.

Singing

‘Shiraz,’ a Silent Spectacle of India, Returns (Published 2019)

Preparing to teach Shiraz (Franz Osten, 1928) next week and the golden rule—"for every interesting film there's a @jhoberman.bsky.social article"—continues to hold true.

www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/m...

Strike!!!!!!!

Absolutely, the film contains so many of the dynamics of today's rightwing media.

Jesus christ.

And if anyone thinks the film doesn't still have defenders, just ask @moviessilently.bsky.social about the responses she gets about it.

Yes, and also well past the 60s. It was taught to me (in the early 2000s) as a masterpiece that I needed to "get beyond the politics" to appreciate.

Absolutely. Also, the fact that we're going through a similar moment now, where rightwing media is again playing a central role, makes me think it's all the more important to teach today. This is not just an incident that is in the past. We continue to live through it's effects.

That makes sense, given what I know about him.

Really fascinating. I had no idea about these direct connections between the two.

😮

Can you share the posts? I'm assuming Ring Shout is one of them?

...And I worry that if we just stop teaching the film, we'll allow for the misunderstandings of American history that let to that style of reporting.

One anecdote to this last point: I taught BoaN the very day of the J6 riots. Repeatedly, the coverage of these emphasized that this was the first time the Confederate flag had been flown in the White House. But of course, as we discussed in class, BoaN had been screened there a century earlier.

Yes, I mean, it's notable that Dixon's work was panned as a novel and a play but not as a film. The NAACP very specifically saw it as a danger because it was a film, and not some other, more easily rebutted, medium. Those crowd scenes are also the most cinematically dynamic of the movie.

4. I think simply removing it would end up whitewashing film history. It is significant that this film was described as a humanist masterpiece by many in politics, journalism, and the film industry; that they fought tooth and claw to defend it; and that those defenses continue today.

3. The brilliance of Micheaux's Within our Gates really comes out when compared with BoaN. Especially how he methodically detourns Griffith's use of stereotypes and the way the film teaches the audience to be wary of Griffith's style of emotional immediacy.

I use it to teach film as an emergent political medium that had dangerous new potentials to speak to large groups of ppl.

2. It is important to understand African American film culture and political activism around film. In addition to the NAACP, there's the work of local protests and artists.

Great point! I've been really conflicted about this in the past. I've settled on these reasons for still teaching it:

1. It is an important historical text, even if it not for the reasons usually described. It revitalized the Klan and its censorship was the NAACP's first national campaign...

The Overall Winner is Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly by Zeke Rowe, a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

Capturing Ecology 2025 Ecologists in Action Winner: 'Ready for Everything' by Roberto García Roa

Capturing Ecology 2025 Interactions Winner: 'Lioness one eye behind birds' by Willem Kruger

Capturing Ecology 2025 Highly Commended: 'Fading Giants' by Ashane Marasinghe

The winners of last year's Capturing Ecology photography competition are truly amazing. You can see them all here:

www.britishecologicalsociety.org/capturing-ec...

Opinion | I’ve Covered Police Abuse for 20 Years. What ICE Is Doing Is Different.

"The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything. They’re a projection of power." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/o...