After breaking down barriers in the photography industry, Parks turned to film as his new medium. He would eventually trade in his camera for a director’s cap in 1969 as he was chosen to transform his autobiographical novel The Learning Tree into a film. At this time, the film industry wasn’t a place where African Americans were necessarily welcome. From unions to studios, many used the “experience structure” as an excuse to not hire blacks (“Sincere Fictions”). Because of this racist rule, there was no way to get experience as they would be rejected by most sets and the unions they applied to. This coincided with the Civil Rights Movement of the time, showing how big of a struggle it was for African Americans in all fields to receive a fair chance at employment and in general, being given the rights of an equal American. By restricting these people from working in the entertainment business, it was taking away their voice and image; trying to act like black culture and African Americans didn’t exist as occurred with segregation and Jim Crow laws that forbid blacks from being around whites. The unfortunate truth was that as with achieving their overall goals of equality, African Americans would need the support of a white man to get what they wanted.
Race relations in the studios eventually became so bad that civil rights legislation was put into place that gave the studios power to force unions to accept minorities, but since studios didn’t really care much about the issue, no improvements were made (“Sincere Fictions”). In 1969, before Parks was hired, the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee found a “pattern or practice of discrimination” that was so terrible that the Justice Department was forced to file a suit against almost the entire industry due to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as they didn’t see any evidence that the employment pattern would change (“Sincere Fictions”). The road looked long and hard for African Americans who looked to enter the business, until one man took a chance on a young African American photographer who would alter the landscape of African American Film.
From all of the actions prior, it was clear that most whites working in the film industry were threatened by the thought of African Americans entering the business. Allowing blacks into the industry meant more competition for jobs and new creative geniuses that could disturb the peace of the conventional movie making system, and could also leave a lot of less qualified white men without jobs. Luckily this didn’t define everyone; by going against the rest of the industry, Warner Brothers Kenny Hyman signed Parks to make his adaptation, and with that become the first African American to ever direct a studio picture (“Sincere Fictions”). Hyman’s hire not only was groundbreaking for the African American film community, but it also helped establish a new genre of Blaxploitation that would come to follow in the near future. These films Park’s would go on to work on several pictures and bring African American culture to the forefront of film in the 70’s as well as influence a new crop of African American filmmakers and help some establish a career in the business, proving that all African Americans needed was a fair chance to show their filmmaking abilities.
In his first film The Learning Tree, Parks tells a tells a story about his life growing up in a small town in the state of Kansas. In contrast to the few films that incorporated African Americans prior, this motion picture showed the African American main character in a place of his own peers rather than having one black man surrounded by a world of white (CITE). Parks brought the viewer to the real-life world of an African American culture and with this made it the main point of view in the film. In a primarily white society they’re often portrayed as the minority, but Parks challenged this and the rest of the industry by showing African Americans in a different light and in a different world. This inevitably intrigued a black audience that previously didn’t have a strong connection to other movies that were white dominated. He brought a new diverse voice to Hollywood that they previously tried to keep out of the business, but once these studios saw how much money they could make off of it, and how African American audiences flocked to the theaters to see these films, they decided to expand, thus creating the genre of Blaxploitation.
The Blaxploitation movement was a money grab from the studios who discovered they could make money from films about African Americans by bringing in a new audience. From this definition it may sound like a terrible practice, as it morally was, but there might be more to it than that. The studios did exploit black culture for money, but this gave African Americans of the time a comfort and pride in who they were. They were able to relate to these big stars on the screen, or at least who they were playing, and if they couldn’t relate they were seeing African American stars making a big splash in a predominantly white medium. If this wasn’t motivation for them to continue to believe and fight for equality I don’t know what could be. Blaxploitation films brought about several black idols/role models for those intrigued by the entertainment business, and Gordon Parks was one of the pioneers of this. The first one to do it at a studio level and let the others know it was possible. He showed the whole country, whites and blacks, that African Americans can make successful films just have done.
Outside of the film’s narrative and composition, Parks decided to try to change the culture of the all-white film industry by hiring several African Americans to his staff. Parks hired twelve minority technicians to work on his first film (“Sincere Fictions”). With this hire he not only helped these people find work that they were not offered on other sets due to the previously discussed “experience structure”, but all of the minority workers who previously didn’t have union cards received them as a result of working on the film (“Sincere Fictions”). Parks even had a response to the lack of African American staff members working on films around the business saying, “I was told I would never find qualified black kids – and then went out and got twelve of them – proves they can do it if they want to.” (“Sincere Fictions”).
His work and effort to ensuring the involvement of African Americans on his films and giving them the chance that other directors wouldn’t gave these young black film enthusiasts a start and a chance to make a name for themselves, and would eventually create a more diverse experience in attending the movies. With different people of different races creating films, it gave more variety for the audiences to choose from. African Americans no longer had to watch films that were intended for white audiences as they now had motion pictures that they could relate to. These films gave African Americans a sense of pride and identity that they were struggling to find in a time of segregation and inferiority. The “By us, for us,” perspective came to embody Parks films and the rest of the Blaxploitation genre (Semley).
Parks films set a precedent for following African American filmmakers, including his own son, Gordon Parks Jr., who would direct Superfly in 1972 which became one of the highest grossing and most succesful Blaxploitation movies ever. Park’s Sr. even helped his son financially by investing $5,000 of his own money to support the project. And like The Learning Tree, Superfly also portrays African American life from a predominantly black neighborhood of Harlem (“Tryin’ to Get Over” 89-90). With many similar themes and the obvious relation it’s easy to see how his influence could’ve been spread, but Parks impact spread further than just his family.
As the first African American to bring African American identity to the studio level, many that followed had to see him as some form of inspiration. As supporters, those who chose to could go on to make stories similar to their own lives such as Parks did. Even if they didn’t like how he portrayed blacks, he could’ve inspired them to make a totally different film that conflict Parks interpretation on black culture. His precedent created a form for people to work off of and use as an example.
Gordon Parks created a voice for African Americans in the film industry at a time where they were desperately pleading to be heard. His films The Learning Tree and Shaft not only exposed black culture and pride to the whole U.S., it is also helped usher in talented African Americans to the motion picture business and having success at the highest level. Directors like Spike Lee and John Singleton might’ve never had their chance to make such influential black culture films as they did in the 90’s to present if Parks wasn’t determined to use his studio platform to help African Americans establish careers and respect in the industry. Without Parks the whole African American film industry could be entirely different from how it is today, and his mainstream success had a huge impact not only on Hollywood film, but a whole nation of people from several races.