Color Adjustment

Producer/writer/director Marlon Riggs (whose previous films Ethnic Notions and Tongues Untied were reviewed in the September 1988 and October 1991 issues, respectively) picks up the historical portrayal of African-Americans begun in Ethnic Notions, and turns a penetrating eye to prime-time TV. Narrated by Ruby Dee, the program is divided into two parts: "Color Blind TV (1948-68)" and "Coloring the Dream (1968-)."Interviews with a wide variety of thespians, producers, social critics, and psychiatrists (Esther Rolle, Hal Kanter, Sheldon Leonard, Diahann Carroll, Patricia Turner, etc.) mixed with clips from TV shows (Amos n' Andy, The Beulah Show, Julia, I Spy, All In The Family, Good Times, Roots, The Cosby Show, and others) chronicle the rocky road that African-Americans have traveled across the cathode ray tube. From the stereotypical treatment of Amos n' Andy through the completely unthreatening Julia, from the ghetto comedies like Good Times to the upper crust success of Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Through it all, Riggs deftly uses the medium to criticize the medium--clips seen in the frame of a TV set are abruptly switched to news footage of Civil Rights battles on the streets of the South. In fact, it is this staccato editing, combined with quotes from James Baldwin's The Price of the Ticket, which ensures that we do not become too comfortable merely watching TV clips--clips which are fun, but also quite safe. Ultimately this is Riggs' contribution in Color Adjustment: to map the gap that existed (and, in some ways, continues to exist) between the television version and the reality of race relations in America. It's a story that deserves to be told, and Riggs relates it well. Today, if you were to tell young teenagers that African-Americans were an extremely rare sight on television thirty years ago, I suspect that many would be amazed. As a corrective course in TV history, Color Adjustment is both thought-provoking and exceptionally entertaining, a cornucopia of topics for discussion filtered through the eyes and mind of one of our most astute independent filmmakers. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (See BLACK ATHENA for availability.)