1. What is the film explicitly about, when was the film made, and what is the status of African Americans at the time the film was made.
2. What are the central issues and ideas raised as the plot unfolds? Also, what Genre does the film fit in (please explain)
3. Who are the central characters and, in the film, and are their views and roles fully developed or are they a stereotype or caricatures?
4. What particular points of view are being expressed about race and racism? On ethnicity, gender,
family, social class, and other social issues? What other values and beliefs are being probed?
Whose or what point of view is being privileged (i.e., that is presented in an exclusive manner
or developed in a way to win audience identification with it).
5. How are these issues/ideas/viewpoints manifested on the individual, group, and community
levels in the film? How are individual characters in the film linked to family, small groups, and
their community?
6. What relationship is there between the film’s content and the historical period in which it is
made?
7. Is the film catering to the interests/prejudices of a particular audience or is it attempting to be
more universal in its appeal?
8. Does the film attempt to cast light on social differences? Does it promote tolerance or
intolerance of cultural diversity? What value judgments are being expressed?
9. Is there any expression of religious, ethnic, political, and class solidarity and for what aims?
10. How does the film define human nature? To what extent is human society portrayed as
predatory, competitive (Social Darwinist) or one based on cooperation, mutual respect, and
mutual aid?
11. If oppressive conditions exist for some of the film’s characters, how is that oppression
resolved?
12. What cinematic devises (narrative style, lighting, sound, casting, editing et.al.) does the director use to accentuate certain ideas, feelings, etc. for the viewer
13. Concluding Paragraph summing up your Findings.
