O.J.: Made in America in the Context of (Re)Constructing the Perspective on Race Relations and the Representation of African Americans

(Popular) images have the potential of social criticism, while simultaneously shaping the ways in which we understand the world. Racial minorities had long been excluded from film and TV images, or presented wrongly and stereotypically. Recently, we have seen certain new trends starting in the representation of race, more specifically of African Americans, both in the context of cinema and the wider social context. After a short overview of African American cinema and the most relevant recent titles, the concluding part of this contribution focuses on the documentary series O.J.: Made in America (2016). It is a complex study of race relations in the USA, which uses a story of one person to trace the history of the period between 1960 and 2000 and thus shed light on the relevance of the period to the current socio-political situation across the Atlantic.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!