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L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema is the first book dedicated to the films and filmmakers of the L.A. Rebellion, a group of African and African American independent film and video artists that formed at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the 1970s and 1980s. The group--including Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, Billy Woodberry, Jamaa Fanaka, and Zeinabu irene Davis--shared a desire to create alternatives to the dominant modes of narrative, style, and practice in American cinema, works that reflected the full complexity of Black experiences. This landmark collection of essays and oral histories examines the creative output of the L.A. Rebellion, contextualizing the group's film practices and offering sustained analyses of the wide range of works, with particular attention to newly discovered films and lesser-known filmmakers. Based on extensive archival work and preservation, this collection includes a complete filmography of the movement, over 100 illustrations (most of which are previously unpublished), and a bibliography of primary and secondary materials. This is an indispensible sourcebook for scholars and enthusiasts, establishing the key role played by the L.A. Rebellion within the histories of cinema, Black visual culture, and postwar art in Los Angeles. 

Contents:
Preface: Once upon a time in the West ... L.A. Rebellion / Clyde Taylor
Introduction: Emancipating the image-the L.A. Rebellion of black filmmakers /Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, and Jacqueline Najuma Stewart
Threads and nets: the L.A. Rebellion in retrospect and in motion / Chuck Kleinhans
Rebellious unlearning: UCLA Project One films (1967-1978) / Allyson Nadia Field
Tough enough: Blaxploitation and the L.A. Rebellion / Jan-Christopher Horak
Anticipations of the rebellion: black music and politics in some earlier cinemas / David E. James
Re/soundings: music and the political goals of the L.A. Rebellion / Morgan Woolsey
Struggles for the Sign in the Black Atlantic: Los Angeles collective of black filmmakers / Michael T. Martin
Bruising moments: affect and the L.A. Rebellion / Samantha N. Sheppard
The L.A. Rebellion plays itself / Jacqueline Najuma Stewart
Encountering the rebellion: liquid blackness reflects on the expansive possibilities of the L.A. Rebellion films / Alessandra Raengo
L.A. Rebellion oral histories