Burden of Representation in Film

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Representation is defined as a likeness or image of something, a definition that implies a visual component to this act. In terms of minority groups, such as women, people of color, all non-normative sexualities, the issue of representation is one that many film theorists and filmmaker’s struggle to contend with. Both the scarcity and the importance of minority representations yield what many have called " the burden of representation". Since there are so few who have the means and access to the "apparatus of representation", they are often burdened with the responsibility of "speaking" for their whole group. Furthermore, as Kobena Mercer and bell hooks explore in their respective essays about black gay men and black females, the perspectives amongst the subaltern are not uniform and universal. The problem with the "burden of representation" is to determine who is the voice of the subaltern and how to infuse it in with mainstream culture. In their essays, Mercer and hooks explore the perspective of gay black men and women, respectively, as spectators whose view has been shaped by their marginalized status and provide a context to tackle the problem of representation. Mercer and hooks use aesthetic and spectatorial strategies, such as oppositional gaze, in their attempt to provide these oft ignored spectators with an empowering perspective that will enable them to transform the film experience.

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             The ‘gaze’, as described by hooks, is a powerful mechanism among blacks, who have long been discouraged from the act of looking, a tradition passed down from slavery. The television provided blacks with a means to look at white people from the safety of their home. In her essay “The Oppositional Gaze”, bell hooks asserts that the television and dark theaters provided the black male with a private realm where they...