Reel To Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies

In Reel To Real , bell hooks talks back to films as a way to engage the pedagogy of cinema–the way film teaches its audience.

bell hooks comes to film as a cultural critic, fascinated by the issues movies raise–the ways cinema depicts race, sex, and class. Reel To Real collects hooks’ classic essays on films such as Paris Is Burning or the infamous “Whose Pussy Is It” essay about Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It , as well as newer work on Pulp Fiction, Crooklyn and Waiting To Exhale . hooks also examines the world of independent cinema. Conversations with filmmakers Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, and Arthur Jaffa are linked with critical essays, including a piece on Larry Clark’s Kids , to show that cinema can function subversively as well as maintain the status quo.