2 articles by Smucker to be published spring 2025
Ph.D. candidate Samuel Smucker has two articles accepted for publication this spring.
The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies will publish an article based on archival research titled “Pivotal Encounters: Melvin Van Peebles, Amos Vogel, and the Beginnings of Black Radical Cinema.” The article examines how Vogel’s anti-racist commitments may have motivated him to re-edit one of Van Peebles’s early short films.
The Quarterly Review of Film and Video will publish a second article by Smucker, titled “A Black Radical Cinema before Sweetback: ‘Everyday Realism’ in Melvin Van Peebles’s Early Short Films.” The article contends that Van Peebles rejects the idea of a heroic protagonist in his early films, creating a novel anti-racist cinematic aesthetic and contrasting with his 1970’s blockbuster Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971).
Both articles consider Van Peebles’s early short films, “Three Pickup Men for Herrick” (1957) and “Sunlight” (1957), and utilize new archival research to enrich the historical record on this important director. Smucker’s dissertation focuses on Van Peebles’ development as a filmmaker in the 1950s in San Francisco and in the 1960s in Paris, where he worked as a novelist, journalist, playwright, and filmmaker. Smucker received a Chateaubriand Fellowship from the French Embassy in the U.S. for archival research in Paris.