15 - Nothing But a Man and The Cool World

Summary

Egalitarianism was one of the greatest, if not the loudest, concerns of the 60s. America, it was discovered, was an unequal society. The recognition of this fact came as a shock to many, and served as a rallying point for innumerable social, political and personal agendas of the period. Along with general recognition that not everyone was treated equally, there was also a specific recognition that not everyone was heard equally. That is, the established culture – TV, movies, indeed the whole complex of what came to be called mass media – did not represent the whole compass of the American experience even-handedly. A typical TV series – more likely than not – would have as a central character a white, middle-class male, though many viewers were neither white, middleclass nor male. Gradually, in the 60s, such phenomena came to be regarded as exclusionary, and as a form of cultural domination. As the decade wore on, the battle for representation had not only a political dimension – as blacks struggled for voting rights – but a further cultural dimension as different groups aspired for equal representation not just in the legislatures but in the media as well.

Much of the activity of the American independent film movement is best comprehended within the context of the mounting battle for cultural representation. It strove to confront the dominant cinema on a series of issues, in terms of both style and content.