bell hooks

Birth : 1952-09-25, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, USA

Death : 2021-12-15

History

Gloria Watkins, better known as bell hooks, was born September 25, 1952, to a mother who was a homemaker and a father who worked as a custodian. hooks was a professor, social activist, public intellectual, cultural critic, feminist and author of 40 books, including Ain't I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism, Black Looks: Race and Representation, Reel to Real, and All About Love: New Visions. In 2014, the bell hooks Institute was founded at Berea College in Kentucky. In 2021, hooks died of kidney failure at her home, following a brief period of illness.

Movies

Hillbilly
Self
A documentary that examines the cultural stereotype of the people of Appalachia and how that has affected America's relationship with its rural communities.
bell hooks: Dialogue on Transgressive Sexual Practice
Self
An open dialogue at The New School (Eugene Lang College) moderated by renowned feminist author bell hooks in conversation with Samuel “Chip” Delany (acclaimed Sci-Fi author of: Nova; Dhalgren; Times Square Red, Times Square Blue), M. Lamar (composer, video artist, and sculptor), and Marci Blackman (award-winning author of Po Man's Child: A Novel and Tradition). The discussion examines how engaging in transgressive sexual practices can provide a space in which one may work through the traumas inflicted by the oppressive forces that constitute, as hooks terms it, the system of "imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy."
Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me
Herself
Today there are more reasons than ever for families to explore and celebrate diversity. Our ever-expanding world is full of differences in abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, family structures, religious faiths, interests and cultures. This documentary introduces your family to children who are not only celebrating how they are unique, but who are also learning from and appreciating the differences in others.
Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me
Novel
Today there are more reasons than ever for families to explore and celebrate diversity. Our ever-expanding world is full of differences in abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, family structures, religious faiths, interests and cultures. This documentary introduces your family to children who are not only celebrating how they are unique, but who are also learning from and appreciating the differences in others.
BaadAsssss Cinema
Self
With archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record. It features interviews with some of the genre's biggest stars, like Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Richard Roundtree. Director Melvin Van Peebles discusses the historical importance of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. For a contemporary perspective, the excitable Quentin Tarantino offers his spirited commentary and author/critic bell hooks provides some scholarly social analysis.
My Feminism
Herself
In an era of antifeminist backlash, this articulate documentary by the makers of Thank God I’m a Lesbian forcefully reminds us that the revolution continues. Powerful interviews with feminist leaders including bell hooks, Gloria Steinem, and Urvsahi Vaid are intercut with documentary sequences to engagingly explore the past and present status of the women’s movement. Discussing the unique contributions of second wave feminism, they explore their racial, economic and ideological differences and shared vision of achieving equality for women. Anessential component of women’s studies curricula, My Feminism introduces feminism’s key themeswhile exposing the cultural fears underlying lesbian baiting, backlash, and political extremism.
bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation
Self
bell hooks is one of America's most accessible public intellectuals. In this two-part video, extensively illustrated with many of the images under analysis, she makes a compelling argument for the transformative power of cultural criticism.
Black Is … Black Ain’t
Self
African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.