Since its inception U.S. American cinema has grappled with the articulation of racial
boundaries. This applies in the first instance to featuring mixed-race characters crossing
the color line. In a broader sense however this also concerns viewing conditions and
knowledge configurations. The fact that American film engages itself so extensively with the
unbalanced relation between black and white is neither coincidental nor trivial to state - it
has much more to do with disputing boundaries that pertain to the medium itself. Lisa Gotto
examines this constellation along the early history of American film the cinematic modernism
of the late 1950s and the post-classical cinema of the turn of the millennium.
