RECLAIMING THE FRAME: BLACK CREATORS TRANSFORMING TELEVISION AND FILM UTILIZING A BELL HOOKS’ LOVE ETHIC

Deadline for abstract submissions: November 15, 2025
McFarland and Company, Publishers, Inc.
Contact email: DrLTbooks@gmail.com 

Call for Abstracts: Reclaiming the Frame: Black Creators transforming television and Film utilizing a bell hooks’ Love Ethic

Collection Editor: LaToya T. Brackett, PhD

The representation of Black characters and stories on the screen has continuously evolved, and in the past decade especially we have seen and experienced a type of care and respect for Black representation in film and television with a more trusted dedication unlike before. As an audience critical of Hollywood, due to continued oppressive approaches to Blackness, we are always skeptical, and yet, as the editor of this volume, I believe we’ve come to trust that onscreen representation is less likely to devolve back to past harmful foundations. This trust resides not in the industry but in the increase of diverse Black peoples creating for the screen. Many of these creators are eager to showcase the varied positionalities that make up Black stories, which they complexly produce from authentic realities, with care, responsibility, respect, knowledge and trust. These are the Black creators that this edited volume is dedicated to showcasing. 

 Not that long ago the U.S. film industry held a corner for a few Black male directors, often centering the Black male experience and producing with a Black cis male lens. This is no longer the case, and that corner has only expanded due to those Black pioneers (for the lack of a better word) whose work proved that Black film and television could fit into the capitalistic expectations of Hollywood. Additionally, there were those lesser-known Black creators who pushed the boundaries for complex representation of Black stories, who were before their time, who pioneered lenses of production centering Blackness with care, responsibility, respect, knowledge and trust. The numerous names of Black creators we can list today with pride in how they showcase Black stories, are who they are, because of those before them. In the Black community we express sayings such as “I am because we are,” and “lift as we climb” due to our communal heritage alongside our positioning in an anti-Black racist society. There is a heavy burden to be expected to represent all Black people despite knowing how racist the expectation is but knowing how necessary it is. Black film and television creators are tasked with this representation, despite their own creative alignment and desire, and yet I believe we’ve witnessed creators hold onto their own creative identity while respecting all Black identities through a theoretical foundation of love—a love ethic. 

A love ethic, as defined by scholar bell hooks in her well known book All About Love (2001), is a framework for living that emphasizes love as a guiding principle in all aspects of life. It moves beyond romantic or sentimental notions of love to include a commitment to care, responsibility, respect, trust, and knowledge in all relationships, including those in professional, political, and social spheres. A love ethic in film and television showcasing Black stories is primarily present in productions by Black creators themselves, with a prominence among Black female and LBTQIA+ creators. Additionally, the love ethic shines through when Black creators take on the delicacy and complexity to tell Black stories beyond centering the Black cis male, but centering Black and female, Black and Queer, Black and disabled, Black and immigrant stories to name a few—these are the creators who have been reclaiming the frame, all from a theoretical foundation of love. 

This edited volume seeks to showcase diverse Black creators who have produced Black narratives in ways that align with the bell hooks’ “love ethic.” Chapters should center a specific Black creator and their work(s). Chapters should discuss aspects of their path to telling Black stories with a love ethic—aspects from navigating the industry to the importance of Black creators from the past who influenced them. There were imperative Black creators who pushed against the film and television industry who many would say “were before their time,” and yet they laid the foundation for inspiration, and revealed the difficult path ahead for many Black creators of today and the past decade. Central to this volume is discussing how the creator loved the film and television they created, which would engage the reader’s understanding for why the film and television was loved by the audience. 

Additionally, chapters can speak to components of making film and television while caring for the actors themselves and caring for the people for whom the story originally belongs (e.g. Ava Duvernay (When They See Us); Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)). The goal of this volume is to create a space dedicated to the Black creators who center the love ethic in creating Black film and television and thus providing an anthology of learning for those creators of all identities desiring to create Black screens with care, respect, and trust. This volume holds a preference for discussing Black creators with productions since 2010. Of course, film and television about Black communities and experiences are not absent prior to 2010, nonetheless this volume desires to home in on more recent creators and their works, in a contemporary time in which various publics demanded Black life to be protected. Production approaches of Black stories have evolved, to the extent that almost a new baseline for respect and care is a prominent component and expectation to our narratives. This approach aligns with bell hooks’ theoretical framework of a Love Ethic. 

This edited book is meant to be a resource for film and television academics and their students, for communication studies, media studies, women, gender and sexuality studies, ethnic studies and especially Black studies. It is meant to be an accessible text for film, television, visual and audio creators, of all identities looking to understand how a love ethic can provide a theoretical framework for producing media representations of Blackness which will align with Black realities and authenticity, with care, respect, and trust. This volume will not be able to cover every Black creative who has utilized a love ethic in their visual media, but it will be an anthology of prominent creators and their creations since 2010, who have navigated the capitalism and politics of Hollywood to produce and continue to produce Black stories with a love ethic. 

Looking for chapters discussing the television and film creative journeys of the following Black artists (listed films are examples of love ethic productions, but are not the only options, same with the listed Black creators): 

1. Lena Waithe (The Chi)
2. Dee Rees (Pariah, Bessie)
3. Issa Rae (The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, Insecure)
4. Janet Mock and Steven Canals (Pose)
5. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)
6. Misha Green (Underground, Lovecraft Country)
7. Ava DuVernay (Selma, When they See Us)
8. Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You)
9. Ryan Coogler (Sinners, Fruitvale Station)
10. Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary)
11. And others…

This volume desires chapters dedicated to the Black creator, and thus a creator will not have more than one chapter. 

Expectations of each chapter and what abstracts must outline:

1. Each chapter must clearly state and support an argument for how the chosen Black creator has and continues to produce work which aligns with a love ethic. 
2. Chapters must discuss aspects of the creator’s journey in the industry, hurdles to their career and/or what nurtured it. Referencing Black creatives who were inspirations and or direct supporters is important to this volume. 
3. Chapters must focus on and analyze aspects of the creator’s film or television work which showcases the love ethic. At least one main component from hooks’ definition should lead your chapter, care and/or trust for example. An example could be DuVernay’s work on When they See Us, related to the men whose stories she was telling, as she ensured they were present in production, and cared for on set alongside the actors. Or Gina Prince-Bythewood’s support on The Woman King providing mental health therapists on set. 
4. Chapters may discuss numerous aspects of filmmaking that would provide evidence in fulfilling a love ethic. Examples could include:
   1. Cinematography (Barry Jenkins’ darker lighting in Moonlight, but profound expertise for different shades of Black skin. The Color Purple (2023) Blitz Bazawule’s bright colors (fashion) and visual reflections of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust. 
   2. Historical and cultural accuracy (Ryan Coogler’s representation of and consultation with the Choctaw Nation for Sinners, DuVernay’s focus on MLK’s speech cadence in Selma.)

Interested contributors are invited to submit an extended abstract (up to 1000 words) with an outline of the chapter and author bio (50 words) as one Microsoft Word document to DrLTBooks@gmail.com by November 15th. The abstract should provide an overview of the paper, including the Black creator, main arguments related to a love ethic, love ethic examples and associated productions, and any necessary context. Selected writers will be notified in December or earlier.  Completed papers (15-20 double spaced pages) are anticipated to be due in March 2026. 

Please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Brackett with any questions about submitting an abstract at DrLTBooks@gmail.com.