What is Film Noir?
Although often characterized as “crime with a twist,” the roots of the genre delve much deeper than the black-and-white classics we are familiar with. In this exploration, filmmaker Tarik Rashaan Davis examines the genre’s progression from traditional hard-boiled noir to neo-noir.
Tarik seeks to uncover why film noir seems so Black-coded to him, despite the limited representation of people like himself in most films of the genre.
Is film noir a highly political subgenre that resonates with the current era? Is it a genre that requires a significant revival? Can noir be the savior of Hollywood? And perhaps most crucially… Does Noir mean Black?