The Stuart Hall Project

A highly recommendable overview of the life and times of Stuart Hall, a pioneer in Cultural Studies of Jamaican origins who studied at Oxford. Hall discusses racism against people of Caribbean and African descent in England, how he came to reject the class/color restrictions of colonial Jamaica, his work as an editor of leftist journals, and broader processes of identity and cultural formation. I have recently rediscovered his other work, documentary series, and his status as a public intellectual, so this film is an excellent introduction. Another worthwhile video is Hall's interview of Trinidadian intellectual, leftist, and avid cricket fan, CLR James, a towering figure of Black thought who influenced Hall.

Stuart Hall in Haiti

Stuart Hall's documentary series episode on Haiti is, of course, too short, but a good introduction to Haiti from the great Caribbean scholar. The documentary also challenges the stereotypes of Henri Christophe's rule and the interviewed Haitian scholar alludes to Baron de Vastey's allusions to African architectural genius and grandeur resurfacing in the monuments of Christophe's Haiti. Unfortunately, the film tries to fit Haiti into a transplanted Africa in the Americas that was isolated from the rest of the world. Watch the second part of the video here, which discusses Haitian art.