What if the The South had won the American Civil War? How would history been affected? Would things be any different for people, particularly people of African descent?

CSA: The Confiderate States of America, a bold thought-provoking film that tackles such a topic, has just been released in the UK.

Writen and directed by Kevin Willmott and presented by Spike Lee, CSA , among other things ask the questions:-

• What if the Confederate Army won the Civil War?
• What if Abraham Lincoln was caught in blackface while on the Underground Railroad by Southern soldiers and lived to a ripe old age in Canadian exile?
• What if America struck Japan first in WWII, and eventually supported Hitler’s plans for Europe?
• What if slavery was an idea that was never abolished?

The feature length film then unfolds with humour, a clever retelling of history, documentary style, in the guise of a BBC television production that has “finally” been able to see the light of day in the Confederate States of America.

Through the use of other fabricated movie segments, old government information films, television commercials, news breaks, along with actual stock footage from our own history, a provocative and humorous story is told of a country which, in many ways, frighteningly offers a view of a world which Bush would like to reinvent.

Return Of Slavery

After victory, the US President brings slavery back to the northern states by offering a tax rebate to businesses and households who will buy and own them.

Liberals move to Canada. The nation chooses an expansionist policy and conquers Cuba, Mexico and South America. As world war looms, the C.S.A. takes a non-aggressive stance toward the Third Reich and their move toward racial purity (although not condoning their wasting of possible slave stock by the Final Solution) and makes a preemptive strike on Japan on December 7, 1941.

Kennedy is assassinated soon after being elected as it appears he will not only emancipate but also give women the vote. A growing black terrorist base stems from Canada and a Cold War breaks out…complete with the Cotton Curtain being built between the two countries.

Through it all, including a contemporary run for the presidency, we follow a political dynasty, the Fauntroy family, who lead the country through its triumphs and tragedies.

We arrive to a today that, in many ways, we recognize. Although a nation that is content and prosperous, there is a tremendous divide within and suspicious eye without. Current politicians refer to America as two countries and perhaps, other than geographically, there is no difference between Red and Blue or North and South states. We have always struggled with the idea of whether America is the United or Confederate States of America.

For years, I had railed against censorship in the movies. I had argued that no matter how lousy a movie, no matter how violent or shocking the images, neither I, nor anyone else, had the right to prevent such films being shown.

In recent years, my views on this issue have changed. And what brought about this change? Nothing less than the endless conveyor belt of Gangstas-in-the-hood type movies. For years, I and countless others had been bemoaning the lack of any significant Black presence on the cinema screens. Then the flood came.

At first this was a most welcome screen invasion. Films such as [i]Boyz ‘n’ the ‘Hood, Juice, New Jack City, Sugar Hill, Jason’s Lyric[/i] showed, if nothing else, that Black folks enjoyed a bit of mindless movie violence as much as anyone else. The audiences who went to see these movies were overwhelmingly young and Black. A lot of these films not only featured soundtracks full of the latest R & B and hip hop sounds, but also seemed to have the same energy as this new Black pop music which was on its way to being the dominant musical force of the age. However, as with the music biz, what is innovative and fresh today soon becomes hackneyed and pass once everyone else has decided that this is the hit formula to be copied.

Instead of anticipatory screams of “here comes another one”, we were saying “oh no, not another one!” every time the next over-the-top body count-fest movie came along. Such was the cliché-ridden trap into which these films had descended. The storylines were so basic they could have been written by a programmed computer or a committee.

When the change came it was hardly noticed. [i]Waiting To Exhale[/i] hit the screens and was a financial success. The most noticeable factor was that the protagonists were not testosterone-fuelled young psychopaths but four middle class, wrong-side-of-thirty, female friends. In Hollywood, as in a lot of places, money talks loudest. The success of this film did not go unnoticed.

Among the films that led the backlash was [i]Eve’s Bayou[/i] and [i]Soul Food[/i] released in Britain within weeks of each other. There are some similarities between the films but it would be stretching a point somewhat to try and make too much of a thematic connection. Both films are told from a child’s eye view and feature the theme of a mainly unified family facing various situations at a particular moment in time.

These films are very good examples of what appears to be a new Black film genre – movies that show us in a relatively positive light. No women get called “bitch” or “ho” and the “N” word is not used once. Not surprisingly, the characters are a lot more believable than any of the identikit psychos of the shoot-em-up movies.

Films like these need and deserve our support. Let’s hope their success will inspire and lead to many more Black movies which focus on similar themes and include lots of feel good factor.