Othello

Synopsis: Independent feature film version of Othello with an all-black cast.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Film
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 1980
Duration: 115 mins

Director

Liz White

Producer

Liz White

Cinematographer

Charles Dorkins

Music

Jonas Gwangwa

Cast

Production type: Fiction Films
Plays: Othello
Subjects: Drama
Keywords: Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Multicultural casting; Black actors

Notes: The film was made on a budget of $200,000 which the director financed herself. It makes substantial cuts. Peter S. Donaldson’s article in Shakespeare on Film Newsletter notes the excision of Act 1 and its reappearance as quotation or flashback later in the film, the elimination of all unnamed and minor characters including the Venetian senate, and the compression of the final scene. Othello’s final speech is given in voiceover. The self-punishment and final kiss, are pre-empted by freeze frame.

Cut and edited scripts are held in the archives of the Birmingham Shakespeare Library.
General: The film derived from Liz White’s stage production of the play in Martha’s Vineyard, Shearer Summer Theater and in Harlem in 1960. The film version was shot over a four-year period from 1962-1966 and filmed on Martha’s Vineyard and Cobbleclose Farm, N.J.

South African-born musician Hugh Masekala worked on the film’s soundtrack.
History: The film was conceived in the 1950s, completed in 1966 but not screened until its premiere at Howard University in 1980. It has never been commercially released.
Reviews: `Liz White’s Black Othello’ by Peter S. Donaldson in Shakespeare on Film Newsletter, vol.11, no.1, December 1986, p 5,10

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