Now on Netflix, the invigorating documentary “Is That Black Enough for You?!?” borrows its title from a line in the 1970 caper “Cotton Comes to Harlem.” That movie was no highlight of the cultural revolution afoot. But for one especially rich decade, 1968-1978, Black representation finally got a foot in the door of a mighty white film industry. Stories of more than one kind of Black image and experience, independently made and then, because there was money in it, mainstream and studio-financed, found their way into theaters. This is critic-writer-director-host Elvis Mitchell’s love letter to that decade.
It tells a collective tale of long-frustrated and marginalized talent finally getting some breaks. Many of the key players were well-established (Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte), others younger and less polished. Many, too, were dazzling and unique, gone far too soon (Diana Sands at 39, Rupert Crosse at 45).
The Netflix project, produced by, among others, Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher, finds Mitchell speaking directly to films that helped shape his childhood, adulthood and vocations. He’s especially good on the subject of the deathless, peerless theme songs and soundtracks associated with everything from “Shaft” to “Superfly.”
