bell hooks (b. 1951) is mainly known as a feminist thinker, although her writings cover a broad range of topics on gender, race, education and the media. She is Distinguished Professor of English at City College in New York.

• 1. Introduction: Making Movie Magic. 2. Good Girls Look the Other Way. 3. Transgression and Transformation: Leaving Las Vegas. 4. Exotica: Breaking Down to Break Through. 5. Crooklyn: the Denial of Death. 6. Cool Cynicism: Pulp Fiction. 7. Mock Feminism: Waiting to Exhale. 8. Kids: Transgressive Subject - Reactionary Film. 9. Artistic Integrity: Race and Accountability. 10. Neo-colonial Fantasies of Conquest: Hoop Dreams. 11. Doing it for Daddy: Black Masculinity in the Mainstream. 12. Thinking Through Class: Paying Attention to The Attendant. 13. Back to the Avant-Garde: the Progressive Vision. 14. What's Passion Got to Do With It? - an interview with Marie France Alderman. 15. The Cultural Mix: an interview with Wayne Wang. 16. Confession - Filming Family: an interview with Camille Billops. 17. A Guiding Light: an interview with Charles Burnett. 18. Critical Contestations: a conversation with A.J. (Arthur Jaffa). 19. The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators. 20. Is Paris Burning? 21. "Whose Pussy is This?" - A Feminist Comment. Index.

'hooks... makes a compelling case to filmmakers for creating progressive images that 'transform the culture we live in'.' - Los Angeles Times