Because of the gatekeeping practices of the Hollywood film industry, and the high cost of both filmmaking and distribution in general, Afro-American filmmakers have struggled to produce films with “global reach.” This study visits the possibility of Afro-American filmmakers using alternative technologies and infrastructures to produce high-quality films, thereby bypassing the high cost and exclusionary practices of Hollywood studios. Using new 21st-century digital technology, this study involved the creation of a small geographically dispersed virtual film production team. The study's foundational framework was a constructivist qualitative research paradigm, using Action Research, and supported by 24 months of triangulated data from field notes and a Likert-type end-of-study survey, both of which were then addressed in an end-of- research online group discussion using the Zoom platform. The research question was, What are the most effective leadership and team-building practices/processes for creating a virtual geographically dispersed Afro-American film production team, with the intent of producing digital films, using new digital technology, social media, and the default global infrastructure of the Internet? The major conclusion of the study was that it is possible for a small virtual team to produce broadcast quality digital film using only consumer-level computers and cameras, audio and lighting equipment, and readily available software. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

This thesis investigates the changes in film reviews published by Photoplay magazine, considered by many as one of the most significant and high-quality fan magazines, after the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA, the predecessor of today's Motion Picture Association of America, MPAA) started to censor fan magazine content on August 10, 1934. Two constructed years were made from issues published from 1930 to 1939 and the overlapping 10 years of the golden age of Hollywood (1930 to 1949) and the golden age of fan magazines (1920 to 1939). A total of 723 film reviews (every single review in the issues selected) were studied. Although it was not clear based on MPPDA's censorship pronouncement whether film reviews were included in the censorship, content analysis results, supported also by historical analysis, suggested that film reviews published from 1935 to 1939 covered a significantly larger portion of movies made by big studios, including MGM, Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO), Paramount, 20th Century-Fox and Warner Bros, Universal, Columbia and United Artists, than those published between 1930 and 1934. The results also showed that film reviews published after MPPDA's censorship pronouncement were significantly more positive both in general tone and when it came to big studio films. Considering that today studios still try to influence film criticism in multiple ways, this study, within the framework of newswork theory, may provide insights into how reviews may change under influences on the extramedia and media routines level.