I am scholar interested in cinema, popular culture, and black performance over the last century. My research explores the relationship between race, creative social networks, and media to better understand how artists collaborate.
I received my Ph.D in African American Studies and Film & Media Studies at Yale University and am currently working on a book about Bill Gunn and black film and theater in the middle of the twentieth century. Although Gunn is most famous for directing Ganja and Hess, Gunn wrote novels, acted in stage plays, and composed lyrics for music and his career broached the bounds of numerous mediums. Forster looks at the scraps of the various lives in communities around Gunn to understand the connections between artists who worked across New York and Hollywood, in and outside of cinema. Examining institutional archives, in-progress works, and ephemera and conducting hundreds of interviews, this manuscript traces the developing networks of creative intimacy and what those relationships might mean for the production and reception of black art in twentieth century.
You can learn more at nsforster.com
