"Open the Door and I'll Get It for Myself": Minority Production Assistant Programs and the Politics of the Urban Location Shoot, 1969–1974

ABSTRACT:This article traces the development of the Community Film Workshop Council's minority apprentice program and its attempt to break through decades of exclusionary hiring practices in feature film production. The program coincided with the rise of feature filmmaking on location in New York City and the corresponding need to integrate the city's film crews. Through an archival study of the program and the essential roles that the apprentices played on films, including The Landlord (Hal Ashby, 1970) and Cotton Comes to Harlem (Ossie Davis, 1970), I demonstrate how media activism, policy, and labor relations are fundamental to both challenging and maintaining industrial power structures.