The Cool World

Inspired by a sermon delivered by a Black Muslim preacher proclaiming the superiority of the Black man, the young Duke attempts to consolidate his position of power within a street gang. Like other films by Shirley Clarke, *The Cool World* feels like an improvised “fictional documentary” (the later documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman served as producer here) and is underpinned by jazz music. Alongside Clarke’s film The Connection and Cassavetes’ Shadows, it is a major work of the Beat-influenced “New Realism” of the early 1960s. Clarke: “The Hollywood powers that be were astounded by the realism of my film. When they asked me how I had achieved this extraordinary realism, I simply replied: ‘It wasn’t particularly difficult to make Harlem look like Harlem.’” (C.H.)