Now I know what you're saying – what does the recently late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il have to do with black filmmaking? I'll get to that in just a minute. But did you know that, aside from being a monsterous, cruel and sadistic oppressor, King Jong Il also considered himself a filmmaker?

He literally contolled every aspect of North Korea's film industry, from storylines to production, and also considred himself something a film scholar as well. Not that he was, of course. He just liked to think so. He actually wrote tens of thousands of instructions to North Korean filmmakers on everything from casting to camera placement. He also reportedly had a collection of over 20,000 videotapes (DVDs and Netflix haven't reached North Korea yet I guess) and was a huge fan of the Rambo movies. Go figure.

So, in the late 80's he (allegedly) wrote a book on filmmaking titled, The Cinema and Directing. I've read it myself it. It's not that long, and you know, aside from the ideological commentary, naturally, it's actually a decent, meat-and-potatoes basic book on what it takes to direct a film, and how a directior should prepare to make one. 

So if you're a young black filmmaker (or a filmmaker of any race, creed or color) looking to make their first film, or to brush up on some things, you could do no no worse than to skim through it.

You can read the book HERE in a .pdf file.