Has diversity finally reached Hollywood?
By KEVIN HERRERA, Staff Writer 09.MAR.05
HOLLYWOOD — Movie industry insiders and independent filmmakers agree, 2005 has been a banner year for African Americans in cinema.
Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman both took home Oscars in an awards ceremony featuring more minorities nominated than ever before; three of the year’s highest-grossing films — “Coach Carter,” “Are We There Yet?” and “Hitch” — all star black men; while the “hottest” movie at the Sundance Film Festival, a barometer for what’s hip in Hollywood, was “Hustle & Flow,” a film by John Singleton, an African-American director from South Los Angeles.
While few would call this recent success a renaissance in African-American film (“Hitch,” “Diary” and “Are We There Yet?” are not considered great cinematic achievements), industry experts said it is certainly significant, for it signals an evolution in an industry that has long resisted attempts to diversify.
How long this will last, and what impact it will have in terms of getting more minorities in front of and behind the camera is anyone’s guess.
“There has been a huge climactic shift,” said veteran director Mike Schultz, whose films include “Car Wash,” “Krush Groove,” Berry Gordy’s “The Last Dragon” and most recently, “Woman, Thou Art Loosed.” “When I came on the scene, I think there was only Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles, who had been ostracized by Hollywood, and Sidney Poitier was doing his ‘Uptown Saturday Night’ thing and that was it.
“Today there are all kinds of movies coming out with very talented young directors of color. I see a critical mass of trained black professionals in every aspect of the business, which I think will translate into more quality stories being told.”
“Blacks are getting offered more mainstream roles now and the Academy [of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] and critics are recognizing what these actors can do outside of ‘Soul Plane’ or ‘Booty Call,’” said Laurence Washington, co-publisher of Blackflix.com. “Soul Plane” and “Booty Call” were films heavily criticized in the black community for portraying African Americans as buffoons or s*x-crazed fools, with director Spike Lee and the Rev. Jesse Jackson speaking out against them.
Washington is skeptical of course, never willing to trust the motives of major studios. “Today blacks are the flavor of the month,” he said. “Tomorrow, who knows? And in Hollywood, the bottom line is the bottom line.”
Because Hollywood is all about “the green,” meaning money, producer Reuben Cannon, who was behind “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” which debuted at number one, stunning industry experts, said he would like to see a movement towards more collaboration between black filmmakers and black producers, not with major studios, who Cannon feels exploit minority audiences desperately craving quality entertainment. If studios will not hire minorities in positions of power, it makes sense for blacks to support themselves, Cannon said.
“Real progress will happen only when we finally combine our creative talents with our financial resources,” he said. “I want to see a movement toward black independent films because that is the only way to keep the integrity of the art intact. If we do business the traditional way, through major studios, we are only going to get frustrated or disapprove of the finished product because there are no black executives monitoring the process. We will not see a change until we become the change. We can’t wait for studios to come to us.”
To finance “Hustle & Flow,” Singleton spent $3.5 million of his own money. Now studios are offering him four times that amount to distribute the film, he said.
“What you have are black people taking charge,” Singleton said from the set of his new film “Four Brothers.” “You have Tyler Perry [creator of ‘Diary’] financing that himself and Ice Cube produced [‘Are We There Yet?’] you know, so it is a really good time to be making films independently. African Americans are really popular in entertainment right now.”
Or are they?
Some have questioned the importance of box office figures, considering the release dates for “Diary,” “Hitch,” “Are We There Yet?” and “Coach Carter,” all fell in or around Black History Month, which is considered to be one of the slowest periods of the year for films, and a perfect time to release films appealing to black audiences. That may have contributed to the high box-office returns, some said.
“You are not going to put these movies up against your typical Hollywood blockbusters and that is why you are seeing them all released right now,” said Ralph Scott, program director for the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center in Los Angeles, who is very critical of the lack of minorities greenlighting films, which he said creates movies based on offensive stereotypes. “Once it hits May or June, you won’t see these types of films except for maybe an F. Gary Gray film.”
Gray directed “Be Cool,” “The Italian Job,” as well as “Friday,” and like Antoine Fuqua, another black director who made “Training Day,” “Tears of the Sun,” and “King Aurthur,” Gray is considered a filmmaker with that all-important “crossover appeal.”
“I think you have seen the success of these films because they are not niche films or black films or urban films, they are good movies with crossover appeal,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
“With the right actor, these films are not considered black films, but just good entertaining films that people of all ethnic backgrounds want to see,” said Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com. “Movies like ‘Ray,’ ‘Diary,’ and ‘Barbershop,’ where the majority of the cast is black, are showing Hollywood that there is a big appetite for films like these and with the right cast and story, crossover sales to their moviegoers can lead to very strong profits. The color Hollywood really loves is green and if a type of film can bring home the bacon, the industry will take notice.”
Scott warns to be weary of the hype. Major studios will capitalize on it the best way they know how, and that is producing films that lack honest portrayals and poignant content.
“Whites are comfortable as long as blacks are doing the things that are stereotypical, shooting each other, degrading our women, not being a father to our children,” Scott said. “But once we are loving and caring human beings, it doesn’t fit and doesn’t seem right. Of course Denzel [Washington] is going to win an Oscar for playing a bad guy [in ‘Training Day’] and Halle Berry for a hoochie momma [in ‘Monster’s Ball.’] Until the mindset that creates that outcome changes, I think we are just seeing another peak before a deep valley in black films. Hollywood is going to end up treating [this recent success] as a trend and it will not be ongoing. I assure you. These will be treated like flukes.”
www.bherc.org
Posted By: Ralph K. Scott
Tuesday, March 15th 2005 at 4:30PM
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