6^A)T6:RTy\C7AJM^A)T
So You
Lfe;
0
Wanna Support
Black Film?
19
By Michelle Johnson
Guest Columnist
This column started out as a Black
Film Preview, but a problem emerged.
What is Black film? Clearly, movies like Boyz
N The Hood are Black films. But what about
Sister Act or even The Color Purple? They have
more in common than the fact that they both star
Whoopi Goldberg. Both Sister Act and The Color
Purple are films that were written, produced and direct
ed by white men.
That’s too easy. Any film that stars Whoopi has to have at
least one white man involved, you’re thinking. But seriously, most
of the films that we think of as Black, have white people at the ere-
ative helm-the equivalent of Vanilla Ice writing Method Man’s lyrics.
Bad Boyz stars Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, but was
produced by Donald Simpson and Jerry
Bruckheimer, the same white team that brought
us the oh-so-Black Top Gun. Even The
Show, Russell Simmon’s who’s who of hip-
hop rapumentary, was directed by Brian
Robbins, the white kid with the afro from the
‘80s sitcom “Head of the Class”-you remember
the one with Robin Givens.
My point is that just because it stars Black
folk and Black folks flock to see it, doesn’t mean
that Black folks were in control of the film and
that white folks are the ones who are making mad
loot from it.
Since films don’t come with a “Proud Lady sym
bol like Black hair care products, each of us must deter
mine for ourselves what Black film is. For me. Black
films are those films with Black themes that are written,
directed, or produced by Black talent. I don t care who
starred in it. I don’t care who produced that phat single on
the soundtrack. If a black person didn’t originate the idea or
have creative control over the idea, it ain t Black film
Writers, directors, and producers have creative and finan
cial control in the film industry. Actors and musicians are pawns
in the game to those who have the real power. An t e
you shelled out for a ticket, well, our actors get a mere percen -
age of a cent on the dollar, while the producers will be living^
large for years to come. . ,
This doesn’t mean that 1 won’t go to see movies tha^
simply star Black actors. It does mean I am not as eager^
to shell out five bones. It means that I m always con
scious of the white filmmakers hand, so to spea , m
the mix. As you can tell. I’m real serious about
Black film and Black filmmakers. In my effort to^
support them to the fullest extent I do 3 J^hings.^
Number One: Before I go to see a film, I |
find out who wrote, directed and produced
it. No, I don’t know every Black writer,
photos used courtesy of Polygram Fim Production. Pacific
director, or producer, but guess what. Black Hollywood is a
small town and many people don't have enough talent, guts, «
intelligence, or persistence to work even some of the time n
in the commercial film industry.
Number Two; 1 go see Black films opening week
end. One of the quickest ways a film maker loses
credibility in Hollywood is for their film to bomb in
its first weekend of release. In Hollywood terms a
film has to “Open Big.” You say-the sooner it 4
will be at my local Blockbuster the better, «
but horrible for Black filmmakers with 1
good films. Take for instance, Robert 5
Townsend and The Five Heartbeats.
That movie bombed opening week- 9
end and was quick to hit the
shelves at the video stores where
Black folks discovered they loved
The Five Heartbeats.
It became a family reunion
centerpiece. Fifty Black folks of all ages
engrossed in this film around a VCR. If only
those fifty Black folks had seen The Five
Heartbeats in a theater, Robert Townsend and other
black filmmakers would not have had such a hard
time securing funds for future films as white studio
heads told them “There’s no audience for Black
films. Look at The Five Heartbeats.”
Number Three: I am aware of other venues
for Black films outside of mainstream commer
cial theaters. A lot of us are unaware of it, but
there is an independent Black film making cir
cuit. There are Black folk who make films
that are purposefully not “Hollywood mate
rial.” This does not mean they are bad,
cheap, or wack. Films like Daughters of
the Dust and Sankofa are Black inde
pendent films. To see black indepen
dent films, you may have to go to
area campuses, including our very
own Union, the Hayti Cultural
Center, and Black Film Festival.
Black folks are always talk
ing about keeping it real, paying
respect to the Old School, and vibing
to those underground sounds. Well folks,
independent Black filmmakers, Black cine
ma’s equivalent to hip-hop’s Old School, cre
ate underground images that keep us real-maybe
more real than Spike and Singleton can within
the confines of commercial cinema.
So you wanna support Black film? Well I advise
you to be a conscious viewer. Like my daddy used to
always say, ‘Tou can’t just talk the talk. You gotta walk
the walk, too.”
hema Corp.