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BLACK HISTORY
Film industry must do
more to include blacks
By Jimmie Ophelia Woods, Jr.
Staff Writer
In the past 12 months. Black actors and
actresses have extended the plateau of
their artistry and value to American
culture, or so we thought.
The omission of Denzel Washington
and Laurence Fishburne from the
American Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences are blatant examples of
the blind eye of the Academy and the
invisibility of Blacks in film.
Despite the widespread idea that the
elevation of actors Washington and Angela
Bassett or directors Spike Lee and John
Singleton signal a merit-driven system,
Blacks still are few, far and in between
just north of Los Angeles.
Hollywood’s politically liberal facade
is shattered when hiring and promotion
statistics are examined. For instance,
according to last month’s People
magazine:
•At the Academy Awards a live-action
short film
director is the only black nominee of 166.
•3.9 percent or fewer than 200 of 5,043
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Science members, who nominate and
choose Oscar winners, are Black.
•Blacks represent 2.6 percent of the Writers
Guild.
•In 1994, 2.3 percent of the Directors
Guild membership was Black.
•Blacks make up less than 2 percent of
Local 44, a 4,000-member set decorator
and property master union.
These statistics seem to provide ample
evidence that the film industry, on screen
and backstage, resists the inclusion of
Blacks. Although Blacks make up 12
percent of the American population and
25 percent of the moviegoing audience,
their numbers in the business of film are
minimal.
The problem is much more significant
than at first appearence because
Hollywood’s images are the mirror to
which America holds its face. The
definition of American society is often
established and clarified through the
media, which are prevasi ve in their impact.
However, for Blacks ascending in
Hollywood can be like navigating a house
of mirrors. As for the higher strata, about
the only Black faces near Hollywood’s
executive suites were there the night
before— cleaning.
“The fact that you can still name the
people [blacks in various positions]
illustrates the problem,” says John Mack,
president of the Urban League’s Los
Angeles chapter.
Within the studio executive and
producer brotherhood deals are verbally
sealed on surburban beaches. And as
Blacks are shut out of the socialness of
business, they are also veiled from the
wheeling and dealing.
Filmmaker Warrington Hudlin, who
produced “Boomerang”, described
Hollywood as a closed community, where
one cannot just rely on the quality of ones
work.
However, Quincy Jones is one exception
to the ivory composition of Hollywood’s
inner circles. He gave these comments in
the March 1996 issue of People magazine.
“There’s a lot of racism going on, and
I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t. Until
more [black] people break into decision
making positions there will be noequality.”
Jones suggests that Hollywood look to
the better-integrated music industry as a
model. ‘The movies have always been 20
or 30 years behind the music business.”
The absence of Black executives impacts
profoundly, from the type of films made,
to the means by which Blacks are depicted
— if they make the cast. Every studio in
town rejected TV veteran Tim Reid’s
[Frank’s Place and WK.RP in Cincinnati]
first film “Once Upon A Time...When We
Were Colored,” because it was “too soft.”
Reid translated this as “too human.”
BET Pictures salvaged this heart
warming story of a boy growing up in the
segregated South, although its promotion
and availability were limited.
Another critical movie to the snail-paced
changing images of Blacks recently was
the critically acclaimed “Waiting To
Exhale” produced with $15 million, a
budget less than half an average studio
movie, and grossed $65 million.
The perpetual environment of
underdevelopment stunts the creativity,
production and promotional possibilities
of Black films.
A largely unnoticed film because of
these reasons was “Devil In A Blue Dress”,
a Walter Mosley adapted detective story
starring Denzel Washington. This film
experimented with the production of stories
written by Black authors.
Being weary of the Black exploitation
films of the ’70s, Blacks seem to have
been up this spine-cramping budget ceiling
and handful-of-recycled talent path before.
Even as House Party grossed more than 10
times its $2.5 million budget, executives
held the production team’s second feature
at the same level.
Ben Fagan WCLK program director
concedes that the [economic] power is still
in the consumers hands. He said it is the
responsibility of Blacks in the industry to
educate consumers and direct the money
flow
Oddly enough, as greed has scourged
the consciousness of Holly wood, it allowed
only one superstar per decade. Sidney
Continued on P9
Photo by Melvin Jackson
Professor James Mcjunkins, CAU alumnae Rita Owens
and Michael Cottman at a Mass media Arts reception.
Cottman, CAU mass communications alumnus and Pultizer Prize
winner, returned March 28 as 1996 convocation speaker.
Cottman discussed his new book, "Million Man March." He is a 20-year
veteran journalist and a former reporter for New York Newsday. Cottman
appears regularly on a weekly New York PBS television program, “The
Week In Review.” He is presently working on another book called
“Spirit Dive” about the discovery of a 17th Century slave ship, the
Henrietta Marie, that sank off the coast of Key West, Fla. Cottman
articles have appeared in Black Enterprise, Essence, Emerge and other
numerous publications across the nation.