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Black Film Review
Volume 8, Number 2
10th Anniversary Issue
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Art Direction & Design
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Cover
Photographer: H. Braithwaite; Stylist: P. Chaffers; Concept:
E. Easter, L. Farrar-Frazer; Props: Bono Film & Video
Services
Film Clips
In Our Own Image
Why African American women are a vitalforce in the film industry. Plus
the Daughters of the Diaspora Filmography.
16
Keys to the Kingdom
PHYLLIS K. KLOTMAN AND JANET C. CUTLER.
Jacqueline Shearer was the personification of cultural truth, community activism and the celebration of life. In a final conversation she
shares her convictions and insights.
20
Recall and Recollect: Excavating the Life History of Eloyce King Patrick Gist
GLORIA J. GIBSON-HuDSON
The life ofa foremother ofBlack cinema is brought to light.
22
Beyond Black and White
JULIA CHANCE
Gianella Garrett's African American and Italian heritage inspired her to explore one of
America's most complex legacies in her documentary film Between Black and White.
24
Music Video: With Love From Jazz Lee
LEASA FARRAR-FRAZER
Melodie McDaniel and Jazz Lee Alston combine their enormous talents and take on
domestic violence. Plus a conversation with video pioneer Lionel Martin.
National Advertising
Sheila Reid
One Media, Inc.
202.466.4716
This project was made possible in part by a grant from the
Media Arts Fund, created by the National Alliance of Media
Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Art, and
supported by the Georgia Council for the Arts.
Bridgett M. Davis returnedfrom the 1994 Cannes Film
Festival with disturbing revelations about the state ofAfrican
American cinema.
SHERI PARKS
Co-Publisher
One Media, Inc.
Eric Easter, CEO
Black Film Review (ISSN 0887-5723) is published four times
a year by One Media, Inc. in association with the Black Film
Institute of the University of the District of Columbia.
Subscriptions are $13 per year for individuals and $25 for
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World View
FEATURES
Contributing Editors
Patricia AUfderheide
Thomasina Sligh
TaRessa Stovall
Contributors
Natalie Bullock
Julia Chance
Janet K. Cutler
Eugenia C. Daniels
Bridgett M. Davis
Kwame-Cumale Fitzjohn
Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson
TJ Johnson
Phyllis R. Klotman
Sheri Parks
Jerry White
John Williams
Lesette Heath
Cauleen Smith speaks from her soul and Thandie Newton
scores big in the movies.
FESPACO... Windows on the World explores the Galapogos
Islands... 95'...John Carstarphen takes a humorous look at
Black romance...Danny Glover does storytelling.
Editor-in-Chief
Leasa Farrar-Frazer
Consulting Editor
Tony Gittens (Black Film Institute)
Close Up
DEPARTMENTS
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8
Letter from the Editor
The Mail
Campus: NYU's Tisch School of the
28
Arts/American University School of
Communications.
29Multi Media: Movie and video
18
Review: Boaz Yakin proves an apt
player in the ghetto film genre.
27
Television: What's on and what's off
TechWatch: The Alliance of Black
Entertainment Technicians' Shirley
Moore and Marie Carter.
guides are as near as your computer
screen.
34
Resource Exchange
in TV land.
BFR NOW ON CD-ROM
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BLACK FILM REVIEW/3
FROM THE EDITOR
THE MAIL
With this issue, Black Film Review celebrates its tenth year as a journal focusing on Black
Dear BFR,
film and filmmakers. Anniversaries are a time to celebrate and they also give pause for
I thoroughly enjoyed your last issue. Of particular
reflection; a time for assessment of what has passed, then charting the future.
interest were the interviews with the African filmmakers, David Aschar, Jean-Marie Teno,and Jean-Pierre
The past has not been without it's character-building struggles as is the case with most small
Bekolo.
onetheless, Black Film Review is excited by what we see in our future
While the distributor(s) for their films may be common
and that of Black cinema. It is not, however, an excitement naive of the very real challenges
knowledge in our nation's capital, it is not in Clovis,
arts organizations.
New Mexico. As a relative newcomer to African and
present for the many working professionals, those just starting out, and independents and
professionals in training. Rather, our excitement applauds the existence and renaissance of
African-American film, I have a lot of catching up to
do and would like to see these films.
Black cinema and our participation in the powerful act of images making that reflects,
Can you help me out? Thanks.
inspires and re-images our experiences, in spite of obstacles.
Ty Hall
To express our enthusiasm and desire to address concerns important to the continued pro-
Clovis, NM
duction of films relevant to the Black experience, Black Film Review has made a number
Gladly Contact California Newsreel, 149 9th Street,
of changes. Dedication and commitment characterize our tradition of bringing you the best
Suite 420, San Francisco, CAl 94103, 415.621.6196,
fX.415.621.6522.
of film analysis and critique. Building on that tradition, we have broadened our focus to
•••••
include topics ranging from new technologies, to distribution and funding strategies, and
trends in television and video production. These changes establish BFR's newly defined
Dear BFR,
mission of creating a dialog and synergy between the worlds of scholarly film criticism, the
film industry and related fields, and the dynamic world of popular Black culture. In addition
to our new design and expanded format, we are also now on-line at [email protected] and
available on CD-ROM.
Thank you for your continual support; not only with
Sankofa but with independent cinema pre & present
BFR. We were very pleased with the article written by
E. Assata Wright. Additionally, Haile on the cover of
Vol. 8, #1 was very timely. It was a historically significant statement of respect by a magazine that hails
Our cover concept, shot by photographer Hilton Barthwaite, was inspired by Eric Easter.
Props were graciously donated by Bono Film and Video Services, Inc. in Arlington, Virginia.
A special thanks goes to our summer intern, Lesette Heath, whose skills contributed greatly to this issue. We wish her tremendous success in her senior year at Hampton University.
the contributions and accomplishments of independent filmmakers while other periodicals turn their
attention to commercial cinema.
As we spread our wings and fly to other cities across
the country, the distribution process that Sankofa is
undergoing continues to be such an eye opening
To our steadfast and expanding family of readers: Thank You. BFR enthusiastically looks
experience, both for us as well as our audience. It
forward to its next ten years of service which will place us solidly in the middle of the first
proves that necessary struggle is never in vain.
decade of the new millennium. See you there.
Ada Marie Babino
Mypheduh Films, Inc.
New York/Washington, D.C.
Leasa Farrar-Frazer, editor
Black Film Review welcomes mail from its readers.
Please send your letters to: Black Film Review, The
Mail, P.O. Box 18665, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
4/BLACK FILM REVIEW
)
Congratulations to
BLACK FILM REVIEW
on your Tenth Anniversary from
Quincy Jones-David Saltzman Entertainment
THE MANY LAYERS OF CAULEEN SMITH
film is grainy, and the camera movements are frequently
jumpy. "My work is very crude. I'm not interested in slickness," Smith says. Like the work of Coleman and his avant
garde colleagues, Chronicles feels like the creation of someone emotionally engaged with the work -- too emotionally
engaged to worry about simplifying her vision or making it
gun to work in video and plans to
what she calls "The Sapphire
o video has its benefits because
tribute. Video editing and other
ore expensive than film but for
of the creative process takes place.
y friendly to improvisation. "I can't
in such a linear way," Smith says
iting and the advance planning
ludes that she can "use video
etch thing"
her video work "informal
essays...to work out some theoretical ideas."
This skepticism with the medium, however, is scarcely visible in the first installment of the Sapphire tapes, titled The
Message. The piece is essentially a video portrait of a shirtless
man hanging around in a second story apartment. There is
again a layered sound track with Smith discussing how she
feels on an emotional, sensual, and political level about filming
this man, and how this relates to her desire for him. This track
is laid over ambient sound of her instructing him in what to do
and how to pose.The images are jumpy and hand-held, and the
composition is frequently awkward, only letting us see parts of
the man's body, making him seem fragmented. It quickly
to the screen with an
filmmaker's alter-ego Kelly Gabron, who supposedly tells the
becomes clear that the camera movements are as unsteady as
all experiemental. Others,
story of Smith's next film. She observes that Smith pleads with
her confidence in her ability to gaze respectfully at the man,
us to go back and tend to it, then takes one last tentative look
and the compositions as awkward as her expressions of guilt
at her sisters. And we are left with our memories.
and pleasure in recording the movements of his body.
ION
ould say she soul-speaks with the complexity and
of an elder.
She has shown work at community centers and dance
(1992), further illustrates Smith's tendency to work in layers,
clubs, venues not generally considered welcoming to experi-
's only made three piece~, the longest one a whop-
although this time the result is far more dense and challenging.
mental film but which are more accessible to people who
"k,,~ y of work that rivals any-
The screen is filled with cut-out images and typewritten text
might not otherwise see this genre of work. "People are happy
ative use of the medium
arranged in a fragmented manner. Two voice-overs are going
to see it," Smith says of the reception of her work in these
rant of contemporary experimental media artists. Even
s, she's got a
Her next film, Chronicles
of a Lying Spirit
by Kelly Gabron
leen Smith, 25, has earned a place among the freshest,
ulti-Iayered, sensual and a
simultaneously, each telling a different version of the life of
spaces. Of those unaccustomed to dense or visually odd work
dynamic examp e f'rR;~" o"'ngoing struggle to create images that
Cauleen Smith.The pictures frequently contain racist images, and
she says, "when I try to be sincere...they'll hang in there ... peo-
speak eloquently of the African American experience.
one of the stories, told by a male vo~e, is just a long list of
pie know it's an artistic vibe". She also says that young people,
Smith's first film, Daily Rains (1990), deftly blends lyrical
cliched and stereotypical stories of African American struggle.
who she thinks are very visually sophisticated, are capable of
imagery with documentary styles to explore everyday experi-
The other voice-over, however, is Smith's own voice, and tells a
really embracing her films. Being of the MTV generation does
ences of racism. The film moves between carefully arranged
simpler and more poignant story. A young girl grows up in the
have its positive elements. Smith says that she herself has been
tableau of women standing in sparsely furnished spaces, with
suburbs, watches a lot ofT\/, struggles with identity, and eventu-
heavily influenced by the large amount of TV she watched
slides projected on or near them. It then moves to lyrical images
ally decides that bein an artist can be a valid form of political
when she was a kid (in an article in The Independent, she
of two girls playing in a field and sequences of three different
struggl
my shame and guilt," she
described herself as a "Sesame Street", "Electric Company"
women looking directly at the camera describing their first
"
baby).
experiences with racism. In addition to a young woman of per-
Smith's brief career as a filmmaker hints at great promise.
haps 17 years and a middle aged woman, Smith uses herself as
She is an artist who is highly aware of the power of her medi-
an interview subject.
um and determined to make her films reflect the concerns of
Daily Rains' style is certainly experimental, but never
everyday life. Her work fulfills some of the radical aspirations
obscure. Sequences are constructed carefully and linger long
of the avant-garde. It re-defines the language in a way that
enough to give the viewer a real sense of their painterly beauty.
makes viewers (not just fellow avant garde artists) re-evaluate
The interviews are very simple and all seen in a single shot, with
their own experiences and the way that they look at repre-
the women rambling a bit to get to the meat of their story. A
sentations of those experiences.
key part of the aesthetic, we see the women talk about the
ordeals of everyday life in a way that is unrehearsed and conversational. Supplementary notes to the film are written by the
6/BLACK FILM REVIEW
Jerry White is on the staff of the Neighborhood Film/Video Project
and the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema.
o
AT
THE MOVE WITH THANDIE NEWTON
YEARS OLD, British actress
ewton.already has five feature films to
her c~~8it andtqs~qrkingon her sixth. With Flirting,
The Young AmericIJns, Loaded, lefferson in Paris,
Inti
ire under her belt and The
loney of August
resently in production, she
y well constitut
ther British invasion.
In The Journ
ugust King, Newton plays
ay(JlJng run-awa~
nnalees. Based on the
novel by John Ehle, the Addis/Wechsler Pictures
production also stars Jason Patrie and Larry Drake
and is directed by John Duigan.
Set in 1815 amidst the splendor of the western
North Carolina countryside, The Journey of
August King traces the physical and interpersonal
trek of a lonely mountain man, played by Patrie in
the title role and Newton's character, whom he harbors. When wealthy plantation owner, Olaf
Singletary, played by Larry Drake (L.A. Law) discovers that two of his slaves have fled, he lures the
community into an intensive manhunt. August
encounters the terrified Annalees along a country
road, conceals her in his wagon thus embarking on
a harrowing journey.
Thandj~
'P¥-O E
It's a very simple story about the strength of the
human spirit and overcoming this kind of oppression," reflected Newton when asked how The
Journey of August King differs from other films
about slavery made over the years. "It shows the
color of their skin right down to the bone and you
see two people. Ultimately it is about humanity."
Born to African and English parents and raised
in Africa for a portion of her childhood, Newt€f .
in the enviable position of having several fil
scheduled for release back to back. She'll no doub
create quite a stir in the next year when The Young
Americans, Loaded, and Jefferson in Paris (in which
she plays the coveted role of Sally Hemmings), are
released in the US in quick succession.
Due to graduate with a degree in
Anthropology from Cambridge University next
spring, Newton was a trained dancer until an
injury at sixteen ended her dreams of becoming
professional. Her introduction to the film industry was a matter of being in the right place at the
right time. In 1989 she attended an audition on a
fluke and caught the attention of the casting
director for Duigan's Flirting. This resulted in
BLACK FILM REVIEW/?
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY·S TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Adisa/A Clear Vision
Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell/Word from the Helm
Adisa. The Yoruba derived name means "one who makes his meaning clear." The man
behind the name captures the spirit and essence the name evokes. He is one concerned
with the merit of his work, the integrity it represents, the message it delivers.
As a politically and socially correct young brother, Adisa's meaning is quite clear to
anyone who listens. It is his mission to make a difference through film, or as he more aptly
puts it, "dedicate the rest of my life to making films for and
about Blacks."
Adisa attributes watching '70s blaxploitation movies as
peaking his interest in filmmaking. "I got a sense there was
something more to filmmaking." Later came Spike Lee's
She's Gotta Have It. "I was totally taken with the artistry of
it. At the time I was under the magic of Hollywood so I didn't even know that there were Black directors out there."
Now he's proud to add his name to the list of those
with creative control behind the camera. Of his films, he
says, "I don't like portraying Black people as victims, the
oppressed [within society]. I struggle with ways to tell stories that will give us power."
Maybe this accounts for his not-so-wonderful experience as a music video director
for artists such as Big Daddy Kane and Positive K. "All they wanted to show was sex and
booty. The element of filmmaking I've always loved is that I can create. The element of play
was missing." He recalls, after viewing the finished product, "Record producers would say
we loved it, but can you put some more booty in it." To say he wasn't challenged as an artist
would be an understatement. But he doesn't rule out the possibility of directing future
videos. If A Tribe Called Quest or Public Enemy called and requested his "skills" he would
jump to the offer.
After his brief fling with the world of music videos, the New York University film grad
has stood firm on preparing an honest body of work people will accept for its inspirational
messages. The focus of his student film, Garden of Love, was the plight of crack addicted
babies while A View From Here dealt with a handicapped kid who faces his difficulty in quite
a remarkable way. Both films have received honors such as the BACS Independent and
Student Filmmakers Competition Award and recognition from the Black Cinema Society.
Adisa credits NYU's film school with giving him a foundation, but believes, "Any film
school, as long as it has cameras and good teachers can prepare you. You also have to be
focused, dedicated and determined. I think it is overly optimistic on anyone's part to think
the school is going to make the filmmaker."
Since finishing film school last year, the Oakland, Ca. native hasn't let the proverbial
grass grow under his feet. He is currently under contract with Disney to direct three feature films. (It seems the Disney powers-that-be were overwhelmed by his thesis film, Notes
in a Minor Key.) His face has graced the pages of VIBE Magazine, while Director John
Singleton has shared his insights on the film industry with the young up and coming filmmaker. Of Singleton,Adisa says, "I found him to be very approachable." And if you look close
enough when Higher Learning hits theaters, you might catch a glimpse of Adisa in a small
role.
Others in his position might find themselves succumbing to the "I'm getting paid syndrome" because of such immediate mainstream success. But not Adisa, you sense he has a
higher purpose. "I want to be able to look at my work and revel in the fact that it has merit.
Anything I attach my name to has to be honest."
Since its founding in 1967, Tisch has become a haven for many struggling and committed young artists. And undoubtedly the Film Department has experienced the most success. With illustrious alumni, including Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, and Oliver Stone, Tisch
has earned itself an impressive reputation in both the professional and academic arenas.
According to Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell, hundreds of film school applications flood the
admissions office yearly, but only a select few are chosen. (Tisch chooses 50 students for
its graduate program and 1,000 for its undergraduate program.)
Dean Campbell, formerly New York's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs and one-time
executive director of Harlem's Studio Museum, says those who are chosen, "give us some
sense of what they have to say, they know what their voice is." She adds, "We look for
someone who is independent, who is willing to engage in hard
work, and wants to commit themselves to a life in the arts."
After the film department has selected its students,
Campbell believes it does an excellent job of preparing them
to compete within the industry. "Our film school prepares students to go into the world with the best artistic portfolio and
with a host of marketable skills. There is no one way to get
into the industry, there are many points of entry. Our students
understand their range of options."
Campbell credits the rise of young people choosing to
study film to the power of the medium itself. "Film and video
have become so ubiquitous. Our students see the immediate
access people have to it." According to Campbell, Tisch's location is a significant asset as
well. "NYC is the cultural capital of the world. It is not a one industry town, there are so
many facets. NYC offers a mini global panorama and NYU makes full use of its resources.
We share a symbiotic relationship with NYC. We like to think of the city as our campus.
NYU fuels and charges the city and [vice-versa]."
In her fours years as dean, Campbell has witnessed only film students who are originators emerge. There appears to be no one patented formula for success, which in a sense
is what distinguishes a Tisch student from any other. One never knows what to expect. Of
student work she says, "Every year at the screenings, we're always surprised."
Jermaine Encarnacion/Catching the Train to Success
Working in a movie theater during his adolescence is where Jermaine Encarnacion
first encountered the dynamics of the film world.Viewing the dramatic situations portrayed
on screen, Encarnacion knew he could bring his own reality before an audience.
"I try to make my films personal, things I'm interested in, how I would react in a situation. If you look at my films, my signature is how I influence the acting. My main character
is going to be a young Black male in a dramatic situation. The actor is representing me,"
according to Encarnacion.
Encarnacion's student film, F-Train is such an example. The film focuses on three young
men, one Black, one White, one Asian, who confront racial stereotypes while stuck in a
stalled subway car. According to Encarnacion, in the end, the
three realize their backgrounds are not so different after all.
"They grew up listening to the same music, watching the same
television shows, and everything." He explains further, "While
in the subway car, they found a way to get along, but after the
car pulls off, each goes off into his own separate world." The
film recently garnered the Carl Lerner Social Significance
award and a coveted spot in NYU's annual First Run Film
Festival.
Aside from his success with F-Train, Encarnacion interned
in the South of France during the Cannes Film Festival last
summer. Of his experience, he says, "It was very unique. A lot
of industry people were out there. I learned a little about
how things are done business-wise."
With hopes of becoming a much sought after director and writer of feature
films, Encarnacion says much of the inspiration behind his filmmaking comes from real life.
"I get inspired just by human issues. I deal with universal issues, not just one type of culture."
Currently Encarnacion's focus centers around NYU's spring semester when he begins
work on the "feared" thesis project.
8/BLACK FILM REVIEW
NYU·S TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
GRADUATE FILM DEPARTMENT UP CLOSE
The philosophy of the department itself rests on the premise that one learns
by doing. The majority of the students who apply are interested in dramatic
films, and come primarily to learn to write or direct. The program is a three year
course of study, with each year running from September to May.
The Graduate Film and Television Program accepts only 50 students each
year to its three-year Masters of Fine Arts program. The program concentrates on
writing, directing, producing and editing, and culminates in production of a thesis film in the form of a dramatic short or documentary.
Master-teacher workshops in directing are held twice a month. Most recently,
alumni Martin Scorsese ('68), Spike Lee ('82), and Nancy Savoca ('82) returned
to Tisch as master teachers. For further information or correspondence, contact:
Annesia Campbell, Graduate Admissions Coordinator/Graduate Film
Department at 212.998.1780.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA CENTER
Steven Kendall/Professor at the Movies
Imagine a college exam which asks you to define the elements of a Spike Lee movie, note
the similarities between Boyz N'the Hood and Menace II Society, or true/false: Wesley Snipes
portrayed drug lord Nino Brown in New Jack City. Believe it or not, graduate students at
American University (AU) in Washington, D.C. may find themselves selecting a, b, c, or all of
the above when Steven Kendall, an assistant professor of Visual Media at AU brings his book,
New Jack Cinema: Hollywood's New Wave of African American Directors to syllabus form
next spring.
Kendall's book consists of 28 biographies of Black filmmakers including Spike Lee, Robert
Townsend, John Singleton, Matty Rich and Julie Dash. Kendall says the idea behind the book
came from what he saw as a renaissance in Black films. In 1991, while a producer for Black
Entertainment Television's "Screen Scene," Kendall says he witnessed Hollywood bring us several movies such as Boyz N'the Hood and New Jack City, which started a chain reaction in the
film industry, as major studios scrambled to bring more Black urban dramas to the theater.
According to Kendall, the "renaissance" opened doors for more aspiring Black directors to
bring their visions to the silver screen - his essential focus of the book.
He began work on the book the following year. Although he credits 1991 as the year for
"the Black film renaissance," his book begins with a profile of Spike Lee and his 1986 cult classic, She's Gotta Have It. "I eliminated much of the theory and criticism involved in film because
I wanted a younger person or a beginning film student to be able to pick up the book and
understand it."
During his research, Kendall was surprised to discover a commonality among the filmmakers profiled. "Each had a real passion for what they wanted to do, each struggled and many went untraditional routes
to achieve success, such as Robert Towsend, who used his
credit card to finance the budget of his first film."
Kendall is excited about both his book and course, which
will be an expansion of the book, with screenings of selected
films for class discussion and guest filmmakers brought in for
question/answer sessions.
Kendall, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, received his bachelor
of arts in radioltelevision/film from Temple University. He
received his master's in film and video from AU's School of
Communication in 1987 and was invited to join the department's faculty in 1991. Aside from his interest in New Jack
Cinema, Kendall has written and produced several programs for national cable networks
including the series, The Antique Doctor for The Learning Channel. Kendall recently launched
a mutlimedia company, "Storybook Factory," which publishes childrens' books on CD-Rom,
video and audio tape, as well as in the traditional hardcover.
Valerie Smith/Filming the Dark Edge
Valerie Smith is followed by echoes. Echoes of a young filmmaker -- "pay your dues,"
"never sacrifice your integrity," and "let your work be your voice." Like many of her colleagues,
Smith takes comfort in the echoes, allowing them to direct her visions, strengthen her deter-
mination and guide her ultimate passion for film. For this recent graduate ofWashington, D.C.'s
American University's Film &Video School, there is no such thing as a missed opportunity, no
subject too taboo, and no experience too dangerous or life threatening to explore to its
fullest.
Her recent thesis project allowed Smith to put her money, or more appropriately, her
life, where her mouth was, as she took to the streets of Washington, D.C. to film a documentary on teenage prostitutes. "I didn't want to do just anything, I wanted something with
impact," says Smith, who called Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS) and told them
of her plans to document the work they do. Without reservation, they agreed.
According to Smith, the documentary took four months
to complete. Four months in a world Smith describes as horribly abusive, where youth are lost in a deadly game of drug
addiction, fast money, mind control, and no escape. "I met some
very nice, very humorous prostitutes, but they were also very
frightened and abused. The majority of them are runaways who
come from abusive homes, and are [befriended] by a pimp, who
later puts them on the streets after gaining their confidence."
Filming the actual footage for the documentary proved
the most challenging to Smith, who could not shoot the faces
of any of the prostitutes that she met because they were
minors. She says the youngest prostitute walking the streets of D.C. is 13 years old. Smith
depended on her use of clever shooting techniques such as back shots, side views, and shooting their shoes to bring the heartbreaking images of lost adolescence to film. Outraged and
disgusted at what she saw as commonplace, Smith hopes that HIPS can use her documentary
to open the eyes of others to teenage prostitution. "These are kids who have the right to
experience what normal teenagers experience."
Smith, a native Washingtonian, says that she will take with her some invaluable lessons
from her brief sojourn on the streets. Smith's next project will perhaps stir up even further
controversy. "I am currently working with a production company. We're in the process of
doing a documentary on the 1991 Mt. Pleasant riot [which occurred in the predominately
Hispanic section of Washington D.C.] and the issues that it brought about - housing, homelessness, and police brutality towards Latinos." Smith says the project came about after she
directed a music video titled, The Forbidden Tale of Pedro and Tyrone, which tells the story
of two kids, one of whom ends up traveling the wrong path. Her previous experience also
includes a stint in Prague as a part of the AU Summer Film Workshop, where she assisted in
directing three short films.
With a B.A. from Bowie State University in Communications and now M.A in film and
video from AU, it is hard to believe that Smith even took a five year absence between studies. "Sometimes I really regret taking that time, but it gave me the chance to work with
Channel 16," where she got practical experience from directing council hearings. But like all
committed artists, Smith wanted to perfect her directorial skills so AU beckoned.
When asked if she has any other interests outside of film, she quips, "Are you serious?"
and then goes on to list music (especially jazz and r&b) and acting. She admits her all-time
favorite pastime is television. "When I was younger, my brother and I would sit in front of the
television to keep occupied." Smith attributes hours of watching television with her love for
moviemaking, while citing The Learning Tree, directed by Gordon Parks, as her favorite childhood movie. "It was so beautifully acted. It had the ability to bring people in," which is what
29-year-old Smith ultimately yearns to do. "I want to touch people with my screenplays, I want
to make them laugh or shed tears." Lesette Heath
AU·s MASTERS IN FILM & VIDEO PROGRAM UI? CLOSE
Located in the national and international communication capital of the world, Washington D.C.'s
American University's Master of Arts program in Film
& Video prepares students for careers as writers, producers, directors, and production specialists in the
rapidly growing fields of film and video. The program
enables students to focus their studies in one or more
disciplines, such as film production, video production,
scriptwriting, and film history, theory and criticism.
Nationally recognized as an outstanding, professionally
oriented program, AU provides students with state-of-
the-art equipment and multimedia facilities.
AlJ's School of Communication Media Center
annually showcases hundreds of films and videos of all
kinds. Regular programs are held with local, national,
and international artists, CrItICS and scholars.
Additionally, there are frequent speakers, screenings and
festivals co-sponsored with the National Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences, Women in Film and Video,
the Washington Film and Video Council, and various
embassies.
Students interested in applying to AU's Master of
Arts program in Film & Video must have a bachelor's
degree from an accredited college or university with a
GPA of at least a 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale) in the last 60
semester hours of undergraduate work. Admitted students are expected to complete the program within a
two year period. For more information concerning
AlJ's Film & Video Program call 202.885.2040 or write:
Graduate Film & Video Program, School of
Communication, The American lJ niversity, 4400
Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 200168017.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/9
CANNES 1994
OBSERVI G AFRICA AMERICANS "WORKI G" THE 1994 Cannes
Film Festival was like bearing witness to the dilemmas of
American Black folks in microcosm. That it unfolded in the
south of France, amidst French-speaking Africans and Black
Europeans, made it no less striking. African Americans filmmakers suffer from the same identity crisis that African Americans in
general suffer from -- how best to be Black.
It is a struggle between that three-headed monster that sits
heavily on the shoulders of all African Americans: The
Nationalist, The Integrationist and the Individualist. All three
ugly heads raised up at Cannes this
past May, bickering terribly amongst
themselves, canceling out one another's effectiveness --unable to co-exist.
That conflict was most evident at
the annual Black/Noir Filmmakers
Conference held in the huge,
makeshift tent known as the American
Pavilion -- one of the several patriotic
structures erected beside the city's
sandy beaches for the duration of the
festival.
Last year the Black filmmaker's panel featured Melvin Van Peebles and his son Mario
(New Jack City, Posse), and writer/director Rusty
Cundieff (House Party, Fear of A Black Hat).
Both Spike Lee's X and the Hughes brothers'
Menace II Society were all the rage back in the
states during the '93 festival. That created an
ongoing buzz about "Black product" among powers-that-be. Last year, the Kodak Conference
Center at the American Pavilion was packed tight,
TV press swarming and audience participation
was lively.
started the annual panel because he noticed year after year that
no real Black presence existed among the multitude of sponsored events. The first year he presented the panel, he managed
to get Unifrance to sponsor a champagne reception; in subsequent years, he's received partial funding from Kodak, but no
more champagne receptions. This year, without any name-recognition stars to sit on the panel, he met resistance from both
American film organizations and corporations who had no interest in co-sponsoring the panel. Up until the day of the event,
Taliaferro was passing out flyers, hand-delivering notices to mailboxes and stopping other Blacks on
the streets of Cannes -- personally
encouraging and cajoling people to
show up.
Taliaferro's plight begs the question why one individual has attempted, year-after-year, to coordinate an
event whose most logical sponsor
would be the nationally established
Black Filmmaker Foundation (BFF).
But since BFF was not officially represented in any capacity at the '94 festival, the question is essentially moot.
Taliaferro is convinced that the problems of
Black filmmakers throughout the diaspora and
their inability to establish a significant presence at
Cannes stems from their lack of a home base, a
meeting place. Alongside the American Pavilion,
there's a European Pavilion,a Japanese one, an
African one and others, each housed in its own
structure, complete with its national flag flapping
in the resort town breeze. Taliaferro believes
there ought to be one such pavilion for Black
folks. He reasons that with a central
location, a presence can be established,
•
a meeting place guaranteed, vital information disseminated, and a Black
Filmmakers Panel Discussion housed under its
Those filmmakers who did sit on the all-male
own roof. It is the international film festival
panel disagreed over the direction of Black film,
equivalent of a homeland. The idea, however, has
what defines Black film and how it fits into an
yet to fly. African filmmakers, admits Taliaferro,
overall Black political agenda. Some believed
are resistant to the idea. But they're not the only
Black filmmakers should work collectively and
ones.
exclusively. Still another felt he was a filmmaker
"I get resistance even from Black (American)
first, a Black one second. And still another felt the
filmmakers," says Taliaferro. "I know that as a
filmmaker, you need an individual vision. But
solution lay in directing films for major studios
that have no Black subject matter. Everyone,
nobody questions a European Pavilion. Nobody
however, agreed with the moderator A. Jacquie
ever questions the fact that they all get together."
Taliaferro's sentiments.
Of course, if the BFF or any other major
Black film organization had a booth housed in the
"We should be beginning the formation of a
distribution system that delivers Black film from
American Pavilion, not unlike the ones occupied
Cameroon to New York," said Taliaferro. "Until
by both the IFP (which handles the films for all
we do, we're going to have these conferences over American filmmakers participating in the
and over again with the same discussions, obserMarche) and Women In Film -- two influential
vations... and at the end, walk out of the door feelAmerican film organizations headquartered on
ing disgusted."
both coasts, a gathering spot for Black folks would
Taliaferro, a San Francisco filmmaker, is the
automatically exist. But there is no such booth.
organizing force behind the four-year-old
The success of each year's festival is often
Black/Noir Filmmakers Panel at Cannes. He
gauged by the number of top actors and actresses
By BRIDGETT
This year, no stars sat on the panel.
Spike Lee unofficially boycotted
Cannes, opting not to premiere
Crooklyn at the festival. And since American studios in general felt dissed by the low number of
US films invited to Cannes '94, Hollywood was
nearly non-existent. The lone Black American
director whose film had its world premiere at
Cannes this year, Darnell Williams (I Like It Like
That) wasn't on the Black/Noir Filmmakers
panel. She had, however, participated earlier in
the week in the "American Directors at Cannes"
press conference presented by the Independent
Feature Project (IFP).
Also absent from the panel were top-name
Black actors attending the festival, Black executives representing the festival and Black executives representing the Hollywood studios who
were in Cannes. Publicity for the panel, too, was
minimal, since it didn't get advance listing in key
publications and flyers -- a major omission for a
film festival where time negotiation comes down
to a deft balancing act for festival attendees, and
where tons of literature churned out of various
sources daily gets read religiously.
10/BLACK FILM REVIEW
M DAVIS
Black filmmakers at the WIF panel presentation
roaming about, so noting how many Black actors
Mariachi and Poetic Justice). Her name, however,
where Allain spoke? Apart from a few women in
were spotted along the quay or at the parties and was not included in the official listing of panelists
screenings provided a gauge of Black presence -for the event, added seemingly as an afterthe audience, Black attendance was low. Why
wasn't there a reception held in her honor at
thought. Since Allain is arguably the most influif not influence. And since Darnell Williams -- the
someone's villa or hotel suite? And, finally, where
first African American woman ever to make a ential African American woman in Hollywood
major studio film -- was the only Black director today, with a film in competition at the festival,
was her presence on that low-key Black filmmakwhose film was officially selected for Cannes, the
ers' panel?
the situation begs yet another question: Why wasnumber of Black actors attending
Black folks were, in fact, at the prepremiere salsa party for I Like It
the festival was tiny. Those who
did make the transatlantic trek
Like That, but since it was an open,
were promoting one of three stupacked party held on a rainy night,
few people of influence attended. It
dio films/ featuring Black characters among its white casts: Dennis
was fun, but considering the cost of
Haysbert for Scott McGehee and
transportation, registration and
David Siegel's Suture, Giancarlo
housing for the festival, it was
expensive fun. Cannes' film festival
Esposito for Boaz Yakin's Fresh,
is about business. Even at the social
and Samuel Jackson for both
gatherings. Especially at the social
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction
and Fresh made up the triumvigatherings.
Most nights when neither prerate of Black actors represented.
And we were decidedly
mieres nor parties were scheduled,
industry people hung out in the
absent from certain key functions.
major hotel lounges. Those occaThis year, for instance, after Pulp
sions turned out to be ideal settings
Fiction premiered at the festival,
for networking, introducing oneself,
(the film went on to win the festipitching a project and connecting
val's Palm D'or), Miramax held an
with other filmmakers. But if the
invitation-only party at the tony
Carlton Hotel. Attending this
last five days of the festival were an
accurate reflection of the first five,
party were not only the stars of the
the presence of Black filmmakers
film (John Travolta, Bruce Willis),
was scarce in those hotel lounges.
but Miramax co-owner Harvey
Weinstein. Scattered about were
In the Independent Feature Film
Market, the only market at Cannes
agents, producers, and other
sundry people who could help
for US Independent films, 20 different filmmakers screened their work
make a deal happen. The color in
for distributors. Of those 20, one
the room was represented primarfilm was done by an African
ily by actor Samuel Jackson and
his best friend; a director's assisAmerican. White Man's Burden,
directed by Gregory Hines, tells the
tant; a female appendage or two;
unconvincing story of a 30-year-old
and the musicians in the band.
white man who gets involved with a
At the same time, a 10-minute
17-year-old Black high school stutaxi ride away from the Palais du
Festival and the hub of activity,
dent and discovers that his quest to
Black filmmakers of the diaspora
be "The Great White Father" has
tragic consequences. People walked
were attending an open party at a
rented villa. It was, in effect, the
out of the screening.
Viewed individually, no one film, no
official Black social event of the
festival. And it was disconnected
one panel discussion, no one
from the center of influence and
African American star's presence, or
attendance at the right party guaranpower. Since no film is ever inde- (Top photo) Samuel L. Jackson as Jules, the hitman with a philosophical proclivity in
pendent and is in fact interdepen- Quentin Taratino's Pulp Fiction. (Bottom photo) Jackson (I), John Travolta (center) as
teed positive results for Black filmVincent Vega and Harvey Keitel (r) as The Wolf.
makers trying to "work it" at the
dent upon a certain machinery
already in place, ghettoized netCannes Film Festival. Yet, viewed
working is indulgent at best.
n't her presence, her accessibility, best utilized by collectively, those situations, those missed opportunities, offer a brushstroked impression of the
Signs of Black folks' disconnectedness
the Black filmmakers who could have benefitted
showed up repeatedly. When Women In Film from it the most?
festival. And the impressionistic portrait rendered
sponsored its annual panel presentation, the one
by Black folks for Cannes '94 is one dominated by
"I think what's independent about a movie is
African American woman represented was
what's independent about the spirit of the movie,"
that three-headed monster.
Stephanie Allain, senior vice president of produc- Allain noted during her talk. "Is it a movie that
tion at Columbia Pictures and the person responbrings people together? That's the overriding Bridgett M. Davis, assistant professor of English and
sible for ushering I Like It Like That into exisquestion ... I'm excited about bringing these Journalism at Baruch College, City University of New
tence. (In previous years, she supervised producYork, writes about Black artists and issues of self-dismovies by people of color to the mainstream."
tion of Boyz 'N The Hood, Mo' Money, EI
Why wasn't there stronger attendance by covery. She is presently shooting her first feature film.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/11
FROM THE CONTINENT
Danny Glover with dance troupe
Satoto Yetu.
Filmmaker Howard Moss on location in the Galapagos Islands.
The Pan-African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO), established in 1972 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso,
emerged out of the initiative of African filmmakers. This
major first world film festival, which takes place bi-annually
during the last week of February, is viewed today as Africa's
grandest periodic cultural display. It has become a unifying,
reflective moment and celebration for Africans and Blacks in
the diaspora.
While FESPACO highlights the cinematic achievements
of Black people, Manthia Diawara, director of the African
Studies Department at New York University asserts "there
were so many cultural and intellectual activities going on [at
FESPACO] it will take more than films in competition to
evaluate any FESPACO."
The FESPACO audience has grown from 100,000 in
1972 to a half-million currently...and still counting. They
descend on Ouagadougou from all ends of the globe -- filmmakers, distributors, critics, cinema buffs, international television executives and others. This points to a growing interest in African cinema which a few decades ago was said to
hold no interest for Africans. Clearly, this is not true.
FESPACO 93' was important in that it churned out an
abundant offering of engaging African films, among which
were: Ousmane Sembene's Guelwaar, Haile Gerima's
Sankofa, Djim Kolla's Tounga, Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Quartier
Mozart, and Roger Gnoan-Mbala's Nom Tu Christ, which captured the 'Etalon de 'Yennenga', the coveted African grand
prize for cinema.
At FESPACO 93' films from the diaspora came from
Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas. There was a strong
African American representation with Danny Glover, Whoopi
Goldberg, Alice Walker and others in attendance. Spike Lee's
Malcolm X, which was praised for its "extraordinary technical
and artistic control, " won second place for the Paul Robeson
Prize for the best film for the diaspora. The award went to
Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck.
On the occasion of the centenary of cinema, FESPACO
95' has fittingly as its theme Cinema and History. Historian
Joseph Ki-Zerbo defined the importance of history to cinema
as "a kind of deposit waiting to be used in filmmaking.
Kwame-Cumale Fitzjohn.
Forfurther information:
FESPACO 95' The 14th Pan-African Film &
Television Festival
Date: February 25 - March 4, 1995
Location: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Upper
Volta), West Africa
Address: FESPACO
01 BP 2505
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
Tel: 226.30.75.38
Fax: 226.31.25.09
KIDS ON THE ROAD
Ever wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands? Soon you'll
be able to do just that with guides Kristopher Moss, 8, and
Nicole Mirnelli,10, youth hosts of Windows on the World, an
adventure travelogue film/video for kids which features the
enviornment and culture.
12/BLACK FILM REVIEW
This pilot and first segment features Kristopher and
Nicole taking off on a fantasy adventure through the
Galapagos Islands. Because of it's geographical ecosystem,
the Galapagos Isands is home to a rare collection of plant life,
animals, reptiles and birds. The islands were designated a
nature preserve many years ago.
Both kids unanimously agree that filming and playing
with the sea lions was the best part of their trip. "It was really
fun," said Kristopher, a student at Miami Shore Elementary
School. In addition to hanging out with the very friendly sea
lions, Kristopher and Nicole also explored a thousand year old
volcano and interviewed the local people about the giant tortoises for which the Galapagos Islands are famous. Nicole, a
5th grader this fall at South Point Elementary School, said of
the language difference, "I learned more Spanish in one week
than I learned in five years! I could communicate more."
Moss cites his now fulfilled dream of traveling the world
as inspirations for this project. His desire to be a positive
influence for children was another. With additional thought
and input from colleagues and friends, it became apparent to
Moss that Windows on the World had much more potential
than just one 30 minute children's travel film. He would like
to see Windows become a series of thirteen episodes, each
highlighting a different culture and its enviornmental concerns.
To reach an even larger audience, a multi-media kit for
home and classroom use is also in development. By using the
latest technology Moss hopes "...to stimulate the imaginations
and the desire for our young people, their families and teachers to make their personal explorations of the world in order
to bridge the gaps of understanding."
Filmmaker and director Al Santana, best known for his
classic documentary film Voices on the Gods, is the latest talent to join the project team. "The word that kept surfacing
throughout the production was 'awesome,'" says Santana. "It
has not been until Windows on the World that I have communed with nature in this way. The Windows project will be
is an inspiration for the millions of viewers who will have the
opportunity to see this natural beauty through the eyes of our
host children."
While there is no shortage of inspiration for the project,
both filmmakers agree that funding is a major issue. However,
they feel certain that the global relevance and timeliness of
Windows on the World will draw financial support from a
number of sources. Until then it is the shared vision of the significance of cultural and environmental awareness and understanding which drives this effort. Yet another bridge is built.
Any parting advice from our young hosts and seasoned
travelers about visiting the Galapogos Islands? "Yeah," says
Kristopher,"wear a wet suit. The water is really cold." LFR
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART
Is
John Carstarphen puts forth a ground breaking notion in
his new film being shot in Denton, Texas: that there exists in
the African American experience a world that is romantic and
funny. Carstarphen's new film, Stealin' Home, is a contemporary, urban romantic comedy about a professional African
American woman, Ala, who is in search of the perfect man.
Searching for the perfect mate is nothing new; that it is
framed in a Black romantic comedy is, considering the number of "gangster" -- read violent and destructive -- films that
have filled Hollywood's coffers over the last few years.
When asked what inspired him to make a romantic
comedy Carstarphen says, "The Black experience in this
country is a lot more diverse and complex than even we
give it credit for being. I wanted to make the kind of movie
I wanted to see - something other than guys with guns in
LA and New York." And so the story goes...
One day while jogging, Ala meets Jezel and they
embark on an intensely amorous relationship complete
with all the new relationship fluff -- the candles, the fireplace, good food, champagne and Lutha' Music. But soon
the relationship goes the route of many such rosy beginnings, erupting in The Big Fight which results in the disappearance of Jezel along with all of Ala's furniture. Ala
takes off on an hilarious yet poignant search of her lost
lover -- and her furniture.
Carstarphen also wanted to present contemporary
southern life and the African American woman in a more
accurate light. He admits, however, to having had stereotypical ideas about the south prior to his relocation to
Texas from Philadelphia where he was raised. "We all have
some connection to the south beyond the slavery experience. This film has helped me look at that experience in a
different way and there are a wealth of stories to be told."
Practical as well as artist considerations influenced his
decision to shoot the film in black and white. "Number
one," he states, "it's cheaper. And black and white film
lends itself more to a gritty, urban aesthetic."
A graduate of Temple University's film studies program, Carstarphen also holds a graduate degree from
American Film Institute's Directing Program. His previous
work, Weekend of Our Discontent, was the winner of the
1993 Paul Robeson Award for Best Short at the Newark
Black Film Festival and was nominated for a Cable Ace
Award.
Rebecca Rice, a former independent producer for
.children's educational video production is executive producer for the project. Of Stealin' Home she says,
"Hollywood tends to marginalize minority groups by showing only one perspective. With the Black community they
have chosen to show the ghetto experience over and over
again." She continues, " We wanted to tell a positive story."
LFF
A
CELEBRATION OF FOLKTALES
Rabbit Ears Productions, based in Connecticut, continues to spotlight folktales of the world with their awardwinning touch. This time they moved to television. Danny
Glover, a regular to the stable of actors with whom they
work, will host Celebrate Storytelling.
Celebrate Storytelling with Danny Glover will explore
the nature of storytelling and introduce audiences to the
different methods of telling a story -- with dance, through
music, and through art. Host Danny Glover will be joined
by South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo
and Batoto Yetu, a New York-based children's troupe, who
will perform dance segments between video versions of
Rudyard Kipling's "Just So" stories.
This special is the first in a series of four prime-time
specials being produced for PBS by Rabbit Ears
Productions. Each program will be feature a celebrity host
and will focus on the art of storytelling. Check your local
listings. LFF
THE NAKED TRUTH
In Naked Acts, Cicely, an aspiring actress played by Jakeann Jones, has shed the 57 pounds which comforted her from
the emotional trauma of a mother/daughter conflict and childhood sexual abuse. Now in possession of a slamming body,
what remains is the challenge of discarding the left-over emotional baggage she carries. This is the premise of filmmaker/writer Bridgett Davis' first feature film, which she began
shooting in New York in September.
"Once that protective area is removed you have a very
raw emotional space from which to relate to people. It can be
very scary," says Davis with insightful accuracy, "and Black
women have a particular relationship with our bodies because
of our particular history in this country."
Davis, a writer
by
profession,
believes that that
history has resulted
in distorted notions
of beauty and selfworth for many
Black women, exacting a high price
within the Black
families and com"[The
munIties.
denial of] promiscuity,
over-eating,
domestic violence,
sexual abuse, selfhatred -- all of these
issues stem from a
Black woman's way
of seeing herself." At a very basic level this denial informs
fundamental aspects of a woman's life. She adds, "Some Black
women don't even look at their bodies. That's the ultimate
denial."
In part, Davis' inspiration for making a film which grapples this subject came from observing African women during
a research stint in Nigeria and Kenya in the early 80's. "There
is an ease about their [African women] bodies, in the way they
carry themselves. I think it's just a different comfort level.
That's another way of saying that they have a greater sense of
self."
Self-esteem for Black women - a vast issue in and of itself
- is not the only inspiration for Davis' film for which she wrote
the script. She cites the plight of her friends in the industry
who contend with a shrinking number of substantive roles for
Black actors and the image of Black women in the media as
two problems she wanted to address.
An independent filmmaker's true creative grit is often
expressed in fund-rasing for their projects. While Davis is
reluctant to go into great detail about the financing of her
film, she shied away from applying for grants from the usual
sources available to independents. Instead she opted to generate her own capital. "It's been mostly private investors and
my own investments. It's been very hard," she said. But, she
added, that now is the right time for the story so she took the
risk and "stepped out into the unknown."
Naked Acts will be completed and ready for the 1995
film festival circuit by early next year. LFF
Billy Jones, Phyllis Cicero and
Yevette Perry-Glass in Steal;n'
Home.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/13
SEEI GT ROUG
aURa
EYES
BY SHERI PARKS
AFRICA AMERICAN WOME BRING to filmmaking
the rich complexities that they live. Sitting at
the matrix of almost every major cultural division of North American culture, they are able to
see, and to help us see, the paradoxes in which
we live. My grandmother had a saying, that
women could look up longer than men could
look down. It is one of those sayings in which the
wisdom peels off in layers, some political, some
physical or even sexual. On one layer the wisdom is that longtime subordination brings with it
insight. The life position of the African
American feluale brings a unique vantage point
on race, gender and caste. Being Black makes us
know white as well as Black. Being female helps
us know male as well as female. Being too often
poor makes us know the ways of the wealthy as
well as those of the needy. We have to know; our
survival depends on it.
The recent years have shown that a permanent and loyal audience exists for Black film,
both for those drawing on mainstream
Hollywood formats and those which do not.
Black folks go to the movies. They interact with
the immediacy of oral and visual meaning with
an enthusiasm that continues to surprise distributors and theatre owners, who live outside of the
Black culture.
There is a reason Black audiences respond
with such eagerness to the films of Black filmmakers. Films have long spoken about Black
people, or what passed for white America's
romantic or vilified version of Black people. The
images, however, were never like us or like anyone we knew. They didn't capture the true
rhythms of our talk, or the subtle-within-broad
style of our humor, or even the colors of our
skins. Now we can see films by people who
know us, who are us and who get it right at last.
It is the same with gender.
Spike Lee was severely criticized several
years ago when he reportedly said that Black
women should tell the stories of Black women.
While it looks as if he has moved away from his
earlier statement with his latest film Crooklyn,
there is still some truth in what he said. There is
much in the Black female condition which only
14/BLACK FILM REVIEW
women can know well enough to depict in film.
Film is a hungry, multi-dimensional medium. It
is not enough to be able to describe a thing. The
filmmaker must know how it feels, how it sounds
times two (how the people sound, how the environment sounds), how it makes others react, how
it feels and looks just before it starts and after it
IS over.
While it takes extraordinary talent to capture
the way a woman talks and the way she moves,
there are other richer and more complex aspects
to us that are even more difficult to understand
and capture. It is the difference between the
way a woman looks when she walks verses what
she means when she walks the way she does.
This is not to say that Black men do not have
important insights to give us about women, as
Spike Lee, John Singleton and Haile Gerima
have recently shown us. Keen talents of observation and mimicry, along with the help of women,
have produced some important works. Yet there
are moments in films by women which speak to
me as only a woman would. These films speak
on things which are peculiarly female, the emotions of being a woman in this world, the female
ways of being a sister, a daughter, a mother, a
lover, a life-mate.
To successfully have an unborn child as a
narrator, as Julie Dash does in Daughters of the
Dust, one must know of the relationship of a
woman and her nearly-born child, know of the
voice deep within the woman's body who would
burst, already speaking, into this world with a
full-blown personality and observations from the
last world. To make a film like Just Another Girl
on the IRT, one must understand romantic love as
traditional female adventure, understand the
heady joy of romantic risk, temporarily wonderful because it is so foolhardy, which drives a college bound young woman to hang too tight with
troubled young men in fast cars.
The medium of film has the ability to show
us, to let us actually hear the voices within
women, to know how and why they feel rather
than just what they say. In order to provide those
internal voices, however, the filmmaker must
have heard those internal voices herself.
Female filmmakers have an important role
in the reinvention of film and the development
of an African American film aesthetic. Male
moviemakers have traditional genres to tie into
if they wish: the gangster movie, the western,
the war movie, the buddy movie. Female movie
makers, for the most part, do not. They are creating genres; they have to. They draw, not on
film history, but on their lives and the lives of
the women they know. The films they make
speak directly to the ways Black women talk and
live. Communication research about women,
including Black women, and their communication styles show that they concentrate on relationships and details, on smaller aspects of life
that lead into the larger aspects of life, what the
tilt of a neck can mean, how the change of hairstyle becomes evidence of a life change. Film
can show those details better than any other
medium, and it is by those details that we recognize ourselves.
Group identity with the culture and the family are historically significant tools of survival for
Black people. Increasingly, we get much of our
cultural sustenance electronically. Along with
music and television, film is a particularly important part of the aesthetic and informational lives
of Black people. Black culture is not a print
based culture. The majority of African
Americans consume most of their mass mediated
information from inside and outside the culture,
through electronic media in accordance with the
tradition of an oral culture.
Popularly accepted aesthetic forms can
become powerful vehicles for emotional survival
and political change. If feminist sensibilities are
to enter the mainstream of Black political discourse, they will have to capture the imaginations of larger numbers of Black women. Film
can depict the lives of Black women in a form
that is aesthetically attractive and available to
Black women, most of whom do not have regular
access to the more elite art forms. The potential
benefit of film for African American women is
particularly significant since the form can reach
women who are the backbone of a traditional,
respected Black female culture that operates in
the Black family and community, away from the
more privileged centers of feminism. Black
women are still rare within the academies and
the halls of "fine" art. Many of the most successful mainstream feminist works are fine art.
Museum and stage art are in forms that are less
accessible and perhaps less attractive to the larger potential audience of Black women's works.
The most powerful Black feminist voices must
come in media forms which Black women use.
Stories about Black women and stories by
Black women have recently shown that an audience exists for seemingly unconventional films
that speak on the ways we talk; we think; we live
through time and space in our closely personal,
non-linear social world; and the ways we live as
Black women in a larger world designed to keep us
silent. Film can give African American women
voice as never before, and it is a voice that African
American culture must have to live and prosper.
Sheri Parks is an Associate Professor in the American
Studies Department at the University of Maryland,
College Park.
AUGTHERS OF THE DIASPORA
A Filmography of Sixty-Five Blacl< Women Independent Film and Video-Mal<ers
COMPILED BY JOHN WILLIAMS
Anita Addison Eva's Man (1976) 13 mins. Savannah (1989)
30 mins.
Maya Angelou Georgia, Georgia (1972) 90 mins. Sister, Sister
(1982) 90 mins.
Madeline Anderson Integration Report I (1960) 24 mins.
Malcolm X: Nationalist or Humanist? (1967) 14 mins. I Am
Somebody (1970) 28 mins. Walls Came Tumbling Down (1975)
of Youth
(1986) 8 mins. Cycles (1989) 17 mins. Trumpetistically,
Clora Bryant (1989) 5 mins. A Period Piece (1991) 4 mins. A
Powerful Thang (1991) 57 mins.
Cheryl Dunye janine (1990) 9 mins. She Don't Fade ( 1991 )
23 mins. The Potluck and the Passion (1993) 22 mins.
Cynthia Ealey/Lynn Blum A Mother is a Mother (1992)
5 mins. Shopping Bag Spirits and Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual
27 mins.
Ruby Oliver Leola: Love Your Mama (1993) 94 mins.
29 mins.
Cheryl Fabio-Bradford Rainbow Black (1976) 31 mins.
Melvonna Ballenger Rain (1982) 15 mins. Nappy-Headed
Elena Featherston Alice Walker: Visions
Lady (1983) 30 mins.
(1988) 58 mins.
Space (1981) 60 mins. Fragments (1980) 10 mins.
Stephany Minor Keep On Moving (1993) 17 mins.
of the Political Heart (1985) 25 mins. A
Telephone Call (1985) 13 mins. Success Avenue:Watts L.A. (1993)
Donna Mungen Affairs
20 mins.
and Black Women (1991) 30 mins. Zora is My Name (1990) 90
mins. Different Worlds:A Story of Interracial Love (1992) 60 mins.
Better Off Dead (1993) 60 mins.
Camille Billops Suzanne, Suzanne (1982) 26 mins. Older
Women and Love (1987) 26 mins. Finding Christa (1991) 55
Jackie Frazier Hidden Memories (1977) 20 mins. Shipley Street
Linda Gibson Improvisation II (1975) 3 mins. Flag
Michelle Parkerson Sojourn (1978) 10 mins. ... But Then, She's
Betty Carter (1980) 53 mins. Gotta Make This journey: Sweet
Honey in the Rock (1983) 58 mins. Storme: Lady of the jewel Box
(1987) 21 mins. Odds and Ends (1993) 30 mins.
Nadine and Marlene Patterson Anna Russell jones:
Praisesong for a Pioneering Spirit (1993) 25 mins.
Cyrille Phipps Black Women, Sexual Politics, and the Revolution
(1992) 20 mins. Debra Robinson I Be Done Was Is (1984) 60
mins. Kiss Grandma Goodbye (1992) 70 mins.
Demetria Royals Mama's Pushcart: Ellen Stewart and 25 Years
of La Mama (1988) 54 mins. Inventing Herself (1993)
mins.
(1989) 24 mins.
Installation.
Toni Cade Bambara The Bombing
of Osage Avenue
(1988)
58 mins.
Mary Neema Barnette Sky Captain (1984) 65 mins. AIDS
Aarin Burch Dreams
of Passion
(1989) 5 mins. Spin Cycles
(1990) 5 mins.
Carroll Parrott Blue Varnette's World:A Study
ofa Young Artist
of the Spirit
Heather Foxworth Trouble I've Seen (1988) 90 mins.
Moniea J. Freeman Valerie:A Woman, An Artist, A Philosophy of
Life! (1975) 15 mins. A Sense of Pride: Hamilton Heights (1977)
15 mins. Learning Through the Arts: The Children's Art Carnival
(1978) 17 mins.
(1981) 28 mins.
Joanne Grant Fundi:The Story
of Ella Baker (1981)
45 mins.
Kathe Sandler Remembering Thelma (1981) 15 mins. A
of Color: Color Consciousness in Black America
Iman Hameen Unspoken Conversation (1987) 24 mins.
Question
Pam Jones Forward Ever (1978) 4 mins. One (1982) 5 mins.
(1993) 58 mins.
(1979) 26 mins. Conversations with Roy de Carava (1984) 28
Leslie Harris just Another Girl on the IRT (1993) 94 mins.
Joy Shannon Echo (1983) 27 mins. From Rags to Riches (1991)
mins. Nigerian Art: Kindred Spirits (1990) 58 mins.
Bess Lomax Hawes Pizza Pizza Daddy-O (1969) 18 mins.
90 mins.
Pearl Bowser Namibia: Independence Now! (1985) 55 mins.
Georgia Sea Island Singers (1980) 12 mins.
Helaine Head Simple justice I (1992) 90 mins. Simple justice II
Saundra Sharp Back Inside Herself (1984) 5 mins. Life is a
Midnight Ramble (1993) 60 mins.
Delle Chatman Madam Secretary (1993) 28 mins.
Ayoka Chenzira Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum (1979) 25
mins. Flamboyant Ladies Speak Out (1982) 30 mins. Hair Piece:A
Film for Nappy-Headed People (1984) 10 mins. Secret Sounds
Screaming:The Sexual Abuse of Children (1986) 30 mins. Five Out
of Five (1987) 7 mins. Zajota and the Boogie Spirit (1989) 14
mins. Alma's Rainbow (1992) 85 mins. Pull Your Head to the
Moon: Stories of Creole Women (1992) 12 mins.
Portia Cobb Endangered Species Ed. (1990) Installation. Who
Are You?: An Oakland Love Story (1990) 4 mins. No justice, No
Peace: Black Males Immediate (1992) 14 mins.
Kathleen Collins-Prettyman The Cruz Brothers and Mrs.
Malloy (1980) 54 mlns. Losing Ground (1982) 86 mins.
Carmen Coustaut Extra Change (1987) 30 mins.
Francee Covington The Gospel According to... (1988)
Michelle Crenshaw Skin Deep (1990) 8 mins.
of an African Nun (1977)
13 mins. Four Women
(1978) 7 mins. Relatives (1989) 30 mins. Illusions (1983) 34
mins. Daughters
H. Len Keller Ife: A Day in the Life
of a Black French Lesbian
(1993) 5 mins.
Patricia Khayyam Henry Box Brown (1990) 9 mins.
Daresha Kyi The Thinnest Line (1988) 10 mins. Land Where My
Fathers Died (1991) 23 mins.
of the Dust
(1991) I 13 mins. Praise House
(1992) 6 mins.
27 mins. A Different Image (1982) 51 mins. Miss Fluci Moses
Vejan Lee Smith Mother's Hands (1992) 10 mins.
(1987) 22 mins.
Dawn Suggs Chasing the Moon (1991) 4 mins. I Never Danced
the Way Girls Were Suppose To... (1992) 7 mins.
Ellen Sumter Rags and Old Love (1986) 55 mins.
Ayanna Udongo Edges (1992) 4 mins.
Yvonne Welbon Monique (1991) 4 mins. The Cinematic jazz
of julie Dash (1992) 23 mins. Sisters in the Life (1993) 23 mins.
Remembering Wei Yi Fang, Remembering Myself (1992) 30 mins.
Dorrie Wilson The New Rap Language (1991) 25 mins.
Fronza Woods Fannie's Film (1981) 15 mins. Killing Time
Carol Munday Lawrence The Black West (1981) 30 mins.
Portrait
of Two Artists: Hughie Lee Smith and jacob Lawrence
(1979) 30 mins. Oscar Micheaux, Film Pioneer (1981) 30 mins.
The Cotton Club (1982) 29 mins.
Audrey King Lewis The Gihed (1991) 120 mins.
Edie Lynch Lost Control (1975) 50 mins.
O. Funmilayo Makarah Creating a Different Image: Portrait of
Alile Sharon Larkin (1989) 5 mins. Define (1988) 5 mins. Fired
Up!: Or How ITurned My Rage into Art (1992) Installation.
Jessie Maple Will (1981) 80 mins. Twice as Nice (1992)
(1991) 30 mins.
60 mins.
Zeinabu Irene Davis Recreating Black Women's Media Image
Barbara McCullough Water Ritual No. I: An Urban Rite of
Purification (1979) 4 mins. The World Saxophone Quartet (1990)
(1983) 30 mins. Crocodile Conspiracy (1986) 13 mins. Sweet Bird
Saxophone (1985) 58 mins. Picking Tribes (1988) 7 mins. Why
Didn't You Tell Me This Before? (1992) 9 mins.
Jackie Shearer A Minor Altercation (1977) 30 mins. Eyes on the
Prize II: The Promised Land (1990) 60 mins. The Massachusetts
54th Colored Infantry (1991) 60 mins.
Millicent Shelton Celia (1987) 12 mins.
Cauleen Smith Chronicles of a Lying Spirit by Kelly Gabron
Alile Sharon Larkin Your Children Come Back to You (1979)
Sonya Lynn Blues Story (1989) 12 mins. Sweet (1992) 20 mins.
60 mins.
Julie Dash Diary
(1992) 90 mins.
(1979) 9 mins.
The Daughters of the Diaspora filmography was first published in the
Cineaste film journal and is reprinted with the permission of the compiler. john Williams is a writer, scholar and critic living in Oakland, CA.
He teaches at San Francisco State in the Department of Cinema.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/15
A Final Interview with Jacqueline Shearer
BY PHYLLIS
R.
FEW PEOPLE HAVE HAD AS PRO-
found an affect on the arts and
independent film community
as Jacqueline Shearer, a community
which
remaIns
stunned by her tragIc and
untimely
passIng
In
November of last year. In this,
a condensed version of one of
.
.
her last in-depth InterVIews,
Phyllis R. Klotman: Is there an African American tradition in
documentary filmmaking, and what tradition do you see yourself coming out ofP
JACQUELI E SHEARER: Right away, that makes me confront my own lack of historical understanding about
filmmaking. Beginning with some film festivals that I
went to overseas with Pearl Bowser, I was introduced to
the likes of Oscar Micheaux, and understood that there
were other Black filmmakers before me. But, they tended to center on narrative more than on documentary.
Madeline Anderson's film was the first documentary I
ever saw by a black woman, and that had a big impact
on me, along with Bill Miles' Men of Bronze, and
[William] Greaves' films. At the time I was centering
myself in narrative filmmaking, so while I sort of
noticed them there wasn't a direct relationship between
me and them.
I began filmmaking in Boston ewsreel, a national
16/BLACK FILM REVIEW
KLOTMAN AND JANET K. CUTLER
Shearer candidly and thoughtfully shares her dreams and struggles, a personal vision of the
future and insights into the
creative expreSSIon she
sought to realize. This interVIew, conducted by Phyllis
R. Klotman and Janet K.
Cutler, took place in New York
City on June 29, 1992.
New Left organization, in the '60s and '70s; it wasn't
very good at production, but it was great at exhibition.
The experience taught me that, more than anything
else, film is something that's used, that's seen, and that
sparks reactions in people. I'm grateful that that was
how I came to it, along with a political understanding
that filtnmaking can socialize people to be unthinking
cogs in the machine: logically it made sense to apply
those same skills to another more liberating end. My
own background in documentary has very much to do
with film as a political tool, and with my being politically motivated. I didn't learn film in school. I studied history -- I picked up film from friends -- and I could have
gone on to be a history professor, or with different skills
and inclinations, some kind of political organizer. But I
hated meetings and I hated having to talk to strangers,
and so I got into film.
And then I remember reading a book about how
documentary filmmaker John Grierson honed his craft
doing industrials, and that appealed to me. I liked the
notion of learning filmmaking by doing it. There was
also a reverse snobbism in me that liked the idea of
doing non-"art" films. You know, "I'm just an honest soul
earning a living" kind of thing, and the way that I happened to do it was through this craft. I definitely saw it
as a craft. It all starts from my self-apology about my not
having a real, deep-rooted understanding the Black documentary tradition.
I anet K. Cutler: But, I think that's very common, and really
what's interesting. How many people do you know who are self
taught...
JS: Right! We feel we're reinventing the wheel.
IC: And that there is no history, no tradition, no sense of the
forefather/mother of African American documentary cinema.
Then later, you look back and notice that there were people
doing the same things.
]S: Exactly.
PK: That's what Marlon Riggs said: he was majoring in history at Harvard, and then he decided that that wasn 't what he
wanted to do because it didn't speak to enough people. But he
had never seen any Black documentaries...
IC: People have been saying this over and over again. "Didn't
see anything, didn 't go to film school, just went out there and
did it. II
]S: I worked at the ABC affiliate in Boston, not the public TV station, and I had to prove myself all the time,
which is, I think, also part of being a documentarian.
You wake up in the morning and say, "What's God gonna
throw at me today? How am I gonna interact with it to
get my story?" There was something really sort of satisfying about that.
My first concentrated productions happened after I
had done A Minor Altercation [Shearer's short narrative
film, 1976] with some friends on our own. Then Henry
Hampton called me up and asked if I wanted to do films
for Blackside [Inc.] (this was in the pre-Eyes days, when
he was doing government-sponsored industrials). That
made me think of the book I'd read on Grierson, and I
thought this is great! I can hone my skills. By then I had
decided that I wanted to do narrative because of the
control issue. After doing a number of public affairs documentaries, where I learned to turn an idea into a product in a very short time, I really got tired of it and wanted more control. I wanted people to be saying what I
scripted for them to say. I didn't want to dance around
trying to get them to give me what I needed -- I wanted
to be in control.
The films that Henry was doing for the Department of
Labor and for Health and Human Services were scripted films for public education or staff training, in which
people would want typical characters and prototypical
situations. This was how I got experience in directing
actors; I'd had a lot of experience directing crews and
editors, but not perforn1ers, and this was a big step for
me.
Then at a certain point I thought, "To what end am
I honing my craft? Am I going to be doing this kind of
thing forever?" I had gone to a couple of film festivals in
Europe and met filmmakers from Third World countries with no resources, and I thought, "You have no
excuse, Jackie. Hone your craft, but push it up to another level." That's when I ran up against the obstacle that
I still confront every day, the reason why I had really
taken refuge in being a craftsperson: I didn't know if I
had anything to say of my own. Yet, intellectually I realized that even though I thought I didn't have anything
to say I probably did.
So, I started the research project for what was
intended to be a short documentary that I could distribute myself, and that, through rentals, would finance my
first feature. But then I came to see that there was
enough material in this little bit of film for a first feature, and that I might as well just lump it all together.
And that's the project, the working title is Addie and the
Pink Carnation. It's based on my research on Black
women domestic workers in the 1930's.
There was one sentence in Gerda Lerner's book
Black Women in White America that sent me off running, way back in the early '80s at a time when no one
had written anything about this issue. I read master's
theses that hadn't been taken out on interlibrary loan
since the '40s and uncovered boxes of archival material
in the Y headquarters on the east side that no one had
looked at for years. Even the domestic workers' union,
an affiliate of the AFL/CIO, didn't know about it. I had
to do the research, and I hope I don't die before I can
realize it...
IC: It sounds like a major project.
]S: It's a huge project, and in the course of it I came up
against a couple of things. One is the problem of working alone, and the other is the problem of my shying
away from thinking that I had a voice. I wasted a lot of
time and money. I did extensive fundraising, and then
just went through writers who weren't able to give me
what I wanted. Finally I had to accept the fact that I'd
have to write it myself. This was some of the most
painful, but also the most gratifying work I'd ever done.
And, then, there was a big fundraising fiasco at NEH
[National Endowment of the Humanities.] I'd heard
from friends that my project got the highest ranking by
the panel. I was sure I would get the grant, and then
they sent my project to outside reviewers, and somehow
it wound up that I got a "No." It was very, very devastating, and I had to put the project away for a while.
I had just picked up the script again to go through
it when I got the call from Henry about Eyes on the
Prize, so I put it aside again. Since then, working on
Eyes and The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry and
the latest stuff I've done, all documentaries, I've learned
so much more about script writing and story telling, that
]S: No, I'd never met this person before.
PK: How did it work.?
]S: Well, it worked because we both made it work.
Luckily, we shared a certain temperament, we both
worked with people in the same way, and we shared certain values. It was extremely painful, but I think that
Henry is in some ways a genius. I worked with him in
the old days when he was beginning the process of
fundraising for Eyes so I know how long it took him and
how persevering he was, but from my point of view, the
"salt and pepper" stuff wasn't worth it.
I understand that he [Hampton] wanted to shake
us up and keep us from being too in-groupy and speaking only to the converted, and using in-language. I
understand that those were problems, but there was
such "ownership" of the history on the part of the Black
producers -- there was no way you could have convinced
us that the White producers had the same emotional
stake. They certainly wanted to do their best. We all
did. But you get a different shading from a supposed
parity where it's not really parity. I think the mixing was
good, but I wouldn't have done it in such a blanket,
across-the-board way because it set us all up.
IC: It seems so prescriptive and it presumes a tremendous
number of things about men and women and Blacks and
Whites; it seems to put everybody into boxes.
]S: Exactly, and you have to spend a lot of energy fighting to get out of those boxes, getting the freedom to talk
" .. .intellectually I realized that even though I thought I
didn't have anything to say I probably did."
in a funny way I feel more able today to deal with the
Addie script. Before, like other socially conscious first
time filmmakers, my script read like a political manifesto. I need to let Addie be a character who moves
through life at her own pace because she needs to, not
because I'm the puppeteer manipulating I look at it now
and I really understand how well-intentioned and emotionally flat it is. So, now, I'm gearing up to do that hard
work.
PK: Did Henry hire you for the first Eyes on the Prize.?
]S: It was the second Eyes, and I was hired to replace a
filmmaker who was fired. I had to look at a week's worth
of videotapes, and read everything in a very short period of time. Then I became one of the producers and was
paired with another producer. We were responsible for
the fourth show -- the one on Martin Luther King's last
years, his death, and his Poor People's Campaign -- and
the seventh show -- that looks at affirmative action in its
various guises, especially at Boston school desegregation, and Atlanta, and the Baake case.
PK: Who was the co-producer.?
]S: Paul Steckler.
PK: Was this one of the "salt and pepper II teams'?
]S: We were all "salt and pepper" teams on Eyes II. We
were gender mixed, too, until the only other Black
woman producer left. Her replacement was a Black
man, so there were two men on that team, Black and
White, but I was paired with a White man, Louie
Massiah was paired with a White woman, Sam Pollard
with a White woman, and so on.
PK: Did you know Paul Steckler before working with him'?
to each other. I think we did, and it was tremendous that
we did, but it just took so much energy.
IC: Didn 't it set up the relationship as yet anotherjob to do on
top ofproducing the series.?
]S: Absolutely. I think the story of the making of the
film is as interesting as the film itself. The other thing
was the issue of universality. Henry was real concerned
about making these shows accessible. I think that an
Eyes done by an all Black team might not have seemed
accessible at first glance, but I bet it would have given
people another layer that we didn't quite get, another
culturally assumptive layer. We had a lot of fights, the
fight to have a story on Malcolm for example. There was
no way that the Black producers were going to do the
series without that, and we won. We also won the fight
to cover the Black Panthers. Some of the White producers really didn't get that. They said, "Well, but the Black
Panthers didn't have as much membership as the
NAACP," but that wasn't the point.
I've done so much historical documentary -- its
funny since I was a history major it sort of comes full circle. But, there's such an issue about our history. One of
the things, for example, that I think Henry's contributed to a whole other way of understanding things is
the "participant historian" idea in which you can't just be
an expert, you have to be someone who's lived through
it. Well, that's worth its weight in gold and it's an
approach that's been used more and more in historical
filmmaking. One of the things that I remember thinking when I first got into film was that if people who
weren't used to thinking much of (Continued on page 32)
BLACK FILM REVIEW/17
FRESH (New Line Cinema. Boaz Yakin, director. Starring Sean Nelson,
Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson.).
FRESH, DIRECTOR BOAZ YAKIN'S DEBUT EFFORT, IS ASTARTLINGLY WITTY TWIST on contemporary ghetto cinema which veils its tendency to dwell in stereotype with an effective cover of intelligence and sensitivity.And as such, sets itself up as a classic love/hate
film -- certain to be castigated by some critics for its exploitative underpinnings, and cherished by others for its inventive and bold interpretation of newer jack drug culture.
Starring newcomer Sean Nelson in the title role, Fresh illustrates the destruction of
innocence and an attempt to restore order in the life a young, Black adolescent boy who faces
a coming of age in the heroin and coke underworld of the Bronx--a world where friends and enemies become pawns in a real life chess game of death and survival. In Hollywood pitch parlance it
might be called Boyz N' the H
ts Searckifl1g for Bobby Fischer.
The drfj?!:slinging prote
eigh
heroin and cocaine dealers,
Fresh is a
crack ho
genre.
And
~tt If
from exp"
lurch,Yaki
ineffecti~e. F
clearly
you gon~
erally his father's analogies comparing chess moves to life moves. The "chess
is more just a game" theory has been worked before, generally in grade Z murder mysteries (see Christopher Lambert in Knight Moves), but the nature of
chess as a board version of Sun Tsu's Art of War is handled here with finesse.
Unfortunately, Fresh's strategic revelations come mostly too late. It is only after
death of his girl crush in a schoolyard shooting, after his sister succumbs to
Esteban's predatory seductions, after his best friend falls victim to his own naivete, and
after his dog becomes a killer, does Fresh's plan for vengeance and liberation come together.And in the end, Fresh is again, essentially, alone.
It is perhaps at this point that a couple of things bear mentioning: First, perhaps the power
of Fresh is not in the movie itself, but in the telling reactions of many in its review screening audiences.At a late Spring showing of Fresh at Washington DC's International Film Festival (FilmFest
DC), a post-screening Q&A session revealed mor }about the questioners than it did the film
l
because of the inor ate number of questions about one parti ,',
h
ufe their
e pit bull for an
for the taste of
~
qdestions were
ind you, at that
ent children. No
vI'
r~yt
ntly
as been th'~ ulJlrained use@bf
t~jt
film's first
nts (and
rug deal s
thereafter)
. is
sync. Hen
get such
s "Fresh,
stand u
G" and"
ay,
be 4ia man" ancJ WGi)',fst " I'm just a dlligger ho." >l'AnG1Jthe inclusien airyet another saene
with a scraggly crack ho o«ering to "suck 10' dick" for a hit Uungle Fever, ~ew Jack City) is boring and disappointing. It is in these instances that Yakin (who is White) gives fuel to Black critics
who complain of the film's stereotypical imagery.
And while those critiques have some validity, critics fail to mention that similar, if not worse,
transgressions have been made by Black filmmakers.Yet to his credit,Yakin has managed to make
lemonade out of a lemon format by allowing his characters to develop and win the audiences
emotions, and by casting Samuel L. Jackson and Giancarlo Esposito, in sweetly understated and
confidently over-the-top performances, respectively, which lend authority, balance and sensitivity.
In the film, the character Fresh, a child with
an absentee mother and crack-addicted sibling,
sees the destruction and bastardization of the few things in his life which sustain his growth and
his sanity--sister, love interest, best friend, and dog. And in a clever series of strategic moves,
prompted by his near homeless, chess hustler father (Sam Jackson), begins to repair the damage
by destroying those things which seek to destroy him.
A cocaine runner for hood kingpin, Corky, and a heroin runner for smack slinger Esteban
(Esposito doing his best Pacino), Fresh eschews the trappings of drug hype culture and socks away
his profits, saving for the opportunity to buy his emotional freedom.Amidst the grown-up turmoil,
he must deal with his pre-teenage growing pains -- his reluctant adoration of a sweet girl who is
not the cutest on the schoolyard, his teacher's admonitions about his tardiness, and his chubby,
overanxious best friend, Chuckie, who aspires to the place of respect which drug dealing might
offer.
Confused and alone, Fresh only begins to make sense of his circumstances when he takes lit-
e me er ast
' at's 'calle
1
Setond. Unfortunately, the ~ost m'emorable 1ine frOm the movie isP'the afore~entidhed "I'm
jus
i er ho" s
by Fresh's· r played b
she Wrig
brahead).
uly hard
to
ne, even i
orst mo
a Black w
mouthing
words. So
so that
the lins' tends to ~rov(lJke knowing laughter among Black audiences. Certainly there were more
effeocive means of si<lowing the chapacter's loss of spirit. In the same Q&A session) mentioned
above,Wright explained that she too had a conflict with the line, yet Yakin convinced her that the
context of the character's state of mind validated its use unedited. Wrong answer.
Fresh has, expectedly, been on the receiving end of much major paper critical hype: "An
Academy Award contender" (Roger Ebert); "The most original filmmaker of the last decade"
(Washington Post). Taking nothing away from Yakin, whiteness has no doubt has something to do
with that. It is no doubt irresistible for some critics to celebrate the ability of a White director to
handle Black subject matter -- a backhanded slap
at Spike Lee's Malcolm X protestations. While it
is true that with Fresh a White filmmaker has
made a better Black film than many Black filmmakers, the achievement is overstated. Fresh is a quality bit of filmmaking which displays flashes of
brilliance and strong attention to story, but it is not the definitive work on Black poor life that
some critics would have it be.
What it is is a competent depiction of ghetto contemporary done in a language which the
masses, Black or White, can understand --that is, the crime genre. In that it stands in direct opposition to Spike Lee's Crooklyn, which could acccurately be called "definitive" but was done in a language and flavor which delved so deep into Black American memory and consciousness that its
effectiveness was lost to most critics (and to many Blacks who were born after 1970).
Taken as a whole, Fresh is a remarkable film, but one which cannot be forgiven its mistakes
easily. Ultimately it is not Yakin's direction which makes the film. It is the superlative performances
of Nelson, Esposito and the so, so subtle Jackson which carry the burden of elevating Fresh beyond
the ordinary. Eric Easter is the co-publisher of BFR.
(Above) Sean Nelson in Boaz Yakin's Fresh, his film debut. (Below i-r) Producer, Lawrence Bender (left) with director Boaz Yakin on location. N'Bushe Wright plays
Nelson's drug addicted sister. (From I-r) Nelson, Daiquan Smith, Jason Rodriguez, and Luis N. Lantigua. Samuel L. Jackson is father to Nelson in Fresh.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/19
later James Gist died of pneumonia.
According to Harrison her mother continued traveling with the films, a projector, and an assistant for a
while, but soon realized she couldn't shoulder the
diverse responsibilities alone. The work of programmer,
manager, and exhibitor was too taxing. Additionally,
amid the glamour and spectacle of the growing film
industry, the appeal of silent film had diminished. From
the decade of the forties to her death, Gist continued to
live in Washington D.C. where she wrote a novel, occa-
In all likelihood, it was their devotion to God that
brought them together. Harrison describes James Gist
as a "self-made evangelist," while her mother was of
the Bahai faith. She explains her mother's choice of
religion:
Bahai was a faith that embraced the idea that
mankind is one - that there is no difference between
black and white. They teach a doctrine by which you
treat your fellow man with love.
Despite the difference in denominations, the Gists
agreed upon basic Christian principles that became
deeply entrenched in their productions. One of the
powerful religious concepts dramatized was the reality of punishment for evil deeds. In Hell Bound Train,
which was already complete when they were married,
specialized cars for distinct sins transport sinners to
Hades. Modifications in the storyline title cards were
made by Eloyce Gist that offered a more cohesive
merging of religious doctrine with dramatic elements.
The second film, Verdict Not Guilty, was also a
religious drama. According to Mrs. Harrison, Eloyce
Gist wrote the script for Verdict and also directed it.
She explains:
sionally published newspapers articles, and enjoyed
her family. She died suddenly while on vacation in
1974.
The bits and pieces of the Gist films along with
scraps of documentation were turned over to the Library
of Congress film division after her death. According to
Harrison many other documents such as newspaper
clippings, posters, pictures, and correspondence were
destroyed in a fire. The year following her death,
Cripps writes the Library of Congress encouraging
them to restore the films stating, "I believe there is
strong reason for preserving the Gist films ... as a unique
record of a lost phenomenon in American social histo-
My mother was also directing the film, she was
telling the actors what to do - directing them. Mr. Gist
and another fellow would be filming.
Harrison's recollection of two cameras is significant since many African Americans found it difficult to
secure one camera. However, Gist not only wrote and
directed Verdict Not Guilty, but also appears in the
film.
uring the mid-thirties the couple toured
with their two films in and around
Washington D.C. [There has been speculation of a third film, but its existence
has not been verified.] Their goal was not to simply
entertain, but rather to try to deter destructive behavior
of their people. Sinners featured in the scenarios are
both male and female. Their mission was one of moral
and spiritual education for men and women. HellBound Train and Verdict Not Guilty advocate Christian
values and the importance of family.
Harrison occasionally travelled with her mother
and step-father to the various churches. She vividly
remembers their visit to Abyssinia Baptist Church in
Harlem. The usual format of the service was for Eloyce
Gist to lead the congregation in hymns while playing
the piano. The film would then be shown followed by
a "sermon of sorts" by James Gist. Tickets were sold or
a collection was taken at the close of the service which
was split between the Gists and the church. Harrison
specifically remembers the offering at Abyssinia stating, "I remember the money - it was dollars, dollars
not change. I do remember that!"
Programming of the Gist films encountered a
broader venue than Black churches. Correspondence
dated May through June of 1933 document the interest of the NAACP in screening the Gist films. The
NAACP sponsorship guaranteed that its branches
would cover the cost of advertisement while the Gists
provided posters, tickets, the films, lectures, music and
the projection equipment. Then field secretary of the
ry" (7/16/75). Because of other priorities and reduced
funding, the "scraps of cinematic frames" sat idle at the
Homoiselle Patrick Harrison, remembers her mother's
involvement in filmmaking.
NAACP Roy Wilkins writes to a potential sponsor:
Mr. Gist is a producer of religious motion pictures
which have an entire Negro cast and for the past four
days we at the Harlem branch have done business
with him and have found him a Negro of high calibre,
also his picture "Verdict Not Guilty" represents an
ambitious effort and one worth while seeing
(5/77/33).
Just how many screenings materialized in conjunction with the NAACP is unanswerable at this time.
What is clear is that the NAACP respected the Gists
work and felt that a collaboration between the two
could prove fruitful for both. A week later Wilkins
sends Gist a list of NAACP branches near New York
with the caveat, "the branches could solicit patronage
directly from the churches in their communities"
(5/16/33). Wilkins and other NAACP officials
viewed the films as a potential means by which to
increase membership.
In the surviving correspondence between James
Gist and Wilkins, his wife is never mentioned directly
by name. Her presence is implied in statements such
as, "Thanking you kindly for the interest you have
shown in our work," or in the biographical information
prepared in which he remarks, "Mr. Gist lectures during the picture and some music is sung." The absence
of Eloyce Gist's name from the correspondence reflects
the era when negotiations were carried out by men
and women remained in the shadows.
James Gist's health began to fail and he reports in
a letter to Wilkins, "Because of a long period of strenuous work and driving more than two thousand miles
a month, without much rest, I was forced to stop and
submit to medical treatment and a two weeks rest." His
health never improved substantially and several years
Library of Congress for almost twenty year.
With the emergence of several lost Micheaux films
and increasing pressure from scholars has come a
renewed awareness of the importance of restoring the
Gist films. The Library of Congress film division has now
made a commitment to give the films priority on their
restoration schedule. As soon as the sequential order
has been determined, negatives will be struck and
16mm prints will be made available.
he Gist films are indeed a unique record of
a lost phenomenon in American social history. Unlike Micheaux and his contemporaries, the Gist films sought advancement
of "Negro" people by teaching and preaching religious values and doctrines. Similar to other African
American filmmakers of the time, they traveled "door-todoor" recognizing the potential of film to impact on attitudes and behavior.
From what has been uncovered about Eloyce Gist
she qualifies as an early Black feminist - she was multitalented and she had a vision of how to use cinema.
Based on her religious faith, she believed cinema could
unite Black people, promote Christian values and racial
pride, and communicate a social message. Research
must continue on this important collection and others to
uncover diasporic and intergenerational connections.
As researchers we are positioned in the present, but
must continuously look backward for historical continuities as we develop criticism and a discourse of Black
cinema for the future.
Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson is assistant professor in AfroAmerican Studies and Assistant Director of the Black
Film Center/Archive at Indiana University. A draft of
this paper was presented at "Black Cinema: A
Celebration of Pan-African Cinema," conference held
at New York University earlier this year.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/21
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New York based filmmaker Gianella Garrett explores
these difficulties and other interracial issues in her
award winning debut film Between Black and White. In it,
four young people talk candidly about how being biracial informs their lives. BFR talks to Garrett about biraciality, what she learned from her subjects and what she
hopes to accomplish through her debut film.
BFR: What led you to filmmaking.?
Garrett: Film was always a love of mine. I started out in
publishing design and I art directed for about ten years,
and it came to the point where I felt the natural place to
go seemed to be film. In the past six years I have gotten
very involved in dance -ballet and jazz - and working
with the medium that offered music and movement was
something I felt was missing working in graphic design.
BFR: So filmmaking was a natural progression..
GARRETT: Yes, I studied at ew York University in their
evening program.
BFR: What was the inspiration for Between Black and
White'?
GARRETT: Coming from that identity it's something
that's always been on my mind. To do a film project on
a subject that I'd feel passionate about just seemed like
the right thing to do. Actually it developed from a script
I was writing with a character who had a biracial identity and that was one of the issues she was facing through
the course of the film.
The documentary came as a result of a little bit of
insecurity on my part. I felt I needed to see if anybody
other than myself would be interested in the subject
before I got too involved with the script. As I was writing the script I started talking to people and video taping them and I realized that there was a lot of passion
behind this subject and it seemed like the right moment
to bring it to the attention of people. I started putting all
my energies into the documentary and let the script sit,
but I'm returning to it now.
BFR: How did you go about selecting the people who appear
in your documentary.?
GARRETT: Word of mouth and I put an ad in [performing arts trade paper] Backstage stating that I was doing
a documentary on interracial identity. At the time I didn't know whether I was going to focus on Black\ White
identity, so I was just looking for anyone who had an
interracial identity to send me a headshot and to write a
paragraph stating what this had meant in their lives. I
was stunned that I didn't get that many responses maybe about a dozen - but all the stuff I got was single
spaced, two-page typed letters that were very passionate, with 90 percent being people in the Black/White
identity. Out of that batch I chose two, and the other
two were referred to me.
BFR: Your subjects reveal a lot that they may not have ever
shared before. How did you get them to open up the way they
did.?
GARRETT: I think there was a natural rapport. It was
obviously a subject that was very near and dear to me,
and I'd like to think that in our talks it came through
and people knew that they could trust me, that they
were speaking to someone who had gone through some
of the same things.
One of the things I wanted the documentary to
address is that people can have this identity and grow
up to be normal. I think there is a stereotype associated
with being biracial, that there's a schizophrenic kind of
duality and it never gets put on the right track for people like this. The films that have been made on this
subject rarely show them as stable people who celebrate the duality of their being. It always seems to show
them fighting against what they are.
I thought the four people I selected had struggled,
for the most part. With identity, no matter who you are,
there's always going to be a struggle. I think it may be a
little more complicated when you have two cultures that
are so far apart. Yet, at the same time there are ways of
coming to a point where you can be equally proud of
both of them. In a way [you] symbolize both for yourself
and for other people that possibilities exist between two
forces that seem so often to be played against each
other. Posing questions about the issue of race can
sometimes become fabricated and convoluted -appearances versus reality, what other people see people as,
what those people see themselves as, when those go
together and when they don't, who's right and who's
wrong. As a visual person and as one who gets a certain
amount of interest out of complexity, these dynamics
fascinate me.
BFR: Your father was African American and your mother
was Italian. How was that duality dealt with when you were
growing up.?
GARRETT: I was the oldest of three kids and they really
protected us from any of the negative things that being
from a family like ours could bring. I think in many ways
that was good because I didn't think about it a whole lot,
and when I did I thought about it very quietly. I always
felt the influence of both of them and felt a discomfort
in being pulled in one direction. That was what was
very interesting to me about the people in my film, the
fact that there were two who were very much brought
up to think of themselves as one race - as Black - and the
two others were sort of brought up like me where there
wasn't a finger pointed towards what and who they
were.
My parents met during World War II. My mother
was new in this country, and during my first five years
my father traveled a lot. During those early years I had a
very strong Italian identity. When I reached adulthood
the desire to know my Black side became much stronger
and I felt that I needed to explore that. [I felt] maybe I
had explored the other side too much. Now I feel as if
there are two sides for which I have wonderful histories
and that there is more to learn from both. My brothers
are younger so we didn't really grow up talking about
this. Since we've become adults we have talked about it
a lot. They both identify themselves as being Black.
BFR: Your film won last year's Rosebud award in
Washington, D.C. Have you won any other awards.?
GARRETT: It won third prize in non-fiction in the South
Beach Florida Film Festival, a Bronze Apple in the
National Educational Film and Video Festival in
California, a director's citation from the Edison Media
Arts Consortium and was a finalist in the USA Film
Festival in Dallas. It toured with the Black International
Cinema Festival in Chicago, New York and Berlin. It's
been getting some really nice exposure.
BFR: Between Black and White really sheds light on the complexities of biraciality. What has been the reaction to it'?
GARRETT: Really good. Even people who are not biracial
or not involved in a biracial relationship seem to get
something out of it. A woman said to me that she sometimes felt a division in her family because her parents
reflected two very different economic strata.
B FR: Have there been any criticisms'?
GARRETT: Some people have said that the four people I
selected seemed too intellectually and economically
similar, that it may have been more interesting to see a
greater cross-section of people both economically and
age-wise. I think that often time a biracial identity does
immediately bring to mind some sort of tragic identity,
and I was hoping that it would not be something that I
would find naturally in people. In fact, I got people who
in many ways were very comfortable with both worlds,
and whenever they did experience self doubt it was really more from what they were getting from the world as
opposed to what they were feeling about themselves.
BFR: Your film has appeared in several schools. Did you
intendfor it to be on the educational circuit'?
GARRETT: I was aware that it could be a worthwhile tool
to get people to talk on this subject. There is more discussion about it than when I was a child. There's a
woman who writes for Mirabella and Vogue named Lise
Funderburg who has written a book called "Black,
White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and
Identity." This book does what Between Black and
White does in a much larger, broader vein. She interviews people from all over the country, from many walks
of life who have a Black and White identity, and talked
to them about race and identity. So there is more on this
topic coming out. There can't be enough. The time is
ripe.
BFR: What are yourfuture plans.?
GARRETT: I am working on a full-length screenplay
about interracial identity but it won't be the sole theme
of the story. I'll probably have a multiracial cast, maybe
even a biracial protagonist.
BFR: What do you hope people will gain from viewing
Between Black and White'?
GARRETT: I hope the people who watch it become open
to the idea that people are complex. More often than not
we cannot be pegged as one thing. What comes first?
Being Black? A woman? American? Of all of the adjectives we have to identify ourselves, at different points
one may seem more important than the others. I think a
mix of everything makes an identity and the more people look into themselves and see that, the more easily
they'll look at others that way.
Julia Chance is based in New York and is fashion editor for
The Source.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/23
WITH LOVE FROM JAZZ LEE
by Leasa Farrar-Frazer
MUSIC VIDEO: LOVE ••• NEVER THAT
(Rhyme Cartel Records/American Recordings)
Distribution: Warner Brothers Records
Director: Melodie McDaniel
Producer: Anne Marie MacKay
Cinematographer: Wyatt Theodore Troll
Editor: Clark Eddy
Art Direction: Sheila Johnson
Stylist: Brigitte Echols
Casting: Michelle Weaver
THE TRAGIC EVENT WHICH WOULD EVENTUALLY GIVE BIRTH to the
soon to be released music video, Love... Never That, happened
the night of December 27, 1992 when Jacqueline Alexander, a
25 year old New York mother of two and cousin to poet Jazz
Lee Alston, became one of the approximately 5,000 women
murdered that year. Alston witnessed Alexander's head being
blown off. Paul Alexander, the victim's husband of eight years,
is still wanted for questioning in connection with the killing.To
deal with the pain and emotional devastation, Alston wrote a
poem that was to become Love... Never That. "At the time I
didn't want to talk to [my] family about it. I kept dwelling on
it, so I kind of internalized it. In doing that, I needed a way to
vent my feeling and I decided to take it to paper and pen. I
came up with Love [... Never That,]" explains Alston.
Filmmaker and photographer Melodie McDaniel enter
the picture, through
Kate Miller at American Music, after
Alston's poem was set to music, thanks to the efforts of
Alston's uncle and president of Rhyme Cartel Records,
Ricardo Frazer. McDaniel describes her first exposure to
Love... Never That as, "Chilling. It floored me. I really wanted to
shoot the video. It was a very powerful song."
Set to an urban jazz backbeat, Alston's poem is transformed into a tragic anthem of bitter irony and hopelessness,
one that she says is all too common for young women today.
"It's a sad thing because women, young girls, think it's cute for
their boyfriends to hit them and pull them around at the
clubs."
Alston sees this mentality as the groundwork for
abuse that can result in death for many women. The video is
meant to provide a warning of the possible outcome of fostering abusive relationships. "Because that grows into bigger
[abuse.] After pulling, he slaps you, after slapping then he
punches you; and after punching you, he's going to stab you or
he's gonna shoot you; and after that you're gonna die."
Shot in black and white, McDaniel's careful eye allows
the narrative of Love... Never That to unfold slowly and intimately. Alston, as the central character and storyteller, is seen
seated in her kitchen, a girlfriend pressing her hair. There are
small children there and a couple of friends are over. In other
words, a day not unlike many days in any given community
where violence aggressively intrudes daily. McDaniel utilizes
close shots and allows her camera to rest on an image, thus
eschewing the flashy, quick cuts, over-done sets and color
characteristic of current music videos. Says McDaniel of her
approach, "We were kind of being voyeurs, listening to the
story." When Alston calmly describes the murder, the effect
is hypnotic and terrifying.
24/BLACK FILM REVIEW
(Continued on page 26)
LIONEL MARTIN
WHE BFR CAUGHT UP WITH HIM, music vid pioneer Lionel Martin was on his way to West
Angeles to direct a video for Shaunice, then on to
Philadelphia for a Boyz II Men shoot. The grueling schedule was business as usual for a director
who has turned the video production process into
an art.
"I have a pretty incredible turnaround. I
guess I have a formula, if there's such a thing, for
shooting. A typical shooting day is 14-15 hours,
then film to tape transfer, then off-line editing -which might take two days -- rough cut, then online. About a week and a half total. For others it
may take a month. That's just how I do it, said
Martin.
Over the last decade, Martin, who is in his
"early 30's," has fashioned an industry out of bringing style and professionalism to rap and R&B
videos with his much sought-after company,
Classic Concepts, which now has offices in New
York and Los Angeles.
"Ralph McDaniels and I started as club deejays and then we developed the Video Music Box
TV program, which was really strong in New York.
We were playing low-budget music video. No one
else was playing Black stuff and no one was doing
rap. The quality of the videos we were getting left
something to be desired. I told the rap industry
that we could do a better job, and we tried to do it
ourselves. We hadn't even formed the company
yet. Our first video had a budget of $4000 -- which
at the time seemed like a lot of money. We were
able to get a deal, we hooked up with managers,
and started doing things with little budgets -- Big
Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. We were basically
trying to elevate the rap stuff, do a better job and
tap into a market."
Since that time Martin has worked with such
artists as Stevie Wonder, BBD, Toni Braxton,
Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston, among others. And he's seen more than a few changes
behind the scenes on video sets. Said Martin, "I
think the growth has been pretty incredible, on a
lot of levels. When I started my whole crew was
white. There were no Black people behind the
scenes, grips, gaffers, nothing. Literally when I
was on the set people thought I was a PA, not the
director. Camera people would ignore me, and
artists would come on the set and go, 'Oh, you're
the director. If'
With all his success, Martin still sees Black
video directors as having higher hills to climb.
"Budgets for Black video have increased, but
they're still very low for rap in comparison to
White crossover acts. I've had offers to join with
other larger companies, but I've refused. I've
been given work by companies who wanted me
to be a Black director as opposed to a director. It's
still dominated by the White directors. I have
high impact. My work is good, and I've worked
with the top artists, but still I haven't been able
to cross over to the Guns & Roses kinds of things.
But now the White directors are crossing over
and doing rap."
Still Martin recommends music video as a
training ground for creative young directors. "It's
a medium where you have a lot more control. You
don't have advertisers and ad agencies on your
back. It's also a good source of bringing in young
Black people into the business. Every Black man
or woman doesn't have to be a director. AD's,
gaffers, grips -- it's wide open. EE.
To write to Lionel Martin and Classic Concepts:
Classic Concepts
444 West 35th Street
Suite lD
New York, New York
BLACK FILM REVIEW/25
(Continued from page 24)
felt," says Alston. "My cousin, Jackie Alexander, at the time [of
you can love yourself [enough] that you will never let anoth-
McDaniel explains, "People say that if you're trying to make
her death] was not poor."
er person hurt you," says Alston, her voice tinged with the
something real why not shoot it in color. I was concerned that
depict a young woman struggling with school with two neat-
emotion of having had many such dialogues with other young
the color wouldn't be able to capture the mood. I look at
ly dressed, well behaved children in a middle-class setting
women. "Self-esteem is a bitch when it comes to females. We
black and white photography as total photo realism."
Of her choice of black and white film for the project
Alston would have chosen to
which is a more accurate characterization of her cousin's cir-
have to let them [young women] know that you don't let a
Photography led McDaniel to filmmaking. A student at
cumstances. She fears that the lifestyle portrayed in the final
man treat you that way."
the Art Center College of Design at Pasadena, she found the
cut of the video will lead viewers to dismiss domestic vio-
McDaniel's feels equally as strong about the music video
commercial department less than accepting of what she
lence as something that only happens in poor or low income
genre being used as an agent for social change but is circum-
refers to as her "experimentations". She eventually trans-
communities.
ferred to the fine art department where she was given free
McDaniel, on the other hand, believes the video gets the
spect about the industry's willingness to give such work air
time. "I think people should start dealing with social issues [in
creative reign. Her photography came to the attention of
message across in a powerful way. Her goal was to make a
music videos.] I don't see any other examples of it on MTY
Roberto Cecchini at Artists Company/A & R Group produc-
small film that would stand on its own; a music video in which
or YH-I. It would be amazing if it aired, not just once and not
tion company in Los Angeles where McDaniel, 27, lives and
the hard reality of Alexander's murder would resonate long
just late at night." But, she speculates,"Something like this is
works. Impressed with what he saw, Cecchini suggested she
after the fact. She also wanted to avoid the trendiness and the
just too powerful."
begin work on her professional reel, the film equivelent of a
repetitive structure of current music videos. "It [the violence]
Whether the video's narrative power or its use of the f-
portfolio. And, even better, he forked up spec money for her
is becoming a joke; so people don't pay attention to it. [I
word will serve to hinder its exposure to a larger audience
to do it. In addition to Cecchini, she also credits director,
wanted to avoid] another stereotyped rap or r&b video. This
remains to be seen.According to Frazer, Alston's video is set
Tarsem Dhandwar and production designer/director, Fatima
one was a serious song." Alluding to the universality of
to be released in November. Of his niece's talent he says,
Andre, who she attended art school with, as instrumental in
domestic violence, she concludes, "I wanted it to be very
"[Her work] is the culture of today. Artistically it's the most
her creative and professional development. The up and com-
timeless." McDaniel acknowledges the difficulty of artist col-
innovative and creative material that I have ever encountered,
ing talent (see above credits) she used on her reel also served
laborations. "It's tough, and I don't blame them because it's
especially as it relates to domestic violence. It's unfortunate
as production team for Love ... Never That.
their baby, their music." But she adds, "I think it's nice for
that it's based in a reality that occurs too often in our soci-
This is not the first time that McDaniel's work has garnered the attention of those who could move her career for-
them to focus on music and let the filmmaker make the film.
ety." As a filmmaker, he feels McDaniel has the originality and
It was a touchy situation. I got all emotional about it."
sensitivity to interpret the power of Alston's poetry into
moving, thought provoking images. Frazer also feels there's
ward. Last year Madonna purchased a dozen of McDaniels'
The final product is the powerful result of mutual com-
photographs for Christmas presents and for her personal
promise by two extremely creative individuals. McDaniel
collection. She then requested that McDaniel shoot the now
acknowledges that being creative - and shy - can be difficult
While this is her first music video, Alston, who turned
infamous photographs of she and San Antonio forward,
when working with someone new. "We both have our little
21 in September, is no stranger to filmmaking. Before the dis-
Dennis Rodman, which were to - in a explosion of contro-
personal ideas and things. And it's hard sometime to express
ruptive events of December '92 necessitated a move across
versy - end up nixed from the cover ofYibe magazine. Of the
it when you don't know the person that well." Of her impres-
country, she was taking audio visual classes at Bronx
much more to be expected from both artists.
experience she states simply, "It was weird how all that hap-
sions of Alston, McDaniel states with admiration, "She is so
Community College. She looks forward to picking up where
pened."
talented. You want to touch these [kind of] people. And to
she left off and concentrating on the writing end of the
Love... Never That is not McDaniel's first music video.
look at her appearance and her whole presentation: you've
process. She lists screenplays, "in which Blacks don't get killed
But she says, "This is the second one that I'm proud of. When
got this sweet, quiet innocent person [who] has some deep
in the first five minutes," and numerous books as being on her
I get these sort of things, it makes me happy to be involved in
shit to say.And she doesn't walk around flaunting it. She's just
list to develop. As for McDaniel, she is anxious to begin work
videos." Consistent with her unique vision, her other favorite
amazing." Concedes Alston, "I had to swallow my pride a lit-
on her first feature film, a character study which is in the re-
video, Cursed Woman, is one she did for an alternative band,
tle bit and my creativity a little because I think the issue is a
write stage.
Porno for Pyros, in which the band doesn't even appear. Like
bigger thing than the fact of the way the video is done. The
Love... Never That, it is based on a true story about a female
film is not exactly what I wanted but being that everyone likes
of social commentary and, therefore, for change when used
street hustler who was raised as a boy.
it as much as they do..."
with a sensibility in this direction. Love... Never That is an
The music video has the potential to be a forceful tool
The popular music industry is rife with creative con-
Despite their conceptual differences, both McDaniel and
example of how this unique film genre can be constructively
flicts, broken contracts, and threats of law suits and the like.
Alston share the sense of urgency for getting the message of
exploited. The video closes with a memorial statement hon-
With the pressured potential for wealth and all the trappings
domestic abuse to a young audience desperately in need of
oring Jacqueline Alexander. It remains to be seen if it will be
of fame, young artists with limited knowledge of how the
clear, uncompromising information. Both feel taking responsi-
shown in its entirety once it does hits the music channels.
industry functions are particularly vulnerable to these con-
bility for the medium is paramount to its usefulness meeting
Love... Never That addresses a very painful, and until
flicts. The making of Love ... Never That is not without excep-
in this aim. Says Alston, who names Nikki Giovanni, The Last
recently, closeted issue in our culture. It's discomforting to
tion. During the shoot in Los Angeles of Love ... Never That,
Poets, and Maya Angelou among her influeneces, "When you
look at. But it begs the question: can we afford to continue
McDaniel and Alston had what is referred to as "artistic dif-
have the mic, you have to speak for everybody. It's not just
turning away from a courageous attempt at a solution in favor
ferences". The conflict centered around Austin's preference
me. I'm not the only one who had to sit and watch as a fam-
of the sensationalism that continues to pervade? Love... Never
for a more literal depiction of the events of December 27th
ily member died." As subplots objectifying women as expend-
That constitutes an opportunity for an industry to stand up
versus a metaphorical or symbolic form of visual storytelling
able sex objects continue to run through many films and
for something more than the never ending, money-making
which McDaniel favored. Both artists make valid points. "We
music videos, Alston thinks self-esteem for Black women is
parade of degrading images that prevail. We all need to see
portray Black people as being poor, not having much or
critical to reducing the incidents of domestic violence. "It
Love... Never That. Then, see it again. Leasa Farrar-Frazer is the
always on welfare to make the story seem so much heart
takes a long time to build up self-esteem to the point where
editor
26/BLACK FILM REVIEW
of Black Film
Review.
THE GAME
Is
OVER, AND THE RESULTS ARE
IN
By TJ JOHNSON
In Hollywood, Pilot Season is the equivalent to election year, when all ofthe shows for
the comingfall season orfor mid-season replacements are previewedfor the networks.
There are surprises and disappointments, new career beginnings and more than a few
hopes dashed.
Last summer, TV enthusiasts and couch critics got the chance to view several ofthe
pilots which the public rarely sees, courtesy of the Los Angeles chapter of the Black
Filmmaker Foundation (BFF), and co-sponsored by Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
and International Creative Management (ICM). The twelve pilots previewed were all
executive produced by African American men and women, the most recognizable of
which were Reginald and Warrington Hudlin.
There were several newcomers to the table as well. Yvette Lee, creator andproducer ofthe highly successful "Living Single", Stan Lathan and Ralph Farquhar of "Roc"
and "Dej Jam" and Pam lkasty, one of the original writer/producers of "In Living
Color" brought new projects for review. The following is a summary of audience and
network reaction:
that's original. Word on the street is that Salt n'Pepa were actually relieved
when this project was turned down, since their busy schedules were too tight
to adequately handle the pressure. The audience is relieved as well. Erich Van
Lowe ("Where I Live") produced.
Status: Dead
"Brother to Brother" (Warner Bros.)
The World According To Noah (NBC Prod.)
Produced by Yvette Lee, the sitcom starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans as
two brothers trying to live together, with veteran comic actor Johnny
Witherspoon as their father.
Though it was all too reminiscent of the recently defunct "Out All Night"
in pacing, "Brother to Brother" is one of only three of the twelve African
American oriented pilots. Reaction was mixed, with many agreeing on the
comic talent of Marlon, and disagreeing on the merits of Shawn's comic skills.
Sources say Shawn, however, has real potential to break out of the family's
comedy tradition and land as a dramatic actor.
Status: This one goes to the newly formed WB Network (which mayor
may not gel if Time Warner cuts a deal for NBC in the next three months» and
looks to a January 1995 run date.
Produced by Winifred Hervey
Coming of age sitcom on life through the eyes of a 12 year old. Audience reaction again was mixed, leaning toward the favorable. Nevertheless..
Status: Dead
"Duane Martin Project" (TriStar)
The working title, of course. A sitcom starring the affable Duane Martin
as a young PR executive struggling as a new husband and father is obviously
influenced by Boomerang, but didn't score well with the audience or the network. Produced by concert promoter and "Out All Night" producer Alan
Hayman.
Status: Dead
"Hollywood Wash" (TriStar)
Car Wash for the 90's. Nostalgia is one thing, but the movie was enough.
We'll pass and so did the networks. Alan Hayman again.
Status: Dead
Slauson Heights (CBS Prod.)
Sitcom/soap in the vain of Robert Townsend's skits "The Bold, The Black
& The Beautiful." Robert Guillaume as millionaire Crenshaw Slauson. Ron
Glass makes his return as Sheryl Lee Ralph's wretched valet. This show had
all the makings of a modern day "SOAP"( as in the Thomas/Junger/ Witt series
). The writing was crisp and the actors which included Ann Marie Johnson as
twins "Paprika and Sage" were all having a great time. Pam Veasey produced.
Status: Dead. But, Pam Veasey is being "talked to" by several producers for
new projects.
Last Days of Russell (Twentieth TV)
Hudlin Brothers. A family drama akin to the old Lance Kerwin senes.
Unenthusiastic response.
Status: Dead
Under One Roof (CBS Prod.)
Produced by the celebrated director and producer Thomas Carter, the
pilot which starred James Earl Jones, Joe Morton and Vanessa Bell Calloway
about a Black Seattle family was the class of the pilot season, with realistic portrayals and a very real-time pacing. Picks up where Laurel Avenue left off.
Morton and Calloway were brilliant, and James Earl Jones was...well, James
Earl Jones.
Status: Killed then risen from the ashes. According to sources, the CBS
people (after some introspection) approached several other Black producers
about the need for a greater Black presence on the network, preferably in a
family drama. Rather than selfishly seizing the opportunity, many of the producers deferred to the "Under One Roof' project as the best thing available.
CBS rethought, and now the program has been picked up for six episodes as a
mid-season replacement.
Uptown Undercover (Universal)
Comedian Bernie Mac as a coffee shop/convenience store owner. Bernie
Mac is a great talent who's timing is incredible and the premise is nice. Some
audience members, however, were upset at the conflict of characters in the
show, namely Mac's ex-wife is a dark-skinned woman who bore him a very
dark and boisterous daughter. But his new wife, played by the very funny
Angela Means, a tall, light-skinned, long haired socialite and their very nice,
intelligent fairer-skinned son are just peachey. Stan Lathan and Ralph
Farquhar, producers.
Status: The show is dead, but Bernie Mac's performance has created a
buzz among the networks execs, many who feel Mac is ideal to carry a sitcom
-- just not this one.
The television project from Uptown records exec Andre Harrell tells the
story of two hip hop cops from Harlem, one Black, one Latino. Not surprisingly, the only program with a regular focus on violence and pathology was the
only program to be picked up on one of the four major networks (Fox). While
the pilot lagged a little, one can expect good things and maybe even a few new
things. This may also be the first time a Black-focused television show soundtrack gets to be mass marketed.
Status: A solid go and now retitled as "New York Undercover." But it
remains to be seen whether Fox will continue to allow a strong Black character to be the driver behind the series. Keep your eyes peeled for battle
between Harrell and net execs around midseason over the inclusion of a heartthrob white character in a featured role. Just a prediction.
Salt & Pepa Project (Disney TV)
Chris & Chris (TriStar)
"Pearl's Place to Play" (TriStar)
A sitcom, I think. Two single mothers trying to make it on their own..now
Kid N' Playas an advertising team. Bosom Buddies redux without the
BLACK FILM REVIEW/27
drag. Enough said.
Status: Dead
August in the Washington DC BET studios.
Other projects in the pipeline with African
American featured performers include: the revitalized Cosby Mysteries starring Bill Cosby; another
WB project with Robert Townsend with the
extremely unfortunate working title of Father
Knows Nothing; ABC's Me and the Boys; the substantially whitened (and weakened) M.A.N.T.I.S.
on Fox, and returnees Deep Space Nine, Family
Matters, Def Comedy Jam, Martin and Living
Single.
IN OTHER
TV
• Reports underground suggest Time Warner may
be considering a pull out of their stake in BET, in
order to back a competing Black music channel.
The channel is old news, the possible pull out isn't.
• Big hopes were wrapped in the announcement of
the Eugene Jackson et al. World Africa Network,
which promised to fill the programming gaps left by
BET (which are many). However, WAN is quickly
getting off on the wrong foot with initial productions which include Greek Step shows and other
equally anti-intellectual fare.
NEWS:
• The BBC produced PBS show Rough Guide is
pissing off not a few people this season in their
treatment of Black American urban life in the
trendy Generation X travel show.
In trips to Washington and Miami, in particular,
the show's hosts placed extraordinary emphasis on
the pathologies of Washington's Southeast community and Miami's Liberty City, while discounting Black participation in the cities' politics and
economy.
The Washington segment was notable heinous. In
that program at least 10 minutes of the 25 minute
segment was dedicated the poverty and murder
rate of a section of DC which represent approximately 10% of a city with a 75% Black population.
• BET is still slated to premiere BET on Jazz in
January 1995. Tapings for its live to tape concert
performances were held the first two weeks of
TEe
• A consortium of Black media owners led by
Essence Communications were disappointed in
their bids for PCS wireless wave bands at the recent
FCC auction. Lured by FCC hype about minority
discounts, several minority groupings prepared for
bids of under $10 million, when in actuality choice
bands garnered winning bids of $60-80 million.
Essence's Ed Lewis and other met later with
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown to put pressure on
the FCC to create band set asides for minority bidders and even deeper discounts. D.C. -based attorney, Thomas Hart, who represents Essence on the
bidding, says the company will participate in a special minority set-aside narrow-band auction in April
of 1995.
• Despite gentle protests from the Congressional
Black Caucus, PBS continues to reject a slot for
Charlayne Hunter Gault's Rights & Wrongs produced by Danny Schecter. Of Hunter-Gault's' very
H
SHIRLEY MOORE/A SURE BET
W
vocal CrItiCISm of PBS, network president Ervin
Duggan said, "A persistent problem for PBS is that
producers and on-camera personalities who program ideas are not accepted...sometime resort to
the public media or to political means in attempts
to alter the result." DC Congresswoman Eleanor
Holmes Norton described Duggan's response as
"screechingly defensive."
• The classic Black cookbook Spoonbread and
Strawberry Wine enters PBS rotation as a cooking
show in mid '95. The show is hosted by author and
former Vogue model Norma Darden. Currently in
the fundraising stage, the producers have raised
enough for development and script. Total budget is
$500,000 for 13 half-hour episodes.
• Blackside Inc. returns to PBS in '95 with
America's War on Poverty, currently in production.
WGBH Boston presents the program which has
received $4 million in funding from the Ford
Foundation, Mott Foundation and the MacArthur
Foundation. Five one-hour episodes are slated.
Blackside is also in development on Blackside
Classic Children's Tales, a 13-episode multiculti
folktale production.
• WGBH is also behind the production of Africans
in America, a documentary on African involvement
in the creation of America. Budget is at $7 million
with major funding by CPB, NEH, PBS, and the
Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. Scheduled for
1997.
TJ Johnson is a writer living in Los Angeles.
ATe
MARIE CARTER/AN
ABET
H
PROFILE
In a field traditionally dominated by men, Shirley Moore has
Marie Carter spends her days and quite often, her nights engaged in a
found her niche "in a man's world." Moore entered Universal
favorite Hollywood pastime -- the art of making others beautiful.As a make-
Studios in 1974 as the industry's first Black female Property
up artist for the film and television industry, Marie Carter has established
Master. Throughout her career, Moore had worked on the sets of
herself as a recognizable behind-the-scenes force in Hollywood. She has gar-
several innovative and award-winning television shows and films,
nered work on such films as Harlem Nights, Coming to America, Stomping
including, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Thea, The Rockford Files, Hill
at the Savoy, and HBO's The Josephine Baker Story, for which she received
Street Blues, Ghost Dad, and Boyz 'N the Hood.
Moore's greatest triumph in the entertainment industry is her role as presi-
a Cable Ace Award. Carter's numerous television credits include:The Montel
Williams Show, Falcon Crest, Motown 20 & 30,Alfred Hitchcock, and Daddy Dearest.
dent of ABET (Alliance of Black Entertainment Technicians). Founded in 1987,
One of Carter's more amusing experiences in the industry occurred on the set ofThe Life
ABET is the first organized formed, which consists of behind-the-scenes person-
of Marilyn Monroe. After the film company had waited nearly three hours for a performer to
nel who worked on productions within the entertainment industry. ABET's pur-
arrive as a chauffeur, Carter secretly disguised herself (with the help of the wardrobe depart-
pose is to aid, assist, provide, and promote Black technicians in the motion picture
ment) as a man. The director was so overjoyed to "see" the man arrive that he shot the scene
and entertainment industry through education, networking, and promotional activ-
immediately. No one realized until afterwards, when Carter revealed herself as the chauffeur.
ities. Its talent pool ranges from production managers to production assistants and
With such impressive artistry, Carters' workmanship remains in constant demand. She
includes services ranging from public relations to catering. Moore has managed to
finds herself juggling studio time between Universal, Paramount, Disney, and 20th Century Fox.
fill over 500 jobs through her organization's job bank and referral service.
Devoting much of her time to community service, Moore participates in
Her work has also carried her to several exotic locals around the U.S. and abroad. Aside from
make-up artistry, Carter is also skilled in the areas of prosthetics and special effects.
ABET's annual L.A. City Summer Youth Program, which exposes youth to career
Carter is an esteemed member of ABET and was recently honored with an ABET Pioneer
opportunities in the entertainment industry. She also makes several appear-
award for her outstanding achievements as a make-up artist. Carter received her masters
ances at area schools and professional organizations as an industry spokesper-
degree in fine arts from Bishop College and obtained three degrees in make-up artistry from
son. Moore is the proud recipient of First Pioneers Awards from ABET and
the Elegance International Academy of Professional Make-up Artists. A native of Oakwood,
Eastman Kodak.
Texas, Carter currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
28/BLACK FILM REVIEW
THE SILVER SCREEN ON COMPACT DISC
New CD-ROM Programs Offer Info for Critics and Enthusiasts
By
EUGENIA
C.
DANIELS
Movie and video guides on CD-ROM can be both an exciting and exasperating experience. If you are looking to reference films, create lists, research
a genre, or get basic biographies of stars, the discs are a great help, with offerings of using digitized video with sound and still photos.
Three discs I tested included CINEMANIA '94 (Microsoft $79.95/Windows only), MOVIE SELECT (Paramount Interactive), $59.95/Windows and MAC)
and VIDEO HOUND MULTIMEDIA (Visible Ink Software, $79.95, Windows Only). Unlike many games and edutainment discs found on the market, the installation for each was quick and easy using Windows.
Note, however, that the quality of stills, videos, and sound bites vary with your computer system. I tested the three discs on a Compaq 486 with Super
VGA monitor (NEC MultiSync 3FRGe) and SVGA card, a 16-bit sound card and NEC MultiSpin 3X CD-ROM reader--basically high-end hardware. If you are
looking for a host of interactive entertainment, duplicate or upgrade to a similar package. If your intent is to simply source information, then a 386 (with or
without sound card) will do fine.
CINEMANIA 194
Microsoft's CINEMANIA '94 is truly a movie archivist's delight. The disc is packed with
reviews by noted critics Leonard Maltin, Pauline Kael, and Roger Ebert and features bios,
movie clips, cast and credit lists, 900 movie stills, and 2,000 star portraits.
Like other Microsoft programs, the best feature is the ability to jump between files,
or call up definitions using "links." For example, type in the keyword "MICHEAUX"
in the word search, and two topics appear. Call up the Oscar Micheaux bio,
and you will find in the text a reference to D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation"
highlighted and underlined in blue. The highlighted text (the link) can
now be clicked, and a movie still appears for easy reference. Return
to the Micheaux bio and click on the word "typecast" and up pops
a definition, all without leaving the original screen.
If you really want to jump around, call up the Award List
which features the names of Oscar winners in every category from 1927 to 1992. Call up any actor, director or movie title and
find even more bios, awards, film clips and other information.
The Filmography window lists directors' and actors' feature films, and an additional
feature offers film clips which contain about 30 seconds of digitized footage (many in
color) and dialogue.
The serious researcher or archivist will benefit from ListMaker, a tool to categorize
movies by genre and add comments. Those who are less serious can click on the All
Media button, which eliminates the intellectual stuff and gets right to every soundbite, film
clips and celebrity photo.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/29
VIDEOHoUND
In addition to its rating system (from Woof! to Excellent) VideoHound
VideoHound is, as its title implies, a guide to videos that comes with
provides its own bios written in an upbeat, user-friendly style. Selecting
its own rating system. VideoHound's strength is that it uses a technology
an actor or director's name will call up a "videography," the same as
known as "hypertexing," which allows the "hound" to fetch files at a much
CineMania's filmographies.
faster rate than CineMania. Speed, however, is relative to the amount of
information
on
the
disc.
Unlike
CineMania, VideoHound's 22,000
title video guide on CD-ROM
does
not
detailed
MOVIE SELECT
contain
the
bios
the
ner Denzel Washington narrated a kidvid, "John Henry," for Rabbit Ears
Academy
Video. That movie -- as well as music videos by Prince, Whitney Houston,
extensive
Award
or
list.
But
VideoHound is not
geared
the
toward
archivist or
critic,
and
it is
One thing you won't find in CineMania or VideoHound is that Oscar-win-
Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and other
Black musicians -
title guide almost worth the investment.
not meant to be
a
CineMania
clone.
While
features
it
direc-
tors, winners of
major
and
Oscars,
cast
lists,
it
best serves the user
with
its
Search
What's missing is digitized
movie scenes, movie stills, portraits, and sound bites. There
are,
color or close-captioned, the
tape
format,
and
the
year
released. In other words, no surprises
once you have the video in hand. Many references also feature box cov-
however,
12 digitized
movie previews at about 3
1/2 minutes each that are
fairly
up-to-date
("Boomerang,"
Temp").
Criteria, which lets you
know what videos are in
and tons of how-to
guides, make Movie Select's 44,000
One
more
of
the
laborious
tasks is thumbing
(or click-
ing) through the
massive title guide
ers, so you know what to look for in a store or catalog. Other eye and ear
using
candy include the 3,500 star portraits, 400 motion picture stills, and a
system. Say you're looking for
Sound Effect category.
"To
Additional VideoHound attractions are its 650 movie categories and
search options. But sometimes this can be so overwhelming that it
its
Sleep
alphabetized
with
Anger"
starring
Danny Glover. Type in SLEEP, and you'll
draw a blank. As a matter of fact, SLEEP
becomes pointless. Take the urban horror flick "Candyman" for example:
doesn't even turn up Julia Roberts' "Sleeping with
the
the Enemy." Maybe "SLEEPING" will call up the Enemy,
movie
is
listed
under
"Supernatural
Horror,"
"Folklore,"
and
"Mythology." But some of the more cogent and useful categories include
you think. No dice. If you choose to take the time (zzzzzz) to
kid vids, exercise videos, and Japanimation.
scroll through the ABC's, both movies eventually turn up.
THEY ALL FALL DOWN
For all the multimedia infotainment that CineMania packed into its CD-ROM, it does a decent, if not comprehensive, job of representing African
American achievements. VideoHound and Movie Select, by comparison, are just lists and are not meant to inform disc cruisers on important figures in film
history. For example, CineMania has a fairly lengthy bio of Micheaux that includes a filmography of nine listings. Not bad. (Stepin Fetchit, however -- who
has the benefit of being linked to references to white actors such as Shirley Temple -- has 28 listings.)
CineMania also gives Spike Lee 54 films and actors as cross references in his bio. But, and there's always a but, although Lee is called one of the most
"important young filmmakers," he is also called "controversial." So I quickly looked up Oliver Stone, remembering the ruckus caused by Born on the Fourth
of July and JFK. Not once was the word "controversial" mentioned in Stone's bio. He was listed as a "forceful" director who tackled themes with "evident
skill" and "commitment." (VideoHound, by the way, calls Lee "flagrantly talented" but "arrogant." Hmmm.)
Where VideoHound and Movie Select boasted of 22,000 and 44,000 titles, respectively, the latter did not recognize director Julie Dash, and the former
listed only two movie titles for Micheaux, sans bio. To the credit of its voluminous archives, the Hound dug up five films in its "Africa" category. An unfortunately low number, but not terrible considering the source. We could do without the jungle sound effects, though. Smaller missteps also tend to grate on
you. Previews on Movie Select for Searching for Bobby Fisher feature Laurence Fishburne, but the movie is not mentioned in his videography.
Essentially, these three highly-touted CD-ROM movie guides show many others are waiting to be created. Eugenia C. Daniels is Home Entertainment
Editor for the Chicago Tribune.
BFR is now available on CD-ROM through EBSCO Publishing's Academic Abstracts service. To purchase a subscription or for a free 60-day trail, contact: EBSCO Publishing, P.O. Box 2250, Peabody, MA
01960, USA. Or call 1.800.653.2726.
3D/BLACK FILM REVIEW
BOUTIQUE
(Continued from page 17) themselves, saw that their lives
Kingdom,'you know." It makes sense.
things that I like about filmmaking is that you have conwere worthy enough to be up there on the silver
IC: That's great. And, its a whole lot sexier than ilLegal
trol over every atom. I mean, it's there because you
Remedies. II
screen, then that would help to prop up their selfwanted it to be there. So, it's perfect for those of us who
esteem. A Minor Altercation was pretty much predi]S: I think the music is a signature. I've also gotten a lot
love lists and being compulsive. I can just do all these
cated on that idea.
of favorable comments on the soundtrack in The
grids and think about things from all different points of
PK: lackie, do you think that we could tell which segments of
Massachusetts 54th for "The American Experience"
view. But I worry about The 54th; I know that it's realseries. "The American Experience" people were a little
Eyes you worked on, by virtue of some signature of yours,
ly useful in the classroom, and I know that motivated
worried that I wasn't going to do a score, that I wanted
and, ij so, how.?
audiences really like it, but I think, frankly, that it's
]S: My role was primary on the Boston story. The way
to do the same thing I did with Eyes instead of doing
more dense than it should have been, because I was just
wall to wall stuff. But I did do wall to wall stuff and the
Paul and I worked it out was that one of us would take
too reluctant to surrender any of the purview that was
ultimate responsibility for one, and the other for the
music was actually good. I mean, we liked it in the editmIne.
other -- by way of not going insane. In the one that
ing room; it wasn't just historically accurate, it was fun to
One of the pieces that I did for the museum was a
play around with too.
Paul was primary, my role would be a combination
twelve screen video wall ["Lift Every Voice" is a permaexecutive/associate producer, helping him to realize
PK: Were there problems about royalties for these things.?
nent exhibition of the Birmingham Civil Rights
his vision. My imprint on that one was
Institute in Alabama], which I was really
more structural than anything else, in
interested to do just formalistically. It was
terms of the beginning, middle and end
supposed to be on the fight for the right to
of the story. Because I had a certain
vote in the 1960's, but once I did the
amount of distance, I was able to be
research, I had to begin it in 1865 because
more ruthless in terms of chapters in the
I had to back up the story about reclaiming
story.
the right to vote. If, God forbid, some little
I'd like to think you'd know that the
kid should not understand that we used to
seventh show was mine, especially
have the right to vote, and then we lost it,
because of the music. Noone wanted to
and that's what the 20th century was all
get stuck with the seventh show because
about. So, it wound up being a nine minute
it was the '70s, and the '70s was a boring
piece that scans a hundred years of history.
decade. There was no music then, it was
That's what I mean about doing things the
all disco. The working title of my show
hard way; that's always the tension in me. I
was "Legal Remedies," and everyone
think it's much stronger history and much
thought, "Oh, that's so boring--legal
better politically, but it might have been a
stuff." But I've always understood that
bit snazzier if I'd done a 4 1/2 minute thing
music is a very important part of social
that went from 1963 to 1965. I hope that
history.
becomes less a signature of mine, but I
Music is a central way that we get
have a feeling that that's always going to be
over. And so for the seventh show, the
there.
Jacqueline Shearer and former Atlanta, Georgia mayor Maynard Jackson discuss
one on affirmative action and desegregaPK:
It's a little bit like our struggle trying to put
issues pertaining to his experiences as mayor of a large urban city.
tion, I did a lot of research, because it
all this information about African American
seemed to me that there was more music
documentary into a book. 1'm always afraid
than just disco in the '70s. I particularly wanted stuff
]S: Well, no, what I did was rerecord them. We did the
that we might leave out something that's really important.
by Black women. Why not? That was one of my roles
music research and got the pieces and had a music con]S: But it's hard. For me it also gets back to that issue of
in the series since I was the only Black woman prosultant from Wooster, Ohio, a woman who knew a lot
having something to say, because to the degree that I
ducer. Also because of having grown up poor, I would
about 19th century Black music, make selections for us.
see myself as a vehicle or a channel for higher tru ths,
always be the voice calling for attention to gender and
And then we got two choirs, one from Howard
that's one agenda, which is totally different from the
class issues, in addition to race. You know they always
University and one from U Mass, Amherst, both led by
starving "artist in the garret" who may not have that kind
intertwine.
choir directors who knew a lot about 19th century Black
of agenda, but who just wants to express him or herself.
musical styles, to perform the pieces. So, I can see why
So, I did all this research and then just blanketed
I'm less interested in expressing myself. I n1ean, I am,
the show with music that would always be appropriate,
"The American Experience" people were nervous
but it's ancillary to the main point of having something
that would fill the Eyes bill. It was always music that
because there were a lot of steps and it was complicatto say.
IC: When you see the world in complex ways, you 're stuck with
it.
PK: And it 1nay not always be the best story.
]S: No.
I C: That's the other thing you were talking about: the conflict
between your desire to develop a story line that captivates the
audience andgives the work an emotionallije, and your desire
was current at the moment that the scene was happened, but I think it worked out really well at the end. And
to keep the work from being story-centered.
ing. And, there were even a few disco numbers, but it
I think, frankly, that's another signature I'm less proud
]S: Well, you know, its funny, because I think that I perjust spans a range. A couple of professors have come up
of -- my mother always used to tell me -- I always do
sonally do not need a strong story. I like moments and
things the hard way.
to me afterwards and thanked me specifically for the
moments will get Iue through. Even though I'IU an avid
sound track, which just thrills me no end.
mystery reader, I don't follow plot.
PK: My mother told me that, too.
PK: It's number seven in the second series.
]S: You know, there's something to it, because I think
I C: This is an argument I have with students all the ti1ne, espe]S: Yes, it's called the "Keys to the Kingdom." The edithat I gravitate toward complex ideas, and I have finally
cially when we get into the question of what it is that compels
tor, Lillian Benson, is the one who gave me the title
been able to accept the fact that I'm an intellectual. For
them as viewers. I think that they find strong storylines
because her family's from the south, and it's an old
many, many, many years I didn't want to hear it, but I
extremely important in ways that I never do. On the other
am, you know. And, so, I like taking a really dense, comtimey expression. We were in a meeting once, and she
hand, surprisingly, they 're very clear about storyline in docuplex subject area and breaking it down. And one of the
said, "Well, education and jobs -- 'The Keys to the
mentary. They don 't see that much difference between docu-
"...1think that it more documentaries were held to narrative standards they'd be better."
32/BLACK FILM REVIEW
mentary and narrative.
JS: I think that's wonderful.
IC: They see people as characters.
JS: I think that all of my training In narrative really
hel ped when I came to do Eyes on the Prize. I was real
nervous when Henry called me because I thought, "I
haven't done documentaries in years. What if I don't
know how to?" But this has to do with the issue of what
is documentary, and why your students can't tell the difference. I applaud that because I think that if more documentaries were held to narrative standards they'd be
better.
I've been on a lot of these peer revie,,y panels given
the opportunity to see projects COlne in at proposal, and
rough cut and fine cut. Its very helpful. I've developed
this theory that most documentaries are mediocre. Very
few are very good, very few are really bad, but mostly
they're mediocre, and most of those start off with good
ideas. That to me says that people rush off half-baked
with a good idea, thinking, "Well, it's a documentary, so
I can invent it as I go. I'll invent it out there as I shoot
it, and then what I don't get I'll fix up in the editing
room, and then what still needs to be fixed can be fixed
in the mix, right?" It means that ideas get diminished
instead of enhanced because of a lack of real rigorous,
conceptual thinking.
With a script. .. now you can have a bad script, but at
least with scripted narratives you can't fool yourself. It's
there on paper. There's a beginning, a middle and an end.
It lays out what you're trying to say. So, I think that on
that real simple-minded level, the difference between
documentary and narrative sometimes is the difference
between success and failure, more than anything else. In
other words, they both should be structured; they both
should be self-conscious from the beginning, instead of
just, along the way.
Another similarity that I find is that of point of view.
I think that all films are constructions, including documentaries. So, this n1yth of objectivity is so ridiculous that
I can't believe it still takes hold as much as it does. I like
to think that I don't tell lies, but that's different from
claiming to be objective, and that's different from saying
that the world that I construct in my film is reality.
PK: Telling the truth from yourpoint ofview is what you do.
JS: Exactly. And I think that point of view is critical too,
but I wish people understood point of view better. I
always think of where you stand as you look out over your
story. That's all it means. And, you have to stand somewhere.
IC: This issue ofa personal stance is so ilnportantin a work like
[Marlon Rigg's] Tongues Untied that some people might have
trouble considering it a documentary.
JS: That's interesting. If it were literature it would be like
a lyric poem or something, right?
IC: It's more like poetry than it is like anything else. It's another one of our group myths, you know. live all kind of nod and
say, "Oh yes, we all know what we Ire talking about. "But I don It
think we do know what we Ire talking about.
JS: And it doesn't serve documentary well, because so
many people sort of nod out when they hear documentary.
IC: That's exactly right. People say, "Ooh, documentary...oh, so
there's a tradition ofAfrican American documentary."
PK: They want it to be educational which is synonymous with
soporific.
IC: Lately after struggling to teach documentary films, lIve
been thinking that we segregate them in some funny way. And
students say, "That doesn It sound like much fun." If you tell
them, "1 1m going to say this word [documentary] to you, what
does it mean.p " The first thing they III say is "boring," then they III
say "educational."
JS: I remember being at a screening in D.C. of [Haile
Gerima's] Bush Mama, the first time I saw it. When it
came on, I went up to the projectionist to try to get him
to do something about the sound. Haile was really
offended because that gritty, bad sound was very selfconsciously part of what he was trying to do.
I C: Well, I understand that. liVe were showing Frederick
Wiseman 's High School, and all the kids were saying "something's wrong with the sound track. ..can It you fix thatP" And I
had to say, "No, itIS fine. "
PK: The audience is confused in the beginning ofBush Mama.
They can It figure out what's happening but that's what Haile
wants. It's a different way ofpresenting a film.
JS: Again, he's challenging assumptions, presenting a
different set of assumptions, production assumptions,
you know. But now in terms of this issue of film and
video, how do you pose the question? [Question: "Is
there a difference in making video documentaries and
film documentaries? How do you explain the difference?] I just sat on a media panel for the ew York State
Council for the Arts. And, because of budget cutbacks,
hard for me to separate that from the filmmaker. I look at
Daughters of the Dust, and I know that Julie [Dash] and
A.]. [Arthur Jafa] thought long and hard about their aesthetic, but again, I laid that at their feet as creative people.
I guess I don't see the hook from one thing to another.
Maybe there is one, but I can't say that I see it.
PK: I pose the question in terms ofall the ways in which the technology can be used 11m interested in hearing whether this is in
framing, in storyline or contentP Is there a gender-specific aestheticP
JS: I feel so isolated in my own experience that it makes
me hesitant to generalize. But, for example, I remen1ber
in shooting The 54th, I felt that I was respectful of subjects in ways that didn't always serve me well as a filmmaker. I wound up shooting too much footage. On a
human to human basis, I remember a few interviews
where I just felt it was real important not to fake things
and make believe I was running when I wasn't, and not to
interrupt, and to let people come at me in their own way.
Sometimes I wonder how much that has to do with
gender stuff. I've noticed that particularly with older
women I'm extremely deferential. I think that some button gets pushed, you know, that has as much to do with
my being a woman as a Black woman. But, again, you
know, I don't know because I'm trying to be a better and
better filmmaker, and I have certain values and standards,
".. .if you are concerned about audience then TV makes
sense as aplace to get the message out...But if you
care about image, then there's no question, film wins
hands down.
II
it considers grants for film and video on alternate years.
This year it was video. So, I was really looking forward
to a chance to see what was being done.
I'm on the board of the Independent Television
Service, which is this adjunct to CPB, designed to provide
more access to underserved audiences on public TV And,
since being on the Board, it' really forced me to think
about T~ to look at it, and to try to figure it out. And, I'm
very glad that I've been forced to do it because I do understand that if you are concerned about audience then TV
makes sense as a place to get the message out, and I do
care about audience. But if you care about image, then
there's no question, film wins hands down. But I think
television needs redemption -- it needs saving -- and with
all of these channels, Inaybe the cable dream that I
remember talking about twenty years ago is really going to
come true. I really define myself as a filmmaker, but one
who is learning about video just because of the industry
and the audience.
PK: lackie, is there a Black film aestheticP And 1 1m not dividing
it up into documentary and narrative. 11m asking the question
across the board
JS: There n1ay be, but it escapes me. I remember hearing
about an African film aesthetic with much longer takes,
languid pace, that sort of thing. I don't know if that's true
overall, but I certainly have seen filn1s where that was
true. But in terms of an African An1erica aesthetic, Ayoka
Chenzira's Hairpiece, for example, is, I think, sparked by
her inventiveness, and her imagination. Now, the cultural
form is very definitely dipped in Afro-America, but it's
and some of them are cultural, some of them are aesthetic, but I have a hard time making proscriptions from them.
You know, I'd like to say the Black aesthetic means that
our interviews are kinder and gentler, but I don't know.
I'm sure that's not true, depending on circumstances and
individuals, so I don't know.
PK: rou Ire going back to the narrative that you wanted to tell.
JS: Yes, but I don't want to leave documentary aside. My
agenda in the immediate here and now is to think real
hard about historical documentaries that I want to do. For
example, when "American Experience" came to me with
the idea for The Massachusetts 54th, I said, "I don't want
to do that, but I'd love to do something on reconstruction.
Well, that didn't fit their menu for whatever reason, but it
makes me want go back and find the reconstruction story
that I want to tell. It's such an incredible period!
So, see, that's part of the way that I'm trying to figure
out how to get my own voice together, but I'm always
going to have a bigger agenda, and I'm never going be
someone who has something to say that's divorced from
other stuff. So, I'm always going to need a hook to hang
my two cents on.
Phyllis R. Klotman is a professor in Afro-American Studies and
director ofthe Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University.
I anet K. Cutler is director ofthefilm program atMontclair State
University in New Iersey. This interview will appear in its
entirety in the upcoming book on African American documental)
film and video, Struggles for Representation: African American
Documentary, 1943-1993.
BLACK FILM REVIEW/33
Lookingfor a screenwriter, a director, or a particular kind of camera, or that last investor that will push your production to completion.? Or perhaps you offer a service filmmakers and industry people need. BFR introduces this new column to facilitate networking within the independent filmmaking community. Please let us know what services
you need or offer and weIll get the word out.
MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS
The National Black Programming Consortium,
Inc.(NBPC), is a non-profit, media arts organization which supports the development, production
and distribution of educationally and culturally
specific television/film programs by and about
Africans and African Americans.
NBPC houses one of the largest African
American video libraries in the country (over
2,000 hours of viewing.) Dedicated to
projects/services based on the needs, demands
and expectations of the community and media
industry, NBPC's various projects include: providing technical assistance to independent producers, hosting premiers and screenings, the pu blishing of a quarterly newsletter, and Prized Pieces,
BPC's annual international video/film competition.
Founded in 1981, NBPC has received The
Media Awareness Award, The Communications
Excellence to Black Audience Award and the
Creative Best Award of Excellence for its dedication to quality and nonstereotypical African
American programming. BPC's new initiatives
include an educational outreach program, the distribution of theatrical releases, and the assessing
of new technological equipment. For more information about BPC, contact: Mabel Haddock at
(614) 299-5355 or write NBPC, 929 Harrison
Avenue, Suite 101, Columbus, OH, 43215-1356.
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Humboldt International Film Festival: announces
a call for entries into its 28th annual competition.
All genres of work must be in super-8 and 16mm
format, under 60 mins. in length and completed in
the last three years will be accepted. For video
dub pre-screen viewing by committee: Deadline
January 16, 1995. For original film format prescreen viewing: Deadline is February 1, 1995.
Entrance fee is $30.00. Festival date: March 7-11,
1995.
For further details and entry form: Humboldt
International Film Festival, Theater Arts
Department, Humboldt State University, Arcata,
CA, 95521, 707.826.4113, fx. 707.826.5494.
unions. Application deadline is December 16,
1994. For further application and requirements
contact: Assistant Directors Training Program,
15503 Ventura Blvd., Encino, CA 91436-3140,
818.556.6853.
FESTIVALS
The Creative Screenwriters Group provides
free assistance for any person wishing to join or
form a writer's group in their community.
Interested individuals will receive information on the writers' groups in their community
which are seeking new members. Interested people should send their name, address, and telephone number along with a description of their
writing interests and a SASE to: Creative
Screenwriters Group, 816 E Street, N.E., Suite
201,Washington, D.C. 20002, 202.543.3438.
FUNDING NEEDED
Rites and Rhythms of the Ivory Coast, a film about
the culture and customs of Ivory Coast targeting
international television audiences needs funding
to continue shooting.
Contact: Atta N'Kacou & Kouakou Yao Bertin,
140, rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris, France
The 33rd Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival for
independent and experimental works is scheduled
for March 14-19, 1995 at the Michigan Theater in
Ann Arbor. The juried festival awards a total of
$8,000 in cash prizez. For information on the festival call 313.995.5356. For special festival tour
packages call the Ann Arbor Convention and
Visitors Bureau at 313.955.7281.
DISTRIBUTION OPPORTUNITIES
MEDIAPRO, distributor of films and videos on
African and African American cultures for educational and home markets. Also seeks works on
children and social/minority concerns.
Contact: MEDIAPRO, 6202 Springhill Dr., Suite
302, Greenbelt, MD 20770, tel/fax: 301.345.1852.
Enclose SASE for return.
DISTRIBUTORS
Windows in the World, travelogue film/video for
children, seeks funding to continue development
and filming of a 13-part series which explores
world cultures from an environmental perspective. (see Film Clips)
Contact: Howard Moss, P.O. Box 1394, Miami,
FL
33238-1394,
tel:
305.751.6677,
fx:
305.759.0024
Naked Acts, feature by filmmaker/producer
Bridgett Davis about a young actress' intimate
journey towards self acceptance. Begins shooting
9/1 in NY. (see Film Clips)
Contact: Kindred Spirits Productions, 322 W. 14th
St., #3C, New York, NY 10014, tel: 212.727.1011.
COURSES/TRAINING
Victims of Circumstance, feature by filmmaker
Patrick Charles about a college graduates struggle
to start his own legitimate business. Needs
$10,000 to complete.
Contact: A Brother & A Camera Filmworks, c/o
Patrick Charles, 324 Hammonton Place, Silver
Spring, MD 20904, tel: 301.680.3791.
Assistant Director Training Program: Designed to
provide a basic knowledge of the organization and
logistics of motion picture and television production, including set operations, paperwork, and the
working conditions and collective bargaining
agreements of more than twenty guild and
Documentary film on alto saxophonist Steve
Coleman needs completion funds in exchange for
substantial film credit. Also accepting donations
of resources (food for crew, technical assistance,
etc.) as needed. Principal shooting taking place in
New York, Allentown, PA, Chicago and Oakland.
34/BLACK FILM REVIEW
Contact: Natalie Bullock, c/o Red Tree
Productions, 1213 12th Street, NW, Suite C,
Wash. D.C., 20005, tel: 202.842.2099, fax:
202.842.2001.
California Newsreel: 149 9th St., Suite 420, San
Francisco, CA, 94104, 415.621.6196, fx.
415.621.6522.
Filmmakers Library: 124 East 40th St., New York,
NY, 10016,212.808.4980, fx. 212.808.4983.
Films for the Humanities and Sciences: P.O. Box
2053, Princeton, NJ 08543-2053, 800.257.5126.
First Run Icarus: 153 Waverly Place, New York,
NY, 10014,212.727.1711, fx. 212.989.7649.
New Yorker Films: 16 West 61st St., New York, NY,
10023,212.247.6110, fx. 212.307.7855.
Phoenix Films: 2349 Chaffee St., St. Louis, MO,
63146,314.569.0211, fx. 314.569.2834.
Third World Newsreel: 335 West 38th Street, 5th FI,
New York, NY, 10018, 212.947.9277, fx.
212.594.6417.
Women Make Movies: 462 Broadway, Suite 500,
New York, NY 10013, 212.925,0606, fx.
212.925.2052.
For a listing send info to: BFR Resource Exchange,
P.O. Box 18665, Washington, D.C., 20036
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