Report From Edinbur h • Soul Man Review • Robert Hooks

Three Critics Look at She's Gotta Have It • Peter Wang Interview

World of Black Film Collectors Remembering Lorenzo

Tucker - The Black.
Gil Noble Plans Valentino
Like It Is Archive
Film Clips and News
Early Black Independents

Co-produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the District of Columbia
 • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Vol. 2, No. 4/Fa111986

'Peter Wang Breaks Cultural Barriers

Black Film Review by Pat Aufderheide
10 SSt., NW An Interview with the director of A Great Wall p. 6
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 745-0455 Remembering lorenzo Tucker
Editor and Publisher by Roy Campanella, II
David Nicholson A personal reminiscence of one of the earliest stars of black film. . . . p. 9
Consulting Editor Quick Takes From Edinburgh
Tony Gittens by Clyde Taylor
(Black Film Institute) Filmmakers debated an and aesthetics at the Edinburgh Festival p. 10
Associate Editor I Film Critic
Anhur Johnson Film as a Force for Social Change
Associate Editors by Charles Burnett
Pat Aufderheide; Keith Boseman; Excerpts from a paper delivered at Edinburgh p. 12
Mark A. Reid; Saundra Sharp; A.
Jacquie Taliaferro; Clyde Taylor Culture of Resistance
Contributing Editors Excerpts from a paper p. 14
Bill Alexander; Carroll Parrott Special Section: Black Film History
Blue; Roy Campanella, II; Darcy Collector's Dreams
Demarco; Theresa furd; Karen by Saundra Sharp
Jaehne; Phyllis Klotman; Paula Black film collectors seek to reclaim pieces of lost heritage p. 16
Matabane; Spencer Moon; An-
drew Szanton; Stan West. With a repon on effons to establish the Like It Is archive p. 20
Design
Roben Sacheli Early Black Independent Filmmakers
Typography by Mark A. Reid
Word Design, Inc. The history of two early black independent film companies p. 21
.Layout
Whatever Nola Wants, Nola Gets
Robin Lynch by Paul Matabane
Black Film Review (ISSN 0887-5723) is published
four times a year by Sojourner Productions, Inc., A critical look at She s Gotta Have It. With additional commentary by
a non-profit corporation organized and incorpo- Darcy Demarco and Carroll Parrott Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 23
rated in the District of Columbia. This issue is
co-produced with the Black Film Institute of the
University of the District of Columbia. Subscrip- Features
tions are $10 a year for individuals, $20 a year for Film Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 4
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4 Black Film Review

Film Clips
••••••••••••••••••••
Notes on Peop.le, Issues, and Events

By Bill Alexander and The Civil Rights Story

Karen Jaehne

W
e still have a long way to go in A six-part series on the civil rights era,
. increasing employment oppor- Eyes on the Prize, begins Jan. 21 on PBS
tunities for underutilized stations throughout the country. Produced
minority talent." by Blackside, Inc., of Boston, the series is
This grim outlook was voiced by Ken narrated by Julian Bond. It covers the civil
Orsatti, national executive secretary of the rights movement from its beginnings in the
Screen Actors Guild, at a recent conference mid-1950s to the passage of the Voting
on minority hiring in movies and television.
Rights Act in 1965. The film was produced
The conference was a joint meeting of the
by Henry Hampton, founder of Blackside,
SAG and American Federation of Televi- now one of the oldest minority-owned film
sion and Radio Artists Ethnic Equal Em- and television production outfits in the U. S.
ployment Opportunity Committee.
While funding was obtained from PBS and
Current industry statistics on minori-
Henry Hampton CPB, Hampton says "there were also peo-
ty employment released by SAG's affirma-
ple holding house patties and twisting arms
tive action office underscore Orsatti's words: cluded that minorities still lag far behind across the country to raise mon~y." Prepa-
-Of the eight soap operas that em- in equal employment opportunities." ration for the project included "civil rights
ploy hundreds of AFTRA members, only. Despite this glo.omy assessment, the schools" for production staff. The film,
10 blacks are under contract. conference suggested remedies that may re- which was recently shown in New York, was
- Minority performers get less than 10 sult in higher minority employment and praised by poet Thulani Davis in The Vzl-
percent of lead roles in motion pictures and more of an jnclination to feature minority lage Voice. •
television combined. performers in more balanced portrayals of
continued on page 34
-A "disproportionately high" num-
ber of negative minority role models-
criminals, prostitutes, pimps-are regularly
showcased on television crime shows.
-Black women makeup less than 5 This Issue's Contributors
percent of the women employed by motion
Bill Alexander is a free-lance writer the Department of Radio, Television, and
pictures and television.
. ... Pat Aufderheide is a senior editor of Film at Howard University .... Spencer
- A recent study of the country's ra- In These Times and a frequent contributor Moon, a filmmaker, was an organizer of the
dio and television stations revealed that the to natioal film magazines .... Carroll Par~ Black Cinema Series of the 1986 San Fran-
hiring of minority news announcers is at a rott Blue is a filmmaker and an assistant cisco International Film Festival. Black Fzlm
"virtual standstill." professor of Telecommunications and Film Review EditorDavid Nicholson is a former
- In Georgia, less than 1 percent of at San Diego State University .... Filmmak- newspaper and wire service report,-
all persons hired for television, commercial er Roy Campanella, II produced, directed er .... Mark A. Reid is a doctoral candidate
and industrial film work were minorities. and wrote Passion and Memory. He is cur- in Afro-American Studies at the Universi-
Aware that the elimination of racial rently developing several independent fea- ty of Iowa .... Writer, actress, and film-
discrimination in front of and behind the tures, including a comedy and two suspense maker, Saundra Sharp lives in Los Angeles.
camera requires a top priority assessment of thrillers. Black Fzlm Review has signed an agree-
goals, expectations and strategies, Toey Darcy Demarco has written for In ment with the National Writers Union. The
Caldwell, a SAG national board member, These Times and other national publica- two-year agreement, effective Oct. 1, 1986,
and Belva Davis, an AFTRA vice president, tions .... Theresa Ford is a writer and psy- includes: assignments made or confirmed
issued a special industry-wide call to con- chotherapist living in Washington, D.C. in writing; acceptance / rejection/ rewrite
vene the EEOC conference. Delegates from .... KarenJaehne is a film critic who writes notification within two weeks of submis-
more than 20 cities attended the conference for Variety and other national film publi- sion; timely respon~e to queries; provisions
in March. Their purpose was to examine the cations .... Arthur J. Johnson has written covering payment of expenses, responsibil-
record of past union efforts and to explore film reviews and about film for several ities of writers, and a dispute resolution
new ways of implementing EEOC goals. metroplitan Washington publications process. Copies of the agreement are avail-
At the conclusion of the conference, Phyllis Klotman is director of the Black able from Black Fzlm Review or from the
the joint chairpersons noted in a statement Film Center ·Archive at the University of In- National Writers Union, 12 Astor Place,
that the participants had "painfully con- diana .... Paula Matabane is a professor in New York, NY 10003.
Fall 1986

Film Clips
••••••••••••••••••••
New Work in Film, Video, and Other Media

By Spencer Moon film at Howard who has 17 documentaries

to his credit, the film is intended as a
enegalese filmmaker Ben Diagoge promotional work "with a little difference."

S Beye this summer presented a series

of screenings of his works in the San
Francisco Bay Area as part of a na-
tionwide tour sponsored by the Senegalese
government and the National Black
As Ford put it, "We want to avoid the term
tourism (film). We don't want to offer the
country as a brothel. Burkina Faso wants to
attract the kind of travelers with interests
other than baking in the sun."
Programming Consortium in Columbus, Instead, the film will attempt to pro-
Ohio. vide a visual definition of the English trans-
lation of the former French colony's
His short work, The Black Pn'nce ofSt. name - "Land of the People of Dignity."
Germaine, won first prize at the annual Na- "The film will promote the idea of the
tional Festival of the Francophone Commu- dynamic energy of the people fighting
nity. The 1974 film, a satire, is about an desertification ... the process of human be-
African in Paris trying to survive and find ings com bating the ravages of nature and
a place for himself in a foreign land and overcoming them," Ford said.
culture. Beye said the point of the film is St. Clair Bourne It is hoped that the film also will help
to show that for some Mricans there has not Burkina Faso to attract the investment and
"been much mental independence since Hughes Biography to Air assistance needed to eradicate severe water
colonization." He said one irifluence on his shortages and a "seriously advancing des-
work has been psychiatrist and author St. Clair Bourne's Big City Blues, a
documentary about the new blues musi- ert," Ford said. The country needs help to
Frantz Fanon, who wrote extensively on the dig wells, obtain planting tools, irrigate
colonial experience of blacks, and is perhaps cians, premiered in August at the Bleeker
Street Cinema in New York. Shot in Chica- land and promote railroad construction and
best known for his book, Black" Skins, dam building.
White Masks. go, the film features guitarist Son Seals,
bandleader Queen Sylvia Embry, and Bil- The idea of a collaboration between
A second screening featured Beye's ly Branch. Bourne's Langston Hughes: The Howard and Burkina Faso's University of
1980 feature film, a docudrama on polyg- Dreamkeeper completed this summer, is Ouagadougou's INAFEC, the Institute for
amy called Seyseyeti,(A Man and Woman), scheduled to premiere in December at the Cinematography Studies, began as an out-
which included a cast of trained and nov- annual Hoyt Fuller Film Festival sponsored growth ofFESPACO '85, the Festival of Pan
ice actors. In the film, a young woman by the Atlanta-African Film Society. It is Africa Cinema. Ford attended the festival
leaves a polygamous relationship, then tells scheduled for broadcast next September on as part of a contingent of black American
her lover, "Of course 1'm not the same. Peo- PBS. The one-hour film on Hughes' life independent filmmakers who had ,been in-
ple change ... " and refuses to be his wife features commentary by James Baldwin, vited to participate. Following a discussion
in another polygamous relationship. He is Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, and of cooperative training and co-production,
confused and dumbfounded. A second Leopold Senghor, as well as Arnold Ram- Burkina Faso's president, Captain Thomas
young woman tells another-in words that persad, a professor of English at Rutgers Sankara, s~nt a letter to Howard Universi-
resonate internationally- "The real fight is whose biography of Hughes was recently ty President James Cheek, which led to the
between the exploited and the exploiters." final agreement to co-produce the film."
published. Jazz pianist Stanley Cowell
We (Howard University) provided the
The last shot of the film is of the child wrote the score for the film.
raw stock and production equipment. Bur-
of the divorced mother. He is dejected be- kina Faso provided transportation, room
cause he is still a member of the father's fa-
mily without his mother for love or com-
Howard, Burkina Faso and board for the American team during
its stay and full logistics for the 28-person
fort . We see his pained expression as the Cooperate on Film crew," Ford said.
credits roll over his sad face. As director, Ford insisted that the Bur-
Beye is currently working on a project By Arthur J. Johnson kinabe "give shape" to the production.
sanctioned by his government called Howard University and the govern- "The Africans themselves must be the
A&A-Africa and America-which is ment of the West African nation of Burki- source of explanation of who they are," he
designed to start an exchange of film be- na Faso this summer completed a collabora- explained.
tween Africa and America. To that end, tive effort to produce a one-hour film about Accordingly, the Burkinabe developed
Beye met with several Bay Area black film- the people and problems of the country the film's narrative thrust in the summer
makers during his stay in the Bay Area and once known as Upper Volta. and fall of 1985. Then, with a budget of
viewed their work. Directed by Abiyi Ford, a professor of continued on p. 34
6 Black Fzlm Review

In
•••••••••••••••••••
Peter Wang Breaks Cultural Barriers

Playing football atop the Great Wall of China. (Photo: Orion Pictures)

By Pat Aufderheide for his role as the fry cook wearing a ironic image.
Samurai Night Fever T-shin) plays the lead The film doesn't build its story on the
role. mis-meeting of cultures alone, some things

A
Great Wall, an independent fea- The encounter is rich in insights into are shared across cultures. The youth of
ture made by Asian-Americans, has cross-cultural bridges and barriers. The both cultures face a common problem. We
met with approval from critics and Americans are appalled-by- the Chinese fa- see from the experience of the Chinese and
audiences both in China and the mily's lack of privacy, while the Chinese are American youngsters that they are moving
United States. Directed by Peter Wang, and shocked at the American son's casual into a new era without the help of the old
produced by Shirley Sun, who collaborat- familiarity with his father. And while traditions. That problem extends to the new
ed on part of the PBS series Cities ofChina generosity of spirit triumphs over cultural China itself trying to modernize without
as well as the award-winning documentary preconceptions, the clash can be hilarious. being able to meld the old ways with the
Old Treasures from New China, the film The story is told as much in production de- new needs.
tells the story of how a Chinese-American sign and pointed framing as it is in dialogue Sharply perceptive and unfailingly
deals with the cultural and ethnic differ- and incident. The sight of the new electric charming, the film does something rare in
ences he finds when he returns to China blanket-a gift from the gadget-happy Western movies. It locates character with-
with his family to visit relatives. Wang him- Westerners ~ smoking as it shorts out on in culture. In other words, although the
self (familiar to viewers of Chan is Missing Chinese current is a synoptic and typically film is warmly intimate, the dramatic struc-
Fall 1986 7

ture is built around the realization that per- their flesh. I think the men need bras. Their cause of the language. I had hired Asian-
sonal experience is always also cultural and flesh isn't pretty, but they could care less. Americans who promised me they spoke
that even such values as individualism are Those bodies, oh my Lord. It's as if they Chinese but didn't, and Hong Kong assis-
cultural ones. Wang is acutely aware of the didn't care what they did, since they're not tants, who promised me they spoke Eng-
blinders that cultural assumptions create at home. It may reflect the chauvinism of lish but didn't. Shirley Sun and I ended up
and also of the universal need for some kind the powerful. having to relay a lot of messages and smooth
of context and tradition. The double de- Not all are like that. The good side of over misunderstandings.
sire to break through boundaries and to Americans is that many show curiosity As time went on, we came to realize
have a room of your own with sturdy walls about the culture and are outgoing and that language is only one problem. The cul-
all around defines the film's drama. friendly. tural difference is what pulls people apart.
Produced in a period of liberalization Americans are very straightforward and
in China, the film has impressed Chinese BFR: Is Paul then supposed to carry your frank. The Chinese are proud and don't al-
audiences unofficially, but the Chinese criticism of the "Ugly American"? ways explain what's bothering them. And
government has yet to approve it. This sum- Wang: There are aspects of that, but that's they closely observe hierarchy.
mer, Peter Wang talked with Black Fzlm not all I wanted to do. It's interesting that I had hired a smart, young, Asian-
Review Associate Editor Pat Aufderheide the actor, Kelvin Han Yee, isn't like that American girl straight out of NYU film
about the making of the film, the ways in at all in person. He's a good actor. For me school as a production assistant. She spoke
which it reflects his own personal ex- the character he plays represents the extraor- a little Chinese, so I put her in charge of
perience, and its official and unofficial dinary desire of an Asian-American kid to liaison with the Chinese crew. Well, they
reception on both sides of the wall between be more American than the Americans. It's were in their twenties and thirties and they
cultures. overcompensation, a very interesting were professionals and it was total humili-
phenomenon. Some want to be the first ation for them to take orders from this
BFR: How did you get the funds to make Asian-American pro football player in the young woman. It took me a long time to
this film? country. get to the bottom of the trouble.
Wang: From private investors, especially in
the Asian-American community. That's one BFR: You've set up the film to be a study BFR: And yet with your personal back-
of the advantages of being a middle-aged in contrasts, East and West. ground in several cultures, I would have
filmmaker. You know a lot of people who Wang: Yes, and I looked for parallel situ- thought you could have foreseen this.
are well-off, unlike yourself. The film came ations. The film points to rnany contrasts, Wang: Well, I'm probably more American
in under $2 million. differences in culture. But the bottom line than I want to admit at this point. I left
is the common ground of humanity. the mainland as a child, and I left Taiwan
BFR: Were the investors satisfied with the to go to college in America.
result? BFR: You mean by that, I take it, the com-
Wang: Oh yes. People tell me, "I'm glad mon ground of cultural conflict across na- BFR: The character you play seems a lot like
you made it-you said something I want- tional borders and generations. you. He's someone who knows the terms
ed said." Better yet, they say "Do you need Wang: Yes. In China, there is a saying that and limitations of both cultures, who's a bit
more money?" the older generation always forces the kids of a rebel by personality and who actively
to drink ginseng soup and you have no enjoys the individualism of American life,
BFR: Do you find that people got the mes- choice but to swallow it. Human beings savoring it because he knows the alterna-
sages you wanted them to get? have a tendency to be lazy. Every genera- tive and finds it confiningly conformist.
Wang: Sometimes I'm frustrated when peo- tion thinks it invented ultimate truth. Wang: Right! Exactly! Print it!
ple fail to see what I want to say. But I made What makes civilization so challenging is
the film to be enjoyed on several levels. On that you know it but you don't know it. Ev-
the surface, it's very entertaining. There are ery milestone is made for newcomers to BFR: This movie is very much about cross-
jokes, both in Chinese and in English, and crash. cultural misunderstandings, but also very
there's the ping pong. People who are bilin- much from a Western perspective. It focuses
gual of course are going to get all the jokes. BFR: It sounds like you're speaking from on questions of privacy, of individualism.
And there. are so many different kinds of experience. I have the feeling that a Chinese filmmak-
characters that people can see a lot of their Wang: I'm the youngest·ch,iJd"ina: family er would have structured the encounter
own images in the film. Many people can of seven. My father's a very funny guy, al- quite differently.
identify with Paul, the American who goes though he didn't know it. He was very old- Wang: I think that's probably true. I did
to a foreign country. fashioned, and he didn't want me to have approach it from a Western perspective. But
any involvement in acting. So I studied en- that's appropriate to the changes that Chi-
gineering and science and then I gave it up. na is facing. In China, the old traditional
BFR: I found Paul a fascinating character. values are disappearing whether you call it
I think the youngest child in a family can
He didn't seem wholly likable and often communism or capitalism or modernization
afford to be the black sheep.
seemed to dominate the frame in a kind of or what. And then there is a crisis in the
alarming way. Were you trying to make us definition of what socialism is. Socialism
see him in some way from an insider's view? BFR: Has your family seen the film? did not have a clear-cut definition, and
Wang: Paul is typical in that way. Ameri- Wang: My brother in San Francisco has. He when they take off in a new direction, they
cans in foreign countries often leave that was a little put out, I think. He was origi- try to pick up Western terms and values and
kind of impression - aggressive, self- nally resolutely against my giving up my figure out how those terms fit into that i11-
righteous, a little insensitive. A lot of profession. He told me, "You've told every- defined socialism. So the question of what
tourists go overseas looking for Coke and body your life story. Great. What are you do terms like privacy and individualism
McDonald's and when they find it they're going to do for a script for your next film?" mean to them are questions for now.
happy. Fortunately, I have some ideas.
You know, I think this is a very polit-
I think this is terrible. I am appalled ical film. On the surface it's apolitical. I
by the way American tourists behave. Look BFR: Did you have cross-cultural problems never mention communism or capitalism.
at the mainlanders in Hawaii. They concen- in the filming in China? But it's full of value judgments and state-
trate in Waikiki. They shamelessly show Wang: Yes. At first we thought it was be- ments. I only give you the topic sentence
8 Black Ftfm Review

and you have to fill in the blanks after that. individual liberty. beings making decisions on another basis.
Look at the scene where Leo goes into Another example is the sight of the old And that's true everywhere, in every polit-
the Chinese computer room. It's sterile, al- man doing his Tai Chi steps in the disco, ical system.
most a sanctuary, and people visit the holy where the young people are learning to
machine in their white gowns. In the States, dance to Western music. The old and the BFR: That sounds to me like an engineer
you see him at work where people are all new. speaking.
using the machines, and it's casual. There's Wang: You got me. And why is that true?
a guy in his T-shirt with his belly hanging Because if a guy knows too much, he
out. BFR: This film has been received well in un- couldn't bear the consequences of making
official showings in China, but hasn't been a decision. The courage to decide comes
approved for showing by the Chinese from stupidity. Look at [Sylvester] Stallone.
BFR: Was that guy an actor? government. Do you think they're reacting
Wang: No, he's the vice-president of the He can shoot, because he doesn't bother to
to your criticisms of the political system? know. Would [Albert] Einstein ever drop
firm! Wang: Well, yes and no. No one ever told the bomb? Never.
me why the film hasn't been released there,
BFR: But what did you want to say with but one of our Chinese production people
BFR: What are you working on now?
that contrast? gave me some unofficial hints. He kept tell-
Wang: My next film will be a very serious
Wang: It shows the way the Chinese socie- ing us we would have problems all the way comedy. It's called Laser Man. It's about a
scientist who blunders across a conspiracy,
using a technique he invented, to develop
a deadly weapon. There's an international
assassination plot. The hero doesn't want
to know about it and it's his 10-year-old son
who pushes him to pay attention. There's
a happy ending by the way.

BFR: Do you find that the humor in A

Great Wall works equally well with Chinese
and American audiences?
Wang: Even in translation, a lot of U.S. hu-
mor doesn't work in China. They laugh in-
stead at the colloquial jokes and references
in Chinese and they love the part where
Paul is running for the bus. That's a part
of their daily lives. And they were very
moved about the theme of the exam. When
the boy finishes the exam and his father
gives him a Coke.
The film came across well for a youn-
ger generation, under 35. They loved it.
Over 45, a lot of people think it's not
proper.

BFR: I imagine that the Cultural Revolu-

tion 3:nd aftermath left a lot of people un-
willing to indulge in irony.
Wang: Well, of course there's a sense of
caution. I get very impatient with it. When
I heard the objections to the old man fart-
Wn'ter-director Peter Wang (r) as Leo Fang, with Hu Xiaoguang in A Great Wall. (Photo: Orion Pictures) ing, I said "Well, excuse me, I'm sorry. I
didn't know that Chinese people don't fart
ty and government feels about their com- through, and I think he was right. He said, since the Revolution. You people have
puters. They've imposed new technology on for instance, that showing the old man fart- made great advances that we should know
traditional culture. Superficially they ap- ing was inappropriate. Showing naked flesh about."
prove of Westernization, but at root they and bathrooms would be seen as indecent.
don't buy the culture within which the tech- It's this kind of thing, not any political BFR: Although you've been very ambitious,
nology works. They send students to the statement, that I think really irks the your filmic style is low-key narrative. A very
U.S. to bring back the technical know-how authorities. familiar "look" for Western film-goers.
and they bring the most modern computers Wang: I call it disarming. There are tril-
to China, but nobody's using it. So I am BFR: So it's a reaction of prudery rather lions of ways to tell people stories. I've been
making a strong statement. Forget it! Not than political objection. an antiwar activist. I've been through call-
this way. It'll take another 50 years to real- Wang: Yes. I think also I didn't put in ing and yelling and screaming. And you can
ize what you want to do in terms of tech- enough pictures of the new high-rises and raise awareness that way up to a certain
nical modernization. demonstrate the progress of the country. It point, but no further.
Another scene is the Chinese boy's was too tuned in to old Beijing, not enough Film is something that you need heart
Gettysburg Address [delivered atop a crum- to the four modernizations. appeal for. You can't analyze. If you use
bling statue in a park built in the middle Politicians don't go deep anywhere in logic, you lose a lot. A sense of humor is
of Beijing]. On one level, it's comic and it's the world. It's a pity that in all recorded hu- my best weapon. If you come to my film,
also telling you about a fascination among man history people's fate is decided not by you might see something there but at least
the younger people with those principles of the people who really know, but by lesser you'll have a good time. •
Fall 1986 9

Remembering Lorenzo Tucker

At 78, Tucker was living proof that age
By Roy Catnpanella, II need not drastically diminish one's charis-
ma. Sitting beside him I was reminded of
orenzo Tucker's long and prestigious a very brief encounter I once had had with

L film career began in 1926 when, as

a struggling young actor, he had a
chance encounter with the ambitious
and talented filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.
Handsome and charismatic, a stage and
Cary Grant at Paramount Studios. Tucker
had the same extraordinary presence. Of
course, he had not enjoyed the same level
of fame and fortune, but that does not ne-
gate the reality that he possessed the same
vaudeville performer, Tucker went on to "equipment."
star in such Micheaux classics as Wages of Such a contradiction could easily leave
Sin (1928), Daughter ofthe Congo (1930), someone bitter. But that was not Lorenzo
.and Temptation (1936). Tucker's way. While he did not accept the
His uniquely appealing screen perso- venal prejudice that prevented a man of his
na made him a genuine matinee idol, in- tremendous talent from becoming a
spiring audiences to dub him "The Black "romantic heartthrob" for all female movie-
Valentino." The American cultural land- goers, he clearly understood the social roots
scape through which Tucker and many of racism and that his potent screen image
others traveled was more foul than fair. But symbolized a sexual threat to the power of
in a more truly egalitarian world, it would white males.
not be hard to imagine Valentino being The legitimate anger he. felt was not
dubbed "The Italian Tucker." swallowed and digested into self-destructive
The almost total inability of major stu- bitterness. Although he was less insecure
dio productions to depict three-dimensional than most artists, there were fleeting mo-
black characters has its roots in their unwill- ments during some of our long discussions
when, if you looked closely into his sensi- Lorenzo Tucker, the Black Valentino, in a
ingness to establish meaningful creative ties 1931 photograph. (Photo: The Tucker Collection)
with black filmmakers. The modern Holly- tive eyes or listened to the inflections in his
wood studio makes deals, not pictures. Stu- rich voice, the pain of all the rejections he
dio executives approve "creative packages," had experienced would emerge. worked. Off camera, for instance, Fetchit
rather than genuinely overseeing a produc- As we got to know each other better was as independent and flamboyant as any
tion from conception to completion. Thus I was deeply touched by how helpful and of his white counterparts. Under no circum-
the depiction of black screen characters with concerned Tucker was with Passion and stances. did Tucker make apologies for
a viable connection to our sex and love life, Memory. His contribution to the produc- Fetchit's screen image.
either on mythic or realistic levels, is and tion went far beyond granting an interview. Tucker believed that if we. could un-
has been historically the province of black He helped me reach people I never would derstand the complexity of forces at work
filmmakers operating outside the context have been able to otherwise contact. When regarding any historical figure or incident,
of a major' studio. I experienced resistance from those who we would better be able to use and embrace
Lorenzo Tucker is at the heart of this is- would "rather not be bothered,' he inter- the whole of our history. He saw little val-
sue: black sexuality on screen. Throughout vened if he thought it would help. And it ue in dealing with such issues from an ar-
his life, he understood where he fit histor- often did, for he was very persuasive when rogant, "blacker-than-thou" perspective.
ically, for he did everything on screen his he wanted to be. And he disliked the "crabs in the barrel"
white counterparts did; ~nd all this at a It may seem odd, but Tucker and mentality that so often permits narrow-
time when the odds were against him and Stepin Fetchit, total opposites on screen, minded individuals to clothe their jealousies
filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux.. were life-long friends. When·'3.· series of in righteousness. In essence, Tucker hoped
I met Tucker for the first time while strokes left Fetchit an invalid with almost that our learning process would give us an
preparing to shoot interviews for a no capacity for speech, Tucker regularly appreciation for how we have survived and,
documentary film, Passion and Memory. visited him at the Motion Picture and Tel- in unique cases, overcame one of the most
My focus was the careers of Stepin Fetchit, evision Country House and Hospital. profoundly dehumanizing and oppressive
Hattie McDaniel, Bill Robinson, Dorothy Passion and Memory explores how systems of racial discrimination ever devel-
Dandridge, and Sidney Poitier. Tucker had American film has portrayed blacks and oped.
worked with Fetchit in vaudeville. In ad- how some black artists have transcened Passion and Memory aired on the Pub-
dition' since he had performed in both in- stereotypes and other limitations to make lic Broadcasting Service a few months be-
dependent and studio productions, he a unique and significant contribution to fore Lorenzo Tucker died on Aug. 19. Mak-
provided a knowledgeable outsider-insider American film. Of the five stars whose ing the film had been such a long, uphill
perspective. And, of course, he lived and careers are examined, Stepin Fetchit was the struggle and he had helped in so many cru-
breathed a fascinating history of his own. most difficult to place within the above con- cial ways that it would have been depress-
Most of the famous actors I have met text. Donald Bogle's book, Toms, Coons, ing had he left without seeing it. Fortunate-
are shorter than I expected them to be. Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, of which ly, this was not the case.
Tucker was taller. He was dignified and Passion' and Memory is an adaptation, Acting rests on faith; the actor must
cool, without being aloof or condescend- provided intellectual assistance. But it was have the courage to jump from the diving
ing. His sense of dignity seenled natural, Lorenzo Tucker who constructed the neces- board of faith to the pool of imagination
and his coolness was a function of his clas- sary emotional and historical bridge. below.
sic style rather than any assumed attitude. He gave me a realistic context for In this sense, fine acting is believing.
We quickly became friends. Fetchit and the conditions under which he Lorenzo Tucker was a true believer. •
10 Black Film Review

Quick Takes From Edinburgh

Festival was 0 ppartunity
To Discuss Art andAesthetics
By Clyde Taylor

The Third Cinema Conference hosted by nel." This rather novel position was hastily ex-
the Edinburgh International Film Festival and plained to me as the outcome of an anti-racism
the British Ftlm Institute had all the markings campaign mounted by white leftists in London
ofa famtly reunion. For three lively days, the and characterized by paternalistic channeling.
Ftlmhouse set the stage for irrepressible charac- I am sure there is more to it than that.
ters, absent legends, shiny new personas, run- Nazareth had another, connected com-

I argued that the

struggle over control
ning feuds, old and new alliances, all saunter-
ing toward that heightened sense of self
sometimes caught in consummatory group pho-
tographs. Beyond the task of se/frecognition,
plaint. His documentary on wife-battering in
the Asian-British community, Fearful Silences,
was taking heat from that community. I, for
one, could sympathize with his particular strug-
the group also had the serious task ofrefiOning gle: the need to sort out ethics (not esthetics)
of truth is more im-
the ambigiuous concept ofThird Cinema. The in conflict with community self-defensiveness.
portant than the isola- quick takes that follow should not be confused But Nazareth could hardly have found a
tion of the truth-that with an officialportrait, coming as they do from worse, foot-shooting defender of his own position.
a heated, much i~volvedpartisan. At one point, he quoted a remark by Hanif
the role ofpower and Kureishi, the Pakistani author of My Beauttful
knowledge in control- Laundrette, to the effect that he did not care
about a Pakistani community that objected to
ling the esthetic cate-

F
ilm theoretician Teshome Gabriel images of itself. Gerima's countering advice to
gory was more crucial (Ethipia/UCLA) early achived both emi- Nazareth was haunting: if he did not start a
nent presence and legendary absence at unifying dialogue here and now, his film would
than esthetic percep- the Third Cinema Conference in Edin- be an exotic episode, forgotten by the funding
tions. burgh through the videotape he sent of a speech agencies that will work to divide and dismiss him.
that came over clear, crisp, commanding, and My own entry into the esthetics versus
larger than life. So did its message, which ideology debate was described as a "bombshell"
brought to the concept of Third Cinema the by Gerima, who was up to his best verbally
power of popular memory, not merely oral tra- provocative form throughout the conference. I
dition, but those collective transmissions that argued that the struggle over control of truth
preserve and advance a people's destiny over is more important that the isolation of the truth,
remembered trials and victories. that the role of power and knowledge in con-
How did the conference reflect on the is- trolling the esthetic category was more crucial
sues of ideology and esthetics? In recent debates than esthetic perceptions. We ought, therefore,
in the United States, this question has had to to forget the project of constructing a Black
do with rather rigid support for "positive" Cinema Aesthetic, ought to overthrow the cat-
over "negative" images-an example is the fu- egory of esthetics altogether (as it is com-
ror over the depic~ion of black men in the film promised by Eurocentrisms and racism), and at-
The Color Purple-as opposed to a more sup- tempt to build Black/Third Cinema as a tool
ple interpretive director / audience dialogue. for what Sylvia Winter calls "the rewriting of
These issues were present at Edinburgh, knowledge. "
but in new and more challenging accents. As people reshuffled to defend their posi-
Indian-British filmmaker H.G. Nazareth, for in- tions against this unsuspected line of attack, a
stance, rebutted Haile Gerima's keynote speech curious tension surfaced. It arose from the ques-
for its cultural nationalism which neglected class tion of whether I was aware that India had an
and gender. "Anti-racism," Nazareth said, "is ancient tradition of art and aesthetics. Because
another kind of burrow, another kind of tun- I was more interested in sharing than dividing
Fa//1986 11

over ideas, I replied merely that all peoples had So there was a wide diversity, yet mutual
ancient traditions of creativity and interpreta- sympathies among the shapers of black world
tion. Ne~ertheless, a gulf was exposed at this cinema. The slight strain in the dialogue be-
point between Indian and African world views. tween them and delegates from Asian commu-
The best of Third World traditions was ex- nities remained and will have to be more open-
pressed in England among Pakistanis, West In- ly approached in the future. I was made vaguely
dians, and others who united under one descrip- uneasy by the estheticism of Laleen]ayamanne
tive banner as "blacks." But this does bnot (Sri Lanka/ Australia). Her attempt to "figure
prvent some subcontinental sentimentalizing the body through work on gesture, filmic fram-
over an Aryan kinship with Eurocentric interests, ing, and how the voices in the film work in re-
for both ego and material gratifications, and at
the expense of the decolonizing process.
On a panel from the United States, film-
maker Ayoka Chenzira lodged the thoughtful
argument that the search for positive images had
lation to the images" may have had some power-
ful revelations about feminism's struggle over
the female body, but I had missed her film,
Song olCeylon, and was therefore mystified by
her~discussion .
o n a panel from
the United States,
led to self-stereotyping and finally to self- I had seen Trinh Minh Ha's (Viet- filmmaker Ayoka
censorship of all images, except those of a new nam / France / U C- Berkeley) Reassemblage Chenzira lodged the
character type, a neuter personality as evidenced (1982). A curious mix of lovely images of Sene-
by Diahnn Caroll on Dynasty, and the figures gal and turgid semiotic jargon, it produced in thoughtful argument
on The Cosby Show. me a discomfiture that carried over to her prese- that the search for
A jet-lagged Charles Burnett confessed that nation in Edinburgh. So my comments were
his community was disoriented and dispirited blunt. I found her way of uttering strings of iso- positive images had
beyond reach of films and filmmaking to offer lated quotations from herself, alternating with led to self
hope of relief. [See accompanying article - Ed. } quotations fromn others slide-projected over-
Gerima saw the hope for Third Cinema in the head to be mannered. There was also something stereotyping.
evolution of a dynamic between audience/com- facile in openly expressing her ambiguous role
munity, filmmaker / storyteller, and activist / crit- vis-a-vis African imagery as "the inappropriate
ics. But he also saw the black film movement Other." She had described this as an undeter-
in a crisis formed by its openness to petty bur- mined place both in and out of a host culture
geois corruptions. "like two sides of a coin," but I reminded her
One could feel warm affinities between the of a legacy of Asian middle-man traders in Afri-
Afro-Americans and the Afro-British that came ca. But Menelik Shabazz was even more blunt,
out of their shared semi-colonialsm, even while the urgericy rising in his voice as he asked twice,
noticing their differing historical postures. As "who do you make films lor?"
filmmaker Menelik Shabazz (Barbados/UK) Her latest film, Naked Spaces, was rich
noted, the street uprising of 1981 made the cur- with marvelous images of African people and
rent black British film context possible. [See ac- architectural surroundings, but turned out to be
companying article - Ed. } The vitality and spirit more self-indulgent than exploitative, its pace
one feels in this movement springs from its dictated by the drawn-out pomposity of its nar-
closer connections to these rebellions than in the ration. Those who did not fall asleep left be-
U.S. movement, and therefore to the cool-out, fore it ended.
fool-out funding that follows. Some of the Trinh Minh Ha's position between two
young black British that I talked to seemed con- stools was troubling to me. On one side, I felt
fident of the funding of their next films, even sympathy with her interrogation of some bur-
as their last ones were just being finished. densome legacies of Western esthetics in non-
The young bloods of the Sankofa, Ceddo, Western contexts. On the other, the esthet-
and Black collectives were refreshingly aware, ic/ political no-man's land she chose for herslf
serious, and articulate, well-versed in their own was located above certain battles she had to
and other theoretical positions. They seem to know were going on. I made an association here
have profited from the earlier struggles of ar- between her posture as "inappropriate Other"
ticulation and purpose in the black film world and ]ulainne Burton's self-description as "nei-
and, so armed, feel no need to be defensive in ther / nor" in relation to First and Third worlds.
the face of Western theory. This sophistication Were they both not refractions of the medieval
has doutbless benefitted from the presence of position of "unmoved mover?"
Jim Pines, coordinator of the conference, eth- Burton (Euro-American critic/UC-Santa
nic affairs officer at the British Film Institute, Cruz) had claimed this murky ground in a
and author of Blacks in Film. But with all their speech marked by an aggressively apologetic
awareness of the need for unity, one could gath- stance on the outskirts of self-destruct. The
er the waiting tensions between a Caribbean- apologetic note had to do with a Summer 1985
based cultural nationalism and the cos- Screen article in which she attacked Gabriel's
mopolitanism of gender, sexual orientation, and book on Third Cinema for being insufficiently
class among the British-born. dependent on Western feminist and avant-left
12 Black Fzlm Review

film theory. The agression came in her self- traditions. One is the imperialist tradition,
description as "mediator" of critical ideas, in- which has three aspects: The economic, the po-
nocent to the historical and implied dominance litical, and the cultural. The cultural aspect is
over Third World critical ideas being mediat- where we function as carriers of values. It is here
ed. Burton's confusion was a reminder-and that one of our most important activities takes
there were others - of the persisting temptation place-the development and preservation of the
to revert to notions of Eurocentric priority even concept of self. But under imperialism, these
in the act of trying to liberate ourselves. cultural tasks are threatened because the con-
By the time we arrived at the final session, trol of the economic and political make possi-
the debates had generated a populous swirl of ble efforts to control the images of the world.
ideas, opening new vistas in their striking and The second tradition is the tradition of re-
contentious relation to each other. But how did sistance. Under imperialism, the people strug-
these relate to Third Cinema, which had gone gle to control their own labor power for control
vinually unmentioned all this time? From its ori- of their political destiny and for their culture.
gin in an essay by Argentine film directors Fer- Where the two traditions collide, can there
nando Solanas and Octavio Getino, the concept be a neutral image? There can only be an aes-
of Third Cinema has been based in Third World thetic of domination or one of liberation. The
struggles and particularly in an identifying mili- former attempts to control images of the world
tant commitinent. But the authors left open the to the advantage of the dominators, while the
assumption of participation from Westerners. esthetic of liberation searches for and cultivates
In his book, Third Cinema and the Third the beauty of resistance. The search for a univer-
World, Teshome Gabriel had more fully ex- sal esthetic can never be anything but contradic-
plored its theoretical inferences, but more as a tory when the esthetic of domination pervails
framework for criticism and ideological reflec- over the esthetic of liberation.
tion than as a manifesto for filmmakers. At But we of the Third World are in fact the
Edinburgh, the dialogues were resolutely test- mainstream in literature and in cinema. Weare
ing the limits and capabilities of the concept. the mainstream because we are the majority,
So it fel to Kenyan Noveilst Ngugi wa Thiongo making an esthetic from our struggles.
to sum up the preceding discussions, like a mas- Even in the absence of his magnetizing
ter giving grades. Perhaps by design, his sum- delivery, the recollection of Ngugi's words,
matory statement also provided regrounding merely paraphrased her, ring with the memory
and new visions for Third Cinema. of their perfection. If the conference, with all
One of the resonsibilities of the artist, Ngu- its confrontations, had posed a complex of ques-

Er film to act as an
agent for altering peo-
gi said, is to ourselves, a responsibility born out
of the capacity to dream, to feel. Because of that
responsibility, we should not be afraid of ex-
amining the issues of form. On the other hand,
tions, then Ngugi's words offered, I think, the
most thoughtfully adequate responses.
To have participated in this dialogue at
Edinburgh was wonh three to five years develop-
ple's behavior, a the artist does not live in isolation, but is a prod- ment through more solitary channels. It was per-
uct of society. haps the most productive Third World film con-
politicization must be In the Third World, we are products of two ference I have been to. •
taking place. ~Because
the black community
lacks leadership, it Film A5 a Force for Social Change
lacks direction.
The following is an edited version of a paper The question is how does one who is dis-
Los Angeles filmmaker Charles Burnett deliv- satisfied with the way things are going set about
ered during the Third Cinema Conference at the transforming society? To whom and- to what
Edinburgh Fzlm Festival in August. should one direct his message, and what will be
the spark to motivate people to alter their habits
f one has any interest in film as a means to when even the realization of death itself has

I transforrrl society, one can certainly sym-

pathize with the frustrations of the main
character in the novel Bread and Wine by
Italo Calvino. The hero, a revolutionary hiding
from the police, disguises himself as a priest.
failed.
For film to act as an agent for altering peo-
ple's behavior, another dynamic has to have oc-
curred, a politicization trillSt be taking place. Be-
cause the black community lacks leadership, it
Villagers mistake him for a real priest. Despite lacks direction. In part, the situation exists be-
his attempts to explain that their social condi- cause the black middle class moved away. Over
tion could be improved, that certain things- the years, a vacuum formed, and in the isola-
food, shelter, and the right to happiness- tion, people of daring gained control. The iro-
belong to everyone, the villagers can't conceive ny is that there is a conspiracy to hide what is
of those things as a pan of their reality. Instead, happening.
they are something to be obtained in heaven. The response to films that sounded the
Fall 1986 13

alarm and tried to dramatize concerns that were us only when we can discuss them with our fel-
eroding the foundation that makes a society a low .... We humanize with what is going on
society was, "This makes us look bad." Middle- in the world and in ourselves only by speaking
class blacks wanted to emphasize the positive. of it and in the course of speaking of it we learn
The inner-city wanted Superfly. Neither had any to be human." ~
substance, however, both were detrimental. Solidarity and humanity occupy the same
There is a difference between illusion and space. And nowhere is a common bond more
inspiration. The difference in concerns clearly necessary than in the inner city. It seems that
marked the direction, consciously or uncons- the object of all films shou1d be to generate a
ciously, people who lived on opposite sides of sense of fraternity, a community. However, for
the tracks were going. Surprisingly, there are a an independent filmmaker, that is the same as
large number of people with reactionary and/ or swimming against a raging current.
chauvinistic points of view in the inner city. One of the features of my community is that
Commercial film is largely responsible for it does not have a center. It does not have an
affecting how one views the world; it reduces elder statesman and, more important, it does not
the world to one dimension, creating taboos and have roots. In essence, it is just a wall with graffiti
fostering superstition, concentrating on the written on it. Life is going to work, coming home
ugly, creating a passion for violence and reflect- and making sure every entrance is locked to keep
ing racial stereotypes, instilling self-hate', creat- the thugs out, thinking about how to move up
ing confusion (rather than reflecting clarity). In in the world, or being a member of a street gang
later films that strove for reality, the element standing on neighborhood corners, thinking
of redemption disappeared. As a consequence, about nothing and going nowhere.
the need for a moral position was no longer rele-
vant. There was no longer a crossroads to face
and to offer meaning to our transgressions. The
bad guy didn't have to atone for his sins. We
could go on enjoying life victim.izing innocent
Commerczalfilm reduces the
people. -
In essence, then, commercial film is anti- world to one dimension, creating
life. It constantly focuses on the worst of hu-
man behavior to provide suspense and drama,
to entertain. The concerns are generally about
taboos andfostering superstition.
a young white male. The rest of society and its In both cases, what is missing is not only
problems are anathema. Any other art form the spiritual, but mother wit. Even though there
celebrates life, the beautiful and the ideal, ex- is a church on every other corner, it only holds
cept American cinema. services one day a week and it is not a domi-
The filmmaker, then, is always asked to nant part of the life of the community. The
compromise his integrity. And if the socially community may be like a ship that has lost its
oriented film is finally made, its showing will rudder, but it seems that those of us who ob-
generally be limited. The very ones it is made serve tradition and have a sense of continuity
for and about likely will never see it. To make can at least see the horizon.
filmmaking viable, one needs the support of the External forces more than internal forces
community. You must become a part of its have made the black community what it is to-
agenda, an aspect of its survival. day. There has always been the attempt to de-
A major concern of story-telling s-hould be stroyour consciousness of who we were, to deny
restoring values, reversing the erosion of all those the past, and to destroy the family structure. For
things that conspire against better lives. One has us each day has not a yesterday or a tomorrow,
to be prepared to dig down in the trenches and thereby making the use of experience a lost art.
wage long battles. The problem is that we have While we have always lived in a hostile en-
all been given a bad name by a few adventurers. vironment, it was not one where parent and off-
The issue is that we are a moral people, and the spring turned guns on one another. The inner
issue need not be resolved by a shoving match city is now characterized by people whose be-
(or taken on blind faith), but should be con- havior is irrational. The perception is that peo-
tinuously presented in some aspect of a story - as ple are dangerous. Everyone is paranoid and
did, for example, Negro folklore, which was an rightfully so, for you can witness people chang-
important cultural necessity that not only ing character within a breath.
provided humor, but was a source of symbolic How do you place a chair for someone who
knowledge that allowed one to comprehend life. can't sit still? In trying to find the cure, what
A good summary of this theme is in Men person do you address? It is not a matter of in-
in Dark Times, by Hannah Arendt, who states forming someone of the truth, the facts, the
that "however much we are affected by the reality, it is only when he finds he cannot live
things of the world, however deeply they may with himself that he has stopped deluding him-
stir and stimulate us, they become human for self. The way back is redemption.
14 Black Fzlm Review

If film is to aid in this process of redemp- swers, but it will allow you to appreciate life.
tion, how will it work its magic? It seems not And maybe that is the issue, the ability to find
getting a satisfactory answer to that old ques- life wonderful and mysterious. If the story is
tion of why are we here is what makes man's fate such, film can be a form of experience. What
intolerable. I think it is the little personal things is essential is to undertand that one has to work
that begin to give a hint at the larger picture. to be good and compassionate. One must ap-
The story has the effect of allowing us to com- proach it as a job. But until there is a sharing

As black filmmak-
ers, we must be con-
prehend things - feelings and relationships-
we can't see. The story may not give you an-
of experience, every man is an island and the
inner city will always be a wasteland. •

scious of our audience,

ensuring at all times Culture of Resistance: Reflecting a
that the images are
representative and True Image
meaningful. Cinema The following is an edited version of a paper the community, speaking directly to those about
presented at the Third Cinema Conference at and for whom we presume we can make films
must convey social the Edinburgh Film Festival in August by the without any reason, save that we are black and
realism rather than de- Ceddo Fzlm/Video Workshop of London. our subject matter is black.
fine social realism. This free and easy style can be attained if
eddo is a workshop made up of people there is a relationship of trust between the film-

C from Africa, the Caribbean, and Britain.

Besides the passionate desire to see our-
selves as we are, using film and video,
our common bond is our African heritage. As
Africans living in the Black Diaspora, we recog-
maker and the community, a trust that will have
to be earned through hard work. For too long
the community has been excluded from the
image-making process. It is the responsibility of
"Third World" filmmakers concerned about the
nize that we are vulnerable to many European oppressed masses to make film and video acces-
cultural influences and Eurocentric ideas of good sible to their communities. The community
and bad, superior and inferior, beautiful and must realize it can control the images that are
ugly. This invariably impedes our vision, while produced and, more revolutionary, that it can
simultaneously discrediting and undermining use film and video for political and cultural ex-
our cultural and historical heritage. preSSion.
This conspiracy to strip us bare and farce Cinema can become the griot of our wider
a process of acculturation on us has left many international village, passing on our history and
Africans alienated from themselvs, oscillating culture, not in the traditional oral fashion, but
between a black and white world in a state of in the new cinematic way. The message should
confusion and of negativity. A quest for stabil- be the experience of oppressed peoples every-
ity, a seeking out of our history and a reaffir- where and the power of the filmic language
mation of truth, becomes real for some of us should transcend national boundaries.
when we are ostracized from this society. As a relatively new art form, emerging from
The issue of cultural nationalism, that is, technologically advance-a ··societies,cirtema:is
whether we are speaking, dramatizing, and bound to be steeped in the idiosyncrasies of
documenting from a black British perspective those cultures. It is not surprising, given its his-
or as African filmmakers living in Britain is not tory, that cinema in the West is inherently rac-
an issue Ceddo finds problematic. Black Brit- ist, sexist, and patronizing in its espousal of
ish cinema is not exclusively informed by our middle-class values. "Third World" cinema must
experiences here in Britain, and to advocate that be radical and political. It must be an alterna-
it is is an insult and injustice to the ancestral tive genre that will destroy the myths and as-
voices of our mothers and fathers and the strug- sumptions about black women and black men.
gles they have waged on our behalf. A cinema that runs counter to the domi-
As black filmmakers, we must be conscious nant Eurocentric ideology must take a complete
of our audience, ensuring at all times that the departure from the language of the colonizer.
images are representative and meaningful. Cine- Yet as Africans living in the Diaspora, one
ma must convey social realism rather. than de- might argue that we are seated in a privileged
fine social realism. The popular mythology of position - we can borrow what we like or think
the "mugger" and the "whore" will not neces- is good from European art forms and combine
sarily be excluded from black film, but it will that with any knowlege we might have of the
be placed within a context where those charac- African and the Caribbean. If we need a refer-
ters can be understood and are three dimension- ence point, we have our literature to illustrate
al and fully developed. the richness of our culture. But if we choose to
Our cameras must go freely and easily into borrow from our ex-colonial masters, we must
 Fall 1986 15

critically examine the tools that are employed. gy from the West.
We must develop a critique that is devoid This--is t~e for the workshops, as well as
of internalizations of superior and inferior. We the independent sector, are at this juncture. Al-
must develop a critique that will also take into though receiving grant aid to which they -like
consideration the restraints or demands that the many "Third· World" countries - are entitled,
.~olonizers tools put on our art, and any precon- they are made to feel grateful for an act of
ditions that call for the self to be given up. "philanthropy.'~ Such grants should be consid-
Within the context of this paper the role ered, instead, for what they are-the miserly
of the filmmaker is to reclaim and redefine our repayment for many years of exploitation of
history and in so doing to relieve us from cul- resources and labor.
tural domination and self-hate. Thus development of black British cinema
Ceddo, our name, is taken from the title is controlled. Although it is conceded that we
of Ousmane Sembene's film. It means "culture are doing good work that needs to be en-
of resistance." The emergence of the black work- couraged, the financial commitment is lacking.
shop sector came out of a crucial time in our his- The autonomy -of the black British filmmaker
tory in Britain when the black community react- is impeded by preconditions and criteria that
ed violently to racist oppression. The uprisings seek to determine the films we produce.
of 1981 manifested not only black people's dis- Cinema is a powerful tool for implement-
enchantment with the social and economic or- ing change within our communities. Our adver-
der, but an inability of the host community to saries are not unaware of this factor, therefore
see us as we are. Frightened of a war on main- the instruments we need to effect those changes
land Britain, the authorities poured money into are kept from us, or at least blunted.
the black community to solve the problem of How radical can black British cinema then
the "racially disadvantaged" and culturally claim to be? It can be radical if it elicits the sup-
alienated youths. port of its community. It must hold discussions
Ceddo was born in this context. We want- with the community about cinema and race in
ed to produce images that would begin to trans- order to produce the greater benefit and merit
form or create an image of self. It was crucial for that community. It must give "ordinary peo-
to produce, otherwise we could not enter or par- pie; " people who heretofore have remained
ticipate in this transformation process. The pow- voiceless, a voice, allowing them to speak with-
er that the black community vested in us in 1981 out censorship.
has to be returned to it and the only way that The most radical aspect of black British
Ceddo can do that is to make sure we are reflect- cinema in the "Third Cinema" context is the
ed on the screen as we are. reversal of roles and notions within the domi-
So, what is the state of Black British Cine- nant ideology of cinema. Instead of trying to
ma? Within its short history, it has achieved decode a language that is mystifying, we must
some positive goals. Yet it stands at a neo- employ a language that is universal, breaking
colonial or post-independence stage. We have down structures that we are uncomfortable with
been "given" our independence but not the and erecting new structures that are familiar.
freedom to develop as we will. An analogy with But most important, instead of being the
Third World countries in receipt of aid from the re~ipients of information, we must become the
West is appropriate here. Black British Cinema givers of information defining our own time,
is still dependent on aid, advice, and technolo- our own space, and our own histories. •

Published quarterly, Cineaste covers the entire world of

cinema - including Hollywood, the independents,
Europe, and the Third World-with exclusive interviews,
lively articles, and in-depth reviews. Subscribe now, or
send $2 for a sample copy, and see what you've been
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Published continually since 1967, Cineaste is tOday.in- NAME _
ternationally recognized as America's· leading magazine ADDRESS _
on the art and politics of the cinema. "A trenchant, eter-
nally zestful magazine," says the International Film Guide, CITY STATE ZIP _
"in the forefront of American film periodicals. Cineaste
always has something worth reading, and it permits its Cinessle
writers more space to develop ideas than most maga- 200 Park Avenue South
zines." - New York, NY 10003
16 Black Ftlm Review

Collectors' Dreams
Tracking Down Lost Franzes andLobby Cards
By Saundra Sharp

he voice on the telephone is cool. "Look," films? Where are they today? The answer is part

T he says. "I was cleaning out Pop's garage

and I found a bunch of stuff that looks
like some films. Big metal cans, some-
thing about 'homesteader' written on a couple.
I was gonna throw them out, then I remem-
of the nightmare film collectors have. Far too
many prints have been lost to fire and flood,
thrown in the trash by unconcerned relatives,
cut to pieces by censors, stolen from unsecured
repositories, left to deteriorate in damp base-
bered you're into that stuff." ments and unheated attics. In other words, they
That's one of the more pleasant dreams a are gone.
film collector can have: a cache of recovered Fonunately, many fine prints - from' silents

T here are fewer than

two dozen private black
prints, in mint condition. And free.
Collecting films, along with the trappings
that go with them-lobby cards, press kits, ad-
vertising posters, books, theater one-sheets, and
to talkies-survive, including early feature films
by the first black independent producers and
directors. However, it is clear that the majority
of the most valued films extant are in the hands
collectors of films and photographs - is an expensive adventure. First of white collectors and white-controlled institu-
you have to find them, then you need the mon- tions, and therefore not generally available to
film memorabilia. Their ey to buy them, a place to store them properly blacks. Which makes the black collector as valu-
collections are valued at and, sometimes, a few thousand dollars to re- able as the films themselves. There are fewer
store mutilated prints. So why bother? than two dozen private black collectors of films
$10,000 to $75,000, and "Curiosity," says Henry Sampson, a nuclear and film memorabilia. Their collections are val-
they may spend any- engineer with the aerospace program. "I saw a ued at $10,000 to $75,000, and they may spend
lot of these movies as a youngster in segregated anywhere from a a few hundred to several thou-
where from a a few hun- theaters in Jackson, Miss. And I'd wonder, 'Who sand dollars a year acquiring additional items.
dred to several thousand made these things? Why? Why did they stop Their combined collections cover prints as far
dollars a year acquiring making them?' At one time, there were more back as Bert Williams in the 1916 classic Natu-
than 150 black-owned theaters in the country." ral Born Gambler, the 1918 two-reel derogato-
additional items. James Wheeler, founder and director of the ry comedy Spying the Spy, and a 1914 silent ver-
new Concept East II cultural center in Detroit, sion of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
says, "I get emotionally involved in the old The obstacles they face are getting access
films. I put myself back in that period of time to the films, the escalating costs of purchasing
and understand what kind of struggle these peo- anything black, insurance rates beyond both rea-
ple had to go through to get their films made. son and pocketbook and, primarily, the prob-
We have access to more equipment now, but lem of putting the items into a historical con-
I don't think we're making any better films." text, a context that has been consistently and
Los Angeles archivist and film history intentionally distorted by the mores and the ra-
teacher Mayme Clayton says, "When Edison in- cism of the times.
vented the first camera, blacks were right there. A case in point is the complete collection
Even though it [the black image filmed] was of films featuring Dorothy Dandridge, accumu-
derogatory, we were right there. So historically lated by one of her biggest fans, RolandJeffer-
we need to collect everything we did. We might son, a Los Angeles psychiatrist. In the 1959
have to put an explanation on each one, but French feature Tamango, Dandridge stars with
still .... " white actor CunJurgens. There are two versions
Edison films featuring blacks date from the of the film, a European version in which she
BLACK FILM 1890s-which means there has been almost a kisses Jurgens and an ~erican version in which
full century of African-American involvement she does not. After extensive research,Jefferson
HISTORY in the motion picture. What happened to those finally located a 35mm print with the famous
~
Fall 1986 17

Edzsonfilms featuring blacks date from the

1890s - which means there has been almost a full
century of African-American involvement in the
motion picture. What happened to those films?
W here are they today?

kiss that, he says, would be rated PG today.

Similarly, Jefferson has located a lobby one-
sheet on the British-made Malaga, a cops-and-
robbers flick with an interracial love affair. But
in the film posters, Dandridge's role is represent-
ed by a white actress.
"Somewhere," Jefferson says, "I'm sure
there is a European one-sheet with Dorothy in
the picture. I haven't given up on finding it."
The curiosity of the collector often leads
him into other disciplines. Twelve years ago,
Stuart Hudgins, a graphic artist, saw his first vin-
tage music short,]ammin' the Blues, with Lester
Young and Illinois Jacquet. It was nominated
for an Academy Award in 1944.
"That was the first time I realized there
were films like this; films that featured my
heroes," Hudgins says.
Now, as an archivist for Atlanta Universi-
ty's Clark College, he pursues the films, but he
also investigates the copyright laws and censor-
ship codes that affected the films. ~e has ac- (Photo: Saundra Sharp)
quired more than 30 hours of old music prints preferring to be identified as a researcher. But
that include the three-minute soundies shown through his work he has acquired and is care-
in pen,ny arcades and musical shorts done in the fully preserving many items. He has no idea how
1930s and 1940s. And he has interviewed many many pieces he holds, but among the more than
of the musicians who were involved and found a thousand film-related items is a photograph
that "many don't remember making the films. of Ruby Dee in one of her first all-black cast
It was just another record date, and somebody films in 1947, and a first edition of Micheaux'
had a camera there." book The Homesteader, which later became his
Another element that both confuses and first film. The book's value is immeasurable be-
challenges the collector is the inventiveness of cause no prints of the film are known to have
filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux, who often survived.
made more than one version of the same film. Sampson's research has led him to this con-
According to Sampson, "There are at least four clusion: "No other group of people on the face
versions of Micheaux' Body and Soul, and it's of this earth have had such a tremendous im-
hard sometimes to know which one you're pact on show business as black people. And con-
watching." versely, no group of people on the face of the
Sampson, whose avocation is film and the- earth have benefited less than black people.
ater history, studied more than 15,000 issues of And that's a tragedy."
black weekly newspapers spanning 40 years to As a child in rural Arkansas, Mayme Clay-
document the triumphs and tribulations of the ton's parents made sure she got to the city to
black entertainment world in his book, Blacks see blacks performers like Marion Anderson. Her BLACK FtLM
in Black and White: A Source Book on Black curiosity perked, she saved playbills, photo-
Ftlms. He hedges at being called a collector, HISTORY
graphs, and books about entertainers, along
18 Black Fzlm Review

with other subjects. In 1972, Clayton opened a short with Fats Waller that might be consid-
the Western States Black Research Center in Los ered a precursor of today's music videos.
A.ngeles and felt a need to include films in the Webb identifies his favorite as Eleven
collection. Her first two purchases were of films P.M., a 1925 film directed by Richard Maurice,
from the 1940s-Dirty Gertie from Harlem, who operated one of the black independent film
USA, directed by Spencer Williams, and Para- companies of the 1920s. Prints of this dramatic
di.se in Harlem, with Mamie Smith and Luckie feature about a street violinist's revenge for his
Millender's orchestra. Today, the collection con- wife's capture are rare, and researchers have
tains some 75 films, including all the Micheaux found little information about the production.
prints known to be available, and more than 500 And then there are gems like The Negro Stew-
movie paper items dating back to 1903. ard, one of a series of instructional films made
Ed Vaughn, owner of a Detroit bookstore by the U.S. government in World War II.
and executive assistant to the mayor of that city, For Pearl Bowser, associate director of Third
owns a collection of 50 films, including a 16nlm World Newsreel, the two films she favors are
ones she helped restore: Scar ofShame, a 1927
independent feature, and the more modern
Ganja and Hess, directed by and starring Bill
Gunn. As a film archivist and exhibitor based
in New York, Bowser has acquired about 50
16mm titles and "close to a thousand pieces of
paper-stills, clippings, posters- because the
nature of the collection is to document the his-
tory of black independent film."
For committed individuals like Bowser and
Clayton, collecting cannot be separated from
restoration and preservation. Bowser spent
$10,000 to restore Ganja and Hess. "It had been
shot on Super 16 and blown up to 35 mm, so
it was grainy. The important thing in going back
from 35 to 16 was to preserve the color in the
film, but I didn't have a negative for the lab
to work from. The cost factor becomes very tick-
lish. It's easy to just get a cheap copy, but in
order to get something as close to the original
as possible, you have to invest some money."
Mayme Clayton, executive Working with the American Film Insti-
director ofthe Western States tute's collection, which is housed in the Library
Black Research Center, hold- of Congress, Bowser located a hand-tinted
ing a Cinecam Model B. The 16mm print of Scar ofShame, and by transfer-
16mm camera was produced ring it to 35mm color stock preserved the origi-
between 1925 and 1931. nal tinted scenes. The process cost about $400
(Photo: Saundra Sharp)
per print, plus the costs of the negatives. When
technicolor film of Ntozake Shange's play For Clayton found a print of Micheaux' The Notori-
Colored Girts Who Have Considered Sui- ous Elinor Lee, the picture was fine but the
cide. . . . The film was made in California in the sound was not. She restored the entire sound-
1970s, before the play gained fame on track.
Broadway. ) Restoration and preservation have always
In Northern California, Salah Webb, a me- been a quarrelsome issue for film historians and
dia specialist with Skyline College, and Thur- archivists. According to Jan-Christopher Horak,
man White, an attorney, met while students at associate curator and film archivist at the Ge-
the Stanford University film program. They orge Eastman House in Rochester, N. Y., the
joined forces, and in 1981 entered negotiations difference is that: "Preservation is taking a ni-
to acquire the Kit Parker Collection of black trate film and transferring it to acetate or safety
films. They had been renting the films for sev- film stock. We usually make a negative, then
en years, and that track record helped them in another print. The optical sound is electronically
bargaining. ' enhanced, then re-recorded. Most films are
What they got was 150 films in 16mm of shorter than their original release because they
some 100 titles produced between 1914 and get chopped up by distributors, or to insert com-
1954. The collection includes Clarence Muse's mercials for television, or they get damaged.
BLACK FILM Broken Strings (1940); Spirit of Youth (1938) These need to be restored. Restoration is trying
HISTORY with Joe Louis; a Minnie the Moocher cartoon to find an original script, taking a number of
featuring Cab Calloway; and Ain't Misbehavin', different prints, and trying to put together the
Fall 1986 19

most complete version of the film."

Pearl Bowser's position is that, "If you take
a piece of art work out of a museum and you
don't like the way the artist painted the sky so
you repaint it another color, you are manipulat-
ing someone else's art work, and I don't believe
you have a license to do that. The soundtrack
that was added to The Gambler has nothing to
The loudest and most consis-
tent cry is for a national black
do with the film. It is racist in context and
manipulates what you see. So I turn off the
soundtrack when I show it. There's no justifica- repository for black films.
tion for tampering with someone else's work."
Webb and White are experimenting with
adding original music to some of the silent clas-
sics, in an effort to expose the films to a larger
audience through the home video market. Part
of their justification is artistic. Thurman White
says, Eleven P.M. is 70 minutes long. You need
music to support it."
Neither collecting nor restoration is getting
easier because of the "what the market will bear"
approach of dealers. "It was easier in the begin-
ning," Bowser says. "But as more visibility has
come to black films·, money for acquiring
materials has become increasingly more difficult
to obtain. The prices are just too high." Samp-
son has tried to acquire a print of Micheaux'
Body and Soul, distributed through New York
City's Museum of Modern Art. "Now they are
selling them for $1,200 each. That's an exam-
pIe of how hard it is to break into the circle."
Stuart Hudgins adds, "I see it as our history in
their hands."
The loudest and most consistent cry is for
a national black repository -for black films.
Sampson says, "There is no one place you can
go. A lot of information on black Americans
goes to Australia, to South Africa." Wheeler
adds, "We don't have anything consistent here
in Detroit. The safety of my collectiol1 is really Film Collectors Thurman
bothering me." And Hudgins says, "There are White (r) and Salah Webb.
(Photo: Saundra Sharp)
no major black repositories that we feel com-
fortable with. A lot of archives have pieces, but with the Harlem Cultural Council, for the first
nobody knows what's there. Ninety percent of black film festival in 1971. That led to numer-
them don't have an emergency plan. We have ous touring exhibitions, and in 1984, at the re-
to feel that the work will not only be safely quest of the Whitney Museum, she prepared a
preserved, but that it will be shown." festival and exhibit to commemorate Oscar
Bowser agrees. "It's not important just to Micheaux' 100th birthday.
have something in a collection," she said. "A "What I try to do," Bowser explains, "is to
collection has to have a life to it, and the life incorporate some of the old with something of
comes from the audience." the new, to demonstrate for an audience the
Bowser and other collectors back their be- continuity of black filmmaking."
lief with action. Webb and White took 25 vin- This same approach is used in Los Angeles,
tage films to the Racine Noir (Black Roots) Fes- where for the last 10 years, Clayton and the
tival in Paris last year, as well as to the Eighth Black American Cinema Society have produced
Festival de Cinema des Minorities in Douarne- Black Talkies On Parade. The week-long screen-
ny, France. "The same people came back night ing of rarely-seen black films includes a daily
after night," White says, "and the questions morning show for schoolchildren, and some
they asked about our film history were so 5,000 youngsters take advantage of free tickets
detailed that they sent us back to our source each year. BLACK FILM
books." In Detroit, James Wheeler hopes to soon
On the East Coast, Bowser was responsible,
HISTORY
open Concepts East II, which will feature black
20 Black FIlm Review

films on video. The program will draw on his Sanders 0/ the River, starring Paul Robeson, in
collection of 300 cinema classics from 1916 to a K-Mart bin.
the 1950s, projected on an 8-foot by 10-foot Sometimes, paper items cost more than the
screen. "A lot of us are not only illiterate in the films, and in some cases are more valuable.
sense of not reading, but we're also visually il- When a scrapbook that had been kept by Lena
literate, because we can't distinguish what we Horne's secretary was found in vacant house by
see in terms of understanding it. By showing new tenants, Mayme Clayton didn't hesitate to
these films, I hope to stimulate dialogue," purchase it. Pearl Bowser managed to meet
Wheeler said. Shinzi Howard, an actress who had starred in
Videotape may be easier to store and han- several Oscar Micheaux films and had been his
dle than celluloid, but there is some concern personal secretary for several years. Howard was
that it is placing the vintage 16mm print in so excited at Bowser's work that she gave her her
jeopardy. Several collectors report that houses personal scrapbook. The stills and handbills it
that used to provide 16mm films have now contains provided documentation on the theat-
turned exclusively to video, and Vaughn was ers where black films were shown, sometimes
ambivalent about finding a VHS copy of with Hollywood features and Topsy movies. •

Gil Noble Forms Like It Is Archive

black people to get it."
By Saundra Sharp The collection boasts classic documentaries
on such diverse personalities as Muhammad Ali,
ne great thing about living in New York H. Rap Brown, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Billy

O or New Jersey is the ritual rejuvenation

one can get from watching Like It Is, the
longest-running black news series. Origi-
nally hosted by actor Robert Hooks and jour-
nalist Gil Noble, the program has aired weekly
Eckstine. Almost every African head of state was "-
a guest at least once. There are four and a half
hours of footage on Malcolm X, two and a half
on Paul Robeson, an interview with Grenada's
Maurice Bishop just months before his assassi-
for 19 years on the local ABC television station. nation, and the only videotaped dialogue with
For the past 11 years, Noble has served as its pro- Adam Clayton Powell Jr., in which he talked
ducer and host. candidly about his personal life after he was re-
There is one small problem: If you live out- moved from the U.S. House of Representatives.
side of the New York-New Jersey area, you'd Four of the documentaries were kinescoped
have to fly to the Big Apple every weekend to and have been available on 16mm film for some
see the show. Despite its popularity, W ABC- time: Tallest Tree in the Forest, on Paul Robe-
TV has resisted pressure from the larger Afro- son; £1 HaJi Malik £1 Shabazz, on Malcolm X;
American community to air the show national- Martin Luther King Jr., and Amazing Grace,
ly or in syndication. and the Powell documentary.
Noble recently announced the formation Noble says the educational market is his
of the National Black Archives of Film and "immediate concern. "
Broadcasting Inc., which will be known more "If black and white kids can get some posi-
informally as the Like It Is Collection." The col- tive information about black people included
lection will make available to blacks an incredi- in their educational development by means of
ble 500-plus hours of programming by blacks, the television set in the classroom, it will be
with blacks, and about blacks. helpful to both races. It will help to eliminate
"In my long career doing documentaries, and dissolve some of the whites' concepts of su-
everybody that I had to go to to get footage periority, and it will be difficult to tell a black
about our people was not a member of our kid that "You're nobody!' once they've seen the
race," Noble said. "I don't object to whites hav- likes of the heroes and sheroes that we've
ing material about us. But I feel that if you want documented. "
to learn about France, then it's right that you Negotiations to acquire the Like It Is foot-
go to a Frenchman. If you want to learn about age took nearly two years, with the most favora-
Africans, you should go to somebody of Afri- ble factors being the station's willingess to
can descent. And that equation does not exist cooperate and ABC's need for more space. Ma-
here in this country, with very few exceptions. jor funding from the Ford Foundation will be-
BLACK FILM So I decided that an archives was overdue. Some gin the project, and Noble envisions a perma-
HISTORY repository, so that if you want to see visual ma- nent building in Harlem to house the archives,
terial about black people, you have to come to and an on-going program with black colleges. •
Fall 1986 21

Early Black-Independent Filmmakers

By Mark A. Reid
This is the first in a series ofarticles on the first The.Ratlroad Porter "a comedy that does not
wave of black independent film production seem to have been very different in style and
from 1912 to 1931, sketching the historical content from the films depicting blacks that
backgroundofAfro-Amencan ownedfilm com- were turned out by the industry." Cripps calls
panies. Implicit in the discussion is an analysis the film "an imitation of Keystone comic
of two basic film practices - black commercial chases .... "
cinema and black independent cinema. Author But both historians seem to have ignored
Mark A. Reid states: "] define black filmmak- an important narrative element which the Key-
ing as a creative practice performed by black stone Kops, Chaplin, and other contemporaries
people who control most of the means of of Foster also ignored. White films of the peri-
production, and make theirfilms for andabout od show black characters serving whites, but Fos-
the black community. " ter showed that blacks could be porters for
whites, as well as waiters in respectable cafes in
middle-class Afro-American communities.
The Age of Sept. 25, 1913 states that the
ometime between 1910 and 1912, Bill film: .
Ouli]ones) Foster became the first Afro- "Dealt with a young wife who, thinking her
American to establish a film production husband had gone out on 'his run,' invited a
company when he founded the Foster fashionably dre'ssed chap, who was a waiter at
Photoplay Company in Chicago. Some sources one of the colored cafes on State Street, to dine,
cite 1910 as the founding date, but the earliest However, the husband did not go out, and,
known Foster film was not released until 1912. upon returning home, found wifey sitting at the
In his Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in Amen'- table serving the waiter all the delicacies of the
can Ftlm, 1900-1942, historian Thomas Cripps
describes Foster as "a clever hustler from Chica-
go, .. a press agent for the [Bert] Williams and
[George] Walker revues and [Bob] Cole and
season. Mr. Husband proceeds to get his revolv-
er, which he used carelessly, running the un-
welcome visitor to his home. Then the waiter
gets his revolver and returns the compli-
B y the time he
founded his company,
[Billy] Johnson's [comedy-musical] A T,np to ment. , .. "no one is hurt, , , . and all ends hap- Foster had had long
Coontown [1898], a sportswriter for the [Chica- pily."
go] Defender, an occasional actor under the From this synopsis, one gathers the follow- access to the innova-
name of ]uli Jones, and finally a purveyor of ing: there is a married woman who can afford tive styles of the black
sheet music and Haitian coffee." to invite another person to eat with her; she
It is important to note that Foster was the desires his company; the man is employed, and comedians and musi-
press agent for A Tnp to Coontown, because, not unemployed; there exist black cafes on State cians who worked in
as Loften Mitchell puts it in Black Drama: The Street in Chicago in 1912; neither the husband
Story ofthe Amen'can Negro in the Theatre, it nor the waiter harm each other. the theater. And it
was u a musical with a plot - one that completely True, The RatlroadPorter has a comic chase was the black theater
broke with the minstrel tradition and told a story scene, but Foster's use of the comic-chase is far
through music, song, and dance." Thus by the different from, to give one example, the stereo- that influenced his de-
time he founded his company, Foster had had typical chase of the petty, black thief of the velopment of the
long access to the innovative styles of the black Rastus series, two of which were titled, How
black-oriented comedy
comedians and musicians who worked in the Rastus Got His Turkey, and Rastus in Zululand
theater. And it was the black theater that in- At the same time, it must be admitted that film.
fluenced his development of the black-oriented Foster borrowed certain elements from the
comedy film. prevailing comedy genres. But he also borrowed
Foster's first productions were the comedy from the staged comedy-musical, developing
shorts The Ratlroad Porter (1912) and The Fall the black, urban-comedy film genre, and break-
Guy (1913). The former premiered at Chicago's ing with the "coon" tradition established by Edi-
Grand Theatre in July 1913 and had its New son and the Rastus series. In so doing, Foster
York premiere that September. The New York altered the stereotypes by borrowing native
Age, a black weekly, described Foster's two films Afro-American elements from the black stage
as "comedy films representing Negro life with- musical, and using the stage musical to struc-
out putting the race in a ridiculous light." ture his roadshow-like film programs.
Nonetheless, contemporary film historian In 1914, the Foster Photoplay Company BLACK FILM
Daniel]. Leab, in From Sambo to Superspade: toured the South with the aforementioned HISTORY
The Black Expen'ence in Motion Pictures, calls comedy shorts; a detective film, The Butler
22 Black Ftlm Review

(1913); and a melodrama, The Grafter and the ing the life of a wealthy white oilman's daugh-
Maid (1913). Lottie Grady, formerly of Chica- ter. After he has achieved sufficient skills, he
go's Pekin Theatre's stock company was the com- discovers oil and becomes independently
pany's leading star and also sang while the wealthy. He then returns home to marry the girl
projectionist changed the reels. he had left behind.
Between 1910 and 1915, black-controlled This shon, but revealing, synopsis describes
film production was limited to Foster's compa- many elements of the. black rural family film.
ny. Nonetheless, using performers like Grady The Realization ofa Negro's Ambition begins
andJerry Mills from black theatrical stock com- with a black rural family, proceeds with the
separation of the hero from the family, and ends
with the return" of the hero. Moreover, the nar-
Lncoln producedfilms supporting rative was not primarily generated to entertain,
as were the two-reeler comedies of the Foster

the concept ofAmerican zndividualism. Photoplay Company.

According to the California Eagle of Oct.
14, 1916, Lincoln's second film, The Trooper
panies, Foster seems to have introduced values ofCompany K,' "told the simple story of a good-
from outside the dominant culture into the film for-nothing fellow who joins the army and finds
transaction. While these sub-cultural values did himself all man with a big heart and good
not fundamentally change the American come- enough for the little girl who is home waiting
dy genre, Foster's films did provide a black au- for him."
The Eagle also recognized the film's reflec-
dience black images with different contours.
The Lincoln Motion Picture Company, tion of historical events in its portrayal of the
founded in 1915 by a group of black Los An- black 10th Cavalry's participation in the battle
gelenos, was the second black film company es- at Carrizal, Mexico, in June of that year, not-
tablished in the United States. Noble Johnson·, ingthat the film "will rank as an exceptional
a bit player at Universal Studios, was the presi- picture if only for its historical value, com-
dent, director scenarist, and leading actor. Clar- memorating as it does the battle at Carrizal,
ence Brooks doubled as the second leading ac- where our boys made such a good fight against
tor and company secretary. Other founding overwhelming odds, sacrificing their blood and
members included: Dr. James T. Smith, life for their country."
treasurer-manager, and Dudley A. Brooks, the Trooper was Lincoln's second black rural fa-
company's assistant secretary. Later, after the mily -film. The narrative developed the rural
first Lincoln film was made, George PerryJohn- black hero who rose to meet a challenge, suc-
son, Noble's brother, joined the company. Har- ceeded, and-then returned home to marry a pa-
ry Gant, a Universal Studios cameraman, was tiently waiting woman. In addition, the hero in
the only white affiliated with the company. Trooper was a redeemed black hero. In this way,
According to Leab, both Foster and Lin- the Lincoln Motion Picture Company attempt-
coln's founders believed that "blacks should ed to establish an alternative to the shiftless
make movies with black performers for black au- stereotype of the "coon," as well as to the
diences .... , that there was a market waiting for "Tom," a black who when faced with racism,
such films and that the black entrepeneur would resigned himself to an inferior place..
profit financially." The Lincoln hero was middle class and a
Lincoln produced fums supponing the con- believer in the work ethic. The films starred No-
cept of American individualism. The company's ble Johnson who was, as Leab poif!ts out, "one
films contained serious narratives with plots con- of the most active and highly paid black movie
structed around a rural black hero's realization actors." Johnson had an athletic build and was
of some admirable ambition. Though few in light-skinned, two important elements; one
number-three shorts and two feature-length connotes strength, the other was a convention
films - Lincoln motion pictures were family- of black theater, and thus common practice in
oriented pictures. Unfortunately, only frag- all-black cast productions.
ments of the Lincoln films remain, therefore one At this point in Afro-American film his-
must rely on contemporary accounts from black tory, the hero of the black family genre can be
newspapers, as well as the work of historians like described as light-skinned, rural, and athletic,
Cripps, Leab, and Donald Bogle to assess them. and espousing the values of hard work and self
The company's first two-reeler was The pride. When Oscar Micheaux, the best-known
Realization ofa Negro's Ambition (1916). It is and most prolific of the early black independent
the story ofJames Burton, a graduate of Tuske- filmmakers, began producing his films, he con-
gee, who leaves his father's farm and his girl- tinued the use of the light-skinned hero but
BLACK FILM friend to seek his fortune out West in the placed him in an urban environment, perhaps
HISTORY California oilfields. Denied a job because he is reflecting the-great migration of rural blacks to
black, Burton surmounts this obstacle by sav- the urban North. •
Fall 1986 23

She's Gotta Have It:

Whatever Nola TJlants, Nola Gets

By Paula Matabane
he case of Nola Darling will probably

T never be entirely resolved for those who

vicariously lived the on-screen story of the
woman who had to have it. But in Nola,
filmmaker Spike Lee creates a tantalizing new
image of black women with character dimen-
sions outside Hollywood prescriptions. Nola is
independent, politically aware, sensuous, self-
confident, self-centered, and unburdened by
middle-class sexual puritanism. She is what
Celie of The Color Purple needed to be - in con-
trol of her own life and her own body. She is
what Clair Huxtable of The Cosby Show might
be., ~ere she not featured on family-oriented tel-
eViSion.
Nola pursues her social and sexual gratifi-
cation on her own terms and her own turf. She
turns the tables on male dominance by estab-
lishing a love rectangle with three befuddled
males who never seem to grasp why they can't
dominate her. As the woman on top, Nola is
a woman's heroine who provides delight and hu-
mor through the dynamics of her sexual matri-
archy. But is Nola the product of female (or
feminist) ,evolution? Or is she merely the cel-
'hiloid figment of male fantasy and fear who
flouts 'her polyandrous lifestyJe because she's got
what men like and have to have'?"
Nola seems to represent elements of both.
Her pursuit of sexual gratification, largely as a
physical act unto itself, is suggestive of male
thinking. Her understandably abbreviated at-
tempt to remain monogamous with one of her
loves, Jamie, is the staging of a female impera-
tive. But it is difficult to predict whether Nola
could ever achieve spiritual and sexual unity
with just one male since her choices in the film
are so limited and unsatisfactory.
Is her behavior a function of a new defini-
tion of womanhood, or simply a realistic rejec-
tion of being controlled by someone inferior?
It takes three mediocre males to create one
whole, but not necessarily wholesome, male per-
sonality for Nola. While the film centers on No-
la's polyandry-is she whore, seductress, or nor-
mal? - I seriously question her decision to
24 Black Fzlm Review

lous and detracts from what we (and was it only

women?) might have expected or hoped she
would do next as the new female in control.
Oddly enough, the abuse scene leads to the
Nola's acceptance of sexual "feminization" of Nola. She dismantles her sex-
ual menagerie and offers to reorder her sex life
abuse seems anomalous and to the specifications of her abuser! While the
taming of the shrew is short-lived, our would-
be feminist heroine is effectively subverted and
detracts from what we might the audience left stranded trying to understand
her.
have expected or hoped she The abuse scene almost undoes the entire
film. Jamie shows Nola that she has tampered
with a volatile subject in assuming sexual dom-
would do next as the new inance over males for, through rape and bru-
tality, the male can always be the victor. Wom-

female in control. Oddly en don't ordinarily have such options. Moreover,

Nola seems so overcome with sexual desire that
she does not even attempt to stop Jamie from
enough, the abuse scene leads hurting her.
At the film's end, Nola again talks about
control, but without referring to or giving evi-
to her "feminization. " dence of growth from the experience withJamie.
Her forgiving his behavior suggests that she, the
victim, blamed herself for his outburst. Indeed,
the scene is staged as if Nola had it coming. In-
consort with men she deems inadequate. Sim- asmuch as women do internalize the rules of
ply put, why cast your pearls before swine, es- male domination, Nola is behaving "normally"
pecially if the issue of control is so paramount? in overlooking the fact that her boyfriend raped
Of course, women (and men) regularly her. Her behavior is realistic and reflective of
make such choices, so the issue is not the charac- the male-dominated society in which we live.
ter's realism. Rather, it is the implications of No- As the film progresses, it is evident that Nola
la's behavior, within the stated framework of a is less concerned with finding a definition of her-
woman controlling her own body. self as a woman than with asserting her right
Throughout most of the film, Nola appears to sexual gratification as she pleases. The latter
to be in control of her body and sex life, not- is a legitimate pursuit, but its separation from
withstanding the above concern. But when, af- the former reduces the impact of the character.
ter having so carefully crafted a sexual queen- This comes out most clearly in Nola's rela-
dom, she succumbs to abusive sexual treatment tions with other women. She fails to hear the
fromJamie in the name of sexual urge and need, entirety of what the female psychologist says
Nola's acceptance of this abuse seems anoma- about sexuality, its vital link to the spiritual, and
Fall 1986 25

hears only that her polyandry is normal. She

probes her lesbian friend about homosexual
love, but not the friend's self-perception as a
woman. It is interesting that Nola's father tes-
Old Techniques, New Ground
tifies about her but her mother, most probably
her.f~male role model, is absent. In spite of her
poltt1cal awareness concer~ing racism, implicit
1n the images she chooses for the collage on her By Carroll Parrott Blue
wall, Nola seems oblivious to the social and
historical contexts from which her complex be-
aving autonomy in a film's vision seems

H
havior as a woman has evolved.
While Nola Darling may not be the multi- to be the traditional quest for indepen-
dimensional, independently defined woman dents such as Jim Jarmusch, Joel and
some of us may have hoped for, she is nonethe- Ethan Coen and John Sayles. So· far,
less an extremely interesting character who has their formula of making uniquely personal films
initiated the liberation of the black female ~free of editorial interference and then distribut-
screen image with respect to sexual expression. in.g th~se films within customized-for-profit dis-
Spike Lee effectively took on this most delicate tr1but1on patterns seems to have worked to their
task ~f attempting to construct a socially ap- advantage. All of them are continuing to make
propr1ate, yet realistic and satisfying, sexual films. They and others like them have been so
identity for black women. successful that their operational mode is begin-
ning to include women filmmakers and film- COUChing basic so-
The prescribed sexual puritanism and
female-only monogamy laid the burden of rape makers of color. cial questions in the
on black women and denied them sexual self- _ Given the financial and popular demand form of very entertain-
expression. Nola has offered an alternative role as a backdrop for the success of this cadre of in-
model, but left open serious questions about dependent filmmakers, there are now two new ing comedy, each
how women might actually pursue multiple films on the summer circuit that 'bear serious at- filmmaker consistently
relationships and still be in control of their bod- tention by all filmmakers seeking to break away
from the commercial mode. The first film is draws each character in
ies and sexuality.
Still, Nola Darling articulates, albeit im- called Men . .. by a German woman filmmak- rhe films in a non-
perfectly, important questions about male- er, Doris Dorrie. The second film is called She's
Gotta Have It by black American filmmaker exploitive manner.
female relationships for a black community that
has been slow to address issues of male domi- Spike Lee.
nance and sexual equality. Many women are Both films offer the best of independent
amused by' the exposure Lee has given to the and commercial film styles by using Hollywood
very behav10r they eschew verbally but practice film genres as well as the innovative story lines
qU1etly. Where the real-life struggle for black traditional for independents. The films take the
female identity will go is a still unfolding dra- best of the independents - their films lack the
ma, but at least the screen image of black wom- slick, homogenized, predictable world view of
en should not remain the same after Nola Dar- commercial films. They have a bite with tex-
ling. • tured edges that could help to lead audiences
into self-reflection. Simultaneously, both films
remold old Hollywood genres in fresh ways.
~oth evoke the sophisticated, mildly provoca-
t1ve screwball comedies of the 1930's-40's and
the rough and tumble aspects of the male bud-
dy films of the 1950's-60's.
Men. . . is reminiscent of Walter Matthau
and Jack Lemmon; Robert Redford and Paul
Newman. She's Gotta Have It recalls the "in-
dependent woman" films of Katherine Hep-
burn, Rosalind Russell and Bette Davis. The
dance sequence on Nola's birthday has the fla-
vor of the 1930's MGM musicals. The free-
flowing action of Woody Allen's contemporary
New York City relationships are present in both
films. Both films contain enough past filmic
conventions to reassure and comfort audiences
as they watch a fresher, less-than-traditional style
unfold within each film's story.
The filmmakers look at their sexual
opposites-a black male examines a black wom-
an's unconventional sexuality; a German wom-
26 Black Ftlm Review

psychotherapy, and her need to define her role

as a friend with other women. As the film grap-
ples with modern day love in the relationships
of young, hip, black urbanites, She's Gotta
Have It deals mainly with the conflict of Nola's
lifestyle over the more traditional social role as
she carves out her concept of independence.
In Men . .. , Julius Armbrust is a success-
ful, conventional German advertising executive
who discovers on his 12th anniversary that his
Summit meeting: Nola's wife (Paula Armbrust) is having a torrid affair
three tIl-fated lovers argue with an unemployed, graphic artist (Stefan
on Thanksgiving Day. Lachner). Incognito, Julius moves in with his
(Photo: Island Pictures) wife's· lover in order to see firsthand what the
lover has that his wife feels he lacks. A rocky,
an looks at male bonding as it develops two odd-couple relationship between the two men
men's view of success in the worlds of work and turns into a friendship bonded by each man's
women. Couching these basic social questions bewilderment at defining success and power
in the form of very entertaining comedy, each with work and women. Julius, however, is not
filmmaker consistently draws each character in deterred by his developing camaraderie with
the films in a non-exploitive manner. This satis- Stefan. His goal is to defend his lair, win back
fying m~xture of opposites perhaps helps to ac- his mate. In the end he transforms Stefan into
count for the enthusiastic crowds lining up to a mirror image of his old self and uses his re-
see these films. vived playfulness to recapture his wayward wife.
Or so it seems for awhile ...
Nola Darling is not a one-man woman. She The zany spoofing, the making light of
needs three lovers Gamie Overstreet, Greer both sexes with a "we're-all-in-this-together"
Childs and Mars Blackmon) to keep her grati- manner in each film humanizes the characters
fied. By having them all, she lives her sexual enough for us to see ourselves in their confu-
life like a man instead of accepting the tradi- sion. The comedy softens our own daily anxie-
tional woman's role of demanding a long-term ties with our evolving sexual manners, anxieties
commitment of marriage and family from one that result as we attempt to change our limited
man. While interacting with the three men in social roles in our society. The film's dilemmas
her life, Nola also confronts lesbianism, rape, are good natured enough to take the edge off

Liberating Black Female Stereotypes

By Darcy DeMarco
young black woman who enjoys sex with morously reveal various male hyprocrisies - the

A a number of men must be either a prosti-

tute or a nymphomaniac, a "freak" who
needs immediate professional psycholog-
ical help. Right? Wrong, says Spike Lee in his
new film, She's Gotta Have It, a short, snappy
same hypocrisies perpetuated in many films-
concerning women and sex. By liberating Nola
from these hypocrisies, Lee has provided a posi-
tive image of sexuality for all women, regard-
less of race or color.
work that points out the contrasts and contradic- Even in the post-feminist era, the film sex-
Lee has provided a tions in typical Hollywood treatment of male- uality of women, and particularly black wom-
positive image of sexu- female relationships. en, remains capitve to the all-powerful male.
Shot in 11 days in black and white in Black women, when they appear in film, are
ality for all women, Brooklyn, She's Gotta Have It breaks new relegated to the roles of prostitute, over-sexed
regardless of race or ground for black women by liberating their sex- women of easy virtue, or nonsexual matriarchs.
uality from traditional"Hollywood constraints. All of these roles portray black women as one-
color. dimensional, subordinating their personalities
Nola Darling (Tracy CamilaJohns) is a young,
attractive graphic artist who enjoys dating and to relationships with pimps, boyfriends or oth-
making love with several men. Each man, for er male figures. The sexual self of black women
his own reasons, wants her all to himself. The remains within these constraints; their bodies are
men's reactions to her refusal to choose one of either commodities to be sold or bartered in ex-
them, and her response to their reactions hu- change for money and material goods or vessels
Fall 1986 27

our fear of the unknown and the uncontrolla-

ble . Yet neither film delves deeply into the
shadow side of our lives.
Which brings us to the aspects of our dark
side, or the "what if... ?" both Lee and Dorrie
deftly side step. What if... Nola Darling were
killed by Jamie, her rapist, in a fit of anger?
What if Nola would have felt diminished
enough by the rape to cower and marry Jamie?
Or even turn to life as a lesbian? What if... julius in the gonlla mask,
Julius Armbrust had beaten Paula after finding with his wzje Paula, and
out about her affair? Or if Paula would have her lover Stefan, in the
never revealed her affair, using it as a source of film Men by Dons Dorn·e.
secret power overJulius in their continuing mar- (Photo: New Yorker Films)
riage? Or, what ifJulius, Stefan and Paula had
ended up in a successful menage-a-trois relation- arises in our struggle to mold contemporary rela-
ship? How does society handle these controver- tionships' into something comfortable for our-
sial, sometimes self-sustaining relationships, selves and our partners. We leave the films feel-
that fly in the face of its set norms? Neither She's ing good, but my sense is that we still do not
Gotta Have It nor Men. . . looks at the radical have a firm hold on all of the elements or on
solutions that life sometimes offers up to un- our options toward a more satisfying resolution.
wieldy problems. Is it that general audiences are Perhaps the real contribution of the suc-
not ready for the dark comedy and ambiguity cessful crossover independent films like She's
that My Beauttful Laundrette and Mona Lisa in- Gotta Have It and Men. . . can be to help to
corporate into their vision? Or is it that films familiarize audiences with other ways of seeing
that reach general audiences don't handle reso- film. And as these audiences begin to crave the
lutions that fracture our agreed upon sense of special quality that independents bring to film
values and norms? in more popular ventures such as She's Gotta
It is almost impossible to be depressed dur- Have It and Men . .. , stronger films that take
ing an outbreak of belly-deep laughter. Spike the audience even deeper into the human ex-
Lee and Doris Dorrie were wise to choose come- perience, such as a Mona Lisa and My Beauttful
dy as a vehicle for their films' stories. The satire Laundrette can begin to find a stronger niche
gently forces discovery. Comedy so lightly ex- with larger film audiences. Let us continue now
amining blots out th.e sense of hopelessness that that the start is so strong and so promising. •

expressly created to give men pleasure and/or bear InJust Between Friends, a modern, subur-
their children. They exercise little or no control ban homemaker (Mary Tyler Moore) learns af-
over their own sexual response and enjoyment. ter her husband's death that he had been hav-
Like Simone in Mona Lisa their entire sexual be- ing an affair with her friend (Christine Lahti).
ing is shaped by the man or men in their lives, Lahti's character, a single career woman, is
who regard their wishes and desires as incidental shown to be unfulfilled because she wants a hus-
to theirs. If women enjoy sex, it must be because band and a child, and her career, which is point-
they are getting paid for it, or because they are edly blamed for breaking up a previous mar-
"freaks." As Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee) says in riage, will not permit them. By the end of the
She's Gotta Have It, "All men want freaks; we film, Moore has realized that it was her uptight, F:male sexual free-
just don't want them for a wife." near-frigid behavior that caused her husband to dom in the films of
If black female sexuality is captive to the seek solace elsewhere, and she has managed to
dominating male, white female sexuality is cap- relax enough to accept Lahti's bearing his child. the past decade often
tive to the threat of male rejection and violence. The story ends with a happy "family" scene as results in violence for
While black female characters are permitted a the women, now reconciled, tearfully view a vid-
small measure of sexual initiative through the role eo of the late husband, humbly grateful to the both black and white
of prostitute - it is accepted, and even expected, man who has done so much for them. women.
that a hooker be black-white women are permit- The sexuality - indeed, the en tire
ted none, and are violently punished when they character-of both women is shown throughout
exercise it. White women remain within the con- ~ as completely dependent upon him, but in
straints of a monogamous, male-dominant rela- different ways: Lahti's sexuality is tied to her
tionship. Most film roles continue to portray the need to have love and a child, while Moore's is
white woman as wife or lover, emotionally de- an expression of her need to control everything
pendent on a man, or as desperately unhappy in her life. Both needed the late husband, who
because such a relationship eludes her. Yet within gave meaning to Lahti's life before his death by
the monogamous, "ideal" relationship, her sex- providing her with a child, and showed his wife
uality is often repressed or warped. continued on p. 34
28 Black Fzlm Review

In
•••••••••••••••••••
Robert Hooks: The Actor as Independent Producer

By Phyllis Klotlllan

S
tage, film, and television actor cluding the Pulitzer Prize. We were nomi-
Roben Hooks was a founder of both nated two times before that, but we final-
the Negro Ensemble Company and- ly won in 1982. We are the most productive
the D.C. Black Repertory Com- black theater company in the world today,
pany in Washington. Hooks now lives in and it's all because of the need for us to do
Los Angeles, where he seeks to expand his our own thing. -
horizons by becoming an independent pro-
ducer / packager of television and film BFR: You went from there to Washington,
propenies. He is producing a special for the D.C. Was it to do the same kind of thing?
Public Broadcasting System that will pres- HOOKS: Yes, it was. I saw that the Negro
ent a retrospective of the plays performed Ensemble Company was successful on all
by the NEC over the past 20 years. the levels we had planned and then on
While developing properties to sell to some more levels. I realized that it brought
studios and television, Hooks has also made white people and black people closer to-
frequent guest appearances on such televi- gether in the cultural sense because when
sion shows as 227 and Murder, She Wrote. we started doing plays steeped in black cul-
In this interview with Phyllis R. Klotman, ture, the white audiences began sharing our
director of the Black Film Center Archive culture with us. They began appreciating
at Indiana University, Hooks talks of his ex- our brilliant writers and directors.
periences as an actor and producer. The in- Actually our first play was one written
terview was conducted in March 1985 after by a white writer, which didn't sit too well
Robert Hooks with a lot of people, but we knew what we
Hooks received an Oscar Micheaux Award
at the Black Filmmaker Hall of Fame were doing. We were trying to say to the
of review from this production I could prob- world that this was a theater company that
ceremonies in Oakland, Calif.
ably get professional actors to do the play. is really going to be about a universal kind
After a hard struggle,' I got a series of plays of approach and feeling. What's happen-
BFR: Take us back to 1963 when you first produced with a $35,000 investment. ing politically in South Africa concerns us
became interested in becoming a producer. The plays were an instant success. We as well as what's happening in Birmingham.
HOOKS: We were having backers' audi- had a great cast including Douglas Turner So we did a play on apartheid written by
tions trying to raise the money to produce Ward, Esther Rolle, Gloria Foster, and my- Peter Weiss-before [Athol] Fugard ap-
these plays but to no avail. At the time I self. Well, those were the four of us in peared on the scene. The play was called
was acting in a play called Dutchman by Happy Ending and then in the big play, The Song ofthe Lusitanian Bogey, and we
LeRoi Jones, which was a big hit, and I Day ofAbsence, we let the best of the kids have since produced several hundred' plays.
remember I was asked to speak to a group do the smaller roles. We called our com- We saw our audience go from 80 percent
of teenagers in the Chelsea area of New pany the Group Theatre Workshop. black-20 percent white to 50-50. It was
York City. They asked so many questions wonderful.
I invited them to my house to discuss act- BFR: Is this the beginning of the Negro En- I moved to Washington in 1970 and
ing and perform skits. semble Company? built the D.C. Black Repenory Company,
These meetings grew to include HOOKS: I'm getting to that. The plays which was modeled after the Negro Ensem-
teenagers from Harlem, Jamaica, Bedford- were a smash hit. We ran two years and ble Company. But unfortunately,
Stuyvesant, and ot~r parts of the city. I could have run longer. Washington is not New York. Washington
ended up having to knock out a wall of my We were approached by the Ford was very unreceptive in the sense of sup-
rented railway flat and build a stage to ac- Foundation, which said we would like to port from those in positions to help. They
commodate 60 kids. Eventually, I "bor- help get your enterprise off the ground. So were our only hope because, at that time,
rowed" the Cherry Lane Theatre, where we Douglas, Gerald Crone, our general man- large numbers of the city's people were poor
were doing Dutchman, to use as a show- ager, and I, gathered in a restaurant and and unemployed.
case for the kids. They performed improvi- wrote out a proposal on a tablecloth. After Washington is a very middle-class and
sations, poetry, and a play. the submission of a polished version of the upper middle-class bourgeois town. Being
The play was Happy Ending. We in- tablecloth we were rewarded with a three- my hometown, one of the reasons I left and
vited their parents and the community. We year grant for $1.5 million and that's how one of the reasons I went back was because
didn't invite any press so I didn't realize that the Negro Ensemble Company began with I thought I could do something about that.
some critics were in attendance. Jerry Douglas Turner Ward as the artistic direc-
Talmer of the New York Post wrote a tor, myself as executive director and Jerry BFR: I want to hear about the move to
favorable article on the play and the per- Crone as the administrative director. California because that takes us into film.
formances. So, I thought, if it gets that kind We have won every award possible, in- HOOKS: Oh yes. My first film was Sweet
Fall 1986 29

Love, Bitter on the East Coast, one of the ered by Columbia Pictures. The other mov- minorities. It's a terrible thing to say, but
first interracial movies with Dick Gregory, ie is based on the book The Ants of God it's true. There just is no real compassion.
Diane Varsey, and Don Murray. Then I did and our treatment is being looked at by It's all about making money. You under-
a play in New York called Where's Dad- Clint Eastwood. There is also a situation stand it because we live in a capitalistic so-
dy?, a William Inge play, and I think Otto comedy project being considered by Embassy ciety. You understand the need to be com-
Preminger came backstage and said he Television. It's called All in Good Time. mercially successful, but whatever
wanted to talk with me about this movie. happened to humanity? When do you
I thought, "Why not?" Otto Preminger, BFR: Have you done the pilot? reach out and help other people?
one of the last of the Hollywood hot shots. HOOKS: No, we haven't presented it to the
Anyway, he offered me the movie Hurry networks yet. We're still in the develop- BFR: I talked with Martin Ritt, director of
Sundown and I did that. Then I got ment stages of that. Then there's a Movie Sounder, a few weeks ago and he told me
NYPD, the 'television series about the New of the Week that I'm working on, the how difficult it was to get the movie dis-
York Police Department. Soon my interests Robert Goodman Story. You know, Robert tributed even in the 1970s. NormanJewi-
began focusing on producing for film and Goodman is the pilot who was shot down son apparently had problems with A Sol-
television. over Syria. diers's Story.
I really had had it with theater as a HOOKS: Sure, NormanJewison had a very
producer. It's just futile, you know. You BFR: Is Jesse Jackson going to play himself? difficult time getting A Soldier's Story
do greatowork artistically, but you can't sur- ,HOOKS: Well, it's a thought. Either he'll picked up by Warner Brothers. A couple
vive and people work for nothing. You can't play himself or I'll play him. We are in the of studios turned him down. The only rea-
pay what you should be paying them. It's process of putting a second draft treatment son Columbia said "yes" was because he
just so difficult. on that. So, I have three television projects made it a pan of the deal he already had
T'he next natural step for me was to as well as the four films. I'm also trying to with them. Some studios and producers just
move into the mainstream, producing for work on a co-ventureship with the Negro don't know what they have when they have
film and television. Not as an independent Ensemble Company and a major studio or it. The fact is that A Soldier's Story has
producer who solely produces "black a major network. The purpose of this work- made somewhere in the neighborhood of
movies" that can only be shown in certain ing partnership is to create some projects $30 million so far, and it only' cost about
specialized markets. No, I want to produce for film and television, get them produced, $6.5 million, so they're in the black. Any
quality material that appeals to all au- with the Negro Ensemble Company par- movie that goes in the black you can then
diences. ticipating in the profits as well as in the parlay on for your bext project.
To be successful, you have to know the creative end of it, to help them survive.
demographics and you have to understand It will utilize the company's writers, BFR: Is there anything else important hap-
marketing . You have to understand distri- directors and actors. \Y/ e hope that some as- pening out here that you can point to?
bution, especially. I've been working and sociate producers would be able to work on HOOKS: Well, let me just reiterate that
learning over the last seven years and I know this co-venture. That would move some of what I'm seeing and what other black in-
that in order to be an effective, successful these talented people into the mainstream dependent producers are seeing is the be-
producer, you have to pay your dues before of the movie and the television industry. ginning of a turnaround for blacks in film
you jump out and produce a little old m'ov- Otherwise, there are a lot of talented peo- and television, specifically with the success
ie just because somebody gives you the ple out there that will never get an oppor- of The Cosby Show on television and A
money to do it. tunity to work professionally in this in- Soldier's Story at the box office. The suc-
So, I've been working on the building dustry. cess of these two will allow black producers
of Robert Hooks Productions, which is a It's a shame that the industry is so to begin to be considered seriously. I want
new production entity. Under the banner monopolized. It will take a few indepen- Paramount and Universal and Warner
of Robert Hooks Productions there are sev- dent producers to have a couple of hit mo- Brothers and all the other studios to accept
en flags and each of those flags is a sepa- vies and a couple of television things to me as a serious filmmaker and not as a film-
rate film or television production. Present- build that good strong leverage for them- maker who just wants to do the "jive"
ly I'nl juggling seven projects. They're all selves, thus making it possible for others to things. I want to make movies that make
looking very, very good. I won't go into the come in the door. But the industry is not money by satisfying crossover audiences. I
specifics, but four of them are feature films. going to reform on its own. The industry know how to do that by making quality
Three of the films are being consid- is happy with ex~luding 'blacks and other movies that have substance. •

JUMP CUT

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30 Black Fzlm Review

R ~
•••••••••••••••
Black and White Together

By KarenJaehne

ona Lisa is as unlikely as films

M come - a screwball comedy in

film noir with the nair given an
extra twist by the presence of the
glamorous Cathy Tyson as Simone, an al-
luring prostitute. A recently released con-
vict, George, played by Bob Hoskins as a
cross between a bulldog and a fireplug, be-
comes her chauffeur and Simone effects his
outer and inner transformation, first teach-
ing him how to dress, then how to be a
"knight errant."
Race in the film is a counterweight to
the other salient difference between
them - Simone's icy sophistication contrast-
ed with George's boorish loyalty- but it is
her role as a black prostitute that gives Ge-
orge the illusion of moral superiority. Let
us avoid falling into the same trap.
The double-edged sword of a black
prostitute used by writer David Leland and
director/ co-author Neil Jordan makes rnany Cathy Tyson and Bob Hoskins, stars of Mona Lisa. (Photo: Island Pictures)

women uncomfortable despite the assured

sexuality and exhilarating humor of Mona Simone's success has led her to more mends itself in an ironic and self-
Lisa. As the song has it: "Mona Lisa, Mona lucrative assignments that she handles with contradictory fashion. Her prostitution of
Lisa, men have blamed you ... " But is that impenetrable cool. Yet, however impervi- herself is not desperate; it is as businesslike
the problem of men, or is it Mona Lisa's? ous and mysteriously imperial Simone's and as professional as any Wall Street deal-
Who, if anyone, is to blame for the character may be, it must also inspire loath- ing. She does not need George - except as
palpably illicit "turn-on" this film undenia- ing in moviegoers tired of seeing black part of her business of being an object of
bly offers? Time out for indulging in some women as prostitutes and victims. eroticism. But while he, however, is not
pat theory of movie going: Films allow us DirectorJordan compensated for that satisfied being a bodyguard without access
to peek at socialty 'unaccepuble desires and image by placing Simone in the psycholog- to her body, for Simone to embrace George
the celluloid characters lift our suppressed ical role as master / mistress in the classic so- would be like the Mona Lisa breaking into
actions into the realm of possibility. In cial"'relationships between blacks and a grin. What the movie proposes is that sex
Mona Lisa, interracial sex is delivered- whites; George is first her servant and, af- is power. Simone has a right and capacity
inexpicably - as if it were the London ter he falls in love with her, her slave. The to wield that power so as to deny the phal-
Times. It is posited as normal not excep- impossibility of such a love story, particu- locratic associations of the sceptre.
tional; nonetheless, it occurs on the fringes larly in light of Simone's pragmatic exasper- Mona Lisa explores the heights and
and between gangsters and prostitutes, thus ation with George's expressions of protec- depths of love for sale, from the hypocrisy
nay-saying the normality. tive jealousy, has some of the goofiness of in Michael Caine as the slimy boss, point-
The mood of Mona Lisa, alternating a screwball comedy where lovers jockey for edly named Mortwell, to the breathtaking
between the world of pimps and tough positions and power. Here, where the lovers honesty of Simone's own unrequited love
hookers and the slippery, subtle world of are a classy black hooker and a besotted for another young prostitute who had
pleasures taken behind the closed doors of white ex-con, we can't help but want poor, dropped out of sight. In this world, as creat-
London's West End hotels, never lets us for- vulnerable, klutzy George to succeed in ed by Irishman NeilJordan (who was it that
get we have crossed a border of the imagi- bringing Simone (a dusky version of a said the Irish are allergic to fact but not to
nation into a realm where we are precari- Hitchcock heroine) out of the underworld truth?), George is left to wallow in his emo-
ously gullible. We believe frog-prince and into the reality of sex-conquering love. tions, while Simone slips salmon-like up-
George could obtain the elusive Simone. This may be the first time miscegenation stream to perpetuate a myth.
We accept that Simone's regular visits to has been the solution and not the problem The myth and happy ending have giv-
Kings Cross to watch young prostitutes ply in the movies, for the taboo of mixed rela- en many a critic pause. "Life at its cruelest,"
their dangerous trade stem from her fear tionships is rarely breached in the cinema wrote Joel Siegel of the Washington, D.C.,
she may return and pity for the girls still except tragically. City Paper, in a rare defense of the sublime,
trapped there. Simone's sheer erotic attraction recom- "would not be so heartless as to deny
Fall 1986 31

George's humility and inarticulate decen- nal comedy. The film takes strong jabs at portrays a young, intelligent black woman
cy some compensation for the love he so Southern Californians, therapists, wealthy as wonhy of, and receiving, the respect and
selflessly strives for but never quite attains." WASPs, and money-hungry, air-headed love of a white male, with no hint of sexu-
Life might. Art, the voice of our dreams, college students. It also forces the white al stereotyping. While it is true that when
wouldn't. • members of the audience to confront their Mark kisses her he is still "black," the au-
own buried prejudices and stereotypes. dience knows he is white and accepts the
My companion, who is also white, said kiss and their subsequent pairing off at the
afterwards he was extremely uncomfonable end of the film.
Chitlins and Tapioca with the bald qepiction of whites making The film's major problem is that the
racially based assumptions about Mark. The producers couldn't decide who their target
sight of supposedly liberal whites in one of audience was. The first half hour is a typi-
By Dar~y DeMarco the more progressive environments in the cal juvenile comedy-gimmicks, party
country fighting for the right to get Mark jokes, and high school-level dialogue and
on their basketball team, and of a female acting. Once Mark reaches Cambridge, the
t has been described as racist, hilarious, law student telling him after a sexual ses- issues gradually ~ecome.more important,

I bland and aware. Blacks have com-

plained that it trivializes affumative ac-
tion by making it seem that black stu-
dents have an easier time in graduate
school. One audience found it offensive;
sion that "all the rumors are true," should -
make most white people squirm.
And the fact that Mark isn't really
black-and the audience knows it-makes
the experience even more discomfiting, be-
.
and while the tone fails to rise above a cer-
tain pedestrian level, a lot of good points
do get made.
Unfortunately, the ending descends
into pure garbage as Mark, suffering guilt
another enjo ed it. And the critics have ei- cause the scenes point out exactly how ir- pangs over taking the scholarship from a
ther destroyed it, praised it, or complained rational and deep-seated such prejudices truly needy student (Chong) is found out
that it did not go far enough. But wherev- and stereotypes are. It's one thing to see rac- and brought before the student judiciary.
er in Boston it has played, it has provoked ist behavior in a less-educated, poorer per- Perhaps out of guilt for having made a few
discussion and anger. The film is Soul Man, son of a different social group. You can al- strong points earlier, the producers now
a New World Pictures release. ways rationalize it away, saying, "They don't hurtle the story into Let's Make a Deal in-
The story focuses on Mark (C. Thomas know any better." It's something else en- anity, effectively signaling the audience that
Howell), a spoiled UCLA student whose tirely to see it in characters you identify the racial issues raised earlier shouldn't be
goal is to graduate from Harvard Law School with, and happening right in your own taken too seriously.
and then rake in the riches that he assumes backyard. If the less educated and the poor The film does not go far enough. Hav-
will naturally follow. However, Mark'sfa- simply don't know better, then what's the ing gotten the audience to accept what
ther has a surprise for him: as part of his excuse for those of us who do? sometimes amounted to pretty strong criti-
maturing experience, Mark has to raise the One positive aspect of the film is the cism of white attitudes, the producers chick-
$50,000 tuition himself. Determined to go development of Mark as a more conscious ened out at the end and lost the opportu-
to Harvard Mark decides to pretend to be person. When the film begins, he is a typi- nity to drive their point home. 'Had they
black (though aided by some experimen- cal wealthy UCLA student, interested only decided to target it to a smaller, more
tal tanning pills, he does not look even re- in parties and blondes. Brought up in af- specific audience, they could have risked
motel black once the transformation oc- fluence, he knows nothing of sacrifice and alienating some people by not having Mark
curs) and wins a scholarship reserved for hard work. Yet the experience of being per- get away with his deception,' which he ul-
black students. ceived as black gradually matures him. timately does. •
It is here that the movie and the con- When he first arrives in Cambridge,
trovery begin. he is immediately attracted to a vapid
How would a filmmaker go about blonde student. His first response to a black
making a mass-market movie about racial woman student, played by Rae Dawn Pretty Bright Moon,
issues that whites would go see and blacks Chong, is to her looks. But as the film
would not find offensive? This is the ques- progresses and he suffers daily indignities Pretty Dumb Plot
tion in my mind after seeing Soul Man. from fellow students, the landlord, the po-
And at this writing, my thoughts about the lice, and others, his attitudes change. He
film keep coming back to this central issue. turns away from his blonde playmate and By Arthur J. Johnson
"Racism isn't funny," one black Harvard comes to appreciate and respect Chong,
Law student told the Boston Globe. He's whose character is a woman of some sub- ust because "Under the Cherry Moon"
right, but how many whites-and the tar-
get audience for Hollywood films is
white - would even consider seeing a seri-
ous movie with a racial theme?
If the object of the film is to encourage
stance. The Beach Boys, whose music he
had loved, now strike him as vacuous. And
racial jokes he earlier would not have heard
increasingly anger him.
Mark's relationship with Chong's
J marks Prince's directorial debut and
only his second appearance in front
. of the camera, don't expect amateur
night at the movies.
Instead, sit back and enjoy a true feast
greater sensitivity and awareness on the pan character is intriguing and a small step for- for the eyes, a film buffs dream-Michael
of whites (and clumsy though the attempt ward for mass-market" films. At first at- Ballhaus' sumptuous black and white
may have been, Soul Man appears to have tracted to her beauty, Mark finds himself cinematography, reminiscent of Warner
had this aim), what other possible way is falling in love with her strength, determi- Brothers' best 1940's melodramas; high
there but through humor? When one con- nation, and intelligence - qualities he had fashion; faces worthy of Gloria Swanson's
siders the current light-minded mood of the never looked for in a woman. Her good in Sunset Boulevard lament "We had faces
movie-going public, it becomes clear there opinion becomes important to him, and then!"; and music used sparingly and ef-
is no other way, particularly if one wants continues important once he reveals him- fectively to advance the story.
to reach and maintain a broad audience. self as white, indicating a profound change In short, Cherry Moon is a 180~degree
As a white woman, I found Soul Man of consciousness on his part. turn away from Prince's antics in Purple
a complex film that could not be dismissed I give the film credit in this area, for Rain and that's sure to disappoint those ex-
as an offensive series of racial jokes. N ei- it is the first instance in my recollection of pecting to see "Purple Rain II." One real
ther could it be praised as a satirical, origi- a contemporary, mass-audience film that complaint to register about Cherry Moon
32 Black Fzlm Review

is its wafer-thin plot. But Prince is to be ing ladies have been white. Such casting movies on television.
commended for doing something com- shows how much American society has The plot of the film has to do with a
pletely different as a follow-up to his ex- changed since Sidney Poitier could only mysterious message Terry gets on her com-
tremely successful filrn debut. He has made peck Katherine Hepburn's cheek in a rear puter from a British spy trapped in an East-
a film that is sure to alienate his young fans, view mirror shot in 1967's Guess Who's ern European country. He's trying to find
who will scoff at the use of black and white Coming to Dinner? and only hold poor someone to go to help him get home.
and the absence of scenes with Prince per- blind Elizabeth Hartman's hand in A Patch The title of the film comes from the
forming. ofBlue, even though the novel on which song by the Rolling Stones of the same
In this romantic comedy, Prince plays the film was based made them lovers. And name, a song Terry uses to figure out the
Christopher Tracy, a part-time piano play- remember when network programmers password so she and the British spy can
er and full-time gigolo on the loose in the were upset when Harry Belafonte held Pet- communicate via computer. It's a typical
south of France where he and his best bud- ula Clark's hand while singing together on piece of Hollywood calculatedness: casting
dy and confidante, Tricky Gerome a TV special in the late 1960s? Whoopi to appeal to blacks, using the Roll-
Benton-Morris Day's sidekick in Purple What message does Prince send his ing Stones to apppeal to whites.
Rain), seek rich women. When Christopher young black fans with this casting? Perhaps In a larger sense, the use of that Roll-
sets his sights upon a young heiress (Kristin Prince's light complexion makes the sight ing Stones song is a clue to one of the main
Scott Thomas), he doesn't foresee that he of a black man with a white woman mak- things that's wrong with the movie. All of
will fall in love and, for the first time, put ing love less provocative. Perhaps Howard the cultural references in the film are white.
romance before finance. It's the classic and Rollins, Glynn Turman, or Danny Glover When they aren't, the references are from
time-worn story of gigolo meets girl, girl would provide more of a visual shock to that gray, watered-down area where black
hates gigolo, gigolo woos girl, girl falls in white audiences if they romanced Kathleen culture intersects with white culture to cre-
love with gigolo. Turner, Sally Field, or Jane Fonda on cel- ate something neither black nor white and
What Prince manages to bring to the luloid. So far, Hollywood has not offered lacking any pungency at all.
dusty old plot is the keen eye of a seasoned such opportunities. Whoopi Goldberg made a career out
filmmaker. Each shot is a carefully planned Or perhaps Prince is, not so subtly, of that kind of cultural mixing. Take her
study in light and dark, texture, and per- telling his young. black and - dark- last name, and the fact that she wears
spective, making Cherry Moon a splendid skinned-female fans that they are welcome dreadlocks. When she was photographed
work. Prince also has avoided making the to fatten his wallet but should never hope for the cover of Rolling Stone, she wore blue
much dreaded "music video" movie and es- to be wined and dined by His Royal Bad- contact lenses. In the Broadway show that
chews MTV musical montages to take up ness. • first brought her to national prominence,
screen time or to tell the story, slight though she did routines that ignored the bound-
it is. aries of race, imitating blacks, whites, Jews,
The fact that Prince's music is down- men, and women.
played is further evidence that this film is Makin' Whoopi Still, her persona was appealing
not an excuse to sell an LP. It is instead a enough to land her the lead role in The Col-
movie that, with the addition of a few sub- or Purple. InJumpin'Jack Flash, you want
titles, could probably pass for a modern si- By David Nicholson to ask yourself just what the fuss was all
lent film. Prince already uses his enormous about. Whoopi plays Terry as a foul-
eyes and mouth provocatively and wears mouthed child, a female Eddie Murphy,
hOOPi Goldberg's new movie,
enough makeup, mascara and eye-liner to
rival that worn by silent film star Rudolph
Valentino.
As an actor, Prince is quite natural in
the part although the role is not exactly a
demanding one. While Benton and Tho-
W Jumpin' Jack Flash, is the first
film we have had in many years
that stars a black woman. We
have to go back to Sounder, which starred
Cicely Tyson, or certain films of the blax-
and there's nothing appealing about listen-
ing to her curse her way from one side of
the screen to another.
Black characters in American movies
are usually powerless. They're mammies,
coons, and Uncle Toms-objects of deri-
ploitation era to find another American
mas are adequate, the real standout is Fran- sion. Here, Whoopi reinvents the Sambo
movie in which a black woman plays a lead-
cesca Annis, who is wonderfully wicked as stereotype. She's Moms Mabley, without
ing role.
the stunning society matron who pays for Moms' good humor and folk wisdom, in the
Given that, it would be nice to give
Christopher's services. Movie buffs will guise of a liberated black woman of the 80s.
Jumpin 'Jack Flash even qualified approval.
remember her exceptional performance as What gives the lie to the pretense of
The best that can be said about it is that
Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski's film of liberation is the nature of her character.
it is for diehard Whoopi Goldberg fans.
Macbeth. Her dialogue-less opening scene, When Whoopi isn't playing Terry as a foul-
Others will find it a typical Hollywood film
in which she and Christopher flirt with one mouthed child (most of the time), she's
that demeans blacks and then adds insult
another, is a screen gem. supposed to be playing Terry as lonely, but
to injury with a pointless plot, silly slapstick
But there is a down side to the film strong and independent woman. But even
comedy, and limp acting.
aside from the tired plot. A dark-skinned if she wanted to get involved, she couldn't
In the opening scenes of the film the
black woman with widely spaced teeth is because there are no black men in the film.
camera pans the walls of an apartment,
shown in a brief scene as a menace to Except a security guard at the bank who
showing several movie posters, all of them
Christopher as she ~ags for his services. spends his time watching white women put-
featuring white heroines. It then shows a
Many members of the predominantly black ting on their panty hose on his closed cir-
painting that contains a shadowy black face,
audience, with which I viewed the film cuit television, and the great Roscoe Lee
with two white eyes peering out. That jux-
laughed when the woman was shown. Was Browne, whose deep voice and impressive
taposition occurs later in the film and is a
this intentional on director Prince's part? abilities are wasted in his small part as a CIA
central part of the sub-text.
Since this woman was the only black wom- official.
Goldberg plays Terry, a computer
an in the film with a speaking part, it is Because there are so few black men in
operator at a bank who spends her days
indeed curious that she is used as an object the film, it's up to the white man to save
listening to her friends talk about what they
of ridicule. Terry when she really gets in trouble. At
did the night before and her nights watch-
This brings us to another issue: in both the end of the film, the spy comes on-screen
ing white ~ouples embrace in romantic
Purple Rain and Cherry Moon Prince's lead- for the first time. Whoopi and her English-
Fall 1986 33

man go off hand in hand - and the scene comfortable kind of sorrow. features Grande Otelo, considered by many
subverts whatever attempts the- movie has The filmmakers,]ohn N. Smith, Giles to be the dean of Brazilian actors.
made to convince us she's black. It's as if Walker, and David Wilson, have long ex- The story opens -with a newly arrived
every black woman's dream is to be rescued perience in documentary and docudrama. slave leading a spontaneous uprising and
by a white man, while her co-workers stand They developed the film by long in.terviews taking his group to Palmares, bringing with
up and cheer in a reprise of the last scene with black Montreal teenagers, and then him the community's first white settlers.
of An Officer and a Gentleman. • left the script open to improvisation on set. Once there he is crowned "Ganga Zumba"
"The dramatic element," said Smith, comes the new leader of the qui/ombo and under
from the fact that the scenes in the film are his leadership Palmares prospers.
made up from other people's experiences- During an attack by whites, a young
experiences tha~ are close to but different boy is abducted and raised as the servant
Non~Actors In Gripping from those of the actual people in the film. " of a white priest. Zumbi returns to Palmares
The filmmakers adopted a shooting ra- as an adult and becomes a fierce and cun-
Limbo tio typical of documentary- 20-to-l- to ning warrior. Later Ganga Zumba makes a
leave time to assess assembled segments of pact with the Portuguese and unwittingly
the film as they went along. The small leads a group of the people into capitivity.
By Pat Aufderheide crew- never more than five - and the use He corrects his mistake by staging his own
of cinema1!._~[ite techniques results in a grit- death, which is blamed on the whites. The
ty, authentic look, and the reggae-rich people are thereby united and the splinter
itting in Limbo is the kind of film

S soundtrack echoes the pop culture at- group returns to the mountains.
. that rescues the reputation of cine- mosphere of the community they filmed. With Dandara's help, Zumbi valiant-
ma verite. Produced through the The result is' a film that carries the ly protects his people until the Portuguese
National Film Board of Canada's voice of its participants, and that transmits government becoming increasingly threat-
Alternative Drama Program, and starring a lived experience far beyond the borders ened, dispatches a special army equipped
non-actors, it captures the tensions and con- of Pat and Fabian's world. • with cannons that eventually destroy Pla-
flicts of black teenagers who are sitting in mares and its residents. The lone survivor
limbo in Montreal. is a young boy, who later becomes the new
Pat (Pat Dillon) lives in a cramped leader of the resistance movement and con-
apartment with her girlfriends, both single tinues the struggle.
mothers. They share the exasperations and In Search of Freedom The cinematography and the stirring
ordinary joys of a life that revolves around
musical score in QUI/ambo heighten the
their mothers, children, and the church. Pat
drama in the filn1. The music also serves to
falls in love with high school dropout Fa- remind us that despite the African origin
bian (Fabian Gibbs), who prides himself on By Theresa Ford
of the slaves, this is a uniquely Brazilian ex-
his cool macho moves and who draws his penence.
strength from the music of the black sub- The visual effects are' stunning. The
culture. y the 17th century, there were large

B
sight of the warriors' bodies painted in
When Pat gets pregnant, Fabian sud- numbers of African slaves in Brazil
many colors or the entire village celebrat-
denly tries to go straight, finding - against working on the sugar cane planta-
ing leaves a lasting impression. When Gan-
all odds-an apartment and a job. But the tions. Many qut/ombo (or settle-
ga Zumba prepares Zumbi for battle, we
pressures of poverty - there's a hilarious ments of runaway slaves) existed through- sense that something important is hap-
scene where Pat and Fabian borrow a 'out the country, but the largest and most penIng.
friend's car and drive out to the landlord's famous was made up of blacks who escaped In addition, there are other effective
to demand heat for their apartment- from the Republic of Palmares. uses of imagery in the movie. Palm leaves
challenge the young relationship. And Fa- These former slaves liberated them-
wet with the morning dew are later splashed
bian's boredom at a dead-end job, com- selves and traveled to neighboring towns
with Zumbi's blood at the time of his
bined with his inability to match his con- freeing their brethren, who then joined
death. The mythical quality of the film is
sumer desires with his actual income, soon their community. They were aided in their
illustrated by the comet that awake~s Zum-
end his working career. efforts by the war that Portugal waged bi and guides him back to his people. In
These are good kids, but everything is against Spain, and the Dutch occupation another scene, Zumbi's spear bursts- into
against them. And when Pat miscarries, all of Pernambuco. flame before he goes into battle.
the film's conflicts are centered on her hos- Although founded by Blacks, QUI/ambo is more a story about a peo-
pital bed. There, she mourns her baby, Palmares became a haven for Portuguese ple than any specific individuals, although
while Fabian attempts to get up the cour- Jews, Indians and poor whites as well. Land we do get glimpses of the leaders. Ganga
age to visit her. Was her mother right to was owned communally and each jurisdic- Zumba is portrayed as a proud and wise
say she could not have a child' without the tion was governed by an elected council of man, save his one fatal error, with a pen-
protection of a family? Were her friends elders. At its zenith, Palmares spanned ap- chant for attractive women. As Dandara,
right to say she should have stuck with the proximately 240 miles and contained Zeze Motta is fire, strength, and dignity
girls? Does she have a future? Does Fabian? 20,000 people. Its inhabitants resisted personified. She invokes the image of
Sitting in Limbo is a film that doesn't numerous attacks by the Dutch and the Queen Nzinga, an African woman who also
flinch at reality, but even though reality for Portuguese before finally being crushed.
fought the Portuguese during roughly the
these kids is grim, the film isn't depress- Director Carlos Diegues fuses histori-
same time period in what is now Angola.
ing. Carrying the film beyond an exercise cal fact with folklore in Qut/ombo, a film
Zumbi exudes youthful energy and cour-
in social work is the fact that it's about about Palmares that he calls "the first
age . •
struggle, not about victims. The situation democratic society we know of in the West-
ought to reduce the characters to victims, ern hemisphere." The film stars Zeze Mot-
but they have enormous strengths. Pat, Fa- ta of Xica fame as Dandara, a female war-
bian, their friends, and family, insist on rior, Antonio Pompeo as Zumbi, the last
their right to a future, and that insistence leader of Palmares, and Toni Tornado as
creates anger and insight, not a third-party, Ganga Zumba, Zumbi's predecessor. It also
34 Black Film Review

SAG,from P.4 Howard, /romp. 5

some $15,000, Ford, who speaks French, studied locations the first day and shot the
minority characters. and two Howard students, Ellen Sumter second.
During the prot~acted negotiations be- and Stephen Cobb, neither of whom spoke The making of the film was a "train-
tween the Screen Actors Guild and the tel- the language, flew to Burkina Faso in early ing classroom," Ford said. "Some of the
evision industry thi;"summer, an attempt December 1985." (Mrican) students had been studying (film)
was made to include some of those sugges- I insisted that in spite of the language for three years and had never been out in
tions as a part of all SAG contracts. barrier we could work together given the the field," he said.
Proposals included making discriminatory opportunity. After 10 to 15 days, the stu- Shooting was completed in mid-
practices subject to arbitration, strengthen- dents were communicating without the January of this year, and the film itself was
ing present SAG antidiscrimination poli- benefit of an interpreter. They managed to processed at Howard during the summer.
cies, and removing the confidentiality of actually pick it up that way, "Ford said, ad- A work print was then shipped to Burkina
production companies' minority hiring ding that the experience proved "we can Faso for assembly, ana later four African
statistics. Only the last was adopted, but work across language barriers." crew members, one teacher and three stu-
SAG Affirmative Action Officer Rodney The African-American crew's "gruel- dents, came to Howard to edit the film un-
Mitchell hailed it as a "breakthrough" be- ing" schedule called for coverage of almost der Ford's supervision. The still-untitled
cause the statistics, if made public, could the entire country and living with the peo- film will officially premiere at FESPACO
be used to encourage producers to improve ple of each village for two days. The crew 87 in February, Ford said. •
their hiring practices.
As a direct result of the March confer-
ence, Screen Actors Guild board member
Paul Winfield has been appointed as a liai-
son to the national AFL-CIO and its
Stereotypes, fromp. 27

Washington lobbyists to explore tax incen- the error of her ways after his death, a buoyantly pro-woman film that
tives for producers who employ large num- making her a more fit companion for celebrates black female sexuality. That
bers of minority performers. In his efforts
to win favor with this idea, Winfield has his best friend, who conveniently an attractive black woman is shown as
already met with both the Congressional moved in to take his place in his wife's desirable to a number of black males
Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus. life. Neither of the women is ever sex- is itself important, marking a change
Two other approaches involve the use ually free, or even thinks of being so. from the usual assumption that black
of state film commissions to adopt and en- Female sexual freedom in the women are more sexually exciting and
sure fair employment policies, thus putting films of the past decade often results more available to white men, and that
the responsibility at the local level. in violence for both black and white black men prefer white - preferably
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., lo- women, but much more so for white, blonde - women; but what is most .
cal union officials and the city government because it is the white woman who has unique about She's Gotta Have It is
have joined to create two innovative projects achieved more actual freedom in our that it is the woman who is in con-
to get the film and television industries to
improve minority hiring practices. Last year,
society, and who poses the greatest trol.
at the direction of Mayor Marion Barry, threat to male dominance. The sexual Tracy Camila Johns, provocative
David Simon, director of the city's Office self of black women is often shaped by Nola, knowns exactly what she does-
of Motion Picture and Television Develop- violence, while for white women vio- and does not-want: She wants to
ment, met with National Association of lence results from too-free exercise of date, enjoy her freedom and remain
Broadcast Employees and Technicians Lo- this self. In The Color Purple, Celie's fre'e of emotional entanglements and
cal 15 business agent Barrett Seeley, Arts sexuality is dramatically affected by her / ties, at least for the present. That the
D.C. (a government-sponsored arts employ- stepfather molesting her. Her total lack three men she is involved with have a
ment agency), and the local Depanment of of control over her body continues hard time digesting this is their prob-
Employment Services, to design a career throughout her marriage to Mister, and lem, not hers. The idealisticJamie, the
training program.
when she is ultimately awakened by egocentric Greer Childs (played to an-
The program was implemented with
a $32,000 grant from the city and in-kind Shug, it is unclear whether she is noying perfection by john Canada Ter-
donations from five local film and televi- responding as a human being to a rell), and the adolescent Mars Black-
sion production houses. It allowed five lo- woman who has shown her the gentle- mon all want Nola for their own
cal youths to receive five months each of on- ness men have denied her, or whether purposes, to fulfill their needs without
the-job training with the contributing she is responding as a lesbian. Sexual- considering hers. And they are willing
production companies~Panicipatingin the ly she remains a question mark; she to stoop to almost any level- even
program were Guggenheim Productions, never initiates a relationship with a rape~to make her conform. That she
Washington Source for Lighting, Hen- man or a woman, and is acted upon, does not is a triumph of the soul and
ninger Video, Organizing Media Project, rather than choosing to act. Perhaps self over the insecurities and fears that
and the American Federation of State, all women must face in their relation-
with good reason: since 1977 and Look-
County, and Municipal Employees.
Three of the five youths are presently ing for Mister Goodbar, which began ships with men. "I don't want to be-
working full- or pan-time in a craft, the the spate of anti-woman films that long to someone else," says Nola. That
fourth has decided to go to college while r~ached a .grisly nadir with Dressed to most women in film still do belong to
working pan-time for the C-Span Cable Kzll, female sexual initiative has often someone else is a sad commentary on
Network, and the fifth will soon be placed resulted in horror, torture, or death. the film industry and the society it
in a job. • In contrast, She:r Gotta Have It is serves to entertain. •
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