A Report on the Film and Television Industry November 2003
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A Report on the Film and Television Industry November 2003 Published by: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 4805 Mount Hope Drive, Baltimore Maryland 21215 410.358.8900 2 OUT of FOCUS - OUT of SYNC TAKE 3 PRESIDENT’S NOTE Ideas and images guide our lives. They create the belief systems that control our individual and societal actions. Television communicates more ideas and images to more people in a single day than Solomon or Shakespeare did in their entire lives. More people depend on the medium for news and entertainment, from which they construct their worldview, than on any other venue in the world. When it comes to forming ideas, reinforcing stereotypes, establishing norms and shaping our thinking nothing affects us more than the images and concepts delivered into our lives on a daily basis by television and film. Accordingly there is ample cause for concern about what does or does not happen on television when there is little or no diversity in either opportunities or the decision making process. While some with limited perspective on the subject seek to criticize as out of touch and unnecessary any and all attempts to affect the characterizations, content, employment and decision making opportunities of television and film the NAACP continues to push for real and meaningful change. On the motion picture side of things despite the fact that over 30% of movie audiences are African American, Latino or Asian American, the motion picture industry has forever been a closed door society generally looking the other way when the topic of diversity and employment opportunity arises. That industry in particular and its Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have virtually held themselves exempt over the last fifty years from charges of racial discrimination and bias. Instead what has been offered has been no more than token gestures of opportunity to racially diverse actors, writers and directors. In the end such gestures do little if anything to further the broader inclusion of African Americans and others into the movie-making business or its decision making process. The NAACP has held hearings, executed agreements with studios, and published reports on industry problems and industry progress. In the past year, there have been modest gains in the on-screen employment of racial minorities in television and film, but behind-the-scenes rosters, decision making positions and Board seats remain virtually frozen demographically and few if any seem to care. Consequently, with all the attendant pathologies affecting communities and people across our nation one might argue that there are more urgent needs and other battles to fight. Although that might be the case in some instances , few if any issues will define us more in the context of who we are, what we think, and how we respond than the medium of television and film. A responsible television and motion picture industry could do much to increase employment opportu- nities particularly behind the camera and in decision making positions. Even the casual onlooker knows that it is economic pressure that remains the deciding variable because of its ability to hasten real change. However, advertisers who buy the time that networks sell and the large agencies who supply the talent that studios use do little to push for change. Hence it is importantant that disciplined consumer action against the television and motion picture industry is always readied as an option for implementation. In the end we believe that an ongoing critical analysis of television and film is appropriate. The stakes are high. Moreover television news operations, Cable networks and motion picture studios will be the subject of increasing scrutiny by the NAACP in the weeks and months ahead. Our goal is to increase equal opportunity in the corporate, executive, production and talent ranks of network television and the motion picture industry. This report is offered as but one necessary step in a long journey towards that end. Kweisi Mfume President and CEO OUT of FOCUS - OUT of SYNC TAKE 3 3 I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The NAACP has been involved in the continuing struggle for greater participation by African Americans in the entertainment industry and portrayal of black people on the screen since 1915, when the organization launched a nationwide protest against the showing of the movie “Birth of a Nation" by D. W. Griffith. The film, set in the period immediately after the Civil War, depicted black people as savages and the reconstruction era in our nation as a period of corruption. It remains today as one of the most controversial films ever made. Shortly after the NAACP's crusade against "Birth Of A Nation," a group of independent Black Filmmakers appeared on the scene almost as a response to the inaccurate characterizations that continued to be put forth by Hollywood. Emmett, J. Scott, George and Noble Johnson, and the legendary Oscar Micheaux defied the stereotypes and offered movies with black actors in stark contrast to the images otherwise available. Films produced by these pioneers were tributes to black endurance and ambition. Emmett, J. Scott, George and Noble Johnson, and the legendary Oscar Micheaux defied the stereotypes and offered movies with black actors in stark contrast to the images otherwise available. In spite of inauspicious omens the brothers Johnson set out in the summer of 1915 “to picture the Negro as he is in his every day life, a human being with human inclination, and one of talent and intellect. More than any other enterprise had even attempted, the Johnson’s carried the notion of a black aesthetic to its limits as a social force.1 Referred to as "race films,” movies such as “The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition” (1916), “Trooper K of Troop K” (1916), “The Birth Of Race” (1918), and the “Homesteader” (1919), portrayed black people as doctors, lawyers, teachers, and lovers. Plagued by financial and distribution problems, these films virtually vanished by the end of the 1940s. Perhaps the most illuminating element in the black struggle for an indigenous cinema was the attempt of the Negro press to create a black aesthetic. Such writers as Lester Walton, Harry Levette, and a half dozen more wrestled with the duality-the “two ness,” as W.E.B. DuBois put it—of American racial codes as they impinged on the cinema. Was the Negro to be a unique American with an eternal tom-tom beating in his breast,” or was he to be a “lamp-blacked Anglo-Saxon”?1a When “Gone with the Wind” was released in 1939, African Americans were less strident in their criticism, but less than happy with the film’s portrayal of them. In the words of film historian Donald Bogle, “Gone With The Wind” was “still bad, but its Black characters were treated with some degree of sympathy and dignity.” NAACP pickets the opening of D.W. Griffith’s, "The Birth of a Nation" in 1915. 4 OUT of FOCUS - OUT of SYNC TAKE 3 Hattie McDaniel becomes first African American to win an Oscar for her role in "Gone With the Wind". Hattie McDaniel was awarded the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in that year for her role in Gone With The Wind, becoming the first black performer ever to win an Academy Award. Failure by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize the talented efforts of other black artist in the years following McDaniel’s success enabled few if any to follow in those footsteps and the images of black people that were created by Hollywood changed little. Several years later in 1942, an agreement was struck between Walter White, then Executive Secretary of the NAACP, Wendell Wilkie, the former Republican Presidential Candidate, and the major film studio heads calling for the establishment of an ad hoc committee of black actors, private citizens, and liberal whites to monitor the image and portrayal of African Americans on the screen. The studios agreed to abandon pejorative racial roles, to place Negroes in positions as extras, roles they could be reasonably be expected to occupy in society, and to begin the slow task of integrating blacks into the ranks of studio technicians. The agreement only directly affected a tiny cadre of Hollywood Negroes, but the implications for the future were boundless.1b Although Walter White and the NAACP were not directly responsible for a single beautiful movie, their contractual codification of the social changes of the Great Depression and the second Great War finally destroyed the monopoly of Southern racial attitudes on the screen and made cinematic racism untenable.1c Before the end of the decade of the 1940’s, television would be invented and introduced to the American public. Its early technology and cost made it somewhat prohibitive to most families but its popularity began a steady incline that until today has never eroded. With television, as was the case with motion pictures, the question of characterizations and opportunities for qualified black men and women in front of and behind the camera continued to be a problem. At our annual convention in July1951, the NAACP passed a resolution critical of the new television series “Amos 'N' Andy” and other programs stressing negative stereotypes. According to OUT of FOCUS - OUT of SYNC TAKE 3 5 the resolution, shows like “Amos 'N’ Andy” “depict[ed] back people in a stereotypical and derogatory manner, and the practice of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, persons, or firms sponsoring or promoting this show, the Beulah show, or other shows of this type are condemned." The NAACP also sought an injunction in federal court to prevent the CBS Television Network from televising the “Amos 'N' Andy” show.