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Editor and Publisher Contents

David Nicholson Goings On Consulting Editor Independent films at the Rotterdam Festival; actors' unions meet on Tony Gittens (Black Film Insti­ employment issues...... p. 5 tute) Changing the Color of English CinelDa Associate Editors: by Calvin Forbes Pat Aufderheide, Keith Boseman, Filmmaker Menelik Shabazz on his life, work, and the current scene in Clyde Taylor Britain , p. 6 Contributing Editors: Glitz and Glitter at the Oakland Hall of FalDe p. 7 Carmen Coustaut, Rita B. Dan­ dridge, Calvin Forbes, Karen Revie"Ws: Jaehne, Sais Kamalidiin; Robin Out of Africa; Enemy Mine; Iron Eagle, Down and Out in Lynch, Paul S. McKenzie, Beverly Hills; and Power , .; ...... p. 8 Monona Wali, Earl Walter, Jr. L.A. FillDlDakers in Hollywood's Shado"W BLACK FILM REVIEW is by Monona Wali published quarterly in February, Juxtaposing black independent film with the commercial world reveals May, September, and December, the struggle of voices to be heard p. 10 by Sojourner Productions, Inc., a non-profit corporation organized The L.A. Rebellion in AlDerican FillD and incorporated in the District of by Clyde Taylor Columbia. This issue is co­ The work of black independents who attended UCLA in the 1970s has produced with the Black Film In­ proved a powerf1:ll force in film p. 11 stitute of the University of the District of Columbia. Subscrip- Havana Festival is a Latin Sho"Wcase ,tions are $10 a year for in­ by Pat Aufderheide dividuals, $20 a year for institu­ The New Latin American Film Festival has become a prestigious event tions. Add $5 per year for overseas for the revitalized Latin film industry p. 12 subscriptions. Send all cor­ respondence concerning subscrip­ Latins and Africans Move Towards Cooperation tions and submissions to the above by Carmen Coustaut address; submissions must include Third World filmmakers resolve to build bridges to connect their a stamped, self-addressed envel­ cinemas p. 12 ope. No part of this publication may be reproduced without writ­ Critics' ForulD on The Color Purple p. 16 ten consent of the publisher. Logo and contents copyright © So­ Purple Passion: journer Productions, Inc., 1985. What people around the country have been saying (and doing) about the film , p. 18

Leopard's Politics and DralDa Make it a Hit A new Mozambican film and that country's film industry.,...... p. 21 4 BLACK FILM· REVIEW

Letters Contributors

I take it you've written a review of how The Color Purple is unfair to Pat Aufderheide is the cultural editor of and a fre­ bl~ck.men. In These Times The Color Purple (or The Colored quent contributor to national film People, as I call it). I don't know What I wanna know is, did they magazines ... Keith Boseman is your opinion, but I thought it was hear them brothers over in the corner cultural editor for the Citizen trash. We're not just talking saying how we needs to support Newspaper chain and film ,critic for stereotypes; we're talking monotypes. black independent filmmakers? If the Chicago Observer ... Black in­ No, come to think of it, there were each one of those 600 made a com­ dependent filmmaker Carmen four portraits: the naive bumpkin, mitment to drop $5 on a young, Coustaut'teaches in the Radio, the who', the rapist and, in a bit struggling filmmaker with ·no film to Television, and Film Department at part, the preacher. shoot, it woulda been a better forum Howard University. I. think maybe they should remake all the way around. Rita B. Dandridge, professor of English and foreign languages at the movie with all white characters, Ojuoba Norfolk State University, has or maybe black characters in Chicago, IL published numerous articles on whiteface. And instead of going back black women writers. ... Poet to Africa with the giraffes, quaint Congratulations. BLACK FILM Calvin Forbes teaches at Howard tribal customs, and strange clothes University ... Karen Jaehne is a REVIEW is a long overdue vehicle (let's see-clips from Kenya, Washington, D.C.-based film critic for critical review of black images costumes from Morocco, customs who writes for Variety and other and black films. from Nigeria, discontinuity shots national film publications. Pearl Bowser from Spielberg's last adventure Sais Kama6diin is an artist who Brooklyn, NY movie, setting in Rhodesia), we could lives in the Washington, D.C., area. . .A graphic designer who has take our poor .white trash that live in worked on video production design, a Southern mansion back to a . BLACK FILM REVIEW welcomes Robin Lynch lives in Washington, polyglot Europe. The sister would your '. comments and criticism. Letters D.C. work in a soup kitchen in Place du should be addressed to BLACK Paul S. McKenzie is a Concord where the Finns come in FILM REVIEW 110 SSt., N.W., Washington, D.C., writer with an with their reindeer every Christmas Washington, D.C. 20001. Letters interest in film. He has earned to see the bullfights at the Coliseum may be edited for publication. degrees from Emory University and and all the bad people wear kilts and the Howard University School of play a cross between a bagpipe and a Law ...David Nicholson is a fluglehorn. former newspaper and wire service Submissions reporter 'who teaches journalism at If we've got the cash upfront, we the University of Maryland. could probably still get Alice Guidelines African Film Society Founder Walker's name to roll on the credits Clyde Taylor is associate professor, as technical advisor, and as it would BLACK FILM REVIEW welcomes of English at Tufts University ... .be a remake, we could still say it was submissions from writers, but we prefer Monona Wa6 is a filmmaker who based on The Color Purple. We'll that you first query with a letter or a lives in Los Angeles ... Boston call it The Color Green. telephone call. In all cases, unsolicited writer Marti Wilson is active in the Chris Brown manuscripts must be accompanied by a African Film Society ... Earl Madison, WI stamped, self-addressed envelope. Walter, Jr., is a director of Manuscripts must be typewritten, Thinker's World, a Los Angeles­ double-spaced, and include the author's based group concerned with address and telephone number on each analysis of issues affecting people of color. Enough on The Color Purple! page. Stevie did the best he could for a Southern California boy. Face it, his historical reality ain't the historical Check Your reality we know. Hollywood and Stevie ain't obligated to give us Mailing Label nothing we ain~ ready to take. Pardon my '60s regression, but it's The last line of your mailing our job to seize the time. label indicates the year and month Kuumba Theatre and the Afro­ in which your subscription to Caribbean Bookstore here had 600 BLACK FILM REVIEW ends. folks at a public forum to git all Help us save costs and paperwork by renewing before your subscrip­ emotional over how bad white folk treat our image, who Alice and the tion expires. cast of the flick is married to, and 5 BLACK FILM REVIEW Goings On Independents Make Union Reps Good Showing Meet in LA At Rotterdamn To Discuss by Robin Lynch ElDployment While the limelight at the 15th Rot­ Nicaragua. The 10-minute short shows Members ofthe joint National Ethnic terdam Film Festival shone on the ex­ an interrogation instructor speaking Equal Opportunity Committee of the pected luminaries-Jean-Luc Godard's before his class. The specialist is played Screen Actors Guild and American Detective received the award for most by Eric Bogosian with convincing Federation of Television and Radio Ar­ innovative film; Claude Lanzmann's callousness. The second of Scott B. 's tists were scheduled to meet March 7-9 Shoah, best documentary; and Mitsuo films shown was Last Rights, a one­ in Hollywood to discuss the issue of Yanaginachi's Himatsuri, the Port of woman film inspired by the case of minority hiring in movies and Rotterdam Award for best non-Euro­ Velma Barfield, a grandmother executed television. pean, non-American film-many new in 1984 for poisoning her husbands. The meeting was the first ever na­ filmmakers also received media atten­ Again, B. 's film showed us his sense of tional meeting of SAG and AFTRA tion and critical notice. crude, bare truths. committee members. During the public discussions and The sole black entry in this year's According to a statement from com­ press conferences that took place festival was Almacita di Desolato, mittee Chairman Toey Caldwell, the throughout the festival in late January directed by Antillian Felix de Rooy. discussion was to focus on a review of and early February, European and Although de Rooy and cinematographer past union efforts at improving employ­ South American filmmakers spoke often Ernest Dickerson Brother From ment and the depiction of minority per­ of the problems they face trying to Another Planet) are both graduates of formers in motion pictures, television, penetrate the American market. the New York University Film School, and commercials. Representatives were Americans, primarily young New York Almacita has its heart and soul in the also to consider ways of achieving a bet­ independents, spoke of their struggle Caribbean. Filmed on Curacao, the film ter industry record for the future. finding financing, but also of the new will certainly be compared with Sugar­ The meeting was called because it was interest in their projects spawned, in cane Alley-it shares setting, sepia-with­ believed efforts to increase minority hir­ part, by the success of Jim Jarmusch color look,and the presentation of ing in the entertainment industry have Stranger than Paradise,) Susan mystic beliefs. been largely sporadic and token, despite Seidleman (Desperately Seeking Susan), Based on Caribbean legends, writer good intentions on the part of unions and Ethan and Joel Coen (Blood Norman de Palm's tale reminds us of and companies, the statement said. Simple). the struggle between creative and During the meeting, committee . Of some 150 films shown, several destructive spirits, fertility and drought. representatives were scheduled to con­ stand out as examples of challenging, Dickerson's cinematography demons­ sider how SAG and AFTRA enforce even demanding, non-commercial trates his sensitive versatility, with sur­ minority hiring provisions in their con­ cinema, particularly the work of Rachel real shots of underground caves where tracts to ensure employer compliance Reichman and Scott Billingsley, known spirits of the dead dwell equalled only with contract provisions and with to the film world as Scott B. by his sweeping bird's-eye view of the federal equal opportunity guidelines. Reichman's The Riverbed, which village. Committee members were also to premiered at Rotterdam, is the Flannery Almacita was the only film to receive prepare proposals for upcoming con­ O'Connoeresque story of a mother car­ spontaneous applause at its pre~iere tract negotiations with televison and ing for her mentally-disturbed daughter and, despite being almost totally ignored motion picture companies. while living on a decaying farm in the by the Dutch press, finished third Some 25 local Ethnic Equal Employ­ South during the Depression. A wander­ (Kurosawa's Ran finished fourth) in the ment Opportunity Committee chairmen ing flim-flam man enters the two audience poll. and,women were expected to attend the women's world and disrupts their Ranked second in the same poll was meeting of Asians, Hispanics, Pacific delicate balance. The story unfolds as a Steven Frear's My B~autiful Islanders, Native Americans, and study of mother love, self-discovery, Launderette, which pairs an unlikely blacks. and innocence. Reichman's lingering duo-Omar, a young Pakistani, and his In addition to the two days of discus­ shots and impressive sense of composi­ schoolfriend and lover, a lower-class sion, SAG President Patty Duke was tion, combined with an austere sound­ English boy, Johnny. Through the scheduled to address the group, as was track and lush sounds of nature, remind couple, Frears and scriptwr,iter Hanif Frank Maxwell, national president of one of Tarkovsky or Mizoguchi. Kureishi challenge us by confronting us AFTRA. Scott B.'s The Specialist was created with issues of bigotry, abandonment of as part of a 1984 benefit to aid To p. 22 6 BLACK FILM REVIEW

The BFH Interview Menelik Shabazz: Changing the Color Of English CineDJa

Shabazz: What kept me in it was Afro-British filmmaker Menelik realizing the power of the medium to get Shabazz was born in Barbados. When ideas across. That was something I had he was a child, his parents moved to always wanted to do in art. And film England, as did many West Indians also involved other artforms, which seeking jobs and greater opportunity. suited my temperament, because I write, Coming ofage in a bi-cultural environ­ too. Just through exposure to it, I ment has informed much of his work. realized the power of film, and that real­ Shabazz' first film, which he directed ly was the spark. Once I got into it, I and co-produced, was Step Forward just remained. But there was no light at Youth (1976). His second was Breaking the end of the tunnel at times-you Point (1978). His other films are Burn­ didn't know if you would ever be work­ ing an Illusion (1982), funded by the ing. But you just persevered. And with British Film Institute, and I Am Not the blessings of Jah, it just worked out. Two Islands (1983), which he produced. In the latter, four young Jamaicans BFR: This is an interesting time in raised in England return to Jamaica in England. What part does film have to 1983 for 'the 21st celebration· of that play in it? country's independence. Shabazz' newest film is about Shabazz: What we have to do is Rastafari in Jamaica and England. document our history. The uprisings this The following is an edited transcript year-for the first time we have a struc­ of an interview conducted by Calvin enelik Shabazz ------' ture where we can go out and, while Forbes. these events are going on, record them, process them. I was working on a pro­ BFR: How did you get interested in gram for TV around what we shot. I film? want to highlight that black people have Shabazz: I had a background in art, no access to media. Black people have but it's really through chance that I BFR: Tennis? no recourse. By documenting events as came in contact with video, which is Shabazz: I started playing when I we are doing, it's laying a tradition and where it started. I was supposed to go was 13 or 14. I played in tournaments, providing an alternative to what has to art school, but my grades were not and it was serious. But I was becoming been portrayed in the media. Which has good enough. So I went to a college to more politicized and still playing all been blatantly racist. lev~ls; get some more 0 and while I was these middle-class people-the forces there, some white guys came with some were clashing. BFR: But your documentary will come video equipment, and they said we must out after the events. How much of an get together and do something. So I got BFR: What were those forces? effect will it have-? together a group of people and it was from there that my interest in that form Shabazz: I was becoming black Shabazz: It can have an effect began. From there I became more in­ power, and it was very strong with I. because it gives people a clarity in recall­ terested in film than video. And white people-I was playing in an ing events. Media brings things visually I knew a black woman from America environment where I was always the to the fore, like in a U .8. film by Alon­ who was in film school and she said I token black. It's also a game where you zo Speighth about the police harrass­ should go, too. I wasn't too keen-I need a lot of money to travel and play ment in Boston, which happened over thought I knew everything. What did I in tournaments. All these factors com­ 10 years. That film was very powerful, need to go to film school for? But I went bined to make me say no. But, on reflec­ and conveyed a struggle over a period to the London International Film tion, I think I am glad I didn't pursue of time. Yes, it doesn't have the same School for about six months. From it any further. impact as if you were able to get it out there, I made Step Forward Youth. So immediately, but we don't have that it really began through video, by chance. BFR: As you tell it, you just sort of mechanism yet. I saw myself more a tennis player or a happened to fall into filmmaking. What graphic designer. kept you in it? to p. 14 BLACK FILM REVIEW 7 Glitz and Glitter Is Only Part of Oakland Hall of Fame Purpose

Second in a series about black film festivals and organizations devoted to showcasing and preserving black film. by David Nicholson Movie and television stars wearing Hall of Fame's board of directors, was makers. First, there is the Hall of Fame­ tuxedos- and formal dresses arrive in held "to recognize the contributions that sponsored workshop (scheduled this long black limousines while the crowds blacks had made to film and the film in­ year for August 21-23) where black pro­ ooh and ahh. Flashbulbs light up the dustry. The feeling was that they had ducers, writers and directors like Lon­ night. Autograph seekers press forward, not gotten they deserved." nie Elder III, Gordon Parks, and Bill pens and programs in hand. :-Now, Rainey said, though the reason Greaves work with young black in­ Oscars' night in Hollywood? for the Hall of Fame remains the same, dependents. And, there is the interna­ No, the scene is Oakland, Calif., and it has broadened its scope. tional film competition for black in­ the event is the Black Filmmaker Hall Its purpose is divided into four areas: dependent filmmakers. (This year's of Fame's Oscar Micheaux Awards, -preserving the contribution of deadline for entries is June 2.) named after the pioneering black in­ black filmmakers through research and According to Velfrancis Dillard, film dependent filmmaker. educational programs; competition chairman, both are part of The ceremonies began in 1974 as a -providing educational programs a move to include black independent one-time event sponsored by the on filmmaking; filmmakers as an active component of Cultural and Ethnic Affairs Guild of the -community outreach through a the Hall of Fame. Oakland Museum. Almost 20 awards film competition to create opportunities Much of the money to fund the Hall were given that year, and the guild con­ for independent filmmakers; of Fame's programs comes from tinued to sponsor the awards and other -and establishing a permanent ar­ Oakland and Bay Area businesses, but educational activities until 1977, when chive, museum, and educational center Rainey said the success of the annual the Hall of Fame became an indepen­ in Oakland. awards ceremony is due to the volun- dent, non-profit organization. Since then, the Hall of Fame The Black Fil111111akers Hall ofFa111e cere1110nies have ceremonies have become an Oakland tradition where just plain folk and the bec0111e a tradition where just plain folk and the best best and the brightest of black and the brightest of black Hollywood pay tribute to Hollywood gather at the Paramount Theatre every February to pay tribute to their own. their own. Honorees in the past have been as Thus, though most visible, this year's teers who work on host, accommoda­ diverse as Ossie~ Davis and Ruby Dee, 13th annual awards ceremony is only tions, public relations, fundraising, and the recently-deceased Lincoln Theodore one of the activities sponsored by Hall program committees. Perry (better known as Stepin Fetchit), of Fame. Others programs include films "If it wasn't for the volunteers-and Roscoe Lee Browne, James Earl Jones, and discussions at locations throughout when I say volunteers, this includes the Ivan Dixon, Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Oakland and a symposium, "The Black stars who perform and the presenters­ Ellington, and Geoffrey Holder. Three Family in Cinema," at the University of we couldn't do it," Rainey said. "All of categories of awards are given-the California-Berkeley. The night before those people contribute." Oscar Micheaux Awards; the Paul the awards ceremony, the Hall of Fame The problem, is money, and Rainey Robeson Medal for Outstanding will sponsor a dinner dance (it helps pay said the goal of the board of directors Achievement in Theatre Arts; and the for the awards program). Expected to is to get the Hall of Fame on solid in­ Clarence Muse Youth Award. All in all, perform are actor-comedian and writer stitutional footing. more than 100 black actors and ac­ Paul Mooney and singer-actress The annual awards program is almost tresses, directors, producers, writers, Margaret Avery from the film .The Col­ self-supporting, Rainey said. He said, agents, composers and entertainers have or Purple. however, ' 'We need to do more in terms been inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame also sponsors the of getting sponsors. One of our goals is This year's inductees include Claudia Young Designers Showcase, which to involve the film industry more, like McNeil, Moses Gunn, and Rae Dawn features the work of fashion design Columbia Pictures and Warner Chong. students from area schools. Brothers, in terms of underwriting some The first ceremony, said attorney Two additional events are of par­ of the program elements." Douglas L. Rainey, vice president of the ticular interest to independent film to p. 29 8 BLACK FILM REVIEW

Reviews Why Not Eddie Murphy In Beverly Hills? by Karen Jaehne If one is going to be down and out, what better place than among phony liberals looKing for the meaning of life in Beverly Hills? It's a clever premise for a movie, but does not justify ransack­ ing the French theatre to adapt Boudu Sauve des Eaux. The French play was written by Rene Fauchois, but its most famous enactment for filmgoers is Jean Renoir's adaptation for his justifiably famous satire of class conflict, Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932). With the shambling down and out de­ meanor ofthe great French actor Michel Simon, the role of Boudu was guar­ anteed to offend the French bourgeoisie and their fastidious observance of their rituals. In contrast, the new American remake stars a lumbering Nick Nolte, who is potentially handsome and a 'fit­ in'-as opposed to a misfit-which makes him dirty but acceptable to the The two Little Richards, Dreyfuss and Penniman, with the Misses Anne nouveau riche Beverly Hills family in (Margrit Ramme, left, and Bette Midler, right) in Down and Out in Beverly whose swimming pool he attempts to Hills. commit suicide. There is no class con­ flict inherent in Nick Nolte's entering record producer who lives next door­ the interuterine-pink decor of WASP as well as some unsavory neighbors Iron Eagle wealth. In fact, he makes their miserable from Iran-the Whitemans are already lives liveable, showing them how to bear shown living in an integrated neighbor­ Is a Tin Goose up under the pressures of fast-lane L.A. hood. So why not let Eddie Murphy in A truly daring film adaptation, which the front door as Baskin? by David Nicholson Paul Mazursky did not make, would Because Baskin beds every female in Louis Gossett, Jr., has his name have meant entirely different casting­ the house, and surely it would have been above the title in his new movie, Iron Eddie Murphy as Jerry Baskin, the considered too dangerous to let loose the Eagle, a crowd-pleasing post-Christmas Boudu ofthis script. That's outrageous. eminently plausible, but so far unseen release that ought to have been subtitled Murphy would offend the Whitemans sexual prowess of Eddie Murphy. That Rambo in Blackface or Huck and Jim (get it?), the nouveau riche couple is, of course, presuming Mazursky ever Go to War. It's a trashy little knockoff played by Richard Dreyfuss and Bette entertained the idea of casting a black that combines two current genres: the Midler, but who ought not to be. Midler man in the lead role. Perhaps Murphy teenflick and the" America Wins One! " looks like she'd be much more comfor­ would not have accepted. Or, tokenism revenge movie. The critics have called table herself as Boudu/Baskin, because being what it is, Little Richard's small it a real crowd-pleaser. And indeed, in it's impossible to believe she's ever been part as a flashy, successful record pro­ its second week of release, it earned on a diet, and dieting is the essence of ducer objecting to his noisy neighbors some $4 million (just behind The Color life in Beverly Hills-down and out or would have been even more diminished. Purple). up and in. She tries, unsuccessfully, to There is not much that is funny in The film features Jason Gedrick as play Barbara Whiteman as Dyan Can­ Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Every­ Doug, an 18-year-old whose Air Force non, and Dreyfuss her husband, Dave, one tries too hard, and that is most evi­ colonel-father is shot down while on a as Paul Newman. dent in Little Richard as Orvis Good­ routine reconnaissance mission over the Mazursky thinks he has achieved night. The name alone banishes the Mideast. Tried as a spy by by dem evil social significance by offering neighbor humor to sitcoms. But this is Disney's 01' Arabs (who seem rapidly to be sup­ conflict instead of class conflict. With idea of a good time, brought to us by planting the Vietnamese as movie Little Richard as Orvis Goodnight, a their Touchstone division. to p. 9 BLACK FILM REVIEW 9

Jason Gedrick, as the kid, and Louis Gossett, Jr., as the Air Force reservist "rho helps him rescue his father. When the two of them are in the same airplane, guess who sits in the backseat?

REVIEWS From p.8 Power: DenzelGoes villains), he's sentenced to hang unless because there was work. His Sinclair he confesses. As in Rambo, the military tries something similar here at first, To Washington and government bureaucracies are un­ treating Doug with a stand-offishness willing or unable to act, and so Doug that seems designed to preserve his by Karen Jaehne decides to take matters into his own dignity. But that dignity disappears In Sidney Lumet's Power, Denzel hands by stealing two F-16s and, with forever in a scene where Sinclair­ Washington plays Arnold Billings, the the help of retired Air Force Col. having agreed to help Doug-plans their key figure to understanding the dif­ Chappy Sinclair (Gossett), rescues his mission while wiggling his butt to James ference between good (or not ·so. bad) dad. Brown's "There Was a Time." and evil (or not so good). In this film It sounds pretty dumb when you write Chappie was, of course, the nickname about imagemakers in the media era of about it, and it is. of Air Force Gen. Daniel James, who politics, when everybody knows that When I saw it, the audience hooted retired as a four-star general after ser­ media makes the man, Lumet wags his until the shoot-'em-ups finally began­ vice in World War II, the Korean War, finger at people who take a basic explosions, bombings, crashes, flaming and the war in Vietnam. The reference capitalistic and Machiavellian attitude fireballs. Only then did people clap and in the film is clear. But to the extent that toward campaigns to get their clients cheer. But it seemed somehow Gossett's performance lapses into buf­ elected. obligatory, as if they knew (and were foonery, it demeans the proud history Richard Gere stars as Pete St. John, willing to provide) the response expected of the black military men who believed a shallow but successful maker of of them. There was none of the pump enough in the promise of America to politicos. Once married to an in­ I imagine some of these same people got fight, and die, for it. vestigative reporter played by Julie from Rambo, and I kept asking myself The pairing of experienced black man Christie, he has moved on to his assis­ whether anybody else thought it im­ and naive white youth is part of an tant, Kate Capshaw-the model for the moral, or even just plain wrong, that an American tradition of which Twain's advertising line for the film: "More 18-year-old could be shown dispensing Huckleberry Finn is perhaps the best­ seductive than sex ... POWER!" Cap­ death from a computerized cockpit with known example. But Twain's novel shaw is St. John's partner/lover, until no more sense of the meaning of his ac­ revolved around the imparting of moral it is inferred with one shot that she has tions than if he were playing a video values, whereas Iron Eagle's Chappie switched her allegiance to Billings, game. Sinclair continues the cinematic tradi­ presumably because he has become There's little of the depth of Gossett's tion of the black buddy who'll do more powerful. The usual taboo of performance here that there was in An anything for his white friend. Gossett's black-white relationships functions here Officer and a Gentleman. There, we name may be above the title, but the key in a confusing way: Does she, or doesn't knew nothing about the character's life to it all is the movie poster-a flight­ she? apart from his being a drill instructor, suited Gossett in the background, and Lumet's liberal credentials are but we could imagine from Gossett's in­ the white teenager dressed in red shirt, unassailable but, as usual, he has been tensity the broken home, failed mar­ bluejeans, and white shoes in the To p. 24 riage, and life that had meaning only foreground. 10 BLACK FILM'REVIEW

L.A. Black Filnunakers Thrive Despite HolIYft'ood's Monopoly

by Monona Wali "Before we expect to see ourselves featured on the silver screen as we live, hope, act, and think today, men and women must write original stories of Negro life, and as the cost of produc­ ing high class photoplays is high, money must be risked in Negro corporations for this purpose. Some-many-will perhaps fail before they have got to go­ ing right, but from their ashes will spring other and better men, some ofwhom in time will master the art in completeness and detail, and when so, we will have plays in which our young men and women will appear to our credit, as finished drama artists." Oscar Micheaux

Almost 30 years after Oscar Still from Alile Sharon Larkin's film A Different Image. Micheaux's statement, there is a new generation of black filmmakers, and Commercial cinema also ignores one tures to be made in America." In the 60s they are doing exactly what he of the fundamental realities of America and 70s, with the revolution still a long foresaw-telling "original stories of today-it is increasingly a multi-racial, way off, UCLA was the closest thing to Negro life." Their films are made for multi-cultural society, and the various a Negro Film Institute. Many of the Los almost no money, but at great cost. races and cultures seek to have their im­ Angeles black filmmakers got their start Almost no black American filmmaker ages represented in their full and true at the UCLA film school. makes a Hving from his or her work. dimensions. This has not happened, and It was a time of heated political Almost all must make their films on the there are few signs that it will happen dialogue, and the era of black con­ side while struggling to make a living soon. sciousness brought forth a renaissance elsewhere. For black filmmakers in Los Angeles, of black art. Many black filmmakers It is the juxtaposition of black there is the additional burden of justi­ were exposed to films from the Third American independent films to the com­ fying their existence. World and Europe, films that inspired mercial world that reveals the precise Sharon Larkin, maker of Your them to create their own form of expres­ nature of the struggle of black American Children Come Back to You and A Dif­ sion. Exposure to those films made filmmakers. One irony of black cinema ferent Image, said, "Here, we're not black filmmakers realize the possibilities is that it is widely recognized and lauded taken seriously because everybody you open to them beyond the realm of on European festival and art circuits and meet is a producer. Or they say that they Hollywood cinema, possibilities barely recognized as legitimate in the are a producer, director, actor, actress. validating a broader cultural and U.S. Black filmmakers are virtually ex­ So a lot oftimes when we say what we're political struggle, and uniting them with iled in their own country, and there is into, people say, 'Yeah, sure.' And it's a larger cinematic movement worldwide. no place for an independent filmmaker hard-they identify with these million "When I came up in the 60s-I was to feel more exiled than Los Angeles. dollar budgets. They don'.t know a child during all that," Larkin said, Hollywood calls the shots as far as whether to take our format seriously. "-my attitude was that I didn't go to commercial cinema in the U.S. is con­ But it doesn't have to be a million dollar the university because I was smart. cerned, legitimizing only those films that budget to be a work of art." There were a lot of smart black people fit certain notions. They must be of a In 1941, poet and novelist Langston who weren't allowed in those univer­ certain length. They must be in color. Hughes wrote: "Have been having some sities. I went because people died for me They must obey certain cinematic rules. conferences with movie producers, but to go there. Our theme was to take our They must tell stories along certain no results. I think only a subsidized skills back to the community. We didn't broad formula lines. And, of course, Negro Film Institute, or the revolution, go there to make student films; we they must bring in a profit. will cause any really good Negro pic- to p. 27 BLACK FILM REVIEW 11 The L.A. Rebellion: NeftT Spirit in American Film

by Clyde Taylor BLACK FILM REVIEW Associate of the beast: minutes away, Hollywood time, and space. Soundtracks carry Editor Clyde Taylor was guest curator was reviving itself econonmically needling surprises. ofThe L.A. Rebellion: A Turning Point through a glut of mercenary black ex­ Haile Gerima's Child of Resistance in Black Cinema, at the Whitney ploitation movies. (1972) can be taken as a manifesto film. Museum ofAmerican Artin New York. At Thursday night screenings, the Inspired by a dream about Angela Davis The January series, which included UCLA group recapitulated the history in prison, it assaults the conventions of work by Charles Burnett, Ben Caldwell, of cinema and its bearings on black classical film construction with the Larry Clark, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, populations. They debated aesthetic violence Fanon described as the comple­ Alile Sharon Larkin, and Barbara questions in and out of classes. Film ment of mental liberation. Images clash McCullough, was part ofthe museum's scholar Teshome Gabriel began his in paradoxical juxtapositions, suggestive New American Filmmakers Series. The resolute inquiries into Third World of the theater of the absurd, but prob­ following article, reprinted with permis­ cinema theory. Haile Gerima, Larry ing resolution through the violence of sion of the Whitney Museum of Clark, Charles Burnett, Pamela Jones, revolution. Geriam's Bush Mama (1976) American Art in New York, is excerp­ Ben Caldwell, Majied Mahdi, and John elaborates themes and images from his ted from Taylor's essay that accom­ Rier all crewed for each other, throw­ earlier film and, like many Third World panied the series. ing in ideas and opinions. Aware that films, repudiates the socio-economic the moment was propitious, they system, its attritions of its weaker vic­ The latest black independent film deliberately overreached the category of tims through racism, class discrimina­ movement (roughly from 1964 to the student films, aiming toward finished tion, and inhumane social problems. present) represents the most concerted projects that, within limited means, ~o barry Clark's Passing Through at­ effort to establish black cinema and could go into independent distribution. tempts to subvert the Hollywood action distinguish it from "images of blacks in films." Among the independents deter­ mined to make films outside the Hollywood orbit, two episodes of creative collaboration stand out. Both reveal all the marks of cultural movements-efforts to establish defini­ tions, drafting of manifestos, the excited exchange of ideas and techniques, and the revisionist review' of historical legacies. One of these episodes was the activi­ ty around Black Journal, a PBS televi­ sion magazine program regularly pro­ duced by a team ofblack directors under the leadership of William Greaves from 1968 to 1971. There, the contours of black documentary, aimed at exploring the self-definition of African­ Americans, were effectively laid out. Narrative films were the focus ofa se­ cond group of talented, resourceful cinema interventionists who came Still from Charles Burnett's film Killer of Sheep. together as students in the 1970s at UCLA. Energized by the momentum of The Los Angeles Rebellion is genre, riffing its search, confrontation, the Black Power movement, the growth recognizable in a determination to ex- chase, and vengeance formulas with of Pan-African and cultural-nationalist pose the irresponsibility of Hollywood unruly notes from the underground. organizing in post-Watts rebellion Los portrayals of black people by develop- Clark's deliberate, highly coded Angeles, and the dozens ofcultural, ar­ ing a film language whose bold, ~even ex- cinematography reflects the most am- tistic, and educational ventures ofthe se­ travagant, innovation sought filmic bitious effort to structure a film accor- cond Black Reconstruction, these young eqivalents of black social and cultural ding to the rhythms, and movement pat- filmmakers made a commitment to discourse. Every code of classical terns of the jazz tradition. Because of dramatic films-a commitment fired by cinema was rudely smashed-conven- its success in this visual orchestration the discomfort of dwelling in the belly tions of editing, framing, storytelling, to p. 29 12 BLACK FILM REVIEW Havana Festival ShoftTcases NeftT Latin Film Industry

by Pat Aufderheide Africans and Latins The New Latin American Film over the years, including one for the best Festival, held every December in film about Latin America made by non­ Lay Groundwork Havana, Cuba, was a daring gamble Latin Americans and a new award this when it began in 1979. "We're a poor year for the best script. In short, the For Cooperation country, and we can't travel as much as market has become a shopping center by CarInen Coustaut we'd like," one prominent cinemato­ for buyers from socialist and capitalist grapher explained to me at that first countries-European TV networks and Among the many significant events at festival, which was full of the usual ad­ U.S. alternative film distributors. And the Seventh Annual New Latin ministrative glitches but also charac­ the poolside parties are as raucous and American Film Festival held in Havana terized by an exhilarating energy. "So improvisational as ever. in December was a two-day meeting we try to hold parties to invite our Colombian author Gabriel Garcia where Latin American and African film­ friends from all over, so we can learn Marquez, one of the honored guests at makers identified several areas around what's happening.' the first festival, made several ap­ which collaborative efforts will be The modest remark belied the reality: pearances, as did stars from other coun­ organized. the Cuban government was launching an tries, including the U.S. Jack Lemmon Delegates adopted resolutions to show annual event that would not only show­ arrived to open a retrospective of his African films at Latin American case new films that had until then lack­ work with Missing, and Harry Belafonte festivals and Latin films at African ed an adequate forum for interested film strolled the streets, at one point en­ festivals; to distribute films; and to co­ buffs and (more importantly) distri­ countering a group of schoolchildren produce and cooperate in filmmaking; butors, bilt~;one that would promote the who burst into song when they saw him, to collaborate in the formation oftrain­ theme that has traditionally defined chiming "We are the world." Robert ing cooperatives; and to join forces in Latin American Cinema: socially con­ DeNiro was seen in the dusky red light the direction of a Third World cinema scious work contributing to the develop­ of the Hotel Nacional's cabaret, chat­ in general. ment of cultural nationalism. Further, ting with officials from the Cuban In­ It was generally agreed that both the festival asserted the existence of a stitute for the Art and Industry of groups of filmmakers share the common common cultural ground among the Cinema, possibly about the idea of star­ enemy of imperialism and struggle many countries of Latin America, coun­ ring in a remake of The Tempest to be against forceful control of information. tries divided by language, traditions, a done by celebrated Cuban film artist Fernando Birri, the renowned Argentine history of border conflicts, and poor Tomas Gutierrez Alea. filmmaker, aptly captured the spirit of communications, but united in their ex­ The films marked the maturity of the discussion by saying that culture, perience of underdevelopment and Latin American cinema which, in most especially language, divides Africans domination from the North. countries, is still workmanlike, but is and Latins, but their shared militancy, That first festival set the stage for reviving as military governments give both ideological and aesthetic, unites future festivals, with awards, retrospec­ way to more democratic governments. them.. He acknowledged that their com- tives, seminars, and a film market. Perhaps the most moving moments hap­ Seven years after its founding, the festival has becoI11e pened not in theaters, but in the lobby a prestigious and powerful institution serving a revitaliz­ or around the pool of Havana's citadel of decaying elegance, the Hotel Na­ ed Latin AI11erican filI11 industry. SOI11e 450 fi1111S were cional. That was where friends could shown, and delegates froI11 5.1 countries attended. reunite, some after years of exile, some illegally or semi-legally absent from Brazilian cinema, for the last several mitment to change, transformation, and countries ruled by oppressive govern­ years the commercial star of the festival, revolution is motivated by their "love ments, all with projects, deals', and made room for Argentine cinema, which for life, which may have to be paid for dreams to exchange. has burgeoned during the last two years by death!" Seven years later, the festival has of a democratic government anxious to Having established this sentiment, the become a prestigious and powerful in­ rehabilitate its image with international­ meeting was organized around the five stitution serving a revitalized Latin ly prestigious (andsocially-provocative) central issues identified as requiring col­ American film industry. The most re­ films. laboration to strengthen the filmmakers' cent showed some 450 films and hosted The variety was impressive. A film respective national positions and their delegates from some 51 countries. A like the elegantly-produced version of a collective international posi-tion. The > special section showcased new video Garcia Marquez story, Tiempo de Morir meeting was chaired by a panel work. Several1Jrizes have been added To p. 13 to p. 13 BLACK FILM REVIEW 13 COOPERATION From p. 12 that included Gaston Kabore, Burkina long-discussed film school for Latin of both groups, yet respects their Paso, general secretary of FEPACI (the American and Caribbean students. He differences. Federation of Pan-African Cineastes); added, "That is a good idea, but I The seminar, like the festival itself, Julio Garcia Espinosa', Cuban vice­ believe that while th~ Africans are not was an inspiring and· encouraging ex­ minister of culture and president of able to have a similar opportunity, the perience. It was invigorating to function ICAIC (the Cuban Film Institute); Jorge idea of a school should be extended to in a context where cinema, like other Sanchez, Mexico, president ofthe Com­ African students and any other Third aspects of culture and society, is ex­ mittee·of Latin American Filmmakers; World country." pected to serve a role in raising con­ Armando Hart, Cuban minister of The final point raised·was the use of sciousness, demanding change and en­ Culture; and Jean-Pierre Brossard, links between African and Latin couraging growth, rather than existing president FICC, (Federation of Interna­ American cinema in the context of as a means for escape,fantasy, and tional Cinema Clubs). achieving a Third World cinema that distraction. ,- The first issue addressed the need to would eventually include Asia. My only regret was the absence of a circulate films among festivals in Latin Recognizing that their cinemas represent formal black American independent American and in Africa. The group people who are victims of imperialism, filmmakers' delegation, whose values, committed itself to promoting the par­ the group emphasized the role of cinema purposes, and goals are so often similar ticipation of African and. Latin as a part of the process of liberation. to those of African, Latin American, American filmmakers in exchanging in­ The participants stressed their unity and and other Third World filmmakers. formation to increase knowledge in both solidarity with other victims of imper­ Three black American filmmakers at­ regions. ialism-for South Africans against tended the festival, informally represen­ Film distribution was the second item apartheid, for the PLO, for Chileans ting the black independent film com­ considered. Outlets for Latin and against Pinochet, for the peoples of EI munity in the U.S. We were able to in­ African films remain small although in­ Salvador, and for the Sandinistas. teract and establish contacts with the dividual distributors are attempting to This final discussion emphasized the Latin American and African filmmakers face the challenge of providing an alter­ commitment for unity through cinema (as well as with other delegates from native source where film distribution in the struggle against oppression and throughout the world). In addition, we has, in many cases, excluded Third imperialism within the context of respect were able to strengthen the historical af­ World film. The delegates resolved to and love for life .. finity that black Americans have had jointly participate in the reciprocal Clearly, the effort on the part of Latin with Africans and were, in fact, often distribution of their films. Americans to host this seminar and on included in activities that had been Thirdly, the delegates discussed co­ the part of Africans to send delegates scheduled for the African delegation. production and cooperation, including from countries throughout the continent Perhaps our participation can be a the potential for an interchange of skills (including South Africa, Algeria, Benin, beginning for· future involvement of and resources among individual film­ Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Congo, Mozam­ black American filmmakers as a makers, among film organizations, and bique, and Ethiopia) reflects a commit­ formally-recognized delegation to the between countries. TIle committee re­ ment to establish a permanent collective Ne\v Latin American and Caribbean solved to foster cooperation9 both cinema that reveals the commonalities Film FestivaL technical and artistic, to ensure the strengthening and growth of their HAVANA cinemas. The fourth area discussed was the for­ From p. 12 mation of training cooperatives to im­ prove and expand Latin and African (Time to Die), would be followed by a aspects of film. Throughout the hectic cinema and further contribute to the Cuban teen-heartache movie, Una two weeks, film'magazine editors, film cooperative ventures interconnecting the Novia para David (A Girlfriend for festival directors, managers of film clubs two cinemas" Existing institutions of David). The two films sharing top in small towns, and film union delegates film instruction in Latin Americaalld honors were both sophisticated all met to share problems, build net­ Africa could provide an immediate in­ statements by heroes of Latin American works, and even found their own terchange between countries and con­ cinema: Frida-a Mexican film whose institutions 0 tinentse Additionally, groups could be beauty was as disturbing as the life and The festival may be joining the ranks formed for training during actual pro­ art of its subject Frida Kahlo-by Paul of key international film festivals, but ductiono \Vorkshops and seminars Leduc (Jo11n Reed: Mexico lnsurgente), ICAIC organizers have not forgotten its would be organized in academic and and the song-dance-poetry extravagan­ reason for being. "The competition is non-academic settings for additional za Tangos: Exilio de Garde], by long­ not the most important part of the training outlets ~ time Argentine exile Fernando Solanas festival," Vice-minister of Culture (and In his address at the closing of the (Hour of the Furnaces) .. filmmaker) Julio Garcia Espinosa said festival, Cuban President Fidel Castro I'fhe festival also organized events for on opening night. "This festival is a supported the concept of creating a those \vorking in non-production to p. 23 14 BLACK FILM REVIEW

SHABAZZ From p.6 BFR: Reading the papers, the situation Shabazz: Oh, yes. The tradition was BFR: Your film Breaking Point is in Britain almost seems like the civil for the father and other males to come about the Sus Law. What was that law? rights movement in the U.S.-dogs, and then send for the rest of the family. people getting hosed in the streets. They did a lot of work towards laying Shabazz: It was a law used par­ down certain traditions that we in­ ticularly against youth, black youth. Be­ Shabazz: It has that kind of similar herited. They laid down a food tradi­ ing a suspicious person, with intent to scenario, but we had our first uprising tion, so that now you can go to certain steal was the charge often used. And this in 1919 in Liverpool, where black peo­ shops and get food. They started clubs would be used against black youths. It ple used guns to defend themselves. for West Indian entertainment. But they was an old law, from the 18oos. The There was another in 1958. What we are were more passive, in the sense of all im­ thing was that this law required no pro­ seeing in England now is an intensifica­ migrants who come to a new country, of, so you would go before the court, tion. The riots that happened in 1981 so they bent over backwards to accom­ and it was your word against the and are now happening again, have all modate, even though they knew it was policeman and the judge. developed on top of that. And it's wrong. The film was made for commercial moved to another stage now, where you So it was really for the younger peo­ television. It was my first contact with have armed youths shooting at police. ple to take on that load. Back home,the television and it was not a good ex­ The youths, black people in England, presence of the grandparents allowed perien.ce. I was censored, and they put have no voice. The society just doesn't the parents to go out and work. But, in a disclaimer on the film. care. They are locking up the youths, England, parents have to go out and making criminals of them. The parents work and then come home and take care BFR: They made you take things out are now more aware of it than in my of their children. So that meant a lot of of the film? time. My generation was one of the first youths in England had to fend for ones to understand the system. We went themselves. It helped to weaken the Shabazz: They said it was an incite­ through the educational system, whereas family. A lot of other pressure came on ment to riot. I had a particular ending our parents"didn't, so they couldn't ap­ the families; the discipline that families to the film, which later came true. Two preciate what we did in the schools. had used in the Caribbean, they tried to of the young people we interviewed, use in England, but there was a different after they had been beaten up and won BFR: What happened with your gen­ value system. And the younger people their court cases, said that unless things eration in the schools? were mixing with whites, and that inter­ changed, we were going to find black Shabazz: We were the first ones who mingling created new kinds of tensions. people petrol-bombing police stations. came to terms with the racism and A lot of kids at that time were kicked We were going to fight. That was in realized we weren't part of the system. out of home and that was a big issue. 1978. And it came true. We had to deal with the fact that we It's not so much anymore, but you used So we had the controller of the chan­ were a minority and we had to fight to to live in parks, or with friends. nel, the IVA-the censorship body of maintain ourselves. In certain schools, the independent companies-insisting they used to line up black people and the film didn't conform to the IVA spit on them. A lot of struggles took charter, which calls for balanced pro­ place on the streets, basic struggles, to gramming. Because we did not have the create your own little territory. And policeman talking. So then they said the alongside that you had the racist at­ only way the" film could go on was if titudes in the classroom. there was a disclaimer on the front of We found the teachers very racist in it-that was negotiated between the their attitudes and in their expectations. companies, I wasn't involved-which Their expectations were that we would said this film is made by a black direc­ play football and games and such. So we tor and it's about peoples' feelings. This had to struggle. And we were not sup­ is what they put on national television. ported because the tradition of our parents was that the teacher was right BFR: To what extent do black film­ and the police were right. We were in the makers in England tailor their work to middle; our parents weren't seeing what get government funding? we were dealing with. And that resulted in a lot of us getting kicked out of our Shabazz: There are not many black homes. filmmakers working in commercial TV. The bulk of us work independently, so BFR: For many West Indians, we tend to do the films we are interested England was a big deal. The mother­ in, and see if we can get the money, "land. Menelik Shabazz ---1 to p. 15 15 BLACK FILM RE'VIEW

SHABAZZ From p. 14 rather than trying to fit in. But you find portant is that awareness for the that confronts younger people in when you apply to a grantmaking body audience? England, and all of us really, is to find that they have a particular idea of a out who we are. black image and the kinds of things they Shabazz: From my understanding, it want. Which is sometimes an obstacle. really wasn't that important. You either BFR: How did the young people who They don't have the same expectations eat it up or take bits of it. The response went back to Jamaica react in the film? for black filmmakers as they do for varies. Some people who are not very white-there's not the same kind of conscious of Africa and themselves hate Shabazz: It really highlighted to range that they allow you. In those it-that was the whole purpose, to take them how much they were different; it cases, perhaps people do have to tailor them into that experience. People who was a kind of culture shock. They take their work. But it's not the same thing are much more aware draw more out of so many things for granted-the as working in commercial television. the film. According to your con­ refrigerator and such. But I think it was sciousness, you take out what they want. a meaningful trip. Young people need BFR: It's a subtle kind of censorship. People come up and ask me about other to get an appreciation for the Caribbean issues besides Africa. and Africa. One girl said she felt a part Shabazz: And if there's more than of something where she had not before. one filmmaker applying, then just one BFR: When I was in London in the late It certainly helped them realize that be­ of you is going to get it. 70s, it struck me that there was a black ing Jamaican -in England is one thing, British culture developing, as opposed and being Jamaican in Jamaica another. BFR: So they play you against each to a West Indian one. other? BFR: Let's talk about your new film. Shabazz: There is a consciousness What is it about? Shabazz: (laughs) Yeah. among the younger people, a much stronger consciousness, but not so much Shabazz: Hopefully, a feature-length BFR: When I saw Burning an Illusion, in saying they're African. They have a documentary on Rastafari. We're re­ there were two speakers who talked stronger identity of themselves as hav­ searching through March, and then, about message or theme. One seemed to ing been born in England, and so there hopefully, going into production advocate working outside the system. is a culture developing, primarily around through next year. I've just come from Another thing that came up was the reggae music. The culture is not fully Jamaica. We'll shoot in Ethiopia, issue of women's rights. defined yet. Half of them would say that Jamaica, and England. The largest they are British, half of them would say Rastafarian population is in England­ Shabazz: It really deals with they are not. In I am Not Two Islands, there are more than in Jamaica. We'll grassroots people who are outside the the same things come up. The main issue have some narrative elements, dance, system, people who are trying to make Biblical text, and also certain scriptures. sense out of it. The film really tried to show a different perspective on reality. BFR: You have a production com­ In the film, I was going ahead. In pany, Kuumba Productions, and a film 1981 [when the film was made], people workshop. were getting caught up in an in­ dividualistic culture. A lot of struggles Shabazz: Yes, Kuumba is a more were taking place. So it was really look­ commercial company. It was set up by ing forward, saying that the foundation myself and two other filmmakers, and is really to know yourself, but that in is really an outlet for our work, mainly itself is not enough. It's all right to have through Channel Four in England. It is a black consciousness and all its physical an independent structure, so that is manifestations, but that in itself is not really the most important aspect of what enough. You need to go to another we're doing. The big advantage of stage, which is a stage of deeper com­ Channel Four for independent film­ mitment and understanding. In the makers in England, both black and film-when she' gets shot-that was a white, is that it allows productioncom­ stage of her commitment. It firmed her panies to actually produce their work up in terms of her commitment.The film independently. is really saying that consciousness is one Ceddo Workshop-the name is from level and action is another. Sembene's film, and it means cultural resistance-is a new development. We BFR: Is part of the solution for the raised funds to buy equipment and man and the woman in the film to get Channel Four and the British Film In- back into African culture? And how im- enelik Shabazz------~ to p. 23 16 BLACK FILM REVIEW The Little Book (and Film) That Started the Big War In Adapting the Novel, One Man's View Spielberg Left Out Too Much by Earl Walter, Jr. by Rita B. Dandridge Steven Spielberg's film of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of The tentionally suggests husband and wife The Color Purple, is a cold, tragic ven­ Color Purple transforms a simply­ have no defined 'place' in performing ture into the lives of a rural black fami­ wrought, emotionally-controlled novel household chores. Spielberg's film does ly over a period of about 40 years. The into a soul-wrenching, tear-jerking an about-face, invoking the Sapphire­ film is an emotional saga of faithful and melodrama. In addition to its manipula­ wife and the inept Kingfish-husband. persistent black women at the same time tion of computer-enhanced graphics, While Harpo patches the roof, Sophia that it relentlessly and thoroughly indicts sentimental excesses, and implausible orders him to tend the baby. When he black men. Black men are the villains, scenes, the film possesses other flaws. falls through the roof (raising the au­ the sources of pain, failure, and The most disturbing is its consistent dience's laughter) she orders him to hopelessness for innocent women and failure to present its characters in the clean up, then marches away to gossip children. So blatant are the male complete context offered in Alice with Celie. The film, then, overlooks the characters in their vile behavior that Walker's novel. possibility of a harmonious working much of the first half of the film (sup­ A typical example is the portrayal of relationship between black men and posedly a woman's story) is lost to a Mr.__, Celie's husband, as a brutaliz­ women that Walker hinted at, and con­ diatribe on-negative black men. ing, intransigent whoremaster, totally jures up the racist-sexist attitudes that Mr.__ (Danny Glover) and Pa without redeeming qualities. Miscast in attended the Amos 'n' Andy television (Leonard Jackson) are both tragic the film as· a large man (Danny Glover), show. figures who are thrust onto the screen he towers over a shrinking, cowering To p. 28 without context or explanation for their Celie (Whoopie Goldberg), a position behavior. They commit incest, child that makes him seem more of a tyrant abuse, and attempt rape-all without than he is. Little consideration is given qualification or consequence. The to the impositions he faces as a man: he viewer is given nothing with which to is troubled by a meddling, domineering understand these male characters.· The father; stuck with wives he does not implication is that these black men are want; annoyed by his no-good children; inherently 'no good' and change at the and rejected by Shug Avery, the lover end of the movie only by an act of God. he cannot possess. While the book was Celie's story, the Mr.__'s eventual appreciation of movie is perhaps more about the Celie does not come to pass in the film; slovenly character Mr.__ than about only the novel reveals that he picks up Celie (Whoopi Goldberg). Glover is all his life, becomes Celie's good friend, over the screen, and the movie loses too and asks her to marry him. Spielberg's much of its power and flow by concen­ one-sided portrayal provoked some trating on a one-dimensional male black men to boycott the film and caus­ character. There comes a point when the ed others to question (economics aside) negative portraits of men are trite and why such a depressing film reached the impede the drama that is building theaters during the Christmas season. around the women. One thing is clear­ More importantly, Spielberg's Mr.__ an important objective of this story is denies the growth of Alice Walker as a to expose black men as dogs for what writer; she appears to be easing away they have done to this family. But the from the mindless, sadistic black male attack is overdone and the buildup to characters of her earlier fiction. the movie's climax suffers as a result. Besides misrendering characters, The dramatic power of the story is the Spielberg also misinterprets. The novel women's interaction. There is power in has Sophia assuming the tasks of a man, innocence, and the women in The Col­ and Harpo those of a woman. She or Purple are, for the most part, inno­ makes shingles and repairs the roof, cent. Goldberg (as the adult Celie) and while he cooks and cleans. With this Desreta Jackson (who plays Celie as a rev,ersal of traditional roles, Walker in- To p. 19 BLACK FILM REVIEW 17 Four Critics Discuss The Color Purple

A DisappointInent, Searching the Ideology for But We Still Have Meaning The Book by Marti Wilson by Calvin Forbes Having celebrated the coming to life One of the many troublesome matters Nonetheless, women tend to overlook of Alice Walker's novel The Color associated with the phenomenon of The the way black men are portrayed and to Purple, those of us who know Alice Color Purple has been the lack of a concentrate on the positive images of Walker as an inspired writer, womanist, meaningful response from black critics. women working together to overcome and champion of social justice and Rather than oohing and ahhing (or gag­ the stumbling blocks put in their way by human rights eagerly awaited the film ging) over the novel and the film, men. Moreover, the storm has arisen from Hollywood. We were anxious to criticism of the issue should have been over the movie, rather than the novel, see the vibrant characters·we grew to dispassionate. A comparison of Steven perhaps because mOIJ people have seen love in the book come alive on screen. Spielberg's cinematic interpretation and it than read the book. This suggests that Well ... it never happened. Alice Walker's original novel might movies, which are capable of reaching When I saw the film, I was filled with have been a good way to examine what larger audience than any bestseller, are disbelief and disappointment. Not all the fuss is about. more powerful and influential, and thus because the film was not true to the The controversy, or debate, within the perhaps more dangerous. story line of the book-Spielberg, with black community has centered around It is also curious that the shouting Walker's guidance, followed the novel the portrayal of black men, although the started only after the movie opened, almost to aT. It is the spirit that is miss­ split has not occurred strictly according because the way black men are por­ ing. It's like collard greens without fat­ to gender. trayed in the novel is harsher than in the back, dance without rhythm, or soul film. music without a beat. Where are the Mr.__, as played by Danny Glover, polyrhythms, improvisations, complexi­ seems more human, though not mote ties-layers of meaning of Celie's life humane. When the camera focuses on and the lives of folks in her community? Glover's face, the subtleties of expres­ They're gone-lost in Hollywood. sion reveal a more vulnerable Mr.__ Putting the film in historical context, than the brutal oneJfound in the novel. reviewing the treatment of blacks in He is also shown as browbeaten by his Hollywood films beginning with the father, which could lead us to consider Birth ofa Nation (1915) to Cabin in the him a victim victimizing Celie. When he Sky (1943), all the way up to The Toy is shown fumbling with his clothes as he (1984), which featured Richard Pryor as rushes out to meet Shug, Glover makes a white child's plaything, Color Purple's Mr.__ clumsy and childlike, enough significance cannot be dismissed. so that the audience laughs at his antics. It is well-cast, with stunning And in the scene in which Celie combs performances. his child's hair and he hits Celie across One of the most compelling aspects the mouth for talking out ofline, Glover of the film is the delicately-crafted pic­ seems to hesitate and then quickly ture of dark-skinned black women and decide-as if he has to be cruel just to children on a commercial screen, telling prove how tough he is. the world, in Celie's words, "I may be Throughout the film, Glover implies black, I'm poor, and I may even be ugly, that the source of Mr.__'s cruelty may but I'm here." To see black women at be simply his fear of appearing weak. the center of a Hollywood film is new. In the novel, few, if any, of these im­ It took some courage to attempt to make plied subtleties of motivation are a film so foreign to a filmmaker like presented. We are left to assume, then, Spielberg, who is white, male, and very that Mr.__'s behavior, as well as that much not poor. of the other male characters, is purely Spielberg should be knighted as and simply a result of their being men. Hollywood's most intrepid foreign film And it is this attitude, if assumed by To p. 20 To p. 20 18 BLACK FILM REVIEW FroDl Coast to Coast, Purple Aroused Passions

Perhaps not since Birth of a Nation black woman said recently she was 'tired fragile that it will be undone by this (1915) or Gone With the Wind (1936) of being beat over the head with this movie. Like the book, it offers a frank has there been an American movie women's lib stuff ..."; and attacks on an poignant portrayal of a woman's featuring blacks that has aroused the matters that for most of us have already struggle to overcome. . ." comment and criticism provoked by the been settled-"Celie, of course, writes And, Page added, "I have a sugges­ Christmas release of The Color Purple. in Black English, which for all I know tion to th.pse who do not like In Los Angeles, members of the Coali­ they're teaching at Princeton these Hollwood's movies: Make your own." tion Against Black Exploitation picketed days...." Elsewhere, Kim Corsaro, writing in the film's opening, charging that it Even columnists who don't regularly the California newpaper, Coming Up, presented negative images ofblack men, review movies got into the act. The felt, that "the most bitter disappoint­ children, and the black family. The Washington Post's Dorothy Gilliam ment of the movie is that it chooses not picketing later metamorphosed into called it a great film "about the purity to develop the lesbian relationship be­ weekend visits to theaters, where CABE and depth of love." The brutal black tween Celie and Shug." members passed out leaflets and en­ men depicted in the film are part of our BFR Associate Editor Pat gaged potential ticket-buyers and those culture, she wrote, so, "why not use this Aufderheide (also cultural editor of In who had seen the film in discussions. film as a springboard to address those These Times) wrote in In These Times, More formal discussions were issues and begin to move beyond "Spielberg has manufactured another planned elsewhere. The annual Howard them?" To some extent, perhaps, the movie. His style may be manipulative, University Communications Conference discussions in Washington, Chicago, but it's sincere; the language of a com­ in February was scheduled to sponsor a and Los Angeles, served that function. modified culture is his natural tongue. panel discussion on the film. A three­ A day or two after Gilliam's column, And The Color Purple inadvertently day seminar was planned at the Univer­ the Post's Courtland Milloy wrote in his reveals the poverty of that language as sity of Southern California by CABE column, "Hats off to the black men much as it reveals Spielberg's honest and the USC Black Students Union, who, after seeing the movie, started wish to transcend the limitations of the where other films, such as Shaft, picketing the Los Angeles theaters where world that creates it." Superfly, Raisin in the Sun, and The it was being shown." Acknowledging Lionel Abdul-Haqq in the Muslim Learning Tree, were to be shown as part the power of Walker's writing, Milloy Journal noted the controversy sur­ of a program called "Blacks in Film: nonetheless said, "I got tired, a long rounding the portraits of black men in Then and Now." The final day of the time ago, of white men publishing books the film, but focused instead on Celie's program was to feature a roundtable on by black women about how screwed up relationship with God and what he saw images of blacks in current media, black men are. Those same white men as the religious implications of the film. focusing on The Color Purple. In get intimidated when a black man writes "Western society has oppressed, ex­ Chicago, several hundred people turn­ a book saying that the real problem is ploited, neglected and abused two ed out for a public forum about the the white man." segments of its population: people of film, and in New York, a seven-person panel debated the film in a forum spon­ Even columnists who don't regularly review films got sored by the New York Association of Black Journalists held at the Schomburg into the act. The Washington Post's Dorothy Gilliam Center. liked it. Earl Caldwell of The New York Daily News Meanwhile, the critics were divided in their assessments, with televison's Gene saw red. ' Shalit issuing the ultimate reviewer's pronouncement-"It should be against Earl Caldwell of the New York Daily African descent and women. Both of the law not to see it." That one ran at News wrote that black men would "see whom carry an enormous burden the top of the ads for the movie. red" over the film. And Frances Beal, themselves yet continue to contribute to In his "Point Man" column, Richard in the California newspaper Frontline, the overall good of society. Both of Grenier (The Washington Times" said the film "can easily end up suppor­ whom are represented in the character cultural hitman for anything left of Ed ting the view that backwardsocial rela­ of Celie who earns the support of God Meese) used the release of the movie for tions within the family are the main pro­ and the many who have been touched a sly, scurrilous attack on Walker. It blem with black America." by her," he wrote. was complete with generalizations-"It But Clarence Page-who thought In the February issue of Womanews, is well known, of course, that Miss Spielberg's film a "sweetened, pastel­ Ada Gay Griffin noted the film's "bag­ Walker is no favorite among blacks. She toned version of the pungent book"­ gage" of sentimental music, "obligatory hates black men with a passion ..."; wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "I know and conspicuously stereotypic church anonymous Reaganesque quotes-"A of nothing in black malehood that is so To p. 19 BLACK FILM REVIEW 19

ONE MAN PASSIONS From p. 16 From p. 18 girl) are both beautiful. Both actresses women. Yet he and Sophia do not kiss scenes, a splattering ofslapstick routines maintain a childlike beneficence at their wedding ceremony, and there is that Mutt and Jeff producers would throughout-especially Celie, who no love involving men in this film. There have been proud of, and references to seems always to give and rarely receives. is only the lusty scene in the juke joint Africa with bizarre and inaccurate And the point is made several times that where a man and woman kiss wildly metaphors...." she never asks her husband for while gyrating on the dance floor to a Another critic, writing in the anything. Ghanaian Akosua Busia is im­ slow boogie. This is surely white February issue of Sojourner, noted the pressive as Nettie, Celie's sister. And as stereotyping of black characters. differences between the novel and the a surprisingly soft Shug, Margaret The real victims in this movie, on film. The book, wrote Monica Ray­ Avery fortunately keeps the lesbian issue screen and off, are the black family and mond, "begins in the stark world of from taking over the movie. black children. There is total chaos in Walker's early work and ends in a Black While the emotional foundation of the families shown in the film. Children Southern pastoral of extended family, the story is the two sisters' struggle to go unprotected from the continuous cheerful self-help, .heritage reclaimed, maintain their close bond, perhaps more volley of violence andinsults passed be­ sinners redeemed. And the way from in the film on Nettie's experience in tween the adults. Children are protected one of these to the other is through a Africa might have enhanced the story. just once-when Sophia orders a black solidarity which includes a sexual rela­ tionship between Celie and Shug Avery...." The filfl1 exposes deep divisions in black fafl1ily life, But, she concluded, "What's wishful trading negative ifl1ages in the pursuit ofOscars. Where in the book has been inflated, smoothed can we go for balance? out of existence. Although Black women are still at the center of the movie, though ostensibly it still focuses on the love between sisters both of heart and blood, these themes have been emptied, How did Nettie handle the many years man to take her children away from a made acceptable, controlled." of letter-writing to Celie without any white mob after she has knocked out the Finally, this which is perhaps most in­ response? What emotional needs did white mayor. (Alone, the black woman dicative of the mentality of the people their children have for their mother? stands up to white authority.) connected with the film. It needs no ad­ How did Nettie handle Celie's children? The Color Purple exposes and sensa­ ditional comment. A full-page ad ap­ Some of the time devoted to destroying tionalizes deep divisions in black family peared in the Hollywood Reporter, pro­ the character of black men might have life, trading wholesale negative images moting Margaret Avery (Shug in the been used to define central figures in the in pursuit of Oscars. It is the only movie film) for an Oscar. movie's climax. As it turns out, the about a black family to reach the na­ The ad began:, "Dear God, My Name climax is emotional, though under­ tional theater market in at least eight is Margaret Avery. I knows dat I been developed. We know little or nothing years. Where else can we look to balance blessed by Alice Walker, Steven about half of the people directly the devastating images in this film? Spielberg, and Quincy Jones who gave involved. While Purple may provide short-term me the part of 'Shug' Avery in 'The One senses that a lot of production emotional release, it does little to heal Color Purple. ' Now I is up for one of time was spent on the Celie-Shug kiss­ the strained psyches of black men and the nomination fo' Best Supporting ac­ ing scene. A precise combination of women or to ease the state of their rela­ tresses that I is proud to be in the com­ mother-daughter communication and tions. It dramatizes in historical context panyof. Well, God, I guess the time had intimate sexuality occurred when the incest, child abuse, and the chaos come fo' the Academy voters to decide camera left their faces and followed wreaked on innocent women by brutal, whether I is one of the Best Supporting Celie's hand to Shug's shoulder. We men. If a white author had written .a Actresses this year or not. .. ." then saw and heard chimes in the wind, tragedy of this nature, blacks of both Despite (or because of?) the ad, which closed out the introduction of sexes would have united in protest. In Margaret Avery was nominated for best black lesbianism into the mass media. this case, we find some black leaders supporting actress, as was Oprah Win­ Shug and Celie experience intimate celebrating and enjoying the film in frey (Sofia). Whoopie Goldberg was contact while none of the four hetero­ theaters across the nation. . nominated for best actress. The film was sexual couples have any mutually Too much documented history sub­ also nominated in the best adaptation, stimulating experience. The only male­ stantiates character-building efforts musical score, art direction, costume female relationship that seems to work among rural blacks in the South after design, and makeup categories. is that of Sophia and Harpo. It works slavery. Why, then, was there no sense Steven Spielberg, the director, was because Harpo, unlike the other male of balance or historical perspective as not nominated in the best director characters, is human; however weak and background for understanding the men category. tragicomic he may seem, he relates to in this fiction? Compiled by David Nicholson 20 ------BLACK FILM REVIEW

IDEOLOGY DISAPPOINTMENT From p. 17 From p. 17 either moviegoer or reader, that leads the way black men were characterized; director of the year. But while he may straight to the argument within the black I shrugged that off. Not until a conver­ be lauded for taking on this project with community. sation with a woman friend did I such unfamiliar material, that very fact One side says there are men like that; discover what had ·been gnawing at me. becomes the film's major downfall. the other, says, yes, but why not a My friend said the novel only told it like When he is treading unfamiliar ter­ balanced point of view? Aren't there it is out here today. That's how women ritory or in doubt about expressing an any good black men? The answer is that are living now, she said. emotion or making a point, Spielberg of course there are. But to frame the dif­ But the novel is set in the rural South stoops to blatant cliches, stereotypes, ferences of opinion in such extremes in the early 20th century among rela­ and buffoonery. None of this would be obscures other, more important consi­ tively unsophisticated folk. Yet the sen­ disturbing, were it not Hollywood's derations. sibility that governs the novel, par­ standard mode of handling black life on How can we determine what is real ticularly from the middle onwards, is a screen. If a black is a clown, he or she about More impor­ contemporary one. At that point in the The Color Purple? cannot be taken seriously. But, of book, Walker abandons Celie's voice. tant, where is it written that black peo­ course, to be a box office success, ple must always be seen, portrayed, and The dialect which so charmed readers to you've got to give the audience what it that point breaks down, and thereafter written about in terms of an all-of-us­ want-a few tears. And a few laughs in­ the author intrudes and begins to are-alike syndrome? Since when has fic­ terspersed with suspense and violence. lecture. tion been made more palatable by quot­ In this case, a few darkies singing and Whatever you want to call the ing statistics? Resorting to generaliza­ dancing and acting the fool at Christmas tions about ourselves, we too often de­ ideology, there is one present in the didn't hurt. mand that anything dealing with black book, and the writer is so intent on mak­ Spielberg has given us a sanitized, people be positive and representative. ing her point that she has Celie design­ homogenized version of The Color Pur­ The result is a debate within the black ing androgynous pants, presents a dis­ ple with Norman Rockwell portraits and community about The Bill CosbyShow, cussion on sexism in tribal Africa, pro­ slapstick comedy because he knows no while very few white people worry about vides a lecture on clitoral sexuality, and other way-That's Entertainment. whether the white husband in the made­ has Celie and Shug become lovers, with­ One of the most disturbing things for-TV movie The Burning Bed is out a hint, given what we already know about the fIlm is the media hype that has typical of white males. about Celie, that such an act generally surrounded it.. Some ofthose connected Sadly, due to our powerlessness, we would be considered taboo among peo­ with the film-Spielberg, Adolph expect (and need) to have any image of ple from her background.. Spielberg, of Caesar, and Whoopi Goldberg-have issued disclaimers about its being a black Regardless ofthe label, ideological art tells a lie. And film, which well may now be the case even though it was adapted from a black when an ideology poses as fiction, I am disturbed. story. But what does all of this mean?

------; In a TV interview, Goldberg saids HI us be good public relations. Often, course, avoided this issue in the film by .. / don~t think of myself as a black actor .. .though, what we get instead is poor sentimentalizing it.. It limits you. ~, She \vent on, in sociology, sermons, or propaganda, Leaving aside for a moment a discus­ American Film, to say that Color Pur~ disguised as fiction.. However well­ sion about the obvious reality of men pIe was "not a black story.. " ..." but "a intentioned, and regardless of whether physically abusing women, I must ask story about human beings?" one agrees with its message, this kind of how real is the rest of The Color Pur­ When did black people stop being fiction distorts the truth by the very ple? What the novel says about Africa human? And is the discussion about the nature of its single-minded view and and African religion seems naive and if film being a black film to reassure \vhite itstone of absolute righteousnesso it had been said by a white person, many moviegoers that the film is about them It is in this latter sense that The Coior of us would have been quick to call it too? When all of the major actors in the Purple is disturbing. Strangely enough~ racist. film are black and one of the strongest the story is problematic in its images of I believe those people who respond in women in it ends up diminished and black women. At the heart of the novel a whole-hearted, positive manner to The physically mutilated because of racism? is a lie, and while this is also true for the Color Purple enjoy it because it offers there seems to be a denial of reality-a film, it is true to a lesser extent, because love as a solution and as a healing force? denial of the real life of blacks in the movie replaces some ofthe more jar­ even for mean old Mr"_._, who i\merica. It's almost like saying that a ring images with sentimentalism. Keep­ changes for the better toward the end .. black movie is not worth seeing, and ing in mind that both are works of fic­ at the risk of repeating myself: perhaps it is this ambiguity that corrupts tion, with different means of telling the How real is any of this? the film. same story, it is important to ask what At best, the story is a visionary fable Despite the movie's drawbacks, there ~or­ each one means (or seems) to say.. set in the past and, if reality is the name are some touching scenes-Mr 8 __ When I first read the novel, some­ of the game, the story seems more like cing Nettie off his land, while 'the two thing about it bothered me. It wasn't To p. 28 To p. 26 BLACK FILM· REVIEW 21 Leopard's Politics and Drallla Make It a Hit in Mozalllbique

by Pat Aufderheide The Mozambican feature Time ofthe a guerrilla raid not only provide an ele­ recent history on the screen," Schwarz­ Leopards, the most ambitious project ment of romance, but make the case that stein explains. yet of Mozambique's 10-year-old na­ the revolution was made for loveand for The film had its origins in a book of tional film institute, marks both the the future generation. oral histories of'the revolution gathered achievements and the limits to date of In short, the film, a co-production by a Brazilian journalist in the years just that young nation's attempt to build a with the Yugoslavian government, is as following independence in 1975. When national film industry. traditional a piece of social realism as production began, the journalist was The film is an unabashedly, didactic you can get, and it's hard to see it as one of those who collaborated on a sentimental drama, a moral tale of distinctively Mozambican in style. When script written by Yugoslavs, Mozam­ revolutionary politics. The story takes it was shown at the Rio de Janeiro film bicans, and Brazilians; and in which the place in the later years of the FRELIMO festival in November, audiences found dramatic conventions of realist film fight against the Portugese colonists. it heavy handed, but Camilo de Sousa, drama met and eventually meshed with Pedro (Santos Mulungo) and his be­ representative of Mozambique's In­ those of the oral histories. loved comrade Ana (Ana Magaia) are stituto Nacional de Cinema and produc­ ,'We brought our expertise in making leaders of a FRELIMO band that travels tion assistant on the film, explained, films," said director Zdravko the country, teaching children, organiz­ "The film wasn't made for a festival au­ Velimirovic, "but we depended on our ing raids on military stations, and dience, but for our own people." colleagues here to correct any pater­ recruiting new members. One of the And it was a smash hit in Mozambi­ nalism we might bring with us. I think eager recruits is Januario (Simiao que, where audiences in the capital of we accomplished the most important Mazuze), who imperfectly interprets the Maputo-most of the movie houses are thing-that although the narrative FRELIMO mission as a struggle for there-know and love it well enough to thread is the story of Pedro, the theme black power, and who loves overmuch have memorized dialogue and to have of the film is FRELIMO's mission to the promise of personal glory. adopted heroes like Pedro as models of decolonize minds, to do consciousness Januario's carelessness gets him cap­ revolutionary behavior. raising among the Mozambican' peo- tured, and he betrays the FRELIMO hideout under threat of torture. Ana dies in the raid, and Pedro is captured. The film is as traditional a piece of social realism as That's when Pedro discovers his captor, you can get. Festival audiences found it heavyhanded, a white soldier, is none other than the neighbor whose life he once saved as a but it was made for Mozambicans, not, them. child. The soldier, a conscientious col­ onialist who has been arguing with a subordinate-a counter-insurgency "It's interesting that the film is told pIe." The title, then, for him, carries the thug- for clemency and "clean fight­ in a very Western cinematic language, sense of the film: "The idea is for the ing" begs Pedro to change sides. But but it's perfectly understood in Mozam­ spectator to say, 'We're the leopards, Pedro argues that the new Mozambique bique, by people who don't see many we're the heroes, this is our heritage.' will need whites like the good soldier, movies," said Brazilian journalist and "In many ways, it was hard to make and makes the same offer in reverse. filmmaker Jacques Schwarzstein, who the film," Velimirovic recalled. "Mainly Then Pedro's troops attack; in the has worked with the film institute since because we had to improvise all the fighting, he dies in a Christ-like pose, 1978. time. Everyone was an amateur, in­ and the graphic symbolism says it all. Not that viewers don't have their cluding all the actors." Pedro, for ex­ Along the way, expository scenes criticisms. There are scenes in the film ample, is a train-car repairman in real clarify anything the plot might leave in that violently suspend belief, because the life; Januario is a singer. doubt. When the guerrillas visit a production budget didn't allow re­ The use of non-actors heightened village, the elder chastises Pedro for tak­ shooting-for instance, a perfunctory some of the script's main themes. The ing up arms instead of continuing his scene where Januario is captured-and counter-insurgent soldier, a parachutist education campaigns. Pedro responds, audiences hoot at moments like that. in the colonial army, now works for the "It's the same message"-liberation­ And they criticize with insiders' ac­ national radio. The "good colonialist" with different means. When Januario curacy the way the last raid is conducted was also a colonial officer and is now says he hates whites, Pedro patiently ex­ on the Portugese military post. But no the director of a factory in plains the revolution is for all races. one has problems with the moralistic Mozambique. Love scenes between Ana and Pedro and didactic tone of the film. . "Whites and blacks have ended up , and the orphaned child they adopt after "They're seeing themselves as their To p. 23 22 BLACK FILM REVIEW

GOINGS ON Festivals, Productions, From p. 5 and Work in Progress tradition, and sexual stereotypes. The Positive Productions, Inc., a nine-year­ 20-30, at the Palace of Fine Arts and impressive performance by the cast, par­ old film collective whose most promi­ McBean Theatre, featuring about 10 ticularly Daniel Lewis' Johnny, filled nent members are perhaps filmmakers . films by black independent filmmakers. the film with humor and sensitivity. Shirikiana and Haile Gerima, celebrates Highlights include a screening of The All of the films mentioned here are 1986-declared the year of African Marriage ofMariamu, a joint Tanzan­ scheduled for New York release this Cinema by Washington, D.C., Mayor ian-U.S. production about traditional year. Marion Barry-with several special healing practices versus modern med­ events designed to focus attention on icine; Honkytonk Bud; Maids and black film. Madams, a video about apartheid in Check Your In early March, PPI and Mypheduh South Africa; Iverson White's Dark Ex­ Films, Inc., co-sponsored an African odus; and three works by West Coast in­ Mailing Label mini-series with the Biograph Theatre at dependent Ashley James. Information: the Biograph in Washington. Featuryd (415) 221-9055. The last line of your mailing were such prize-winning films as Wend BlackLight of Chicago presents label indicates the year and month Kuni ('God's Gift'), West Indies, and several films through April, including in which your subscription to Lettre Paysanne ('Peasant Letter'). This Jom by Senegalese filmmaker Ababacar BLACK FILM REVIEW ends. summer PPI sponsors its fourth annual Samb, March 28; and a program of Help us save costs and paperwork Benefit Film Festival. Dates and times musical shorts April 6. Some programs by renewing before your subscrip­ are to be determined. And, in the fall, are co-sponsored with Chicago Film­ tion expires. PPI co-sponsors an African and Afro­ makers and the Center for New Televi­ American film retrospective with the sion. At a date to be determined, American Film Institute. BlackLight will present a program on Photo credits: Menelik Shabazz by "We're trying to take advantage of Malcolm X in conjunction with the David Nicholson. Thanks to the Black this year to show how African and Association for the Advancement of Filmmaker Foundation, Mypheduh African-American cinema can be shown Creative Musicians. Information: (312) Films, Warner Bros., Tri-Star Films, as a normal part of film viewing, a nor­ 922-7772. and Touchstone Films for other mal institution, instead of something ex­ Also in Chicago, the DuSable Muse­ photographs used in this issues. otic. That's what our intention is-to um of African American History presents COllling have it an accepted institution," said a film and lecture series, "African Pre­ Shirikiana Gerima. sence and Influence in the Western Attractions The three 1986 events are only part of World, through June 7. Topics include The Summer issue of BLACK FILM PPI's intentions. Gerima said it is hoped blacks in the military; blacks in England REVIEW features reports on the At­ PPI will become a production and ex­ and Europe; and family cinema. Films lanta Third World International and hibition center. The collective has scheduled include Melvin Van Peebles' San Francisco International film already received some support from the Story of a Three Day Pass; The Other festivals, as well as a special feature on D.C. Commission on the Arts and Francisco, and Sugar Cane Alley. In­ black women filmmakers. Humanities, and is currently seeking a formation: (212) 947-0600. staff member to act as media center pro­ AI Santana of Akuakba Productions ject coordinator. Information: (202) (P.O. Box 521, Brooklyn, NY, 11238) 529-0220. has released Voices ofthe Gods, a one­ Goings on elsewhere include: hour documentary about the Akan and Writers' Yoruba traditional West African The Atlanta Third World International religions as practiced in the U.S. today. Guidelines Film Festival throughout March, Film shows the strength of traditional features almost 70 films and more than African religious practices in black life BLACK FILM REVIEW 25 guest filmmakers. The final week of from slavery through the present and in­ welcomes submissions from the program is a 'special week of discus­ cludes portraits of Akan and Yoruba writers, but we prefer that you sions and screenings of films by black priests and priestesses. first query with a letter or a women filmmakers. Progra'm also in­ Roy Campanella's Passion and telephone :"call. All unsolicited cludes a visit from Pastor Vega of the Memory, a one-hour documentary manuscripts must be accompanied Cuban Film Institute; Latin America adapted from Donald Bogle's Toms, by a stamped, self-addressed and Caribbean Week; and films from Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and envelope. Manuscripts must also India and South Africa. (404) 758-7311 Bucks, airs nationally May 14 at 10 p.m.' be typewritten double-spaced, and or 658-6691. on PBS. Narrated by Robert Guillaume, include the author's address and The Black Component of the San Fran­ the production focuses on black stars telephone number on each page. cisco International Film Festival March To p. 26 BLACK FILM REVIEW 23

HAVANA SHABAZZ From p. 13 From p. 15 celebration of our conscience, our Seven years have not made the festival stitute finance wages. There are 10 sensibility-eager to speak its own any less ambitious in its goals. As members, with three full-time and part­ language, to express its own vital con­ Colombian filmmaker Edmundo Aray time workers. Then people like myself cerns, to direct its own future... We re­ said at the inauguration ofthe new Latin work almost as elders. It's a coop­ joice in personal triumphs but, above American Cinema Foundation, "New erative, but we make the facilities all, in what they mean in furthering Latin American cinema has assumed the available for people who come through. Latin American cinema. .. And, most function of a vanguard among the And we have screenings-we showed of all, our festival this year will be a cultural movements against the culture My Brother's Wedding; Euzhan Palcy huge workshop, a beehive of ideas, of of domination." This was the year in came through. We have production analysis, of intellectual exchange." which Latin Americans invited Africans space-as I said, we documented what's Having established that Latin Amer­ to share with them in making a cinema happening in Tottenham. ican filmmakers share common prob­ that shapes a response to the same forces lems and concerns, festival organizers of domination that have brutally scar­ BFR: Is it the only place like it in launched programs to investigate the red both continents. England? ·common basis among filmmakers throughout the Third World. © 1986 Pat Aufderheide Shabazz: No, but we are unique in that we actually document, as part of LEOPARDS our program, our history and current From P. 21 events. But there is an Asian workshop and another black workshop. Alto­ epics and commercial U.S. films. working together-that promise that gether, there are about four throughout According to institute President Pedro makes to his childhood friend­ the country. comes true," said Camilo de Sousa. Samuel Matola, the films are carefully Sousa knows how utopian the Mo­ selected to avoid those that are violent, BFR: Burning an Illusion was pro­ zambican government's commitment to encourage vice, or are ideologically cor­ duced for the British Film Institute? a genuinely multi-racial society, one rupt. "That might seem like a wide with strong international ties, can sound range but, in fact, a film that has a pro­ Shabazz: Yes, but you have to to Americans. During a 1982 trip to the blem in one area usually has a problem remember that that was a long time ago, U.S. toraise funds for the film institute, in several," he said. 1980 or 1981. The British Film Institute he recalled, institute representatives en­ The institute has had to scale down its basically said it didn't see itself doing expectations in the difficult years countered not only harsh racism from another Burning an Illusion. It's following the triumph of FRELIMO. whites, but attacks from some blacks. basically what we were talking about Schwarzstein recalled, ' 'We talked "One black woman in Atlanta called earlier in terms ,of censorship. The whole me a traitor, and said the Mozambican originally of establishing a 16mm circuit argument is whatever we make as black revolution had 'sold out," he said while of the rural areas, a cinema movil. We filmmakers, whether it's a narrative in Rio representing the film to interna­ talked about selecting films from the tradition or what, we need time to tional buyers. "And we know that for beginning of film history, to begin develop, so you can't compare us with people who live with racism as intensely developing awareness among people white filmmakers. Whatever we come as Americans, it can be hard to believe who had never seen movies. We wanted up with is going to be new and fresh, but Mozambique without seeing it. There's to start with silent cinema-Chaplin and we cannot be on the same par. They a placard when you enter Maputo that so on. But we had technical problems­ were trying to say they wanted some­ says, 'Free zone for humanity.' the 16mm projectors broke, we couldn't thing more like this-the way they have The Time ofthe Leopards is the most free up transport. And in the interven­ developed within the white cinema. ambitious widescreen spectacle yet ex­ ing years we've discovered that people ecuted by the young film institute, but understand the international language of BFR:ls there any possibility for com­ far from its first project. The institute cinema without any education." mercial cinema? has produced several documentaries, Another ambitious project is on the way: a feature production that, if all the and a sample of productions is available Shabazz: That's my struggle since deals work out, will be an Angolan­ from Mypheduh Films in the U.S. Sousa Burning an Illusion. It's getting to a is editing a 50-minute documentary Mozambican-Cuban-Brazilian co-pro­ stage now where I am going to have to about Tanzanian President Julius duction. The project is Mayombe, from get much more hostile and lot more firm Nyerere, for which the Mozambican a book written by Angolan guerrilla and create a lot more noise on a public film institute got help from the Cana­ leader Pepe Tela. The script is being level around this whole issue of raci~m dian National Film Board. he institute written by noted Brazilian scriptwriter within the cinema. Because it's basically is also responsible for selecting and Orlando Senna, himself a veteran of an apartheid system, now. British distributing the entertainment features cinema novo in Brazil, and will be cinema is white as far as they are shown in movie houses in major cities, directed by Ruy Guerra. concerned. where the most popular films are Indian © 1986 Pat Aufderheide 24 BLACK FILM REVIEW

REVIEWS From p. 9 frogwalked into an absurd position by trying to make a political film about politics. Power fails as a thriller; it merely con­ firms gossipy accounts of media manipulators such as Peter Hart, David Garth, and Jill Buckley. Billings distrusts St. John from the beginning. The audience sees in the opening sequences the political exploita­ tion of a murder during a speech by a candidate St. John is advising. One almost expects to discover that St. John has staged the explosion so as to get his candidate on television with the victim's head in his arms, bloodying the shirt he will continue towear throughout the campaign. Since it has been established that Bill­ ings was once a positive character, his Earthman Randy Quaid, left, and Louis Gossett, Jr. as the pregnant alien in line in confrontation with St. John Enemy Mine-"Lawd, I don't know nothing' 'about birthin' no babies. " makes him even more sympathetic. He tells St. John that St. John doesn't give a damn who wins or loses, while he, Bill­ Spaced-out Fantasies ings, has people and nations behind him who do care who's in power. As a black Of Enemy Mine man, Billings could be seen as speaking for the disenfranchised. Washington by Sais KalDalidiin plays him as an immaculately-dressed, Considering the almost total learn they depend on each other for their slightly uptight man who works behind disarray-sociological, psychological, survival. the scenes with a totally new candidate intellectual, economic-in some areas in As major studio releases of this genre who is willing to pay to win. He's not the African-American community, it is go, Enemy Mine has uniformly high long on humor, but he is honest, that difficult to fathom our continued in­ production values. Gossett's alien is until the Arab enters. ability to comprehend the relationship character is basically reptilian in ap­ The Amerabian connection is little between the images media bombards us pearance and sufficiently other-worldly. more than a buzzword for evil. Billings with and the continuation of our.seem­ Reportedly, it took three hours each day in a black limo, with a robed sheik (it ingly endless cultural confusion. One of during the four months of shooting to was filmed later), is such an· obvious the latest affronts to our community's put on Gossett's Drac alien make-up shortcut of imagery that, unless one collective intelligence to come from and costume. plays close attention to the Arab's en­ Hollywood is Enemy Mine, starring But not even the expert illusion wizar­ dorsement of oil-loyal candidates, it still veteran actor Louis Gossett, Jr., and dry of a big-budget Hollywood make­ is not clear that Billings has sold out to directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das up department was able to successfully foreign interests. (Why not a white Tex­ Boot The Never Ending Story.) disguise Gossett's Africanity or his an willing to throw an election in Ohio In this science fiction film set 100 masculinity, for Jeriba Shigan is neither for oil· interests?) years in the future, Gossett plays Jeriba male nor female, but both. What we see What it all adds up to is that Sidney Shigan, an alien Drac space-fighter pilot after the initial premise is set is an Lumet's ordinarily unassailable liberal from the planet Dracon. Shigan is shot African-American man in a mask, with credentials get splattered when he tries down during a battle with Earth a tail (yes, a tail!), trapped in a hostile to fix this plot. It was probably nowhere forces-part of the Drac attempt to pre­ environment with a member of the written that Billings need be black, but vent the further encroachment of enemy culture. the decision to make him so was an mankind into the outer reaches of space, Much is done to develop the alien honorable gesture. The devolution of although the movie is.told from the characterization to accentuate Gossett's the story turns Billings into a traitor in­ point of view of Willis Davidge (Den­ innate Africanisms. Gossett also in­ stead of another typically Machiavellian nis Quaid), the white Earthman-hero. mparts many mannerisms into the imagemaker slightly better than St. Davidge, who has shot down Shigan, character of the alien-Stevie Wonder's John. It is a transparent device, used in also crash lands on the deserted, hostile now-famous head movements and search of good box office. planet. Marooned, the two eventually To p. 25 BLACK FILM REVIEW 25

REVIEWS From p. 24 various animal characteristics-bird, cuses for his culture's imperialistic ar­ The ending of the film is shrouded in dog, kangaroo, lizard. Jeriba Shigan is rogance. He changes, but only after an sentimentality. The benevolent white also very religious. He regularly reads unusual occurrence. male, endowed with superhuman from his holy book and prays to his god. Shigan-the character we identify as courage, comes to the rescue of a group One running joke alludes to how many male because of his male behavior pat­ of poor, dumb, docile Dracs (all played of the black community's religious prac­ terns and because an African-American by African-American actors) enslaved tices are perceived as infantile by those male is playing the part-can reproduce by outlaw space miners. Other than of­ alien to them when Davidge equates the asexually. He has a baby. This is fering the opportunity to work to a few alien's god to Mickey Mouse. another major American motion picture black actors, I found little to recom­ Much of this is done to clearly which aims to further intellectual and mend in this film from the standpoint establish the disparity between the war­ emotional acceptance of unisexualiza­ of positive Afrocentricity. And I was ring cultures. Davidge has the tion (through the disintegration of male surprised it lasted as long as it did (three characteristics we have become too and female roles) of American society weeks) in theaters in our community. familiar with-he hates Dracs without in general and our community in ever having seen one, and he makes ex- particular.

Out of Africa Fails to ExaDline Black and White Relationships by Paul S. McKenzie Sydney Pollack's Out ofAfrica, star­ nothing uniquely African is ever re­ honestly believe they know what is best ring Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen, the vealed and the film becomes nothing for "these people." (Sound familiar?) Danish writer better known as Isak more than a laboriously (and ineptly) In one scene, Blixen decides that the Dinesen who traveled to Kenya to start told love story. It could just as easily Kikuyu and Somali children who live on a coffee farm, is a beautiful film. Stun­ have been set in any remote, exotic, and her land should learn to read. To do ning images and markedly beautiful romantic land. this, she must first gain the approval of scenery allow the viewer to escape to the chief who presides over the tribe. another land where mountains are The chief tells her the children don't dramatically high, valleys lush and Kenyans need to be taught how to read because green, and animals wonderfully exotic. reading is not essential or necessary. The story, however, is weak, and the Protested FilDl After all, he says, what good did learn­ depiction of African people and their ing to read do the English? culture suprisingly shallow. Relation­ Filming of Out of Africa was Despite this, Blixen overrides the ships between blacks and whites are held up last year when Kenyan chief's veto and commences trying to handled with real delicacy, and at the ex­ men hired as extras demanded make little Englishmen out of the pense of any real character development more money for having to dress in children. This gesture, elitist as it is, in­ of blacks in the film. Because of this, shorts. The men considered it an dicates Blixen cares about the children. the true meaning of Africa, her people, affront that they were asked to ap­ Unfortunately, because of Pollack's and their culture, is overlooked. Pollack pear half-naked in scenes. And the hands-off approach towards interracial obviously believed he could tell Karen Kenya Times editorialized against relationships, one is not quite sure of her Blixen's story without any meaningful the film, saying, 'The Ministry of real feelings or even their complexity. In participation from the most vital ele­ Information and Broadcasting her book, on which the film is based, ment of African society-its people. should not allow foreign film Isak Dinesen wrote of her Somali man­ Thus, despite the excellence ofthe depic­ firms to come here and insult us servant (played in the film by Malick tion ofthe landscape, the Africans have on our own soil just because some Bowens): little more than ornamental significance. racist author wrote a racist book "The servant may be the more The poor and inadequate portrayal of ages ago.' fascinating of the two [master and ser­ blacks left me, a black man, feeling vant]... (But) he needs a master in empty and resentful. Although blacks order to be himself." are on-screen easily 98 percent of the The primary function of blacks in the Racist? Well, the film gives us no time, their presence is never really ap­ film are as backdrops-a natural addi­ clue. It is difficult to show what can be preciated and their purpose in being tion to a story about white folk in better expressed written-in addition to there never fully understood. Because Africa. Instead of showing us a people conveying the slightest nuance, writing the focus of the film is the relationship strong in their culture and traditions, can specify every detail, but film must between Blixen and her English lover, Pollack shows us a culture trammeled show everything. Film's ability to render Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), upon by well-meaning whites who To p. 26 26 BLACK FILM REVIEW

GOINGS ON DISAPPOINTMENT From p. 22 From p. 20 Stepin Fetchit, Hattie McDaniel, Bill Lena Horne, Alberta Hunter,and Max­ sisters cling to each other; Shug and Robinson, and Sidney Poitier. It in­ ine Sullivan. Celie together on the bed after finding cludes rare stills and film clips, including St. Clair Bourne has completed prin­ Nettie's letters. The story is a cultural one of Dorothy Dandridge at the cipal photography on Langston Hughes: document of sisterhood-the bond be­ Academy Awards. The Dream Keeper, a cinematic tween Celie and Nettie, the relationships Campanella has also finished biography of the poet and novelist. between Celie and Shug and Celie and shooting a short documentary on the Filming began last October, and con­ Sofia are all testimony to the strength making of Richard Pryor's new film tinued in Paris, France, and Dakar, that women find in each other and their Come Back 10-10 Dancer. Pryor nar­ Senegal, through January. Appearing in community. rates the short. the film are writers James Baldwin and As I left my second viewing of The WETA-TV, the .PBS station in Amiri Baraka, former Sengalese Presi­ Color Purple, I wondered if Celie would Washington, D.C., aired a 30-minute dent Leopold Senghor, and poet Gwen­ like the film. If I could, I write her a documentary, Thurgood Marshall: Por­ dolyn Brooks. Drummer Max Roach letter: trait of an American Hero, on the life also'performs. The film is a production Dear Celie, and career of the first and only black ap­ of the New York Center for Visual Though Hollywood told your story pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. History, as part of a television series their way, we still have the book, a story Using newsreel footage, photographs, Voices and Visions. Series airs this fall. of a black woman's triumph over op­ and interviews with Marshall's col­ Carmen Coustaut has finished casting pression and degradation, and it lives leagues and friends, the production her new film, a half-hour drama about and it is ours! traces Marshall's life from his childhood pre-adolescent peer pressure and self­ in Baltimore, Md., through his years in acceptance, tentatively titled Loose college and his law practice in Change. She expects to finish shooting Baltimore. Program was produced by in early May. Wayne C. Sharpe, a former producer Filmmakers and festival organizers: for CNN, for the WETA Minority Pro­ Put us on your mailing list for notices ducers Laboratory. of your planned and current produc­ Other documentaries of black interest tions. aired by WETA in January and February, included: The Howard REVIEWS Theatre: A, Class Act, a history of the famed black showcase featuring stars From p. 25 Pearl Bailey, Billy Taylor, and Billy visually an image makes it powerful; woman is at Berkeley's funeral. Because Eckstine; Miles of Smiles, Years of however, it can also serve as a veil she is black, she must stand in the Struggle, the story of the Pullman behind which the director can hide. By churchyard. After the funeral, Blixen porters' fight to establish the first black emphasizing demeanor over dialogue as approaches her, and with mournful eyes union in the U.S.; and Step by Step, a a means of conveying thought, Pollack squeezes her hand, as if to say, "I know Story of Black Washington (produced leaves the viewer to draw his own con­ how you must be feeling." It is all quite by Junette Pinkney), the story of the clusions. I was never quite sure what contrived and, once again, delicately struggle for racial quality in the nation's Blixen thought of her manservant handled. capital. Farah-theirs seems to have been a close This film is one of the shallowest An excerpt from Michelle Parkerson's relationship-or wha~ Farah may have megabuck productions I have seen in new film about the Jewel Box Revue, a thought of her. some time. In trying to be safe in his troupe of black female impersonators Another interracial relationship is that depiction of interracial relationships, popular during 50s and '60s, aired in of the white trader Berkeley (Micheal Pollack has succeeded in making a film February on WETA. Kitchen) and his servant, an African no different from the Tarzan movies Film Historian Donald Bogle is an ex­ woman. Near the end of the film, many of us saw as children. Always far ecutive producer of Brown Sugar: 80 Berkeley informs Denys and Blixen that away, the Africans keep at a respectful Years of Black Female Superstars, a he is dying of blackwater fever. We are distance, saying nothing meaningful, four-part series hosted by Billy Dee then shown the servant who is caring for providing the film with no real depth, Williams and funded by CPB. The series him. Berkely remarks, "She. [the ser­ and the viewer with no real under­ focuses on black women performers vant] cares a lot about me, I think." standing of their purpose in the film, from the early 1900s to the present and Judging from the surprised and even their culture, or their characters. includes profiles of blues singer Bessie shocked looks on his friends' faces, Smith, actress Josephine Baker, singer there was perhaps more to this relation­ Eartha Kitt, and Diana Ross. It also in­ ship. It is, however, treated with cludes interviews with former Cotton distance, as if taboo, and severely Club dancer Maude Russell, and singers underdeveloped. The last we see of this BLACK FILM REVIEW 27

FILMMAKERS From p. 10 didn't have that luxury. Our films are the leading character, is a beautiful black people sit around talking about real. (People) have to realize we are the woman passing for white. She is on her white people-it's this kind of ethnocen­ filmmakers out of our community. We way to becoming a producer at a studio. tricism and cultural imperialism that didn't go there just to play around." Riddled by the conflict of being black really bothers me." A Different Image, which Larkin and passing for white intensifies to the Two other exciting filmmakers are wrote, produced, and directed, explores point where Dupree must confront her Ben Caldwell (I. + 1) and Barbara Western sexism through the eyes of a true identity. McCullough (Water Ritual: A Rite of young black woman, Alana, and her Urban Purification). Of the films troubled relationship with a man. It con­ discussed here, these are perhaps the fronts the sexism ofblack men who have most experimental. adopted Western attitudes towards They are integrally tied to musical and women as sex objects and symbols. visual concepts, rather than to narrative Larkin, perhaps more so than other lines. I + I is full of allegories and filmmakers, is tied to a Pan-African metaphors for a search for an identity outlook. She seeks her identity, much as that has its origins in African mythology the character in her film does, in her and its realization in the American con­ African roots. text. It has the feeling of "Something I feel is a need to deal improvisation-not unlike a jazz piece; with your own natural self, to have a its threads leave you the sense that you sense of your history and your roots. have'journeyed through an incredible [Marcus] Garvey said that if you don't passage of experiences. know your past, you can't deal with Water Ritual is a highly abstract, your future." highly expressionistic work that achieves Larkin has traveled extensively with a kind of mystical quality in a perfect her films. Audiences differ, she said, in unity of form and content. Only four their reactions. minutes long, it -conveys exactly what Once, she said, "They kept accusing the title promises-the performance of us of getting ready to sell out because a carthartic, ritual purification. they couldn't believe that this was the McCullough tries to imbue the film with kind of film we really wanted to do. As the same qualities as are found in if all ofthis is to get your skills together African and Afro-Caribbean rituals. so you can join Hollywood. They just For her, they become modern artifacts couldn't understand that this is what we through which we connect on a spiritual wanted to do and that we had a com­ and mystical level with internal and ex­ mitment to the community. But some ternal forces. are very proud of us. In St. Louis, this The diversity of themes, concerns, young woman came up-the place was and sensibilities among even this small packed-and put $20 in my hand." sampling of Los Angeles filmmakers Another filmmaker who went to demonstrates that black filmmakers are UCLA is Julie Dash. Dash got her start succeeding in realizing their visions. One in filmmaking at Harlem's Studio critical problem remains, however: They Museum when she walked into a film face the same problems as did their workshop one day and was challenged Still from Four Women. predecessors in the 20s and 30s­ to learn how to work the movieola. reaching their audiences and garnering From there, she started taking a camera Dash speaks primarily to a sense of enough support to create permanent out into the projects where she lived to cultural dualism integral to black iden­ avenues for production, distribution, make community-oriented films. tity. Complex historical reasons for the and exhibition of their films. That will At UCLA, where she made Diary of unique position of blacks in American come, as Micheaux said, only from an African Nun, based on the Alice society create the paradox of assimila­ broader recognition and greatei' unity Walker short story, and Four Women tion without full acceptance. across the entire spectrum of the black a dance film based on the Nina Simone Speaking of black images as they ap­ community. song. Her latest film, Illusions, is part pear in the media, Dash said, "You of a four-part series called Bridges, always see blacks reacting to what which focuses on four different black whites have done to them-they're women at different periods of time from always angry at whites. I'm more in­ the turn of the century to the year 2000. terested in how blacks deal with each Illusions is a 30-minute film set in the other in the context of the racial situa­ Hollywood of the 40s. Mignon Dupree, tion in the U.S. White writers think 28 BLACK FILM REVIEW

ADAPTING From p. 16 Spielberg's omission of certain facts a conservative audience with a hetero­ provoked tantrums. Her real problem is also detracts from the more penetrating sexual, Judeo-Christian mindset is that she has been entrapped by the reality of the black woman's existence. counter productive to the whole-truth motherhood myth, the ironic sexist The inconsiderate, brutalizing husband dissemination of facts about black pedestal white women are placed on by is not all she has to contend with, as women. men more interested in their careers than Walker repeatedly told us in the novel. Certainly Spielberg's production of a in their wives. Miss Eleanor Jane's Sometimes, the black woman struggles Southern film which disregards the sex­ break with traditional white patriarchy with her own unfounded fears, as did ually exploitative white male in his rela­ came when she worked as a cook and Corrine, mother-surrogate to Celie's tionship to women (both black and babysitter for Sophia's child. She does cliildren. Believing her preacher­ white) fails to articulate the method by not make this change in the film. husband sired their adopted children which Southern female conformity has Spielberg's credentials for producing with Nettie, she examines Nettie's been enforced. His depiction of Sophia The Color Purple are minimal. He is not stomach for stretch marks. At other lying supine with dress to her thighs a Southerner. He has no background in times, the black woman agonizes over after her street beating by a group of the black experience, and he seems to the deformities ofaging and has one last white men only hints at the white know little about feminism. Media have fling with a man one-third her age, as South's manipulation of black women. it that Warner Brothers would have does Shug Avery, knowing beforehand His deleting from the film Squeak's rape given the fIlm to Spielberg under any cir­ the pathetic outcome that awaits her. by a white man when she tries to get cumstances, but that he would not have The black woman falls prey to Sophia out of jail is disconcerting. The attempted it had Alice Walker not ac­ systemic sexual mutilation, as does white man's sexual subjugation of the cepted him. Walker accepted him Tashi, the Olinka woman whose clitoris black woman cannot be disregarded; its because she believed he cared ab"out the is removed during the female initiation consequences underscore and explain novel and her characters. Her opinions ceremony. And the black woman the insidiousness of racism and the con­ are important to us now. wrestles with lesbianism-sorry temptuousness of intra-racism. Spielberg, Shug's few kisses do not tell Likewise, Spielberg's exoneration of all of Celie's transformation-while the Southern"white man from the cause IDEOLOGY keeping from outsiders the act that has of Miss Eleanor Jane's (Miss Millie in From p. 20 liberated her soul. the film) imbecilic whining is bewilder­ Walker's black women are cinemat­ ing. Walker painted her as a neglected a fairy tale, wishful thinking. ized in the film by a white man who on­ woman whose life was subordinated Regardless ofthe label, ideological art ly pokes at the surface of their lives. Ex­ totally to those of her brother, husband, tells a lie. Rather than deal with com­ punging objectionable material is one and son. Crippled by a Southern patriar­ plexity, this sort of art sees the world in thing, but excising material offensive to chy, she acts out her slight in un- terms of good gals and bad guys, com­ mies and freedom fighters, black na­ tionalists and Uncle Toms. And when an ideology poses as fiction-even one with which I sympathize-I am dis­ turbed, because it makes life too simple. What The Color Purple suggests is that women can form bonds and that if men can come under the sway of these women, they too_can change for the bet­ ter. Replacing the usual hero who rescues the woman in distress, in walks Shug, who possesses many of the traits usually associated with the traditional leading male role. She is wise, tough, gentle, a little crazy, and loveable. Is it beside the point that the bond between her and Celie is sealed in a love relationship? But I don't know if men, even sen­ sitive ones, are willing to accept that their salvation lies in their willingness to be led into the promised land by womeD. However men and women reach accord in the future, it will be a result of a Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple. dialogue along the way, not a diatribe. BLACK FILM REVIEW 29

REBELLION HALL From p. 11 From p. 7 and its fidelity to the life and scene, it form the core of a declaration of in­ In the works now, thanks to a grant is possibly the b~st fictional jazz film dependence, but they are by no means from the Clorox Corp., is the develop­ made so far. its only manifestation. The ethos that ment of one-, three-, and five-year plans Perhaps the best-known feature film arose in Los Angeles extends to other to help the Hall realize its goals, par­ from the L.A. movement, Charles films by black UCLA students, and to ticularly that of getting a permanent Burnett's Killer of Sheep (1977) -in­ diverse efforts to build a black cinema building. augurates another direction in black culture. It extends from formal and in­ "We're not talking about dreams cinema, the search for a more sensitive, formal education, the formation of here," Rainey said. "We're an organ­ patient realism. Obviously influenced by distribution channels, and the mounting ization that has succeeded enormously Italian neorealism, Burnett's narrative of exhibitions, to assistance in Third in the area in which we set out to is striking for its perceptions of the un­ World Film production/distribution achieve. The organizations's purpose pretty, tragicomic poetry of everyday enterprises. was initially to identify and recognize life among the oppressed. And its traditions are alive and well, the contributions of blacks in film. The black women directors who as seen in the work of new directors­ We've done that since 1974. I can emerged at UCLA in the late 1970s ex­ Monona Wali's Grey Area (1981), and remember five, six, seven years ago, tended the aesthetic tendencies of the Billy Woodberry's Bless Their Little people said we wouldn't be able to exist movement, grounding perceptions of Hearts (1984), which was scripted by very long because there weren't very black culture in African sources, explor­ Charles Burnett. The first contingent many black stars. I think we have ing vehicles of symbol, icon, and ritual has continued its output-Haile Gerima educated the public in that regard." beyond normative practice, and ex­ with Harvest: 3,000 Years (1976), Wilm­ What keeps Rainey and the other plicating concerns for social justice. ington lO-USA Ten Thousand (1978), members of the board of directors go­ Their particular contribution came in and After Winter: Sterling Brown ing is the challenge, that and the chance presenting self-defining black women on (1985); Charles Burnett with My to recognize black entertainers for the the screen, an effort that represents a Brother's Wedding (1983); and in Ben contributions they have made despite, more drastic departure in cinema history Caldwell's experimental video work Rainey said, "not always being able to than comparable portraits of black male Babylon is Falling (1983) and his get positive roles or the ones they figures. What is remarkable and multimedia production United States of wanted." Many times during he cere­ remarkably fresh about the films of Emergency (1985). As black indepen­ monies, he said, he has seen performers Julie Dash, Alile Sharon Larkin, and dent film work is given closer scrutiny, and members of the audience with tears Barbara McCullough is their portrayal, the L.A. Revolution will be recognized in their eyes as black actors described for nearly the first time, ofblack women as an indispensable part of its their struggles in the industry and their with an existence for themselves. development. appreciation at being regcoghized by The films from the L.A. Rebellion their own. . "I like seeing the results of our ac­ tivity," he said. "I like seeing the crowd come out and that they appreciate what we've done. But, ultimately, I'd like to see all of this activity culminate in something that is lasting. So that peo­ ple could come from allover the world to Oakland and see the Hall of Fame. They could see exhibits of the inductees and read about them. Hopefully, one day there will be a Hall of Fame that will document all that we have tried to do." Somebody's Crazy The Gods Must Be Crazy, pilloried in the independent media as an example of puerile racism, (Pat Aufderheide in In These Times called it "a publicist for imaginary options" in South Africa) seems to have become a cult film. Re­ leased in 1982 with little fanfare, it has has grossed some $25 million.

Still from Haile Gerima's film Bush Mama. 30 BLACK FILM REVIEW

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