Ouagadougou '95 African Cinema
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40 Acres And AMule Filmworks a OW ACCEPTING SCRIPTS © Copyright Required DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT • 8 ST. FELIX STREET • BROOKLYN, NY 11217 6 Close Up One in San Francisco and the other London. Two black women make J?1usic for the movies. 9 World View Ouagadougou '95: Mrican Cinema, Heart and Soul(d), Part I CLAIRE ANDRADE WATKINS In the first ofa two part article) Claire Andrade Watkins shares insights on the African Cinema scene from FESPACO. Black Film Review Volume 8, Number 3 12 Film Clips ]ezebel Filmworks does Hair. .. FILMFEST DC audience pick... VOices Corporate & Editorial Offices Against Violence. 2025 Eye Street, NW Suite 213 Washington, D.C. 20006 Tel. 202.466.2753 FEATURES Fax. 202.466.8395 e-mail 14 Hot Black Books Set Hollywood on Fire [email protected] TAREsSA STOVALL Editor-in-Chief Will the high sales ofblack novels translate into box office heat? Leasa Farrar-Frazer Consulting Editor 19 We Are the World: Black Film and the Globalization of Racism Tony Gittens (Black Film Institute, University of the District of CLARENCE LUSANE Columbia) What we need to know about who owns and controls the global images of Founding Editor black people. David Nicholson Art Direction & Design Lorenzo Wilkins for SHADOWORKS INTERVIEWS Contributing Editors TaRessa Stovall 22 APraise Poem: Filming the Life of Andre Lorde PAT AUFDERHEIDE Contributors Pat Aufderheide Producer Ada Gay Griffin shares her thoughts on the experience. Rhea Combs Eric Easter Joy Hunter 25 Live From The Madison Hotel Clarence Lusane Eric Easter talks with Carl Franklin) Walter Mosely and the Hughes Brothers Denise Maunder Marie Theodore Claire Andrade Watkins Co-Publisher DEPARTMENTS One Media, Inc. Eric Easter, CEO LETTER FROM THE EDITOR National Advertising Sheila Reid 4 One Media THE MAIL 202.466.4720 4 Black Film Review (ISSN 0887-5723) is published three times a year by One Media, Inc in association with the Black TELEVISION Film Institute of the University of the District of Columbia. 27 Subscriptions are $12 per year for individuals and $25 for institutions. Requests and correspondences should be sent to TECHWATCH P.O. Box 18665, Washington, D.C., 20036. All other corre spondence should be addressed to the editorial offices listed 27 above. No part of this publication shall be reproduced without consent of the publisher. RESOURCE EXCHANGE 29 This project was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and Media Arts Fund, creat ed by the National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture and sup ported by the Georgia Council for the Arts. BFR NOW ON CD-ROM Black Film Review is now availalable on CD-ROM through EBSCO Publishing IS Academic Abstracts service. To purchase a subscription Cover Illustration: Jason Murphy for DESIGN HOUSE or a for a free 60-day trial, contact: EBSCO Publishing, P.O. Box 2250, Peabody, MA 01960, USA. Or call 1.800.653.2726. BLACK FILM REVIEW/3 FROM THE EDITOR THE MAIL The African American film viewing public are at a cross-roads and how we spend our movie dollars over the next several 10th Anniversary Issue months may well determine the image of black people in film for years to come. Kudos for such a great 10th Anniversary Edition. It was refreshing to read the late Jacqueline Shearer's Between now and the end of the year no fewer than seventeen films will be released in which black actors and actresses interview. I have been following some of her work appear in either starring or supporting roles. Even more extraordinary is that, with the exception of To UIOng Foo, Thanks over the years. I learn a lot from other filmmakers and for Everything, Julie Newmar, there's not one comedy in the bunch. This fall we can wrap our eyes around Denzel am grateful to be able to connect with such out Washington and Don Cheadle in Devil in a Blue Dress, the film adaptation ofWalter Mosely's novel of the same name; standing directors. Angela Bassett in the futuristic Strange Days and then teamed with Whitney Houston in Waiting to Exhale, Morgan Deborah Ray-Sims Freeman in Seven, and Laurence Fisburne as the lead in Othello. We can look forward to seeing Maya Angelou and Alfre via internet: [email protected] Woodard in How to Make an American Quilt. The Hughes Brothers got good buzz on their latest offering, Dead Presidents, with Larenz Tate. And there are many, many more. ••••• We're so glad that you (BFR) are still around--a Could it be the film industry has discovered that the African American experience is more than shooting and looting, danc really valued resource in the film community. ing and singing? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on the money--the yen, the franc, the pound, the peso. "The Loot." In any language. Monica Freeman Atlanta African Film Society Opening week ticket sales of new releases determine how long and on how many screens a film will be shown. If a film ••••• demonstrates money making audience appeal then the film executives--ever willing to repeat a successful formula--will con tinue to green-light similar projects. Hence, the proliferation of sequels. I would like to congratulate you on your 10th anniversary issue and thank you for providing me with a useful as well as entertaining resource. In this instance, there are far reaching implications for the success of these particular films. As Clarence Lusane examines I appreciate your efforts to provide as regular in this issue, the film industry makes the bulk of its profit from international sales. Films depicting urban black male vio series of interviews/profiles and articles on Black lence have been a primary source of this revenue. With these upcoming releases we have the opportunity to expand our women filmmakers which is why I would like to take image; one step ofmany in the right direction that need to be taken toward counteracting the myopic representation ofthe issue with John Williams whose filmography entitled IIDaughters [sic] of the Diasporall you reprinted. I black experience. noticed a glaring omission of such noteworthy names as Sarah Maldoror, Euzhan Paley, Martina Attile, If we don't support films that portray us as a people of diverse experience and skill then we have little to complain about Ngozi Onwurah, Maureen Blackwood, Elsie Haas, when mindlessly violent films--a proven multi-million dollar success formula--continue to flood theaters. This requires dili and a number of others. As a South African, I would like to urge African gence and searching out different venues. Trailers don't always tell the whole story. For instance, few people know there's Americans (as well as Americans of other races who a sub-plot built around a black family in Wayne Wang's summer art house hit Smoke, a phenomenal film about relation write/talk about pan African/Black issues), to become ships with stellar performances by Forest Whitaker and Harold Perrineau, Jr. more conscious of the Americentric assumptions underlying their laying exclusive claim to the term ll It's going to be an exciting fall and winter on the movie circuit. And Black Film Review will be there for every reel of it. African IIdiaspora , and thereby excluding those of African descent living in the Caribbean, Europe, With wisely spent dollars we can affect change which leads to placing us behind the camera, writing the scripts, and in the Latin America, etc. board rooms where the power of image making really rests. Haseenah Ebahim Chicago, IL Leasa Farrar-Frazer, editor Black Film Review welcomes mail from its readers. Please send your letters to: Black Film Review, The Mail, P.O. Box 18665, Washington, D.C. 20036. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. 4/BLACK FILM REVIEW UDC offers all you need to succeed OPPORTUNITY You are free to be yourself at the University of the District of Columbia. There are no strangers on campus. UDC people care...about you, what you think, what you want to be. Consider this: UDC offers classes from early morning to late at night, so you can work while you earn your degree; UDC offers about 130 academic programs to choose from; UDC provides career-focused education, and you won't need to miss meals or take out a second mortgage to afford it. At UDC, we expect you to succeed - and we help you. The minute you arrive on campus, you know you're at the right place. Apply Now! LJ Call (202) 274-5010 dothe smart ehoi~~AA MARY WATKINS FILM MUSIc's BLACK PEARL by Denise Maunder media activist and co-author of Blacks in Year 1987-1991 (Daystar Press, 1992) rein Watkins' recent accomplishment. "Mary is female to have composed music for three "v,,:"'•.~"" fo!o'."''''' Documentary category during a single year ~:rtllli.FJ9~'~Y;'199!):)":lt~s!jltnl:I·(jrtant because it has given her an opportunity as W~ilfl~l,tij~;:~I~~~~,;~'~:~,~!,~i5' mCreaSlT1Q visibility. It shows what talent is out there on the technical side." As Watkins elaborate on the "technical side" of film music, the thought occurs to this writer that the lay person can learn as much about a seemingly complex discipline like film scoring from Watkins as sitting in a film class for two semesters of coursework. "A good score is one that doesn't get in the way. The music has to compliment the picture. Music doesn't need to tell you a story. The dialogue tells the story. The music needs to comment on the unseen things. As a com poser, you need the ability to work with themes effectively.