Report from Edinbur H • Soul Man Review • Robert Hooks Three Critics Look at She's Gotta Have It • Peter Wang Interview
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Report From Edinbur h • Soul Man Review • Robert Hooks Three Critics Look at She's Gotta Have It • Peter Wang Interview World of Black Film Collectors Remembering Lorenzo Tucker- The Black. Gil Noble Plans Valentino Like It Is Archive Film Clips and News Early Black Independents Co-produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the District of Columbia ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Vol. 2, No. 4/Fa111986 'Peter Wang Breaks Cultural Barriers Black Film Review by Pat Aufderheide 10 SSt., NW An Interview with the director of A Great Wall p. 6 Washington, DC 20001 (202) 745-0455 Remembering lorenzo Tucker Editor and Publisher by Roy Campanella, II David Nicholson A personal reminiscence of one of the earliest stars of black film. ... p. 9 Consulting Editor Quick Takes From Edinburgh Tony Gittens by Clyde Taylor (Black Film Institute) Filmmakers debated an and aesthetics at the Edinburgh Festival p. 10 Associate EditorI Film Critic Anhur Johnson Film as a Force for Social Change Associate Editors by Charles Burnett Pat Aufderheide; Keith Boseman; Excerpts from a paper delivered at Edinburgh p. 12 Mark A. Reid; Saundra Sharp; A. Jacquie Taliaferro; Clyde Taylor Culture of Resistance Contributing Editors Excerpts from a paper p. 14 Bill Alexander; Carroll Parrott Special Section: Black Film History Blue; Roy Campanella, II; Darcy Collector's Dreams Demarco; Theresa furd; Karen by Saundra Sharp Jaehne; Phyllis Klotman; Paula Black film collectors seek to reclaim pieces of lost heritage p. 16 Matabane; Spencer Moon; An drew Szanton; Stan West. With a repon on effons to establish the Like It Is archive p. 20 Design Roben Sacheli Early Black Independent Filmmakers Typography by Mark A. Reid Word Design, Inc. The history of two early black independent film companies p. 21 .Layout Whatever Nola Wants, Nola Gets Robin Lynch by Paul Matabane Black Film Review (ISSN 0887-5723) is published four times a year by Sojourner Productions, Inc., A critical look at She s Gotta Have It. With additional commentary by a non-profit corporation organized and incorpo Darcy Demarco and Carroll Parrott Blue ..................................p. 23 rated in the District of Columbia. This issue is co-produced with the Black Film Institute ofthe University of the District ofColumbia. Subscrip Features tions are $10 a year for individuals, $20 a year for Film Clips. ..........................................................p. 4 institutions. Add $5 per year for overseas subscrip Reviews .............................................................p. 30 tions. Send all correspondence concerning sub scriptions and submissions to the above address; submissions must include a stamped, self addressed envelope. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent of the publisher. logo and contents copyright ©Sojourner Productions, Inc., 1986, and in the name of individual contributors. The last line ofyour mailing label indicates the year and month in which your subscription to Black Film Review ends. Help us save costs and paperwork by renewing before your subscription expires. Black Film Review welcomes submissions from writers, but we prefer that you first query with a letter or a telephone call. All unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Manuscripts must also be typewritten double-spaced, and include the author's address and telephone number on each page. On request, with a stamped, self-addressed envelope, we will send a copy of our guidelines for writers considering a submission. This issue is dedicated to the memory of Ruth S. Nicholson 4 Black Film Review Film Clips •••••••••••••••••••• Notes on Peop.le, Issues, and Events By Bill Alexander and The Civil Rights Story Karen Jaehne e still have a long way to go in A six-part series on the civil rights era, . increasing employment oppor Eyes on the Prize, begins Jan. 21 on PBS tunities for underutilized stations throughout the country. Produced Wminority talent." by Blackside, Inc., of Boston, the series is This grim outlook was voiced by Ken narrated by Julian Bond. It covers the civil Orsatti, national executive secretary of the rights movement from its beginnings in the Screen Actors Guild, at a recent conference mid-1950s to the passage of the Voting on minority hiring in movies and television. Rights Act in 1965. The film was produced The conference was a joint meeting of the by Henry Hampton, founder ofBlackside, SAG and American Federation of Televi now one ofthe oldest minority-owned film sion and Radio Artists Ethnic Equal Em and television production outfits in the U. S. ployment Opportunity Committee. While funding was obtained from PBS and Current industry statistics on minori CPB, Hampton says "there were also peo ty employment released by SAG's affirma Henry Hampton ple holding house patties and twisting arms tive action office underscore Orsatti's words: cluded that minorities still lag far behind across the country to raise mon~y." Prepa -Of the eight soap operas that em in equal employment opportunities." ration for the project included "civil rights ploy hundreds of AFTRA members, only. Despite this glo.omy assessment, the schools" for production staff. The film, 10 blacks are under contract. conference suggested remedies that may re which was recently shown in New York, was - Minority performers get less than 10 sult in higher minority employment and praised by poet Thulani Davis in The Vzl percent oflead roles in motion pictures and more of an jnclination to feature minority lage Voice.• television combined. performers in more balanced portrayals of continued on page 34 -A "disproportionately high" num ber of negative minority role models criminals, prostitutes, pimps-are regularly showcased on television crime shows. -Black women makeup less than 5 This Issue's Contributors percent ofthe women employed by motion Bill Alexander is a free-lance writer the Department ofRadio, Television, and pictures and television. ...Pat Aufderheide is a senior editor of Film at Howard University ....Spencer -A recent study of the country's ra In These Times and a frequent contributor Moon, a filmmaker, was an organizer ofthe dio and television stations revealed that the to natioal film magazines ....Carroll Par~ Black Cinema Series ofthe 1986 San Fran hiring of minority news announcers is at a rott Blue is a filmmaker and an assistant cisco International Film Festival. Black Fzlm "virtual standstill." professor ofTelecommunications and Film Review EditorDavid Nicholson is a former - In Georgia, less than 1 percent of at San Diego State University ....Filmmak newspaper and wire service report, all persons hired for television, commercial er Roy Campanella, II produced, directed er....Mark A. Reid is a doctoral candidate and industrial film work were minorities. and wrote Passion andMemory. He is cur in Afro-American Studies at the Universi Aware that the elimination of racial rently developing several independent fea ty of Iowa ....Writer, actress, and film discrimination in front of and behind the tures, including a comedy and two suspense maker, Saundra Sharp lives in Los Angeles. camera requires a top priority assessment of thrillers. Black Fzlm Review has signed an agree goals, expectations and strategies, Toey Darcy Demarco has written for In ment with the National Writers Union. The Caldwell, a SAG national board member, These Times and other national publica two-year agreement, effective Oct. 1, 1986, and Belva Davis, an AFTRA vice president, tions ....Theresa Ford is a writer and psy includes: assignments made or confirmed issued a special industry-wide call to con chotherapist living in Washington, D.C. in writing; acceptance / rejection/rewrite vene the EEOC conference. Delegates from ....KarenJaehne is a film critic who writes notification within two weeks of submis more than 20 cities attended the conference for Variety and other national film publi sion; timely respon~e to queries; provisions in March. Their purpose was to examine the cations ....Arthur J. Johnson has written covering payment of expenses, responsibil record of past union efforts and to explore film reviews and about film for several ities of writers, and a dispute resolution new ways of implementing EEOC goals. metroplitan Washington publications process. Copies ofthe agreement are avail At the conclusion of the conference, Phyllis Klotman is director ofthe Black able from Black Fzlm Review or from the the joint chairpersons noted in a statement Film Center·Archive at the University ofIn National Writers Union, 12 Astor Place, that the participants had "painfully con- diana....Paula Matabane is a professor in New York, NY 10003. Fall 1986 Film Clips •••••••••••••••••••• New Work in Film, Video, and Other Media By Spencer Moon film at Howard who has 17 documentaries to his credit, the film is intended as a enegalese filmmaker Ben Diagoge promotional work "with a little difference." Beye this summer presented a series As Ford put it, "We want to avoid the term ofscreenings ofhis works in the San tourism (film). We don't want to offer the Francisco Bay Area as part of a na- country as a brothel. Burkina Faso wants to S attract the kind of travelers with interests tionwide tour sponsored by the Senegalese government and the National Black other than baking in the sun." Programming Consortium in Columbus, Instead, the film will attempt to pro Ohio. vide a visual definition of the English trans lation of the former French colony's His short work, The Black Pn'nce ofSt. name - "Land of the People of Dignity." Germaine, won first prize at the annual Na "The film will promote the idea of the tional Festival of the Francophone Commu dynamic energy of the people fighting nity. The 1974 film, a satire, is about an desertification ... the process of human be African in Paris trying to survive and find ings combating the ravages of nature and a place for himself in a foreign land and overcoming them," Ford said. culture. Beye said the point of the film is St.