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Co-Produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the District of Columbia $4.00 E

Co-Produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the District of Columbia $4.00 E

Co-produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the District of Columbia $4.00 e

BlackFilin liJUI!IDU~

From L.A. to London and Martinique to Mali. We bring you the world ofBlack film. Ifyou're concerned about Black images in commercial film and television, you already know that Hollywood does not reflect the multicultural nature ofcontemporary society. You know that when Blacks are not absent they are confined to predictable, one-dimensional roles. You may argue that movies and television shape our reality or that they simply reflect that reality. In any case, no one can deny the need to take a closer look at what is coming out ofthis powerful medium. ~ Black Film Review is the forum you've been looking for. Four times a year, we bring you film criticism from a Black perspective. We look behind the surface and challenge ordinary assumptions about the Black image. We feature actors and actresses that go against the grain and fill you in on the rich history ofBlacks in American filmmaking--a history that goes back to 1910! And, Black Film Review is the only magazine that brings you news, reviews and in-depth interviews from the most vibrant movement in contemporary film. You know about but what about Euzhan Paley or Julie Dash? Charles Burnett or Soulemayne Cisse? Through­ out the Mrican diaspora, Black filmmakers are giving us alternatives to the images produced in Hollywood and giving birth to a whole new cinema...be there! Contents 4 Interview BY ELIZABETH JACKSON Veteran filmmaker talks about his career and the changes that have taken place in Hollywood since 1974, when he directed hisfirstfilm, ~. 6 Co Black Macho & The Myth ofthe Positive Message To ) BY KAiAMu YA SAlAAM (BI The not-so-subtle subtexts ofmost contemporary Hollywoodfilms dir~ctedby African American A males revel in celluloid crouch-grabbing. A 10 OfMany One: The Hybrid State Films BY LAURA u. MARKs A newfilm series curated by Coco Fusco introduces t:(hybridity, "an unsettling notion. 12 Prime Time BY Roy CAMPANELlA II Brett King, director oftelevision for QuincyJones Entertainment, discusses the ins andouts behind the small screen.

Fou di g Editor Da· . icholson 1985-1989 20 Masala lHac Film Review (ISSN 0887-5723) is published tour imes -a year by Sojourner Productions, Inc., a by Tej Hazarika non-profit -corporation organized and incorporated Salaam Bombay! director takes on Greenwood,.Mississippi. In the District of Columbia. This is co-produced with the Biack Fi1m Institute of the University of the District of Columbia. Subscriptions are $12 per year for individuals, $24 per year ~for institutions. Add 22 $10 per year for overse~s subscriptions. Subscrip­ tion requests arrd correspondence should be sent to Reportfi-om FESPACO PO Box 18665 Washington, DC 2-0036. Send all BY MANrHIA DIAWARA o her correspondence and submissions to the above address~ submissions must include a stamped, self­ As African cinema struggles with the politics ofrepresentation; two models' emerge. addressed envelope. No part of this publication may be reproduced without wr1tten consent of the publisher. Logo and contents copyright Sojourner Productions Inc., and in the name of individual 2 contributors. Film Clips Black Film Review welcomes submissi-ons form Otis Sallid, Prized Pieces and more. writers, but we prefer that you first query with a letter. All solicited manuscripts must b~e accompa­ nied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We are no responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. Black 28 Fi Review ~has signed a code of practices with the ational Writers Union, 13 Astor Place, 7th Floor, Reviews e York, NY 10003. The Body Beautiful, Hangin' with the Homeboys.

T is issue of Black Film Review was produced with h a s·s ance of grants from The Academy of ~1 . ic ure Arts and Sciences Foundation, the ission on the Arts and Humanities, the o ment for the Arts and the John D. C;kndar . eT. MacArthur Foundat~on. FILM CLIPS DANCE: SAUID sm1: eventually became director ofhis Bridge). Though his goal is to pmZEO PIEl1:S by ArthurJohnson own dance , New Art direct a musical film, the multi­ Ensemble, in the '70s, which talented choreographer!director is honed the dancing skills of still "looking for a project" which Noted independent filmmakers today's super-talents such as While taking a break from will allow him to use his Julie Dash, Roy Campanella II choreographing a scene from choreographer Michael Peters directorial talents at full blast. and Camille Billops were among Spike Lee's upcoming feature (Beat It, Dream Girls, Thriller), "I've sent some scripts back this year's National Black Otis Sallid discusses because the project has to be Programming Consortium's his technique. "I see choreogra­ right, or I'd rather go back to "Prized Pieces" award-winners. phy every day; so the dances are being a choreographer. I'm not Dash took awards in three camera-ready when the director interested in doing Boyz N the categories, including the Best sees them," Sallid explains. "I give Hood or NewJack movies. I want Independent Producer award and directors the opportunity to have to do topical films, musicals, the Oscar Micheaux Award for the first vision. Then, I say how dramas and special-effect films." her career achievements. I'd do it. I offer them as many In the meantime, he's busy Daughters ofthe Dust, Dash's options as possible." shooting another Tide commer­ soon-to-be-released feature film Sallid is enjoying the cial, this time with Black set in the South Carolina Sea challenge ofchoreographing "one Choreographer Otis Sallid Olympic gymnast Betty Okino, Islands at the turn ofthe century, and hoping to get a green light ofthe smaller moments in the jazz dancer Hinton Battle and won in the Best Drama category. for his dream project, The movie" when Malcolm X, then Debbie Allen. Allen later Daughters ofthe Dustwill be Human City. "It's a musical for Detroit Red, goes to New York's beckoned him to Los Angles to released by Kino International in the '90s," Sallid explains. "I will Savoy Ballroom during the lindy assist her with the television show January. try to take it to Broadway, then hop craze ofthe '40s. In selecting "Fame." Campanella's Brother to film. Most musicals that were dancers for the sequence, Sallid "I went to MGM where Future, which. tells the story ofan great had a Broadway life," he searched for performers who 'Fame' was filmed and all the inner-city Detroit teenager who adds. "looked real" and not necessarily great old movie musicals had Sallid has choreographed the like dancers. "I was looking at the been done, and Debbie taught Grammy Awards and has done attitudes ofthe dancers and the me film," he recalls warmly. work for , Rod conking ofthe hair. The jitterbug Directing commercials followed, Stewart, Herbie Hancock and is one ofthe perfect dances, a including a Tide commercial Patti Labelle. And ifthat's not classic dance, and you can't do it featuring the Dance Theatre of enough, Sallid also wrote the any better," he says. Harlem. Next came music theme song from the popular From his days as a dancer in videos, such as Phyllis Hyman's television show, Showtime at the Broadway's The Wiz, Purlieand "I Don't Want to Change the Apollo. Two Gentlemen ofVerona, Sallid World." segued into choreography and In addition to Lee, with ArthurJohnson is apublished whom he worked previously on fiction writer andaproduced and Do the Right playwright. Thing, Sallid has also worked with directors (A Rage in Harlem) and (Graffiti Carl Lumbly as Denmark Vesey in Roy Campanella, II's Brother Future.

2 tra - to the year Presenting awards at this in Ricochet, will an urban e experiences the year's ceremony were NBC crime boss with Ice Cube, who

.L'-<..L...L.L\.-L',,",,-, of la ery, won in television stars Malcolm Jamal starred in , as o . Brother Future Warner ("The Cosby Show") his would-be successor. The ed on videocassette and Janet Hubert Whitten ("The screenplay was written by Robert m b HomeVision. Fresh Prince OfBel Air"). Zemeckis (Back to the Future) op Finding Christa, co- The National Black and Bob Gale, who are the film's pra d b James Hatch, is the Programming Consortium executive producers. Eddie akers own moving story of (NBPC) presents the "Prize 's first hit, 48 Hrs. is b' g a new relationship with Pieces" competition each fall to among the numerous features a cia o-hter whom she gave up for honor the artistry and contribu­ Walter Hill has directe.d. The ado tion over twenty years tions offilmmakers who produce Looters recently completed ear 'ere Finding Christa was quality Black programming. principal photography. named Best Docu-Drama. Many past winners have received Other award winners were: airplay on PBS stations. BPC MURPHY TEAMS WI11I B" Jackson for the historical also maintains the largest ideo llUDLlNS documental} Didn t e Rdmble library in the idwest of On; Ton Co es and Lon programs relevant to Black Trammel or the' rural audiences. NBPC is located at Principal photography has begun affair documentary Fade To 929 Harrison Ave., Suite 104, in New York City for Paramount Black, Ellen Soiro for the public Columbus, OH 43215. Pictures' Boomerang, starring affairs documentary DiAnas (614)299-5355. For information . Reginald Hudlin Hair Ego: Aids Info Up Front, about Daughters ofthe Dust, call will direct and Warrington The Nigerian Television (212)841-0950. For information Hudlin will produce this Authority in the youth category about Brother Future, call 800­ contemporary romantic comedy, with Tales By Midnight, Portia 323-4222. which features and Cobb with the content short Who Strictly Business co-star Halle Are You: An Oakland Story; Myra ICE & ICE Berry. Ming for the public affairs short Speaking OfYoung Black Men; and Andrea Renee Topps was Popular rap artists turned movie named the Best Student Film­ stars, Ice-T and Ice Cube, will makerNideomaker for the film co-star in Walter Hill's action Raw Intensity. thriller The Looters. Ice-T, who starred in NewJack City and co­ starred with

Black Film Review 3 by Elizabeth Jackson ichael Schultz is a Black director with staying power. · directed films include Academy Award-winning actor Perhaps best known for his poignant Cooley High Denzel Washington's film debut in Carbon Copy (1974) and the (1981); the Gordy­ hilarious (1976), Motown-produced Schultz has been making featu re The Last significant contributions to Dragon (1985); Black film in Hollywood for the last 21 years. (1985); and The Schultz began his career (1987). as a dramatic director in He has also directed 1971 with the PBS televi­ episodic television sion adaptation of "To Be and, together with Young, Gifted and Black," wife Gloria, created the bittersweet story of . Crystalite Produc­ playwright Lorraine tions to develop film Hansberry's Iffe. Direction and video proper­ of Lonnie Elder's "Ceremo­ ties. nies in Dark Old Men," a Schultz's latest 90-minute teleplay for ABC, project, Livin Large!, fpllowed. However, it was is a crazy, some­ Schultz's outstanding work times slapstick and box office success with "message" comedy a brilliant young comedic about the pitfalls of talent named Richard Pryor assimilation. in Car Wash that thrust, Schultz, a then "fixed," him into the sensitive, insightfuJ, comedy genre and gar­ Black conscious­ nered him subsequent ness-oriented deals directing Pryor in director, took time (1976) to talk with Elizabeth and Which Way is Up? Jackson for Black (1977). Other Schultz- Film Review. Filmmaker Michael Schultz.

Black Film Review adaptation of any science fiction piece in stories or statements ofpositive Black which we are the main stars and we see contribution as I can because I feel that ourselves projected in the year 3000? we have been woefully underserved by Schultz: I think so. I think that it's a the media in terms ofmaking that matter oftime. I did a film called The impact only film makes on people's Last Dragon. Suzanne de Passe, who minds-in terms ofhow we perceive found the material, and I, kept saying ourselves, the world that we are in and to each other, "This film is going to how to make it better. So in my films, make a ton ofmoney" because there which have been accused ofbeing too are no young, heroic figures for Black as an "soft," I have tried in someway to audiences. So the kids are going to love er offact, illumine the positive aspect oflife and this. Now, we had to convince Holly­ -ood I had provide some role models, whether they wood ofwhat we knew was true. The . an ofmy were rappers, karate experts, striving picture made $33 million at the box ark. Cooley writers or whatever. office without getting a white audi­ ,.... ~~-~..... ro..-+-.r ... 1 picture and ence, without so called "crossing over." o picture with BFR: What do you mean by c'too· soft"? Thafs Because kids came back and saw it five, a criticism I have not heard about your films. But Hollywood six, seven times. It wasn't an adult Schultz: Not enough violence, not ed which I fIlm. It was made for young people. enough "hard edge" statements. .L..L.-L~'_-L '~~_. __ Then I happened to The idea was to put a hero out attune to do Car there. I mean, there are no Black Bruce BFR: With all the pressure to do otherwise, -as all-out comedy, and Lees orArnold Schwarzeneggers or are you going to continue to adhere to the a e erious. I put a serious these fantasy hero figures. Science omission of violence in the future? -- ...... r ...... r-r through what had been fiction is one ofmy loves. I mean, Schultz: My view is that there's piece. And it was very when I was a kid, that's all I was into. enough real violence out there. So when ~" ~-~....,.,..r-+-r 1 I. the success ofthat stamped The present wasn't so hot so the future we're dealing with "play" stuff: and this ;\'-ood's mind that I was a had to be better, as far as I was con­ is all fantasy, the more you deal with corned director. So when I talked cerned. negative images in your thought process, about the serious subject matter, pieces and film is an extension ofthought, the that I anted to do, nobody was BFR: In retrospect, what would you say has more you make that rea/because the interested. I couldn't get to first base most touched your soul in terms of your reality is just an extension ofthought. So .th any ofthe historical dramas that I own work? I don't agree with the trend ofthought anted to do. Schultz: The piece that's closest to that says, "We're just showing it like it

my heart was my first film, Cooley IS.. " BFR: Is that because they didn't perceive High, because it succeeded on every that Black people would- be interested or level ofintention at least 95 percent. BFR: Not that films mirror society, but that that they would be in safer territory with Film is such a collaborative media, and society is actually mirroring film content? comedy? there are so many hands in it before it Schultz: Exactly. The increase of Schultz: I think it's a combination gets to the audience. Ifyou can get 80 violence in our society is no accident. It ofboth. They were definitely assured percent ofyour initial vision to the has a correlation with what we feed that comedies would work and they audience, you have done remarkably people's minds on the screert-in the were totally unconvinced that any­ well. Cooley High did everything that I news and in make-believe. I feel that thing beyond the "ghetto" realm or wanted it to do in spite ofour small part ofmy re~ponsibilityas an artist and the current time period would work. funds. And when you look at it today, a storyteller is to present things that are So forget about a costume drama in it works as well as it did when I first positive. And sometimes, you have to p .te ofthe tremendous success of made it. use violence to offset what you want to Root. say, as in Cooley High. It had violence, BFR: Who is Michael Schultz, director, and but that wasn't the substance ofthe B: Has the thinking changed on that? what is his quest? chultz:I don't think so. piece. It made you feel this tremendous Schultz: I'm still trying to figure out loss ofpotential in Black youth; it never who I am. In terms ofthe director, my III we ever see Black folks in the quest is to put on the screen as many continued on page-18 re? J mean will we ever see an

Black FilmReview 5 TH E MYTH o F THE

By Kalamu ya Salaam who "talks" a good line, is never shown working with, not to mention organizing, his community. The only men depicted Just as the bravado gesture offlashily as organizers are those ofthe criminal fondling our male genitalia is actually an element who build gangs and "NewJack" indicator ofidentity insecurity, the not­ kingdoms. so-subtle subtexts ofmost contemporary Within the context ofan absence of Hollywood films directed byMrican community organization, power is American males revel in celluloid defined by one's ability to control others, crouch-grabbing, subliminal sexual especially.female others. Cinematically, imagery and emotional textures this concept is usually projected as the drenched in macho/male chauvinism. will and ability to commit acts ofviolent Consciously or not, when Black male and!or sexual domination. The opening filmmakers project their work in a ofSpike Lee's , in which mainstream context, they often become Flipper (), the male tacitly complicit in the stereotyping and protagonist, reduces his wife to a comical, denigration ofBlack women and the moaning mass ofjelly with his expert projection ofeither capitalism or crimi­ lovemaking, is an archetypal example of nality as acceptable, and even laudatory, sexual prowess as a metaphor for man­ economic pursuits. The psychosexual hood. bottom line ofmost films by Black male However, defining manhood in terms directors today is the desire to replace the ofmoney and power leaves the sexist and white man with a Negro male who, while economically exploitative status quo operating under the guise ofbeing a intact and unchallenged, especially vis-a­ liberator, actually internalizes the trap­ vis Black women. Indeed, sexism and pings and temperament ofthe oppressor. exploitation are seldom acknowledged in Typically, the ascendancy ofthis new­ films by Black men. Rather, the struggle Black man is defined not by the social around sexism is usually framed as development ofthe Black community "bitchy" complaining on the part of but rather by the individual garnering of women. For example, Jungle Fever's money and power. Even the "model" controversial "war council" scene drama­ new-Black single father, Furious Styles tizes Black women's frustrations and (Larry Fishburn) in Boyz N The Hood, outrages with Black men, and Boyz N The

Black Film Review Hood presents the restaurant scene in which Reva () brings Furious down a peg. In each case, the politics ofsexism is reduced to "personal" female rage. As for capitalism, the most tren­ chant critique presented in contemporary male-directed films is delivered by Nino Brown ItA E S SAG E (WesleySnipes) TI V E in NewJack City in defense ofhis criminal ways. What gives here? Have we bought so completely into the system that we can no longer critique capitalism directly except to decry instances ofraw racial discrimination? These movies virtually wallow in the psychology ofthe oppressed, a mind set which not only denies self-worth but which also wishes nothing more fervently than to become as much like the "other," like the "real man," as possible. One clear sign is the continued appropriation ofthe white­ oriented cinematic language. New Jack City's imaging ofa female stripping in front ofa video of Scaiface is an example ofsuch crass and willful mimicry. Jungle Fever's take is worse. Paulie aohn T urturro) is the lover whom Flipper's white girlfriend spurns. In defense ofhis developing relationship with a Black woman, Paulie literally fights back against the racism ofhis community. There is no avoiding the perception ofPaulie as a hero and of Flipper, at best, as lost and confused. Once again, white men are shown as the paragons ofmanhood. Livin 'Large! descends another step by erroneously implying that white women are the major decision-makers in the corporate media structure. The movie is anti-feminist in that every white female is negatively stereotyped while a white man is presented as the moral center of

7

.te manhood' may whole self As Fanon contended, libera­ the hero firmly ensconced in a network not ed message of tion demands a restructuring ofthe news anchor seat next to his white male these age IS mescap- economic system as well as positive and mentor. able. o e accepts the reinforcing interaction between the The overriding message in all ofthese ales at least can female and male halves ofthe whole self films is that you can't fight the system. i e. like white In interview after interview, these Moreover, the rewards-money, power me a et aid of new-Black directors trumpet the positive and, consequently, manhood-are '-'-'~T"1oll""',~ ~a~·r"\lar-r-f·T'~e. From the near "messages" oftheir films, while ignoring achieved by joining the system. A true. ew]ack City or downplaying their audiences revelry in new Black cinema must pay closer .L.L'\..:J..~LL. <.4."'~LLLed ..... but subtly the unmissable negative images these attention to the question ofwhich HOG to the fear-of- films present. The glorification ofthe characters to l\lodel as the moral centers, ... a gle Fever and the negative happens not because the the movers and the shakers. The eleva­ .- male Limn) Large!, these directors deliberately wish to present tion ofBlackness cannot be done by e arne script with "gangstas" and male chauvinists as positing whites as role models, as is done respe e characterizations and positive characters, but rather because no inJungle Fever. Nor is collusion with the tmage JT liberation-based, radical ideological system the answer, as is offered by New Co emporary Black directors seem schema exists to inform their vision. Jack City's culturally diverse policemen not to realize Franz Fanon's point of Beyond an almost pro forma opposition to and criminal prosecutors and Livin' raw racism, the Large!'s new-wave media personalities. absence of Furthermore, no genuine elevation of critical direction Blackness can occur ifthe roles ofwomen undercuts the are depreciated. While the necessary intended focus on "the endangered species" of message ofthese Black manhood is warranted, this focus emotionally should not become the rationale for powerful yet cinematically ignoring or denigrating cognicively women. Indeed, it is the fatal flaw ofBoyz empty movies. N The Hood while its presentation ofan As a result, Mrican American moral center is laud­ the critical able, it does so at the expense offocusing vacuum ends up exclusively on men and trivializing filled with the women. operant ideology After years ofbeing bombarded with ofthe dominant cinematic sexist messages, most filmgoers system: Boyz N fail or refuse even to see how women are The Hood ends routinely ignored and degraded except in with a general the most obvious cases ofon-screen rape "go to school and physical brutality. Worse yet, Black and be success- audiences have Been so starved for ful" message. "positive" Black images on the one hand Jungle Fever and so conditioned by the status quo on climaxes with the other that they presently accept film Tre (Cuba Gooding) clings to his girlfriend, Brandi (Nia Long), Flipper's wailing images ofstatus quo morality as positive in Boyz Nthe Hood. cryofimpo- as long as the movie stars are Black. tence over the Unfortunately, simply replacing whites deterioration of with Blacks while otherwise leaving the many years ago (see especially "A Dying his community, a ~deterioration which he cinema syntax intact assures that sexual Colonialism") that mental health and actively advances through his sexual and economic exploitation will continue. manhood are linked not to seeking to be promiscuity and passively accepts by Kalamu ya Salaam is a writer and music producer like the "other," but rather are linked to doing nothing. Finally, ends Livin'Large! in . Part 2 ofKalamu ya Salaam's the truggle to reconstitute a liberated on a played-out integrationist note with survey ofrecent Black film will appear in our next Issue. Black Film Review 9 ust as we are becoming disenchanted with our conceptual tools, a new implement comes on the scene seeming to solve some ofour aesthetic and political dilemmas: hybridi~ In biology; ofcourse,

a hybrid is the offspring oftwo different strains of by Laura U. Marks animal or plant. Andwhile the biological connotations ofthe term aredangerous, giventheirresonancewithsocialDarwinism,eugenics and other racist ideologies, its power to unsettle other definitions makesthiswordusefulfor talkingaboutculturaldifference, especially given the ways "multiculturalism" has failed us.

10 Black Film Review Multiculturalism, in its more conser­ first time in generations--giving new vative use, has come to mean the form to a history inscribed only in naming and slotting ofdifference; it is a DNA, memory. The environment will divisive notion. Cameron Bailey, in his introduce its own changes, and so the catalogue essay for "The Hybrid State hybrid will ultimately represe.nt both Films," a series ofremarkable fums and those things desired and those things videos recently screened as part ofthe suppressed. "Parallel Histories" series at Exit Art in Curated by Coco Fusco and shown at New York City, calls multiculturalism Anthology Film Archives in New York "the codification ofhybridity." It is an City, "The Hybrid State Films" brought attempt to take the flux and complexity together works that respond to cultural ofcultures and fIX them in categories fusion and transformation resulting that are easily ftIled, whether in immigra­ from migration, exile and war. None of tion quotas or in arts funding. these films can be simply described as The hybrid, though, is necessarily "BIack" or ecHOInd"u or "Japanese;" they unpredictable and uncategorizable. call for phrases--"a video set in Lebanon Once genes are mixed, as we know from by a Palestinian living in Canada" high school science, unexpected combi­ (Mona Hatoum's Measures ofDistance, nations will occur even in the controlled 1988) or "a film about an exile in environment ofthe laboratory. Some­ London returning to Ghana" Oohn times, recessive genes, finding their Akomfrah's Testament, 1988). Many complements, will be expressed for the Scene from Homage by Assasination continued on page 26

Black FilmReview 11

Acordrng to the most recent Neilsen Media research figures, the average Black household watched 11 hours of television each day in 1990. The non-Black household decreased its viewing to 7.2 hours a day from 7.3 in 1989. But while African Americans are watching more television, are we creating more? As the director of television for Quincy Jones Entertainment [QJE], a joint venture between Quincy Jones and Time Warner Enterprises, Brett King is one of a new crop of Black television executives addressing themselves to that very question. Though King is relatively new to the ranks of television execu­ tives-he has been at his post for less than a year-his observations

are no less valuable than any veteran. As a former freelance film and television producer, he brings to his position the social and creative concerns of African American filmmakers as well as the fresh perspec- tive of a new arrival. I spoke with King in Los Angeles for Black Film Review about the

way in which Quincy Jones Entertainment intends to use the medium to "open some eyes."

Black Film Review: What is your current On the back burner we have quite a role with Quincy Jones Entertainment? number more. King: I'm the Director ofTelevi­ sion Development. My primaty area BFR: It sounds to me like you)re approaching ofconcentration is network series a definition of the signature for the com­ television, although we also do some pany in terms of its programming. made-for-television films and made­ King: There is no specific company for-cable telefilms. So, with that, line that determines product that is currently we have a few shows in going to come out ofQuincyJones very, very active develop­ Entertainment. QuincyJones Enter­ ment with talent and tainment is a joint venture between networks commit­ Quincy and Time Warner Enterprises, ted, etc. And which is a subsidiaty ofTime Warner then we have a Inc. The mandate ofthe company is to couple of create for Quincy as high a profile in made-for­ film and television as he currently television films enjoys in the music industry. also in very We're not here to make the next active develop­ "Who's the Boss." What we are here to mentwith do is make unique, interesting television commitments that, ifat all possible, can open some here and there. eyes. Both for me and Quincy, for me

13 in particular, the function ofart is to make people look at something-the world or their lives or just at their experience-in a different way than they did before. I don't think that we necessarily have the ability to change the world as it stands. But I think we can certainly, as I said, open eyes.

BFR: Tell me a little about your background and how you came to be in this position of Director of Television Development. King: I've only been in L.A. for about ten months. I spent the last ten years in New York working in the film and television community. When I first got to NewYork in the early '80s, it was the beginning ofthe East Village art scene, the downtown art scene that really kind ofbrought art into popular culture in a way that it hadn't been since the early '60s. Living in the East Village and nmning in the circles ofthe early culture with the rap and graffiti and break dancing movement, I became immersed in the downtown art world. Throughout the early '80s, I worked in places like The Kitchen, a center for experimental arts, stars in the title role of the Quincy Jones Entertainment production, the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air." and Electronic Arts Intermix, a distribu­ tor for video art to galleries and muse­ the notion ofmaking a feature film. Lost Planet. wns across the world. In the music So, after three or four years, I Lost Planet Productions did a video scene, I worked at RockAmerica decided that I needed to make money. nwnber ofnetwork promos, a couple of and T elegenics and through those jobs So I started moving more towards the commercials, a couple ofmusic videos. made a great nwnber ofconnections commercial realm and worked as a PA We were having a very good time. My throughout the film and television [production assistant] in music videos partner, Mark Pellington, is an incred­ community in New York. and commercials and docwnentaries ible director. Mark and I did a nwnber' One thing that is very different about and, from that, became a production oftelevision projects together. Right as the community in New York than here manager and producer and ultimately we were really getting things rolling in LA. is that ifyou work in film in ended up, after working on a few with Lost Planet, I got a call out of New York: you work in film; you work different television shows, producing nowhere from Eileen Chicken who is in docwnentaries; you work in com­ the commercial parodies at "Saturday the senior vice president ofQuincy mercials; you work in music videos; you Night Live." I was at "Saturday Night" Jones Entertainment. She said she had work in features; you work in television. for three years, starting out as a coordi­ come to New York looking for a In LA., it's much more compartmen­ nator and ending up the last couple of television executive and asked ifI would talized. Here ifyou work in the indus­ seasons as a producer. I quit there in be interested in talking to her. try, you work in half-hour, 8:00[pm] January of 1990, moved on to begin It was remarkable to me; I had just sitcoms. I find it nothing short of freelancing again and started my own finished up some $80,000 music video astounding that people who work in production company as the production and somebody calls and television have never even entertained arm ofa commercial editing house, says, "I wonder ifyou would be inter-

14 Black Film Review ested in running the television depart­ possibility ofanything good being ment for QuincyJones Entertainment." made. There are so many cooks in­ I didn't believe them at first. volved.

BFR: You went to Penn State, didn't you? BFR: In terms of our involvement, do you King: I went to Penn State and find that visions which start out African moved to NewYork the day after I American end up being diluted or trans­ graduated. formed along the way? You've been on the job ten months; I think it is at that stage that we have the freshest, most honest impres­ BFR: What did you major in? sions. King: In communications; speech King: Well, there are a few things. communications is the degree, film and For one thing, the much ballyhooed television was the emphasis. But, it's heat that is on Black projects and worthless. My education began when I Mrican American awareness, in general, landed in New York with two garbage in this town is interesting, but I think bags ofclothes and $300 in my pocket exaggerated. The opportunities of and just started working. actually trying to present something that addresses Black issues in a thought­ BFR: And now I would imagine you're getting provoking manner, discusses Black a higher education here? King: Well, that is very interesting problems that are specific to the Black because my background in New York community, are virtually non-existent. I was strictly production. At "Saturday think that the primary reason for that is Night Live," we were putting out a that the networks are very, very scared. film, either a commercial parody or a The network audience is eroding to the pre-tape for the show, about once every point ofnon existence. And with the ten days. So, it would be idea, script, television audience exploring all ofits pre-pro[duction], shoot, post [produc­ options with cable and home video, the tion], air immediately. The turn around network audience is destined to deterio­ on music videos while not nearly so rate to a certain level ofstabilization. I intense is fairly similar. Once the think that because ofthat deterioration, 30TH ANN ARBOR picture is accepted, you have a week the networks are much, much more and a halfor so prep. You shoot and conservative than they may have been FILM FESTIVAL deliver about a week later. So even the even two seasons ago. CALL FOR ENTRIES most elaborate videos take about a month at the very most before you're BFR: What do you think that level of March 17~22, 1992 stabilization will be? Do you think it will seeing your product on the air. relate to that lowest- common-denominator • Entry fees for each film: Switching my emphasis from audience? $25 US entries, $30 foreign entries production to development has been an King: "When I refer to a level of 16mm independent and experimental education in terms ofwhat actually stabilization, I'm saying that the films - all genre: documentary, anima­ makes a television show get on the air, numbers ofpeople watching over-the­ tion, narrative, and experimental what are the ways to get those people air network television will decline until excited, the suits at the networks who Call or write for brochure there is a stabilized presentation of (includes Conference registration form make things happen. I find it remark­ options. Until DBS [direct broadcast and Festival entry form): able from being in development that satellite] and home video use reach their Ann Arbor Film Festival there is any good television on at all. PO Box 8232 Ann Arbor, MI 48107 top level. Until a norm is established. 313/995-5356 The amount oftime, the amount of Given the advent ofDBS and energy, the amount ofstumbling interactive television, it's going to Deadline for Conference early blocks, the amount ofobstacles and just registration and Film entry: continue to change for a while. I think February 1S, 1992 the amount ofpeople involved in any that the networks, in response, are specific production seem to limit the desperately holding onto whatever ••••••••••••••••••••

Black Film Review 15 audience they think they can. The conflict. I'm sure it is not spoken but sion] and Kelly Goode [Vice President unfortunate consequence ofthat i~ when you fear being perceived as ofSeries Development, CBS Entertain­ that the programming selections are having your own agenda, then the very ment Productions] who really have more conservative now than they logical fear is that you will become some kind ofjuice when it comes to have been in years. "Royal Familyt' powerless.·1 know ofone network head talking to [network presidents] then it's (CBS) is '70s television, straight up who was developing a project that was not going to make much difference. without any variation whatsoever. A supposed to take place in an urban high We really have to hang tight and couple years ago, Brandon [TartikoH: school. It was beautifully done; I read hold on for those Goodes and Clarks f~rmer president ofNBC, currently the script. It successfully brought in who are in those network positions to president ofParamount Studios] was issues ofBlack inner-city life, ofBlack make a difference. At the same time, I paying lip service to "tried and true" inner-city education and the problems don't think we can be too demanding as "dead and buried." Tried and true that are in that world. The network or too condemning ofthose guys. If is alive and well in this town again. executives spoke to the producer who every movie th~t Jerry Clark brings to Ifthere is one network that is had written the script and said to his TNT is not a Black film, then we can't really trying to innovate, it's FBe face, to his white face, "I can't put a just dis him behind his back and call [Fox Broadcasting Corp.]. They show that is this Black on my network" him a sell-out. It's a difficult position. know that they can't be tried and Boom. Pan ofme says that I'm here and I'm true and get the audience they want. I think that as long as there are going to be allowed to come up with So, they are doing everything they companies like QuincyJones Entertain­ my1Vshows that will open the eyes of can to try and find an audience. Very ment and Eddie Murphy that are really the American public-that's my job. often they fail, but when they working towards getting some- Black So, does every one ofthose 1Vshows succeed, they succeed significantly. shows on the air, then change is immi­ have to deal with-hip hop culture or And everyone else has to run and nent. But until there are more people Black inner-city life or Black issues? Is catch up. like Jerry Clark [Vice President of that fair to ask me to do that? I don't Production, Turner Network Televi- continued on page 32 BFR: You've met and spent time with the key decision-makers in television, but how many African American executives PEN NSTATE do you run, into? ~ University Park ~Campus King: Ifyou had to count them, it wouldn't take very long. FACUL1Y POSITIONS Much ado has been made about Penn State University, School of Communications, seeks faculty members in the the MricanAmerican revolution in following areas, beginning in August 1992. filmmaking right now. And certainly in comparison with previous years, it FILM STUDIES. The Mass Communications Program has a tenure-track opening for an assistant professor to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in American is something ofa revolution, but I film history and film theory. Demonstrated teaching ability and a record of research don't think that the revolution has and publication are required. Applicants with additional interest in television, cuitural studies or mass communications are especially encouraged to apply. gone behind the scenes in anyway, shape or form in television orfilm. FILMNIDEO. The FilmNideo Program seeks one and contingent on funding, The people whq have the decision­ possibly two, active film/video makers to teach in a program that integrates writing, directing and technical areas. Positions are full-time, tenure-track. Proven teaching making abilities, the people who have ability essential. Academic administrative experience desirable. Rank is negotiable. the power to green-light, are not Please specify the position for which you are applying on your letter of applica­ Black and, in all probability, don't tion. Send a letter describing qualifications/position interest, resume and the names have many Blacks very close to them of three references to: that can address the issues that are of Chair, Search Committee interest in the Black community. BoxBF Penn State School of Communications 201 Carnegie Building BFR: There is an obstacle to honestly University Park, PA 16802 expressing positive feelings for a large Applications received by December 1, 1991, will be assured of consideration. number of Black projects because you'll However, applications will be considered until position is filled.

be perceived as having an agenda. AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONIEQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER King: Exactly. This is an internal WOMEN AND MINORITIES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

16 Black Film Review Blacl~ OSCAR MICHEAUX KATHLEEN E, COLLINS SPIKE LEE EUZHAN PALCY ST CLAIR BOURNE BILL IiIOI!JDOl!i!J GUNN MENELIKSHABAZZ ELLEN the vision. SUMTER MICHELLE PARKERSON the voice. HENRY HAMPTON MED HO.NDO From L.A. to London and Martinique to Mali. : SOULEMAYNE CISSE YOUSSEF We bring you the world of Black film. CHAHINE HAILE GERIMA SAUN­ Black ,FIlm Review brings you news, reviews and in-depth interviews from the most vibrant DRA SHARP ROY CAMPANELLA, movement in contemporary film. Published quar­ II REGINA D HUDLIN CHARLES terly and recognized internationally, Black Film Review is the foremost chronicle of the efforts of BURNETT EDHI CHAREF AVERY filmmakers throughout the Mrican diaspora. And with Hollywood commentary as well as features on BROOKS AYOKA CHENZIRA other filmmakers working outside the mainstream STANLEY NELSON SIDNEY POI­ industry, there is always something for everyone. Subscribe today, or send $3 for a trial issue. TIE ISAAC JULIEN ROBERT You won't want to miss another one. HOO S IDRISSA OUEDRAOGA ,, Black Film Review takes up where the SAR MALDROR BILL DUKE likes of Variety and Premiere leave off JEA -MARIE TENO ARTHUR SI because itgives me in-depth articles and interviews about film that's happening in BITA KATHY SANDLER NEEMA the other three quarters of the world­ BARNETTE BILL FOSTER TOP­ the majority of the world. And as a new producer, it's heartening to see acelebra­ PER CAREWROBERTTOWNSEND tion offilm that reflects my efforts andmy MAUREEN BLACKWOOD JOHN perspectives. ,, AKOMFRAH MARTINA ATILLE Gloria Naylor, Author and Independent ROBERT GARDNER DEBRA Producer ofMama Day.

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BlackFihnReview 17 SCHULTZ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 condoned violence. It made you feel so about whether this is transitory but to in a substantial way to feed back into sorry that that kind ofaction had to utilize the opportunity to really start the production ofthe product. take place. And a lot offilms today working together and use the success don't. They just immure you in that's generated [to find] a way to carve BFR: So what the Black businessman violence. They make you numb to it, out our own piece ofthis media giant needs to know is that it is a lucrative so it's o.k. called Hollywood. Until we do that it's business. not going to be consistent, and it's not Schultz: It is a very lucrative BFR: We're in what I would call a "third going to be truly substantive. business. Otherwise, the Japanese phase" of Black film. Starting from the wouldn't be buying it up... all the Oscar Micheaux days evolving into the BFR: Weill God knows that we've been people need to do is keep reading "race" films of the '305 and '40s1 to the knocking at the door since 1912 with these reports in Forbes and in U.S. "" era of the '70s. Now we William Foster's The Railroad Porter. We're News and World Report that the are here. What name would you give this still knocking at the door. We're still trying to second largest income-producing era? get over. How do we "bust" Hollywood? industry that exists in this country is Schultz: What would I name it? I Schultz: Well, I think we have to entertainment. And since we have so would call it "About Time!" Yeah, it's build our own doors--quit knocking. It much creative input, we need to start a long time coming. I think that we seems a lot ofpeople didn't realize that owning the means ofproduction. can give it any fancy name we want to, this business is like any other business, but I think it's Hollywood's final, only the stakes are higher. They felt it BFR: Give me the scam on Livin' Large! reluctant acknowledgment that there was impenetrable, that there was a great Schultz: It was written by a is an audience for film from a Black mystique around Hollywood, about gentleman by the name ofWilliam point ofview that is not going to go movie making. That it's impossible to Mosely Payne-a guy from Cleve­ away. They know they can make a lot do, and it's not. Other people have land. But some people had their ofmoney on it ifthey approach it come in and busted in and gotten a doubts when they read the first script from a systematic, as opposed to a foothold, but it's impossible to do in because it dealt with every Black haphazard, way. Also, that that small groups-in isolated situations­ stereotype in the world-and not audience is interested in serious, because it is so capital-intensive. necessarily kindly, either. It was very substantial subject matter. One ofthe things we have to do, first much like "In Living Color"-that I think it wasn't until they saw the ofall, is start buying theatres and high, broad satire. It was written reaction to Spike [Lee]'s Do the Right exhibition houses because those, the about three, four years ago. I discov­ Thing that the white folks who sit up exhibitors, get 500/0 ofall that box office ered this script through a friend of in those offices and have the power to gross that we hear about every year. The mine, Topper Carew, who called me green-light films said, "O.K. Let's go $5 or $7 billion generated every year­ up and said, "Man, this incredible out and find our Black 'flavor ofthe halfofthat money goes to the people writer-new Black writer-is on the month' and get on this bandwagon who exhibit the movies. And there's no scene. You've got to meet him." And t~ because i s real." logical reason in my mind why some of he sent me the script, and I read it. I these Black entrepreneurs, instead of thought it was very funny and full of BFR: Well now that is the question-is it l buying a Kentucky Fried Chicken valid messages. real? Or is this another trend? Is this era outlet, shouldn't be pooling the re­ I tried to get it made around going to suffer the same fate as the sources that it takes, because it doesn't "Blaxploitation" era? town, and nobody would touch it take more than $2 million from scratch, Schultz: It might. As long as we because the issues were too contro­ to put a theatre together. There's only remain at the [mercy] ofsomebody versial. It's a comedy with a serious one Black-owned, first-run theatre in the else's whim, then the faucet can be bite. It's a very hard-hitting piece. It nation, the Baldwin Hills Theatre. And turned offat will. We are either on the has a little bit ofPygmalion in it. The screen or offthe screen based on there are 23,000 first-run theatres across makeover ofa lower class person into somebody else who is not ofthe this country. There are too many Black a so-called higher-class-person. It has culture, not interested in the culture­ cities where the municipalities are Black, a little bit ofDr. Faustus in it...a little except what kind ofmoney could be where the bulk ofthe population is bit ofPortrait ofDorian Grey. These made offofit. When the whim Black, not to have a Black-owned were all inspirations for Bill Payne changes, the faucet can be shut of[ I theatre. And that can start generating when he sat down to write this story. think what we have to do is not worry money; that can start generating income It's about this young ghetto kid who

18 Black Film Review wants to be . makes people talk about the central happening today is really gratifying to issues which I find gratifying because me because, when I came out here, the BFR: Oh no! Sans the arrogance, I hope! after they pick themselves offthe floor other "power people"-the Richard Schultz: With whatever makes laughing, they really talk about the Pryors, the Eddie Murphys, the Sidney Bryant Gumbel work, he wants to be a issues-especially young people. Poitiers-theywere all islands unto broadcast anchorman. And that's his themselves and isolated purposely by the image ofsuccess. He'll stop at nothing BFR: So it has a serious underlying message. people around them to keep them from to do that. He has about as much ofa Schultz: It asks the question, "Do you creating a bond. But what I see the chance ofbeing that as an ice cube have to become something other than young filmmakers doing is really starting stands ofstaying whole in Hell! who you really are in order to be to talk to each other, to sit down in Through a series offunny circum­ successful?" groups and talk about how to make this stances, he gets the opportunity to a more permanent situation and how to report a news event, and he is "pegged" BFR: What is your advice to young Black male support each other. And that's great as this media star by this avaricious, and female filmmakers trying to find a way? because that is the only way, in my ratings-hungry news director, who Schultz: By really learning when opinion, to capitalize properly on the happens to be a woman. She decides you're in school-really learning all of opportunities presenting themselves. that he can put this station on the the techniques and getting serious. But the creative people can't do it map, and so she hires him and makes School has all the equipment, there are alone. Not film. Maybe theatre and him over--euts his dreads off: removes people around to help support you and other disciplines, but not film. So the his "B-Boy" dialect, puts him into a you can get your ideas on fum a lot people who have the vision, the politics, suit and tie. And now he's ready to do easier than when you're in the real, hard, the business acumen must be included the news. He wants to do serious news; cold, cruel world. The school time is a because we have to do it as a people. however, he's told, "No, we want you real laboratory time for actually coming to do news aboutthe ghetto, not for the out with real material that you can carry Elizabeth Jackson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in ghetto. Bring us some pimps, prosti­ under your arm to people or enter in the Department ofEnglish and Communications at California State University, Bakersfield and tutes, whores and hustlers, and you'll contests and say, "Hey, I can do this." produces "LifeWatch," an award-winning public be all right." He starts to protest, and affairs program for KUZZ-1V. they say, "Look, this is a white-man's 8FR: So you suggest that film school is decidedly the way? world, and you want to be here, and I Schultz: Well, I would say film school THE WORLD'S LARGEST SELECTION OF QUALITY certainly intend to be here "-because after you have something about the here's this woman trying to make her "African-American Videos" history, about your culture, ofother mark in a white man's world-"then people's culture, about philosophy, so you will do it or grab a broom." you have something to make fums So he decides to compromise his about. But film school right offthe bat ideals, and he starts to do "negative is a bad idea because education, whether image" stories using his friends, his it's in school or in the "school oflife," family and his culture. And the more (traveling around and working in he- does it, the more successful he different environments), is critically becomes. And the more he does it, and important to an understanding of the more successful he becomes, the storytelling. more he sees his image turn whiter and whiter. BFR: Is there anything else you have to say to That's what the story is about. It's fellow artists out there? about selling your soul for fame and Schultz: I feel very optimistic about fortune. It's very funny because it is so this period ofhistory because I think _ absurd and the characterizations border women will finally get on the scene. Gospel. Soul. Reggae. Blues.Jazz. Sports. fitness the absurd, but every time I've told this Some people are being artificially hyped History. Opera. Lectures. Africa. Education story to a T.V. anchorperson, they say, Theatre. Movies. Classics (From 1930's-40's) up. They will come and go, but the • Comedy. Documentaries. Etc....• "Oh, you mean real life." So it's very one's who really have the desire, the 100'8OF VIDEOS-MANY ONLY AVAILABLE FROM interesting. It gets reaction from stick-to-it-iveness and the message to put N~~r~~,~b II~¥X~Po~~ outrage to total hilarity. And then it out there will be around. What I see 837 EXposition Ave.• Dallas, TX • (214) 823-6030

Black Film Review 19 Mira Nair's firstfeature film Salaam Bombay!, brought her into the international spotlight, winning both the Camera d'Or andthe Prix du Publique atthe in 1988. On the heels ofthefilm s tremendous success, Nair was invited by a number ofindependentfinanciers as well as Hollywood studios to pitch ideasfor her nextproject. C7 had been drawn to the idea ofmaking afilm that dealt in some

way with the hierarchy ofcolor, afilm about an interracial love story, n Nair recounts. cWhen we think ofrace relations or racism we hardly ever think ofthe hierarchy of

color that is between, say, black and brown. n With this vision, Nair by Tej Hazarika began preproduction for Mississippi Masala in 1989. Masala literally means a collection ofhot spices ofdifferent colors. Mississippi Masala tells the story ofayoung Indian woman, Mina (Sarita Choudhury) who falls in love with an A.frican American man, played by Denzel Washington. c1n

Mississippi Masala, n Nair explains, cUina is Indian but .from A.frica via England, so she says she is sort of a masala, all mixed up.from everywhere. The wholefilm is a masala, really, because itinvolves several different countries, actors

ofthree nations andclashing cultures. n Mina sfamily wasforced out ofUganda by Idi Amin along with the rest ofthe Asians in 1972. Mira Nair was born in a small town in Orissa, India, in 1957. Since coming to the United States to attend in 1976, Nair has produced four documentaries as well as Salaam Bombay! Mississippi Masala is Nairs firstfilm not set in India. In addition to Academy Award-winner Denzel Wash­ ington, Mississippi Masala's castfeatures Tony Award-winner Charles Dutton and legendary Indian television actress Sharmila Tagore. Mississippi Masala will be released by Cinecom Pictures in February

20 Black Fihn Review Tej Hazarika: All your works show people thing to the screen. I think he Nair: My first trip to the South from the edges of society-cabaret understood its uniqueness. It isn't was in March '89, when we were ~ancers in seedy joints, prostitutes and every day that a film appears with researching ~e film. junkies in Bombay, people far from home. an Asian and Mrican romance. He Th,ese are issues and approaches the was very attracted to that; he was Hazarika: You've been working on it that Indian film industry couldn't care less long? about. Do you feel any attachment to also very attracted to the idea ofnot N air: I had the idea for the film a covering the Asian diaspora, or the playing an emblematic black ,disenfranchised? symbol, since here he plays an year before that and I took it to my Mira Nair: I don't see myselfas a ordinary home boy. Somebody in friend Sooni T araporevela. She and missionary at all, save to lend nobility the audience the other day said it I went on this research trip to the to people wherever they come from. I was the most positive black role they South and then to . We had don't see myselfas a spokesperson for had ever seen on screen, and that at researchers interviewing Ugandan the South Asian diaspora or anything a certain pointyou stop thinking Asians in England and various other as grand as that. I simply follow my about the these people as black or places. Then Sooni wrote the own intuition, and, as I have been in brown-which"is exactly what we screenplay. We share a sensibility the past, continue to be considered aspire to. That's not to say that you and I really love her writing. She just by society to be marginal, whom I deny anybody's ethnicity-their took the idea and made it come don't see as being marginal, whom I blackness or whiteness or alive. We are close and we work very don't see as being marginal at all. I brownness-but while presenting closely. fmd them, broadly speaking, inspira­ them as particulars, open up the tional-as people who teach us how horizon, and present the person as Hazarika: What locations did you shoot in Uganda? to live. When faced with double someone black who possesses an Nair: Kampala, Jima and standards in our society, when faced intense character. Entebbe. with disenfranchisement, when faced with being forgotten-still the spirit Hazarika: Why Greenwood, Mississppi? Hazarika: What sort of reception did you oflife keeps them going. That is the And what was it like there? Nair: I liked Greenwood because get from the government? essential beginning point, and then Nair: Extremely cooperative. visually it is very evocative. The scale you enter their lives and you hope They are very proud to have had ofthe town was right for the story, they will trust you and you learn this film there, because its the first plus the number ofIndian-owned much more about each other. [international feature] film there businesses there. In fact, most since Afiican Queen. People have an Hazarika: There are no whites in this film? motels in the South are Indian­ image ofKampala or Uganda as Nair: They barely exist, but it is a owned. It was big news there, of being AIDS and Amin. It's about white world. As I say, whites are course; they hadn't had a movie time that changed. And I know powerfully absent in the film. shot there since the 1960s. One of from the reception ofthe few people the powerful things about it is that it who have seen it-that is, preview Hazarika: Denzel Washington, is a visually segregated town-a audiences, people offthe streets­ though, is a powerful presence, isn't river separates white and black. The they now want to go to Uganda! he? white neighborhood has wide And Uganda is only 200/0 ofthe Nair: When we previewed the boulevards and is fairly manicured; movie. But it is so visually striking! I film, the audience screamed the the black neighborhood within the refused to film in Kenya or Zimba­ minute he came on screen. It's very, same mile are made up ofdirt roads bwe or any ofthe typical Hollywood very instant! and shanties. To me, the black places that are used to film Mrica. neighborhood was like being Uganda is very particular, so why try Hazirika: It must have been exciting home-like being in Bombay. So to duplicate it when it is already working with him. much life in the streets, and it was Nair: It was quite wonderful! I there. so community-oriented. I just felt at think he was really pround ofthis home. ftlm because he knew that as an Hazarika: Was -it easier this time around since you had a more professional cast? independent film, with an indepen­ Hazarika: Had you traveled in the South dent, it was a struggle to get this before? continuedonpage30

Black Film Review 21 politics ofrepresentation in African cinema attracted my attention during the 1991 Festival ofPan­ eport From FESPACO: Mrican Cinema at Ouagadougou (FESPACO). The first thematizes Mrican cinema by positing concepts such as completion ofhistorical projects, recovery and utopian socialism, while the second valorizes pastiche, nostalgia and a mistrust of authoritarian and chauvinis-

:l._"~1'l.1WlII""'_..•:~. tic leaders. , ..•.•... ~~=-- 1:. .• I:'. .' ••• :-:.~'.~~~J. Seen rrom j: :·'i·Ir.~ th ' :' .1 ••,:.;:.. .:.;.i....ii ese perspec- ro ,: :Ik ,';' ~otiS~J '.' .,. . tives, the fIlms at FESPACO fall in two categories: One with a mission to complete the modernization ofMrica through populist literacy, the emancipation of women and the inclusion ofpeasants in the develop­ ment plan. The other is beyond ideologies and insists that people do not need a leader, The current interest in Mrican they know what is good for them, subjectivities in painting, photogra­ the only purpose ofart is to show phy, literature and film presupposes the humanism ofMricans and their by Manthia Diawara that an African can speak better for diverse cultures. the Mrican experience. It turns texts The films with the enlightenment byMricans into repositories of project valorize materialism and Mrican culture and history. It is also make a movement away from the possible to see in the representation "superstition" oftradition just as ofMrica byMricans a venue for they denounce neocolonialism and diverse images ofMrica, different imperialism. They postulate a politics ofrepresentation. symbiosis between Europe and The advent ofindependence in Mrica. ~[hey incorporate the the '60s created social movements in decolonization theories ofAfrican Mrica that challenged the notion of leaders such as Patrice Lumumba, subjecthood instituted by the Sekou T oure and Amilcar Cabral colonial systems. Today, however, into popular culture. Those in the after thirty years ofindependence camp ofanti-modernization mis­ which have been tinted by dictator­ trust concepts such as nationaliza­ ships and military coups, new tion, the strong leader and desires ofMricanness are emerging decolonization. I now see on fum over and against the nation-state, these two versions ofMrican the idea ofMrican unity and Pan­ independences looking at each Mricanism. Two models ofthe other, face to face, and FESPACO is

22 Black Fihn Review a place where they compete for the ground-breaking anti-moderniza­ prison during T oure's reign. Prior attention ofspectators. tion film. Allah Tanto is an experi­ to becoming an ambassador, Maroff Although not in the official mental documentary about the Aschkar was a member ofthe competition, a new ftIm, Allah director's father, MarofFAschkar, internationally acclaimed Ballet Tanto, directed by David Aschkar, Guinea-Konakry's ambassador at Africain with such figures as Keita forced me to reassess African cinema the United Nations before his Fodeba, the poet laureate ofGuinea since 1973 when Djibril Diop imprisonment and death in 1973 at and minister ofculture, who also Mambetti made Touki Bouki, a Camp Boiro, the notorious political was killed by T oure. The film is a pastiche ofnews­ reels about Guinea­ Konakry with Toure in the center, archival footage about the United Nation's role in the struggle against Apartheid, still photographs and headlines from newspapers, home movies filmed by MaroffAschkar about his family, friends, and col­ leagues, and a fictional reconstruc­ tion ofMarofF Aschkar's prison cell. The home mOVIes are a power­ ful testament to MaroffAschkar's popularity. They depict him with world famous men such as then­ Egyptian leader GamalAbdel Nasser, Cuban ruler FidelCastro,former Tanzanian presi­ dent Julius Nyerere and Martin Luther King, Jr., to name only afew. He's also shown with his wife and children. Scene from Allah Tanto The prison scenes

Black Fihn Review 23 are accompanied by voice-over with MaroffAschkar? reliance as opposed to dependence commentaries which are either read But as I begin to articulate my on foreign remedies. All three by the director addressing his father relation to Allah Tanto, I realize that the tools ofliteracy at the se "ce of as "you" or by the actor playing I have also to reassess the rest of peasants and use oeal kno e e to MaroffAschkar from the father's Mrican cinema. improve the education rece O ed diary. The interweaving ofthe I classify Mrican films in two from the West. narrative voices produces simulta­ categories: those that are anti­ Ta Dona concerns a young neously a testimony for Maroff representational and call attention environmental engineer, Sidi, ho Aschkar and a chance for the son to to themselves through their self­ is sent to Farabugu, a Barnbara clear his father's name. reflexive style, and those that es­ village, to reinforce the new Ia By the time the guards force pouse the enlightenment project, against cutting down trees and MaroffAschkar to confess that he and insist on completing the inde­ setting bush fires. Sidi runs into belongs to the CIA, in Allah Tanto, pendence process through mass trouble with his employers when, the spectator has been positioned t~ literacy, and the constitution ofa instead ofblaming deforestation on identify with him as the victim ofa revolutionary popular culture. the ignorance ofthe villagers, he grotesque system. As a spectator While films like Allah Tanto and points a finger at corrupted minis­ myself: I was overwhelmed by the the films ofIdrissa Ouedraogo (Le ters and businessmen who order the evidence against Sekou T oure, my Choix~ yaaba~ Tilaz) emphasize trees cut down to sell the wood and hero. I am a beneficiary ofhis mass aesthetics, pleasure and a mistrust of carelessly start fires during their literacy program. His ideology of strong ideologies, they risk promenade in the forest~ populist democracy, modernization trivializing the day-to-day difficul­ The film shows Sidi searching for and development plans invented ties in Mrica and the difficulties of the seventh canary, a secret pot in people like myselfwho were rebuilding a lost paradise. The Bambara traditional medicine, marginalized by the elitist education modernizing films, on the other which contains herbal medicine that ofNegritude. Moreover, charis­ hand, posit efficiency as the neces­ cures sterility, stomach cancer, and matic leaders such as T oure defied sary rule ofdevelopment and ellow fever. Sidi's quest for the the sovereignty ofwhite become blind to relativistic desires seventh canary becomes a metaphor subjecthood and gave voice to and different levels ofconsciousness. for his re-education by the villagers Mricans as makers oftheir own Ironically, even as those in the and his re-incorporation in the history. modernizing camp believe that the society ofthe masses. The film is Allah Tanto forced me to ask revolution must turn to popular entertaining in the way it pokes fun myselfhow MaroffAschkar, a man culture to disseminate its ideology, at people in the city and important who fought alongside T oure to their popular culture is often an for the realism with which it recon­ make Guinea the first independent anesthetized one, one without structs traditional Bambara village country in Fran'cophone Mrica and contradictions and the markings of settings immersed in the occult distinguished himselfat the U.N. in pleasure. science, places where proverbs and the struggle to end Apartheid in At FESPACO '91, there were riddles abound. South Mrica, could be subjected to several films that focused on enlight­ In one scene, Sidi finally finds the such violations ofhis rights in his enment in Mrica. The most popular old woman who knows the secret of own country? How could that among them included Ta Dona the seventh canary. Ironically, she is which made me a scholar have (Adama Drabo, Mali), Sango Malo in the Dogon country, a place made killed such a talented father? As a (Bassek Ba Kobhio, Cameroon) and popular byWestern anthropologists young man in Guinea at the time, I Laada (Orissa T oure, Burkina and tourists. Sidi's fiance and her remember the. envy that we had for Faso). All three ofthem criticize the friend, with knapsacks strapped to the Aschkar family. Half-Lebanese failure ofmodernization in the city their backs like Western anthro­ and half-Guinea, they enjoyed the and look to the rural areas for a pologists, come to join him in the same privilege as development plan that fits the sacred place. From the perspective before independence. Were there human and natural resources ofthe ofMrican enlightenment, this scene ways that I could have coexisted countries. All three advocate self- shows Mricans using modern tools

24 Black Film Review relation to his fiance is interesting principal dismisses him telling him Nkrumah gave Mricans their from the same perspective because it that his rhetoric belongs to 1958, in subjecthood, put them in modern . insists on equality between men and Sekou T oure's Guinea. times as historical agents, gave them women. Earlier this year, I interviewed voice to invent themselves and the Sango Malo, too, thematizes a Malian filmmaker Souleymane world around them. The charis­ utilitarian application ofmodernity Cisse and he told me how he matic leadership ofthese men was in Mrica. The film is about a young became a filmmaker. He said that characterized by a radical opposition school teacher, Malo, who moves to he once saw a film about Patrice to imperialism and Western domi­ a rural middle school in Nindje, Lumumba's overthrow. In it, nation, a call for reform in the after graduation from teachers' soldiers tied Lumumba's hands educational system, a nationaliza­ college. Malo clashes with the behind him and shoved a handker­ tion ofindustry and the creation of school's principal when he teaches chiefin his mouth. Cisse says he was development plans. Modernist the students manual labor instead of so moved by that film that he filmmakers such as Soulemayne following the curriculum inherited decided to become a filmmaker to Cisse, Ousmane Sembene (Senegal), from French colonizers. In one use "the powerful emotions that Cheikh Oumar Sissoko (Mali) and scene, the principal confronts Malo cinema is capable ofgenerating." Bassek Ba Kobhio create in their and calls him irresponsible for not For Cisse, as for manyMrican films the populist enlightenment preparing the pupils to become filmmakers who believe in the began by their predecessors.

lawyers and doctors. Malo responds enlightenment project, Lumumba Manthia Diawara is associate director ofthe that what the country needs most symbolized freedom, democracy Center for the Study ofBlack Literature and are people who can work with their and autonomy. Culture at the University ofPennsylvania. For more information about Allah Tanto and T a hands and feed the country. The Lumumba, Toure and Kwame Dona call California Newsreel at (415)621-6196.

Take Control of Your Future at UDC

Stancey Stewart came to the University of the District of Columbia in 1981 . His mind never showed up. Stancey was playing hard in the street. .. having big fun. His reward: Four "F's" and one "A". The playboy student became a statistic...another dropout. Doing back-breaking labor for small pay checks drove Stancey back to the classroom in 1984. Stancey got busy. And he put his priorities in order. He remembers: "At UDC, I learned how to learn! I learned how to apply myself to a task, how to improvise to achieve a specific goal, how not to rest on my achievements, and how to reach higher for the next goaL" He learned to be a winner, not a statistic! The results: In May 1990, Senior Class President Stancey Stewart graduated, magna cum laude, with a For additional information bachelor's degree in journalism, one of about 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs Call UDC-2225, or write: available at UDC. Pay raises and new job opportunities were offered by his employer. His self-e~teem is Office of Undergraduate Admissions, or soaring. The system is working for him now. Office of Graduate Admissions University of the District of Columbia 4200 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Stancey left behind almost 12,000 other smart people Washington, D.C. 20008 at UDC who are determined to take control of their future, too. -JJ1- Join them! ac the smart choice EEO-AA

Black Film Review 25 OF ~y- 0 CO FO P GE 11 exanllne the struggle to exist in cultures historIes (those recessive genes) have to One film that emphaticall demon­ .ch bring ou into existence only to be repressed to come up with that order. strates the struggle to create a ne\v ou, the struggle ofthe bastard. The hybrid quality ofemptying out and language uleiman Ho ge b The Salt Mines (1990) by Susana replacing Western forms happens on ks~i~'m e theP~'~ Aiken and Carlos Aparico, Work in literal as well as structural levels. Gulf ar me

Progress (1990) by Luis Valdovino and Hybridity in content was matched by storyline in r - Under the Table (1984) by Luis Osvaldo hybridity in form in many ofthe works news ofhis famil,; Garcia and TonyVenturi, for example, in the series, as though new filmic ocean away fro e all explore the contradictions faced by languages are needed to express these apanrnent, unable to illegal immigrants in uncategorizable states. The struggle telephone, alienated b ~ ~~I"""r-.~ who fill structural needs for cheap between narrative, documentary, diary news and Westerns on 1\ manual or sexual labor but are officially film and music video often produces maker is visibly helples . pariahs. Others were about the identity what looks like "bad" film--obvious or the U.S., he is from no pIa crisis ofpeople born ofwar: The Razors mannered or too frivolous for the sober represented in the West; hi a ce Edge (1985) by Lebanese filmmaker subject matter. However, a more useful is to make himselfanew. He ge e a Jocelyne Saab; Homage by way to look at these crossbreeds is to see Arabic proverbs on his altered a (1991) by Elia Suleiman, a Palestinian how they make visible the assumptions tosh computer, and the script re e living in New York; Some Divine Wind ofmainstream fiction and documentary back on his face and hands. When e (1991) byJapanese-American Roddy films and television. For example, works in an editing suite, the video Bogawa. Masala (1991) by Canadian fIlmmaker patterns come up as Palestinian flags While acknowledging the irony of Srinivas Krishna looks at first like a instead ofthe usual stripes. In these and trying to define a phenomenon based on situation comedy with the contrast other ways, Suleiman begins to embod destroying definitions, let me list a few turned up too loud. The visual jokes, a language that resists being known and things toward a definition ofhybrid double-takes and the double entendres coopted. films. The hybrid film expresses the are milked for all they are worth, but try The hybrid individual too is in the experience ofthe exiled/emigrant/ seeing these features in terms ofthe position ofshowing that boundaries are culturally-mixed through a mosaic musical extravaganzas from Bombay not natural but built. In Homage, hen language. It takes recognizable forms- that the characters watch via a VCR. the filmmaker receives a letter from a be they music video or National Geo- Masa/a, as a hybrid form, points out the friend who describes the schizophrenia graphic documentary-and empties ethnocentrism behind notions of she feels being an Arab Jew, we realize them out, filling them with new con- humor, timing and even color in North that histories must have been suppressed tent. In the process it creates new forms, American film and TV. to deny the complexity ofArab and new languages with which to express Emptying out and replacing Western Jewish identities. The hybrid character boundary-breaking experiences. Often it forms also occurs literally as an Indian in Farida Ben Lyazid's A Door to the Sky is autobiographical as though the grandmother takes a triumphant tour of (1990), a disaffected, Westernized filmmakers can only trust themselves to available technology, gleefully grinding Moroccan woman, is also in a position communicate the specifity oftheir spices ("masala") in a food processor and to do archaeology. Spurred by her experience. Unfortunately, having no summoning her god, Krishna, with a family's ostracism ofa servant who proper language often weighs heavily on video remote control. Like Masala, Luis becomes pregnant, Nadia is moved to these films. Characters are paralyzed Valdovino's Work in Progress hollows turn the traditional family home into a with ennui; filmic language is slow or out another genre, science fiction, and shelter for women. In conversations ·th stilted. Sometimes the product is fills it with different content. Work in an older Sufi singer, she disco ers a grotesque-the effect ofbreached Progress uses a frenetic mix ofarchival women's tradition within Islam, a boundaries. film footage, on-the-street interviews, tradition buried by centuries ofreligious The hybrid film is also in a position goofy dilemmas and video image practice. This is a feminist story of to do archaeology, to dig up the traces processing to explore the repercussions women's community and women's that the dominant culture would just as ofthe 1986 US Immigration Reform spirituality, but it is not Western soon forget. It is a tourist film. It Law. Valdovino replaces outerspace feminism. Only a character ofboth denaturalizes the dominant order, aliens with illegal aliens to illustrate how worlds, the film suggests, would be able whether in terms ofpolitics, language or perceptions ofundocumented workers to tease out the last history ofher parent aesthetics, and shows how certain stem from fear and xenophobia. culture and make it live again, to give

26 Black Fihn Review Scene form Some Divine Wind. new life to Western involvement. State" films. In both Homage and A as insects, that underlines the hatred The flip side ofhybrid films about the Door to the Sky the main characters between the two cultures from which he return ofthe exile, such as A Door to the spend a lot oftime nearly immobilized; was born. The lazy beauty ofthis and Sky, are hybrid films that turn the gaze in works like The Salt Mines and Some other films in the series suggests the need ofthe tourist on the West. Kidlat Divine Windmost ofthe "action" takes for spaces ofcontemplation in which to Tahimik's PeifUmedNightmare (1978) place in casual conversation or crashed come to terms with hybrid identities. follows the Filipino filmmaker's reaction out on a bed. Yet these are not boring The conditions and languages of to the American colonization ofhis films. Hanging out is for these characters becoming that these films and videos try culture. Traveling to Europe, Tahimik the activity ofbecoming, ofworking to capture are the very processes that discovers half-forgotten facets ofWest­ through pain and ofcoming to terms characterize world culture. They are ern culture, much as the Western with oneself Some Divine Wind, a film frightening processes because they do traveller will do in the third world. He about a youngJapanese-American man, not replace the categories they break hangs out with the Paris street vendors is framed by the question: "What ifyou down with other categories, other ofmagically double-yolked eggs, discovered that the plane that bombed names. Still, they are exhilarating vendors who are being replaced by your Uapanese] mother's village was because this destruction is a condition supermarkets. He marvels at the size of flown by your [American] father?" The for particular voices to speak-in the chimneys ofthe Pompidou Center, vague enormity ofthis pain hovers in the fractured and uncertain rhythms--of each ofwhich could house three Filipino background ofthe film and ofthe experiences for which before we had no families. Uncovering aspects ofthe third protagonist's mind as he moves words. world in the "first," Tahimik blurs the catatonically through his days. That his boundaries between both. is not a normal adolescent angst is Laura U. Marks is a writer andartist living in "Hanging out" appears to be the suggested by World War II propaganda, Rochester, NY. central activity ofmany ofthe "Hybrid including images depicting the Japanese

Black Film Review 27 by K. Leander Williams women nude from the waist, a mother's places itselfcinematically inside the pan­ Imagine this scenario: A young beauty, apprehension amplified by a daughter's theon ofmuch ofthe feminist art of a a mulatto fashion model, talks her catharsis. Ifyou can envision this, you decade ago dealing with Lacanian ps cho­ mother, a middle-aged white woman, will understand the world ofBritish analysis. It stands in opposition to our into an afternoon ofrelaxation at a filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah's new film, internalized patriarchal culture's perpetua­ sauna. Visualize, amongst the myriad of The Body BeautifUL tion ofthe sexual objectification of At once beautiful and transgressive, it women-from the glorious artifice of Scene from The Body Beautiful. fashion photography to the early Holly­ wood noir object/fetish and, now, music video. The Body BeautifUl examines the real-life relationship between the filmmaker and her mother, Madge, the wife ofa Nigerian doctor. During her third pregnancy, adge contracted breast cancer and ub equentl uncle ent a mastectomy, rendering her unable to nurse her newborn son. Through the use offlashbacks and narrated reminiscences by the director and her mother, the film pushes us briskly through the childhood explored earlier in Onwurah's 1988, film Coffee-Coloured Children. While Coffee-Coloured Children explored racial identity confusion, here the text rests upon the poignantly basic duality of displaced sexuality. Raising children alone while intermittently suffering from rheu­ matoid arthritis, Madge often enlists their help to perform the simplest oftasks: "We were accustomed to the sight ofmother's naked body," captions a wonderful scene in which the youngsters give their youthful mother, played by Maureen Douglass, a bath. Courage is a gi en in gozi's films, Leguizam0), a somewhat neurotic, suffer from sexual delusions. and it runs in the famil . Aside from the hardworking Puerto Rican grocery store Though Vasquez's carousing foursome much larger question offestishization, clerk, portrays a realist who has conflict­ joy rides. the night away, they actllally studies have shown gender-associated ing feelings about going to college but symbolize two different two-somes-the changes in a oman s appearance often wants to "." Willie users and the doers. Willie and Vinnie force the afflicted into an emotional (Doug E. Doug), Johnny's best friend, is are shiftless parasites who blame their closet. Madge Onwurah is cast as herself a chronically unemployed, pseudo-Black ineptitude on their race, while Johnny and, with incredible ballast, does not activist whose resounding phrase and Tommy, despite their immediate eschew the camera hen nudity is throughout the film is "It's because I'm hard times, are taking steps to prepare for required. Although the sauna scene is a Black, right?" Fernarido (Nestor Serrano) the future. triumph, it is merely a harbinger ofthe is an insensitive womanizer who shirks In Hangin' with the Homeboys Vasquez transcendence hich follows. While his Puerto Rican identity, demands that attempts to show the range ofpossibilities viewing a group ofyoung men in a cafe, everyone call him "Vinnie" and tries to in today's urban America through she is drawn into an evocative remem~ pass for Italian. Tommy (Mario Joyner), Johnny, Vinnie, Tommy and Willie. brance which first articulates a smolder­ the Mrican American counterpart to the Representing hope and despair, pride and ing sexuality and, then, culminates in a hardworking Johnny character, is a self-hate, these characters join the roster thoroughly dramatized erotic fantasy magazine telemarketer who dreams of offilm heros and villains who attempt to sequence. achieving stardom as an actor. humanize the Mrican American experi­ Like most serious artists ~orking in 'From beginning to end, Vasquez ence for mainstream society. the pop-culture milieu, Onwurah uses attempts to shape the identities ofthese With their stereotypical, all-American cinema as a bridge for spiritual liberation. characters, slowly revealing how they nicknames-Johnny, Willie, Vinnie and The Body BeautifUL is a remarkably candid became who they are. Throughout the Tommy-the four homeboys represent exercise in cinematic soul-searching. course ofthe night, each character is the paradox ofthe American dream. forced to confront his personal demons. Their names Americanize their ethnicity, A MGIIT IN THE LIFE Johnny sees his "dream girl" writhing which (according to the melting pot by Sora Lomax around in a 25-cent porn flick; Willie theory) should be key to mainstream Amidst the boom ofghetto-oentric goes offalone after the foursome is participation, but they reach the main­ films that have flourished during 1991 turned away from an elitist stream in name only; ultimately, they comes Joseph Vasquez's Hangin' with the club by two thick-necked white bounc­ remain on the fringes ofa hostile society. Homeboys, a night-in-the-life snapshot of ers; Vinnie is humiliated when an Italian K .Leander Williams is afreelance writer living in four young men struggling to find their transit cop sees through his "wannabee" New York. identity in the inner city. Hangin' with ruse; and Tommy's night is ruined when Sara Lomax is an -basedfreelance writer. She takes a far more mild is also editor ofGrio' magazine, an African American the Homeboys he catches his girlfriend out with another educationalpublication. approach to depicting urban life than the man. The film violent, drug-ravaged scenarios found in infers that last summer's oox office successes: Matty Willie and RuhsS"a~htOutofBrook~nandJohn Vinnie, whose Singleton's Boyz N The Hood Instead, clashes center Vasquez uses humor, along with the around racism, obligatory "uplift" message, to explore provoke this the pain and frustration ofgrowing up in hostility a racist, classist society. By film's end, because oftheir Vasquez's point is clear: Success is a state preoccupation ofmind. with their racial The four main characters embody the status. Johnny range ofpersonality types that could be and Tommy, represented in any social clique. These whose hearts characters have more dimension, how­ are broken ever, because they also dramatize the when their complexities ofrace and class in contem­ fantasy women Lila (Rosemary Jackson) attempts to tune out Willie's (Doug E. Doug) Afro­ porary American society. Johnny aohn fall from grace, American rhetoric in Hagin Ii with the Homeboys.

Black Film Review 29 MASALA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 N air: Well, every film is differ­ produce? FACULTY POSITION Nair: About $5 million; the ent. In Salaam Bombayfwe had one ANNOUNCEMENT universe-the streets ofBombay average cost ofa Hollywood movie with a cast ofbasically 6 to 10 shot in one shopping mall is $18 University ofCalifornia, major people. This film has 2 million. We are talking here ofa Davis countries, 79 speaking roles, and at film with stars and everything else. least 6 major roles and 15 major Afro-American Studies Department supporting roles. It's like a carnival. Hazarika: How much did Salaam POSITION There's a main theme and plot, as Bombay! cost? Assistant/Associate Professor with a well as many subplots. I cast actors Nair: Less than a million­ specialty in Film and Cultural Studies. $900,000. from Indian television, Indian DESCRIPTION cinema, London, Mrica, Holly­ Candidates should be prepared to Hazarika: How was Masala funded? wood and the South-everywhere. develop and teach undergraduate Nair: Mostly by Cinecom Pic­ So the challenge was quite different. courses that address the emergence of tures here in New York, a produc­ It's blending people who come fum as a genre, with special focus on the tion and distribution company, and from different cultural and acting work ofMrican-American and Mrican Channel 4 Television. in England. fummakers. A Ph.D. in either the traditions into a single universe that huntmimm~tJj.~imcesrequired, could be understood. And moving Hazarika: And are you going to keep and candidates should be familiar with a crew to two countries, on a these films coming? both theory and practice in cultural miniscule budget. We call this an N air: Yes! That's all I know how aesthetics and film/literary criticism. A «(epic on a peanut." to do. knowledge ofthe cultural and political significance ofthe cinema in Africa and minority American communities is Hazarika: What did it cost to Hazarika: Do you see yourself desirable. Candidates with a strong sticking to similar background in Mrican-American subjects? literature and cultural history will also Nair: No, I'm pretty be considered. A joint appointment in The California Institute of the Arts broad-ranging in my Mro-American Studies and a second invites applications for the position of interests. I have three department ofthe candidate's choice or four ideas now for may be possible. The successful appoin­ films, and some of tee is expected to demonstrate academic CalArts is seeking an individual with a distinguished career them ha e nothing to commitment through research, excel­ as a filmmaker, video artist, scholar or curator. Experience do with India or Africa, lence in teaching) and outstanding should be commensurate with a senior level appointment. university and community selVice. The candidate should have the administrative skills and and some ofthem ha e alary and rank are commensurate with background suitJble fS\rhdirecting a multifaceted curriculum. everything to do with cal inst oJ t. e arts qualifications and experience. CalArts is a privately endowed and fully accredited arts them. college of approximately 1000 students, unique in offering STARTING DATE both BFA and MFA degrees in five disciplines: Art, Dance, T ej Hazarika is a freelance July 1, 1992 FilmNideo, Music, and Theatre. There is also an active writer. He is a Ugandan Asian interdisciplinary program. The Institute is known for its settled in N ew York City. This APPLICATION DEADLINE faculty of outstanding -artists and scholars and for its interview is reprinted by Position will be open until fuled innovative graduates. permission ofCineVue, a publication ofAsian APPLICATION Three distinct courses of study are offered: Experimental Cinevision. For more PROCEDURE Animation, Uve Action and Character Animation. The information about CineVue, School of FilmNideo (with a full and part-time faculty of 33 call (212)925-8685. Applicants should send curriculum and an enrollment of nearly 300) enjoys a reputation for vitae, samples ofresearch publications producing imaginative experimental work while at the same and papers, and at least three reference time training students in traditional filmmaking skills. letters to: Application Deadline: Open until position is filled. Professor John o. Stewart Starting Date: Fait, 1992. Chair, Afro-American Studies Search Salary and benefItS competitive. Multiple year contract Committee negotiable. Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Em­ ployer. Send r6sum6, names and telephone numbers of University ofCalifornia, Davis references. samples ofwork to FilmNideo Search Davis, CA 95616 Committee, Office ofthe Provost, CalArts, 24700 McBean The University [IfCalifornia, Davis is an Equal Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355. OpportunitylAffinnattve Action Employer

30 Black Film Review CALENDAR DECEMBER JANUARY

DECEMBER 2 THROUGH 16 THROUGH JANUARY 12 and L Idee ("The Idea"). 'The National Educational Film & "(Degenerate Art': The Fate ofthe For More Information Contact: Video Festival is accepting films and . Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany" can be The Smithsonian Institution videos for competition and presentation seen at the International Gallery in the (202) 357-2627 at its 22nd Annual Film and Video S. Dillon Ripley Center through January Festival, May 20-25, 1992. Submitted 12, 1992. This exhibit, which explores JANUARY 31 THROUGH FEBRUARY 6 entries will be judged by a screening and showcases works censored and A week-long film festival at the committee, and the best entries in banned by the Nazis during their Biograph Theatre in Washington, D.C., individual categories will be awarded crusade against artistic freedom and will illuminate the lives and experiences Gold, Silver, and Bronze Apple Awards. expression, features clips from several ofTibetan people. Three fums, Lung Ta: Gold Apple Award winners are eligible expressionist and abstract films. Seen The Forgotten Tibet, The Reincarnation of for nomination for the Academy Award running continually in the gallery are Kahensur Rinpoche and A Songfor Tibet, competition in the documentary and such clips as: Metropolis, Die Strasse will explore traditional culture as well as short subject categories. Student winners ("The Street"), Vormittagsspuk ("Ghosts the contemporary Tibetan diaspora. will receive $1,000 cash awards. The Before Noon"), Die Busche der Pandora Lung T a features an introduction by the deadline for entry submissions is ("Pandora's Box"), Vampyr ("Vampire") Dhali Lama. December 2, 1991. Late entries will also continued be accepted until December 16, 1991. For More Information Contact: National Educational Film & THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS Video Festival AT AUSTIN 655 Thirteenth Street The Department of Radio-Television-Film of the College of Communication Oakland, CA 94612 seeks can'didates for two positions to commence in the Fall semester, 1992. (415) 465-6885 (1) Assistant Professor Tenure-Track Position in Interactive Multi-Media and/ DECEMBER 8 & 14 or Industry Analysis. Individuals are sought with research and teaching Combining both Mexican film and interests in one or both of these areas. The successful candidate must be the literary tradition, the UClA Film able to conduct research using traditional and nontraditional approaches; and Television Archive hosts four films certification of PhD required by 8/1/92. based on works by Gabriel Garcia (2) Lecturer Position in Film/Television Screenwriting. Professional and/or Marquez and Juan Rulfo. The featured teaching experience in screenwriting and story analysis required; additional films are: Erendira, Mary Dearest, The production teaching skills preferred; MFA or PhD desirable Candida es Realm OfFortune, and The Secret should enclose with their application a screenwriting sample and a one­ Formula. page statement of their screenplay teachOng p i1osophy (materials win not For More Information Contact: be returned). UClA Film and Television Archive 1438 Melnitz H 405 Hilgard Los Angeles, CA 900 (213) 206-8013 e a exes a Austin is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer, and a pica ions from women and members of ethnic minorities are strongly encouraged.

Black Film Review 31 KING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 or More Information Contact: know. I really can't answer that worm, ofsubstance. "I'll Fly Away" is (202) 333-2696 question; it's a question that I struggle a show that takes place in the civil with a lot. rights era and is about the effect of FEBRUARY that era on a white family with a BFR: It would seem to me that it would be Black housekeeper. Do I have to say fair to say that those shows that do deal any more than that? FEBRUARY 8 THROUGH 23 with the African American experience can It's disturbing that, because ofthe The American Museum ofthe certainly offer a fresh viewpoint. lack ofMrican American "show Moving Image presents The New Black King: At the same time, ifwe only runners" at the networks, the only Wave, a retrospective exploring the make television shows that are way they can address these issues is resurgence offeature films by Black critically applauded and disappear with this Mississippi Burningap­ directors. The retrospective includes: after one season, then we really proach, where everything is filtered Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, To haven't done our job. through this white perspective. The Sleep With Anger, A Rage in Harlem, issues themselves are no longer NewJack City, House Party, Hangin' BFR: Can you tell us what a "show runner" addressed. with the Homeboys, Straight Outof is? But I see at the same time that , Boyz N The Hood, A Dry King: The term "show runner" is much ofwhat I'm saying could be White Season, Chameleon Street, Sidewalk probably the most disturbing term misconstrued to imply that I don~ t Stories, Jungle Fever, and Defby Tempta­ because there is literally a list of think that good television can be tion.Guest speakers will include: approved "show runners" that the made. I don't think that the odds are Reginald Hudlin, William Greaves, networks look at and say this person utterly stacked against us. I don't James Bond III and Jacquie Jones. can do it. Ifthey're not on that list, a think that these conditions are For More Information Contact: person is a very hard sell. The Mrican unsurmountable. The American Museum ofthe American "show runners" out there Moving Image are few and far between. There are BFR: You're optimistic. 35 Avenue at 36 Street probably a hundred "show runners," King~ Nobody kids themselves; Astoria, NY 11106 and there a.t;e about three Black ones. everybody knows it is vety, very (718) 784-4520 Two ofthose Black "show runners" difficult because ofthe collaborative are writer-producers; those -are the nature offilmmaking in general and F£BRUARY15 ones with the real juice. IfI've learned television in particular. But, I think The Thirtieth Ann Arbor Film anything in my shoft stay here, it is that a couple ofthe projects we have Festival is accepting entries for its that in television the path to power is brewing here at QJE-which we are upcoming festival to take place March the ability to write. The number of being given the freedom to develop 17-22, 1992. All films submitted must Black executive producer-level writers precisely the way we want to, attach­ be 16mm. Entty fees are $25 (domestic) in Hollywood that are approved by ing the writers that we want-are and $30 (international). Submissions the networks is just minuscule. going to be incredible television. I will be accepted through February 15. It's disturbing because you get the think. that they are going to be For More. Information Contact: idea that, yes, there is a Black revolu­ entertaining and enlightening and Vicki Honeyman tion in Hollywood and as a conse­ make the little difference that I hope Elizabeth Cox quence television has to reflect that. television can make. Ann Arbor Film Festival So let's do a show about a Black PO Box 8232 teacher and you come up with Roy Campanella II is a director andindependent Ann Arbor, MI 48107 "Teach" (ABC), which by its whole filmmaker. (313) 995-5356 premise removes the possibility of really addressing any ofthe issues Mrican Americans want to see addressed on television. It's about a Black teacher in an all-white private school that is going to deal with the problems inherent in all-white private schools. It immediately eliminates the possibility ofaddressing any issues of

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