[...] Right now is a good time to be an African-American man in the movie industry. Brand-new Oscar winner Jamie Foxx is the toast of Hollywood. Having played God in a movie, Morgan Freeman, also a recent Oscar winner, is widely thought to be God. Will Smith's "Hitch" is the biggest movie of the year so far, and, I'm ashamed to say, Ice Cube's "Are We There Yet?" is right behind it. "Diary" writer Perry's star is on the rise. Samuel L. Jackson quietly scored a hit in late January with "Coach Carter," while F. Gary Gray and Darren Grant, the respective directors of "Be Cool" and "Diary," are black men. So are the directors of the upcoming "Beauty Shop," "Guess Who," and "The Fantastic Four."
To get better, more complicated stories told about black women might require more black female writers and directors -- and if you think things are grim for black film actresses, try being a black woman director. The discrepancy between the endless number of African-American women draped over rappers and the paltry number saying "that's a wrap" is staggering. That's enough to make anybody mad. But when will someone get mad enough not to take it anymore?
| That's the end of Wesley Morris' Boston Globe column "Dear 'Diary': Black women are mad about you" (via an e-mail from Blackfeminism.org proprietor Tiffany B. Brown)
posted in articles on March 17, 2005 1:39 PM | t (0)
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Know what? I thought "How stella got her groove back" was bootylicious as well. It shouldn't be enough to see just black folks on the big screen, we should and can demand better: If 'Diary' can't stand alone as a piece of art(which is what film critics, like any art critic is judging the film on, not cuz it resonates with some black women)then it sucks plain and simple - folks gender or race shouldn't be questioned.
It's O.K. to be black and NOT like something that the 'community' thinks is great. Morris is right: we should demand better.
What does it mean to "demand" and what happens when we get so mad we won't take it any more?
To demand seems to me to mean the same thing as to request, just less polite.
The Black community in the United States has comparable income to the Asians in Hong Kong - the Asians in Hong Kong have their own decent film industry.
There are a lot of reasons they have their own decent movies. One is they have a large captive market. They, Indians and Blacks in the United States may be the most influential non-white film-making communities.
Instead of getting mad and making demands, we have to think about where is there money available to improve Black movies and what is the best way to direct that money?
I think I am a passive-aggressive. I refuse to support Black films like "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." If there weren't a market (audience) for all types of degrading Black movies, they would disappear. When are our standards going to increase?
I couldn't see the flick because it looked like a modern day minstrel show to me. I don't know, maybe I am too hard on black films, its just that I expect so much from our people. Great post.
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