George Alexander Talks The Power Of Our Presence: A Celebration of Black Women in HollywoodPosted by Wilson Morales
March 28, 2014
With Women’s History Month set to end in a few days, here’s a look back at a video that was posted on Essence.com, titled The Power of Our Presence: A Celebration of Black Women in Hollywood.
The video was directed by George Alexander, a media veteran with over 15 years of experience as a producer, director, author and journalist. Over the years, Alexander has produced several shows and video content for the website, including the 2012 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards.
In his own words, Alexander discusses the making of “ESSENCE’s THE POWER OF OUR PRESENCE: A Celebration of Black Women in Hollywood”
“The annual ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards luncheon is unquestionably one of the greatest highlights of Oscar week. It’s pretty amazing. It is the movie industry’s biggest week and some of the most accomplished Black women in Hollywood come together to celebrate each other.
Hollywood, unfortunately, has a long history of leaving the Black woman out of the story. Or when she has been included, she has often been marginalized, rarely at the center of the work. The Black woman in Hollywood has had to — and still is — overcoming negative stereotypes of on-screen portrayals. Of course there have always been exceptions: Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Nichelle Nichols, Diahann Carroll, Eartha Kitt and several other Black women largely defied stereotypical portrayals. Ms. Carroll, was the first Black woman to have her own TV series in a non stereotypical role in her series “Julia,” which ran from 1968 to 1971. She was followed by Teresa Graves, who starred in the short-lived series “Get Christie Love,” which ran from 1974 to 1975. It took Kerry Washington in “Scandal” — nearly forty years after Graves — to be the next Black woman to star in a prime time series.
And there has been some progress behind-the-scenes with historymakers like Cheryl Boone Isaacs — an honoree at this year’s ESSENCE awards — who last year became the first Black person ever and only the third woman to head the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
ESSENCE understands the challenge the Black woman has faced in Hollywood — a town that has often rendered her irrelevant at best and invisible at worst — and its annual celebration is an acknowledgement to the world that Black women matter. That their presence is important.
For the past four years, I have had the honor of producing and directing the video tributes for the Black Women in Hollywood luncheon. I love it. Not only do I get to work with a passionate staff of people who believe in Black women, their beauty and contributions to the world of entertainment, I have had an opportunity create videos chronicling the careers of some of the biggest names in film and television: Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington, Alfre Woodard, Viola Davis, Jennifer Hudson and more. To top it off, I have gotten to feature in the videos some of the industry’s most iconic names like Tom Cruise, Forest Whitaker, Emma Stone and Spike Lee along with pioneers like Warrington Hudlin all of whom recognize the true value of the occasion. It’s a dream gig.
This year I wanted to do something different. I envisioned opening the awards with something special: a short that would take us on a mythical journey to The Beverly Hills Hotel on the day of the awards and that could run not only in the room but also on social media. I wanted it to evoke vintage Hollywood glamour in a contemporary setting. Black women looking their most elegant, sophisticated. Beautiful. The way they should have appeared in those old Hollywood movies had they gotten more opportunities to do so.
The idea floated in my head all summer. Finally, I pitched it to ESSENCE management. They loved it. They got it right away and greenlit the project, which we entitled “The Power of Our Presence,” underscoring what the celebration best represents.
But who would play the roles? To attract serious talent who would align with the ESSENCE brand — the preeminent lifestyle brand for Black women — we knew the script had to be good. Plus, it’s a short. Not a feature. There would be no big screen release. No premieres. No fat fees. That said, the script had to resonate in a powerful way with the actresses we wanted to cast. The words had to speak to them in the truest way. And we knew we wanted the actresses to represent a broad age range — from a young girl to a seasoned gem.
We went big: Oscar nominees Angela Bassett (“What’s Love Got to Do with It”; “Waiting to Exhale”; “Black Nativity”) and Quvenzhané Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”; “Annie”) along with standouts Carmen Ejogo (“Sparkle”) and Emayatzy Corinealdi (“Middle of Nowhere”). Actor Laz Alonso ( “Avatar; “Miracle at Saint Anna”; “Jumping the Broom”) also makes an appearance.
The biggest challenge was coordinating the busy schedules of the actresses with the available dates for The Beverly Hills Hotel for a one-day shoot. To top things off, Quvenzhané lives in New Orleans, is only 10 and missing too many days of school was not an option for her mother. After all, she had only recently wrapped production on “Annie” in New York; the film is due out for Christmas 2014.
Finally, we found a date. But a two-day shoot in one day was no joke. It meant being hyper prepared and focused. Quick setups and quick takes. In and out. There was no time to waste. Along with the fact that a couple of our talent had hard outs, we were on the move.
Disappointingly, that meant there were shots I had to lose: angles I wanted; stunning locations at the hotel that had to go. Ugh! It required, nevertheless, that we keep our focus on the end game: making a beautiful film that would make Black women proud.
Thanks to an amazing team, which included dedicated fellow producers Adisa Septuri and T.J. Sagasegawa along with our amazing director of photography Brian Garbellini, who understood and believed in my vision from the start, we got to the finish line. We captured some cinematic magic and the response has been great, making “The Power of Our Presence” a film for which I will forever be proud.”
Photos courtesy of Brian Garbellini
