{"id":65908,"date":"2013-06-02T11:21:07","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T11:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2013\/06\/02\/from-nyt-a-breakout-year-for-black-films\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T09:23:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T09:23:41","slug":"from-nyt-a-breakout-year-for-black-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/from-nyt-a-breakout-year-for-black-films\/","title":{"rendered":"From NYT: A Breakout Year for Black Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The New York Times<\/a>: A Breakout Year for Black Films<\/strong>
\nJune 2, 2013<\/p>\n

This article was written by Michael Cieply of the New York Times<\/a> and worth re-posting. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>LOS ANGELES \u2014 Musical. Romance. Epic history. Social drama. Christmas comedy.<\/p>\n

After years of complaint and self-criticism about the shortage of prominent movies by and about black Americans, film companies are poised to release an extraordinary cluster of them across an array of genres in the last five months of 2013.<\/p>\n

At least 10 new films will be released, including several awards contenders, from both independent and major distributors, like the Weinstein Company, Fox Searchlight and Universal Pictures.<\/p>\n

Even some of those who made this year\u2019s movies have been caught by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tell me!\u201d said the director and screenwriter Lee Daniels, when asked how so many black-driven films had materialized at once. His historical drama \u201cThe Butler\u201d \u2014 based on a real-life White House butler who served eight presidents \u2014 is to be released by Weinstein on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working in my own bubble, I come up for air, and there they are,\u201d Mr. Daniels said.<\/p>\n

Black filmmakers say the wave of 2013 releases was built in large part on the creativity that has flourished on the independent-film circuit, which has become a laboratory of sorts for more prominent African-American-themed productions. Writers and directors have been sharpening their skills on indie films the last several years while waiting for big distributors to regain interest.<\/p>\n

Studio executives also say there is a growing audience with more multicultural tastes that gives these films a broader appeal. \u201cThere\u2019s a genre audience out there, but it\u2019s no longer quite so segregated,\u201d said Stephen Gilula, a president of Fox Searchlight. African-American-themed films, when they do find mainstream distributors, are often playing at more theaters in more cities than in the past, Mr. Gilula said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In addition, a cohort of black cultural figures, including directors, actors, writers and playwrights, has fostered a shared spirit that has sustained black filmmakers, even when studios were paying less attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have to liken this to the Harlem Renaissance,\u201d said David E. Talbert, who wrote and directed \u201cBaggage Claim,\u201d a romance that is based on his novel of the same title and will be released in September.<\/p>\n

Mr. Talbert, also a playwright, compared the support system among black filmmakers to the time when black musicians and writers buoyed one another in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n

The 2013 releases are also notable for their range. While black-themed films have never disappeared, the interest of distributors has waned when the movies stuck to more singular genres like urban dramas, about, say, the problems of a drug culture or family dysfunction. Now there is a varied mix that has some filmmakers talking about a cultural rebirth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what I always wished for,\u201d said Kasi Lemmons, who directed \u201cBlack Nativity,\u201d a musical with a libretto by Langston Hughes, scheduled for release in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought it would be an indicator of success, when we had a full spectrum of films,\u201d Ms. Lemmons added.<\/p>\n

As recently as 2010, \u201cPrecious: Based on the Novel \u2018Push\u2019 by Sapphire,\u201d which was directed by Mr. Daniels, provoked worried debate about the status of African-American cinema when it stood out as the only movie by a black director ever to be nominated for a best picture Oscar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year Hollywood\u2019s principal companies released only one prominent film from a black director with a black cast, \u201cSparkle,\u201d from Sony Pictures and the filmmaker Salim Akil, in the July-to-December stretch. (Ava DuVernay\u2019s \u201cMiddle of Nowhere\u201d was released in a small number of theaters in October, while Spike Lee\u2019s \u201cRed Hook Summer\u201d was similarly released by a small New York-based independent company, Variance Films, in August.)<\/p>\n

But a substantial new wave will arrive on July 3 with Lionsgate\u2019s release of a documentary, \u201cKevin Hart: Let Me Explain,\u201d from two black directors, Leslie Small and Tim Story. Other films include \u201cFruitvale Station,\u201d directed by Ryan Coogler, in July; \u201cThe Butler,\u201d by Mr. Daniels, and Mr. Talbert\u2019s \u201cBaggage Claim,\u201d in August; and \u201cTyler Perry\u2019s A Madea Christmas,\u201d from Lionsgate, on Dec. 13.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over all, movies that feature a predominantly black cast in a specifically African-American story have been caught in a squeeze between foreign markets, where those films often come up short, and demographic pressures at home.<\/p>\n

This year the Motion Picture Association of America in its annual statistical survey said that African-Americans, who make up about 12 percent of the population, account for about 11 percent of North American movie ticket sales. By contrast, the association noted, Hispanics, who make up 17 percent of the population, account for 26 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Help,\u201d released in 2011, which had a white director, Tate Taylor, and both black and white stars, nonetheless turned an African-American story about black maids in the Jim Crow era into a summer blockbuster. It joined successes like \u201cThink Like a Man,\u201d \u201cJumping the Broom\u201d and a string of Tyler Perry films to give executives new confidence in the potential of movies built around black themes.<\/p>\n

But executives are also discovering, or rediscovering, filmmakers who have attracted notice, and some awards, with small, independent films.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversation within the black film community is about this new energy that was jump-started by the indie movement,\u201d said Ms. DuVernay, who in 2011 started the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement to issue black-made films that were being overlooked by commercial distributors.<\/p>\n

She said fresh studio attention to indie-bred filmmakers recalls an earlier era, when Spike Lee, with \u201cShe\u2019s Gotta Have It,\u201d and Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, with \u201cHouse Party,\u201d parlayed outsider hits into studio careers.<\/p>\n

(Mr. Lee\u2019s latest, the thriller \u201cOldboy,\u201d will be released by FilmDistrict in October, with Josh Brolin in the lead role; Mr. Lee is also an executive producer of \u201cThe Best Man Holiday,\u201d due in November, whose writer and director, Malcolm D. Lee, is his cousin.)<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s crop, several films have independent roots: \u201cBig Words,\u201d directed by Neil Drumming and released by Ms. DuVernay\u2019s company, about the members of a once-hot hip-hop group confronting midlife, and both \u201cFruitvale Station\u201d and \u201cMother of George,\u201d a pair of Sundance darlings rooted in urban black experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are individually generated films,\u201d said Forest Whitaker, who was a producer of \u201cFruitvale Station,\u201d and played roles in \u201cThe Butler\u201d and \u201cBlack Nativity.\u201d In a recent interview Mr. Whitaker said Mr. Coogler, for instance, wrote \u201cFruitvale Station,\u201d based on the killing of a young black man at an Oakland, Calif., transit station, while still a student at the University of Southern California, and he directed it with backing from independent financiers, including one from China.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwelve Years a Slave,\u201d directed by Steve McQueen, comes from deeper within Hollywood. Its backers include New Regency Pictures and Brad Pitt\u2019s Plan B Entertainment, and it is based on a script by both Mr. McQueen, whose \u201cShame\u201d was distributed in 2011 by Fox Searchlight, and John Ridley, whose extensive credits reach back to \u201cThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air\u201d television series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The film follows Solomon Northup, a free black who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays the lead, is supported by Mr. Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano and others, raising the odds in favor of an audience hit, though the memoir it\u2019s based on is not widely known.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Mr. Daniels\u2019s drama, in which Mr. Whitaker plays a White House butler based on the real-life Eugene Allen, who served eight presidents through Ronald Reagan, is cast with an eye toward an audience as broad as that of \u201cThe Help.\u201d Mr. Whitaker is joined in the cast by Oprah Winfrey, along with John Cusack, Robin Williams, Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, among others.<\/p>\n

Still, Mr. Daniels said, it is the sudden presence of other black directors that has him feeling less isolated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is so comforting,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sure other filmmakers feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

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