Big budget, low budget, dollar movie or 30 bucks spent on 1 ticket and a popcorn combo; it doesn’t matter how you receive the experience but you have to see these three films as representation of black culture.

First I want to answer the obvious questions. “Did any slave or indentured servitude pictures make the cut?”  The answer is a resounding, “NO!”. Where their depictions in film a big part of American culture? The answer to that is, “yes”.  The best way to explain my reasoning for not including these types of films is my deep understanding of movie making and the creative process and it’s reflection of the time.  The movie maker factories and creative minds alike continued to make movies not for historical connection but for entertainment depicting African-Americans in roles of servitude long after the cultures success in many mediums, medicine, literature, the arts, anthropology etc etc. Today I stand on the shoulders of the esteemed and accomplished Hattie McDaniels and my great-grandmother a domestic worker who acted everyday of her life to survive and I hear them speaking to me.  They are saying, “Even if the powers that be don’t recognize the opportunity in moving on, you keep pushing”.

“You may be shocked by these words, but I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and prayed to the same God with fellow Muslims whose eyes were blue, whose hair was blond and whose skin was the whitest of whites . . .

–Malcolm X the Motion Picture

Much like the life of Malcolm X, the film was destined for success, born from everything that our communities were lacking at the time of production. If Hollywood was a mirror into the black experience our future existed only in some form of service and the lives of leaders and meaningful historical events where just stories that our elders told around the dining room table after Sunday dinner.  The motion picture of Malcolm X was inspired by the Autobiography of Malcolm X written by Afro-American Author Alex Haley who also penned “Roots” and “The Saga of an American Family”.  The Director of Malcolm X an innovator of film art himself whose film techniques are often duplicated by Hollywood heavy weights such as Quenton Tarantino and many others set the world on its heel with this epic drama.  The casting was flawless, Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delro Lindo, Wendell Pierce and so many more. If you are wondering will this film have the same poignant effect more than 20 years after being released, well the proof is right in front of you seen in the latest Tyler Perry production or Shonda Rhimes creation, the queen of prime time television.

“Malcom X”

Directed by: Spike Lee

Release Date: Fall 1992

---

Scene: Early morning South Central L.A., hood. It could have been a scene right out of the popular television show M.A.S.H set in South Korea, during the war. The sound of ambulances and helicopters blared and like a war zone protocol is not a high priority and the only rule was to stay alive to the next day. Doughboy, played by then ganster rapper Ice Cube takes a swig of his 40 oz Colt Malt Liquor and strolls across the street to his partners house. Doughboy sits on the porch with his friend and brings up the events of the night before in conversation. He talks about watching the news depict violent images in other countries and reporting on how foreign countries are becoming increasingly volatile.  Trey, his friend played by 23-year-old Cuba Gooding Jr, finally looks up at Doughboy in dismay recognizing the irony in the news report immediately.

Doughboy: Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.

If you didn’t live in a neighborhood like the Doughboy and Tre characters you understood that right at that moment you heard that line from the movie screen there was some kid rationalizing their existence wondering if the rest of America cared. In contrast to the number 1 movie pick Malcolm X, the director of Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton, brought current events to the movie theater. This might as well have been classified as a documentary to some audience members.  So what is the staying power of relevance for a gang movie depicting images that folks wanted to bury along with victims of this real life time period?  Reality T.V. as seen today. America became disenfranchised with the faux reality movies and our thirst for the naked truth, good or bad, was born.

“Boyz In the Hood”

Written and Directed by: John Singleton

Release Date: Summer 1991

---

Charlie Chaplin said, “To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it”.

Mr. Chaplin might as well have been speaking to all of black America and especially those who dared to act in or direct films. I would like to think the spirit of Charlie Chaplin touched actor and director, Robert Townsend for his creation of “Hollywood Shuffle”.  Robert Townsend played the protagonist waning to be offered serious acting roles only to remain type cast into stereo typical roles of Hollywood’s perception of African-Americans men. If you are ever interested in finding out what others think, write about them and see how they respond, Robert Townsend did.

“Hollywood Shuffle”

Directed by: Robert Townsend

Written by: Robert Townsend and Keenen Ivory Wayans

Release Date: Spring 1987

I curtsy to all the formidable trailblazers that set the standard in movie making.  To conquer the establishment is a feat in it’s own right but you managed to entertain staying true to the craft.