Hollywood Black
Hollywood Black
It seems that for people who know too much about a certain topic, creating a docuseries such as ‘Hollywood Black’ would always fall short of, as fulfilling as it may be, the dreams of most people performing it. After all, MGM+ which has no TCM or Criterion Channel catalogue is going to air a four part series by Justin Simien (‘Dear White People’) based on the book of the same title by film historian Donald Bogle. And for this reason particularly is why people need to adjust the focus on the level of expectation.
Nonetheless, such a picture cannot be merely made up of such wishful intentions. Therefore, Simien gathers notorious individuals (scholars, performers, directors and producers) to examine American cinema through the experience of African Americans. There is nothing wrong with the main claim – this is that black people are a fundamental component of this industry and thus projecting this limited happiness on such a topic is fine. But there is a feeling that there is not quite the amount of conviction that is needed to justify that kind of excitement in the first place.
Egypt and Shawky ironic take on striking black aspirations in “Hollywood black” does not shine due to the unfortunately short length of the documentary. The first hour for example wants to cram more than sixty years of black cinema into less than an hour. As a result, earlier black filmmakers chronology becomes a more convenient timeline for that matter. It has been pointed out that a pioneer like Nina Mae McKinney was not emphasized while Josephine Baker only gets a cameo with Fredi Washington taking center stage. In one instance, it is related what Issa Rae says that no other black filmmaker or film director could match the prolific output of Oscar Micheaux; however, that rather general picture fails to take in members of the Maurice family in particular Richard D or the Noble brothers for example George Johnson.
The first installment in the series is rife with early undertones of anxiety. While the scholars like Racquel Gates, Jacqueline Stewart and Bogle have worked up a thick back story celebrity talking heads have simplified history into bald, general statements waiting for general public understanding. That tension captures Simien’s attempts to bring out the two extremes out of the docuseries that is research, which in this case is entertainment, and the desire, which is largely related to having people from the entertainment industry in the exposition.
This docuseries has plenty of Black women directors, talking to the camera as usual, as talking heads, such as locs avelickness, gina princzbythewood, cheryl dunye, melina matsoukas, lena waithe among others. However, very little, if any, amounts of time or space are given to black women’s exposition in the films. How do you go about doing a documentary on black movie directors and not include Kathleen Collins. Apart from Daughters of the Dust’ and ‘The Watermelon Woman’ when we talk about black women directors in this series; we are referring to a large extent to the ones in onband sometime. That decision makes sense to a certain extent because after all it is called “Hollywood Black,” there are essential segments of black films histories which have been grossly revised. They are very few nowadays to be found. No Ayoka Chenzira, no Cauleen Smith, no Zeinabu irene Davis, no black women’s contemporary directors.
Simien was again short on time; that considering being cross- wasting seems rather stupid. But at all times, what is killed is killed for time speaks volume. In the end, “Hollywood Black” is a history lesson on blackness of Hollywood that is purposefully male-centered with a few excerpts in between on the place of women in it all.
There is enough deficiency in “Hollywood Black” that it almost makes one forget that a lot of history is there in it. For example handful of such films can be found augmenting even extreme and outrageous forms of blackface performers for the minstrelsy. Here in America, the efforts and brilliance of Bert Williams are acknowledged. The rather obscure and unreleased veteran feature Lime Kiln Field Day (1913) featuring Williams is skillfully positioned as the first surviving feature film with an all Black cast (currently available for streaming on Criterion Channel). Simien also casts a spotlight on Charles Lane who directed ‘Sidewalk Stories’. As uplifting as it is that the mockumentary by Bill Greaves includes allusions to works such as Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One that came but which did not cringe tight borders to creative expression, the exchange between Simien and DuVernay which includes Simien’s own unconventional take on Greaves’s picture, among other things, maybe quite surprising or confusing in a less agreeable way because it seems that most of the criticism has virtually no analytical content behind it.
That does not mean that Simien’s first person perspective is any less significant. He emphasizes how special The Wiz was to him. One can sense the animation in Simien’s voice as he watches a tape of this often neglected blaxploitation musical. He is determined to make this series in honor of black excellence, disregarding Bill Cosby from the black narrative in pop culture, when describing Richard Pryor and still respecting and elevating Tyler Perry and going around the edges of being politically or racially tooappropriately offensive.
Although more of what versus how cinema is done in your in this film how to go about doing. Ernest Dickerson is ruthless and provocative when he remarks regarding the development of lighting techniques appropriate for black skin and how it has developed over the years. However Simien doesn’t delve deeper into the craft as perhaps one would expect him to. Alternatively he confines himself to the broad strokes of what these advances signify in terms of development. This should appreciate taking when attempting to converse with ordinary artists who are colleagues within his own show and how they depict their art in their film.
Simien has a way of attacking Hollywood’s usage of Blaxploitation and then immediately claiming to like the next rationalization, which is Rudy Ray Moore. He argued at an earlier point from the great 70s Cfilm movies encompassing the 70s, “Black Belt Jones” logic including nostalgia lacks reasoning as it was a 1974 movie. Moreover, misunderstanding this type the idea of elbow grease out looms false and extreme abhorrence of not placing “Cotton Comes to Harlem,” the first film in this regard by the Ossee Davis.
Such challenges are understandable because it is most convenient and practical to expect the audience of ‘Hollywood Black’ to know these things at their fingers. This, so it was, is an introductory series of this sort. All one can do is pray for this appreciation to exercise sufficient performances to get more extensive studies. For that reason, “Hollywood Black” was relatively succeeded.
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- Genre: Documentary
- Country: united states
- Director: Justin Simien
- Cast: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Amy Goodman Kass, Shayla Harris, Jon Kamen