tv Just in Time for Black History Month-Black Hollywood TV

You're missing the point-in fact you are only supporting my argument.

Census numbers has nothing to do with this..in fact it has nothing to do with filmmaking. To say and white people have a bigger history (uh hello??! America was stolen from the people who originally inhabit this land, but more importantly life was first established in the parts of the Middle East and parts of what is Now Africa where the sun played a part in the development of (darker) skin color-So who would have the "bigger" History? ) is ignorant to say the least..

Oh In Austrailia chics dig black guys? Oh guess what-They like us in The U.S. and guess what? So does the British..Oh and I can't forget about those damn Canadians, lol..

You bring up Sister Act..*Blank Stare*..Really?? A 1992 Film? You couldn't think of anything else? really? No Will Smith film? Denzel? Halle? Jamie Foxx? You bring up Sister Act? Whoopi Freakin Goldberg? You couldn't think of any 2000s film? lol..

YOU are one of the people who do needs this..Because your movie choices are still in the 90s..Let's widen your horizon..

MileCreations said:
There is a reason for this. The majority of big budget wide release films come from where? Hollywood. Where is Hollywood? In the United States of America. A quick check just told me that in your 2011 census the US had about 78% WHITE people. BLACK people was 13%. Now If I understand correctly (as I believe I do) this would say that on average there is no more than around a one in ten chance of a black person being cast as a main role in a film. I'm not sure if that is the amount but I would be willing to say that there is probably less, and there is a reason. As cinema started as a 'white mans entertainment' white people have a bigger history and so it wouldn't surprise me if the ratio of white actors to black actors is much more significant than the ratio of those actually living in your country. For the record California only has 6.6% black people (ie 1/20 chance). I know over here in Australia though that chics dig black guys. (Ever heard of Sister Act? Like all female black ladies)

Personally I don't go out of my way to watch films with black cast...or films with white cast for that matter. I go to a film because it potentially has a good storyline and has been directed well.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that especially in modern cinema most people don't care about the characters race AND therefore IMO won't go out of there way to go to a website to search for films with a lead cast of African Americans. And what I'm ultimately saying is that this is a very very niche and small market so i wish the best of luck for your endeavour
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Poetrynmoshun said:
You're missing the point-in fact you are only supporting my argument.

Census numbers has nothing to do with this..in fact it has nothing to do with filmmaking. To say and white people have a bigger history (uh hello??! America was stolen from the people who originally inhabit this land, but more importantly life was first established in the parts of the Middle East and parts of what is Now Africa where the sun played a part in the development of (darker) skin color-So who would have the "bigger" History? ) is ignorant to say the least..

Oh In Austrailia chics dig black guys? Oh guess what-They like us in The U.S. and guess what? So does the British..Oh and I can't forget about those damn Canadians, lol..

You bring up Sister Act..*Blank Stare*..Really?? A 1992 Film? You couldn't think of anything else? really? No Will Smith film? Denzel? Halle? Jamie Foxx? You bring up Sister Act? Whoopi Freakin Goldberg? You couldn't think of any 2000s film? lol..

YOU are one of the people who do needs this..Because your movie choices are still in the 90s..Let's widen your horizon..
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I wasn't talking about American history I was referring to the American film history.

I bring up Sister Act because its a cast of mostly black people. Believe it or not :O I know of Will Smith BUT he is often the only or one of few black cast....

I don't go out looking for films with a certain race of people, so why would this be right for me? Isn't it for people who want to search for specifically black cast films?
 
Cracker Funk said:
Yeah, I'm with the OP on this one. If I understand his logic correctly, I strongly agree with it.

I've reached the same conclusion, regarding the gender, ethnicity, sexual-orientation, weight, etc., of protagonists. Just to use gender as an example -- sure, there are a few exceptions, but the overwhelming majority of films have male protagonists, when you could tell the exact same story with a female protagonist. Imagine Back to The Future, but with a female hero. It'd basically be the same damn movie. Imagine Forrest Gump with a female lead. There's no reason why you couldn't tell basically the same damn story.

John McLain could've been black. Jake Sully could've been black. Kaiser Soze could've been black. But they weren't, because the VAST majority of the time, if the role of the protagonist is not ethnicity-specific, it goes white (as well as being straight male). And I don't think this is simply a matter of casting. Gender, ethnicity, and all sorts of stuff, are written into roles.

But for the most part, non-straight-white-skinny-male protagonists are only written in when the story depends on a specific gender, ethnicity, or whatever, and could not be told with any other. Same is true of minorities.

Some of you have made lists. You've named maybe 12 movies, spanning the course of three decades, that have black protagonists. And most of the movies you've cited couldn't be told with any other ethnicity as lead. And those that could've told the same story with any ethnicity were all Star Vehicles. Will Smith makes any movie he wants to make, because he's a fucking juggernaut.

Of course, this is a money thing. The biggest money-making demographic for major release films is young, straight ,white males. So if you wanna make money, make movies for the people who buy the most tickets. I don't think this is racism, just safe business practice.

That being said, I think it creates a HUGE vacuum for movies that don't put the young-straight-white-male demographic first. I think this is something that could be especially important for us ultra-low-budget folk to keep in mind. Why not fill a niche? If the story you want to tell does not require any specific gender/ethnicity/orientation/etc, why not write the protagonist to be something other than what we're used to seeing?

All of this of course doesn't help with the OPs hope to make a website that streams these kinds of flicks. To that end, Poetrynmoshun, I wish the best for you. To be honest, though, I just can't imagine how a $7000 budget is going to afford you the ability to acquire the rights to many films, or the ability to stream them. Maybe I misunderstood something in your pitch?

Anyway, for what it's worth, I think you could get much more mileage out of a blog. Blogs can start small but grow bit. Aintitcoolnews is now a major force, huge news-source, but they started small. If you created a blog or website that shared news/reviews/etc for the films you want to highlight, I think you could find an audience. Best of luck!
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When I first started reading the thread, I was going to follow up by bringing up the issue about female protagonists but CF, you, beat me to it.

I agree that we don't have more films with non-white and non-male protagonists because they won't sell as much.

I've never been to India so I don't know if I'm a 100% correct here but I believe they make 3x more films than Hollywood and 99% of their leads are brown, not white or black or female. Why? Because that is what people want to see and associate with, so it sells the most.

Sometimes it is clearer and easier to understand things when we look at a different culture and country than our own.

I am not saying that I do not wish things were different but I think the OP and CF are just being realistic while some of us are trying to prove them wrong because we are not like that and wish reality was not either.

Hopefully, one day it will not be. What will sell the most will be thought and story, not colour or gender.
 
MileCreations said:
I wasn't talking about American history I was referring to the American film history.

I bring up Sister Act because its a cast of mostly black people. Believe it or not :O I know of Will Smith BUT he is often the only or one of few black cast....

I don't go out looking for films with a certain race of people, so why would this be right for me? Isn't it for people who want to search for specifically black cast films?
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My comment was made because it seem like the extent of African Americans films you knew of, started and ended with Sister Act-which wasn't even a "Black Film"-Sister Act Consist of Majority of white Actors with Whoopi Goldberg as the lead-maybe the website could expand your horizons-put you on to something...current..I don't know..Maybe y'all Australians are like 20 years behind American..IDK..When I think of Will Smith, first image (away from the TV show and rapping) is The Bad Boy Franchise..Then Ali..Men In Black..I, Robot..I am Legend..Pursuit of Happyness..In these films there are african americans that are cast in major roles.

American History and American Film History is intertwined together..As African Americans did not play a major role in hollywood until after the Civil Rights Movement. Well there was Gordon Parks..but that's another story..

As the Prior poster stated in other countries they have films that represent their "culture and race"-But jsut because I am American doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching Downton Abbey.
 
As I think someone suggested earlier in this thread, I'd suggest considering (at least as a preliminary step) starting a website that features reviews of movies that you'd like to feature/promote, along with interviews with the actors and/or writer and/or director, and clips/trailers. You can also highlight movies that are in production/pre-production that you think merit some attention.

As a writer/producer, I know that I'm always looking for more resources like that, and whenever one highlights my movie, I add the link to the website, FB page, and our IMDB page. This gives the site more publicity, as well as promoting

If you can actively promote such a site as a resource for African American filmmakers, then you can aim to get some advertising to cover the costs, and maybe enable you to eventually create the site that you REALLY want. But in the interim, you'd be providing a good PR resource, as well as getting your own name out there.

Anyway, just a thought/suggestion....
 
Thank you for that suggestion. That's definitely a step I am considering.

mlesemann said:
As I think someone suggested earlier in this thread, I'd suggest considering (at least as a preliminary step) starting a website that features reviews of movies that you'd like to feature/promote, along with interviews with the actors and/or writer and/or director, and clips/trailers. You can also highlight movies that are in production/pre-production that you think merit some attention.

As a writer/producer, I know that I'm always looking for more resources like that, and whenever one highlights my movie, I add the link to the website, FB page, and our IMDB page. This gives the site more publicity, as well as promoting

If you can actively promote such a site as a resource for African American filmmakers, then you can aim to get some advertising to cover the costs, and maybe enable you to eventually create the site that you REALLY want. But in the interim, you'd be providing a good PR resource, as well as getting your own name out there.

Anyway, just a thought/suggestion....
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