Cheryl Boone Isaacs. The former President of the Motion Picture Academy and the first Black woman to hold that post. Ms. Isaacs, who was extremely kind and helpful to me during my VH1 celebrity talk show host time in the late 80s, has long been an advocate of diversity and inclusion. I remember her look of disbelief when the Oscar nominations were announced in 2016 and the critically acclaimed STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON was snubbed in top categories.
I saw STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON more than once. Not just because I grew up in South Central L.A. In New York City, where I lived at the time, I was really surprised at the number of White middle-aged male friends of mine who urged me to see it. They all went with their sons because their sons wanted to see it. The dads were amazed at the filmmaking skill of Black director F. Gary Gray and raved about the hit movie. So I paid to see it. I raved too -- and paid to see it again.
When the Oscar nominations were announced, and Cheryl Boone Isaacs was on-air for the announcements, the list of nominated actors was about as white as Christmas at Fox News. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite hit Twitter, a hashtag started by April Reign, and it caught fire.
The excellent Annenberg Inclusion Initiative looked into Academy membership, which was predominantly White male, and looked at underrepresented artists such as women as people of color. The Initiative will soon open a website called InclusionList.org.
I still feel that those who report on the film arts also need to be included in that list of underrepresented artists. I've blogged several times about the decades-long lack of diversity in the field of film critics on national TV after the 1970s debut of the highly-popular Siskel & Ebert film review show. The duo started on Chicago PBS then moved to Bueva Vista syndication in 1982 with their show retitled "At the Movies."
After graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where I took film journalism courses, I started my professional TV career as a weekly film reviewer on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate in 1979. I am still proud of that fact when, when Chicago PBS sought a new film critic duo to replace Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, I was contacted by Chicago PBS to audition.
I got to New York in 1985. In all my years working there, if there was one area in which I felt blocked by a major color barrier, it was when I sought to do segments as a film critic. I did get a spot as Entertainment Editor/film critic an an ABC News national live production on Lifetime TV in 2000. But getting that audition was not easy. Producers were not convinced I had any film knowledge. I got the job and proved them wrong.
Before network weekday morning news shows became attached to film studios as parent companies -- ABC = Disney, CBS = Paramount, NBC = Universal -- each had a film critic who did reviews on Fridays. From the days of Siskel & Ebert, the film critic duos that followed them in syndication, to the days of film critics on network morning news shows, they were all White males telling us people of color why we needed to see THE COLOR PURPLE, DO THE RIGHT THING, MALCOLM X, LA BAMBA, STAND AND DELIVER and THE JOY LUCK CLUB. Critics of color got no regular TV exposure. And did you ever see a Black or Latinx female film critic on a regular basis on national TV? Never.
Our voices, our history, our knowledge was not included. Case in point: GOOD MORNING AMERICA when the Oscar nominations were announced live in 2017. ABC Entertainment Anchor Chris Connelly was on with Jess Cagle, editor of PEOPLE Magazine. No Black entertainment critic/contributor was at the table. Both Connelly and Cagle, two fine Caucasian men, gushed about Meryl Streep's umpteenth Oscar nomination. Neither mentioned that 1.) With a nomination for FENCES, Viola Davis had just become the most Oscar-nominated Black actress in Hollywood history. It was her 3rd nomination. 2.) Whoopi Goldberg, of ABC's THE VIEW, had held the record for 20 years of being the most Oscar-nominated Black actress in Hollywood history with 2 nominations including a win for GHOST 3.) Denzel Washington had just become the most Oscar-nominated Black actor in Hollywood history with his nomination for FENCES and 4.) Denzel starred opposite and directed Viola Davis to her Oscar nomination for FENCES.
I would've mentioned that but...well, you know...ABC News producers didn't think I knew anything about films.
The arts needs diversity and inclusion. The conversation about and criticism of the arts also needs diversity and inclusion. I am grateful to the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative for the work its done -- and is doing.
Here are short looks at some of my TV work focusing on films and film artists.
With Shirley MacLaine on VH1 talking about TERMS OF ENDEARMENT written and directed by James L. Brooks.
No comments:
Post a Comment