I’m both excited and apprehensive about the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic, 42. I’m excited because any high-profile film and attendant discussion about the man Martin Luther King, Jr., called “a freedom rider before freedom rides” should be a positive. I’m excited because the film might stir people to read brilliant books like Jules Tygiel’s Baseball’s Great Experiment, [...]
Hollywood Writing Staffs Still Lack Racial, Gender Diversity
March 27, 2013 | Posted by
Despite some slow progress over the last decade, women and minorities remain dramatically underrepresented on TV writing staffs, according to a UCLA/WGA West report released Tuesday. The document – the 2013 WGAW TV Staffing Report – was prepared for the WGAW by Darnell Hunt, a UCLA sociologist who is director of the Ralph J. Bunche [...]
The Bad Relationship And Sex Habits Perpetuated by Popular Movies
February 22, 2013 | Posted by
As the Oscars approach, it’s time to dole out Heartless Awards for all those who write, produce, direct, and star in so-called “romantic” comedies. These “romantic” comedies actually are chock-full of bad sex and relationship habits. There are so many of these bad habits that it’s hard to decide on just a few. But, in [...]
What is Love: How to Overcome Hollywood's Myth of 'True Love'
February 11, 2013 | Posted by
If you’re sitting at the dinner table across from your significant other this Valentine’s Day thinking, “Cupid got it wrong,” then you might need a history lesson in love. Television, movies and music make love seems like some over-powering compulsion that must have a set of characteristics that, ordinarily, people don’t want in any other [...]
Will Whitney Houston Make Oscar List of the Deceased?
February 8, 2013 | Posted by
The Academy Award is generally seen as the crowning achievement of a stellar accomplishment in film. Each year, actors, writers, directors, cinematographers and composers, among others, eagerly anticipate winning a nomination. A select number get to claim a 13 ½-inch gold statuette and gush to colleagues, “You like me! You really like me!” as Sally [...]
Black Female Film Directors Making Their Marks in Hollywood
December 1, 2012 | Posted by
Indiewire.com posted an article by Melissa Silverstein “What Bigelow Effect? Number of Women Directors in Hollywood Falls to 5 Percent” on Woman and Hollywood citing a study by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, on the fall in women directors at the helm of feature [...]
Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Other ‘Celebrity Angels’ Aligning with Tech Startups
November 24, 2012 | Posted by
Dave Morin isn’t easily star-struck. The early Facebook employee is a close confidant of Mark Zuckerberg, and when Morin left the social networking giant two years ago, it was to launch a startup with Napster founder Shaun Fanning. Still, Morin couldn’t quite hide his surprise a few months back when Britney Spears walked into his [...]
Top Earning African-American Film Actors
November 1, 2012 | Posted by
It’s quite obvious how African American actors have taken a prominent place in mainstream Hollywood movies over the recent decade. Quality films with meaty-roles are now casted to African American actors that have proven to draw hordes of fans to the box-office. Gone are the 50’s and 60’s era when motion pictures where limited to [...]
In ‘Vogue’ Italia, Kerry Washington Says Roles Limited for Black Actors
July 14, 2012 | Posted by
Channeling her inner 60s glam goddess in a high-fashion spread in this month’s VOGUE Italia, Scandal star Kerry Washington wraps her vintage glamour in some pretty powerful words: America is not a post-racial society and black actors are suffering because of it. A caption accompanying stunning pictures of Washington wearing Roberto Cavalli animal print jumpsuits, [...]
Tanzanian VJs Spread Foreign Cinema, Becoming Stars in Their Own Right
July 10, 2012 | Posted by
On a gridlocked Tanzanian street, a hive of market vendors are swarming around the cars, unloading boxes of electronics, hauling apple carts, pushing wheelbarrows full of wine glasses and calling out to each over. Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam’s busiest street market, is also one of the points where global cinema flows into Africa; Derek Mukandala, who [...]
