Skip to main content
As a film producer that happens to be black, I've never produced or written a film only with or for blacks actors. True, I mainly produce indie films but that would be more of a reason for me to just have familiar faces I'm use to seeing in my films; or faces I feel comfortable around. Jesus, that one never gets old. When I'm producing my personal films for release or writing scripts for agents I considers all races. I cannot paint a picture of the world with only faces of one race. I'm baffled at how Hollywood studios do it on a major scale. It should be impossible, yet we still see it film release after film release mostly white actors and a jarring lack of diversity. This is an example of how studio execs, producers, casting agents and directors forget to look beyond the familiar face and comfort zone. Get out there and mix it up Hollywood. We are missing out on so much talent not including others. It's really disappointing when diversity brings so many perspectives of story telling to the table. What's even more startling is the acceptance of this being business as usual by nearly everyone in the industry. Most people don't speak up because they don't want to ruffle feathers or be labeled "difficult to deal with" and get blackballed out of working. Being told to "shut up" and know your place, this way really hurt those in a position to speak up. If Hollywood were to open a black run Hollywood Studio, and I do have the education and experience to run such a company, I would obtain scripts with a diverse cast of great actors of all races. I would most certainly fund stories about important black figures in history that have been looked over by Hollywood. I would tell storied from across the vast spectrum of the black experience, action, adventure, love, best friend, wedding, thriller, horror including Sci-fi. Yes, black people love seeing and have written Sci-fi films. Point being, we are a very diverse people and that is not reflected in the films we pay money to go see. I for one am tired of the lack of diversity. I want more from Hollywood. I want more from this world. It's truly time to stand up and be counted among the greats. Let us shout to the roof tops, we are here. Maybe a black run studio is the answer after decades of being looked over by Hollywood. Let's name such a great studio if it were to ever come into existence, Mahogany Studios. Yes, that can be my working title.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The New You

The new year is a new beginning for us all. Many people have new year resolutions, but what we really need is a re-charge of the ole' motivational battery to keep us going. It's really motivation that gets us going and after years of upsets and setbacks, quite frankly we need re-charge. Just wonder, what if there was a motivational charging station. How much would you pay for that? So for the new year of 2012. Make your self a new. Keep those promises to yourself. Try to better yourself. Don't just say it in your mind, but mean it. I know it's hard, but hell life is no walk in the park. Give your new life a chance to be realized. Often times, right around the end of January we even forget we had a check list of things we want to change about ourselves, because life keeps us busy. But not this year, right! Like you, I want to be a new person by 2013. I want to be that one person who actually has their checklist out in October still checking off personal goals that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Respect Deserves No Applause

Respect Deserves No Applause I wonder what happened to the days where you treat people how you want to be treated. In all fairness I’m a little young to have experience that age being a child of the 70’s. I didn’t see a lot of it growing up but there was some left. However, I’m still old enough to know what respect is, what it should look like and feel like and to be honest I’m not seeing a lot of it lately. For instance, I contacted an upwardly mobile person of business and of some celebrity for potential business opportunity via the internet of course and was given the viral cold shoulder. Now, in all fairness I know they have people coming to them all the time with ideas and it could be hard to vet who’s serious. I didn’t think I came off aloof but you never know what someone is thinking or the opinion they formed about you based on what little information they had. I’m no outsider to the film industry; however I am clearly not an insider in this person’s mind so the p...
Post a Comment
Read more

DERICK A THOMAS BALTIMORE'S VISIONARY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE

BALTIMORE'S VISIONARY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE By Belinda Trotter-James Derick Thomas now Derick Prince always wanted to be a filmmaker. As a kid he was inspired by the actor Robert Guillaume; you may best know him on the hit television show Benson. At the age of six he has always been a fan of television and it just unfolded into the film-making business when he was a teenager. That’s when he finally got a chance to explore all aspects of film-making. “At the age of six there were not a lot of us on television and television influences children which is one of the reasons why we have so many bad influences today, but that’s another story,” says Derick. “Robert Guillaume was intelligent, articulate, he had power, he had persuasion plus he was the guy who had everything and at six years old I watched him and thought, ‘I can do that.’ He was just a great role model for that time.” When I asked what was he like as a child, he...
Post a Comment
Read more