Image Credit: Sylvain Gaboury/PR Photos; Janet Mayer/PR Photos; Anthony G. Moore/PR PhotosThe internet is lousy with lists of ‘The Top 100′ this and ‘The 50 All-time Greatest’ that. And generally speaking, these ranked run-downs don’t offer much in the way of surprises or thought-provoking insights (unless they carry the Entertainment Weekly stamp, of course). But the gallery that the folks over at BlackVoices.com have cooked up for Black History Month is definitely worth checking out.
In their 30 Black Hollywood Game Changers, you’ll find the obvious candidates — Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing), Tyler Perry (the Madea ouevre), and Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song) — rubbing shoulders with less predictable, unsung filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux, the first African-American to direct a movie (1919′s The Homesteader). Micheaux was also the same guy who introduced the world to renown actor Paul Robeson. Clicking through the list I was especially happy to see Ossie Davis’ name come up. After all, most people still think of Davis first and foremost as an actor, but he also had serious chops behind the camera. I’ll never forget seeing Cotton Comes to Harlem as part of a drive-in double feature as a kid along with Shaft’s Big Score! Bill Duke was another pleasant surprise — his gritty 1992 crime flick Deep Cover starring Jeff Goldblum and Laurence Fishburne is a loco gem itching for rediscovery. Actually, there are a lot of great titles like that on this list begging to be seen again. So why not give it a look. Hopefully a few years from now, this gallery will have a lot more names on it than just 30.
Can’t thank you enough for this list.
Black people, other than Spike Lee, have done absolutely NOTHING for cinema.
Also, Tyler Perry has set black people back a 100 years. His movies are a joke and the fact that it seems to be hitting big amongst the ‘urban-ers’ suggests to us that they’re kind of idiotic and their sense of humor is childish.
That just my $0.02 on all of this.
Wow just wow, the level of ignorance you just displayed..
He’s right about Tyler Perry, though. That guy makes millions off of creating caricatures of stereotypical black people.
He IS right about Perry, but unfortunately that very valid point comes after a shockingly ignorant statement, so it’s pretty much impossible to take him seriously.
It’s time for blackfilmmakers to produce movies bent on showing blacks in a positive manner. Reconizing the achievements of the black race,or focusing on major issues of blacks such as race relations is a good place to start for moviemaking.
“Hopefully a few years from now, this gallery will have a lot more names on it than just 30.”
Couldn’t agree with this statement more because, unfortunately, the list pretty much could be called “30 Black People Who Have Directed/Produced a Movie in Hollywood.”
Francois,
What about Josephine Baker? Al Robeson? Sidney Poitier? Harry Bellafonte? Cicely Tyson? Lavar Burton?
I’ll stop there and maybe you should start using google to understand the contributions of all races (beyond white) in film. Given this is Black History Month, you should start there and maybe you’ll get a clue.
I appreciate EW for posting a link to this BlackVoices piece. Too often, people think of black directors as only directing “black” (read: urban) movies when it is becoming clear that black directors have been doing, and will continue to do, mainstream films.
It is people like Francois, with limited thinking and stereotypic/ignorant views of black contributions to filmmaking, that keep us all 100 steps behind. There’s more to black filmmaking than Tyler Perry and Spike Lee, just like there’s more to white filmmaking than Martin Scorcese and James Cameron.
How are Charles Burnett and Gordon Parks not on this list, but Troy Beyer is?
God has brought us all along way and He’s blessing all the Black Film Makers.None of them should talk about each other.It’s time to come together and do movies together.This is all the Lord doing.I’m a black starting actor and looking to be in one of there movies,shows,ect.God will lead me i pray.
All of you people on this board sound quite ignorant and out of touch with your own race. Stop critizing each other, no matter how they chose to express themselves in filmmaking. You people never express the level of intelligence Mr. Perry has to be such a shrewd businessman. Stop complaining and expressing ignorance so much about each other.
Wham bam thank you, maam, my qeusitons are answered!