Abdul Ali: Welcome! Let’s get started with an introduction. I’ll begin: I’m Abdul Ali, co-founder and Managing Editor of NeoBlack Cinema Magazine.
Rachel Gordon: I’m Rachel Gordon and I’m a Director/Producer.
Abdul Ali: I consider myself a culture critic as much of my writing is commentary, particularly about music, film, art, etc…
Abdul Ali: How long have you been a director/producer?
Esther Iverem: Hi everybody!
Rachel Gordon: I have been producing since leaving college 13 years ago, but directing for 8 years
Rachel Gordon: I am glad I produced first and think every director should do it at least once
Abdul Ali: Hi Esther, we’ve just done introductions. (could you introduce yourself for Rachel)
Esther Iverem: I’m the founder and editor of SeeingBlack.com, a web site dedicated to Black voices on arts, media, and politics. I’ve worked as a journalist all of my adult life, focusing mainly on cultural criticism–especially movies.
Rachel Gordon: Cool! Print journalists, online or both?
Esther Iverem: I started work on newspapers, IN NYC at The New York Times and New York Newsday. Then I moved to DC and worked at The Washington Post before leaving to work on my own in 1998.
Rachel Gordon: Awesome! I grew up in Annandale so well acquainted with TWP.
Abdul Ali: So, I asked the two of you to discuss with me the idea of what a black film is? This question has become foggier. What do you think?
Rachel Gordon: Should I start off by explaining that I’m white but just came from collaborating with a Black writer and all Black cast? And what I learned and how we did things differently because of that?
Abdul Ali: Actually, Rachel. Before you jump into the specific can you tell me what you think “black film” means? from your background as a producer/director?
Abdul Ali: Esther, how would you define a black film as a critic?
Rachel Gordon: To me, Black film is a movie whose story at least originates in the Black community.
Rachel Gordon: From what I’ve experienced recently, the characters interact slightly differently, the expectations between generations vary, and the sarcasm comes from a different vantage point.
Abdul Ali: Ok. So it’s the story that makes it a black film for you. How about you, Esther?
Esther Iverem: When I put together my book, “We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies,” I separated the movies listed into Black films, Movies with a Black star and “OPP.” Other people’s movies that had a strong connection or relationship to the Black community
Abdul Ali: Ok, so, Esther, you view it as whether it has a Black star?
Esther Iverem: I think that a Black movie is born from a Black narrative or text, and is usually created by a Black director, producer, and writer…
Abdul Ali: If I can answer my own question, I think a multiple of factors goes into what makes a black film. The items that the two of you named but I think it’s important to examine whose ideas are being projected in the film (script, direction) and more to the point who’s money…
Esther Iverem: On the “Black Star” thing: no. It seems to me that Hollywood is trying to force us to accept that any movie with a Black star is a Black movie. I’ve heard that some Blacks in high places tout that line…
Rachel Gordon: Which is where Abdul’s projected comment comes in.
Abdul Ali: So the politics also has a role here?
Rachel Gordon: Are we only talking about Hollywood or are we talking Indie in the East too? Though often one is trying to get to the other.
Abdul Ali: Let me ask this….can a black director create a white film? (for lack of a better term)
Rachel Gordon: Politics always plays a role.
Rachel Gordon: Yes, but they usually don’t…unless you count Jada Pinkett-Smith’s directorial debut a couple of years ago.
Rachel Gordon: And why should they? There are usually so many white films out there that a Black director probably wants to tell a different story, I would think.
Esther Iverem: Politics–absolutely. It has actually been disheartening to see so much of the promise of the “new wave” of black film, which began with Spike Lee in 1986, fizzle and die.
Abdul Ali: What do you make of August Wilson’s decree being overturned to have a black director direct his plays on Broadway?
Rachel Gordon: That’s unfortunate; I always thought theater was more writer-controlled. Well, I do think that, if the person can get the story right, it shouldn’t matter what race they are, but that just doesn’t always happen.
Abdul Ali: August Wilson’s notion was that if he didn’t mandate a black director they would never get the opportunity to direct on Broadway…
Rachel Gordon: If Nadine didn’t think I could direct her work, she’d tell me and I’d respect that.
Esther Iverem: Abdul, you keep so current. I always learn something when I talk to you. I have to start reading the New York papers again!
Abdul Ali: So the question obviously isn’t whether a white director/person can create a black film. I guess the challenge and frustrating point is that the opportunity more often than not isn’t reciprocal.
Esther Iverem: Spike Lee has also set those kinds of rules so that more Blacks would get experience behind the camera. I think Denzel has done the same. I respect that. There is this idea that all kinds of opportunities exist but it seems to me that the film world is getting more and more exclusive.
Rachel Gordon: I would totally agree with that.
Rachel Gordon: What did you think of “Hustle & Flow” though? Which category did that fit in?
Abdul Ali: Hustle & Flow…is an example of the kind of film that isn’t good image-wise for Black people…I’ll defer to Esther.
Esther Iverem: Hustle & Flow was a White man’s view/narrative of the Black world.