In recent years, strides have been made on the diversity in film front. Specifically, studios have seemingly been more willing to hire diverse voices to helm large projects, which even 10 years ago was a rarity. But we tend to forget that this sort of conversation actually began all the way back almost 30 years ago in the early 1990s.
As detailed in a new profile at the New York Times, many of the opportunities that have been given to Black filmmakers in 2019 are thanks to the price paid by African American filmmakers back in the ‘90s. And unfortunately, even though there were opportunities that came about during that era, thanks to films like “Boyz N The Hood” and “Do The Right Thing,” the industry still held racist beliefs that prevented filmmakers from prospering like they might have been able to do today.
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The filmmaker behind “I Like It Like That,” the first studio film to be directed by a Black woman, Darnell Martin, said she was blacklisted after speaking out about racism and misogyny.
“You think, ‘It’s O.K. — you’re like every other filmmaker,’ but then you realize, ‘No.’ It’s like they set us up to fail — all they wanted was to be able to pat themselves on the back like they did something,” said Martin.
Leslie Harris, the director behind the 1992 film, “Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.,” relayed a terrible experience she had while interviewing for a gig. She said, “I went to an interview and someone said to me: ‘You don’t look like a filmmaker. What are you doing here?’”
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Perhaps one of the most troubling stories came from filmmaker Ernest Dickerson, who is best known for his breakout film, “Juice.” He said that his career was going great until the mid-’90s when he took over the directing duties on the action comedy “Bulletproof,” starring Damon Wayans and Adam Sandler.
He said that the film was intended to be an R-rated, raunchy comedy. But the studio had other plans, hoping to entice teens to see the film. Dickerson said the film “led to the only time I ever got mad enough to punch a hole in the editing room wall.” And that studio interference not only messed up “Bulletproof,” but also sent the filmmaker into “director’s jail.”
“‘Bulletproof’ still opened at No. 1, but I got the worst reviews of my career,” said the filmmaker. “I was criticized for not having everything I was told to take out. I had several projects lined up — I had been developing ‘Blade,’ with Wesley Snipes. The whole idea of where ‘Blade’ went was mine. But the producers looked to ‘Bulletproof’ and thought I had completely lost my street cred. After that, nobody would touch me. I think I’m still in jail, in a way, because I’m doing television.”
The NY Times piece has even more stories that are worth checking out in their entirety. Hopefully, the price paid by these filmmakers back in the ‘90s is the reason that many diverse directors are getting more chances today.