The Ten Days or So To Love LA
By Jacquie Taliaferro
La'HiTz*In LA - Diaspora - Images & Awards
Pan African Film Festival (PAFF)
I love LA, at least for 10 days or so. LA is not really the same during
"Awards Month." As The Pan African Film festival kicked-off their
20th year, it did so with the World Premiere of Tim Story' s Film
"Think Like a Man" Based on the best-selling book by Steve Harvey. The
cast includes Gabrielle Union and Chris Brown.
Speaking of
CB, Big-Ups for his Grammy win and also Larry Batiste, our Bay Area's
own, for producing the music for the Pre-Grammy Show!
Back to
PAFF (.org), which is, back in the same spot at Crenshaw & MLK Jr.
Dr. the old Magic Johnson Theaters (after a short hiatus in Culver
City). It is unfortunate that there are not more theaters able to host
the Super Films at PAFF and the other Film Festivals, so that others
can make it out of the festival circuit.
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LaHitz Media at Pan African Film Festival
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"Toussaint Louverture" was the Big Winner
with three awards. Directed by Philippe Niang and starring Jimmy
Jean-Louis (NBC's "HEROES" fame), "Toussaint Louverture" is the long
awaited two-part epic film of the life of Haitian revolutionary, who
led the first successful slave revolt in world history by defeating the
Imperialist armies of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Other highlights of
PAFF include: "Dark Girls" by Bill Duke & D. Channsin which
features interviews with Viola Davis and many others; The Story of
Lover Rock," a UK Documentary directed by Menelik Shabazz, Lover's
Rock, often dubbed " romantic reggae" is a uniquely Black British sound
that developed in the late 70's and 80's against a backdrop of riots,
racial tension and sound systems.
Also another World Premiere
"Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day" Directed by Neema Barnette,
starring Blair Underwood, Sharon Leal, Nicole Beharie and *Pam Grier
and "We the Party" Directed by Mario Van Peebles, starring Snoop Dogg,
YG, Michael Jai White, Sally Richardson-Whitfield, Melvin Van Peebles
and a group of New-Comers. These films are Hot!
*(Pam Grier will
be in San Francisco at the Castro Theatre on St. Paddy's Day, March 17
thanks to Peaches Christ Productions and the San Francisco Black Film Festival.)
Academy Awards - Diaspora & Images The
Academy Awards is one of the most talked-about, celebrated,
controversial, most watched, written about and generally fussed over
event in America. It is up there with the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA
All-Star Week (it was on the same day the West won) and the World Cup;
wait, not the World Cup. The rest of the World is World Cup Crazy but
not the US. Most
of the world does not care about the Academy Awards especially outside
of English speaking countries. How many know Tan Wei won Best Actress
for "Crossing Hennessy" at the Chinese Film Media Awards or The British
Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) presented David Yates, the
2011 John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in
Directing and by the way in 2007 Denzel Washington was honored with the
Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award in Film Excellence. BAFTA has given
tribute to their counterparts "across the pond" for at least 25 years.
FESPACO
(Festival Pan-Africain du Cinema et de la Television de Ouagadougou)
in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa hosts one of the largest Film
& Arts Festival in the World (every two years). How many people
know about this festival let alone who won what?
The
Academy Awards has marketed itself very well. That Gold statue is
coveted and can become real Gold-Cash if taken advantage of upon
winning. Every other year, if not every year, the Black Issues come up. Are we being recognized and for what and how many of us.
This is by far one of the most dysfunctional relationships that exists.
Sidney Poitier, the first "Negro" to receive an Oscar for Best Actor graciously accepted his award:
 | 1964 Academy Awards -
Sidney Poiter's acceptance speech |
He has since received a Life Time Achievement Award from the Academy in 2008. In
a Hollywood Reporter article Spike Lee is quoted: "In 1989, Do the
'Right Thing' was not even nominated [for best picture]," said Lee, with
some mock outrage. "What film won best picture in 1989? 'Driving Miss
Mother F-ing Daisy!' That's why [Oscars] don't matter," said Lee.
"Because 20 years later, who's watching 'Driving Miss Daisy?'
In
the Spike Lee directed film "Malcolm X," Denzel Washington's
masterful, almost reincarnation of Malcolm X in 1992 received a Best
Actor Oscar nomination; yet he won the top award in 2008 for a less
noble role in "Training Day." He masterfully played the part of the
acceptable stereotypical Academy Awards voting gallery expectation of a
Black man. He and Halle Berry both broke a barrier that year with her
getting the Best Actress Oscar for "Monster's Ball," as a downtrodden
Black woman, yet again an acceptable stereotypical Academy Awards voting
gallery expectation of a Black woman.
Gorgeous
Halle and brilliant Denzel were beautifully and symbolically packaged
as bookends of the underlying story of the Academy's gritted teeth
defiance of Black artistic excellence.
Okay.
Okay. Let's not forget Octavia Spencer did win the 2012 Best
Supporting Actress for her role as a defiant maid in "The Help." I am
sure Hattie McDaniel is smiling from heaven. Also, Sean P. Diddy Combs
won a Best Documentary Oscar for "Undefeated," about a North Memphis
high school team of underprivileged football players.
Actress
Mary Pickford, co-founder of United Artist (UA), Louis B. Mayer, head
of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), director Cecil B. DeMille, and producer
Irving Thalberg started the Academy in 1927 with two aims: to mediate
labor disputes and improve the movie industry's image (today those aims
would translate into ameliorating hiring practices and improving the
industry's diversity in images).
Black
actors have won 13 Academy Awards over the years, in fact, by 12
people (Washington has won two). But that's out of a possible 332 given
out since 1929, an infinitesimal 4 percent.
Denzel
Washington said of the Academy, "If the country is 12% Black, make the
Academy 12% Black; If the nation is 15% Hispanic, make the Academy 15 %
Hispanic, Why not?
"I
don't see any reason why the Academy should represent the entire
American population. That's what the People's Choice Awards are for,
"said Frank Pierson, a former Academy president.
Time
to let it go. Any good relationship counselor would say, "Go and lead
a happy life and start by being free of what 'they' think." Simply
said, however, if you are in the film industry in America, Oscars
present an artistic golden ring, a "bling bling" you can't "ch-ching"
ignore as artist or audience. |
The NAACP Image Awards
The 43rd NAACP Image Awards was held just prior to the Academy of Awards and for many it is the Award Show of award shows.
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LaHitz Media Behind The Scenes of NAACP Awards
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Harry Belafonte & Sidney Poitier at the 2012 NAACP Image
Awards. Click Image to see Belafonte interview with Jacquie Taliaferro
talk "back in the day" about collaboration with Poitier and more.
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Yes, the "Star Power" was in the House
starting with Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll,
Louis Gossett Jr., Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Loretta Devine, Alfre
Woodard, Anika Noni Rose, Andre Braugher, Samuel L. Jackson, Don
Cheadle, Jeffrey Wright, Laurence Fishburne, Vin Diesel, Tatyanna Ali,
Tracee Ellis Ross, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Omar Epps, L.L. Cool J, Zoe
Saldana, Wendell Pierce, Common, Hill Harper, Lenny Kravitz, Vanessa
Williams, Mike Epps, Sandra Oh, Corey Reynolds, Idris Elba, Taye Diggs,
Tracy Morgan, Taraji P. Henson, Jenifer Lewis, Rosario Dawson, LaVan
Davis, Cassi Davis, Robert Townsend all hit the red carpet.
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Jacquie Taliaferro speaks with Robert Townsend at the 2012 NAACP Image Awards.
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Chairman's Award winner was Cathy Hughes, the
Founder and the Chairperson of Radio One, Inc., the largest Black owned
and operated broadcast company in the nation. Now a publically owned
company, Radio One, Inc. makes Hughes the first and only Black women to
chair a publicly held corporation.
President's Award winner:
"The Black Stuntmen's Association" (BSA) was founded in 1967 to train,
protect, preserve, and honor the memory of Black Stuntmen and pioneers
of the motion picture and television industry. Prior to the BSA, white
stuntmen were painted black ("paint-down") to do stunts for Black
actors until the organization gained momentum during the Civil Rights
Era to gain employment for stunt people of all races and genders.
Vanguard Award winner George Lucas was on hand to receive his award.
Many of the top TV Shows were nominated with their Stars in attendance:
"Grey's Anatomy," "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit," "The
Closer," "Treme," "Thurgood," "Luther," "The Big C," "Glee," "Curb
Your Enthusiasm," "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," "Men of a Certain
Age," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "Private Practice," "CSI: NY, Modern
Family," "Desperate Housewives," "The Game," "Love That Girl,"
"Southland," "Person of Interest" and the list goes on...
I
❤LA at least for 10 days or so and covering Awards Month is about the
best "ten days or so" LA can produce for this native San Franciscan.
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*(NAACP
Image Awards & PAFF footage shot by Alexander Taliaferro and edited
by Karwanna Dyson/Big Mouth Productions-karwanna1@gmail.com.)
REDUX--Jacquie & Harry in Jamaica, plus glimpse of Sheryl Lee
Ralph. They talk about "Carmen Jones" & "Buck and the Preacher
Man"(collaboration with Sidney Poitier).
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"Back in the Day," Jacquie Taliaferro Interviews Harry Belafonte in Jamaica with introductory clip of Sheryl Lee Ralph.
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Shot Outs:
Pam
Grier will be in San Francisco at the Castro Theatre on St. Paddy's
Day, March 17 thanks to Peaches Christ Productions and the San Francisco Black Film Festival .
Robert Gossett of the "Closer" will star in Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky directed by Michelle Shay at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, April 4-May 12
David Roach, Oakland International Film Festival, April 6-8 (www.oiff.org)
Kali Ray, San Francisco Black Film Festival, June 15-17 (www.sfbff.org)
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