Black Diaspora Film Network

100 PRINTS seminar for Scriptwriters - THREE DAYS TO GO

2010-02-23T17:32:00.002Z

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The New Black Website launches...

2009-11-30T19:36:00.001Z

The New Black - official website

UK Black Filmmaker Ishmahil Blagrove Arrested in Israel

2009-06-30T08:57:00.000+01:00

At 1:40 am this morning Israeli Occupation Forces forcibly boarded the Free Gaza boat, SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, and kidnapped 21 human rights workers and journalists who were on their way to deliver much needed humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to besieged Gaza.

Among those abducted by Israel include colleague Ishmahil Blagrove, filmmaker and founder of RicenPeas Films, Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. They are currently being held in Israel's Ramla High Security Prison.

Since their kidnapping, tens-of-thousands of people around the world have mobilized to demand their immediate and unconditional release. The Free Gaza Movement would like to thank everyone who has made a phone call, sent a fax or email, written a letter, or organized a demonstration on behalf of their 21 imprisoned friends.

Everyone please distribute this posting to all your film mailing lists and networks.

For more info visit www.freegaza.org

Film societies and community cinemas Annual Survey Results

2009-05-26T17:47:00.001+01:00

Film societies and community cinemas Annual Survey Results - posted 02.3.2009

The most recent and comprehensive survey of film societies and community cinemas was published this week by the British Federation of Film Societies (BFFS).

The survey provides a key update on a sector of significant cultural and social importance to the UK – that of not-for-profit community cinema. Over 100 organisations completed the extensive survey.

Key findings included:
• Admissions: Film societies and community cinemas recorded audiences of an estimated 361,000 in 2007/08. Theatrical ticket sales on the scale would have generated box office revenues of £1.8 million.
• Programme diversity: Over 625 different titles were screened by responding organisations. This is compared with 516 released in cinemas in 2007. 65 per cent of these titles were screened by only one film society or community cinema, indicating the diversity of programming choices made by the sector. Of the films screened by film societies and community cinemas 23 per cent were British, and 39 per cent were in a foreign language.
• Education and media literacy: The majority (73 per cent) of organisations provided programming notes to accompany screenings, and nearly the same proportion also measured audience reaction to films.
• Membership: an increase of around eight per cent was reported by groups with a membership-loyalty scheme (88 per cent).
• Enhanced film provision in areas otherwise neglected by commercial cinemas: 40 per cent of community cinemas operated in rural areas (compared to three per cent of commercial screens). On average groups were located around eight miles away from the nearest commercial cinema.
• Satisfaction with BFFS: for the second year running there was a high level of satisfaction with BFFS services and resources.

The full survey report can be downloaded at www.bffs.org.uk. For further information contact Ros Hill on 0114 2210314 or on email at info@bffs.org.uk

Spike Lee interview in the Observer magazine

2009-05-26T12:10:00.000+01:00

'Barack changes everything'

Ever since a college project filming riots in New York in 1977, Spike Lee has used his movies to provide an alternative commentary on life in his home country. Here, he tells John Colapinto what the future holds now that Obama has torn up the script for African-Americans

John Colapinto
The Observer, Sunday 4 January 2009
Article history

One morning last June, Spike Lee arrived early at the Sony Pictures Studios, in Culver City, California, to record the score for his new feature, Miracle at St Anna, a second world war film about the US Army's 92nd Division, an all-black unit that battled the Nazis during the Italian campaign. Lee was joined in the studio's control room by his music-recording team. A large window overlooked the cavernous soundstage where Judy Garland recorded "Over the Rainbow", in 1938, when the lot belonged to MGM. A 95-piece orchestra that Lee had engaged had not yet arrived.

Miracle At St. Anna
Release: 2008
Country: Rest of the world
Runtime: 160 mins
Directors: Spike Lee
Cast: Derek Luke, Laz Alonso, Michael Ealy, Omar Benson Miller
More on this film

A month earlier, at a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Lee had sparked a very public feud with Clint Eastwood when he accused him of having omitted black soldiers from his two recent movies about Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. (Historians estimate that between 700 and 900 black servicemen participated in the battle.) The spat had escalated quickly. Eastwood told the Guardian that he had left out the black soldiers because none had actually raised the flag, adding that "a guy like that should shut his face". Lee shot back, telling ABCNews.com, "The man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either."

Lee's remarks appeared online three days before he began recording the score for Miracle at St Anna. Lee sees the movie, the first by a major American director to treat the experience of black soldiers in the war, as redress not only for Eastwood's pictures but for an all-white Hollywood vision of the second world war which dates to the 1962 John Wayne movie The Longest Day - and before.

As the orchestra began to gather on the soundstage, Lee scribbled notes about the score on a yellow legal pad. He is 5ft 6in, with a barrel chest and a pigeon-toed walk. His baleful, half-hooded eyes peered out from behind tortoiseshell frames. There was a diamond stud in his left earlobe. He is 51, has a small bald spot at the crown of his short Afro, and wore an orange T-shirt with a picture of Barack Obama and the word "REPRESENT".

It's been more than 20 years since Lee's debut, the 1986 movie She's Gotta Have It - a breezy sex comedy about a liberated African-American woman and her three male suitors - and he remains Hollywood's most prominent black filmmaker. He has directed 18 features, three of which (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and Malcolm X) have earnt him a reputation as a filmmaker obsessed with race. Releasing movies at an average of nearly one a year, Lee has maintained a pace matched only by Woody Allen.

Lee is the artistic director of NYU's graduate film programme, where he teaches a master class in directing. He also makes music videos and TV ads (he has done spots for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry's, among others) and has made two superb documentaries: 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 bombing by the Ku Klux Klan of a black church in Alabama, and When the Levees Broke, about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He is able to accomplish so much in part because he often rises at 5am. "You want to get a lot done, you gotta get up in the morning," he told me. The rest, he says, is "time management". But Lee's output also reflects the unusual fecundity of his imagination. "Spike was the idea man," Herb Eichelberger, who taught Lee in an undergraduate film course in Atlanta in 1977, told me. "He was a good writer, and he would explore those ideas and turn them into full-blown mini-epics."

Terence Blanchard, the score's composer, arrived in the control room. A heavy-set African-American from New Orleans, Blanchard has known Lee for 20 years. He played trumpet on She's Gotta Have It, School Daze and Mo' Better Blues, and in 1991 Lee hired him to be the composer for Jungle Fever. Blanchard has scored all but two of Lee's films since. Unlike most directors, Lee includes the composer in the process from the start, often before a script even exists - "from the inception of ideas", as he puts it. Lee's emphasis on the music results in scores that often clash with the dialogue, making it difficult to hear the actors. "Of course you want people to understand the dialogue," he told me. "But the human brain is wonderful - with the correct score and the correct mix, the brain can multi-task and hear the dialogue and the music at the same time."

Before Lee and Blanchard could get to work, a Sony studio employee approached carrying a poster of Miracle at St Anna. He wanted the men to sign it, so that it could be mounted in the hallway next to posters for other movies whose scores had been recorded in the studio.

"Yeah, OK," Lee said, brusquely. He added, "We want the John Williams spot" - referring to the composer who writes the endlessly imitated music for Steven Spielberg's movies.

"You'll be right next to John Williams," the Sony man said, in a mollifying tone. "How's that?"

"We want the John Williams-Spielberg, you know?" Lee repeated.

"We'll take down the Memoirs of a Geisha, and put yours..."

"Don't put us next to Judd Apapoe, whatever that guy is," Lee interrupted, referring to Judd Apatow, the director of the goofball comedies Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. "We gotta be next to Spielberg and Williams!"

"You got it," the man said. He obtained the signatures, then scurried away like a soldier ducking enemy fire.

Blanchard opened a sound-proof door and walked on to the soundstage, where he took his place at a podium facing the musicians. On a large screen at the back of the stage, a scene from the end of the film began to play: battle-weary black soldiers moved through the cobblestoned streets of Colognora, a tiny hill town in Tuscany near where the 92nd Division, also known as the Buffalo Soldiers (they took the name from the original Buffalo Soldiers, six all-black army regiments from the late 19th century), fought. Nazi soldiers staged an ambush, and Lee captured the ensuing violence with a series of sweeping tracking shots and fast edits that are characteristic of his kinetic visual style. The orchestra played Blanchard's surging score - a passage heavy on brasses and piercing violins, but in a minor key and with a slow tempo that contrasted sharply with the battle onscreen. Where many filmmakers would have demanded a rousing score to complement the action, Blanchard and Lee had devised music that was unexpectedly elegiac, emphasising the wasted lives. As the battle scene unfolded, Lee got up from the console and hurried to the front of the control room, where he sat at a table that held a small monitor. He moved his face close to the screen as a GI spoke his dying words to a fellow soldier. A trumpet played softly under the dialogue. When the scene ended, Lee leaped from his chair and shouted, "Woooo!"

Blanchard came back into the control room. "Was the brass big enough?" he asked.

"Hell, yeah," Lee said. He laughed and jumped up and down.

The plot of Miracle at St Anna revolves around a bond that forms between one of the Buffalo Soldiers and an orphaned nine-year-old Italian boy and, in this respect, Miracle reflects Lee's opinion - as he expressed it to me - that love can transcend colour. But the movie is not without racial provocations. It is based on a novel by James McBride, who adapted it for the screen, but Lee had McBride add a scene involving Axis Sally - Germany's version of Tokyo Rose - a woman born in Maine, who migrated to Germany before the war and, embracing the Nazi cause, broadcast anti-American propaganda over Radio Berlin. In the film, Axis Sally, played by the German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, is shown sitting at a table in front of a swastika, speaking into a microphone. Her words echo over loudspeakers mounted on trucks as the Buffalo Soldiers advance toward the Serchio River: "Welcome, 92nd Division, Buffalo Soldiers. We've been waiting for you. Do you know our German Wehrmacht has been here digging bunkers for six months? Waiting? Your white commanders won't tell you that, of course. Why? Because they don't care if you die. But the German people have nothing against the Negro. That's why I'm warning you now with all my heart and soul. Save yourself, Negro brothers. Why die for a nation that doesn't want you? A nation that treats you like a slave! Did I say slave? Yes I did!"

Lee had intercut the speech with reaction shots of the Buffalo Soldiers wincing and even weeping. When the scene ended, he clapped his hands, cackled, and said, "Yee, yee, yee!"

Lee told me that he had researched the history of the Buffalo Soldiers in the second world war exhaustively, but Axis Sally's speech does not derive from a particular broadcast. Lee said that he had come up with the idea for the speech and asked McBride to incorporate it into the scene. "Propaganda with some truth in it," Lee explained. "Very unsettling to the Buffalo Soldiers."

The effect was powerful, if not exactly subtle, but such gestures have got Lee into trouble in the past. He has justified his manipulations of reality on artistic grounds. For Do the Right Thing, his cinematic anatomy of a race riot, which was shot in the summer of 1988 in the drug- and crime-riddled Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn, Lee's crew spent weeks cleaning up a street of crack houses - painting façades, fixing broken stoops - before filming began, and Lee makes no reference to drugs in the movie, a decision for which he was heavily criticised. Lee responded by saying, "This film is not about drugs," and by accusing those who challenged him of racial stereotyping.

"The fact that Spike Lee is a talented guy is unarguable," says Stanley Crouch, the African-American cultural critic who has long been one of Lee's fiercest detractors. "But if you make movies as consistently inferior to the movies of Woody Allen or Martin Scorsese and cry 'racism' or imply racism, when your movies are not as successful as theirs are - what is that? On a human level, his comprehension of other people is far more shallow than theirs is, and that's the basic problem that he's had from the beginning of his career, the fundamental shallowness that you get from a propagandist."

Scorsese, however, says that he admires Lee. "I always responded to his work as a fresh, original American voice in cinema - mainstream cinema. He actually pushes the medium in narrative storytelling. The way he uses the moving camera, the way he edits films, the use of music, the film stock that he uses - in particular, in one of the best American films, Malcolm X, but also in the documentaries. When you look at the list of the work that he's done - films, commercials, documentaries - the nature of the voice that he is in the entertainment industry in America is quite unique."

"People think I'm this angry black man walking around in a constant state of rage," Lee complained to me when we first met, in New York last May. His annoyance at this perception is understandable; he can be funny and warm, and even his angriest movies are leavened with humour. Yet the persona he projects, imperious and impatient, can be intimidating. He had invited me to join him at the Jazz Standard to listen to Blanchard, who was playing trumpet with his small jazz combo. He sat through Blanchard's gig uttering only a few words to me, and gave me a stern glance when I tried to initiate conversation between numbers.

Ernest Dickerson, who has known Lee since they were classmates at NYU film school in the early 80s and who shot all of Lee's movies up to and including Malcolm X, before becoming a director himself, said of Lee, "He's never suffered fools. You've got to bring your best game to him. He looks at everybody with, 'OK, what're you doing?'" Blanchard told me that Lee once became so incensed by the tardiness of a music copyist during the scoring of Malcolm X that he hurled a chair across the room and had the copyist fired.

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee, in Atlanta, Georgia, but his mother, Jacquelyn (who died in 1977, from cancer, when Lee was 20), gave him the nickname Spike because, she later told him, he was "a tough baby". Lee is the eldest of six children (he has a half-brother, Arnold, from his father's second marriage). Lee has called his family "very artistic". Jacquelyn was a high-school teacher of art and African-American literature, and Lee's father, Bill, played stand-up jazz bass, but also recorded with Peter, Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Theodore Bikel, Josh White and Odetta.

"My father would take us up to the Newport Jazz Festival," Lee told me. "Or, if he was playing at the Village Vanguard or the Bitter End, sometimes we could stay up late and go with him." For a time, Bill Lee was the sole breadwinner, but when electric bass became ubiquitous in popular music, in the mid-60s, he refused to play it and stopped getting the lucrative studio work. His wife was obliged to return to teaching. "I like the artistic stance," Lee told me, with an exasperated laugh. "You have a family to support!" But he added, with admiration, "He's never played electric bass to date."

Lee's mother took the children to Broadway plays and to movies, but Lee maintains that he was not like many directors, who say they knew from childhood that they wanted to make movies. "I loved sport," he says. "I knew I was never going to play professional sport, but I loved playing and I went to all the games I could afford to." When Lee was eight, the family moved to Cobble Hill, then an Italian-American neighbourhood of Brooklyn. They were the first black family to do so, Lee says. "First couple of days, we got called 'nigger' by some kids," he told me. "Once they saw that there wasn't a hundred other black families moving in behind us, like we're the only one, then it was OK and it was never an issue after that."

The family later moved to the middle-class black neighbourhood of Fort Greene, to a brownstone where his father, now 80, still lives.

After Lee graduated from John Dewey High School, in 1975, he became the third generation in his family to attend Morehouse, the all-black college in Atlanta. In the summer of 1977, after his second year, he returned to New York and searched, unsuccessfully, for a job. David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" serial killer, was terrorising Manhattan with random shootings, and in July there was a citywide blackout, which lasted 25 hours and resulted in looting, arson and vandalism. Lee, carrying a Super-8 camera he had been given the previous Christmas, went into the streets to film the chaos.

"I just spent that whole summer shooting," he said.

When he returned to Morehouse for his junior year, he decided to major in mass communications. The programme included print journalism, radio, television and film. "Once I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker, I really started growing up," Lee says. "I was really focused." Lee became particularly close with two other undergraduate film majors, Monty Ross and George Folkes. "They said, 'We really want to make some changes, '" Herb Eichelberger recalled. "'We're tired of these woe-is-me films, the black always being the underdog and never getting to break even on the silver screen.'"

For Lee's senior project, Eichelberger encouraged him to edit the footage he had shot in the summer of 1977. Lee turned it into a short feature that he called Last Hustle in Brooklyn. The film was a mock-documentary that included scenes of New Yorkers trapped in elevators during the blackout and of people looting stores, as well as scenes acted out by Lee's younger siblings. By then, Lee had applied to the top film schools in the country - the first of Eichelberger's students to do so - and had been accepted at NYU. At the time, there were only a handful of African-American directors in Hollywood, including Sidney Poitier, Gordon Parks, who directed the Shaft movies, and Michael Shultz, who made hits for Richard Pryor. "When I told people at Morehouse I was going to film school to become a filmmaker," Lee says, "they said I was crazy."

The NYU film programme is one of the best in the US. (Ang Lee was in Lee's class, and Jim Jarmusch was there at the same time.) During his first year, Lee was shown a number of classic movies by his professors, including the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, by DW Griffith, who pioneered many cinematic techniques still in use today. But the film was notorious, even at the time of its release, for its endorsement of white supremacy and its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Lee felt that his professors put too much emphasis on Griffith's artistry and not enough on the film's racist message. "They taught that DW Griffith is the father of cinema," Lee told me. "They talk about all the 'innovations' - which he did. But they never really talked about the implications of Birth of a Nation, never really talked about how that film was used as a recruiting tool for the KKK." For one of his first-year projects, Lee wrote and directed a 20-minute film called The Answer, about an out-of-work African-American screenwriter who agrees to write a remake of Birth of a Nation. The screenwriter ultimately decides that he cannot go through with the project and is attacked by Klan members, who burn a cross in front of his house.

The Answer was shown at a screening of student films, and some members of the faculty were incensed. Roberta Hodes, a retired NYU film professor who took part in the debate over Lee's film, says that some faculty members recommended that he not be invited back for the final two years of the programme. After the first year, the school weeded out students who lacked promise. But talent was not an issue with The Answer, Hodes says. "I just think it offended everyone," she told me. "I felt offended, too, I'm ashamed to say."

Eleanor Hamerow, former head of the film department, said that the problem was not the film's content but its overweening ambition. "In first year, we're trying to teach them the basics, and certainly the idea was to execute exercises, make small films, but within limits," Hamerow said. "He was trying to solve a problem overnight - the social problem with the blacks and the whites. He undertook to fix the great film-maker who made that movie, DW Griffith." Hamerow says she was among those faculty members who voted to keep Lee in the programme, so that he could, "Go on and learn more."

After graduation, Lee took a job at a small film distribution company in the city. That year, Jim Jarmusch released Stranger Than Paradise, a critical and commercial success by the standards of independent cinema. "Jim Jarmusch was our hero," Lee told me. "When you're in film school, you study Scorsese, all these people - but you don't know them. But when somebody you know, who you saw in class and saw in school, makes it ... then it's do-able. So we were all, like, 'Yeah, we can do it now!'"

In 1985, Lee wrote the screenplay for She's Gotta Have It, about Nola Darling and her three suitors. Shot on the streets of Brooklyn and featuring a star turn by Lee as Mars Blackmon, a bespectacled and geeky would-be lover, the movie not only defied prevailing stereotypes of the Reagan-era inner-city black movie, but called to mind Woody Allen's early romantic comedies. To help finance the movie - which cost $175,000 - he obtained a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, and seed money from his maternal grandmother, Zimmie, a frugal woman who "saved her social security cheques", Lee says. Everything about the movie suggested a refined sensibility - from the lush black-and-white camerawork to the sudden explosion of colour in a dance number. ("Spike's love of musicals really contributed to the dance sequence," says Dickerson, who worked as the cameraman.

"A lot of people don't know that Spike is a big fan of Hollywood musicals. Big Vincente Minnelli fan.") Lee's very funny performance as Mars Blackmon - in an oversized gold medallion, a fade haircut, and puffy Air Jordans - was an unexpected success. "I never wanted to act," Lee says. "The only reason I was in it is that we couldn't afford to pay anyone else."

She's Gotta Have It premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival and prompted a bidding war for the distribution rights. It opened in the summer of 1986, with what Lee calls a "marketing gimmick": for nearly a month, the movie could be seen at only one cinema in America, Cinema Studio in New York. "Every night it was sold out," Lee recalled. "And I would get there and hand out buttons. Me and my friends were selling She's Gotta Have It T-shirts." When the film opened in wide release, it made about $7m. The credits announced the film as "A Spike Lee Joint". Lee said: "Coming from the independent world, I knew that millions and millions of dollars were not going to be spent on the promotion and marketing of my film. So in a lot of ways I had to market myself and market the brand of Spike Lee."

In 1988, Nike paired Lee's Mars Blackmon character with Michael Jordan in a series of television ads directed by Lee. He eventually directed and co-starred with Jordan in eight Nike commercials, which played around the world during the late 80s and early 90s. "There was a time when more people knew me as that crazy guy in those Nike commercials than knew I was Spike Lee, the director," Lee says. She's Gotta Have It also earned him the label of "the black Woody Allen". Lee was not happy with the comparison. "How can you say anybody is the black anybody after one film?"

On the third day of recording the score for Miracle at St Anna, Lee arrived at the soundstage just before 9am. He was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Defend Brooklyn!" and he was in an upbeat mood because the Lakers had won the night before. During a break in the session, Lee took Blanchard aside and told him a story in hushed tones, about an encounter he'd had with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and Eddie Murphy at the Lakers game. "They were sitting together," Lee said. "I went to Spielberg, 'Steven, it's over with Clint Eastwood.' Steven laughed and said, 'I'll call Clint and tell him in the morning.' I said, 'It's over.' He said, 'Good.'"

Blanchard had known Lee too long to believe that he had uttered his final word on Eastwood - and told him so. "I don't see that shit happening," he said.

"No!" Lee insisted. "It's done!"

(Eastwood declined to comment for this article.)

As the day wore on, Lee became increasingly irritable, speaking little with his co-workers, and then only in brief, truculent commands. During a dinner break, Lee sat apart, his back to the room, reading the newspaper and picking at some cooked shrimp.

Then Lee received a call on his BlackBerry from his family in New York. Since 1994, he has been married to Tonya Lewis Lee, a former corporate lawyer who is now a writer and television producer. The Lees have a daughter, Satchel, 13, and a son, Jackson, 11. Ten years ago, they bought a town house on the Upper East Side that used to belong to the painter Jasper Johns and, before that, to Gypsy Rose Lee. The Lees also have a home on Martha's Vineyard, and their children attend private schools on the Upper East Side, a fact that seems to cause Lee some discomfort when he discloses it. He told me he had always intended his kids to go, as he did, to state schools. "But my wife put the kibosh on that," he said. Lee balks at being described as wealthy. "It's not rich rich," he told me. "Rich is Spielberg. Lucas. Gates. Steve Jobs. Jay-Z! Bruce Springsteen. I'm not complaining. But that's money. Will Smith. Oprah Winfrey - that's a ton of money. Compared to them, I'm on welfare!"

Jackson Lee was on the phone, telling his dad about a recent Little League game. Lee's bad mood disappeared as he paced up and down and spoke loudly into the phone.

"How'd you do?" he asked. "Everyone gave you a high five?" Lee asked several more questions about the game, then said, "Tomorrow is your last day of school. Tell Mommy to let you watch the game. Tell Mommy you wanna watch the Lakers kick the Celtics' butts!" Then Lee lowered his voice. "We have to talk about that grammar stuff when I get back," he said, before hanging up. "All right. I'm not mad at you. All right."

He sat and again became absorbed in his news-paper. But when the conversation turned to politics he looked up.

"With this election, we're gonna find out who's really liberal," Blanchard, an Obama supporter, was saying to the others. "You got people saying they're not going to vote for my man because he lacks experience. You know that's not it!"

"Who's going to be the vice-presidential pick?" Robin Burgess, the session co-ordinator and Blanchard's wife, asked.

"As long as it's not Hillary," Lee said.

"You know," Blanchard said in a wondering tone, "we got friends uptown who say they can't stand Michelle. I mean, what about McCain's wife?"

"Stepford wife," Lee muttered.

"I used to like Bill Clinton," Blanchard said.

Lee shook his head. "They showed their hand," he said.

Lee has always been intensely interested in politics and believes that the cultural and financial status of African-Americans is dictated by the policies and attitudes of the politicians in power. He blames Ed Koch, the mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, for fostering a toxic racial climate. Lee was particularly outraged by two violent incidents in the mid-80s involving the killing of unarmed blacks by white policemen, who were not convicted of any crime. In December 1986, three black youths were assaulted by a mob of white men wielding a baseball bat and sticks in Howard Beach, an Italian-American neighbourhood of Queens, where they had walked to a pizza parlour after their car broke down nearby. One youth was run over by a car as he fled his attackers. Three of the white assailants were convicted of manslaughter in the winter of 1987. Within weeks of the Howard Beach verdict, Lee began writing his third feature, a movie that brilliantly compressed race relations in New York - and, by extension, the nation - into a single day on a single city block.

He set Do the Right Thing on the hottest day of the summer in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a black neighbourhood with a lone Italian-American outpost: Sal's Famous Pizzeria. Frictions between the pizzeria's white owners and its black customers build until Sal, played by Danny Aiello, demands that a black youth, Radio Raheem, turn off the boom box on which he constantly plays Public Enemy's "Fight the Power". Raheem refuses, Sal smashes the boom box with a bat, and the ensuing altercation results in the arrival of white police officers. They execute a restraint hold on Raheem and choke him to death. Soon after, Sal's delivery man, Mookie - played by Lee, and until this point the only character who bridged the white and black worlds - throws a rubbish bin through the pizzeria's window and sparks a riot. The movie ends with two quotations: a plea for nonviolence from Martin Luther King - "The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind" - followed by a quite different sentiment from Malcolm X: "I am not against using violence in self-defence. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defence, I call it intelligence."

When the movie debuted, at Cannes, in May 1989, Lee was asked, at a packed press conference, why he ended it with Malcolm X rather than with King. "I think that in certain times both philosophies and approaches can be appropriate," he said. "But in this day and age, in the Year of Our Lord 1989, I'm leaning more towards the philosophies of Malcolm X." He added, "When you're being beat upside the head with a brick, I don't think that young black America is just going to turn their cheek and say, 'Thank you, Jesus, for hitting me upside the head with this brick.'" Do the Right Thing changed the public perception of Lee. From the "black Woody Allen" he became a kind of Malcolm X of American cinema. Mo' Better Blues, his next feature, was an attempt, inspired by his musician father, to defy stereotypes about black jazz artists as self-destructive drug addicts. But the movie included two venal Jewish club owners, Moe and Josh Flatbush (played by John Turturro and his younger brother, Nicholas), who exploit the film's black jazz musicians. Lee says that he was shocked when critics characterised the portrayal of the club owners as anti-Semitic. According to Lee, his lawyer at the time told him, "This could really hurt your career. You better write an op-ed piece in the New York Times." Lee's piece, published in the summer of 1990 and titled "I Am Not an Anti-Semite", was combative.

Lee is still angry about the accusations. "They're, like, 'So, Spike, are you saying that every single Jewish person is a crook?'" he told me. "Get the fuck out of here! That's crazy."

When Lee and Dickerson were in film school, they often discussed their ideal movie project. "For both of us, it was to try to do an adaptation of The Autobiography of Malcolm X," Dickerson says. Lee had first read the book in junior high school and later called it "the most important book I'll ever read", saying that it "changed the way I thought; it changed the way I acted". In 1990, Lee learned that the director Norman Jewison was going to make a movie about Malcolm X. Jewison had worked on the movie for almost a year, securing Denzel Washington for the lead role, digging up FBI transcripts and writing a script. Lee did not believe that a white director was up to the task - and said so in the press. Jewison told me, "I feel that he had pulled the race card, so I met with him." Jewison agreed to turn the movie over to Lee, who began filming in 1991.

The production was fraught with problems. "We were trying to make a better movie than Warner Bros wanted," says Dickerson, who was the cinematographer. Lee refused to compromise, and eventually went to prominent members of the black community for money to complete the film as he envisioned it. Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson, Prince, Janet Jackson, Tracy Chapman, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan all contributed money to the film, which ran three hours and included a sequence shot on location in Egypt. Malcolm X was released in 1992 to mixed reviews and a disappointing box-office take of about $10m in its first weekend.

Through the rest of the 90s and into this decade, box-office returns for Lee's films followed a downward trend. Clockers, Lee's 1995 adaptation of Richard Price's novel, took in slightly more than $13m at the box office. Girl 6, the closest Lee has come to making a comedy since She's Gotta Have It, took in less than $5m. In 1998, he released He Got Game, for which he wrote the screenplay - his first since Jungle Fever. It won praise, even from Stanley Crouch, but took in only about $20m at the box office. Summer of Sam, Lee's bravura recreation of the dismal summer of 1977 - a film that Scorsese calls "excellent" and which deserved to be a commercial success - also failed to become a hit. In 2000 he wrote Bamboozled, a bitter satire about down-and-out African-American actors performing a hit TV show in blackface. The film lashed out indiscriminately at anyone whom Lee perceived to be exploiting black people - including the fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger (portrayed here as a character called Timmi Hillnigger) and gangsta-rap groups. (An avowed fan of hip-hop, Lee has nevertheless criticised 50 Cent and other rappers for promoting violence in black communities.) The movie took just over $2m. "It got to where people would come up to me and say, 'Hey, when's your next movie coming out?' - and I had one opening the next day," Lee recalled.

In 1997, Lee criticised Quentin Tarantino for his use of the word "nigger" in his movies. Samuel L Jackson, the star of Tarantino's Jackie Brown, defended the director, telling reporters at the Berlin Film Festival that the movie was "a wonderful homage to black exploitation films. This is a good film, and Spike hasn't made one of those in a few years." (Jackson had appeared in Do the Right Thing and, in a stunning performance, played a crack addict in Jungle Fever.) Lee responded by telling the Washington Post that Jackson's support for Tarantino was like a "house Negro defending massa" - one of his favourite taunts to African-Americans against whom he has a grudge.

During this time, however, Lee also made an acclaimed documentary. In 1997, he released 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 bombing of a Baptist church in Alabama, by members of the Ku Klux Klan - an act that helped to galvanise the civil rights movement. The film is notable for its emotional restraint; its outrage and grief are channelled through interviews with the dead girls' parents. It was nominated for an Oscar for best feature-length documentary. "There was something about the dignity of those people he encountered when he was making 4 Little Girls that had a very deep impact on him, and in some way they seemed to help him grow up," Stanley Crouch told me. "When you've got kids yourself and you're talking to the father of someone whose child was blown up by the kind of people who blew those kids up, and you see that this person is not ranting and raving in some kind of theatrical purported rage of the sort that you see in Do the Right Thing..."

Lee is less restrained in comments that accompany the DVD for 4 Little Girls, in which he carps about losing the Oscar to Into the Arms of Strangers, a documentary about the effort to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. "When I found out that one of the films - one of the other five films nominated - was a film about the Holocaust, I knew we [had] lost," he says.

In 2006, Lee made When the Levees Broke, a four-hour documentary for HBO about Hurricane Katrina. He made eight trips to New Orleans over six months and shot more than 100 interviews with survivors. The film catalogues the egregious federal response to the crisis, but its chief power is its record of the toll on the city's residents. Lee was criticised for including the testimony of New Orleans residents who said that they had heard explosions before the levees gave way, thus lending credibility to conspiracy theorists who believe that the government dynamited the levees, drowning the city's impoverished Lower Ninth Ward in order to spare wealthy parts of town. Lee argued that it was his "duty" to present these witnesses' statements, and pointed out that he included other possible explanations for what they had heard. The film also features an interview with the historian Douglas Brinkley, who calls the bombing an "urban myth".

The success of Inside Man, in 2006, marked an upturn in his fortunes. "I got slipped the script," he told me. "It had been dormant at Imagine Entertainment, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's company. I said, 'I'd like to do this.'" Grazer wasn't particularly troubled that Lee had recently been making small movies. "I'd hired directors - great directors - that weren't at the highest moment of their career," he told me. "What mattered to me was that in every movie, whether it was Bamboozled or Malcolm X or Do the Right Thing, he always shot good scenes. He always had good taste."

Lee made the movie look like a Hollywood blockbuster, with his signature fluid camera moves, Blanchard's gorgeous score and a twisty plot that was a clever deconstruction of the heist film: Clive Owen's bank-robber character is not robbing the bank after all. Lee also wrote a few race-conscious passages into the script, including one in which a Sikh is taken hostage in the bank. Released by Owen, the turbaned character is set upon by the police, who panic, call him a "Fuckin' Arab" and haul him away. Lee says he knew the film was going to be a hit, but he didn't know how big. It grossed $176m worldwide, a record for Lee, and he immediately began planning two pet projects - one about the life of James Brown, the other about the riots in Los Angeles sparked by the acquittals of the police officers who beat Rodney King.

"But I could not get the financing," Lee said. "I deluded myself into thinking that I have a little more leeway after my biggest hit." Instead, Lee decided to try to put Miracle at St Anna into production, but again was unable to secure funding from the Hollywood studios. Eventually, he raised the money from European sources. "Touchstone Pictures came on last, as American distributor." Lee is philosophical about the difficulty he has had funding his latest projects. "The people who can get films made are Spielberg, Lucas, cats like that," he told me. "Whatever they want to do, they get made. Everybody else? It's a battle. Woody Allen has not made his last three or four films in England and his last one in Barcelona by choice. He had to go where the financing was."

The next time we met was in midtown Manhattan. Lee was wearing a white Ralph Lauren sweat jacket with the word "Beijing" across the back and the Olympics logo on the front. "Let's walk," he said, and started up Madison, moving at a good pace.

To walk with Lee in midtown Manhattan is to experience the metropolis reduced to a small town. Every species of New Yorker - from homeless people to businessmen in pin-striped suits - recognised and hailed him. Passing cab drivers shouted, "Spike!" Cyclists, pedestrians, people waiting at bus stops, elderly white ladies smiled and nodded hello. Lee acknowledged them all with an expressionless nod of the head, or a quickly raised right hand. At 57th Street, Lee charged across a red light. As he approached the Niketown store, he noticed that a crowd of young men had collected on the sidewalk. "Sneakerheads," as Lee calls them, have been known to camp out in front of the stores for up to a week when the company introduces a new shoe. "Yo!" Lee shouted. "I got to find out what this is!" He hurried over.

The kids, some of whom had set up camp chairs, did a double-take, then exclaimed in disbelief, "Spike!"

Lee shook their hands. "What's about to drop?" he asked.

"Tomorrow. Questlove's Nike Air," a white kid replied. Questlove is the drummer for the hip-hop band the Roots.

"Say, Spike - when is the new Spi'zike coming out?" another kid asked. Spi'zike is the name of a limited-edition trainer - a mash-up of several early styles of Air Jordan - released by Nike in 2007 in honour of Lee's Mars Blackmon adverts. Lee told the kids that a new black-and-gold version was going to be out soon.

"The black-and-gold is out in Europe," one of the kids said.

"What?" Lee said. "No, it's not."

"I got a picture," the kid said, waving his BlackBerry. He showed Lee a photograph he had taken of the black-and-gold Spi'zike.

"Shit," Lee said. "I gotta make a call." He took out his BlackBerry and dialled the number of his contact at Nike. He got voicemail and hung up. "How long you been out here?" he asked the kids.

"Four days," the kids said.

In the evening of Hillary Clinton's concession speech, Lee had sent me a two-word text message: "Changes everything." I now asked him what he meant. "Changes the whole dynamic," he said. "If we have a black president, maybe it will change people's psyche." Specifically, he meant African-Americans. He went on, "They don't have to be shuckin' and jivin' - doing the tap dance - to make a living. And I mean that 'tap dancing' figuratively, not literally, because no disrespect to the world's greatest tap dancer, Savion Glover." I asked Lee about the debate in the mainstream press over Obama's blackness. (Time had run a story in February 2007 titled "Is Obama Black Enough?" and the question had since been taken up by CNN, CBS News, the Washington Post, and other news organisations.) He snorted.

"It's ignorance," he said. "Here's the thing. I'm not one of these people who're going to be defined by the ghetto mentality, that you have to have been shot, have numerous babies from many women, be ignorant, getting high all the time, walking around with pants hanging from your ass - and that's a black man? I'm not buying that. That's not my definition. Are there some black people like that? Yes. But if one speaks proper English, wears a shirt and a tie..."

Lee was suddenly distracted by someone across the street. In a booming voice, he yelled, "What's up, Nick?"

Stopped in traffic, in a silver SUV with the driver's window down, was Nicholas Turturro, who played one of the Jewish jazz-club owners in Mo' Better Blues.

"Yo, buddy! Like the hat!" Turturro shouted, pointing at Lee's Yankees cap, featuring a pattern of winning pennants.

"What size you wear?" Lee bellowed.

"I got one already!"

"Got one? You gotta get one for your brother! Time is running out!"

Turturro drove off, and Lee resumed talking about Obama's run for president. "This thing is not by accident," he said. "I think this thing is ordained - it's providence. It's bigger than him, it's bigger than all of us. I think this is going to be such a pivotal moment in history that you can measure time by BB, Before Barack, and AB, After Barack. That's what I feel is going to happen." He went on, "There's ramifications all over the world. I mean, I know this is a presidential election for the United States of America, but this thing is worldwide news. It's not like they rang every door in Berlin to say, 'Barack's going to be here,' for 200,000 people to show up. Two hundred thousand can come to see McCain but they're going to be protesting, and burning American flags and who knows what else?" He laughed. "If we were talking about two boxers, Muhammad Ali would say, 'He's too old, and he's too slow!' And he would say, 'I'm too young and too pretty and too fast.'" Lee clapped his hands.

In our earlier conversations, I had tried several times to get Lee to say whether he, routinely held up as an exemplar of the angry, activist black artist, felt out of step in the supposedly "post-racial" world embodied by Obama. He had dodged or ignored my questions. But he seemed to offer an oblique answer when I asked if he had thought about making a television commercial for Obama's campaign. After all, Obama and his wife had gone to see Do the Right Thing on their first date, in 1989, and then had discussed Mookie's act of throwing the rubbish bin through Sal's window.

"You gotta be asked to do that stuff," Lee said. "Look, if they need me, they know where I am. And in a lot of ways they might..." He paused. "You know, that shit could be used against them, too. 'Spike Lee, the man who said so-and-so and so-and-so. Now he's doing commercials for...'" He shrugged and smiled. "Sometimes you might be a liability," he said finally. "Just got to lay in the cut."

Lee did keep a low media profile. Behind the scenes, it was a different story. On 1 November, three days before the election, he travelled to Florida and plunged into the inner-city black Miami neighbourhood of Liberty City, known for its heavy crime and 80% unemployment rate. There, Lee helped shepherd residents of the local housing estates on to a bus bound for the voting stations. "Get on the bus!" he shouted. "Do the right thing! Don't be bamboozled!" And on election night he was in the crowd at Grant Park in Chicago for Obama's acceptance speech, snapping pictures on his BlackBerry. The next morning he would appear, via satellite, on Morning Joe, a political morning show, where he said that, with Obama's victory, his own masterpiece - Do the Right Thing - was now irrelevant. "That is history," he said. "This is a new America." To me, he kept it short but sweet. When

I emailed him that morning to ask, "Are you having fun yet?" he answered with one word: "Amen."

• A longer version of this story first appeared in the New Yorker © John Colapinto

• The Miracle at St Anna will be released later this year

Tyler Perry article in the Guardian

2009-04-06T17:15:00.002+01:00

- Ed Pilkington
- The Guardian, Friday 3 April 2009
- Article history

Part Widow Twankey, part Shakespearean fool ... Tyler Perry in Madea Goes to Jail (2009). Photograph: Lionsgate/Everett/Rex Features

It's Friday night at the 12-screen Cobble Hill multiplex in Brooklyn, New York, and the crowd are in high spirits. The largest auditorium is sold out. Bags of popcorn, heavy on the butter, are being crunched in the aisles; kids are slurping on giant Cokes; a baby is crying. But nothing distracts the almost exclusively African-American audience from the drama being played out in front of them. As the film gathers pace, it is as if the whole room is in interaction with the moving images. When the leading man rejects his spiteful fiancee at the altar, a huge cheer erupts. A few scenes later, when the same character holds his true love in his arms and says, "I love you", several women stand up in their seats and shout at the screen: "I love you, too!" The atmosphere is electric. This isn't cinema. This is worship.

Such displays of mass devotion, repeated in movie houses across urban America, have turned the film in question, Madea Goes to Jail, into a 2009 box-office sensation. In its first five weeks, it took in $87m (£60.7m), almost half of that in the first weekend in February alone. Not bad going for a film that cost little more than $10m (£7m) to shoot.

Such zeal from fans has also propelled the film's director, writer and star into a unique position in American cinema. His well-oiled machine has churned out seven films in the past four years, each one grossing on average more than $45m (£31.4). That makes him easily one of the most consistently bankable commodities in Hollywood. But if you live in the UK, the chances are you won't even have heard of Tyler Perry. None of his films - the likes of Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Daddy's Little Girls, and Why Did I Get Married? - has ever been released in British cinemas. (Only one, Madea's Family Reunion, has even been put out on DVD.)

Why is the man ranked by the business magazine Forbes as the third top-earning black artist in America, with a personal income of $125m (£87m) a year, also described by Forbes as the "best kept secret in movie-making"? Why is he a virtual unknown outside America, while even within the US, he is regularly panned by critics or, worse, utterly ignored by them? Why, in return, has he turned his back on mainstream Hollywood, shunning the big studios, refusing to screen his films for critics, barely marketing them to wider audiences?

The mystery deepens when you factor in the female character who is central to most of his films. A 6ft 5in, alarmingly buxom 68-year-old grandmother who packs a gun, talks trash and grows weed in the back garden is hardly the most obvious formula for a blockbuster franchise. But then there's nothing obvious about Madea - so named after the southern abbreviation of "Mother dear". She is, after all, played by Perry himself, in drag.

Part Widow Twankey, part Shakespearean fool, Madea holds the key to understanding Perry's phenomenal following. In the latest, Madea Goes to Jail, she takes us on a high-speed car chase with the police and ends up in prison, where she promptly intimidates the prison guards and tears a strip off her anger management counsellor. It is through Madea, and the morality tales that swirl around her, that Perry secures his deep connection with his fan base, which is overwhelmingly African-American, primarily female and largely Christian. Or as he has put it himself: "I know my audience, and they're not people that the studios know anything about."

Sidney Poitier, arguably the supreme figure among black American film actor/directors, tells me why, in his opinion, Perry's output marks an important landmark in African-American cinema. He begins by speaking in general terms, about the void that Perry helps to fill. "He is talking to an audience that the American film industry has ignored for many, many decades. An audience that would like to see themselves reflected in their own image, that has a hunger to see themselves as they see themselves - as regular, ordinary, loving, fallible human beings."

Perry grew up in a poor black area of New Orleans. He was raised by an abusive father, Emmitt Perry, whose name he shared, but dispensed with after enduring frequent childhood beatings. His mother Maxine would take him everywhere with her to avoid the violence - to beauty parlours, shops and, crucially, to church, her haven in a harsh world. Those early experiences, and the characters they presented, have been the raw material for Perry's image factory ever since.

It took the inspiration of another woman to get Perry started: Oprah Winfrey. When he was in his early 20s, he heard her advise on her TV show that writing down one's feelings was cathartic. That set him composing letters to himself about his abused past, his anger towards his father, and that in turn led to a play, I Know I've Been Changed, in 1992.

Lean days followed. Perry scrimped enough money as a used car salesman to hire out a theatre in Atlanta, Georgia for the premiere of his play. It flopped. Just 30 people saw it in its first weekend - quite a contrast to four million or so who packed cinemas for the first weekend of Madea Goes to Jail. But Perry is no quitter. He slept in a car to save on rent, and through persistence gradually built his audience from the ground up. He began touring his plays to black neighbourhoods across the South, and in Newark, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, performing up to 350 times a year.

What emerged was a following wholly different from the profile of most theatre-going audiences. Black churches were his ticket booths, black women his touts. "What I've learned is you treat women right, and they bring everybody else," he has said.

His interaction with his mushrooming audience was symbiotic. He gave them stories about their own lives - about the search for love as an African-American woman, the search for a role as an African American man - that they could not find in any "mainstream" theatre or cinema. They gave him their business, filling his seats with fans as young as four and as old as 86. "He has been very loyal to his audience, and they are very loyal to him," says Miriam Petty, a specialist in African-American studies at Princeton who is studying the Perry phenomenon.

By 2005, Perry's success in theatres was secured - a tour of any one of his plays is now guaranteed to earn $100m, drawing crowds largely through email or word of mouth. But that was just the start. His genius was to take that same theatre audience and drag it with him into moving images. First, he made DVDs of his stage performances, which have sold more than 11m copies. Then he moved to feature-length film versions of the plays, beginning with Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2005. The film introduced Madea to the big screen. She seduced his army of churchgoing admirers into the cinema, a place that many were visiting for the first time. The movie was slammed by critics as bad and over the top. It grossed more than $50m.

As with his plays, Perry has insisted in nothing less than total creative control over his films. He puts them out through Lionsgate, an indie distributor whose other big franchise is the gory horror series Saw. Perry's deal with Lionsgate is simple: he makes the films, they distribute them. No questions asked.

The ultimate manifestation of Perry's total control was the opening last October of his own custom-built film studios in Atlanta, occupying more than 30 acres, and carrying its own motto: "A Place Where Even Dreams Can Believe." He now shoots all his films there, as well as two hit TV sitcoms - House of Payne and Meet the Browns - that he has recently added to his empire. He has, in effect, become the first black chief executive of a movie studio. His own.

The opening party for the studios earlier this year was not only a crowning event for Perry, it was a breakthrough moment for African-American cinema. Tears flowed freely among the guests, who were served by waiters with tissues from red velvet boxes. Poitier was there, and had one of the five sound studios named after him. Also present were Cicely Tyson, who starred in Perry's first two films, Louis Gossett Jr, Ruby Dee and Will Smith, who gave the keynote speech. "There is something happening in America and the world that is powerful," Smith said, alluding to the presidential election of Barack Obama just days away. "Perry is not letting anyone get in his way."

Smith's endorsement was itself powerful. But not everyone has been convinced by the Madea franchise. One school of thought likens her outrageous character to the bad old days of the minstrel show. Todd Boyd, an expert on race and popular culture at the University of Southern California, draws a connection between the stereotypes of black people perpetrated by Hollywood in the days of legal segregation and Perry's caricatures. "Black people were portrayed as slow and dumb; they scratched when they didn't itch, laughed when they weren't funny. They were buffoonish.

"Tyler Perry has taken a number of those stereotypes and owned them - reinterpreting them for a new era. The difference is they used to be perpetrated by white Hollywood studio bosses. Now we have an African-American getting rich off them."

Boyd also draws a parallel with the so-called "chitlin' circuit" - the string of theatres and music dives through the south and north-east of the US where black performers found an outlet for their work. In the grim days of overt racial segregation from the 1930s to 1960s, many artists - film-maker Oscar Micheaux, actress Della Reese, Billie Holiday to name but three - had no choice but to embrace the circuit, unable to find work in mainstream venues. But by dragging African-American art back on to a circuit that is in effect segregated, so the argument goes, Perry has set back the struggle for equality in entertainment.

Perry himself is well aware of the "chitlin' circuit" label that has been attached to him. In interviews, he has admitted to having been initially embarrassed by the term. "But then I found out the history of it, and now I'm really, really proud of it."

A better way of looking at Perry's work, though, at least in terms of its content, is to think of it in terms of the pulpit. His movies are Gospel morality tales, retold in contemporary settings. So Diary of a Mad Black Woman is the battle of good versus the evil of adultery and lust for money. Daddy's Little Girls (2007) is a sermon on the power of love to overcome class prejudices. The Family That Preys (2008) exhorts its viewers not to covet thy neighbour's house, nor desire their spouse.

The interesting thing, as Miriam Petty points out, is that Madea herself often preaches the exact opposite. She refuses to go to church, grows cannabis and is quick to fight. In Madea Goes to Jail, she says: "The Bible says you turn the other cheek. You only got two cheeks, so how long are you going to wait before you whip their ass?" Another huge cheer erupts from the Brooklyn crowd.

Critics be damned. As he turns 40 this year, Perry is the master of his own universe. The audience - his audience - love what he does, and keep coming back for more. Eleven hit plays, two smash TV sitcoms, seven blockbuster films and three more underway. Will Smith was right: Tyler Perry is not letting anyone get in his way.

BBC closes the Asian Production Unit ... with differences over diversity are departments targeting ethnic minorities no longer required ...

2009-02-06T19:03:00.002Z

Or is this a mistake?

Sunny Hundal, editor of Asians in Media magazine shares his views:

From Sanjeev Bhaskar, Laila Rouass and Rajesh Mirchandani, to Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Anjum Anand - the BBC's Asian Programmes Unit has a long tradition of nurturing talent. But that hasn't prevented the corporation from deciding to close it.

Established in 1965 as the Immigration Programmes Unit, and responsible for producing programmes such as Network East and Partition, the APU has effectively been closed since its head, Gurdip Bhangoo, departed late last year - and there are no plans to replace him.

"As the cultural landscape of the UK has evolved, so has the need to reach those audiences through all of our output and to develop ethnic minority talent as part of our overall talent strategy," says a BBC statement. "Authentic portrayal of different cultural communities, the inclusion of modern voices and ethnic minority talent development are a crucial part of our commissioning process and therefore departments catering specifically for particular minority groups are no longer required."

Political motives

But not everyone agrees with the decision. Employees see political motives. A former APU employee thinks the corporation has decided that "difference is not to be celebrated". In his view: "They just want a homogenised British perspective."

"Closing the APU might have had the right intentions behind it," says another. "In the past, they have tried to integrate their ethnic minority programming quota within mainstream departments. But has it worked? Can you name the last Asian programme you saw on the BBC that was not made by the APU?"

Questions as to whether there is a need for terrestrial programming that specifically targets ethnic minorities - and whether that should be through specialised units or existing departments - are also growing elsewhere. In 2002, Channel 4 axed its department for multicultural programmes in favour of an editorial manager for diversity to persuade indies and commissioners to consider diversity during normal programming. "It was decided that making cutting-edge programmes by specialist departments might work better," says one producer. "To be honest, I don't think it's worked as well as they thought it would. It's very hard to change the culture around commissioning."

There has since been a change of tack again - with C4 creating a multicultural commissioning editor post, headed by the religion editor Aaqil Ahmed and, last week, the announcement of the former MP Oona King as head of diversity. The broadcaster says it has earmarked primetime slots supported by ring-fenced budgets to produce programming that will look to develop "multicultural ideas and talent" and reflect "all kinds of social diversity".

When the BBC first created what was the Immigration Programmes Unit in the 1960s, it produced BBC1 programmes such as Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye (Make Yourself At Home) which featured tutorials on British life, including voting and using gas boilers. That was soon followed by Nayi Zindagi Naya Jeevan (roughly translated as New Life New World) - which ran for 15 years and created household names - and series such as East, Bollywood or Bust, Cafe 21, Network East and Desi DNA.

But when Bhangoo was poached by Sony TV Asia in September last year, the corporation dithered on replacing him.

To compound internal problems, six weeks ago the BBC's head of diversity, Andrea Callender, left abruptly.

So should specialised departments be a thing of the past? "If you want to know about black or Asian culture, then The Culture Show should be the place," says C4's Ahmed. "If the programming across the board is as integrated as it needs to be, then you don't need targeted programming."

Ahmed says that what audiences want is to see themselves on screen. "The audiences don't necessarily want targeted programming," he says, "and the research bears that out." (Although, as he also points out, by scheduling targeted programming so late - Desi DNA was broadcast at 11.20pm on BBC2 - audience figures were never going to be brilliant.)
But broadcasters have not, many believe, been reflecting that cultural diversity. "The BBC needs real programming with high visibility in every division," says one former APU producer. "There doesn't seem to be any clear indications this will happen. If they fail to do this we'll look back at this as being the worst decision for Asian programming within the BBC."

Parallel lives

There also appears to be a demand for targeted programming, with 40-50 Asian satellite channels available, and up to 30,000 households with subscriptions to those not free-to-air. But that should not let terrestrial broadcasters off the hook. With no dedicated terrestrial broadcasting, critics point to the problem of developing actors and programme-makers from ethnic minorities, and the perpetuation of a "parallel lives" scenario where a generation of minorities grow up with little attachment to mainstream culture.

In addition, the closure of the APU highlights a greater issue. "The problem within the industry isn't necessarily about race - to me it's more about class," says Ahmed. "There are certain racial groups doing well, but to me they are often too similar in class and social culture to white, middle-class people to make a difference. I don't think there are enough executives in the media who realise that the industry is not being as representative."

Last year, after the producer Richard Klein told an internal audience that the BBC was "ignoring, at its peril, a great swathe of white, working-class audience", he went on to make BBC2's White Season. But many saw the series as tokenistic: working-class whites were largely seen through the prism of social breakdown, racism and immigration, and commissioners then returned to their usual fare.

British Asians could now become as underrepresented as other groups. Perhaps that's some semblance of equality.

• This article was taken from the Guardian Newspaper January 12th, 2009

First black entrepreneur OLAUDAH EQUIANO is to be honoured with a PLAQUE

2009-02-06T07:03:00.003Z

Olaudah EQUIANO PLAQUE at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, SW1

A memorial Plaque will be dedicated & unveiled in honour of Olaudah Equiano at a special Service on Monday 9 February 2009 from 6.30pm to 8pm at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey.

Equiano was baptised in the church on 9 February 1759 (250 years to the day). Equiano was a former slave, seaman, war veteran, explorer, writer, businessman and an abolitionist.

The programme will include short speeches, readings, poetry, music, etc.

Please let me know if you'd like to attend and I will do my best to get places on the guest list ... but hurry!?

Panel: Legacy & Learning part 1: State of Play

2009-02-03T14:23:00.005Z

Chair: Nikki Christie, UK Partnerships Development Manager, UK Film Council; Ian Wall, Director Film Education; Gaylene Gould, Film Club.

Gaylene: Film-club – films in schools, inc archival, non mainstream, world/subtitled – target 7000 schools in 3 years.

Ian: Film Education – funded by film industry, inc Nat films schools film week. Content cinema based (prints). Working with the Cultural Olympiad – attempting to screen a film from every olympic country.

G: noted the tribal nature of under 18s, therefore the need to acknowledge the shared group attraction of activities.

Also spoke about how much more young people can take on more challenging work than may be realised.

Check: London Children's Film Festival, Cinemagic, Showcomotion, Leeds Young People's Film Festival - suggested sources for film for children.

Also BFI - check their catalogue for children's films available.

'Film Club is focused on watching movies (first and foremost)'. Interested in making links with festival to collaborate on work in schools and programming.

'We can take talent into schools, artists, directors etc'

Often work in partnership with Film Education - but Film Club is not curriculum based (Film Education is).

Access to 5000 under 15 films to recommend.

N: 'Look for what schools in your area already have film clubs - and work with that existing audience/capacity'.

G: 'Film Club is free for schools'

I: Film Education looks to engage teachers into the idea of film culture & education.

Film Education's 'National Schools Film Week' - goes from Walt Disney to world cinema like 'the Lives of Others'. Reaches 100,000 children around the UK.

I: talked about winning the trust of the teachers and nurturing that relationship over time to develop more challenging programming, without scaring them off.

'Additionality at screenings is important for engaging schools - i.e. having speakers, panels, other elements on top of the screening'

Resources & funding for young people making films:

First Light Movies,

Media Box

Training resources:

Moving Image Training Alliance

Film Education has funding available for pilot project looking a youth/schools based projects. Match funding needs to come from outside UK FIlm Council/Media Box etc - eg Local Authority, Businesses.

I; 'We want to teach about film, but also through film'

Spoke about the teaching packs available on the Film Education website, such as the one for Slumdog Millionaire - view here.

Archive link

2009-01-27T14:25:00.002Z

Please check the link below for information about a Black Film Collection held in the USA.

http://smu.edu/blackfilms/

Hope it is of help

IMAGES OF BLACK WOMEN ...

2009-01-26T16:15:00.003Z

The IMAGES OF BLACK WOMEN FILM FESTIVAL returns to the Tricycle Theatre...

The event runs from 27th - 29th March, 2009

As January 31st nears so does the deadline for SUBMISSIONS to the IBW SHORT FILM Awards.

Further info: http://www.blackfilmsociety.blogspot.com

Visit the Official Site: http://www.imagesofblackwomen.com

Sundance Silver Anniversary Goes Black

2009-01-17T21:15:00.007Z

The 25th Sundance Film Festival 2009 opened this week in Utah and will have more films by black filmmakers than any other year in the Robert Redford owned festival's history.

Shari Frilot, Senior Programmer, says, "The subject matter with which these films deal is remarkably diverse and eclectic, ranging from raw and edgy films to mainstream genre to environmental science. On the whole, this year's selection represents a shift in the quality and diversity of African-American film and the issues as articulated on film. We had so many submissions with such quality and importance as a whole."

One to watch is Good Hair a documentary which has its World Premiere at the festival. It follows comedian Chris Rock who sets out to examine the culture of African-American hair and hairstyles.

"FILM – AND ALL TYPES OF ART – CAN SHOW US THE TRUTH BENEATH AND WITHIN THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE.... I’D LIKE TO SEE ARTS AND CULTURE RETURN TO THE NATIONAL AGE."

-ROBERT REDFORD

www.filmacademy.co.uk

Distribution - Exhibition - Production - Training

Distribution in Reverse Teleclass

2009-01-17T06:11:00.003Z

I attended a distribution teleclass hosted by Tanya Kersey (info below) a couple of evenings ago. I managed to record it and can send it to anyone interested. Its a big file so cannot post on here. Email me for more details.

As one of Hollywood's most respected and well-regarded entertainment journalists and commentators, Tanya is perhaps best known as the Founder, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the entertainment trade publication, Black Talent News and its companion website blacktalentnews.com and as the Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Black Film Festival, an annual 6-day celebration of black cinema drawing together established filmmakers, popular film and TV stars, writers, directors, industry executives, emerging artists and new audiences from Southern California and around the world.

I have made her known about what we are doing here with Film London and look forward to her feedback. I will keep you all updated.

www.filmacademy.co.uk

Distribution - Exhibition - Production - Training

CLUBBED Cast Interview - Colin Salmon

2009-01-16T03:27:00.004Z

Colin Salmon talks about his character "Louis" in the upcoming British film CLUBBED, which is based on a true story. CLUBBED was made by East End based independent production company Formosa Films and is released in the UK nationwide today (Friday 16th January 2009)

I will be monitoring the weekend's box office as the film has been promoted heavily online. Try and go and see it.

www.filmacademy.co.uk

Distribution - Exhibition - Production - Training

B&W 35mm film stock available

2009-01-16T01:31:00.002Z

Hello all

One of our members, Oz has very generously let us know his workplace has some high quality black and white Kodak 5222 film stock (around 20 x 400ft rolls), and some Fuji stock as well, left over from the James Bond film, Casino Royale. This stock is typically very expensive, but has expired so can't be returned to Kodak.

The Directors at his workplace are keen that it should only be given out to a deserving student or a passionate film maker - someone that will definitely make use of it. So if you or anyone you know have a film project in the pipeline, let me know and I will get in touch. You will probably need to state your film/proposal before any film is handed out.

www.filmacademy.co.uk

Distribution - Exhibition - Production - Training

Screen Nation Awards takes it place at BAFTA

2009-01-15T12:15:00.004Z

The date for the Screen Nation Awards have been announced, and will take place on the eve of the annual BAFTA Awards, forming part of the film industrys' awards calendar.

Tickets are limited and can be purchased here:

www.screennation.co.uk

To read more about the event visit:

www.blackfilmsociety.blogspot.com

To learn more about Charles Thompson humanitarian efforts visit: www.bridgeovertroubledwaters.org.uk

Best regards,

Elle

Sustained Theatre - Critical Debate for BME creative practice

2009-01-15T05:11:00.003Z

Thanks to Suhail, for pointing us towards this very useful and stimulating website - which offers critical debate around contemporary BME arts practice.

This is what it says about itself:

"Sustained Theatre is a network and a call to action for all artists to lobby for positive change. This is the first time we, as artists, have had a real opportunity to take centre stage and have a voice in transforming the future of our national theatre.

We want to keep issues relating to Black, Asian, and minority ethnic theatre artists and practitioners alive and in the national debate. To do this, we need you. We want your voices, presenting us with new challenges in order to permanently establish our collective aspirations and standing in the arts. We need you to become part of the process, engage with us through this website – make your position heard to make a positive difference. Network and connect, research and debate: this website is just the first stage of a long-term strategy.

We are aiming to sustain an environment of progressive thinking and action that will redress the balance and shake up the national arts landscape. By providing a platform for creativity and presentation through critical debate, through saving and restoring our national archives, through developing leadership and cultivating international links, we hope to level the playing field for a sustainable future."

Click HERE to go to the site.

Black Film Society

2009-01-14T22:51:00.003Z

Hello everyone,

I trust you're well!

The Black Film Society blog and site have now been set up.

You are all invited to contribute and upload content. As discussed this a public forum for posting related content, evoking discussion and the like.

I have also set up the www.blackfilmsociety.ning.com site whilst building the BFS website - the WHO's WHO in the UK Black Film Industry. The site has everything from TV credits to archive footage content etc. It will incorporate the BFS Academy ... and attract paid advertising industry support distribution ticket sales and a host of other bonuses. These conversations are being had presently so more on these later!

Have began spreading the word through a number of actors producers etc about my quest and received very favourable responses. Infact one person is looking for assistance with film production...again more on these another time.

I'm pleased the BFS will act as the portal for all external activity of the group, and the BFDN will remain a closed forum for those on the TNB Cultural Leadership programme.

I have alot of content including film trailers, flyers, posters, courses, events etc which need to be posted uploaded and spoke with Kev on Friday about these, and who vey kindly pointed me in the right direction.

As the blogs will have different audiences there is likely to be some duplication of info. Kev has promised to duplicate postings to BFS and I will do the same with relevant content.

I have sent your invites to be authors separately, as the set up wouldn't allow me to add any written content - do remember to post any personal dialogue on the BFDN blog and that this is a public domain.

Really looking forward to your contributions.

TIA!

Here's to our collective successes!

Cheers!

Elle

Copy of e-circular 13.01.09 to BFDN authors

Peter Packer report on the Dissemination & Consumption of Black Film

2009-01-14T16:53:00.004Z

This significant report, that we explored in module two of the New Black is now available here.

Also, I'll add all important documents that are ok to share on the blog.

See the links on the right under "New Black Documents, debate & current thinking'

New Black - Project Site

2009-01-13T12:29:00.006Z

A project site has been set up on

www.mediaclub.org.uk/projectpier

All Course members / organisers have been invited. You should have login details therefore on email. It's a place that Goals/Milestones, Actions/Tasks, Uploading files, Forums/Discussion on projects.

Hope you use and enjoy.

For more information on, or downloads of projectpier see their site

Make this blog private???

2009-01-13T12:19:00.004Z

Should we make this site private??

If it's a place to discuss certain issues with the Network and be a bit of working/ team blog then this is what I propose. If it's about the wider cultural / industry debate then there is no need.

If we made it private, then we could use the the blog that Lorraine set up (Black Film Society) as a place for more public debates.

The scope of who is permitted to see a private network is controllable and does not have to be resticted to course members. I could also include key partners Film London , UKFC etc.

An advantage of it being private would be that we can thrash out ideas more 'honestly' without washing our dirty linen in the public eye. However we could also use email to do this anyway. What do you think?

Note to Kevin - administrator.
It can be done - check this link...
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42673&cbid=-19i6w933pb2j8&src=cb&lev=topic

Film to watch - Deadmeat

2009-01-12T05:18:00.003Z

Check out the trailer below for Deadmeat a British movie made by Q a Film Academy member. It features some of the best black UK TV actors on one screen.

For more info visit www.deadmeat.com

2009-01-11T01:23:00.000Z

THANK YOU

Fwd: African Odysseys/Black Britain

2009-01-10T17:09:00.003Z

Dear All

Please find attached a flyer for BFI Southbank's forthcoming African Odysseys screenings. These screenings are taking place alongside a 10 week course led by Jim Pine exploring the history of Black British film and TV and will make extensive use of the Mediatheque's 80+ title Black Britain collection. Please can you forward to anyone you think might be interested.

With many thanks

Robin Baker, BFI

Everyone's talking about...SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

2009-01-10T15:27:00.000Z

The consensus is...you need to see this film:

Prince's Trust - Free Media Course for unemployed young people - 16-25 - Starting in January - based in the East End

2009-01-10T15:22:00.000Z

This course is a really good opportunity for unemployed young people who want to gain industry experience and / or employability skills. All expenses are paid by the Princes Trust and they give 6 months of progression support into employment following the course.

If anyone’s interested please contact Katy Reiff on 020 7543 1457 or katy.reiff@princes-trust.org.uk directly.

Places are limited so they need to get in touch ASAP.

Princes Trust: Get Into Digital Media Course

This 2 week course takes place from 27th January – 10th February 2009.

It provides an opportunity for young people to create their own short films – from story boarding ideas through to filming and post production editing. Final films will be screened to industry contacts at the end of programme presentation event. It is for any young person aged between 16-25 who is unemployed and is completely free. The Prince’s Trust will also pay travel costs to the venue at Stratford.

Here’s a link for more information on the course. Princes Trust - Get Into Information

Helen Stonelake | Programme Executive - Get Into | The Prince's Trust | 18 Park Square East, London NW1 4LH

T 020 7543 1450 | M 07786 375955 | F 020 7543 7407

The Prince's Trust - helping change young lives. www.princes-trust.org.uk

Embedding video clips on this Blog!

2009-01-10T13:48:00.000Z

Hi all...I've just sussed out how to embed video into this blog from Youtube, other similar video sharing sites and your from own movie files.

Hit me up if you want anything uploaded.

Kev

Learning the Distribution Business

2009-01-09T23:56:00.000Z

Here's a link to a site called filmspecific. Stacey Parks focuses on the distribution business as is her background.

I am finding it pretty useful for understanding that world. There are some free resources including a newsletter you can sign up to. If you choose to, this is clearly to data-capture you so eventually you might succumb to investing in a paid subscription. In the meantime, it's worth a look-see.

Film Specific - Distribution School -
filmspecific distribution school

Maybe you know of other such resources..

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin

2009-01-09T16:04:00.000Z

Hello everyone – an invite for you all if anyone is interested. Thought it was particularly interesting since we’re talking about niche audiences… to celebrate Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender History Month Watershed we will be holding a special event with a particular focus on race.

We will be screening a documentary on Sun 1 Feb rarely shown in the UK called Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin which we’re importing from the US especially for the occasion. It’s about the life and work of openly gay black activist Bayard Rustin and the forgotten contribution of gay men and women to the Civil Rights movement – Rustin was the mechanic of the March on Washington. It was in the official selection for Sundance in 2003, has won numerous best documentary awards and recently enjoyed massive demand at South Africa’s Out in Africa Festival. FFI see http://rustin.org.

It’ll be screening with a short film called Look Again which deals with an inter-racial lesbian couple and immigration laws in the US.

It's a rare chance to see this film in the UK so if any of you personally would like a jaunt up to Bristol to see it let me know! If you have any mailing lists etc you would be happy to pop this on I have film copy/pictures if interested – please just get in touch: claire.stewart@watershed.co.uk

See Brother Outsider trailer below:

Organising Accessible Screenings - an ICO course

2009-01-09T12:14:00.000Z

This is interesting...for those of us who need to consider access, particularly for deaf & disabled audiences....

Organising Accessible Screenings

3rd February 2009, London

Do you want to ensure that your film screenings and events are welcoming for deaf and disabled audiences?

The Independent Cinema Office and Shape, the UK's leading disability arts organisation, have got together to develop an essential training course that will provide a wealth of practical information on making your cinema, arts centre, film festival or film society accessible.

The course is a must for programmers, audience development officers, marketing and communications staff, managers, administrators, events staff and fundraisers.

The course will cover:

* Disability equality - core concepts and appropriate terminology

* The Disability Discrimination Act - what the law means for your organisation

* Customer care - Techniques that enable your front line staff to warmly and respectfully welcome deaf and disabled people

* Screening considerations - Assistive technologies and physical access in the auditorium

* Marketing - Practical guidance on producing accessible publicity materials

* Guest speakers - Real life case studies from QUAD cinema and the Oska Bright Film Festival (Winner of National Lottery Best Arts Project 2008)

Check ICO's website for details of how to participate:

www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk

Tate: Remixed

2009-01-09T08:50:00.000Z

Tate: Remixed is a digital media collaboration between B3 media and Tate.

Four spoken word artists and film-makers were comisioned to produce a series of short films based on their interpretation of three Tate exhibitions: Turner Prize 2008, Mark Rothko and Francis Bacon.

FEATURELAB - deadline Friday 16th Jan!!

2009-01-09T08:40:00.000Z

The deadline for 'Featurelab', is fast approaching!

The initiative is to support Black writers and directors to make a full feature film - a partnership between Film 4, B3 Media, Binger Filmlab and Skillset.

The application process looks pretty straightforward, starting with the submission of your idea.

The selected ideas will get development support from top professionals.

For more information and to download the application form & guidelines here.

Filling the Void - Advertising Excellence: Panel 7/01/09

2009-01-07T14:46:00.000Z

Panel Left to Right: Jonny Green, Technical Director of the award winning, Franki & Jonny Design Agency; Bill Thompson - consultant, expert in new media and technology and commentator on digital culture...and also helps to run Cambridge Film Festival.

Jonny began be giving some background on the work done by his agency from designing sites for Film London, to titles for films such as Run Fatboy Run. They specialise in branding.

Showed their work on branding and developing the designs, marketing materials and online presence for Sugarhouse; see the full site here.

"Start the campaign as early as possible" Often the 'formal campaign will begin 6 weeks before launch.

"Think that the marketing & designs needs to be developed alongside the film rather than as an afterthought"

"Location content i.e. film connected material, footage, stills etc, that can provide a backstory - is really underused in terms of marketing...but often very attractive to audiences and media to create and sustain interest, yet relatively cheap and easy to generate, produce & use."

Mentioned a film Waterlillies - a relatively 'niche' film they worked on, where they decided to make the first 6 minutes of the films available on line - and monitored the online activity, offering some really helpful information to help identify potential audiences to follow up.

The main theme seem to be just how much opportunity there is to creatively utilise on-line presence to actively engage, monitor and build your audiences.

Bill Thompson: began about how, with the Cambridge Film Festival, they've been creative in their use of volunteers and free on line resources for large parts of the festival's infrastructure, such as:

VIMEO - a better, more user friendly Youtube like site, that has gained a reputation for catering for a high end, artistic crowd because of it's ability to handle longer and higher resolution content,

Blip TV - a great, free, video blogging resource

Twitter - a free, real time social networking resource, that allows users to send and read other usesr updates.

"...keep in mind that although these things are free...it does cost you your time!"

"Your marketing needs to be integrated"...i.e. it knots together, makes sense and is coherent both separately and as a whole.

Bill talked about the fact that these resources are out there and being used, but, not necessarily being used that well or exploited fully.

One of the messages here seems to be - If you set these things up...make sure you use them, have the time to use them and consistently use them.

Discussed the value of obtaining and monitoring for audience/customer personal data - and for the consumer to understand the value of this data.

Highlighted how easily it is now, with new technologies such as bluetooth, GPS etc - to reach people and taylor information to them.

For successful recording and webcasting of panels at your festival you'll need: a Mixing desk at the front, fast internet connection, & VGA projector, laptop, DV camera into a firewire port.

Be aware of poor acoustics in cinemas and manage questions from the audience via a headset so its properly recorded and you can summarise and relay it back from the to the panel coherently.

Recommended book: The Power of Organising without Organisations. an authorative, accessible and useful analysis of Web 2.0 - looking at social networking a new media.

Also recommended: How to Build a Website for Free.

What a Cinema Wants - Panel 7/1/09

2009-01-07T11:33:00.000Z

Panel left to right: Claire Binns - Director of Programming, City Screen; Stuart Brown - Head of Events, BFI Southbank; Mark Cosgrove - Head of programming, The Watershed (Bristol).

In introducing the Watershed, Mark mentioned an interesting year round programme of work with the Watershed, looking at music and 'migratory peoples' called Migrations.

See here for more information.

A tip shared by all three panelists when pitching to them (cinemas/venues) is research what they do and be able to identify how it fits with the venues objectives and targets.

& "Keep it succinct"

Stuart: "We are interested in creating as diverse an audience as possible"..."How can (your) programme help us".

Mark: "I like to see proposals that are part of (say) a 5 year development....I don't want just one offs".

"Make sure that your contacts (and claims) are legitimate....we're long in the tooth and know!"

Stuart: "Really, by your fifth year, you should be looking to have achieved a commercial sponsor/partnership"

Claire: "...it also carries weight when convincing us to get involved"

Claire: "we (City Screen) sometimes help negotiate with distributors on behalf of the festivals to secure films, premieres etc....for example with the Human Rights Watch Films Festival."

Stuart talked about the importance of building an audience over time and maintaining that relationship as with his experience with Blactronica.

"We are looking for a monthly Black focused event to take it's place"

When pitching..."Don't be impatient"..."dont be disapointed (or put off) if we don't write back...it could be that it's just doesn't fit at that time....be persistent"

New Black Networks...well can we?

2009-01-07T10:30:00.002Z

Rob put together a presentation capturing the discussion of the group looking at how we could move forward and evolve an active network, with mutual benefits, that could add value both to our own individual and collective activities and also to the sector and the UK overall.

For the full presentation click here.

Panel: Moving Targets - Marketing and Audience Development

2009-01-06T14:35:00.000Z

Left to right: Dean Ricketts founder & MD the Watchmen agency also involved with Blacktronica;

Hannah Kerr, Shoreditch Audiences Chair: Suzy Gillet, Programmer at Mosaiques Film Festival; Emma Courtney - Courtney Consulting.

Dean gave some background, talking about the social campaigns that the Watchman agency have been involved in and Blacktronica, regular event in housed at the NFT, partnered by BFI to promote black film and music (founded by DJ & spoken word artists Charlie Dark).

Hannah began by talking about Shorditch Audiences focus being their community. Their programme on mainly live events is dictated by the community and their audiences and is very participatory for example using advocates from the community to promote the activities.

They also work with other key venues and organisations to secure access to the arts for their communities.

Interesting and different model of working with audiences to access work, largely through involving their community as full creative participants, creating ownerships and advocacy.

Emma started by giving an example of her work with the Welsh National Opera - Opera being a sector that traditionally has great challenges developing audiences.

Her strategy was to bypass the usual technical knowledge and historical knowledge required or expected of audiences - which also put off new audiences and focus on the universal appeal of the emotional experience. They employed a clever marketing tool - printed tissues with information about the Opera (La Bohemme).

"ADIA - Attention - gain your audiences' attention, Desire - create desire amongst your audiences, Interest - create an educated interest in the product, Action - turn the interest into action plans to participate purchase"

Also going on to give an example of work with the Carnival sector. An excellent presentation - Emma will be sending out the presentation to the group check view the presentation here (also in 'useful links').

Emma made a good point that the audience reaction to your content builds your reputation, loyalty, trust.

Recommended the Heritage Lottery, Voluntary Arts Network and National Statistics for some very useful templates, stats and information sheets to help audiences development and marketing strategies.

Building Audiences: Top Ten Tips

1. Know your audiences (Research - test your proposition)

2. Build and Leverage partnerships, networks & communities

3. Make customer relationship management your manta : Attract - Retain - Enhance

4. Integrate your communications and choose your channels with care and creativity

5. Harness the power of PR

6. Define your selling proposition - succinctly

7. Recruit credible champions that your audiences will respond to

8. Leverage your value proposition

9. Make your product/event easy to access removing as many barriers as possible

10. Evaluate your success and failure

A discussion evolved asking the question 'should we worry about focussing on Black audiences as opposed to a general audience'. (Paraphrasing) Dean made a good point that whatever your bias, we should at least consider how we develop a future generation of Black audiences and grow a culture of participation and access for Black communities.

"Why do you need to see this film?"

Happy Souls Festival - celebrating the best in Black & Asian films, specialising in attracting hard to reach BME communities and people suffering from Mental Health issues in these communities. See info on Happy Souls Festival here.

Black Film Society

2009-01-06T14:21:00.000Z

Have a look a the new blog by Lorraine launching the Black Film Society.

Please take a few minutes to have a look as you're all invited to come on board as founding members!!

You can check the blog here.

"...add value & let us know what you want...let's take this pioneering venture forward".

Lorraine is exploring ideas to invite patrons...who do you think could come on board?

Panel: From The Margins To The Centre

2009-01-06T12:00:00.000Z

Panelists; Chair - Dr Peter Packer (right) Strategy adviser Uk Film Council and founder of the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival; Rachel Millward (left), Director - Birds Eye Film Festival; Lois Savy (middle left), Director Sci-Fi London Film Festival and Robin Baker (middle right), head archiver & programme director, BFI Mediatheque.

Right to left: Peter Packer, Robin Baker, Lois Savy, Rachel Millward.

PIC HERE TO FOLLOW

The panel is to explore how niche festivals and film product can attract wide audiences and come into more mainstream public view.

Chair Peter Packer began by referring to the report "Towards a wider dissemination...Black Film Conent'.

Setting the context for the discussion, Peter highlighted three overarching ideas:

1. Knowledge & focus on the programme itself - 'know your films intimately, their context and wider relevance'

2. Marketing to your niche - working towards 'ownership' by your audience, networking.

3. The 'User Experience' - the experience of the audience: being interactive and participatory.

Robin Baker began by giving an overview of the BFI's Mediatheque, it's role for archiving British Film & TV and it's resources available both to audiences/the general public interested in film, but also film-makers and festivals.

Highlighted, as an example, a collection called 'Black Britain' which set out to collate and archive British Black film.

Referred to the Mitchell & Kenyon films, archived by BFI - fascinating early films from 1900, showing everyday British life and talked about how they invited the public to come into BFI to view, comment, document and add (via video, written and oral recording) their own memories to build up the body of knowledge and thoughts around the films - creating a wider ownership , deeper, more personal experience and critical debate.

Robin encouraged the group to contact BFI about their archive library of films and footage, much of which is available for festivals, film-projects and research.

Also available for use on websites, often for free.

See an example of a BFI archived film, digitised and posted to Youtube below:

Rachel made an interesting point about how they (Bird's Eye festival) went after 'big name' patrons as deliberate strategy to raise profile, combined with creating a media freindly story about the festival in order to develop significant and wide public interest/appeal.

They have struck a good balance between serious and accessible programming and public image to attract a wide audience.

Also talked about how they aligned their festival with collaborating associated events such as running a 'Women in comedy' film programme alongside live comedy events, presentations by well known Women comedienes and International Women's week; therefore exponentially increasing awareness, cross-fertilise audiences and enhance/widen the audience experience.

See the trailer shown by Rachel below:

Lois Savy talked about how the London Sci-Fi Film Festival is primarily focused on entertaining; so the the marketing message is 'you will be entertained first', not necessarily focused on a thematical message other than the context of the Sci-Fi genre and it is this that has proved to be successful for them.

"Content, Context and Consistency is the Key.....How do you speak to your audience"

"How do you create a buzz....making the screening an 'event" Eg Robin's example of 'Sing a Long Sound of Music' participatory screening.

Rachel made an excellent point about 'year round association' in order to help you secure access to films/film-makers and raising and embedding your brand. I.e. a strategy of constantly communicating and promoting your work, constantly being in touch with your audience and the sector.

"Newsletters, competitions, website updates, RSS feeds and year round regular screenings outside the main festival"

Lois: "the reason we get commercial sponsorship is because we treat the screenings like events and heavily brand the on-site activity as well as marketing"

"Use your volunteers/monitoring to capture the RIGHT info that will help you sponorship case: How did they find out about us, how did you get here, which sponsors did they notice, what did you buy".

"Think about incentives like Goody bags"

"Build up trust with your audience"

Towards the wider Dissemination & consumption of Black Film Content

2009-01-06T11:54:00.000Z

The group examined the above titled report commissioned by Film London, written by Peter Packer reviewing the current activity and strategic direction.

See report here. (To follow).

New Black Module 2 begins, Jan 09: Audience Development

2009-01-06T11:00:00.000Z

Film London welcomes back the group of Black film exhibitors, film-makers and producers for the second Module of 'The New Black'.

Over the next two days, The New Black will explore Audience Development.

Check here for the overview document of Module 2.

As an example of new Audience Development strategies, we began by discussing the recently released low-budget (£100k) horror film release Mum & Dad, part-funded by Film London through their Microwave scheme.

Significant for the fact that it was simultaneously released across all formats - theatrical, online/download and DVD; one of the first times this has happened.

Also noted for a significant on-line marketing strategy.

Check the Facebook campaign here.

Karen used the example of Mum & Dad to discuss marketing strategies that focus on exploiting a film's appeal within a genre (in this case horror) in order to develop an audience, targetting an identified demographic.

Also illustrated the significance of the timing of the release to maximise seasonal audiences (Mum & Dad) or to consider festival and award seasons (Slumdog Millionaire).

Karen mentioned an interesting new release, Ghajini, a Bollywood remake of Mememto. Released on Christmas day.

Rob mentioned another low budget British indie film called Cass (2005). about the life of notorious Black British football holigan, Cass Pennant containing a catavgting central performance by Nonso Anozie.

See the trailer for CASS below:

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS GROUP ... NEW COURSES 2009

2008-12-18T23:55:00.000Z

Hello Everyone,

Here is some information about TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES from January 2009:

Upcoming courses include:

Production Management Week - save £50!
Research for Factual - save £30!
FCP Editing Week (includes Grammar of Editing Day) - save £50!
Advanced Camera and Lighting Techniques - save £30!

Further information on these courses is provided below.
In the new year DFG will also be offering courses in Sound, HDV Camera Techniques, and Advanced Camera and Lighting Techniques, plus our Intensive Producers Week with top EP, Richard Sattin. Please visit www.dfgdocs.com/training for more information.

INTENSIVE PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT WEEK (9th - 13th FEB) - SAVE £50
Do you want to upgrade your skills as a Production Manager in factual television? Or are you a producer looking to manage the production of your own documentary? DFG’s Production Management Week is an intensive course that will equip you to successfully deal with the many, diverse challenges you will face in this role.

Led by top PM, Linda Stradling and supported by visiting guest speakers, you will undertake in-depth practical training in planning, scheduling and budgeting for factual programming and documentaries and the various complex issues they raise.

Other topics covered in this week include:
Co-Production and co-funding;
Re–versioning; Insurance;
Compliance;
Health and safety, Risk assessment;
Finance and cost control;
Setting up shoots – in the UK and overseas;
Dealing with equipment and crew;
Editing process for broadcast;
CGI;
New media;
Copyright/ clearance of music and archive; and Troubleshooting.

Past speakers have included a representative from PACT who discussed agreements, contracts and rates for freelancers/employees; a health and safety expert; experts in new media and archive; an insurer; a BECTU spokesperson; a DoP and an editor.
Save £50 if you book by 19 December!
For more info visit:
www.dfgdocs.com/Training/Short_Courses/Production_Management_Week.aspx

RESEARCH FOR FACTUAL (14th JAN) - BOOK NOW, SAVE £30!
High quality research is everything when it comes to making factual TV.
In this intensive workshop, led by Clare Cameron, you will discover the different approaches to research needed for different documentary genres from historical, investigative and cultural to international documentaries. Through practical exercises, you will also learn how to access, analyse and use information in a confident manner; how to make the best use of the Internet for film research; how to access archive footage and stills; and how to find contributors and locations.

As well as developing your research skills, you will gain an understanding of the roles of the different people you will work with from independent producers to media lawyers and archivists. The legal framework that can inform production will be examined as well as how to get results when you are researching under the constraints of time and tight budgets.
Whether you are keen to develop and improve your research skills for your own documentary, or wanting to enter the industry, this course will get you researching creatively and effectively.
Book by 19 December and save £30!
For more information visit http://www.dfgdocs.com/Training/Short_Courses/Research_for_Factual.aspx

FCP EDITING WEEK (19th - 23rd JAN) - SAVE £50
DFG is delighted to announce the return of FCP Editing Week, with the fantastic Anton Califano and Steve Stevenson as tutors. Book before 23rd December and you will save £50!
This intensive practical workshop teaches you how to use industry relevant equipment and Final Cut Pro software, as well as the fundamentals of documentary editing in important areas such as preparing a project for the edit and the Grammar of Editing.

Each participant will have their own Mac workstation to ensure maximum hands on practice. You'll be guided through essential elements of Final Cut Pro including: non-linear systems; hardware; interface; deck control; capturing and digitizing; working on timeline; working with audio basic effects; and printing to tape.

Additionally, you will learn about:
1) The Grammar of Documentary Editing (bookable also as a single day);
2) Preparing to edit your film, pre-selecting rushes, paper-edits, etc;
3) Writing commentary, finding music, effects, animation, stock footage and archive material;
Participants will end the week having edited a finished sequence to broadcast standards. (You are welcome to bring along your own material if desired or footage can be provided by DFG).

For more information visit:
http://www.dfgdocs.com/Training/Short_Courses/Final_Cut_Pro_Editing_Week_.aspx

ADVANCED CAMERA AND LIGHTING TECHNIQUES (5-6 FEB) - SAVE £30!
Master the art of shooting and lighting your documentaries professionally.
This highly practical course is for those who already know how to use a DV camera. It will be taught by top DOP and camerawoman, Belinda Parsons, on the industry standard Sony Z-1. Using shooting exercises, you will learn how to create a customised ‘look’ for your film using the settings on the menu, when and how to use filters, wide angle lens and matte boxes, principles of composition and much more.

You will also learn the basic principles of lighting, particularly for interviews, and you will get a chance to put this into practice with lighting exercises.
Book by 9 January and save £30!

http://www.dfgdocs.com/Training/Short_Courses/Advanced_Camera_and_Lighting_Techniques.aspx

TO BOOK OR FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL OF DFG’S COURSES INCLUDING PRODUCERS WEEK:
t. 020 7249 6600
e. training@dfgdocs.com
www.dfgdocs.com/training

ABOUT DFG:
The Documentary Filmmakers Group (DFG) is the UK's leading provider of industry focused training in documentary filmmaking and the national organisation working to promote talent and innovation in the industry. DFG and its partner, Goldsmiths, University of London, are members of the elite Skillset Media Academy Network.

Best regards,

Elle

GABRIEL MEDIA International www.gabrielmediainternational.com

DIGITAL VISUAL ARTISTS ...

2008-12-18T23:47:00.000Z

Hello Everyone,

Thought this might be of interest:

Calling all AfroPean Digital Visual Artists:

Mr Darren Taylor of Jazz Reloaded fame is looking for AfroPean digital visual artists to collaborate with and construct an AfroPean vision of the future….

What if you found out that you've been living a lie?
What if this lie sentenced people to death?
What if your history could save their future?
What if your true identity had been suppressed?
What if someone who loved you had the truth?
What if there were millions just like you?
What if we're all pawns in the Horizon Venture?

Are you an AfroPean Digital Visual Artist?
Do you have a vision of the future you would like to share?

Taylormade studios is looking for the next generation of AfroPean digital visual artists ( animators, 2D illustrators, 3D modellers, video producers ) to collaborate in bringing an AfroPean-centred view of the future to life via music, spoken word and visual imagery, in performances in 2009 as part of The Horizon Venture.

About The Horizon Venture

The Horizon Venture is inspired by Vidal Montgomery's The Horizon Venture, a futuristic retrospective novel of intergalactic speculative fiction, which transposes the issues and agenda of the Middle Passage and triangular transatlantic trafficking of human beings onto modern and futuristic constructs.

Next year The Horizon Venture will be performed live - an epic suite of works of music, spoken and written word and visual imagery constructed for performance by an improvising electroacoustic ensemble. Such contributions will take place either in the format of post performance discussions, jam sessions, or, where appropriate, as a part of the main performance.

The key themes of the music (to which the visual imagery will be synchronised are)
(A) Industrial military expansion
(B) Futuristic cities and landscapes
(C) "Alien" breeds and life forms
(D) Cloning, genetics, and synthetic humans
(E) Serfdom, servitude, oppression
(F) Biomedical research, biomedical advances
(G) Futuristic machines of war and destruction(
H) Space, planets, stars, the cosmos
(I) Mass control, mind control, mass subjugation
(J) Robots, technology, automation
(K) Partying, sex, drugs, lifestyle, fashion, pop culture
(L) Battle (inner struggle)
(M) Battle (between two people)
(N) Battle (between two armies)
(O) Explosions (something that could destroy a continent)
(P) Explosions (something that could destroy a planet)
(Q) Explosions (something that could destroy a number of planets)
(R) Aftermath (rebuilding after war)

You can read a preview of the book and see some of the key characters at http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=1434590

If you have already constructed visual artwork around these themes, or if they inspire you to construct new artwork forms, please get in touch:
Email Taylor directly: taylor@taylormade-studios.co.uk

What sort of Artwork am I looking for?
Work that is selected from the shortlist for presentation will most likely have the following qualities:i) Originality (the expressions are all free and clear of existing copyright, and the artist holds the copyright)ii) Innovation (the expression looks at a topic in an uncommon way and shows alternative thinking)iii) Indicative of states (the idea is to express the condition or emotional state of humanity, not to relate it to any specific place or time)I am most likely to select work that is not timebound. (i.e. I don't want historical paintings of slavery or holocaust, I want expressions about how these victims must have felt, and how they will feel when it happens to them again in the future.

I have found it useful to think about it in the following terms:
(1) What is the attitude or idea about humanity that I want to express?
(2) How did it look in the past?
(3) How does it look now?
(4) How will it look in the future?
(5) How can I portray or express point (4) above??

Submissions can be in any digital format, but please ensure your submission can be made into broadcast quality if required.To protect your copyright, consistent with the artistic integrity of the show PLEASE DO NOT send original work.Please post the originals to yourself ( or secure some other form of proof of copyright) if you have not done so already, and THEN send LOW RESOLUTION COPIES ONLY by email to
taylor@taylormade-studios.co.uk As and when higher resolution copies are required, I will ask.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR WORK?

All work selected will be short listed for inclusion in a live performance, where images are projected onto a screen while musical artists perform.All work submitted will by stored securely at www.thehorizonventure.ning.com , which is a social network exclusively for people invited to work on the projectYou will be credited as a contributor to the artwork wherever it is displayed.

Best regards,

Elle

Brand Name

2008-12-14T00:00:00.000Z

After reading Lorraine's post which was very interesting. I want to comment on the inclusion of Asian within a brand name. I can understand what Lorraine has said, this I have quoted in red below:

It must also be suggested that the move to consider others and form a collective with a brand name that incorporates Africa alongside Asia really needs to be resisted! For a start there isn’t one exhibitor of Asian film on the programme, and I’m mythed as to why within a programme under the moniker of ‘black’ we would feel a need to incorporate a market that stands alone, is doing quite well thank you without ‘our’ help and wouldn’t for an instance evoke the same consideration. Furthermore, I’m called to question what this invisible allegiance is that appears to exist within the community (for some) to be so achingly harmonious to audiences and industries that neither, need, or want our embrace.

The reason this was suggested, is that I was discussing this with Kevin & Suhail and they felt maybe it should have been included in the course programme. I have members on East End Film Society, who are British Asian film exhibitors and they do not look at themselves as Bollywood!

Munsur Ali - Director of Spotlight UK who set up Limelight Film Festival a year ago has successfully built a brand that looks like it will stay. However, I was surprised not to see him on the course, as he would offer a lot to participants on how he has gained partnerships, sponsorship etc for his festival that incorporates not only Asian talent, but black too!

Maybe Gavin can get him on board as a panelist when we come round to the festival seminar.

A national organisation for exhibitors of African (black), Asian and non western films (I'm sure Peter specialises in the latter field) would help each market to learn off each other as well as support each other to cross over to mainstream audiences as well.

Regarding the use of the black or African in the name. Don't African mean African or African - Carribean origin, related descent or connection?

Can we really define what black means???

Anyway, it would be great to hear other participants views. Please comment as only Lorraine has contributed so far.

Duncan

www.eastendfilmsociety.co.uk

2008-12-13T13:00:00.000Z

AND THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS ... An introduction to The New Black

“Drums please”

All together now:

Dur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur…nur and saw history in the making.

Much to the anger of some who felt it quite inappropriate early on in the year for Film London or any white led institution, come to think of it, to create a ‘fund for black exhibitors’ and a training programme, the “New Black” as it’s been termed, finally gave birth in the boardroom at HQ and was attended by fifteen of the UK’s leaders of black film exhibition.

I must address this point quite early if only because in having a blog we have opened the group to the eyes of the world, and to make it clearly obvious and apparent that ‘big brother and his sisters, cousins, nieces, and nephews, not forgetting grandma and grand-dad’ are watching, had been waiting quite anxiously for this industry to get it’s act together and get over the continuous thumb sucking and throwing of toys out of prams, albeit justified in most cases, I hasten to add!

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!!

Business is business. The money’s out there for the taking and to fund the ideas of BLACK EXHIBITORS within the industry. An ever increasing, vast and growing market, which has for some time, it seems, left the industry baffled as to how best to work with, feed and capture this diversely rich and eclectic market. The distributors, and producers are clear, it’s about the bottom line – money, money, money. Films cost a lot, and need to generate a lot of income in return. This has meant the mainstream have left these audiences starved of food and drink and been happy with box office turnover. In turn as with human nature to have the thirst quenched, this led to piracy, and other infringements of copyright. Infact the new generation of film buffs have found their own way to meet demand through the internet, downloads and a host of other mediums that have left the industry wanting.

Conversant to this, black exhibitors decided to do for themselves across the UK and organising their own events to meet the demands of their audiences, in some cases, to meet their own needs that they felt others must share. This is reflected by the make-up of the ‘course’ (another questionable feature, that I shall leave someone else to address) attendees who exhibit Wales, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Kent, Essex, and various London locations serving the north, south, east and west with the founder of the black film industries annual award ceremony amongst. These screenings and festivals come in various forms, and take place mainly, in alternative venues, mainly using independent cinemas and the odd mainstream, have been happening for some time, only more increasingly so, albeit to date we’ve merely whet the appetites of our audiences.
By stark comparison and someone who uses mainstream cinemas for her screenings, I’m all too aware of the move by some independents to turn the current idea and feel of cinema as we know it into something that has an entirely different experience and where popcorn, the industry’s must have and real means of business are contemplating doing away with popcorn entirely.

GOOD BUSINESS SENSE

So Film London in its wisdom alongside Skillset, BFI, UKFC to name a few cut right down the middle of all the crass, saw the business opportunity, seized the bull by the horn, did what some us have wanted to do for some time, but decided not to – perhaps a good thing in hindsight – who knows, time will tell, and created what they term ‘The New Black!’ a cultural leadership training programme.

Having spent the week on the newly formed CULTURAL LEADERSHIP training programme, it has left me wondering, amongst other things, what the old black was...? The words to a song by the Beatles comes to mind ... help me if you can I’m feeling down, but I do appreciate your being round … if only for the humorous connotations. By the same token it does seem that if we were to be informed as to what this was, it may leave room for swift advancement. Dare I say, that perhaps there wasn’t a former, and TNB as I shall term it from hereon in is simply the bright…ish idea of someone in marketing, and whilst for some it causes offence and for me an initial reaction of what the ….! And conjured up a number of questions, having had time to get a feel for the potential within TNB it leaves me feeling this newly formed collective should call on the scriptwriters and producers amongst us and start penning what will be feature films for TNB James Bond, Steven Seagal, Robert De Niro etc etc etc and yes, it does seem to have quite a male feel about it.

However we will feel about the title, the true resonance within the opportunity and potential within areas of marketing, pr and all the p’s mustn’t be overlooked!

As for me the creative juices and flow have taken the concept from movies to perfume aftershave and advertising and all the fluff and bumph that comes with promoting, marketing and selling a brand – which, whilst we’re on the tip doesn’t actually have to come literally as TNB. In thinking outside of the box (as I do) and in going forward it would seem quite sensible during this time of advent, rest and making of plans for 2009 that we all take some to think about us, our product, branding and project forward five to ten years.

DOMAIN NAME

It must also be suggested that the move to consider others and form a collective with a brand name that incorporates Africa alongside Asia really needs to be resisted! For a start there isn’t one exhibitor of Asian film on the programme, and I’m mythed as to why within a programme under the moniker of ‘black’ we would feel a need to incorporate a market that stands alone, is doing quite well thank you without ‘our’ help and wouldn’t for an instance evoke the same consideration. Furthermore, I’m called to question what this invisible allegiance is that appears to exist within the community (for some) to be so achingly harmonious to audiences and industries that neither, need, or want our embrace.

I would further suggest that where an opportunity has been created for ‘black’ exhibitors that the embrace be given to self acceptance and advanced accordingly towards self value, and sufficiency in numbers and distribution. Broader still should instances of commaderie and allegiance to what I don’t know be necessary that it might be an idea to test the water through invitation to exchange the same. I for one don’t feel it necessary to embrace my heritage as a Carib within the black film industry. My focus is driven more to what is this industry? Having posed the question to the right panellists this week, and not received an answer it seems clear to me the opportunity to dictate, inform and or establish is beaming, flashing and even slapping us in the faces.

WHAT’S THE DEFINITION?

Is it not more poignant to be addressing Africa in all its contexts as it relates to film and come to a point where we are able to define African film and cinema more definitely as well as the Caribbean say?

What about the ‘wood’

Whilst on the theme of new, might it be an idea to create taglines for ‘the’ ‘new’ ‘black’ film industry that is befitting say, to Ghana as the ‘wood’ doesn’t work here, or in a lot of other instances as it does with Holly, particularly as the ‘N’ word is reflective of one aspect of the African film industry?

Again, I feel taking ‘the new’ on board if we really want to make a mark, then the view must be this is a time of change for which the seeds have been planted.

INDUSTRY

Increasingly so, it seems we should be drawn more towards considering definition of TNB, and the true context within the potential for this industry, and not shy away from extensive opportunities to be pioneers for the future and present generations. There is room for all industries and requirement from within that, for leaders, role models and voices to be heard. We must, as I’m sure the industry is, remain mindful of the multi cultural society we live in. In addition we must take heed of and remove the need for those with the knowledge, capital and ability within the creative industries or sectors (as some would term it) as a whole to pilfer ideas in order to inform their direction and leave the minority wanting.

It is time to STEP UP to the mark, collaborate with the mainstream, which for me is and has always been the only route forward and build TNB together. No one comes knocking on the door of an empty barrel.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Film industries in the UK and USA are in collaboration, ready to take the market by storm.

- We have the audiences, knowledge, accessibilities, and initiatives.
- We’re already creating the new experiences that draw audiences of all ages and races to our screenings.
- We’re already working with the next generation of talent.
- We’re already providing the-feel-good-factor and understand the essence of the link to back in the day late night screenings and the need to provide for a wanting market, which in my mind is what the Chinese understood at the time.

Whilst I love ‘Drunken Master’ and all the other listings the reality is, as with now, any good product would worked at the time that fed the appetites of a waiting market.

It is for this same reason, to lead by example that my ‘Tribute Bob Marley’ screening at the Rio cinema was successful.

Chicken, Chips and no wings please …

It had an all round entertainment package, with a rum punch reception sponsored by Wray and Nephew. The ‘event’ started at ten in the evening, with lots of entertainment around the film, including performances by an international reggae artist, and compeer in the form of a good comedian etc. Doors closed at two in the morning everyone went home happy, and felt like they’d been to a party – because they had been! NEWS FLASH! The next ‘Tribute to Bob Marley’ screenings take place in February and May respectively – what this space for updates times locations.

Better still, akin to the thinking around ADULTHOOD, the aim was to capture a mainstream audience within a few screenings. Quite poignantly, the audiences came mainly from Belsize Park, St. John’s Wood, Notting hill, Islington and other locations en route and surrounding the borough of Hackney and were majority Caucasian, Asian, then Black and other cultures.

The opportunity within ‘the interval’ to eat quiche, chicken and other cuisine, as well as the choice of the obligatory popcorn and ice-cream was a welcomed one.

Ensuring the right certification meant families could attend with children once they were fifteen and over. To add value to the story one family used the event to celebrate their sons’ sixteenth birthday and brought along a group of his friends.

Recipes need the right ingredients and not everything has to be baked!

THE LIONS GATE

The need and crucially the thinking say at Lionsgate to reach out and marry the two – distributors with exhibitors with regards to Tyler Perry is a step in the right direction, long over due and one that needs to be piloted! OVER HERE MATE!! :o) We’re all aware of how quickly this mindset will lead to success.

It must be said however, that alike the distributors thinking behind the film AKEELAH AND THE BEE which I was pleased to learn of from Andrew Woodyatt, it would serve the industry well to have advanced screenings with ‘black exhibitors’ who will in turn inform the direction marketing should take is of essence.

Two screenings of the film through my film festival FFISH ’07 in association with Odeon cinemas made it very clear to me that although it was marketed as a film for children, Lionsgate would have done better in marketing this as the ‘must see’ family movie of the year – the film has everything and covers areas of bullying to excellence, throws in a bit of romance, educates through the spelling bee and use of prose and pertains to black authors, informed through the teachings of tutor (Lawrence Fishburne). The film gets real about the struggle of a single Mother (Angela Bassett) and embarks on the challenges of friendship ensuring to incorporate the community.

INNOVATORS

Let us not recreate the same scenario that conjured up the stance within the business opportunity for funding and training through Film London.

Exchange is a two way medium in which both parties glean from the other. The dichotomy in forming distribution networks and provision of real content for audiences, old and new, delivered through black exhibitors is one that must be swiftly mastered and manoeuvred into a quick succession of gear changes, aligned and mapped out within the timeline allocated for duration of the course.

I’m encouraged by the open doors and the information exchanged across the board this week. One thing’s for sure the potential is so vast that if you can’t taste it you must be sleeping.

The market place is wide open for creators, this has been confirmed. So what are we waiting for?

WEALTH DYNAMICS

In closing we must look at the wealth dynamics within this group. Infact, through some of the other work being conducted through other Gabriel Media International partnerships; I’d welcome the opportunity to look at the psychometrics of this group? We’ve connected for a reason and must maintain the momentum over this period.

It’s important we begin advancing the ideas and relationships in order to maximise the potential and use the nuances to our advantage, and would do well to begin structuring the calendar of events for 2009 by ensuring, as discussed, there is an event taking place monthly. We must remain true to our word, for ourselves, not others, as in building and establishing it is this that will see whether we stand the test of time. Moreover it is this that forms the confidence needed to build on the foundations that are The New Black.

Stay tuned in ...

Have great weekend everyone!

Elle

My First Post

2008-12-13T03:51:00.000Z

Hello everyone

First I have to write: Kevin, the blog is a great idea. Thank you for starting it so soon :)

It was great to meet and mix with so many people across the UK working in black & asian film exhibition. I miss you all already!!! It was also amazing to have high profile panelists so early in the course. I found them all very helpful.

I was thinking today, I had a one-to-one with the head of Pathe, one of the biggest studio distributors in the world. It was like christmas came early :)

I have to thank Film London & partners for getting this course off the ground. Big shouts go out especially to Rebekah, Gavin, Tracey and our Tutor Karen (dont worry the homework will be done).

Listening to Lorraine's suggestion of a domain name of the group... My suggestion could be African & Asian Cinema Exhibitors UK (AACE) .

I found out that the .com and co.uk is gone, but www.aace.org.uk is available. What does other members think of the name and please let us know your name suggestions too?

See you all in the new year and a have a peaceful christmas

Duncan

East End Film Society

www.eastendfilmsociety.co.uk

PS:
Please participate everyone to grow this network

The Bottom Line (The New Black - day 1)

2008-12-12T22:46:00.000Z

Led by Karen Alexander. A group of people who do black film festivals (whatever that means). Funded by ukfc , to bring together the cultural with the commercial. Held at Film London. A good bunch people it seems to be sharing time with. So far nothing to go on but vibe. It's good.

Panel

Peter Buckingham - head of uk film council

Justin Marciano - md, revolver (chair of panel)

Bryony Duncan - Audiences london

Grace Carley- allfilms?marketing?

Revolver did kidulthood . I'm feeling remarkably under-researched and under loving of the film industry by not knowing what any films are and any directors. This lack of passion for film is compensated by a love of the idea of film and how its used and can be used. I hope. Still love a good film though , like the next person, and must see more. My list of films to watch just grows.

Like the next person, I am also full of too much to do. While i can see how this whole network of people and sharing of this particular knowledge could work with past and ongoing projects and ideas, it has to be followed through. This will be the real test after all is said and done.

THE ESSENCE OF IT ALL

Distribution is a key word here today. And that's all about rights! Rights I say. Not prints, dvds, posters, slots on telly, on billboards, events, festivals, trailers, talent tours and talks, press and public relations and all that. That's just the cost of exercising those rights. So the brutal business equation leads to the question. Can the film take more than the cost of all that? And then much much more to make the bankers smile. So this is the basic question with any project. It's the business proposition. Will it be worth our while financially? And that is the basic lesson of the whole course. So do we have to spend three months to learn that?...

And furthermore, what is the point of this group and course?

CULTURAL LEADERSHIP?

It is peddled as 'cultural leadership'. The best take-out for me from the leadership part, is the idea, as Karen suggests that we have strategic view of the overall landscape. A landscape which is changing fast. even as we talk Justin Marciani from Revolver says that they have collapsed all the distribution windows into one for a hundred thousand pound piece of work from the ukfc 'microwave' scheme called Mum and Dad. A horror. Genre piece.

My take on Karen's general framing of the cultural leadership was the idea of us all knowing the bigger picture of what's going on, how the industry is structured, how you have to play, and who you have to play with. Well at least to interface with that particular the traditional business model. That tower of the business. And the language and core concepts at the basis of this industry were outlined in the morning, with promise of more demystifying throughout the programme. This programme was also about not suffering in silence, and sharing pain, knowledge and resources. It was not! Just about funding. Hear Hear!

THE BUSINESS

This business of being in their business was of course was questioned. Do we have to be like them and do things their way? Or do we do things differently? Or course we , in the light of the changing landscape, were encouraged to embrace this possibility. With Karen's original introduction being to have a 'yes' mentality about approaching all this of this course. While Peter Buckingham didn't see any evidence in market research surveys that black audiences consumed mainstream film very differently. He could see that a network of players such as ours could reach black audiences as a niche which could have an angle in the industry. However , whatever, it's all going to be about the tills ringing at the end of the day. In that respect we are being 'them' anyway. It's not about black or white, it's about green!

CULTURAL PRODUCT - BLACK FILM - WHATEVER THAT MEANS?

With the cultural product now. A good rich time at the top of the panel chat was the discussion about a black film. Karen later pointed us to the definition that she supplied to ukfc for a recent study, but the question was the inevitable starting point for the afternoon. Kidulthood was a Youth film says Justin Marciano. He built the Revolver business by importing youth themed videos and dvds (Well getting the rights, and then putting them on the shelves ). His company also recently distributed Richard Pryor stuff, which i think have at home. Bought and paid for. But overall the question is unresolvable. Black film, what is that? We don't really know but we know it when we see it. The definition (Karen/UKFC) is going to be somewhere else on this blog. I'm sure.

FILM FESTIVAL and DISTRIBTORS

Justin from Revolver thought that a film just had to be a 'good film' to pass his distributable test. While there was some questioning of this, presumably from people who know of good films that distributors have rejected, or has never heard of. Which is where the Relationship amongst us and them come in. He thought the key thing between distributors and festivals was relationship. They actively cultivate this with London and Edinburgh film festivals because he can get something from them for his business. They are key festivals. Good festivals might be characterised by new films, new talent, hype opportunities and critical appraisal of new releases. This get much needed Press and PR that fuels those all important opening weekends in the cinema that are so fundamental to the established business model.

If people in a festival are paying to see the film then it's straight business. Then the distributors get their percentage. Otherwise a distributor might use a festival for market/audience testing. If it's just that (i.e. Free for audiences to see, or just minimum guatantee payments), then the distributor would not want to put it about too much before free/discounted screenings starts 'cannibalizing' their film's natural, most likely audiences. Ideally for the distributors the festival should generate good word-of-mouth, which just needed stimulating. He's of course now deploying viral marketing techniques from his modern distributor arsenal. In a word Street.

There's loads of stuff about release windows and such depending on the pecking order of the distributors, which Karen spoke about later in the afternoon, but essentially festivals can be 'acquisitions' people for them too. He's looking for hits, with audiences he can identify and sell to markets he understands too. Content he can get rights for to distribute and sell profitably.

The current issue for him is in what form: theatrical release (which has lost a lot of its business glint of late, in fact is was never really profitable, hence why cinemas sell popcorn), dvds, television, online, ipod , mobile etc. These are all competing for attention , all jumbled up and the film marketeers are finding ways of putting it back together in ways that still make the tills ring. People got mortgages and all that. Meanwhile the established business model collapses and new models are created in the production-distribution-exhibition line. More like production-exhibition. Or in the youtube-webcam world, just straight exhibition. So the all-powerful distributor of films are looking for ways to ensure they remain so.

FESTIVALS / EXHIBITORS - COMING CORRECT

Either way individual festivals or even a network of festivals could be useful partners for distributors. It's all about how you step to them.

Some of it is in the gloss of a brochure, presentation, telephone manner or most usefully to him, feedback on the audience's qualitative reaction to the film. It's all such things, but most of how you step to him has to be in the attitude. He needs you like you need him. As a festival partner you can exhibit, talent scout, research audiences, test them, feedback and other useful things that a distributor might need.

The attitude thing therefore is not in going in there all feisty and arrogant. You present a business proposition. The attitude begins way before you ever meet him. It's on the basis of your (reliable) research and audience understanding, professional bearing and ability to put it in a language he understands. Which is where this course comes in. It's a window into their world. Which me may be in though maybe on the fringe. We have to sell ourselves.

These words won't even sit easy with deep ideas about enslavement so present in people's thinking, but that's what it it. As people once interested primarily in cultural product, we have been thinking about, motivated by and effective in raising the cultural side. The time has come (once again) to look at the product, or business side of the black film festival. Since we also have the mortgages, are also therefore motivated here by the business opportunity.

Of course black means so many things and it changes by the minute. And we know black has been culture-marketeered into urban and youth. It was Grace and Bryony looking at audiences to state that unlike Bollywood, (and Nollywood,) there was no 'Black' audience. You couldn't really go on colour as a judge of what would appeal because there's diversity in the diversity. We already know Black becomes meaningless quite quickly. Futher 'segmentation' would have to be considered. They could not market a film to a White audience. There is no such thing as far as the marketing people are concerned either. Gender, Age, Cinema going habit , genre lover, star-followers come into play.

Kunle did also point out that Africans were soon to outnumber African-Caribbean. This is an interesting thing in itself. Which also reminds us that even as a colonially imposed concept, there is enough cultural identification to make Nigerian films, with questionable production values, still generate such a following. We forget! It's not all about Brad and Angelina (and Jennifer). It's about knocking out cult-ural product profitably. Like Hollywood and Bollywood, Nollywood just keeps familiar product coming. And coming. It has it's own star system, genre expectations, mythologies , distribution network and expectant audiences. It's the prolific factor that makes it an industry. That's not to say Nigerians cant be found watching mainstream film, and will be caught by a marketeers survey from time to time. But they also watch their own films, with language and cultural bearing they enjoy. What 's that all about?

Now UK 'black' mainstream films try to reflect the lifestyles of those descendents of migrants who are now more immersed in the playstation with their white friends and cousins and become urban. Meanwhile the game industry is seen as different again. It's Parallel. But we didn't talk about that. In the context of this discussion, games were more competitive attention-seeking choices for consumers to draw them away from film. Basically as far as the mainstream distribution business is concerned, in the UK, there is no black film.

The Matrix I asserted is a black film because not only was it written by a black woman before being nicked by the coen bros. I said that but... Actually since looking it up i can say it was Sophia Stewart whose film was stolen by the Wichowski bros. And Warner bros. Anyway the substance of the point was that it fitted a fear of the evil state, who exploits us as a people, and destroyed or realities to suck our energies away. Powerful figures played by black folk but not the central character. That would be too black they must have thought. Meanwhile the people try to free themselves from the soul-sapping devices of some Babylon, the Matrix. And with it's fair spattering of kung fu, it's a black film through sensibilities, form, style, cast and story. Not sure anyone was buying my argument though. Maybe after i got all the names wrong, they weren't listening.

Lots of potential US imports are not arriving. Tyler Perry kept on coming up. Why was his stuff not available? And there was some chat about piracy. Well it was acknowledged as a big issue for anyone who wanted to make money out of film sales in some 'black' communities.

Kunle was the one who mentioned the R word. He acknowledged that we seem to be skirting round the issue of racism. There is after all a basic institutional misunderstanding of a black audience. 'No body knew that was going to happen' thought Peter about Kidulthood. It was make apparently as worthy cultural product. We heard later how it was marketed to cinema-goers rather than audiences that reflected where the film's characters came from. They made it a success because the industry have some very set ideas about who their audiences are, and how to reach them. It doesn't really know black people. It's forgotten about Blaxploitation and the hunger to see black characters, settings, stories and sensibilities. After all, the Blax came before the ploitation, which is the point the industry took notice of the numbers in the light of dwindling mainstream sales.

I still don' t know why Revolver is called revolver and wondered I was trying to make it anything more than a Gun! I forgot to ask that one.

Anyway bottom-line. We have to have an even more entrepreneurial attitude. Of course we are already pretty enterprising to have been doing what we were doing and to have found our way onto the course. But the business grasp and attitude. Knowing we have lots to offer other than a begging bowl.

Suhail rightly questioned the value in an informal networks. As in whether we would like to become on and carry on linking up in between the sessions.

So let's define what that could be (initially):

Sharing films and programmed content.
Collaborative bargains with distrubutors
People supporting the People side of us.
Operation support with events and film events.
Shared marketing materials.

.... We could go on. But save that for the group.

Well there will always be a need for people to get together and meet. Like i-robots we feel the need to be social while doing nothing even. We congregate. Well mostly. Going to the cinema is part of that. Or community centre of art gallery or library to watch a film. And as far as the 'black' bit. We know there are audiences for our stories. We just have to live the making films and finding audiences part in very dragon's den kinda way. That bottom line. Here is a business waiting to happen.

Day 3, Panel - View from the Studios

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Panelists (right to left): John Fletcher (MD, Pathe), Michael Gubbins, Chair (Editor Screen International) and Andrew Woodyatt (Lionsgate).

Chair, Michael kicked off by talking about 'Turf theory', i.e. concepts around target audiences, geo-demographics and 'tribal' buying behaviours.

Andrew introduced himself talking about some of the films they distribute, including talking about how the work with Tyler Perry in the US, noting the practical challenges of bringing his films to the UK, also noting that his audience is 90% black.

John began by explaining the process that Pathe go through in putting together the numbers behind a purchasing and distribution investment decision.

Also talked about the flexibility an independent has in terms of the artistic choice and diversity of films they can go with, but qualified it by emphasising that the numbers still need to work.

Highlighted that Adulthood very much surprised them at the success it had; recouping it's 'lifetime' projected income target of £1m in just a few weeks.

John: "Our job is to access the risk".

Michael talking about the assumptions inherent in marketing and pushing certain films: "There is an assumption that this film is for white middle class Guardian reader", implying that this needs challenging more regularly; as in the case with Adulthood and Revolver's deliberate strategy to not go the art house route.

Michael: 'I've never met anyone in the industry who is overtly racist, yet some of the decisions made (in terms of targeted distribution and marketing) are based on simplistic views of the audience or appropriate placement' - 'the finger in the air strategy....have they done the mapping?'

Lorraine added that there needs to be a more considered approach to packaging and marketing films to the right audiences, using the example of the 'Secret Life of Bees', saying that was very successful when she screened it - for families, rather than how it was promoted in more of a Art House context.

Andrew talked about Bollywood & Nollywood and the particular cultural behaviour and film-making 'formula' that seems to have led to a certain sustainability.

Michael added that there is also a culture of piracy, that ironically, arguably ends up supporting the Bollywood industry in that people share and become loyal to the product and consume on a number of levels?

Andrew made an interesting point about contemporary economic and social constraints leading to changing consuming behaviours and gave the example of a people, cash rich but time poor - going out during the day, whilst a film downloads, comes back late and watches it at home, rather than go to a cinema.

Michael: "80% of film-makers only make one film"

Michael: "Invisibility is what kills.....therefore is it better to give content away and/or be pirated - in order for film-makers to build up a base"

John: "....as long as you can anticipate income stream at the end"

John: "Will cinema become like fringe festival?"

Suhail: "It's partly about cinema in unconventional places....but there IS a large market, in for example the 'urban' market"

Zachary: "....be creative, there's different ways to show films - diversify your ways to engage audiences and diversify the ways you make money from it"

Rob: "Immersiveness is changing, and therefore there are new and different opportunities- thinking about the cinematic experience, virtual reality, digital media, other live immersive spaces such as clubs & festivals"

John talking about how people are watching films in different ways, particularly young people. E.g. watching films on iPods - check this view from David Lynch below!

Rob: "..but bear in mind that a lot of people just want to say they've seen it....film tourists"

John: "Word of mouth is the right strategy for some films".

Day 3, Morning session

2008-12-11T10:44:00.000Z

Pre Panel session with Karen

We started off by watching a fascinating short film from the late 1800's called 'Sambo and two girls'. A 2 minute document with a central black character 'clowning' up a stereotype of a black male.

Interesting point about the pervading cultural norms & etiquette of typical cinema environments not necessarily tallying with the audience expectations.

For example, why is it less usual for people to be able eat, drink, talk and interact in a cinema space - particularly when this is what is expected, desired or considered the norm from some audiences.

Essentially, this point is about both flexible and broad access to cinema and the quality and relevance of the experience.

Are traditional cinema environments geared up, suitable or open to this?

This discussion brought out the varied and more sophisticated approach that exhibitors of Black film often naturally or have to consider; be it choosing using more flexible spaces, that sit outside the normal cinema network or using existing and direct relationships to particular communities and outreaching them both via face to face contact and through digital/social networks.

Secondly we watched a 30 minute documentary about Olaudah Equiano.

Followed by a really illuminating exercise where were challenged to explore three scenarios of how we would market the film, looking at it in terms of youth audiences, Current Festivals and Art House cinema audiences.

It was interesting to see the different strategies the groups explored, in terms of how we described the film according to our target groups.

Early submission for a quote of the day came from Peter Fraser who engagingly pitched the marketing strategy for Art House audiences including the interesting suggestion that "Morally speaking you should see this film"!

We've been asked to write up our notes on the piece - which will hopefully be linked from this blog - so check back!

Third film to digest and consider how we would pitch/market/disseminate according to the three scenarios of Current Festivals, Youth and Art House was by Charles Burnet called the Horse from 1973.

Day 2 - another post match debrief....

2008-12-11T08:09:00.000Z

Claire Stewart (Watershed), Suhail Khan (Process/Breaking Cycles) plus Kevin Da Costa & Duncan Isaac (not pictured) discuss the days programme and panels...

Something that come up was a discussion contrasting Asian cinema in the UK to Black cinema (meaning Afrcan/Afro-Caribbean Diaspora).

It was generally felt that Asian cinema both world wide and in the UK has been much more successful in establishing itself, creating and sustaining an infrastructure, building an audience anddoing this, largely without compromise to the product.

Why is this?

As touched on in the day, this might have something to do with the success and customer loyalty of Bollywood and the innovative cinematic achievements of say Chinese cinema; but perhaps also something to do with being better organised, stronger relationships with distributions networks in addition to their own distribution networks and generally more critical peer review in the media and favourable responses from the mainstream industry to exciting Asian directing talent? - If this is the case, then what can we learn from it?

Day 2, Panel 2 - What's at stake; Black Fourth Estate

2008-12-10T14:52:00.000Z

Panelists (left to right): Donna Morgan (UK represntative for BET). Brenda Emmanus (BBC London), Ope Bankole (Head of Marketing, GV Media Group, who publish the Voice).

Ope began by responding to a question about accessing the black media, discussing the necessity of making the business case when approaching the media, not just the merit of the work.

Donna spoke about how BET are moving into Europe & Africa and developing specfic content for these territories.

Key point, I think, that Ope raised, was that we should visualise beyond the boundaries of just the UK market, in particular relating to how digital media has opened up world wide distribution and the dissemination of work

For me, this was one of the most interesting discussion so far, with a wide variety of aligned and opposite views.

It occurred to me that as an all black media panel we seem to have much greater expectations of them. This could because we're aware that there was greater knowledge and passion for the subject on display, so we project a much greater hope onto them and expect more help then we would perhaps from the mainstream media....are we, letting the mainstream media of the hook? Or is that dynamic simply inevitable?

Brenda: "We want to use you, not just your product"

Top tip from Ope: Send your story not just to Editorial, but to Marketing also!

Interesting to hear from Brenda how she has to be much more creative and build a strategy in order to regularly get Black success on the agenda and profiled.

Ope: "We need to flip the whole perception of race on it's head...." - discuss.

Day 2, Panel 1 - Independent Visions

2008-12-10T12:01:00.000Z

Panelists (left to right): Margaret Deriaz (BFI), Gemma Spector (Revolver) and Julia Short (Verve).

Julia Short (MD, Verve Pictures) is a hugely experienced independent film distributor of 20 years.

Gemma (Head of Marketing) started off talking about her latest film just completed and about to be launched a dramatised biography about Mike Tyson, simply called Tyson.

Margaret (Head of Distribution for BFI) introduced herself by speaking about the general work and resources of the BFI, touching on it's archive. library, support & work with festivals such as the London Film Festival, it's education programme and it's publishing & distribution arm that releases films and print such as Sight & Sound.

She explained how they hire out films and give access to archive materials to venues, festivals & programmers. They also offer advice/support in how to acquire the rights from copyright holders to gain full permission to screen.

Picking up on Rob & Zachary's earlier analysis of the SWOT exercise around the strengths & weaknesses of Black Film exhibition/distribution - I thought the point about the dearth of critical analysis of Black film in the wider or more mainstream public domain is key.

I thought Margaret's point discussing the difficulty of translating (and therefore marketing & selling) a film effectively in a trailor was interesting; showing Mario Van Peebles' Baadasssss! film (a film about his pioneering father Melvin Van Peeebles ) as an example.

See the trailer for Baadasssss! below:

Julia mentioned an interesting film 'Talk to Me', starring Don Cheadle - that was artistically successfully, but which had trouble being picked up by mainstream cinemas due to perhaps not successfully 'translating' the film to cinemas and audiences - being neither mainstream nor quite arthouse and the 'materials not matching the sell of the film'.

See the trailer for Talk to Me below:

Julia broke down how films rights holders & distributors make their money and where the profit is (essentially through post theatrical release merchandise, eg DVDs and licensing to TV such as Sky.

Day 1, Panel 1 - You talking to me? Cinema facts, figures & strategies

2008-12-10T10:21:00.000Z

Really interesting panel to kick us off, giving an overview of the Industry view and experience of Black film.

Left to right: Grace Carley (MD, All Industry Marketing/AIM), Bryony Duncan (Audiences London), Peter Buckingham (Head of Distribution, UK Film Council) and Justin Marciano (MD of distributor Revolver)

The panel discussed recent experiences with successes with Black film such as Kidulthood & Adulthood and the explored the reasons that other high quality films, such as the recently released 'Secret life of Bees' have not had the public response or distribution hoped for.

See the trailer for Secret Life of Bees below:

Of particular interest to me was the Geo Demographic Profiling discussion which explored using precise population data and audience research to enhance marketing strategies.

Generally I thought that the panel was extremely useful, however there were certainly times that I became aware that there is still a lot of work to do in order to really see change in the mainstream industry towards a more proactive and consistent take up and support for black product.

Yes, I think we all acknowledge the economic argument, in that distributors, cinemas and funders need to feel confident that the product will be financially successful - in order to justify the investment; however, I felt the case for investment needs to also acknowledge the 'what you put in you get out' argument, in terms of development investment, marketing etc, plus the need to consistently offer a more sophisticated approach and understanding of target audiences and marketing strategies in order to build and maintain audiences.

I hope to be able to post up & share the full video recording of the panel (all two hours) soon - check the links on the right regularly.

What did everyone else feel about panel 1?

Kev, Suhail, Duncan & Ashton post New Black day 1

2008-12-09T18:37:00.000Z

...after the first day of the New Black programme, Suhail Khan, Duncan Isaac, Kevin Da Costa and Ashton Merryfield (writer, working on a film project with Duncan)...had a bit of a post match debrief.

At various times animated, in agreement, hilarious, passionate and sometimes intelligent discussion about the first day of the course, black film in general and Duncan & Ashton's great new film development - 'We are the Mods'.

2008-12-09T14:04:00.000Z

More info on Film London's New Black scheme here

The New Black begins!

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The New Black is a Film London initiative and is all about up-skilling and promoting people & organisations in the UK that are exhibiting and promoting films from the Black Diaspora.

This blog aims to record the thoughts of those on the course, start to network and grow the sector.

Keep checking back ya'll!