Friday, February 18, 2011

An Open Letter To The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

An Open Letter To The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
From Stacey Muhammad


I would like to express my deepest sympathy for all of the grief you've been receiving, simply because there are no African Americans nominated for an Oscar award this year.  No, not one.

In these hard economic times I especially understand how difficult it can be to give out bonuses to workers. Hollywood is not alone in this regard - those who work a 9 to 5 in corporate America, even Wall Street, can relate.
Nevertheless, please understand that the Black community looks forward to receiving our Oscar bonus every year from you all in Hollywood. Nothing seems to compare or be able to take its place. We seem to need it more than other type of compensation or recognition we might give to ourselves. Just imagine if Black Americans decided to boycott your annual ceremony and hold one of their own in honor of their own, at the same time! Such an act of sedition, treason and artistic terrorism styled as self-reliance makes me shudder. Perish the thought!

The Academy has been giving out its hefty bonuses to our people, in the form of Oscars (27 to be exact...Whoopi we didn't forget about you !) to the Black community for years.  Yes, of the more than 2,700 Oscars that have been awarded over the 83 years of Oscar glitz and glam, 27 of those have gone to African Americans. How honored we are that you think so much of our contribution, skill and talent.  Mind you, not one of those 27 awards have gone to a black director. (Thank you for your nominations of John Singelton in 1991 for Boyz in the Hood and Lee Daniels in 2009 for Precious).


Yet, somehow you've managed to, year after year, omit one of the greatest directors and filmmakers of all time from your best director category. You may have heard of him, his name is Spike Lee, he's sorta kinda a big deal, at least to us black folk. If you have the time, google him.


HAILE GERIMA
I would also recommend you google Haile Gerima but that might be pushing it. He is only the most brilliant, bold, uncompromising, courageous cinematic genuis / story teller...okay, I'm pushing it!



My sincere thanks, to you, for awarding Hattie McDaniel with the coveted statuette for Gone with the Wind in 1940 and I can't understand why folks are so upset that it took another 24 years before another actor of color was recognized (Sidney Poitier for Lillies of the Field) and another 50 years before another black actress won. Whoopi, I told you we didn't forget about you!

These awards are well earned and deserved for the blood, sweat and tears we've put in over the many years (although I must admit a few of the selections were similar to finding a bag of money in the middle of the street… just a case of being in the right place at the right time).

Halle Berry and Denzel Washington are undoubtedly wonderful actors.  Denzel's portrayal of Malcolm X was nothing short of groundbreaking, but we all understand that playing a historic black figure isn't what Hollywood wants to see, forgive us.

What Hollywood wants to see is Halle Berry on all fours (or was it on her back? I've tried to block it from my memory.   Exhibit A: 

oh, okay well It was all fours AND on her back, AND side...moaning,“I want you to make me feel goooooood” while Billy Bob Thornton's character did just that.  "EW, AS IF!"    This actually may have been the first statuette awarded to “soft porn”.   Oh, you shouldn't have!

We all know that Denzel gives us “Oscar worthy”performances just about every time his films touch the screen and he proved once again, why he is regarded as one of the best actors in the history of film with his performance in "Glory" when he played a former slave lead by a young white heroic military officer, who takes Denzel and other former slaves into battle. I have to agree with the Academy's choice for giving Denzel best supporting actor in this role because to this day I can still see the pain on his face along with that one single tear drop while being whipped for leaving base camp in order to find a pair of decent shoes.

Let us not forget that you also gave Denzel the Oscar for best actor in Training Day - for playing a crooked Los Angeles cop who sought to corrupt a well decorated young white officer (please accept my apology for the ingratitude of those who have the audacity to believe that Denzels performances in films like The Great Debaters & Antwone Fisher were actually worthy of that little gold statuette).

And how could we forget to thank you for that Best Supporting Actress WIN that went to “Monique”for her role as a mentally, physically and sexually abusive single mother in Precious.

We, the black film community and the untold numbers of black folk watching the Oscars from home, promise to be there and to tune in year after year, after year...waiting, wishing and hoping that you'll decide to recognize us for all that we've done in the field of film, especially since we now understand how to increase the odds of that happening by creating exactly what what you want to see from us.

As a matter of fact, I think I'm gonna start writing a script, today about a crack addicted mother (she's black...but when I said crack addicted, I'm assuming you already knew that)...struggling to raise her kids in the hood while on the run from her abusive husband (he's black too). Her life takes a turn for the better when her emotionally and behavorially challenged twins (they have different daddy's) get accepted to a prestigous school (everybody deserves a chance) and their teacher steps in to save the family from poverty and abuse (the teacher Is white, but somehow I'm sensing you already knew that). Working title, “Good Times”

I might really have a change with this one!

Those 27 awards in 83 years, show the Academys support by giving African Americans an opportunity to be shown in their greatest light, by Hollywood standards. Why waste time complaining that not a single Black actor or actress, director or writer, was nominated this year. We'd be much better off remembering all the bonuses we've been blessed to receive and working harder than ever to create and accept those roles which live up to that Hollywood standards.




We certainly wouldn't want to be ungrateful for your many years of support.
Thanks so much for all that you continue to do.

SINCERELY

Stacey Muhammad


Stacey Muhammad is an award winning Independent Filmmaker, Documentarian and Activist, originally from New Orleans, La, who currently hails from Brooklyn, New York. She is a pioneer in the work of documenting and preserving the culture of Hip Hop and the experience of displaced Africans in America 
through film and digital media.