Co-produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the

Co-produced with the Black
Film Institute of the University
of the District of Columbia
the vision.
the voice.
From LA to London and Martinique to Mali. We bring you the
world of Black film.
Ifyou're concerned about Black images in commercial film and television, you already know that Hollywood does not reflect the multicultural nature 'of contemporary society. You know that when Blacks
are not absent they are confined to predictable, one-dimensional roles.
You may argue that movies and television shape our reality or that they
simply reflect that reality. In any case, no one can deny the need to take
a closer look at what is COIning out of this powerful medium.
Black Film Review is the forum you've been looking for. Four times a
year, we bring you film criticiSIn froIn a Black perspective. We look
behind the surface and challenge ordinary assurnptiorls about the Black
image. We feature actors all.d actresses th t go agaul.st the graill., all.d we
fill you Ul. Oll. the rich history of Blacks Ul. Arnericall. filrnrnakul.g - a
history that goes back to 19101
And, Black Film Review is the only magazine that brings you news,
reviews and in-deptll interviews frOtn tlle tnost vibrant tnovetnent in
contelllporary film. You know about Spike Lee but wIlat about EuzIlan
Palcy or lsaacJulien? Souletnayne Cisse or CIl.arles Burnette? Tllrougllout tIle African cliaspora, Black fi1rnInakers are giving us alternatives to
tlle static itnages tIlat are proeluceel in Hollywood anel giving birtll to a
wIlole new cinetna... be tIlere!
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acquie Jones
istant Editors
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sociate Editor/Film Critic
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sociate Editors
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1985 - 1989
Black Film Ravie (ISSN 0887-5723) is published
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MacArthur Foundation.
Interview:- - - - - - - - - - - - --- - - - - - by Pat Aufderheide
Malian filmmaker Cheikh Oumar Sissoko discusses his latest film, Finzan, aselfconscious experiment in storytelling
4
MO· BETTER BLUES
The Music
6
by Eugene Holley, Jr.
TheMan------------------- 8
by Lett Proctor
TheMovie
12
by Kalamu ya Salaam
How to Make Trouble - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - by Jacquie Jones
The recent Canadian release, How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired,
has stirred up some trouble in the US-but for the wrong reasons
14
What's New in the Cinema of Senegal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
by Francoise Pfaff
Filmmakers Mousa Bathily and Cheikh Ngaido Bah discuss their latest projects and
movie-making in Senegal today
16
FEATURES
The Market: - - - Shopping for Images
by Victoria Marshall
The American Film Market
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Books: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 26
No Identity Crisis
by John Williams
Melvin and Mario Van Peebles' new making-of-the-film book
Film Clips: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2
PBS Goes to Sundance, Gunn Tribute at the Whitney, and more
Reviews:_ - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - Def by Temptation, Bal Poussiere and Without You I'm Nothing
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Calendar _
Classifieds -
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HOW TO MAKE
TROUBLE
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PBS GOES TO
SUNDANCE
by Ellen Hoffman
The majestic snowdusted Rockies and rustic
cabins, screening room
and rehearsal hall of the
Sundance Institute in Utah
provided a serene setting
for an animated, provocative conference of 100
minority women in the
media in May.
It was designed to bring
women of color who are
practicing filmmakers into
contact with leading
producers, directors and
writers, both to discuss
professional issues and to
encourage connections that
could result in funding,
production and distribution
of their films.
For two-and-a-half days,
invited participants attended panel discussions
and presentations, a "walkabout" networking session,
and screenings and discussions with women of color
about the films they have
produced.
Euzhan Palcy, director of
A Dry White Season, and
Suzanne DePasse, president of Motown Productions, confronted the issue
of how much a filmmaker
must compromise in order
to attain success in Hollywood. Palcy recounted the
fight-which she ultimately
won-to make "A Dry
White Season" the story of
a Black family as well as
that of a white one.
DePasse suggested that
"a hot script is the way to
break into Hollywood." She
added that "right now, it
happens (that Hollywood is
looking for) white male
2
F i I m
eli p s
gram included an afternoon-long "walkabout," in
which participants were
able to schedule brief appointments to discuss proposals for funding, production and distribution opporsessions, participants
action pictures." DePasse
tunities for their projects
alluded to the difficulty of
garnered a burst of apwith representatives of
plause when she asserted: convincing white television PBS, some Hollywood
"Some day a Black is going decision-makers to air
studios, foundations and
programs about minority
to write a mainstream
the British Broadcasting
white commercial picture." figures or issues. One
Corp.
conference participant
Another major discusThe screening schedule
reported the difficulty of
sion theme was the
included "Family Gatherconvincing white television ing," Lise Yasui's attempt
definition of such "multicultural programming" and decision-makers that Miles to understand her JapaDavis was an appropriate
the challenge of delivering
nese relatives' internment
subject
for a television
it to the public television
in camps in the U.S. during
audience. Jennifer Lawson, show.
World War II; Jude Pauline
"When minority produc- Eberhard's "Break of
executive vice president for
National Programming and ers have to deal with
Dawn," about a SpanishPromotion Services at PBS, producers and executives
language radio and recordwho are non-minority, the
defined multi-cultural
ing star who protests the
burden is put on us to
programming as by and
anti-Mexican policies of the
convince (them) that this
about ethnic, racial and
U.S. government during
regional groups, but geared part of our culture is valid," the Depression; and Julie
observed Gail Christian, in- Dash's forthcoming
to a general audience for
dependent producer,
the prime time schedule.
"Daughters of the Dust."
former
PBS official and
Mercedes de Uriarte, an
Question-and-answer
conference co-director. To sessions with producers
assistant professor of
journalism at the University illustrate, she suggested.
followed.
of Texas, warned against a turning the tables, imaginYvonne Smith's "Adam
"vegetable soup" approach ing a situation in which the Clayton Powell," an
decision-makers were all
to programming, one that
episode in PBS's series,
would dilute representation Black and a white
"The American Experifilmmaker "came in with a ence," provoked
of each ethnic or racial
program on Pavarotti and
group's uniqueness. She
we
all said: 'Who's
cited statistics showing
Pavarotti?'
challenging
that 76.5 percent of
the
producer
to
television news directors
defend the
are white males; 15.6
proposal.
percent white females; 5
To facilitate
percent black males; 3
networking
percent Hispanic males;
between the
1.3 percent black females
and 1 percent Latinas. She filmmakers and
the decisionsuggested that placing
makers, the promore people of color in
such decision-making
JennfferLawson, execupositions is a condition of
achieving more truly multi- tive vice president, National Programming and
cultural programming.
Promotion Services Public
In other conference
Broadcasting Service
•••••
the most spirited discussion, including criticism
from viewers who felt that
the film did not focus
enough on the role of
racism in contributing to
the late congressman's
downfall.
The screenings also
afforded the opportunity to
discuss technical issues
such as the use of animation and video techniques
and musical scores.
Although much of the
conference discussion
addressed frustrating and
emotional issues that face
minority women in the
media, the main message
that emerged was probably
best put by Latina
filmmaker Sylvia Morales,
who told an interviewer: "A
lot of women of color dwell
too much on the difficulties. (But the difficulties)
are a given." Her advice to .
her colleagues? "Whatever
you want to do-write or
produce-just do it!," even
if it means volunteering to
work on a project free.
"Have a plan, and then
have a Plan B in case Plan
A doesn't work out. If you
don't have stamina, don't
get into this business."
The conference was
sponsored by the Public
Broadcasting Service.
- Ellen Hoffman is a freelance writer who lives in
Washington, DC.
WHIDIY TRIBUTE
FOR GUI\I\I
Bill Gunn, the late Black
pioneer actor-directorscenarist-author-playwright, was honored at the
Whitney Museum of
American Art in June the
day before the opening of
his play, the Forbidden
City, starring Gloria Foster.
Gunn died last year of encephalitis.
Curated by author
Ishmael Reed, the publisher of Gunn's second
novel, Rhinestone Sharecropping (1981), and his
award-winning play, Black
Picture Show (1975), the
tribute was a once-in-alifetime event reuniting
friends and admirers of
Gunn's work who flew in
from every major city in the
country.
Among the films and
videos showcased on the
program was Ganja and
Hess, Gunn's surrealistic
tour-de-force horror which
he starred in, wrote, and
directed; his "soap opera,"
Personal Problems Vol. I
and II (1980-1982), which
used cinema verite technique to depict the fluctuating values of a Black urban
working-class family; and
the belated premiere of
Stop! (1970), Gunn's Xrated, sex-death thriller
made for Warner Brothers
which marked his Hollywood directorial debut. A
lurid, mystery-suspensedrama a la Bergman, the
film was a pioneer BlackHispanic coproduction shot
in Puerto Rico.
Gunn's career hit a high
point in 1970 when Hal
Ashby hired him to write
the screenplay for The
Landlord (United Artists),
produced by Norman
Jewison. The film established his talent as a
screenwriter. Gunn's
screenplays include Fame
(Columbia) and The Angel
Levine (United Artists).
Gunn also penned All the
Rest Have Died, his first
novel, and collaborated
with the late Kathleen
Collins on Losing Ground,
in which he starred, and
Women, Sisters and
Friends. (See Black Film
Review: Vol 5, No.2)
-John Williams
maybe two, African American producers. These
become their 'in-house'
minorities. They proudly
showcase the one African
American in residence and
expect to be congratulated.
There are far too many
imaginative producers
NAACP BLASTS
available for the studios. to
limit the numbers they
STUDIOS FOR
hire."
"TOK8IISM"
Disney was the only
studio the report acknowlSandra Evers-Manly,
edges as having "actively
president of the Beverly
searched" for more African
Hills/Hollywood branch of
Americans
in areas in
the NAACP, has authored a
which
we
have
traditionally
report analyzing studio
been under-represented.
hiring practices. Contrary
Disney has launched a
to recent articles in the
minority writers program.
New York Times that
Evers-Manly is planning
present a highly favorable
to release a final report in
picture of the picture of
September, in which each
Blacks in Hollywood, the
studio will receive a
NAACP report reveals that
there are actually fewer job "grade" based on its hiring
practices.
opportunities today for
Blacks than there were a
decade ago.
CHARLES
"Ten years ago at least
BURNETT'S
there were a few African
American executives," the
"AMERICA BEreport states. "Ten years
COMING" FOR PBS
ago at least there were
Award-winning
producers and production
filmmaker Charles Burnett
companies that were a
is currently in postviable part of the system."
The brief report mentions production on a documentary special for PBS,
the "invisible ceiling" that
entitled America Becoming.
exists in the studio strucThe project originated with
ture that prevents African
its producer, Daisil Kim-GiAmericans and other
bson, who raised producpeople of color from
reaching top management tion financing from the
Ford Foundation. America
and important creative
Becoming explores our
positions. Evers-Manly,
increasingly pluralistic
who has been negotiating
society and the matrix of
with studio executives for
ethnic interactions in six
improved hiring practices
cities including Miami,
since March, states in the
Chicago and Houston.
report: "... our meetings
Burnett's latest feature film,
and investigations have
To Sleep With Anger,
also highlighted the trend
starring Danny Glover, will
towards 'tokenism.' Stube released this fall. _
dios have signed one,
3
Cheikh Oumar Si
by Pat Aufderheide
M"
comic standoff.) One woman tells
the official, 'We're tired of killing
ourselves for the likes of you."
N anyuma is recaptured, transported to her dead husband's village, and dragged through a civil"
wedding. Her son organizes a raucous campaign of humiliation
against Bala by lacing his water
with an herb that gives him diarrhea and flatulence and by intimidating Bala with imitations of
spirits; the gambits buy Nanyuma
time on her wedding night.
The villagers then march on the
local police station to free the
chief. This experience emboldens
the women to ask what the villagers
will do about the plight of
Nanyuma, threatening not to sleep
with their husbands until it is
resolved.
about women's rights facing the
entire community.
Ultimately Finzan is not the story
of Nanyuma but of the social crisis
precipitated by Nanyuma's (and
Fili's) resistance to tradition.
The drama is not intimate and
psychological, but social. The
camera's focus is typically on the
small group--with plenty of room
for side and background actionrather than on an individual. Editing is minimalist and camerawork
is often static as if the director,
through the camera, were introducing us to an exemplary scene
rather than attempting to erase the
psychological distance between
spectator and character.
alian film director Cheikh
Oumar Sissoko, whose
second feature film Finzan debuted
in the U.S. simultaneously at the
San Francisco Film Festival and at
Filmfest D.C~ in Washington, D.C.,
boldly terms hinlself a politically
engaged 'filmmaker. His works
combine a search for popular form
with a goal of raising debate on
critical social issues.
\
In Finzan, a moral narrative with
tragic overtones is laced with
slapstick comedy that draws from
folk theater. It is a tale that Sissoko
intended to entertain as well as
teach. The story focuses on the
trials of two women: Nanyuma, a
he social crisis is an open
recent widow, and her citified
subject for debate, rather than
niece, Fili, who has never underone
that emerges through isolated
gone the traditional clitoridecpersonal
decision. Thus, characters
tomy.
ut not all organizing by women
openly
denounce
or proclaim
Her cruel husband's death
goes in a progressive direction.
their
views.
A
woman
says, "Are
liberates Nanyuma, but all too
Fili returns with Nanyuma, on her
women
human
beings
or slaves?"
soon the village chief approves a
father's orders, to the village. But
and the chief says, "Excision is at
polygamous marriage with her hus- there she creates a scandal because
the very base of our tradition!"
band's buffoonish and idiotic
she has never been excised.
That debate is reinforced by the
brother, Bala. Nanyuma, in love
Women, backed by the stern chief,
with a handsome single man who
excise her by force and she is taken soap opera plot twists, and by
uninflected touches such as the
vhad begged the chief for her hand
away bleeding by her father.
constant sight of women at work in
without avail at her first marriage,
N anyuma and her son finally
the background of the central
fights the arrangement. She goes
manage to leave the village unconstory.
into hiding in her brother-in-Iaw's
tested, with her son quite possibily
Finzan is a self-conscious experito find a better life. She leaves bevillage; her.niece Fili supports her
ment
in filmic storytelling on conbut her brother-in-law tells her she
hind a village that has tasted the
troversial
social issues. It offers
must marry his other brother, Bala.
success of community organizing
jokes
and
buffoonery targeted at
Meanwhile, the village receives a
and that has gone through a
the
culpable,
and it also delivers
visit from a government represenpainful awakening to the questions
with
methodical and
tative who orders them to
painstaking
clarity, its
deliver tons of millet at a
"[FINZAN] DEALS WITH EXCISION AS AN OPPRESSIVE
message of women's
low, fIXed price for governrights.
ment storage. The villagPRACTICE, BUT I WOULDN'T WANT IT TO BE KNOWN AS A FILM
Political involvement
ers join together to resist,
is
in Sissoko's family
led by the chief. (He
ABOUT EXCISION. I MADE IT GENERALLY AS A FILM ABOUT
history; one of his
forces the French-speakmother's brothers was a
WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM."
ing official to negotiate
famous anticolonial
with him in Bambara, in a
B
4
T
activist who went on to support a
pan-West African federation and
was eventually jailed after a Western-inspired coup d' etat in 1968.
Sissoko, born in 1945, received his
higher education in Paris, having
attended both the Ecole des Hautes Etudes-Sciences Sociales and
the French national film school.
He returned to work in Mali,
where he has worked as the head
of a Malian government agency
producing documentaries and
newsreels. He recently helped
found a small filmmakers' cooperative, KORA films.
Sissoko belongs to the Mandingo culture, which encompasses
Bambara,. Dogon and other
cultures. Finwn was made about
Bambara culture in the Bambara
language, the dominant language
of Mali.
Pat Aufderheide spoke with
Sissoko in Washington, D.C.,
where he attended packed screenings of his latest film for Filmfest
D.C. Translator Pat Belcher kindly
assisted in the conversation.
Black Film Review: Finzan, like
your earlier work, raises controversial issues.
Cheikh Oumar Sissoko: Yes,
Finzan forms part of a series of
films I have made about social
issues in Mali and Mrica. The first,
of which I am very proud, is a 35minute documentary called Rural
Exodus, about the tragedy of the
peasant during the drought. It was
made in 1984 during the severe
Sahel drought. The second is
Nyamanton (Garbage Boys), about
the tragedy of children. And now
Finzan is about women.
It deals with excision as an
oppressive practice, but I wouldn't
want it to be known as a film about
excision. I made it generally as a
fIlm about women's rights and
struggle for freedom. I wanted to
show that their need for emancipation was necessary for social progress, that it was a struggle both for
men and women.
BFR: What does the title mean?
Sissoko: "Finzan" is a Bambara
term for a dance performed by
men who have done exceptional
deeds; I have extended the term to
women struggling for their freedom. As a French title announces
at the beginning of the fum,
women do two-thirds of the world's
work, get a tenth of the reward and
own only 1 percent of the property.
.BFR: How were you able to make
the film?
Sissoko: It cost $350,000, and was
funded in several ways. Some
Malian private investors put in
money, and the government provided in-kind contributions with
technicians and material. The
German 1V channel, ZDF, also put
in some money, as did the French
Ministry of Cooperation. Finally,
we managed a pre-sale to an Italian
educational firm.
There are no professional actors
in the film, but some semi-professional-nobody works full-time as
an actor in Mali. I drew some
cilent from the national theater
company. The woman who plays
Nanyuma played the mother in
Garbage BoyS; this is her third fum.
And the village chief has been in
six or eight films; he played the
king in Yeelen.
BFR: Did you have any difficulties
in getting your film approved in M~Ii?
Sissoko: I had to submit the film
both in script form and in fmal
form to Malian government censorship. This is true throughout
Mrica; there is no liberty of expression. But I didn't have any real
trouble. With Garbage Boys I didn't
send them the real script the first
time, and that caused problems.
But this time I submitted the script
we used. They approved it, too.
In final form, they asked for
some small changes, which I didn't
accept. For instance, they wanted
me to cut the part about the administration demanding millet at a
fIXed price. I argued that there
already was a public debate about
the policy and that my fum
wouldn't raise issues that weren't
already in the air. Finally they
accepted my argument.
BFR: Why did you decide to focus
on women's rights?
Sissoko: When I was studying in
Paris in the '70s, the women's
rights movement was very large
and made an impression on me.
But I think this is very much an
issue that belongs to the whole
world. The Third World has its
specific problems; women are even
more exploited than they are in
industrialized countries. Some
people say that women's rights is a
First World luxury, but they are the
conservatives who want to maintain
the status quo.
I certainly wasn't the first person
to raise these issues of women's
rights in West Mrica. There have
been conferences and discussions
by sociologists, historians and
many other people. So the issues
weren't unfamiliar.
Still, no one expected to see a
film on the subject, especially
[one] touching on excision. It's
one thing to have a conference
among intellectuals and it's another to make a movie about it.
BFR: There are very funny moments in the film and moments of
low, scatalogical humor.
Sissoko: This is all part of a tradition of popular village theater
called Koteba. It's raucous and can
be satiric. It's performed for free in
village squares, and it's a forum for
young people to raise social
problems. It's a very old Bambara
tradition. The part where the two
kids play tricks on Bala comes .
directly from there, as does the
character of Bala himself.
BFR: You've combined several
styles, it seems to me; the film has
tragic as well as comic elements and
also a didactic element.
Sissoko: I tried this in Garbage
Boys, too. It's a reflection of my
choice to lure people into the
theater in order to hear my message. I also base my decisions on a
fidelity to our oral traditions.
I'm interested in people coming
continued on page 30
5
Mo' Better Blues
pike Lee's fourth feature film,
Mo' Better Blues, starring Academy award-winner Denzel Washington, explores the complex, competitive
and colorful world ofjazz musicians. Unlike other
jazz movies of recent years (Round Midnight, Bird, Let's
Get Lost), Mo' Better stays away from the "Hollywood"
version of the jazz musician: a lonely, tortured, drugcrazed artist who spends his life playing to an unappreciative audience in a dingy nightclub. Instead, the
movie presents the African American improvising
artist as a multi-faceted craftsman.
As Lee explained during a recent press conference, "I felt that we should do a contemporary look at
jazz. What we
~ed
to do was show a jazz musician
[who] wasn't ajunkie or an alcoholic but was an
adult. Ifyou look at Round Midnight, the guy (played
by the late saxophonist Dexter Gordon) was like a
little child."
Set in New York, Mo' Better is the story of Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington), a brilliant trumpeter
whose passion for his music cuts him off from almost
everyone around him-most notably, his band members and the two women who love him: Indigo (Joie
Lee), a schoolteac11er, and Clarke Betancourt (Cynda
Williams), an aspiring singer. Ironically, the one person Bleek isn't cut off from is his life-long friend but
incompetent manager, Giant (Spike Lee), who ultimately destroys him.
continued on page 10
6
Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) is managed by his best friend, Giant (Spike Lee).
By Eugene Holley, Jr.
-
Photos by David Lee
7
Mo' Better Blues
III~
~I
knew it was pointless. Still, when
Bleek (Denzel Washington) showed up at Indigo's
Uoie Lee) I sat there hoping that another lllan
would lean over the banister. "Honey, who's at the
door?" he would say. But no, this is Spike's world,
where WOlllen (except for Nola), typically wait on
and for lllen. So, after an obligatory scolding-he
ignored her phone calls and the letters for over a
year:-Indigo allows herself to get carried away, legs
in the air, by her knight. So, despite the richly rolllanced celluloid, Mo Better Blues is a Spike Lee
joint after all.
And while it is refreshing to see "Black love" onscreen, Lee's depiction is insincere. The relationship between Indigo Uoie Lee) and Bleek (Denzel
Washington), in particular, lacks personality and rolllance. The only selllblance of chelllistry between
the
p~ir appears
late in a brief and lllisplaced scene
in which they discuss first loves. Clarke (Cynda
Willi~ms), Bleek's
other love interest, is fairly con-
vincing as a seductress though she does not even
feign affection for Bleek or his rival, Shadow
(Wesley Snipes). She lllerely "lllO' betters" one or
the other sufficiently to facilitate her career.
To be fair, the WOlllen in Mo Better, though still
peripheral characters, are lllore life-like than the
WOlllen in School Daze or Do The Right Thing. They
have jobs, hOllles and aspirations, not just nubile
continued on page 11
8
Photos by DavidLee
Sleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) enjoys a passionate love affair with aspiring singer Clarke Betancourt (Cynda Williams).
THE MUSIC
continued from page 6
"proper attitude for the music."
A far cry from last year's Do the Right Thing, Lee
Wesley Snipes, who portrays Shadow Henderson,
uses music, camera angles, dialogue, lighting, and
Bleek's tenor saxophonist and rival, was gre\atly
color in this film much in the same way that a jazz
influenced by Thelonius Monk. "The archetype for
musician spontaneously arranges harmony, rhythm, me is Monk. I can relate to Monk totally. As an
and melody to create the completed composition.
actor, I was inspired by all of the tapes I saw of him,
More ofa quilt than a narrative, Mo' Better makes up listening to his music, and by how he perceived art
for its loosely constructed plot and faulty dialogue
and music. I immediately had a connection to it. In
with explosions of fertile color, texture and sound.
a roundabout way, I'm Monkesquewith my acting.
Lee says he decided to work
I'll do something out of the
on the film after he saw Bird,
clear blue sky not knowing
Clint Eastwood's 1988 film
whether it's going to work or
about legendary jazz saxophonnot. And that's the way Monk
ist Charlie Parker. "It was such a
was."
dark film, it was raining in every
In addition to Washington
scene, it really didn't speak of a
and Snipes, Bill Nunn and
true Mrican-American exisGiancarlo Esposito play bassist
tence. For me, it was just too
Bottom-Hammer and pianist
bleak."
Left- Hand Lacey, respectively.
The fictitious quintet also
In his last performance, the
late Robin Harris, to whom the
features jazz drummer Jeff
film is dedicated, provides Mo'
Watts (formerly with Wynton
Better's comic relief in the role
Marsalis and currently with
of Butterbean, the MC for the
brother Branford) as "Rhythm"
jazz club Beneath The UnderJones in his first acting role.
dog (which, incidently, was the
Originally scheduled as a contitle ofjazz bassist Charles
sultant, Watts was given the
Mingus' autobiography).
acting assignment because of
The set's technical advisors
the difficulty of duplicating the
included bassist Michael Flemcomplex rhythmic patterns
ing, who played in Bill Lee's
necessary for a believable perNew York Bass Violin Choir,
formance.
saxophonist Donald Harrison
In addition to commanding
Giancarlo Esposito stars as
and trumpeter Terence Blanperformances and Ernest Dickpianist Left Hand Lacey.
chard. Blanchard, formerly of
erson's always brilliant cinemathe Harrison-Blanchard quintet
tography, the movie features
(with Donald Harrison) and Art Blakey'sJazz Mesexceptional music writterl and performed by
sengers, worked as Washington's coach throughout
Branford Marsalis and his Quartet featuring Terthe shooting of the movie. "I worked on him getting ence Blanchard. Bassist Bill Lee wrote the original
his embouchure (the correct placement of the lip and score. Also featured in Mo' Better is the music of
tongue to the mouthpiece) and gave him tapes of
Miles Davis ("All Blues"), Wayne Shorter ("Footthe actual music he was playing. I wanted get him to prints"), Cannonball Adderly ("Mercy, Mercy,
a level to where he could actually play the melodies
Mercy"), andJohn Coltrane ("A Love Supreme").
of the tunes in the movie," Blanchard said. "Denzel
Although this film will probably not do as well as
went beyond my expectations and his own. When
Do The Right Thing at the box office, Mo' Better Blues
you see the movie, you'll see Denzel playing the
should attract young Spike Lee fans who may have
notes."
had little or no exposure to jazz and inspire them
In addition to teachto check out Monk,
ing Washington the
Miles, Coltrane, and
technical aspects of
the rest of the giants.
trumpet playing, BlanIf Mo' Better pulls this
chard also had him
off, it will have done
studyJohn Coltrane,
more for jazz than
Miles Davis, Ornette
any movie before it.•
Coleman, and TheloEugene Holley, Jr. is the assisnius Monk through
tan t director of the National
Jazz SeIViceOrganizationinWashtheir music and videington, DC. He is a contributor
otaped live performtoJazz Timesand Tower Record's
ances to develop the
Pulse magazine.
"More of aquiD than anarrative, Mo' 'ene,
lUakes up lor its loosely constructed plot and
faulty dialogue with explosions of fertile color,
teare, and sound."
10 '
THE
MAN
continued from page 8
bodies. And at least, Lee resisted the temptation
to turn the nightclub scene where the two women
appear in identical, Bleek-bought, red dresses into
a cat fight. Though such a turn of events would
have been consistent with the film's machismo
subtext, we would have been deprived of Bleek's
smooth-talking his way out of the dilemma so
successfully that we don't even know who ended
up going home with him.
Mter Bleek's musical and, apparently, mental
demise, both women do get what they wantClarke gets a steady gig, and Indigo gets the guybut both on someone else's terms. Clarke, though
she seems offended by Bleek's inference during
pillow talk that she wants him to launch her
singing career, doesn't find success as a songstress
until after she beds the new bandleader. And,
Indigo only merits Bleek's singular affe<;tion after
he's flopped onstage.
Lee has said that Mo Better is a film about relationships, but the only relationship in this film that has
any depth is the one between Bleek and his ego. Although the conclusion of Mo Better implies that wife
and home are the ultimate panacea, we aren't convinced. The women that Bleek sleeps with, like the
boys in his band, are merely the landscape for the
glorification of Bleek' s "dick thing." Lee does
capture the myopia of the self-absorbed artist and
his inevitable alienation but fails to capture our
sympathy.•
Lett Proctor is a Washington, DC-based writer and editor.
Denzel Washington (Sleek Gilliam) and Joie Lee (Indigo Downes).
11
..
by Kalamu ya Salaam
s~
pike Lee says he really loves
ally lackluster until the conclusion of the movie
and appreciates jazz music.
beginning with a Branford Marsalis treatment of
If
that's
true
then
why
didn't
Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" and ending
~.
.
he spend some time getting to with extended selections ofJohn Coltrane's
know jazz before he made Mo' Better
recordings. Only two soundtrack numbers are
Blues? Lee's failure to deal with the details of jazz
standouts. One is "Top Pop 40," a parody of popuin this film mirrors a problem that many of us
lar music; the other is a brief burnout number,
have: we think that because we are Black and love "Knocked Out the Box." "Top Pop 40," is excelour culture then ipso facto we know our culture,
lently rendered, but it's not ajazz number. It's a
and, unfortunately,
show tune complete
with "mugging" from
that's just not the case.
the band members.
The key failure here
The second excellent
is that Mo' Better Blues
number is a trumpet
does not really deal
with jazz from either a
solo which aptly accentechnical, artistic or
tuates the off-stage
business standpoint.
action of Giant, the
We never hear the cats
trumpeter's inept mansay a word about their
ager, getting his ass
music except for
whipped in the back
Shadow (Wesley
alley-except at this
Snipes), the tenor
point Bleek doesn't.
saxophonist, saying that
know that his boy is
he wants to make his
getting beat up. So
music more accessible
why is this trumpeter,
to a broad audience,
who up to this point
yet the imagery and the
plays in a cool style,
playing in the film
suddenly coming on
make it clear that
with a lusty, screaming
Shadow is actually the
solo like he was audistrongest voice on the
tioning for Albert
bandstand.
Ayler (a tenor saxoIt's Shadow who is
phonists who played
hounded by Bleek
"free" jazz in the
(Denzel Washington)
extreme upper register
and Giant (Spike Lee)
of his horn)?
for taking long, long
Yes, the music works
tenor solos (which is
as music. And, yes, it's
technically on target as
hardly what someone
a counterpoint to the
who is trying to become
,alley action, but the
popular with the masses
Wesley Snipes stars as ambitious saxophonist
would be doing). It's
scene defies logic.
Shadow Henderson
Shadow who reaches
Spike Lee, here, as in
back in the tradition to revive a W.C. Handy song. so many other places in this movie full of plot
So, on the one hand, while the script says Shadow holes, does not even suggest what's going on.
wants to sellout and go the pop route, the action There are many other examples of the film's
of the film shows it is Bleek, the oseriouso one,
musical shortcomings, but they all point back to
who writes and clowns his way through "Pop Top
either an inability to figure out how to or a refusal
40." It's Shadow who upholds the integrity of the
to rely on the music in a film that is suppose to be
mUSIC.
geared toward uplifting jazz.
Even the soundtrack of Mo' Better Blues is generFurthermore,jazz as an art form is never dis-
12
Photos by David Lee
cussed. The history
raise families beofjazz is never even
cause their music
alluded to, and the
gets in the way. The
major musicians of
absurdity of all of
this is that most of
Jazz are never so
the musicians who
much as mentioned
as influential forces
actually play the
music heard in the
and role models in
the lives of the "Mo
film, Terence
Better" musicians.
Blanchard and
Neither the music
Branford Marsalis,
presented in the film
in particular, are
Bill Nunn stars as bassist Bonom Hammer
nor any of the scenes
family men. They
dealing with the art or business of the music offer are the same age as those portrayed in the film,
the viewer any insight into jazz. In fact, people
but rather than basing this movie on the real lives
who go to see Mo' Better Blues will not only leave
of real musicians Lee concocts images that are not
the movie unenlightened about jazz, they will
consistent with reality.
actually have been subjected to some major misIt's time for Spike Lee to expand h-is vision, and
conceptions about it. In this regard, oMo' Bettero it's tim~ for him to employ talented Black writers
is not even a noble failure.
who ca~ produce scripts which reveal both the
Rather than show the musicians discussing their beauty and the complexity of our lives and culture
views on the major issues facing jazz musicians
rather than scripts like this one that limp along_~n
today, Lee resorts to presenting Bleek as the
fake hipness from cliche to cliche, generalization
cliched, lonely, temperamental artist who will let
to generalization.
nothing get in the way of his music or else Lee
The ultimate insult, however, is that the ending
wastes time focusing on contrived issues such as
of Mo' Better Blues is dominated by the music of
an in-band feud about the piano player bringing John Coltrane. It's the ultimate insult because
a woman into the dressing room.
during the period that Coltrane made his strongEarly in Mo' Better Blues, Bleek claims he would
est music he also reared a family and had an amazcurl up and die if he couldn't play music. At the
ingly beautiful relationship with a Black woman
end of the movie, he's alive and well and not
who was both wife and musician.
playing music. What was set up as the main conDuring this portion of the movie, lovingly photoflict of the movie ends up being a non-question
graphed scenes flow across the screen, offering
as does every other conflict.
visual accompaniment to some of Coltrane's most
By the Hollywoodish ending of the this film-the stirring playing. And what does Spike Lee do? He
ex-trumpeter is now a family man (although we
takes Coltrane's music and mates it with a story
are never told or shown what kind of work he
line that completely contradicts the example that
does), married to a school teacher (in an unColtrane offered.
bearably and unbelievably mainstream America
Lee originally wanted to title this movie A Love
wedding), and raising a son who is suppose to
Supreme, the song for which Coltrane is best reremind us of the young Bleek Gilliam (through a
membered, but Coltrane's widow, Alice Coltrane,
concluding scene which parallels the opening
would not allow it. Three cheers for Alice Colscene)-Spike Lee has totally undermined the
tranel' •
integrity ofjazz musicians. It's all a neat little
Kalamu ya Salaam is a New Orleans-based writer, music producer and
package of stylistic garbage.
arts administrator who has served as the executive director of the New
Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.
The implication is that jazz musicians don't
13
How To Make Love to a Negro
Without Getting Tired is a comical and noncommittallitde film. Apart from its provocative and controversial tide, the film itself
rarely tantalizes, much less disturbs. In fact, if
it weren't for the tide, this film would have
long since been swallowed by the art house
circuit and forgotten, hailed by most white
critics and dismissed by most Black ones.
A deliberately paced film, How to Make Love
follows its protagonist "Man," a writer in exile,
around in a-day-in-the-life fashion, usually forgetting to cue the audience to the fact that
the film is about the genesis of a novel and its
ultimate conclusion. The film also fails to
convince us that it is an exploration of the
process of artistic creation, excluding us from
the connections between the artist's experiences and his work and leading us instead
into the tricky realm of casual interracial sex.
Haitian-born Dany Laferriere, the author of
the book on which the film is based and coauthor (with Richard Sadler) of the screenplay, says it represents his answer to a question a white woman in Montreal once asked
him. The question: What do Black men talk
about when white "Tomen are not around?
Scenes from How To Make Love to a Negro Without GeUing
Tired from left to right: Man (Isaach De Banko/e) at his
typewriter; Man and Mil BicycleUe (Nathalie Talbot); Man and
Mil Literature (Roberta Bileau); Man and Bouba (Maka KoUo)
in their Apartment.
I cannot disagree with his
assumption that the stink about
the film's tide smacks of an avoidance tactic. After all, who protested
The Toy, the silly Richard Pryor ve..
hicle, an equally offensive tide and
a more offensive film?
'When I wrote this book and
film I did not want to take an
ideology," he says. "I have put
myself in a position where anybody
can say this guy is a sexist or a
racist. But I wanted people to be
honest and discuss it. I did not find
that in America."
The truth is How To Make Love is
most problematic in the United
States not because of its tide but
because it deals with Black men
having sex with white women, a
relationship most AmericansBlack and white-are very uneasy
with. Beyond the fact that most
often when we've seen this particular relationship dramatized it has
been in the most demeaning and
base sort of way, and beyond the
political issues of the cultivated
alienation of Black men and Black
women in the cinema, and even
beyond the politics of beauty in the
African American community, the
fact is that the pretense of the
sanctity of white womanhood, like
it or not, is as much a part of
American culture as the animalization and mystification of the Black
man.
Unlike the relationship between
white men and Black women,
which has been accepted as a
matter of course in the brutal
dynamics of slavery and colonialism and their residual systems of
inequities, white women and Black
men have been categorically off
limits to one another, creating an
aura of child-like curiosity, a fasci-
nation for the forbidden. But
rather than address this, most
critics have howled about the
offensive tide rather than the
troubling and, to some, distasteful
idea.
More disappointing, though, are
the missed opportunities of the
film itself. Rather than explore the
nature of Man's attraction to white
women, How to Make Lave simply
presents it as natural. The idea that
beauty is personified in creamy
flesh is never challenged. The relationship "between races, between
white girls and Black boys," as Laferriere puts it, never questioned.
The nameless "Man," played by
sculpted, god-like Senegalese
Isaach de Bankole, is a lighdy-elad
(or unclad), carefree child thrown
into a candy shop of white women.
Rarely, do we see the depth or
insight of Man, the artist, as an
observer or luminary. Instead, we
are subject to his silence, his ogling
of white women, and his occasional pouting. Any depth in How
to Make Laves characters come
from Man's philosophizing Muslim
sidekick, Bouba, the film's most
likeable and well-rounded character.
Still, Laferriere insists that this
film is revolutionary because two of
its three central characters are
Black intellectuals--one a writer,
the other a philosopher-and
because its drug dealers are white.
But the film is anything but revolutionary in its continuation of the
stereotypes its title seeks to ridicule. Much like Keenan Wayans
I'm Canna Git Yau Sucka, the film
often comes dangerously close to
stepping over the line between
satire and reinforcement.
Although Laferriere says he's
generally pleased with the way his
novel was translated to film.
"Maybe in the movie it was not
clear eIlough, but in the book it
was very clear that only the reader
who's reading the book knows very
well that this is a writer," he admits.
'The other characters in the novel
think that he's just a sex object."
And, so do I.•
Faculty Vacancy in
Visual Media
One Year Appointment
School of Communication
Temporary one-year non-tenure track appointment available for The American University 1990-91 as Assistant Professor of Visual Media, in the
School Communication.
Responsiblities: Teaching undergraduate and graduate courses
in basic film/video production,
basic photography, film/photo
history and media studies,
script writing, and studio
television; student advising;
assistance in facilities and equipment management;
School and University service.
Qualifications: M.A.; professional backgrqund and experience in appropriate areas related to teaching interests and
capabilities; some technical
expertise necessary; previous
teaching experience preferred;
evidence of production of publications interests and potential
desirable.
Competitive salary depending
on qualifications and experience. Position subject to final
budgetary approval. C#V, and
three letters of recommendation
should be sent to:
Visual Media Search Committee
School of Communication
The American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C. 200168017.
The American University is an affirmative
action/equal opportunity employer. Applications from women and minorities are
particularly invited.
JacquieJones is editor ofBlack Film Review. Actor
Madgi Barsoum assisted the author as translator.
15
by Francoise Pfaff
Born in 1946 in eastern Senegal, Moussa Bathily attended the University of Dakar where he earned a
M.A. in history. He started his professional life as a
teacher at the Alxloulaye Sadjii high school in
Rufisque. It was around this time, in the early '70s,
Cheikh Ngaido Bah was born in Senegal in
1949. In addition to his two feature-length films
and three shorts, Bah has made his mark in the
history of Mrican cinema as one of the founding
members of L'Oeil Vert (Green Eye), an organization of filmmakers and technicians whose aim
is to work together to exchange or share the
technical resources and means at their disposal.
This interview was conducted in Dakar, Senegal, for Black Film Review.
BFR: Tell us about your forthcoming film?
Cheikh Ngaido Bah: My next film will be La vie
continued on page 19
Moussa Bathily (right) talks to cameraman Bara Personnages
during the shooting of Des Personnages.
that he became seriously involved in film criticism by
writing a regular film review column for 1£ Soleil, a Senegalese daily newspaper.
Later, after resigning from the school system, Bathily
returned to Dakar, where he regularly attended film
screenings at the Dakar Cine-elub. There he came into
contact with such Senegalese filmmakers as Djibril
Diop Mambety and MahamaJohnson Traore and
started writing scripts. At that point Bathily became increasingly impassioned with cinema and subsequently
worked as Ousmane Sembene's assistant during the
fI1mingof Xaw (1974) and Ceddo (1976).
Mter such on-the-job training, Bathily started shoot- _ A scene from Xew Xew, a film by Cheikh Ngaido Bah
ing his own fIlms. His best known works are Tiyabu Bira
---------------
continued next page
Photo courtesy Moussa Bathily
16
This interview was translated from the French by Francoise Pfaff,
author of The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, A Pioneer of African Film
and Twenty-Five Black African Filmmakers and professor in the
Department of Romance Languages at Howard University.
(1978) and 1£ Certificat d'indigence
(The Certificate ojIndigence, 1981).
Tiyabu Bira is a feature film about
pastoral life in Bathily,s native
village. 1£ Certificat do'indigence is a
short fiction film which denounces
the inadequacies of Dakar's health
services. His latest movie, Petits
bLancs au manioc et a La sauce gombo
( lVhite Folks &roed Manioc and Okra
Sauce), was featured at the 1989
FESPACO (Panafrican Film Festival
in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) .
Black Film Review: Bathily, what is
the theme of your latest film to date?
Why did you call it Petits blancs au
manioc et a la sauce gombo?
Moussa Bathily: I wanted to illustrate the relationship between
Mrica and the West, but I wanted
to do it in an ironic way. I did not
want to make a didactic film with
good people on the one hand and
bad people on the other hand. I
thought that one could tackle this
fIlm in a humorous way. This
explains the film's tide, which is a
bit long, but which thumbs its nose
at colonialism and at the myth of
the cannibalistic savage.
manioc et a la sauce gombo, shot in
Wolof and in French, I try to be fair
by refusing the type of Manichaeism currendy practiced in
Mrica, and according to which all
white people are exploiters. Since
we are in the post~olonial era, I felt
it was both timely and appropriate
to depict the relationship between
Mrican and Western countries with
a certain amount of serenity. My
film describes the tribulations of a
group of French technical assistants
who live in a Sahelian village.
BFR: Does the film focus on the
village or the technical assistants?
Bathily: It focuses on both, and
contains amorous interrelationships.
BFR: What was your film's budget
and how did you finance it?
Bathily: It ended up costing
about $1,350,000, which is an
important amount of money for a
film in Senegal. Petits blancs au
manioc et a la sauce gombowas
financed through my own savings
and the profits from my previous
movies. It was also financed by the
SNPC (Societe Nouvelle de Promotion Cinematographique) of
Senegal, the French Ministry of
Cooperation, the European
Economic Community, Channel 4
(a British television station), as well
as other agencies and organizations.
also related to a number of problems
which occurred during the shooting?
Didn't you have very heavy rains
which destroyed the clay village
which had been especially -built for
the film?
Bathily: I'll be brief on this
particular point because
filmmakers have a tendency to
speak at length about the problems
they have experienced with Mother
Nature. I'lljust say that I had
decided to film at a given time
because people told me that it
hadn't rained during this season
for a hundred yearS' or more. I had
my set built and shortly thereafter it
rained cats and dogs for days.
There is maybe some type of
conflict between God and
fIlmmakers because the latter think
they are creators. So it seems that
God forces filmmakers to be a bit
more modest....
BFR: You worked as a journalist for
a while, and you have also written a
number of short stories. What do
these stories depict?
Bathily: One of my short stories is
entided En circuitJenne ( Close Circuit). It's the story of heads of states
BFR: Does such a myth refer to the
who gather to discuss the best ways
mythical and stereotypical perception
to avoid coup d'etats. While they
of Africa?
are meeting, pyrotechnics are
Bathily: Yes, in a way, but the fIlm
setting up fireworks. When the frrealso confronts Mricans, Europeans,
crackers are heard, the heads of
and Mricanists-you know, these
state believe a coup has fomented
people who have very fIXed ideas
against them.
concerning the Mricans! Besides, I
I would like to go further in
am convinced that one should not
BFR: Wasn't the cost of the film
terms ofwriting. There is a great
remain in one's corner in this
difference between being a
space age. We know as a fact that
filmmaker and a writer. You need
we generally need
Apastoral scene fromTiyabu Biru a film byMoussa Bathily
collaborators to
foreign money
make a film,
and technicians to
whereas writing
make a film in
equals solitude and
Mrica. Moreover,
total freedom. In
it also happens
fact, I like the
that you get along
challenge of a
with people who
blank sheet of
are not ne<;essarily
paper. I've just
Black. By the same
fmished a novel
token, you may
about a l~year-old
have a very poor
boy whose mother
relationship with
is a prostitute. The
people who are
boy creates an
Black.
artificial world
In Petits blancs au
continued on page 18
17
#tKJNtN 8atUrt
continued from page 1 7
made of dreams. He plays with
words which resound images and
with images which reverberate
words.
BFR: Does your writing influence
your film language? Is there a
correlation between your two activities? Did you, like Ousmene Sembene, adapt some of your written
works to the screen?
Bafuily: I have done so only once
with Des Personnages encombrants
("Cumbersome People", 1976), in
which literary characters kill their
author, whom they accuse of
having betrayed them. The short
story and the film are both surrealistic. I like writing, but I have always
wanted to make films. My family
thought filmmaking was not a
serious career so I studied history
and became a teacher while
thinking about cinema. I began
writing while waiting to be able to
make films. Then, of course, when
I became a filmmaker I had much
less time to write.
BFR: Are you presently working on
a film project?
Bathily: Yes, I am preparing
l:4rcher Bassari ('The Bassari
Bowman"). It is a feature film based
on the novel by Modibo Sounkalo
Keita. It tells the story of man who
kills people, rich people. He does
so because they sold for their
advantage the golden sword that
villagers had asked them to sell to
get money to fight drought. There
are already some people who are
interested in this film: Channel 4 in
England, WDR in West Germany,
Canal Plus in France, as well as
other television stations in Italy and
elsewhere. Since my films have
never been commercially shown in
Mrica, I hope that l:4rcher Bassari
will be shown on the screens of my
country.
The fUm will be shot in three
languages to fit the story: French
will be spoken by the bureaucrats,
Wolofwill be used in urban home
settings, and ~assari will be the
language used for scenes taking
place in the rural areas of eastern
Senegal. I am planning for a
18
budget of about $850,000 and the
shooting of the film should take
from eight to 10 weeks.
BFR: When we spoke earlier, you
mentioned that you would like to go to
the United States. Why?
Bathily: I think that I have
reached the limit of what I can
presently express in Senegal. Thus
I'd like to go elsewhere. Making a
film in another Mrican country,
however, implies getting involved
in a co-production, which is not
always easy. So, I have another
possibility: to go to Europe or to
the United States. Depending on
the topic of my film I might be able
to fmd a producer and technicians
in Paris. Yet, to make a film in
Europe would mean to illustrate a
story with an Mrican content,
which may be difficult for an
Mrican to do objectively. The
advantage with working in the
United States would be dealing
with a topic related to the Black
community and questioning its
past.
BFR: And delineate its Africanity?
Bathily: Right. I must tell you that
I have already been to New York,
which is quite an exciting city. I
would like to live in New York for
six months and explore it further.
Moreover, I'd like very much to
adapt one of Chester Himes' stories
to the screen. If such a dream were
to be fulfilled, I'd like to work with
professional actors and shoot a true
detective story
BFR: In so doing you would increasingly lean toward -commercial
cinema? Already Petits blancs au
manioc et a la sauce gombo seems to
be a step in that direction. All of this
seems far from the pastoral lyricism
of Tiyabu Biro ...
Bathily: I think that I was very
chaste when I made Tiyabu Biru.
With time, one always prostitutes
oneself to some extent in order to
appeal to the public and be able to
make other films.
BFR: Could the future of Senegalese cinema be linked to a more
continued on page 28
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for
Entries
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21st
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Deadline: Dec. 1, 1990
Entry Forms:
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(}IJi~&t
continued from page 16
en spirale ("Life in a Whirlwind")
based on the novel by Abasse
Mbione. It narrates the life of a
young man who lost his father
at an early age. He was brought
up by his grandmother and
went to school until the age of
15. Since he did not find adequate employment, he joined
the army. Mter his discharge,
his grandmother and his uncle
gather their meager funds and
buy him an old car so that he
may drive a clandestine taxi cab.
By working at night, and
through his passengers, the
young protagonist soon gets
introduced to the drug underworld. As a result he [gets involved] with several situations,
and [obtains] $830,000 after his
boss dies in a car accident. The
drug lord is to be played by
Jean-Paul Belmondo. Isaac de
Bankole will play the main character. La vie en spirale will cost
approximately $500,000.
BFR: These actors, who are
well-known in West Africa and
France, should indeed facilitate
the commercial success of the
film! But now let us speak a bit
about Senegalese cinema in
general. Senegal used to be at the
forefront of African filmmaking.
Today, although such films as
Camp de Thiaroye ("Thiaroye
Camp") by Ousmane Sembene
and PE ("White Folks served with
Manioc and Okra Sauce") have
just been released, one has the
feeling that your country has lost
part of its importance in terms of
African cinema. How would you
explain this fact?
Bah: Senegalese filmmakers
have been responsible for the
decline of Senegalese cinema,
particularly in the course of the
past five years. A system by
which you could get subsidies
from the State has been in place
for more than 20 years, which
has created some sort of welfare
mentality among filmmakers.
This.system worked for a while,
but I strongly believe that
Senegalese filmmakers should
mature and become more industrious because such subsidies
do hot bring in profits. From
1983' to 1988, the state gave
more than $3 million to Senegalese filmmakers and very few
films have been produced.
Modern filmmaking implies a
wide distribution network.
Once, I had to confront
[Ousmane] Sembene after he
said in a 1986 press interview
that his forthcoming epic,
Samori, was going to cost $10
million. He added that in the
United States this type of film
would cost twice as much. What
we were not told then [was] that
when Francis Coppola, for instance, prepares such a film he
is not going to see the head of
state to seek financial support.
Coppola goes to see the distributor and he may tell him, "I
have a film with Marlon
Brando." The distributor' knows
that this name will bring in
money and he is interested in
the film project. This is a metaphor to tell you that Senegalese
filmmakers should think in
terms of business, especially
when a film costs millions of
dollars.
BFR: How could Senegalese
cinema be revitalized?
Bah: You have to start from
scratch and adapt to the needs
of the times. I maintain that one
must strengthen and link five
areas: promotion, production,
distribution, exhibition as well
as the technical infrastructures.
Filmmakers should not solely
depend on the State; they
should obtain bank loans and
become accountable, even at
the risk of becoming businessmen. Whether one wants it or
not, cinema is a cultural industry.
BFR: We are thus, according to
you, reaching another stage in the
history of African cinema; in particular, if one refers to the 1982
Niamey Manifesto (Manifesto de
Niamey). At that time, African
filmmakers wanted to develop
society through cinema and
increase the sociopolitical CGnsciousness of the masses. Are we
leaning more and more towards a
commercial type of African cinema?
Bah: I was at the Niamey meeting and a few of the things t~at
were said put me to sleep whIle
others made me smile. Why?
Because Mrican filmmakers are
behind the times in comparison
with Mrican ~lmgoers.The first
European film was shown here
at the turn of the century, ~nd
since that time we have been
shown award-winning films and
foreign commercial motion
pictures.
One cannot talk about raising
people's consciousness while
most of the Mrican viewers want
to see commercial films. To a
large extent, commercial films
are the only ones able to attract
wide audiences, especially now
when one can see good video
films at home. Nowadays Mrican filmmakers have also to
think in terms of popular
cinema.
What Mrican filmmakers do
nor talk about is the fact that
they used to make films for Europe. Europe dictated what
Mrican cinema should be, and
Europe gave them a certain
amount of money to finance
some of their film projects
based on scripts corresponding
to European views of Mrica. A
lot of scripts were written, or at
least edited, at the French
Ministry of Cooperation. In the
old days such motion pictures
reflected village life, class
conflicts, or the clash between
traditional mores and modern
ways in Mrica; now these films
deal with Mrjcan mystical
beliefs as in Eby Souleymane
Cisse. Mrican masses do not
really feel concerned with such
motion pictures.
BFR: Some of Cisse's films like
Finye ("The Wind") have nonethecontinued on page 28
19
Fresh Telllptress in Well Worn 'Def'
by Arthur Johnson
It is truly commendable that 24-year-old actor
James Bond III stars in, wrote, produced and directed this all-Black-cast horror film for his own
company, Bonded Filmworks. But his film, Def l7y
Temptation, has a well-worn horror film plot: a demonic killer who lusts for human blood. The only
twist on this old theme is that the demon is a
woman in a tight dress (Cynthia Bond) and all her
victims are the men she picks up at a bar, takes to
her apartment for four-star sex, then kills in a
variety of
bloody and
bloodcurdling
ways. In fact,
the most startling scene of
the film involves the
villainess sodomizing one of
her conquests.
Dej resembles
the many "Exorcist" clones of
the mid 1970s,
including allBlack-cast
horror favorites such as Abby and Blacula. The only
thing that saves Dejfrom complete horror film
cliche is its talented cast. Kadeem Hardison, from
TV's "A Different World," gets to show a sensitive
side and a great deal of big screen charisma. Freed
from the broad comedy acting style required by
sitcom TV, Hardison manages to flesh out his
homeboy' character as Bond's best friend, an exseminarian turned action film star. He's both
funny and touching, indicating he may have an
acting future beyond the Cosby dynasty.
Bill Nunn, Radio Raheem of Do the Right Thin~,
provides a good deal of comic relief as a bar denizen who unsuccessfully hits on the ladies at the bar
witl'} a never ending stream of outrageous pick-up
lines and lies. And John Canada Terrell, the narcissistic muscleman of She's Gotta Have It, appears
briefly as a bartender and victim. He appears--once again-in the nude.
Bond, however, as the film's main character,lacks the star quality and charisma to carry the film
and perhaps should have cast Nunn, Hardison or
Terrell as the lead. Brief appearances by Freddy
Left: Kadeem Hardison in Def by Temptation. Below: The
Temptress (Cynthia Bond) seduces one of her victims (John
Canada Terrell).
.
Jackson and Melba Moore add
little to the film. Cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, best
known for his collaborations
with Spike Lee, is responsible for
the film noire look of De!
Still, the film's most laudable
feature is the fact that it represents the tenacity of today's
Black filmmakers who can
accomplish the herculean task of
getting a Black film into your
local movie theater.
The Other Side
by Pat Aufderheide
Mrican cinema has a sober
and socially-conscious international image, and indeed its vitality has typically been linked to its
social relevance. But there's
another side to Mrican cinema
as well, that of lighthearted,
often bawdy comedy. Bal Poussiere, written, prodlIced and
directed by Henri Duparc from
the Ivory Coast, showcases this
style. Like the Zairian-comedy La
Vie Est Belle, by Ngangura Mweze,
it has roots in French farce as
well as showcasing folk humor
and topical jokes. And like that
film, Bal Poussiere raises questions
about the line between fullbodied humor and offensive reinforcement of stereotypes.
Bal Poussiere features the clash
between city and country, and
between men and women. The
heroine, Binta, is a young rebel
who balks at her city relatives'
desire to make her into a maid
and keep tabs on h,er; she wants
to go to school by day and party
at night. She's sent back home,
where a lascivious polygamistknown locally by his nickname of
Demi-Dieu (half god)-wants to
add her to his five-wife collection. (The wives all disapprove.)
Binta's father approves the
marriage, and the flamboyant
wedding shows off the husband's
wealth, even though Binta has
warned her husband, "I'm not a
virgin." The wedding night is a
comedy of one-upmanship.
continued on page 22
ADifferent Worldby LettlorProctor
Kadeem Hardison
t's a long way from Brooklyn to Burbank, but for Kadeem Hardison, the
beguiling Dwayne Wayne of NBC's "A Different World," it's been a
pleasure trip.
He began training as an actor at the age of 7 with Earle Hyman (Grandpa
Huxtable) and then later at Weissbanen, where students' performances
were videotaped and then critiqued by talent scouts. His first paying job, at
the age of 14, was an ABC Afterschool Special, "The Color of Friendship", a
portrait of race relations in public schools. The lead role in "The Color of
Friendship" was played by James Bond, III, director this year's Del by
Temptation, in which Hardison stars.
Typically, work for the aspiring actor was sporadic. Hardison worked as a bike
messenger in New York between auditions. His big break came three years ago
in the form of Dwayne Wayne. Darrell Bell, who plays his sidekick, was up for
the same part.
"I was in New York, and he was in L.A. auditioning for the same part. I'd call
him up and say, 'Yo, man, I got a callback on that Different World gig,' and he'd
say, 'Me, too,' and this went on until I was getting ready to go to L.A. to audition
for it. And I called him up and told him, and he said, 'I'll see you there.' And I'm
like, hey, hold up now, he was a business major who dropped out of college to
do Spike Lee's movie (School Daze) and now he's up for my part?! He .ain't paid
no dues. I've been busting my chops for 11 years."
When it came down to auditioning for the network, though, the competition
had been eliminated. Hardison had the floor. "I went in, gave them all some
dap, told a few jokes, loosened everybody up a little bit and they asked me what
I'd do with the money if I got the part, and I told them I would buy a BMW-I
was talking about a bike, but of course they thought, 'Little negro, soon as he
starts making some money the first thing he wants to get is a fancy car.'"
After two successful seasons on "A Different World," the network execs
bought Hardison a BMW-a model car. By that time, though, he had already
bought one motorcycle and traded it in on a second one, which he rode to LA
from Las Vegas in the rain. Now, he's hoping to cut a deal with Honda to be a
spokesperson. "I told tell them they could keep the money, just give me a bike!"
He's planning a motorcycle trip from L.A. up the coast to· Vancouver, B.C. during
the show's hiatus.
When he's not biking, Hardison still remains far from the world of Hollywood's glitterati. "It's always a "Who's Who" thing when .you go out, wherever
you go. I did all my partying at 18,19, 20 in New York. Now I've got everything I
need at my house-a computer, Nintendo, a VCR, my comic books, my pit bull.
The most I do is go to the movies on Thursday nights."
As for his future in acting, Hardison remains hopeful. "I'm very satisfied with
Dwayne Wayne, the way he's matured over the years, and since Debbie (Allen)
took over, we have a lot more input over what the characters say and do." He
enjoyed working with Keenan Ivory Wayans on I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Spike
Lee on School Daze as well as James Bond, ilion Del. But, he explains, "That
wasn't like work; it was like play because these dudes let you improvise. If it
works, they keep it, and if not, they don't.
He hopes to work on more small budget projects in the future and has no
desire to direct. In the meantime, Hardison will continue enjoying the fruits of
his labor (he plans to buy a bigger bike, a "crUiser") and hopefully a long career
with many credits. "When I auditioned for Performing Arts (high school) in New
York, I didn't get in. Look at me now!" _
Lett Proctor is a Washington, DC-based writer and editor.
21
REVIEWS
continued from page 21
This is only the first of Binta's
outrages against her new husband's control, and the first of
his problems in juggling his
marital responsibilities to his
many wives. The local great man
is reduced to a figure of buffoonery by the savvy girl who
won't be tamed, although along
the way the other wives begin to
revolt.
III the process, the film maker
makes the most of his lead
actress' stunning physical attributes, providing close-ups of
jiggling breasts and a full-screen
close-up of buttocks. So even
though the joke's supposedly on
the powerful polygamist, Bal
Poussiere also shamelessly exploits the prancing figure of the
citified girl. The movie also tries
hard to be a crowd-pleaser by
offering raucous scenes of city
entertainment, of lewd rural
buffoonery and of the culture
clash between city and country.
Perhaps the most self-consciously
responsible moment occurs in
the first few seconds of the film,
when a prostitute attempts to
engage a tavern patron, who
responds, "And what about
AIDS?" This question never
reappears.
Bal Poussiere was a smash hit at
the 1989 Ouagadougou biennial
festival of Mrican cinema, and
was also popular at the 1990
Filmfest D.C. Its vigorous populism clearly has mass appeal, as
does its lowest-common-denominator physical humor. But many
international audiences may find
its exploitation of its central
character to step over the line
from funny to crude. There are
very few Mrican women
filmmakers, and so it may be a
bit of a wait to see what an
Mrican farce produced by a
woman would look like. But it
would be very interesting to find
out.
Without You
Imagine a film with comedy
and music and lots of Black folks
on camera at all times featuring
songs made famOllS by Nina
Simone ("Four Women"), Billy
Paul ("Me and Mrs. Jones") ,
Sylvester ("Do You Wanna Funk
With Me" and "Mighty Real")
and Prince ("Little Red Corvette"), plus rap music, a hot jazz
combo, and references to Diana
continued on page 31
Take
Control of Your Future at UDC
Stancey Stewart came to the University of the District
of Columbia in 1981. His mind never showed up.
Stancey was playing hard in the street. .. having big
fun. His reward: Four "F's" and one "A". The playboy
student became a statistic...another dropout.
Doing back-breaking labor for small pay checks drove
Stancey back to the classroom in 1984. Stancey got
busy. And he put his priorities in order.
He remembers: "At UDC, I learned how to learn! I
learned how to apply myself to a task, how to improvise
to achieve a specific goal, how not to rest on my
achievements, and how to reach higher for the next
goal."
He learned to be a winner, not a statistic!
The results: In May 1990, Senior Class President
Stancey Stewart graduated, magna cum laude, with a
bachelor's degree in journalism, one of about 120
undergraduate and graduate degree programs
available at UDC. Pay raises and new job opportunities
were offered by his employer. His self-esteem is
soaring. The system is working for him now.
Stancey left behind almost 12,000 other smart people
at UDC who are determined to take control of their
futu re, too.
Join them!
. 22
For additional information
Call UDC-2225, or write:
Office of Undergraduate Admissions, or
Office of Graduate Admissions
University of the District of Columbia
4200 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
-JJ1- .
ac
the smart choice
EEO-AA
OSCAR MICHEAUX KATHLEEN
COLLINS SPIKE LEE EUZHAN
PALCY ST CLAIR BOURNE BILL
the vision.
GUNN MENELIKSHABAZZ ELLEN
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SUMTER MICHELLE PARKERSON
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BURNETT MEDHI CHAREF AVERY filmmakers throughout the Mrican diaspora. And
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23
by Victoria
24
M arshall
t the American Film Market
[AFM] , held in Beverly Hills
earlier this year, more than
800 buyers from Asia, Europe, the South Pacific, North,
Central and South America met
to purchase and sell the licensing, releasing, national and
international distribution and
exhibition of American film.
Deals made at AFM, the largest
commercial audio-visual entertainment market in the United
States, determine access to
money and international markets as well as the prospects of
financial gains far down the line
for a large numbe'r of American
films, some of which will never
be seen in the US.
For the occasion, the rooms
and suites of the Beverly Hills
Hilton were transformed into
negotiating salons, dressed '
palatially for those companies
that could afford it and modestly
for those that could not.
At AFM, deals are made at
various stages of the production
process. Actress and filmmaker
Rae Dawn Chong, for example,
was there searching for a distributor and post-production
funding to complete her film
currently in production in Canada while Wendell Harris,
winner of the Grand Jury Prize at
the Sundance U.S. Film Festival
for his first feature, Chameleon
Street, was there to market a
completed film.
Buyers from different nations,
for example Embrafilmes, the
Brazilian national film promotion organization, came to see
what sellers offered for theatrical
release, video sales and television
broadcast in their homelands.
AFM newcomer JAMPRO , the
Jamaican Economic Development Agency, was on hand to
sell Jamaica as a technically
sophisticated location site.
The Black films marketed at
AFM varied greatly in subject
and production value as did the
structure of their sales pitches.
Perfume, RolandJefferson's soon
to be released feature, was
marketed with a highlight on
former Love Boat star and
filmmaker Ted Lange. Lange is
featured in Perfume, the story of
four middle class Black women.
Def by Temptation, on the oth'er
hand, was over-promoted as a
film with an "all-Black cast."
AFM also featured A-rated
films such as Driving Miss Daisy
and Milk and Honey, the story of
aJamaican who travels to Canada to find work. Although Milk'
and Honey, scripted by Jamaican
playwright Trevor Rhone, received critical acclaim in its
limited commercial release in
the US, it sold poorly at AFM,
according to the sales rep.
Overall, the 1990 AFM essentially featured for 'sale B-rated,
flashy action/ adventure films.
The majority of buyers, from
Japan and Europe, were looking
for material to fill their rapidly
developing video and TV programming industries. However,
the ending of the Cold War and
the uncertainty of the effect
economic integration of Europe
in 1992 will have on the global
film industry slowed buying this
year. In addition, many other
companies are considering the
future use of laser video, high
definition television, live telesatellite links, and holographic
imagery and were more cautious
in their buying.
Not surprisingly, there were
not many Mrican-American faces
to be seen-besides the added
security officers and custodial
crews. Eventually, though, a few
Black sales representatives for
the releasing companies, lawyers,
bankers, producers, and journalists made appearances. Still,
Mrican-Americans are poorly
represented within this phase of
the film ,industry.
To bolster and develop distribution of their films, Black
filmmakers might focus more on
targeted market sales to foreign
buyers. "Rebound marketing'" to
intended American audiences
might be.a welcomed result.
According to many sales reps at
AFM, buyers want access to more
varied international, multicultural products, and less violent,
more realistic, quality films are
increasingly sought. If AFM is
any indication, the new and
extended European markets,
including former colonies, may
provide new avenues for the
distribution of Black films.•
Black Film Review Associate Editor Victoria
Marshall is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.
She is also director of an international film
promotion company, Reel World Imagery.
25
No Identity Crisis
No Identity Crisis
by Melvin and Mario Van Peebles
New York: Fireside/Simon and
Schuster Inc.
260 pp., Illus., $9.95 (paperback).
by John Williams
In Melvin Van Peebles' second
"No
Identity Crisis", the 57-year~ld
maverick actor-producer-director
who starred as "Sweetback" in the
now-legendary Sweet Sweetback s
Baadasssss Song (1971) reemerges
as "Block," the tough, no-nonsense
father of Mario Van Peebles'
"Chip."
Sectioned into two parts, the
book chronicles the making of the
movie Identity Crisis from its seemingly wacky genesis as a script
called 'To Die For" all the way to
its ultimate completion as a fatherson joint business venture.
Together, as partners in the
independent film production
company Block and Chip, Inc.,
father and son confront do-or-die
obstacles in the gritty world of
guerilla filmmaking. Much like
Spike Lee's making~f-the-film
book, spike Lees Shes Cotta Have It:
Inside Guerilla Filmmakin~ No
Identity Crisis is a step-by-step
blueprint charting the nuts and
bolts of Black independent film
practices from pre-production to
post.
Unlike spike Lees Cotta Have It
(SLGHl), though, No Indentity Crisis
fails to achieve the point of resolution Lee's book did with the story
of the acquisition of a distributor
and Shes Cotta Have Its subsequent
commercial release. As of this
printing, Identity Crisis still lacks a
distributor. And while SLGHI,
Lee's first of four books, may be
considered the standard for works
in this genre, Van Peebles' The
making~f-the-filmbook,
Making ofSweet Sweetback s
26
Baadasssss Song
(1971) is the
indisputable
prototype preceding Lee's by
almost two
decades.
Then, too, No
Identity Crisis can
be read not only
as a making~f­
the-film book
but also as the
allegory of a
father's and
son's attempt to
come to terms
with one another-Melvin
syQJ.bolizing the
"pull-yourself-upby-the-bootstraps" generation of the '60s
and Mario, the
children of the
post-Civil Rights
Black middle
No Identity Crisis co-author Melvin Van Peeble.
class of the '80s.
movie strip boards, and wonderful
Early on, the book hints at the
black-and-white stills of those
father-son conflict at the root of
members of the cast, family, and
the film's very conception. "I had
friends who contributed to and
initially thought of Identity Crisis as
inspired its production.
a 'who-dun-it' with humorous
No Identity Crisis gives invaluable
characters, but emphasis on
insight into the plight of two
intense situations," writes Mario.
'This became an on-going point of talented artists working together as
a team against the maligned iInage
contention with Dad, who perof their people. It is also a testaceived it as a flat~ut, nutty-eomedy
a la Ghostbusters meets ]\;farried to the ment to the dogged strength of the
blood bond holding father and
Mob."
son together under duress and a
This fundamental difference in
moving account of those who
opinion between father and son's
nurtured it.
conception of the film is never
The elder Van Peebles was
resolved in the film itself which
recendy honored by the Metrooften bounces back and forth
politan Museum of Art in New
nervously between the two unsure
York, a first for a Black filmmaker,
of what exacdy it wants to be.
with a retrospective covering more
Told with wit, passion, and
than three decades in his career.
humor, the book features Melvin
The program spanned the nowand Mario's father-son diaries,
classic trilogy first screened at the
illustrations of the Identity Crisis
French Cinematheque-Sunlight
(1958), Three Pickup Men far Herrick
(1958), and A King (1958) (which
was missing)-all the way to Identity
Grisis (1989), written by and
starring Mario.
Sweetback, for which Melvin Van
Peebles is best known, was shot by
his one~man production company,
Yeah, Inc., in 20 days in southern
California with a $50,000 loan
from actor-eomedian Bill Cosby
and monies earned from Van
Peebles' first Hollywood feature,
Watermelon Man (1969). The film
triggered a wave of cheap Hollywood imitations known as the
"blaxploitation" films as it soared
on to become one of the highestgrossing Black films in history.
Melvin Van Peebles was born in
Chicago in 1932. Mter graduating
from Ohio Weslyan and serving in
the military as an Air Force navigator, he moved to San Francisco
where he published a photo essay
about the city's cable cars, The Big
Heart (1957) . Mter finding the
Hollywood fIlm industry closed to
Black directors, he left California
for Europe where, among other
things, he did graduate studies in
astronomy, toured with a Dutch
repertory theater company, and
worked as a journalist. He fmally
setded in Paris in the '60s.
In 1967, Van Peebles was catapulted into fame when his first
feature fum, La Permission("Story of
a Three-Day Pass"), premiered at
the San Francisco Film Festival. As
a protest against the racist American film industry, he attended the
festival as a French delegate. The
fIlm's success brought Van Peebles
to the attention of Columbia
Pictures for which he scripted Watermelon Man (1969), his only film
to be distributed by a major studio.
In addition to being an accomplished fIlmmaker, Melvin Van
Peebles' accolades include 11
books, four television specials,
three Broadway and two off-Broadway Tony award-winning plays,
and numerous recordings and
music videos.•
John Williams is a writer, editor, and critic who
writes for Black Film Review and the Independent.
;t(tKJ4Itb
84
~~8ai
ontinued from page 1 9
continued from page 18
commercial type of filmmaking that
would be more flourishing because it
would generate profits?
Bathily: First of all, Senegalese
films should be actively distributed
throughout the world because
releasing a fIlm solely in Mrica
does not payoff. In Senegal the
fIlmmaker gets 25 percent of the
profits. You are told that 50 percent of the profits go to the city.
So, the 50 percent that is left is
shared between producer and the
filmmaker. This is not a viable
system! We should aim at the
international fIlm market, which
means that we should follow widely
accepted norms. If we are not able
to hire famous actors, we should at
least illustrate popular and universal themes which may appeal to
international audiences. I don't
see. any problem in doing that. If
fIlmmakers want to convey a
particular message, they can still
do so within these criteria.•
J
Black-owned
independent
production
company
seeking potential executive producer for
low-budget feature film
presently in development
stage.
Please contact:
Anthony ThoDlpson
JUMP AT DE
SUN FILMS, INC.
180 Troy Avenue
Apt.4J
Brooklyn, NY 11213
(718)735-8424
28
less been greatly appreciated by
audiences in West Africa.
Bah: Yes, because Finye appealed to youth, and the same
thing was true of his motion
picture, Baara. Yet I was disappointed by Yeelen. This film wa~
well done with beautiful images;
however, today one can have
beautiful images as well as a
strong and meaningful content.
Not everybody favors the making of detective or action films,
yet I do believe that these types
of films can serve to instigate
the making of others. In Africa
we have a wealth of unexplored
themes related to our societies
and cultures.
BFR: Could you briefly talk
about your past, and especially
about your training as a
filmmaker?
Bah: I was born near the religious city of Tivaouane. In. 1968
I went to Dakar to go to college,
but I ended up not registering. I
stopped at the French Cultural
Center, where I received some
training in film. Later, I worked
for Senegalese television and I
was sent to Paris for further
practical training at INA [Institut National de I' Audiovisuel]. I
subsequently came back to
Dakar where I produced television programs. It was at that
time that I shot La Brosse ("The
Brush"), which was followed by
Arret Car ("Bus Station") . Both
shorts were made in 1973. La
Brosse depicts one day in the
life of a young shoe-shiner in
Dakar. Arret Car is a film on bus
conductors in that same city.
BFR: And then what did you do?
Bah: In 1975, while working, I
made a medium-length film,
entitled Tabio Feraay~ In 1976 I
resigned from Senegalese television and, two years later, I shot
my first film called Rewo Dande
Mayo ("The Other Side of the
River"). Tablo Feraay is the
name of the shanty-town which
houses people who were forced
out of a section of Medina
where buildings were to be
erected. My film tells the story
of a young girl born in Medina,
who grew up in Tablo Feraay
and carne back to her former
neighborhood to work as a
maid for a young Senegalese
couple currently residing in the
new buildings.
BFR: What about Rewa Dande
Mayo?
Bah: This film was primarily
meant to be a documentary. So
I went on location to Mauritania, to the other side of the
Senegal river. I stayed there for
three months with a friend of
mine who is an agronomist.
There, I realized that I could
make a feature film. Rewo Dande
Mayo depicts a very old village
whose life is disrupted because
shepherds have to become
farmers after a water system is
put in place to create and
irrigate rice fields. One shepherd cannot cope with such a
change and wants to leave his
village. He eventually dies
before the irrigation system is
completed.
BFR: How much Rewa Oande
Mayo cost?
Bah: About $68,000 at the
time: $15,000 carne from my
personal funds, $34,000 was
provided by a Mauritanian
development company, and
$17,000 was obtained through
the advanced selling of the noncommercial rights of the film.
Belgian television and the Senegalese Film Fund [Le Fonds
D'Aide pour L'lndustrie Cinematographique] also provided
some money to make the film.
Later on, the French Ministry of
Cooperation bought the motion
picture.
BFR: Did Rewa Dande Mayo
generate any profits?
Bah: Yes, some very limited
profits which barely allowed me
to start my second feature film
entitled Xew Xew ("Celebration
Begins"). Then, I had to discontinue the shooting of the film
for six months. I was subsequently able to continue and
finish the film thanks to a
distribution advance of some
$10,000 provided by SIDEC (Societe d'lmportation, de Distribution et d'Exploitation Cinematographique) and an equal
amount of money given to me
by CIDC (Consortium Interafricain de Distribution Cinematographique). Xew Xew's total
budget amounted to $136,000.
Xew Xew was released in 1982,
and well-known Senegalese
musicians as Ie Xalam and
Youssou N'Dour performed in it.
ate future of Senegalese cinema?
become very successful. In the
end, Xady's parents make up
with their daughter.
BFR: You are not making films
as often as you would like. How
do you earn a living between two
feature films?
Bah: Between two feature
films, I try to shoot documentaries and films on development.
Recently, the European Economic Community commissioned a series of films on trade
and agricultural projects in Senegal. Now I'd like to make a
documentary on Japanese products in Senegal. All of this is not
very creative but it allows me to
survive economically.
BFR: What is Xew Xew's story?
Bah: It is a film about Senegalese music, whose growth I
have been witnessing for 10
years. I have a lot of friends who
are musicians. I used to spend a
great deal of time with them,
and I saw what they went
through. The kids had patchedup guitars but they stuck to
their music, and there was a lot
of action. They were really
setting a good exampIe for me
as a filmmaker. Of course,
making a film or staging a play
costs more than composing and
playing music. Yet, I said to
myself that Senegalese music, of
which we are proud, could serve
as an example to the development of other artistic fields.
BFR: Could you further elaborate on the plot of this film?
Bah: It is the story of several
musicians and also that of Xady,
a young sociologist who belongs
to the Senegalese bourgeoisie.
This young woman falls in love
with one of the musicians,
which causes her to be rejected
by her family. Therefore, Xady
goes to live with the musicians
and has a child. In order to
support her child and financially help the musicians, the
young woman works as a sociologist. In the meantime, the
musicians work very hard and
BFR: Would you like to add
anything concerning the immedi-
Bah: I am optimistic about it
but I think that some of the
people belonging to the old
guard of Senegalese filmmakers
should step down and give us a
chance. They are hurting a
whole generation of filmmakers.
And what saddens me most is
that countries such as Mali and
Burkina Faso, which have even
more limited economic means,
are making more films. Of
course, it may be said that
Malian and Burkinabe
filmmakers get state support
and that they are making the
same errors we did 10 or 15
years ago. Yet, although their
errors may be identical to ours,
they may be able to find different solutions. •
m
RODD CTIO 1\1
II"P
ART
for
B 1 a c k
and
N
L a tin
E
0
R
I mag e
5'13
S,
17 East 17th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10003
(212) 675-3000
(212) 675-3275 FAX
Inc.
Join us if you ...
I
WATCH MOVIES
MAKE MOVIES
(or want
to~
INVEST IN MOVIES
(or want
to~
We are a
not-for-profit group
that helps film and
video makers
through low cost
production
equipment rental,
consulting services
and investor
searches. With our
help, more and
better films by and
about Black and
Latino people can
be presented to
eager audiences.
Call us to join or to contribute to our Production Fund!
29
CHEIKH 0
MAR SISSOKO
continued from page 5
to the theater to see social problems. And those problems frequentlyare dramatic. People don't
want to come to the theater to get
depressed and weep. The way to
bring them in is to have them see
the problems through a story that
engages them.
BFR: What has been the reaction in
Mali?
Sissoko: It's been shown so far
only in large towns, and I've been
at the showings to see how it's
received by the people because I
care-I made it primarily for them,
although I am also interested in
international reaction.
Reactions have been very positive; people have come in great
numbers. It was released in December 1989, and before the beginning of Ramadan in March 'it
had drawn in 84,000 spectators.
More women than men come to
see the film. And when I walk
down the street women stop to
congratulate me. They often say
they're happy because a man
finally sees their point of view,
although I don't think I'm the only
one. But it is true that so far this is
the only Mrican-made feature film
whose subject is the rights of
women. There is another film
from Burkina Faso called My
Daughter tVill Not Be Excised dealing
only with excision; I didn't want to
restrict my film to this one subject,
but to address the rights of women
generally.
Still, people have criticized the
film saying that there are many
other women's problems it does
not cover. For instance, it doesn't
get into religious oppression of
women in Islam or the heavy unequal burden of daily work falling
on women. You cannot do everything. But I did consciously design
the film so that, no matter what is
going on in the foreground, the
frame is filled with women carrying
wood, preparing food, hauling
water-eonstantly at work.
0
BFR: The mother has a very tender
relationship with her son.
30
Sissoko: The son is the mother's
greatest support; he must defend
her and take charge. This is part of
Bambara tradition. The daughter
will move away to another family
but the son will remain and always
keep his mother at his side. The
mother is sacred.
But in each generation, the
young come up with a different
attitude toward women, and this
young man supports the liberation
of women. I created this character
to show hope in the next generation.
BFR: The"crisis of Fili exposes
contradictions within tradition.
Sissoko: Yes, particularly in the
character of her father. He has
moved to the city after the death
of his wife in childbirth. He is
afraid his daughter as well will
hemorrhage if she is excised, so he
moves away from that tradition.
But the city has its own dangersmany children of migrants become petty criminals and prostitutes. So he sends her back to the
village with Nanyuma when he
rejects Nanyuma's bid for support.
I wanted to show the bad and
the good of the city-it poses
problems of alienation but it can
also free one from tradition. Also,
you see that Fili's father is very traditional yet can also break with
tradition.
BFR: Your editing style and
camera work seem consciously to
avoid that psychological intimacy
that marks many Western entertainment films.
Sissoko: The narrative style is
part of the oral tradition. I wanted
to conform to those traditions. I
edited the film with an Mrican, in
Burkina Faso. Mali has no postproduction equipment. I took
three assistants from Mali as well,
to train them. We took five
months to edit, and we discussed
the montage at every step. We
talked especially about maintaining the spirit of oral tradition. For
instance, in the meeting between
the commissaire and the chief, a
European film would handle that
interchange quickly. We wanted to
include the body stances, the
gestures, all of which are also part
of the dialogue.
I avoided close-ups and a tight
focus generally. I know American
films do this, and I see it as a
technique to ·idealize the individual. My intention was to show that
people are never isolated. I didn't
want to emphasize individuality.
It's not one person but the group
effort that influences events.
I tried to give my characters
individuality as well; Nanyuma is
the most typical example. I wanted
to show her sentiments, but I
wanted to integrate that into her
social reality.
It was important for me to know
that the people come to an awareness of the need for group action.
When they resist the government
demand for a forced sale of millet,
the men and women band together to resist in an organized
way, and it works. They won a
victory, and that's the road to resolve problems. This is the departure for liberation.
At the start Nanyuma is isolated
and people even organize against
her. Some women come to unite
with Nanyuma, although some
women also oppress Fili. At the
end she leaves the village, but she
leaves with a man, her son. It
shows that men and women together will solve the problem, that
the problem of women is the
problem ofsociety. •
Pat Aufderheide is an assistant professor in the
School of Communications at The American University and a senior editor ofIn These Times newspaper.
.
Market your fillll
services and products
to our readership by
advertising in the next
Black film Review
for lJ10re i JlforlJlrltioll
COIl trlct;
Sheila Reid,
Ad1.JertisiJlg Director
2(}2-466-2753
REVIEWS
continued from page 22
her singing or her comedy-the
announcer even mispronounces
her name.
Early in the film, her manager
explains that she booked
Bernhard in this club because
Bernhard's ego had ballooned
so much after her Broadway
success and that to play before
such a cold audience would
bring her down a peg or two.
Bernhard takes no notice of the
audience's ennui, however, and
performs at full throttle throughout.
Only Bernhard's boldness of
concept and her supreme selfconfidence could Qave
prompted her to make a film in
which she is not the adored
center. How many performers
would dare portray themselves as
a flop in their own film? Fortunately for Bernhard, her atypical,
off center satire is too strong to
be threatened by this less than
complimentary presentation of
her talent.
The other risk Bernhard has
taken here is to fill the film to
the brim with references to
Black music and culture. Clearly
Ross, Tina Turner, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Vanity
Martin Luther King, the blues,
Mingus and scat singing with a
score by Patrice Rushen. To top
it all off, imagine beautiful Black
actress Cynthia Bailey haunting
the film with mute, sporadic appearances.
This sums up about 50 percent
of the film Without You I'm Nothing. The other 50 percent is the
inimitable and fresh presence of
comedienne Sandra Bernhard.
Without You is the film adaption
of Bernhard's hit one-woman
Broadway show of a few years
back. But instead of going the
usual Broadway act-to-film route
of actually filming a stage performance and interspersed with
shots of the audience laughing
uproariously at her, Bernhard
has chosen a more daring concept. Though she is white and
Jewish and a New Yorker, her
concert film within a film is
performed before a visibly bored
and indifferent Black audience
in a nightclub in Los Angeles.
The audience never applauds
The editors wish to acknowledge the following donors
for their generous contributions:
Atlanta Mrican Film Society ~ Elizabeth Alexander
~ Anonymous ~ Mauree Ayton ~ Neema Barnette
~ A~Lelia Bundles ~ Roy Campenella~ II ~ Elden Cave
~ Mhye Cham ~ Joel Chaseman ~ Herbert v. Colley~ Jr.
~ Robert H. Devine ~ Lewis Erskine ~ Kay Ferguson ~ Richard and Phyllis
Ferguson ~ Bryan Fortson ~ Charles Fuller ~ Dr. Naomi M. Garrett
~ Henry Louis Gates ~ Mahle J. Haddock ~ Robert S. Hainey ~ Judi Hetrick
~ Elizabeth Jackson ~ Charles F. Johnson ~ Charles E. Jones ~ Humphrey C.
Jones ~ Humphrey C. Jones~ Jr. ~ Charles Larson ~ James Alan McPherson
~ Ethel S. Meeds ~ Rodney Mitchell ~ James A. Miller ~ Spencer Moon
~ Gloria Naylor ~ Michelle Parkerson ~ Annell Primm~ MD ~ Diane Porter
~ On The Potomac Productions ~ Elaine Pounds ~ PRN Music Corp.
~ Richard L. Rivard ~ Trodville Roach ~ Roger B. Rosenbaum
~ Charles Scattergood ~ Charles Sessoms ~ C.C. Still ~ Julia Sweig
~ Piankhi Tanwetamani ~ Gina Ferguson Thomas ~ Eve A. Thompson
~ Robert Townsend ~ Josephine S. Wade ~ Dr. Leroy Wells
~ Winnie Williams ~ Marti Wilson ~ Paula Wright ~ Joyce Payne Yette
~
All donations to Sojourner Productions, publishers of Black Film Review,
are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law.
she is committing box office
suicide by failing to ground her
film in middle-class white culture. And Black audiences are
probably unfamiliar with her
except for appearances on "The
Arsenio Hall Show." Even so,
many Black moviegoers will
probably fail to recognize the
name Nina Simone as well as her
famous '60s protest song, "Four
Women." When Bernhard
dressed in Mrican garb and sang
the song's first line, "My skin is
Black... " the predominately
white audience of the screening
I attended laughed.
But clearly Bernhard's intent is
more political than comic as she
sings the song in its entirety (to a
bumpin' accompaniment by the
on-stage jazz combo). Is she
lampooning the persona of a
self-deluded star desperately
trying to reach her onscreen
Black audience or is she grabbing the attention of her yuppie
white film audience? Is she commenting on a white-dominated
society that so routinely rips off
Black culture only to throw it
back at the Black people that
originated it? If so, no wonder
the onscreen audience is so
bored. Cynthia Bailey provides
the final commentary, giving the
silent crowd the last word on all
that has gone before.
Finally, Bernhard's politicssexual, social, and racial-seem
to be the whole point of Without
You. And, that's quite an agenda
for an American comic in an era
when crotch and bathroom
humor have become comedy
norms, while racism, sexism, and
homophobia are reaping big
bucks for comedians who have
nothing else on their minds.•
AJ.
Black Film Review Associate Editor/Film Critic
Arthur Johnson is a published fiction writer
and a produced playwright. Pat Aufderheide is
an assistant professor in the School ofCommunication at The American University and a
senior editor of In These Times newspaper and
an Associate Editor of Black Film Review.
31
September
SEPTEMBER 21 THROUGH OCTOBER 21The wealth and diversity of video being made by
artists living in Brooklyn will be examined in The
Brooklyn Museum's six-week series 'Working in
Brooklyn/Video." Introduced by video artists and ,"
followed by discussion, these thematic programs
include tapes that express personal and political
points of view while experimentirlg with the capabilities of the video medium. All programs are offered at
2 p.m. in the Museum's Education Division located
on the first floor and are free with Museum admission.
Sept. 16 - Image, Music, Text;Jem Cohen, guest
speaker
Sept. 23 - Media = POUJer, Ardele Lister, guest speaker
Sept. 30 - tvhat is a Good Woman? Kathryn High, guest
speaker
Oct. 7 - Personal Visions; Kristine Diekman, guest
speaker
Oct. 14 - New Histaries; Rea Tajiri, guest speaker
Oct. 21 - The Next Generation; Thomas Harris,
guest speaker
J
929 Harrison Ave., Suite 104
Columbus, OH
(614) 299-5355
SATURDAYS, SEPTEMBER 29 THROUGH
DECEMBER 15
The Black Heritage Film/Video Festival: poets, writers
and performers. Also a special tribute to Bill Gunn
(1931-1989).
The Landlord; Script by Bill Gunn. Directed by Hal
Ashby.
Personal Problems; Directed by Bill Gunn.
Blacks and Jews; Produced and directed by Ishmael
Reed.
Silver and Gold; (Zimbabwe) Miriam Patanza. 1989
The People's Poet (UK/South Mrica) Mravision 1989.
Avenue Louis Messiah
Ishmael Reed, Sonya Sanchez, Clayton Riley, Louis
Massiah and others will be among the guest presenters.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dara Meyers-Kingsley
Coordinator of Film and Video Programs
Public Programs and Media
The Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(718) 638-5000, ext. 234
Rodney Lee
Langston Hughes Community
Library and Cultural Center
102-09 Northern Boulevard
Corona, New York 11368
(718)651-7116
FAX (718)651-6258
SEPTEMBER 21
The Atlanta Mrican Film Society will screen the film
Garbage Bays. Directed by Malian filmmaker Cheikh
Oumar Sissoko. At the Georgia Pacific Center Auditorium, 1333 Peachtree Street, NE, Atlanta, GA 30348.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Monica Freeman
Program Coordinator
The Atlanta Mrican Film Society
(404)525-1136
SEPTEMBER 25 THROUGH 28
Prized Pieces, Int'l Video/Film Competition. Awards
ceremony and festival on November 8,9,10 and 11.
Prized Pieces events recognize, honor and showcase
excellence in black television and film production.
Competition deadline is Sept. 14
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jackie Tshaka, Prized Piece Coordinator
National Black Programming Consortium
32
October
OCTOBER 16 & 17
Gordon Parks will host a two-day mini-film series as
part of Festival 2000. Featured filmmakers include
Ulysses D.Jenkins,Jr., Dinorah deJesus Rodriquez,
Dario Sanmiquel, Rick Tejada-Flores and Roberto
Bedoya, and the Focus Media Collective. Festival 2000:
A Celebration of Cultural Diversity will present 200
performances, 50 events and 1,000 artist overall.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Festival 2000
1182 Market Street, Suite 210
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 864-4237
OCTOBER 29
Third World Newsreel's Advanced Production Workshop provides intensive, hands-on training in 16mm
..
C I ass i fi e d s
filmmaking and video production for people of color
and economically disadvantaged emerging film and
video makers. The workshop schedule is designed to
accommodate working people. Prior film, video or
related experience is recommended. Participants
should be able to attend regular meetings and meet
production demands. The workshop is limited to 15
people chosen through an application and interview
process. Tuition is $300. Application deadline is
October 1,1990. The 12 month workshop begins
October 29,1990.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kenyatta Funderburk
Third World Newsreel Workshop
335 W. 38th Street, 5th Fl.
New York, NY 10018
(212)947-9277
November
NOVEMBER 5
Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Inc. is calling for
entries to the 1991 Black Independent Film, Video
and Screenplay Competition. The deadline for su~
mission is November 5.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Inc.
405 Fourteenth Street, Suite 515
Oakland, CA 94612
(415) 465-0804
December
DECEMBER 1
The Documentary Festival of New York, one of the
few US festivals devoted exclusively to the documentary, is now seeking works that "confront, question,
provoke, and explore new formal terrain and have
strong artistic points of view." During the festival,
awards will be given to outstanding video, film, madefor-1V productions, and most outstanding work by an
emerging maker and will be attended by curators,
broadcastors, distributors, and documentary enthusiast alike. Coordinators define documentary as any
work "whose key elements derive from reality: people,
events, images, sounds and text." Work must have
been completed after September 1989. Format
35mm, 16mm, 3/4";,1/2" (preferable). Entry fee is
$30. Deadline December 1.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Susan Carucio
Jonathan Stack
Julie Gustafson
The Documentary Film Festival of New York
454 Broome St.
New York, NY 10013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~­
NATIONALEDUCATIONALFllM
AND VIDEO FESTIVAL is calling for entries for its 21 st Annual competition featuring: documentaries, dramaticfeaturesand
shorts, animation, classroom
programs, medical, health, training, instructional, special interest, made for TV, PSA's, art,
student-made docs and narratives.
Deadline: Dec. 1, 1990
Send entry forms to NEFVF
655 13th Street
Oakland, CA 94612
415-465-6885
Black-owned independentproduction company seeking potential executive producer for
low-budget feature fi 1m presently in development stage.
Please contact: JUMP AT
DE SUN FILMS, 180 Troy
Ave., Apt. 4J, Brooklyn, NY
11213. (718)735-8424.
PRODUCTION PARTNERS invites you to join us if you watch
movies, make movies (or want
to), or invest in movies (or want
to). We're a non-profit group
that helps film and video makers through low cost production equipm~nt rental, consultingservicesandinvestorsearches
for better films by and about
Black and Latino people. Call to
join us or contribute to our production fund. Production Partners, 17 E. 17th Street, NY, NY
10003. Phone (212)675-3000.
,FAX (212)675-3275'.
SUBMIT FILMS &VIDEOS:
Forpossiblescreening incontinuing exhibition of works
by Black filmmakers. Ongoing.AlIgenres. Fonnats: 16mm,
Super 8mm, silent/sound, 3/
4 video and 1/2 inch VHS.
Sendworksto:'ToneyW.Merritt:
Black Experiments in Film,
c/o The San Francisco Cinematheque, 480 Potrero Ave.,
San Francisco, CA 94110.
Include personal statement/
production stills.
Facultyvacancy invisual media
one-year appointment in the
School of Communications
at the American University.
Temporary, non-tenure track
appointmentavailablefor199091. For info on responsibilities and qualifications see our
Phoenix Films presents:
AFAN OF BLACK CHILDREN: display ad in this issue of
fi Imsand videosforAfrican Ameri- Black Film Review.
can Children
about African American
BLACK ARTS RESEARCH
Children for All Children
CENTER is an archival rePhoenix Films Inc.
source center dedicated to
468 Park Avenue South
the documentation, preser-'
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vation and dissemination of
(800)221-1274
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Resources include some 1300
recordings, cassettes and videEARTH VIDEO OFFERS 3/4 Ed- otapes, 500 books and jouriting $25/hr with Editor. Edit nals, 250 clipping files, and a
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33
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Washington,····DC 20066
Permit No. 1031
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:/
'::::"., .;:;..
-• • • ·~~IIIIIIIII:,• • • • • .ii
_.:
:
: : . .;:::>::::=:/\::
.
III ~ • • • • • • • • . •;._ •
Black Filmma'kers ,Hall of Fame, Inc.
1991
Black Independent
Film, Video & Screenplay
Competition
An International Event
Call for Entries
Deadline;
Novefilber 5, 1990
For entry information,
contact:
Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Inc.,
405 14th Street, Suite 515
Oakland, CA 94612
(415) 465-0804
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