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Efficiency via self-sufficiency - Hudlin eyes ways around obstacles in filmmaking By KAMAU HIGH Variety.com (Nov. 7, 2002) With two crossover hits, "House Party" and "Boomerang," Warrington Hudlin, one half of the dynamic Hudlin brothers, is familiar with mainstream success. Thus it's noteworthy that after almost 25 years of directing and producing films, he has given up on Hollywood. Or, as he puts it, "I haven't turned my back on Hollywood. They have turned their back on me." Today, he runs the Black Filmmaker Foundation, an organization that helps new filmmakers. For more than two decades the BFF has played a pivotal role in the emergence of the contemporary black film movement. BFF curates the annual American Black Film Festival in Miami in the summer and hosts an annual summit, a gathering of the most successful producers and senior executives of color in the motion picture and television industries. Hudlin is also founder of DVRepublic.com The site acts as an incubator, with filmmakers posting their ideas and clips and readers supporting the ones they think are the best. "We're trying to create a reciprocal relationship between artist and audience," says Hudlin, who receives funding from the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cumming Foundation. Since launching in January, he completed four shorts with another in post-production. Hudlin, who also curates New York-based screening series World Cinema Showcase at the American Museum of the Moving Image, says his reasons for rebellion revolve around finance. "It's all will in Hollywood, independent of race. The only thing that has deterministic influence is box office." DVRepublic.com is his response to that. "One of the reasons today's cinema is so limited is because of cost. There is a type of story you can't expect (Hollywood) to finance," he says. "I'm at a point in my life where I can spend my time trying to liberate this cinema." Another route to getting a film made, of course, is independent financing. For example, Reuben Cannon, a casting director-turned-producer, helped organize a group of wealthy blacks to put up the money for Spike Lee's "Get on the Bus." Hurdles on the road But overall, the obstacles remain. Last year, the Los Angeles Times noted, "Twelve of the 15 executives who have the ultimate powers to (greenlight) movies at the most important studios are white males, and the other three are white women." When asked which black person in Hollywood could greenlight a film, Hudlin replies, "No one." All the studios contacted declined to comment. Richard Pena, the program director of New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center, thinks online distribution, which Hudlin is proposing, may work but he is cautious. "It will work if it gets profits back to the people," he says. He feels Hollywood has to get more minority product in front of a majority audience. "For the Hollywood industry to ignore this constituency is for it to shoot itself in the foot," he says. However, minorities have achieved a modicum of representation in the pay cable medium. Stephan Shelanski, senior VP, program acquisitions, planning and scheduling, for Starz Encore Entertainment, says, "Our mandate is to nurture young up-and-coming talent and to help them create documentaries and films." One of Starz Encore's 12 digital movie channels is Black Starz!, which focuses on black film. It also runs the monthly focus on Black Filmmakers series, which in the past has featured "Barbershop," "A Caveman's Valentine" and "Soul Food." But there are still problems with filling airtime. "Unfortunately, there are not many black films out there. It's indicative of how few films Hollywood makes for this market," says Shelanski. These sorts of original films are being made at Black Starz! and rivals HBO and Showtime, he says. "The minority populations are growing and not finding relevant fare on broadcast or other networks and they are turning to us." Hudlin says blacks in Hollywood have two choices: "Complain, or do for self." |
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