From: isbell@ai.mit.edu (Charles L Isbell)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Re: 'Daughters of the Dust' ....Wow!
Date: 13 Aug 92 03:00:13 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
In-reply-to: HF.GTD@forsythe.stanford.edu's message of 12 Aug 92 23:15:06 GMT

HF.GTD@forsythe.stanford.edu (Gabrielle Daniels) writes:
|ronaldd@cbnewse.cb.att.com (ronald.h.davis) writes:
|>i agree, (regarding "Daughters of the Dust"), it is a good movie.
|hard to believe that it took 10 years to get the dough to complete
|the film; especially when you see mindless drivel like (pauly
|shore's) "encino man" and [howard stern's upcoming movie] "the
|adventures of fartman" readily getting bucks.  you know what i
|mean...

|Drivel sells, dear! Anything that remotely makes people THINK is
|consigned to begging bowls.

More than true.

|Right now, I'm observing an interesting phenomena, which I hope
|begins to fade. Whenever there is a black (cast) film, there seems
|to be a knee-jerk response to support it, no matter how BAD it is.

I had a long argument with someone when _Do The Right Thing_ came out
who said exactly what you just did.  I beg to differ.  Was it not this
very newsgroup that slammed _Mo' Money_?  I've heard only bad things
about _Bebe's Kids_, etc.  I don't really think we do that.  (In fact,
one could argue the opposite--_Daughters of the Dust_ wasn't around
that long and it surely wasn't swamped by hordes of Black folx).

On the other hand, I must agree with the notion that we cannot send a
message that all we need to see are Black faces to be happy.  *I* want
to see quality stuff like _To Sleep With Anger_, _Daughters of the
Dust_, _Boyz N The Hood_, _Do The Right Thing_, and _Hangin' With The
Homeboys_ (and I also think Eddie Murphy's _Boomerang_ was good--I
like to laugh).  If we send the right message we can hopefully avoid
another _The Wiz_.  Oh, and another _Leonard, Part 6_ the worst movie
I have ever seen in my entire life.

|I know: we love seeing ourselves, our lives legitimized in some
|manner. I felt that way the year I saw "Diva" and "The Color Purple"
|--the grand coming out of beautiful black women.  But hey, enough
|street brothers, gang movies, and the like. Let's begin, even now,
|to look for and demand something more.  Let's build some
|distribution venues, let's lean on Oprah and Cosby--the ones with
|bucks--to start something totally independent and viable.  If George
|Lucas can call the shots from Marin County, CA (just outside SF, to
|you folks back midwest and east), we can do the same.

A-damn-greed.  I must give dap (dap, dap) to Spike Lee for bumushing
Eddie Murphy on exactly that way back when.  Speaking of which, didn't
Oprah et al finally come around and support (ie put up some duckets)
the new _Malcolm X_ movie?

|Off soap box.

Keep climbin' on.
--
Peace.
   "There is a difference, the true seditionist would argue, between a
   revolution and a gesture of macho defiance.  Gestures ares cheap. They
   feel good, they blow off some rage.  But revolutions, violent or
   otherwise, are made by people who have learned how to count very
   slowly to 10."
                          -Barbara Ehrenreich
                                   -\--/-
    Don't just adopt opinions     |  \/  |       Some of you are homeboys
          develop them.           |  /\  | but only I am The Homeboy From hell
                                   -/--\-