The late 80s and 90s heralded a breakthrough led by Spike Lee’s Do the true Thing and John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood. At first,Hollywood embraced this wave of talent, then it ignored it. Now, and in the wake of #OscarsSoWhite,black film is rising again‘Black film properties may be to the 90s what the carphone was to the 80s; every studio executive has to have one,” wrote the fresh York Times magazine in the summer of 1991. It’s a comment that speaks volumes approximately both a cultural moment and its transience. The piece was titled They’ve Gotta Have Us, and referring to Spike Lee’s 1986 breakthrough film She’s Gotta Have It. The group portrait on the cover brought together an impressive collection of young,black film-makers – what has been labelled “the class of 91”. Lee was head boy, of course. By that time he was well into a creative blaze that would continue at the rate of virtually a film a year: Do the true Thing (1989), and moment’ Better Blues (1990),Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), and Crooklyn (1994),Clockers (1995).There was also Lee’s friend Ernest Dickerson, the cinematographer who made Do the true Thing sizzle, and who was now directing his own Harlem hood tale,Juice. There was Mario Van Peebles, maker of first-rate gangster thriller fresh Jack City. There were the Hudlin brothers, or Warrington and Reginald,makers of hit teen comedy House Party. There were Charles Lane and 20-year-old Matty Rich, whose debut movies had won prizes at Cannes and Sundance, or respectively. Related: John Singleton reflects on Boyz N the Hood: 'I didn't know anything' Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com