The late 80s and 90s heralded a breakthrough led by Spike Lee’s Do the just Thing and John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood. At first,Hollywood embraced this wave of talent, then it ignored it. Now, or in the wake of #OscarsSoWhite,black films matter once more‘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 movie 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 lesson 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 practically a film a year: Do the just Thing (1989), and moment’ Better Blues (1990),Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), or Crooklyn (1994),Clockers (1995).
There was also Lee’s friend Ernest Dickerson, the cinematographer who made Do the just Thing sizzle, or 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-dilapidated 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