Well, the 88th Academy Awards have come and gone and once again,
there was a lot of controversy, political and social
commentary.
I understand that the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences is made up of mostly older white people. This demographic has shown, once again, how they vote.
Chris Rock decided to host the oscars and he said, "You realize,
if they nominated hosts I wouldn’t even get this job.
You’d be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now". Truer words
could not be spoken. The Academy did not include one
Black actor or actress in it's nominations. Is Hollywood
racist? Is the Academy racist? The Academy and Hollywood
are not racist, rather, there aren't enough Black producers,
directors and screenwriters.
"Django Unchained" was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.
"12 Years a Slave: was Directed by Steve McQueen.
One stand out in movie production and direction is Spike Lee who
was given an honorary Oscar and he did not attend the ceremony.
Given that, the same applies for women. Can you name one
successful woman producer or director? In recent years,
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have made in-roads into the business
of movies. With works like "Bridesmaids" and "Pitch Perfect",
other women have made a mark on the movies. The "Pitch Perfect"
screenplay was written by Kay Cannon, but directed by
Jason Moore . "Bridesmaids" was written by Kristen Wiig and
Annie Mumolo, but directed by Paul Feig. Actresses
have had a long hard struggle, but the women who make the movies have had it even harder. Men still are the movers and shakers in this business.
The shining moments for the LGBTQ community were the nominations for the movie "Carol" an adaptation of "The Price of Salt" by
Patricia Highsmith, "The Danish Girl" a fictitious love story
loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and
Gerda Wegener, Lady Gaga's performance of "Til It Happens To You" and Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes accepting the Academy Award
for best original song, “Writing’s on the Wall,” for the 2015
James Bond thriller “Spectre”.
Although Sam Smith's comments on "being the first openly gay man to win an oscar" is totally false. I did enjoy this: in his comments he said, “I stand here tonight as a proud gay man, and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day."
So, I'll say that there is much hard work ahead for Hollywood and the Academy for Black Americans, women and LGBTQ persons. We all have so much to contribute and these days, we have so much opportunity so lets get out there and make some Art.
Paul John Senules
