The Conspiracy Against Positive Black Films
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| Jamaican RAF World War 2 veterans Alan Wilmott and Laurie Philpott speak out. When will a movie about their stories be made ? |
There is no doubt that the behaviour of the US government toward the production and distribution of the Spook Who Sat By The Door can be described as a conspiracy against positive/educational black film. COINTELPRO took no interest in blocking or sabotaging the 'blaxploitation' movies that frequently showcased black people as criminals, pimps and prostitutes who existed only in drug-infested ghettoes.
The fact is in the 21st century, George Lucas, creator of the mighty Star Wars fantasy franchise could not get funding from any studio in Hollywood to make a movie about real World War Two fighter pilots, only because those pilots happened to be black. The fact that when George Lucas funded the movie himself and went back to Hollywood only to be told that they would not fund the distribution 'as they did not know how', is not a 'conspiracy theory', but plain in-your-face racism. That racism, when complained about by directors such as Spike Lee or Melvin Van Peebles, is dismissed as them having a 'chip on their shoulder'. If not for the fact that Lucas is a billionaire Red Tails would never have been made and despite his wealth and status it took him more than twenty years. One of the disgusting effects of this racist attitude, is that by the time the film was made many of those veterans who had survived the war were dead of natural causes or to infirm to attend. At the West End premiere on 23 May only Alan Wilmott and Neil Flanigan were present. Laurie Philpott had been due to attend but was hospitalised over the weekend. Alan and Laurie have been regulars at Black History Walks events at the war museum for a decade. 65 years after the war the Black British RAF experience has still not been shown on the big screen. Is this too a conspiracy?
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| Funded and distributed by Hollywood. Black men pretend to be dumb white girls. Did you see it ? |
To make matter worse even though Red Tails opened at number two in the US box office (second only to 3D werewolf franchise Underworld) it has been treated very differently to other films with all-white casts, even though those films performed far worse in the box office !
Red Tails finally arrives in the UK 5 months after its US release, which in itself, is unusual in this time of simultaneous international releases to combat video piracy.
To see 12 examples of how Red Tails was treated differently to white movies click on Discrimination at the Movies and Respect the sisters, Red Tails gets Jacked then, in the most blatant example of discrimination White John Carter loses 200 million dollars gets UK release, Black Red Tails breaks even, no UK release
On the subject of piracy Andre Seewood author of Slave Cinema writes in a ShadowandAct article published on May 6 2012
'..The plot against African-American cinema is not so much a plot by the powers that be to silence all African-American filmmakers and destroy their works but instead the goal is to tame the form and content of African-American cinema to pacify its audiences with comedies and neutralize the ability of African-American filmmakers to fully and simultaneously control the means of production, distribution and exhibition of films made for us and by us. We look at bootlegging here as one recent aspect of this on-going plot against African-American cinema that does more than just reduce the box-office profits of the films, it is a plot that also curtails the stylistic expressiveness of our working and potential filmmakers and their ability to explore different narrative styles, genres and subject matter that goes beyond narrow racially defined profit driven formulas and expectations.(5)
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| Not funded by Hollywood. Intelligent African leader stands up to white colonials. A true story. Did you see it ? |
The reduction of box-office profits makes the studios and investors less courageous in developing, financing and acquiring African-American films that go beyond the tried and true genre of comedy; it does not stop the production of different films, as PRECIOUS (2009) and PARIAH (2011) demonstrate, it just makes it exceeding difficult and discouraging to continuously make the effort whereas as White filmmakers can have their idiosyncratic films supported by the foreign box office, even in the face of domestic bootlegging
Although we cannot definitively point the finger at who was behind it all, the declining box-office totals for many African-American films during the mid-to-late nineties was a direct result of bootlegging and we can be certain that specific African-American films that have been Externally Bootlegged before their theatrical release is evidence of "insider" tampering with product that reveals the "bad faith" of those who were supposed to be guarding the content instead of aiding and abetting its theft and piracy. Internal Bootlegging reveals that the declining box office totals for African-American films may not have been a consequence of the quality, subject matter, form and genre of the films, but instead a consequence of "bootlegs" becoming a status symbol within the African-American community and White controlled Hollywood's ineffectual response with regard to how bootlegging was reducing the domestic box office of African-American films which is the sole box office that African-American films are allowed to be sold. What we have to always remember is that at the end of the day it is not just about money, it is about power and control over our ability to represent ourselves in the cinema. Earlier on in the same article he states
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| Funded by Hollywood.Black owned airline with drugs, pole dancing, fried chicken and big bootys available on board. Did you see it ? |
'It cannot go without saying that the most dangerous model and mode of bootlegging(pirate dvds) that reveals a plot against African-American films is external bootlegging of a pre-theatrically released film. We can readily identify this type of bootlegged film because this illegal product has tell-tale traits: clear image quality and superior audio accompaniment. These bootlegs have "clear" images and superior audio quality that has not been recorded by smuggling a video camera into the theatre. These bootlegs also have either a time-code bar with numbers running at the top or bottom of the screen throughout the film or the image is interrupted periodically by a "For Promotional Use Only," inter-title. Although today's sophisticated movie pirates know how to remove such trace evidence, the main giveaway of External Bootlegging is still the image clarity and audio quality of the bootleg itself. Prevalent throughout the '90's in both VHS and DVD formats, these bootlegs are made from what are called," Screener Copies" or promotional copies of a film before its theatrical release that are distributed to industry insiders, film critics, academy members, and television producers to create a pre-release "buzz" about an upcoming film.
Read the full article click here
If you want to support black cinema and see African/Caribbean people portrayed in accurate positive ways dont buy Red Tails on DVD from the guy on the corner, go and watch it in the cinema.
To see an example of a Black British film that was blocked and sabotaged even after it was filling up cinemas and making money click on this link Success and Sabotage of Lovers Rock, and finally if you wish to help with positive/educational black films, copy this link and share with your friends What you can do to help black films !
