thelma adams: "what's wrong with this picture?"

An email from film critic Thelma Adams earlier this week (published below with her permission), reacting to the recent Sundance Film Festival panel, "Critics Cornered," featuring Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly), Scott Foundas (LA Weekly), Sean Means (Salt Lake Tribune, Mark Bell (Film Threat), and myself...

criticspanelSUND08.jpg

photo via wireimage.com

From: thelmadams@aol.com
Subject: critics cornerered: what's wrong with this picture? answer: it's raining men!
Date: January 27, 2008 8:08:16 AM EST

sorry, but the above picture says it all. every year when I host a panel about amazing women in film at the Woodstock Film Festival, we discuss male critics being the final gatekeepers for women's features entering the marketplace. As someone who has attended Sundance since 1986, and a working critic since 1989, who knows and enjoys the company of Mark, Owen and Eugene, and proudly saw the female-led Frozen River win the Grand Jury Award for Dramatic Feature, I've got to ask you with both respect and passion: how does this all-male image of a Sundance critics' panel strike you?

your colleague,

Thelma Adams
Film & Dvd Critic
Us Weekly
Member, New York Film Critics Circle since 1995 and two-time chairman of that group



The Race Card

050214j-p.jpgAcademy Awards show producer Gil Cates has said that he chose Chris Rock as host in the hopes of luring younger males to turn on ABC this Sunday night. Given all the pre-show chatter over whether Rock will somehow lose control on live TV, Cates just may get his wish as viewers tune in to see a potential train wreck.

In a commentary about the strangely simmering controversy over comedian Chris Rock hosting the Oscars this year, David Poland stops short of playing the race card in explaining the undercurrent of 'concern' that continues in run-up to the Academy Awards ceremony. But he should play it already, because its being played by the media.

[Photo by Bob D'Amico/ABC © APMAS]

» Continue reading "The Race Card"


MLK

7896674.jpgEven though Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday (January 15) was declared a national holiday years ago, it increasingly feels like a holiday that many would rather overlook. It is a holiday that we've historically observed at indieWIRE and I attempted to take the day off from work, but it turned out that many in the film business decided to maintain business as usual. Numerous publicists called and emailed today, pitching Sundance projects and sending out press releases. A friend at a New York film company told me that it was a regular work day.

Following the death last week of Mark Rabinowitz' mother Joanne Grant (a woman whose own work was at the heart of the struggle for racial equality dating back to the 60s), I've been reading more about the civil rights movement recently. And tonight I watched as CNN marked the birth of MLK, 76 years ago, by replaying in its entirety Dr. King's speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. on August 28, 1963.

"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment," King said on that day. I couldn't help but note that even then he worried that the country would not grasp the importance of change. Americans will "have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual," he said.

That's exactly why we need to commemorate MLK Day today, especially during a week when our country will inaugurate a U.S. President.

[Pictured above the cover of a book by Bob Adelman, who shot the iconic cover image as MLK delivered his famous speech.]

The complete text of Dr. Martin Luther King's August 1963 "I Have a Dream Speech," as it would later be called, is posted below...

» Continue reading "MLK"


Hamptons Domestics

hampdomestics.jpg

I came across the above web banner ad today (on the New York Social Diary website) for Hamptons Domestics, an employment agency serving New York, Palm Beach, and The Hamptons with the slogan, "Placing Professional Help in America's Finest Homes".

Yes, its a real advertisement, the domestics images are actually silhouetted to make them look black. Should I be surprised that on my last trip to the Amagansett Farmer's Market I was asked by numerous fellow customers if I worked there.



Diversifying American Cinema, Part 2

diversityPNL.JPGAt yesterday's "Diversifying American Cinema" panel, which I moderated at the Tribeca Film Festival, I began by discussing a survey that indieWIRE has published on the topic. (As I mentioned last week here in the blog, I polled a group of indie film community insiders on the subject of ethnic diversity). In talking about the article, I read a comment from an indieWIRE reader who wrote:

I am a 19 year old African American filmaker, and I first contributed to the film world when I was sixteen. It is so sad that as a filmaker of color you have to worry about so much more, which can take away from your creative process.

I asked the panelists if they felt that same sense of 'so much more' to worry about as a person of color witiin the film industry. Their answers to that question, and others, underscored how diverse the viewpoints are within the small network of people of color who work in the movie business. This also comes across loud and clear in the indieWIRE survey on the subject. There is no consensus (and that's ok).

While Lisa Gay Hamilton powefully advocated that we must seek 'revolution' within the industry, Peter Kang advised that talent can and will be recognized no matter what its color, Wayne Wang touted small successes in diversifying even one position on a film crew and Chris Eyre said plainly that he tries not to think the obstacles, focusing his energy on the steps ahead and moving forward.

I've had various responses to the article and panel over the past 24 hours, reminding me that there are no simple solutions. But most agree that its an important topic to be exploring further. My only frustration is that the vast majority of the 75 people I emailed on the topic never bothered to respond at all, not even to say that they were too busy to spend the time to answer the questions.

Pictured at yesterday's panel (left to right next to me): filmmaker Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club", "Maid in Manhattan"),writer/performer Lisa Gay Hamilton ("The Practice", "Beah: A Black Woman Speaks") Fox exec Peter Kang and writer/director Chris Eyre ("Edge of America").



Diversifying American Cinema, Part 1

In preparation for a panel that I will be moderating next week at the Tribeca Film Festival, today I sent an email to 75 leading figures in independent film on the topic of ethnic diversity.

As I explained in the email, during a recent SXSW panel discussion on the state of independent film, NY Times critic Elvis Mitchell raised a question about the lack of new African-American filmmakers emerging since the movement led by Spike Lee back in the 80s. Sitting in the audience listening to the panel of white males tackling the topic I was reminded that ethnic diversity is a major challenge within the specialized and/or independent film industry.

Its a fact that we lack diversity at all levels of the industry: filmmakers, producers, screenwriters, below-the-line, in acquisitions, production, distribution and exhibition, development, and indeed among journalists and at editorial publications. Is that the reason for the lack of diversity in American cinema?

To the group of 75 insiders who receieved this email today, I posed a number of questions: 1) From your vantage point, what is the state of ethnic diversity within the specialized/independent film industry? Not just in films, but within companies? 2) What can be done to make ethnic diversity within independent film a bigger priority? 3) How do programs like the new Tribeca All Access help, if at all? 4) Please pinpoint a specific film from a person of color that you have worked on and offer some insight on why it did or did not succeed. What were some of the challenges that you faced? 5) Is it difficult to reach ethnically diverse audiences? Why? What recent films can you point to that have reached those audiences? 6) Are there a lack of people of color pursuing jobs at various levels of production and distribution? If so, why is that? And what can be done to encourage that?

I've already had a number of intriguing responses and am looking forward to putting together this article and discussing this topic at the seminar next week. More to come on this topic in the coming days.