Congratulations to Ms. Octavia Spencer for winning an Academy Award the other evening for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for “The Help.” I thoroughly enjoyed her on-screen passion, humor and audacity. Her irreverence shimmered like glitter, her rage took on an artistic flair, and the relationship she formed with another “outsider” in the film was telling of her humanity beyond the boundaries of race so clearly defined and articulated in the film.
Ms. Spencer’s Oscar no doubt will reinforce and fuel the controversy about what kind of black images get supported and celebrated in Hollywood. Ms. Spencer's character, Minny Jackson, was as spunky, fearless and charming as Hattie McDaniels’s Mammy was in “Gone With the Wind” (1939). Therein lies the issue. James McBride articulated the problem in his essay “On Being A Maid” in this way: “On Jan. 24, President Obama, our first African American President, delivered his third State of the Union address. On that same day, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated two gifted African American actresses, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, for Oscars for playing maids in ‘The Help.’ This is 73 years after the first African American to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, garnered the award for the same role – as a maid, and a slave maid at that – winning the Oscar in the best supporting actress category on Feb. 29, 1940.”
For the past 10 years most Academy Awards that have gone to black actors were for roles that embody what some may call “nostalgic” views of blackness:
• Halle Berry for Leticia Musgrove in “Monster's Ball” (2001).
• Denzel Washington for Alonzo Harris in “Training Day” (2002).
• Jaime Foxx as Ray Charles in “Ray” (2004).
• Jennifer Hudson as Effie White in “Dreamgirls” (2006).
• Mo'Nique for Mary Lee Johnston in “Precious” (2009).
• Octavia Spencer for Minny Jackson in “The Help” (2011).
But where is The Help for black filmmakers in Hollywood?
This conversation is not new, and it took place most recently in the Hollywood Reporter in an article headlined: “So What’s On Your Mind, Spike Lee?
Among other topics, Mr. Lee discussed his recent difficulty getting films made. “Where are the people of color?” he asked. “That's what it comes down to. How many people, when they have those meetings and vote on what movies get made, how many people of color are in those meetings?”
These are important questions at a time when what was called “African American Cinema” some years ago has all but disappeared. I hosted a part of a conversation on this same topic last November at the Museum of the Moving Image where notables such as Richard Wesley, Warrington Hudlin, Nelson George, John Singleton and Matty Rich examined where we were on the “20th Anniversary of the New Wave of Black Cinema.”
What was disclosed there is exactly what Mr. Lee echoed in his interview: “There have been some improvements and some steps taken back. But overall, the variety of films being offered to African-American audiences is not where it was 10, 15 years ago. It's very narrow.”
The range of black characters in American cinema has indeed narrowed again for audiences in general.
I still dream, however, of a time when the desire for diversity of black images belongs to all of us, black and white. I still dream of a time where we have many images of African Americans to chose from, images that come from black and white directors. I still dream…
Sheril Antonio may be contacted at the California Friends of the African American Caucus at cafriendsofaacc@gmail.com
