APzombie
08-10-2006, 02:46 PM
Alright. This has been somthing that been bugging me lately, and its due in most part to reading a bio of Spike Lee the other day. Lee has been pissed off from the day it was announced that Michael Mann would direct Ali, the docu-drama about the famous boxer. He claims that a white person could not do justice to his story. He also went on bantering about Spielberg doing the Color Purple, Tarantino dropping the 'N' word all over his screenplays, Taylor Hackford helming Ray and the possibilty of Norman Jewison doing a Malcom X film back in the day.
So what it seems to come down to is that a race should only direct their own, or direct films that discuss said race. Bullshit. I think it helps when a filmmaker has a history with the subject matter but that can imply more than just an ascued vision. Take Spielberg for example. He is the perfect filmmaker for a story like The Color Purple, he has had a history telling a story of bigotry and racism (Schindler's List) and he says he experienced it first hand in a nearly all arion high school. Racism is racism. To seperate the accountablilty of Jewish racism and African racism is to endorse the ideal that race does matter. which is hypocritical. I don't understand what is wrong with a caucasian filmmaker like Tarantino using the word nigger in his films either. I'm not going to make excuses for him like 'he grew up in an black community and his mothers boyfriend was black' and all that but I will say that giving the word power by subjecting it to only be used by a selected minority is endorsing what it stands for. In this case the word enpowers racism.
Take note that one of the greastest films on the subject is Gandhi. The story about an Indian dethroning the capitization of his country from the British Empire. The film depicts the inhuman acts of the British in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. And guess what? the film was directed by Richard Attenborough, not only a Brit, but a knighted Sir.
So what it seems to come down to is that a race should only direct their own, or direct films that discuss said race. Bullshit. I think it helps when a filmmaker has a history with the subject matter but that can imply more than just an ascued vision. Take Spielberg for example. He is the perfect filmmaker for a story like The Color Purple, he has had a history telling a story of bigotry and racism (Schindler's List) and he says he experienced it first hand in a nearly all arion high school. Racism is racism. To seperate the accountablilty of Jewish racism and African racism is to endorse the ideal that race does matter. which is hypocritical. I don't understand what is wrong with a caucasian filmmaker like Tarantino using the word nigger in his films either. I'm not going to make excuses for him like 'he grew up in an black community and his mothers boyfriend was black' and all that but I will say that giving the word power by subjecting it to only be used by a selected minority is endorsing what it stands for. In this case the word enpowers racism.
Take note that one of the greastest films on the subject is Gandhi. The story about an Indian dethroning the capitization of his country from the British Empire. The film depicts the inhuman acts of the British in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. And guess what? the film was directed by Richard Attenborough, not only a Brit, but a knighted Sir.