The Critics’ Choice Awards was this past Sunday, The Golden Globes is set to take place on January 11 and the Oscars on March 15, and many Black Americans wonder if we will be represented on Hollywood’s biggest nights.
The Black Wall Street Times interviewed acclaimed filmmaker, full-time film university professor and historian Rel Dowdell about the upcoming award season and what audiences should expect.
Asked what overlooked role(s) Black Americans should have been honored with an Oscar or Golden Globe, Dowdell responded, “One would definitely be Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X in ’92, that’s a no-brainer.”
“Washington, even though it’s about a ‘controversial black civil rights leader’, the performance transcended race.” He continued, “I think Denzel personified Spike Lee’s vision and Denzel made it his own. After a while, you forget you’re watching Denzel Washington.”
“Another role was Angela Bassett playing Tina Turner in ’93 in What’s Love Got To Do With It. I thought that was her magnum opus. She made Tina Turner so talented, yet tortured and she also transferred her body for the role. The Oscars definitely should have recognized Bassett in ’94 for Best Actress.”
Dowdell furthered about his longtime friend and late, great actor, “Lou Gossett Jr. won several awards, an Oscar, Golden Globe, and an Emmy. He was someone that won all these awards that Hollywood could offer, but yet he told me that the pay he got for his roles was way less than what Whites got who didn’t win the same awards.”
Mentioning his once friend and mentor, Esther Rolle, she would say, “you have such a reverence for film and Black history.” He continued, “it moved me to be someone that really wants to see Blacks move forward in the industry and get more equality and more respect, especially on these large stages like the Golden Globes and the Oscars.”
“People back then definitely did not get the pay they deserved for their great work and the respect they deserved and the accolades they deserved for all the sacrifices they did to open the doors for people like us today,” said Dowdell.
Considering over 90% of top streaming shows are created by white people, Dowdell knows diversity in storytelling is needed now more than ever before. “Nielsen says that 65% of Black Americans see films on opening weekenda, that means they’re paying a lot of money, not just for Black films, but for films in general, because most films in theater aren’t Black. But yet, the same study in Nielsen said that 71% feels that Black audiences don’t think they’re represented well in media.”
“Black Americans are spending a lot of money in all of these networks, theater, streaming, but they don’t feel that they are getting the equal treatment that they deserve,” affirmed Dowdell. “Representation needs to be more equal and balanced.”
Showing his love and appreciation for Black costume designers, he continued, “Ruth Carter, in my opinion, is an unsung luminary, because even though she has two Oscars, you only would know how important costume design is if you really knew how hard it was to do it.”
Dowdell states his case for why he should be among the considered hosts of film’s most prestigious ceremonies, “The host has to be something like a wizard, someone that knows the complete audience, and someone who knows and loves film. You have to know films from Charlie Chaplin all the way to Kurosawa, to Spike Lee to Fellini, Billy Wilder and Clint Eastwood. You have to know all these people and how they made films progress in their own way.”
Dowdell furthered, “I’m all about being great. And being great is not just being great for yourself. It’s being great for everybody that’s tuning into the show and you represent everybody, everybody who hadn’t got the chance to be the host.”
“The goal is to be Black and excellent. Excellence means universality and being great and representing your race in the best way possible,” says Dowdell. “It’s not about dividing people, it’s about bringing people together and there are ways to do that are not that difficult to do, but you have to go in there with the mindset of ‘I’m here to advance the world with cinema being the conduit.'”
“You can’t do the same thing every year. You have to embrace change and you can’t be worried about if it’s not a famous comedian hosting. People just want to see a great show. They want to see a show that makes them say, ‘Whoa — this is worth seeing.'”
Asked about an underrated film he believes more people should know about, he replied, “To Sleep with Anger came out 1990 directed by the great Charles Burnett, and it stars Danny Glover in the lead role, and he produced the film too.”
“That film was incredible. It covers everything from humor to horror to spiritualism to mysticism and if you’re African American and you listen to the old tales of your people, you understand that film,” says Dowdell.
Asked what impact his documentary has made, Dowdell responded, “Every Ivy League school or upper level university in this country has my small documentary Where’s Daddy (Rotten Tomatoes critics rating 100%) about Black men and children in their libraries to teach people about civil rights.”
“That lets you know that my mindset is not like everybody else’s; it went to Harvard, Yale, MIT, Dartmouth, Columbia, Swarthmore, USC, UCLA, the film is used in law schools, that lets you know that my mindset may be a little bit more progressive than most people.”
Dowdell continued, “my mindset is more about universal effectiveness, even though you might see Black faces, I showed that a Black person’s issues could be anybody’s issue. I did it with sensitivity and knowledge and research and congeniality and empathy to make it universally appealing.”