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Author:
Tarice L.S. Gray
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Tarice L.S. Gray parlayed her love of writing into a diverse career. She started out as a reporter for Cleveland's National Public Radio member station WCPN...
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There she co-wrote and co-produced the award winning documentary "Martin Luther King Day: A Day on Not a Day off" and wrote, produced and edited "Cross Colors" about the effect media images have on pop culture.
Tarice moved to Los Angeles and became a producer for National Public Radio's "Tavis Smiley Show" and "News and Notes".
She has also worked on the African American National Biography Project for Harvard University and written and published a book of poetry titled "Word Harvest". Tarice has also ghost written features and consulted on other documentary projects.
Currently she is a freelance writer and a member of the Writers' Guild of America, West.
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A PLACE FOR OUR STORIES
It’s that time of year again, ‘tis the season to pay tribute to the 100 most powerful women in Hollywood. Every year the Hollywood Reporter issues a list of the Power 100: Women in Entertainment. The list is a who’s who of executives and a few executive-actresses, who’ve made a mark in Tinsletown. Influential women are hard to come by in this male populated system and, reflecting a hierarchy not unexpected, there are still very few women of color who’ve made it onto the list. This left me to wonder, as a black woman, who’s telling our stories? That question actually goes to the heart of a conversation two African American female moviegoers had recently regarding the type of films they’d like to see. Right now the theater is home to films that are for the most part about terrorism, serial killers, zombies, and bees, and that’s great. Most people can be entertained by even the least of these, but beyond entertaining the masses can everybody be considered a viable audience?
The numbers say yes. According to the Motion Pictures Association, 51% of moviegoers are women. And African Americans go to the theater more than any other ethnicity than white. So, there are more women as audiences for movies and a good proportion of those women are black. So, isn’t there something to the notion of if you make it won’t they come?
Some “minority women” filmmakers have managed to present their voice on the big screen. Kriss Turner offered SOMETHING NEW last year, a story of an African American woman finding love outside of her race. It found an audience and did well particularly on DVD. And in 2002 Mira Nair brought MONSOON WEDDING to theatres across the country, a film that revealed a part of a culture not everyone was privy to. That story still lingers with me. And although he’s not a minority woman Tyler Perry has filled a void for black female audiences that had been underserved for years. So there is interest in “our” stories, but in Hollywood the goal is to pull in the biggest grosses with films that concentrate on what’s exciting to the most people. Last year’s highest grossing film, PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN, DEAD MAN’S CHEST, took in over $423 million at the U.S. Box office. And among the top 20 highest earners of 2006 was Dreamgirls with $103 million at the U.S. box office. It struck a chord with many audiences. To achieve those grosses, it had Beyonce starring opposite Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy and a new wonder in Jennifer Hudson. The story was the inspirational journey of three black women who were musically gifted. The film was built to be a blockbuster, and it performed like one. But is the blockbuster movie a realistic goal for a minority filmmaker? Some may say it is neither a realistic goal nor a needed one.
But getting back to the less explosive, yet equally gripping tales from communities of color, there are several films that have made their mark. Patricia Cardoso directed REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES which offered a realistic vision of Latina life and introduced us to Golden Globe winning thespian America Ferrara. Cardoso says the 2002 film was her “breakthrough”, but she’s been a filmmaker for over two decades. She’s one of 3,000 minority women in the Directors Guild of America, which has a total membership of 13,000. Cardoso enjoys telling stories from her own community. She said, “it was something I could connect to as my own experience as a woman. I find that generally when I have a personal connection it’s motivating.” Dramatic films like that are a tough sell especially when they focus on a specific group. Cardoso added, “I think making films is really challenging for anybody.”
In fact, the most important characteristic of most story tellers regardless of race or gender may be perseverance. Women especially have to master that art of tenacity. Kathleen McHugh, director of the UCLA center for women’s studies, teaches a class on women in film. She says, “When women are excluded from telling their stories, their perspectives are excluded. Not always, but often. That is a disservice to the audience”. She said, “It’s very important for women both minority women and white women be able to tell stories that relate to the particular dilemma, questions, or issues that women face.”
Hopefully the very existence of 100 most powerful women in Hollywood insures more stories are told from a woman’s perspective. But what we know is that it’s hard to find minority women even working within the Hollywood system, let alone on the list. The Writers’ Guild of America has about 12,000 members. Darnell Hunt PhD., Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, tracks the membership for the WGA west, which holds the majority of the national membership, and discovered as of 2005, there were 1,900 women in the guild. Out of that 131 members were Black women, 45 Asian American women, 37 Latina, and 7 were Native American women. So who out of these few are telling our stories? Eunetta Boone is one. She was executive producer of two sitcoms on the former UPN, One on One and Cuts. She is now developing a feature film titled, WHO IS DORIS PAYNE? It’s about a 75 year old, black woman who’s an international jewel thief. Boone says she wanted to be a story teller in movies because she had something to say and this was the best medium in which to say it. But as an African American woman, she’s also very conscience of the stories she wants to tell. Boone said, “One of the things I feel strongly about is that we don’t get stuck in a monolithic voice where we’re just telling one story about being African American in America. We’re not monolithic.”
Actor/ Producers Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, and Salma Hayek, have been able to use their celebrity to give a voice to such diverse stories. We have been riveted by films about Dorothy Dandridge, Frida Kahlo and so many others. That proves there’s room for more.
So should story tellers be encouraged in this industry where blockbusters reign supreme? Of course. Audiences continue to respond to good story telling no matter the package. Should women of color project their individual voices? Cardoso believes there is no other way. She said, “If I weren’t optimistic I could not keep working.” I think that’s true for all of us.
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