Discuss: Does Screen Gems Care Too Much About Black People?

"Or do you personally wish for more out of niche filmmaking meant to appeal to the African-American audience than the wacky antics of Martin Lawrence and Madea?"

Yes. Why wouldn't I? Most of the movies made for a black audience are Martin Lawrence/Tyler Perry pieces of crap. It'd be great if more movies were made for POC without a huge emphasis on race in the movie or out of it. Just make a movie about people. Personally, I'm excited for 'Iron Man 2' and War Machine and I hope Don Cheadle kicks ass, but I hope it doesn't stop there. I'm dying to see Static get his own movie.

As far as 'Obsessed' goes, it hardly looks like the next 'All About Eve', so I don't really care, but I think the working title is very stereotypical and encourages people to think that anyone still talks like that. Much like "talk to the hand". It's hard to say if there's a double standard because we've still got a ways to go for equality, but what about 'Lakeview Terrace'? Now if we could get more quality films, that'd be great. I love Spike Lee, John Singleton, and Kasi Lemmons, but let's get some exposure to more great filmmakers!

I'm just speaking as a white girl who's still ignorant on a lot of things, but I'm not going to get a sore ass about how white people are portrayed in black movies since I don't have to fight for people to see me as a human being first. Now as a woman, that's an entirely different mini-spiel. :)

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How would having a white villain be "too politically correct?"

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"Does Screen Gems Care too much about Black People"

Come on man really can't find nothing else to talk about. You must just got though watching Birth of a Nation or something.

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Why do people refer to these films as "African-American" films when they really mean "black"? I know dozens of people who are African-American, and most of them are white. I don't understand why people insist on using the term "African-American" for describing black americans, even though it is incorrect.

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anything with omarion in it will never get a penny of my money.

dancing movies will never get a penny of my money.

martin, eddie murphy, and all the other washed up black comedians that used to be funny but lost it when they went "commercial" will never get a penny of my money. although roscoe jenkins was a funny movie. stupid story but the cast was funny.

the list was posted so lets run through them

Stomp the Yard - $61 million
This Christmas - $49 million
You Got Served - $40 million
First Sunday - $37 million
The Brothers - $27.5 million
Two Can Play That Game - $22 million

stomp the yard was entertaining and a decent movie.

i dont even know what this christmas was. is that the one with queen latifah? if so id never watch it.

you got served see omarion comment. first sunday - i watched it pretty stupid ice cube should stick to teaming with mike epps.


the brothers is so old i dont remember it. but i think thats the one where d.l. hughley couldnt get oral sex from his wife. that was an entertaining movie from what i recall. but nothing more than average.

2 can play that game. - id say very slightly above average in the entertaining category.

this new movie is just a black version of a very commonly done storyline. i dont have much interest in seeing it. i dont think its going to bring anything new to the table

and yes im a black male

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i havent watched a tyler perry movie since umm the one where they are at some bbq. i saw that one and umm the first big one he did. cant remember the names.

ur probably right though. but its probably no different than the reverse situation. personally i dont get into all the racism crap. my number 1 annoyance with race in movies is the way they cast black actors that represent a smalll minority of black people.

i.e. i hate to use this but they always usually cast black actors that act nothing like the larger population of black culture. its clear that its just to put a black guy in the film.

nevertheless i cant be bothered to care so much to start arguments or what not on these things. cast whoever is best for the role.

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The problem with this article is that it asks an intriguing question, and even uses a provocative title to bring about discussion, but I don't think that the author realizes that his asking the questions is the real problem. See, the writers, reporters, and critics tend to be white. So, it goes mostly unnoticed that the vast majority of films being made in the US are "white films". That is to say that they have all white casts, or all white except for that token black friend. In comedies the filmmakers often play on the token friend by having him/her make a remark about the "crazy white people" surrounding them.

Even with these Screen Gem offerings, "black films" are very underrepresented compared to the population. If you go behind the scenes and see who is really controlling the "voice" of the film (writer, director, producer) the representation isn't even close. Yet, when a mainstream company does make a fair representation, or .... ... an overrepresentation of black films, it is sure to be pointed out. Where's the article about how every other major studio/production company is making almost exclusively white films? I have a title for that one. "Does Every Other Hollywood Production Company Care Too Little About Black/Brown/Asian people?"

I'm a writer. I have a good friend who is a screenwriter. He's very talented. I'd love to see any one of his scripts that I've read made into a film. His first film is going to be produced this year ... finally. The main characters are white. He's written a dozen great scripts with black characters. The quality of his work got his foot in the door, but until this script, he had never actually sold a script. He was told, privately, by a fairly successfully producer, that he doesn't write what black people want to see. (It seems that his characters are too complex.) When he told me I had the same response that he had when he heard it. "How do they know?" It's never been tried. Not with any serious attempt. Instead, some newcomer hits the scene with something like "Boyz N The Hood" or Madea, and it has some success, so it's decided that this is what black people must like. So, every black film that follows must be of the same ilk. Meanwhile white films of all types come out in droves, and they are allowed to succeed or fail based on the merits of the individual film. No film having the power to indefinitely dictate every white film.

But, I guess as long as a white writer can see a few "black films" from a company and ask if that company "cares too much about black people", a white executive can sit in his office and decide what black people want to see. The shame of it all is that this industry, and it's audience is being deprived of some great talent. And, until they are really ready to tap into these unused resources, Madea will be the black film offering, and mainstream films will be comprised in large part of sequels and comic books stories. We would all benefit from a little more COMMON sense.

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IMO There hasn't been any decent "Black Film" since Hotel Rwanda, and Hustle & Flow. I'm jsaying that and I'm Black. There were some that could've but great, but didn't work for some reason Dreamgirls, Pursuit of Happiness, and American Gangster.

Hotel Rwanda, Hustle & Flow, Dreamgirls, Pursuit of Happiness, American Gangster all hade 80% Black cast but neither of them where directed by a Black director. Except for Hutsle and Flow they were all studio films.

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I won't be seeing "Death at a Funeral" because the original wasn't very good to begin with. Oh, it's British, and has Alan Tudyk! It was painfully unfunny for the most part.

Obsessed looks absolutely terrible. Having a white villainess or black leads has nothing to do with my decision to skip it. Even the commercials scream "cheap."

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What I would like to see is more African Americans directors and writers produce films which doesn't involve sex,drugs and violence. Something out of the usually stereotypical nonsense they produce on a day to day basis. I would be overjoyed if one day Spike Lee made a fantasy or horror film. However I'm glad to seeing He is one of many African Americans that is leaning towards a progressive tone in cinema.

I tip my hat to Steve McQueen

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When Black people seem to be getting two crumbs instead of a crumb to share with the Latinos, it seems somebody non-Black gets all offended as if it's another sign that Blacks are taking over.

This is a racist question at its core because there are way too little Black films by Black writers and directors to even have this notion unless one is bean counting; with Whites having over 90 percent of something because once something hits below 90, here comes the insecure White yelling foul.

Don't White Americans realize that Blacks are American citizens and are a consumer group of 40 million, who have paid a tremendous price?

Everybody White seems to hate the movie Obsessed. But Black women went out in droves to finally see a movie that the Black wife and the Black family wins in the end.

With the massive number of resourceful Black men marrying and/or leaving their Black wives for non-Black women, Obsessed is a movie that gives Black women and the Black family a victory.

Reading the comments and other reviews lets me know that White people have zero idea of the Black perspective.

Racism has a long way to go before White can understand unselfishly that Blacks have rights, beliefs, goals, aspirations, feelings and have a Black's Best Interest mentality that White folks seem to just not understand, don't want to understand, or want to keep oppressed.

I run the website www.BlackMediaReview.com and I've been reviewing Black movies from a Black perspective for over 2 years and hell yes, there is racist propaganda in the majority of films to which Whites always win, but in Obsessed and in the movie Pride, there were lessons in social science that promotes a Black's Best Interest mentality that will lead to a world rid of colorlines.

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