TOP TEN MOMENTS OF 2021

Every year I make a list of the ten best things I did that year.  I think everyone should do it.  It’s a great way to count your blessings.  I do it with my whole family and we all share our favorite moments with each other.  It’s fun and can surprise you…sometimes you realize a bad year wasn’t as bad as you thought.  And recounting your favorite moments makes focus more on making sure you have more of those in the year to come.

Here’s my list:

1. THE PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION

Back in 2008 I attended Obama’s inauguration.  It was awesome, and it was freezing!  I was happy to see him re-elected but didn’t feel compelled to freeze again in 2012.  But this year was a whole other thing!  Neither cold weather or threats of domestic terrorists could keep me away from the Biden-Harris administration taking their rightful place and saving our nation. And we had good seats. 

2. THE EMMY AWARDS

Producing the Oscars was awesome.  But producing the Emmys is fun.  It was so much fun last year working with Jimmy Kimmel, and it was so much fun this year working with Cedric The Entertainer.  Here are some clips from the show:

3. THE RETURN OF MILESTONE

I’m so proud of all the amazing things we have in the works at Milestone Media!  Three comic book series – Static, Icon and Rocket, and Hardware!  

We will double that number to six series next year!

We have two movies in the works – an animated feature and a live action Static feature film!

A giant omnibus reprinting of the classic Milestone books.  

A Black History month special issue like none other!  

Murals featuring our characters on walls across the country!

And more to come!  

4. HONORING OUR KINGS

I got a phone call from the perfect person to collaborate with on a dream project.  Oprah Winfrey wanted to do a Father’s Day special celebrating every kind of Black Dad.  As a Black Dad, who had an awesome Black Dad, with so many friends who are awesome Black Dads, it was a dream come true.  And if that wasn’t enough, my man Sterling K. Brown is the co-host?  Yes! 

5. FRIDAY NIGHT VIBES WITH TIFFANY

I had so much fun working with Tiffany Haddish and Deon Cole on our weekly talk show FRIDAY NIGHT VIBES!  The range of guests we had on the show was incredible!  

6. NAACP IMAGE AWARDS

I’ve been producing this show for nine years now and it keeps getting better.  It was also one of the most successful awards shows of the year.

7. COOL FUTURE PROJECTS I CAN’T TALK ABOUT YET

These photos are clues, but they haven’t been officially announced yet.  But you’ll probably see one or two of them next year!

8. COOL PROJECTS IN THE WORKS

Sometimes you announce a project, but it’s actually been the works for several years.  But even though you finally do an announcement, it still could be years before it is seen!  Here’s MUSCLE with Vin Diesel starring and F. Gary Gray directing, and the documentary NUMBER ONE ON THE CALL SHEET with Jamie Foxx and Kevin Hart producing and me directing. 

9. TALKING TO PEOPLE

People ask me to talk.  A lot.  I get invited to appear on podcasts, give commentary on television shows, talk to people in every kind of school.  Here’s some of the places I talked this year:

Paul Scheer gives me a call and says he wants to interview me in a comic bookstore.  That’s an easy yes for me.  Then I do a second interview talking Black Panther.  So, I’m on two Marvel series this year. Little did I know I would end up as the alias of the Black Panther on the main promotion of the show!  

Cornell Brooks and I know each other from when he headed up the NAACP.  He’s now teaching the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where I’ve lectured before.  Happy to do it again and the students were great! 

Will Haygood, a major writer, says his alma mater, Miami University, where he teaches, wants to give the Freedom Summer of ’64 Award.  I gladly accept and we have a great time talking with each other and with the audience!

10. FAMILY TIME DURING PANDEMIC

This has been a very tough year for our family.  Even with all the career success, that means nothing in the face of health challenges and death among our family and friends. In tough times like these, family is everything.  Fortunately, I’ve got a great one.  My children are back in classrooms and doing well.  My wife continues to be a pillar of strength, always there for both our immediate family and so many people around us who need a helping hand.  Even the isolation of covid had an unexpected benefit.  My daughter told me that because we were all together at home every day, she finally figured out what I do for a living.  

My takeaway from the year is GRATITUDE.  I’m grateful for every bit of good fortune, every positive element in my life.  I have seen people who have it all lose what is most important to them, nothing is promised. Thank you to everyone this year and throughout my life who has sent any good vibes my way.  They are appreciated.

Hollywood film producer receives Miami’s Freedom Summer of ’64 Award

By Sean Scott Asst. Campus & Community Editor

November 8, 2021 | 1:41pm EST

Film producer and director Reginald Hudlin became the sixth recipient of Miami University’s Freedom Summer of ’64 Award during a presentation in Hall Auditorium on Nov. 7.

Each year, Miami presents the award to a leader in civil rights and social justice. The name references the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964, when the Western College for Women, now a part of Miami, trained 800 college students to register Black voters in the South.

Hudlin’s career in film began in 1990 with “House Party,” a film he wrote and directed about Black teens throwing a party. 

Since then, he has worked as a producer on Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 movie “Django Unchained” and directed and produced “Marshall,” a 2017 film featuring Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice.

President Greg Crawford presented the award to Hudlin alongside Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion Cristina Alcalde.

“This is only the sixth time that Miami has had the honor of presenting this award to an extraordinary individual who has dedicated their life to advance diversity and inclusion, changing the fabric of our society,” Crawford said. “Each time I’ve presented this award, I have been humbled by the courage, the innovation and tenacity of the recipient.”

Hudlin thanked the university for the award and spoke about the history of Freedom Summer.

“That Freedom Summer is an incredible legacy … and I am humbled to be given this award,” Hudlin said. “The work I do is my lifetime’s commitment. It’s a joy to do every day, and it’s great to be acknowledged for doing that work.”

Author and Miami alumnus Wil Haygood led a discussion with Hudlin after he was presented with the award. Attendees also received copies of Haygood’s newest book, “Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World.”

“The man who I am about to share the stage with this evening has been a profound influence on changing how we view cinema in this nation,” Haygood said. “Reginald Hudlin’s entire career has been about correcting what was done 100 years ago.”

Hudlin and Haygood discussed a range of topics from Hudlin’s specific projects to the state of Black cinema and education today.

“We’re currently in an incredible upswing where there are more Black movies being made with bigger budgets, wider distribution, bigger audiences,” Hudlin said. “But it takes 20 year cycles. Things get better over time.”

Bottom of Form

This year, the Freedom Summer award kicks off Miami’s inaugural Freedom Film Festival, a weeklong event screening a different movie in Black film history each night in Leonard Theatre, Peabody Hall.