“There’s a depth and diversity that you may not see elsewhere,” said NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks in an interview with BuzzFeed News.
Kelley L. Carter, BuzzFeed News Reporter, posted on Feb. 6, 2015
The cast of Dear White People – Code Red Films
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond The Lights – Relativity Media
Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up – NBC Universal
There’s something powerful about the word “image.”
It’s a representation, an idea that helps shape how we view the world around us. And it’s a word that still carries a great weight today, perhaps a greater one than it did 46 years ago, when the NAACP hosted its first Image Awards in 1967, the same year race riots took place in Newark, New Jersey, and Detroit.
Tonight, the social justice organization will celebrate the best of entertainment created by and starring black and brown people. The show will air live on TV One at 9 p.m. Eastern/8 p.m. Central, and it’ll pay homage to networks and studios that dared to push the boundaries and tell stories that otherwise might never get told. It’ll also acknowledge the work of those who won’t see their accomplishments play out at a larger, more mainstream awards show. This year’s show will be especially meaningful, considering that so much thought and narrative has centered on the role that image plays in mass media with regard to young black men. Plenty of examples can be cited here, including the killings of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, and Mike Brown. Conversations on the menacing image of black men and the perceived threats they give off have dominated cable news programs for months now.
And this is all reflected in Hollywood.
Kerry Washington of Scandal wins Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series at the 2014 NAACP Image Awards
NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks said in an interview with BuzzFeed News that the lack of diversity of people engaged in fictionalized violence or fictionalized crime is disturbing. It doesn’t help that there aren’t many black or brown faces in Hollywood boardrooms who are cognizant of this and the role it might play to someone consuming the media.
That’s not to say that the Image Awards reward only characters who go against the grain and epitomize positivity exclusively. The fullness of humanity and black citizenship — victors and villains — is represented at the show.
“There’s a depth and diversity that you may not see elsewhere,” Brooks said. “We don’t have any preconceived notions about what black or brown people can or cannot do.”
Reginald Hudlin, a filmmaker who produced Django Unchained and directed Boomerang among others, is the executive producer of the awards show. A former president of entertainment for BET, Hudlin said that the Image Awards serves as a chance to repaint a more complete picture of what blackness is. Doing that helps to dispel what is often seen as a monolithic image (often negative and in most cases threatening) that is continually dispensed and considered wholly representative.
“I think, ultimately, black people’s problems is a PR problem,” Hudlin said. “What will protect us as a people is our ability to deal a consequence to those [who treat us differently]. And that’s the importance of the protests in Ferguson. That’s the importance of the NAACP as an organization, that was formed to fight back against injustice.”
David Oyelowo (as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) discusses a scene with director/executive producer Ava DuVernay on the set of Selma. Might the film win big at the 2015 NAACP Image Awards? Atsushi Nishijima / Via Paramount
In a larger sense, there shouldn’t be a need for such an awards show in 2015. There’s the idea that the acknowledgment and celebration of diverse representations of people of color should exist at larger mainstream forums, like the Emmys or the Oscars. But this show also comes on the heels of the Twitter campaign #OscarsSoWhite, where social media users had a field day lambasting the Academy Awards for its lack of diverse nominations in 2015. This is the whitest Oscar race since 1998, and several critics have said Selma director Ava DuVernay was overlooked for a Best Director Oscar nod and were surprised her star, David Oyelowo, failed to earn a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And it was a major headline in 2013 when Kerry Washington was nominated for a best actress Emmy because no black actress has been nominated in that category for a drama series Primetime Emmy in 18 years. This year, the big television story has been about the diverse casts of new shows like Black-ish, How to Get Away With Murder, and Empire and how they’ve been dominating the ratings game. It’s yet to be determined what this year’s Emmy race might look like and how these shows might fare.
But the Image Awards — often thought of by the stars who attend them as one big family reunion — is where work like this gets validation.
“We still need to celebrate world-class work being done by black creators … that may be getting overlooked by some of the other award shows,” Hudlin added. “There will always be a place for the Image Awards, the same way there always will be a place for black universities. I think they can all coexist in a beautiful way. You can have the Grammys and the Latin Grammys. It’s good to have family. It’s always good to come home and get love from people who know and understand you. And that’s what the Image Awards is.”
Comment
+ Permalink
February 2, 2015 by Brian Pate
Additional Guests To Be Announced In The Coming Weeks
SAN DIEGO- Comic-Con International (Comic-Con), the nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and popular art, today announced the first wave of special guests for its venerated summer show. The event will again be held in San Diego beginning on Thursday, July 9, and running though Sunday, July 12, 2015, at the San Diego Convention Center.
“Comic-Con is grateful to feature such talented individuals from comics and popular art,” commented David Glanzer, spokesperson for the nonprofit organization. Indeed 2015 is shaping up to be another spectacular year in terms of talent joining the four-day extravaganza.
The first round of guests include
Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick: Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly, Bitch Planet.
Artist Carlos Ezquerra: Co-creator, Judge Dredd, Stontium Dog.
Author Lev Grossman: The Magicians.
Writer/director/producer Reginald Hudlin: Django Unchained, Black Panther animated series.
Artist/illustrator William Stout: The Dinosaurs.
For up-to-date information on guests and all aspects of the huge summer show be sure to visit www.comic-con.org and check out Toucan Blog, the only OFFICIAL blog of Comic-Con International.
About Comic-Con International:
Comic-Con International (CCI) is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular artforms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. In addition to its San Diego convention each summer (the world’s largest comics convention of its kind), CCI organizes the Anaheim-based WonderCon Anaheim each spring. On the web: Comic-Con.org, Facebook.com/comiccon, Twitter.com/comic_con.
Read more here.
Comment
+ Permalink
By Nate Jones at Vulture.com
Reginald Hudlin directed House Party while he was still in his 20s; produced Django Unchained, The Boondocks, and The Bernie Mac Show; and helps put on the NAACP Image Awards. So when he wants to talk about race in Hollywood, you listen. In a new essay for The Hollywood Reporter, Hudlin uses the recent Selma Oscar snub to talk about the struggles of the film industry as a whole. “It’s easier for a black person to become president of the United States than it is to be president of a movie studio,” he notes, arguing that, “given the shrinking white population in this country, the lack of people of color in the suites and on the screens is just bad business.” Though the industry will say things have improved since the ’50s, Hudlin notes that many of the excuses for Hollywood’s lack of diversity are the same: Back then, those in power worried openly about turning off southern audiences; now they say the same thing about the international market. Both times, he says, they were wrong.
To make Hollywood walk the walk of its diversity talk, Hudlin proposes “taking action at every point in the food chain”: more internships to get young people of color into the industry, a greater emphasis on multiracial casting, and diversity bonuses for executives. Also, he says, we should change the way we talk about movies: “It would be great if the phrase ‘black film’ wasn’t just used when a movie makes less than $100 million.”
Comment
+ Permalink
Anthony Anderson
Special to the AmNews
Hollywood will be celebrating its fabulous Blackness with the the 46th NAACP Image Awards, a two-hour star-studded (live) event Friday, Feb. 6, on TV One at 9p.m. (ET/PT tape-delayed).
I’ve had the pleasure of working with host Anthony Anderson (in an indie film), and I know that he’s a hard-working man, despite his comedic persona. So Anderson hosting the NAACP Image Awards for the second time isn’t a surprise, but a welcoming confirmation.
Unless you reside under a very large and isolated rock, you know that Anderson is currently executive producing and starring in, alongside Laurence Fishburne and Tracee Ellis Ross, the ABC series “Black-ish,” for which he is also nominated for an Image Award this year.
“It is an honor and privilege to be asked back to host the NAACP Image Awards,” said Anderson. “The nominees this year are stellar and a testament to the talented individuals in our community. As a nine-time Image Award nominee, I could not be more proud, and I look forward to holding the record for most nominations without a win!”
In addition, also returning are Reginald Hudlin and Phil Gurin as executive producers. The production team includes Tony McCuin as director, Byron Phillips as producer and Robin Reinhart as the talent producer. Actor and musician Lance Reddick will be the in-show announcer.
Hudlin is the executive producer and writer of the “Black Panther” animated series and executive producer of “The Boondocks” animated series. From 2005 to 2009, Hudlin was the first president of entertainment for BET Networks, creating some of the networks’ highest rated shows during his tenure.
This summer, he partnered with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Hollywood Bowl to produce a live cinematic concert experience titled “The Black Movie Soundtrack,” which was a critical and commercial success.
“Building on the momentum and success from last year, we are planning an extraordinary show and securing today’s leading talent to be part of the celebration,” Hudlin and Gurin said in a statement. “It is an honor for us to work with the NAACP and TV One to create a show that recognizes such a diverse group of talented people, and we look forward to producing one of the premier awards show telecasts in America.”
The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishment of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors. Winners will be voted on by NAACP members and announced when the envelopes are opened Thursday, Feb. 5 during the awards ceremony for non-televised categories. The remaining categories will be announced live on stage during the two-hour, star-studded TV One telecast Friday, Feb. 6. The telecast will also include a one-hour, pre-show airing live from the red carpet (8p.m. ET/PT tape-delayed).
For all information and the latest news, please visit www.naacpimageawards.net
Facebook: /naacpimageaward
Twitter: @naacpimageaward
Comment
+ Permalink
