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Thanksgiving: A History of Gratitude
By Patricia Mackey Posted 11/2/2014
The Pilgrims
arrived December 11, 1620 when the Mayflower was forced off course and had to
drop anchor at Cape Cod, one of the few places survival was possible. The
Patuxet Native American tribe, had been wiped out by a plague three years earlier. The
biggest blessing for the Pilgrims was Squanto, a surviving Patuxet who spoke
English.
Katie
Anderson of Probe Ministries reports: “[Squanto] was kidnapped in 1605 by
Captain Weymouth and taken to England where he learned English and was
eventually able to return to New England. . . . When Squanto learned that the
Pilgrims were at Plymouth, he came to them. He later showed them how to plant
corn and fertilize with fish, and he eventually converted to Christianity.”
After surviving
the devastating winter, the Pilgrims built a new life. Friendship between the
Pilgrims and the Native Americans lasted until the death of Chief Massasoit,
about 40 years.
One summer
while the chief was still alive the Pilgrims planned an English harvest
festival to celebrate their new homes, abundant crops and successful trading.
That celebration is the first feast of Thanksgiving. It lasted three days.
The formal
Thanksgiving skipped a year, then surfaced again in 1623 after fervent Pilgrim
prayers to God to end the severe drought that year. The next day a long steady
rain answered their prayers. Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of
Thanksgiving, and again they feasted with the Native Americans. No other formal
celebration of gratitude took place until June 29, 1676.
The relationship
between the Pilgrims and their native neighbors had dissolved. The June
celebration highlighted the recent colonist victory over the Native Americans.
The first
national Thanksgiving to God came in October 1777 when all 13 colonies
celebrated victory over the British at Saratoga. In 1789, President George
Washington proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day. Much later, magazine editor
Sarah Josepha Hale, paved the way to what is celebrated today.
Hale's magazine
editorials and letters to presidents and governors finally convinced President
Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, he proclaimed the last Thursday in November, Thanksgiving
Day. The date changed a few times, but in 1941 Congress sanctioned the fourth Thursday
in November a holiday.
Today most
minds turn to food, family gatherings and a weekend that serves as a portal to
the Christmas season. For those who align closely with the spirituality and
gratitude that is also part of the holiday, the center piece of Thanksgiving is
God or whatever name one chooses to call a very strong spiritual force.
A version of this article first appeared in ACN News.
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Untitled: A Free Form Set of Thoughts
By Frank C. Taylor, Sr. Posted 8/21/12
Frank C. Taylor, Sr.
While sitting here with nothing to do, I thought I would take the advice of my son and put into writing whatever comes to mind.
The most important thing is the relationship we have with our children. What we need to do is promote the welfare of our children in the home and in the community. Start now to make them polite, proud, patient and determined. Give them less criticism and more love and understanding. Let them gain all the knowledge possible! We need to try to raise the standards of their home life and teach them to reside in the real world. We need to prepare them to be mental, social and spiritual. Remember it’s the parents who will reap the harvest of the garden.
God is good; I am proof of it. What you put in is what you get out. An empty can makes the most noise! Stay focused and do the right thing. With God all things are possible. Be as good as you can be, never give up. Believe in self, it’s important. Let us help each other; but above all let us love each other and keep passing it on.
Live, Love, and Stay Happy! Every man to himself, God to us all!
Love!
Frank Taylor (a.k.a. “Poptee“)
March 22, 2003
Note: Also see the August 21, 2012 blog post, “Contemporary Thoughts About Ancient Wisdom.”
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See the goal
By Anonymous Posted 7-5-12
Faith looks beyond all boundaries, transcends all limitations, penetrates all obstacles and sees the goal.
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TEENS & TV TODAY
By Marie Posted 11-11-11
Over 65% of television shows today have the setting of parties, violence, and inappropriate language. Many programs on television today are inappropriate for young adults. For instance, Family Guy, Teen Mom, and Jersey Shore are all unacceptable programs. Unfortunately, they have higher viewer ratings than other TV shows. Teen Mom, Family Guy, and Jersey Shore all have three subjects in common, celebrations, rampage, and unacceptable tones. These sitcoms/reality shows are affecting young society's minds in their everyday life.
Teen Mom is shown on the MTV channel, which has high viewer ratings. The show follows teenage girls who are becoming or already are young mothers. It brings together all types of young ladies who are in different stages of pregnancy, as well as focuses on the girls who are going to have their babies very soon. In addition, Teen Mom teaches bad language and drama. The attitudes or tones the teenage girls present teach other girls that disrespecting people is ok to do. The stories of the teenage mothers are very overwhelming for young girls to interpret, if it is good or bad.
Teen Mom teaches poor communication girls do not need in their lives.
Family Guy, an animated TV show featured on channel 45, presents an American family's life and the different experiences they have. This modern family acts uneducated and presents actions that are not necessary. Plus, violence has a major part in the show. Violence in America is a big problem. It is something young viewers have to deal with constantly in the television programs of today. For example , Family Guy has scenes in which the baby of the family, Stewy, blows up people and objects for no reason. The setting of Family Guy is just about violence, which gives nothing to the viewers’ minds.
Jersey Shore, “home of the tan, the beautiful, and fist pumping,” says the cast, always has partying going on, showing viewers what a great time the cast is having partying. They have about 12 boys and 12 girls living together to see how entertaining the cast can get. They all celebrate every night at different events in settings that are mostly in bars or a beach party. One day the girls of the house go out partying, then another day, the whole cast goes out and fist pump till midnight or later. Jersey Shore is nothing but young adults celebrating and wasting life.
Today, television consists of parties, violence, and inappropriate language. Teen Mom teaches inappropriate language to young teens. The animated rampage of Family Guy teaches that it is okay to take the actions of the cast. And finally, Jersey Shore has nothing but young adults wasting their lives partying. Is that what you want young society watching on television?
Marie is a middle school athlete from Phoenix who loves fashion, basketball and volley ball.
### ### ###
Creative Genius in Film: A Contemporary Black Perspective
By Patricia Mackey
Across the timeline of cinema in America an untold number of films have been produced since the first African American filmmakers George and Noble Johnson released two films, circa 1915, through the Lincoln Motion Picture Company they owned. The degree of genius in the films by the Johnson brothers and later many others, is open for debate, but film buffs agree that some African American films have earned the right to be considered the result of genius, if not for artistic achievement, then certainly for the hard work, commitment and determination required to bring the black point of view to the silver screen. By the late 1920s, “race films”, made by blacks for black audiences, began enticing more African Americans to theatres to see themselves on screen. In a nanosecond, after the films became popular, white producers began turning out films with black actors.
High points of the African American impact on filmmaking have waxed and waned over the years, but still increase decade after decade. From producers, directors and writers Oscar Micheaux, Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles, Spike Lee and Tyler Perry to Oscar-winning actors Hattie McDaniels, Sidney Poitier, Whoopi Goldberg, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Jennifer Hudson to box office power house actor Will Smith and others, the mold for today’s crop of artists took shape when the film industry launched at the turn of the 20th century. Filmmakers from various cultural and racial groups reshaped the mold to tell their own stories; simple and ordinary at first, and then complex, coherent films focused on universal truths and tragedies.
Black filmmakers continue to tell stories, no matter how hard the struggle is to produce and distribute them. Manifesting genius in film is about the financial as much as it is about the art and craft. Genius needs to be fed and nurtured while the artist, and the piece itself, make their way through each stage of creation. The process, from conception to viability, sustainability, and full success, is especially difficult in filmmaking because production is costly. It soaks up massive amounts of money and teamwork. Filmmakers of every ilk wrestle with production demons because they love taking truth or fiction, as they see it, from seed form to the screen.
Chip Eberhart, Sandra Hodge and Floyd Webb form a virtual panel of independent filmmakers, who, like the critically acclaimed filmmaking team, Haile Gerima and Shirikiana Aina Gerima, have built strong voices in film. Each has a wise perspective on taking a message from Real 2 Reel.* Here they share their thoughts on making movies and what keeps them in the game.
*Reference to the 1998 Black Creativity exhibition title, Real 2 Reel: African Americans in Film, at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
### ### ###
Genius is inspiration, perspiration and perseverance.What keeps you going year after year?
Chip Eberhart: A passion for storytelling. I love cinema. I’ve always liked good stories. I like passing them on.
Sandra Hodge: It’s usually the content of the project. I want to enrich people and give them something to think about, laugh or cry about, but ultimately something to help them move through life. I don’t want to preach to anybody, I want to offer something that is maybe a little different from what they’re used to seeing. I love telling good stories that touch people, and hopefully move them to action. And, of course, God keeps me going.
Floyd Webb: Getting better, reaching milestones and goals, having something I need to say, Wow . . . that’s what keeps me going. I love what I do. You have to have a love for it. There are times I wonder, I mean, do I really love it. There are things that I’m not as cocky about as I once was because I know there are other things I could do in the world that would make more people happy and, perhaps, have a greater impact in the world.
How do you retain clarity in a film in the midst of production challenges?
Hodge: Everything comes from the script. If it’s clear, that’s what keeps you focused. If it’s not clear, then the other parts of the puzzle are going to be hazy. Many times, what’s planned for may not be the best thing for the piece. So when something unexpected happens, having the flexibility to embrace it instead of being upset can really save you. And it helps to keep the humor alive because then everybody opens up so that you can solve the problem. The project is king. You have to have a strong sense of self and project to keep [a film] on track. You don’t have the money to throw at a problem, so you have to be even more creative in meeting a challenge.
Eberhart: I take a very strong leadership role when I’m directing or producing. And I try to stay faithful to the storyline in the script regardless, unless there’s an obvious need for a change. But all that is usually flushed out in the pre-production.
What else is a big payoff?
Hodge: When somebody says, ‘Wow, I’m so glad you did that. At one of the festival screenings we did for the documentary, The Truth, the Pain, the Sacrifice: An Actor’s Reality, an actor came up to me with tears in her eyes and said “I’m so glad you made this [film] because now my family can see what I go through. Before, they didn’t understand.” It speaks to actors and everybody where they are at this point in their life. I made it for actors, but in its specificity it became universal. That’s priceless.
Eberhart: Being a filmmaker, like anyone else involved in the arts, allows you to become immortal. Your work lives beyond you. You get to leave your mark on this world beyond your physical self.
What do you do to stoke your creative fire?
Webb: I read. I look at what came along before me, and try to stay immersed in the things I do. Even though I’ve gone digital by 80 percent, I still look at the work of Dali, I still look at classic artists. I look at Romare Bearden, Charles White. I look at these things because they fascinate me, and there are all kinds of ways to make use of these ideas, but you have to be exposed to them. I try to know what’s going on, but I especially read because reading is an inspiration for every artist.
Eberhart: I [screen] a healthy dose of foreign films. I like the foreign genre because [foreign filmmakers] typically don’t have the big budgets or big actors a lot of Hollywood films do. They have to rely on storytelling, instead of effects and Halle Berry.
Hodge: I have to stay grounded and spend time focusing on my spiritual life. Reading helps. I love movies, obviously.
What would you like to see the next generations doing to keep filmmaking fresh and exciting?
Hodge: I want to see them honor their voice. I want to see them have the courage to do what’s in their heart, and not what they think will pay. Everybody’s voice is different and important, and sometimes it takes courage to stand alone. Create a village is basically what I’m saying. If I have information I share it with other filmmakers because what is for you, you will get it.
Webb: The art of filmmaking isn’t going anywhere . . . it won’t change. One of the points I was getting to in terms of content in black cinema is that we haven’t even tapped out our own literature. Many of us don’t even know our own literature, or the body of work that has come out of the black experience. They don’t read the [literature]. We’ve got a generation of people raised on one-note romance novels, and all of them make one-note romance films, or one-note gangster films.
What in filmmaking makes you happy?
Hodge: When I know that I’ve done my very best no matter what the outcome.
Eberhart: It’s getting a good performance, not just out of the cast, but the workers too, getting everybody into sync. That’s very gratifying whether I’m doing a documentary or a dramatic feature.
Does fame or popularity ever get in the way of your creativity?
Hodge: No, not at the level I’m on (laugh).
Eberhart: No. The hurdle for me was before I got into filmmaking. I was a music producer and it was a little tough shaking that. In that sense, there were a lot of doors that had to be knocked down because of my [active music producer profile].
How do you keep the boundaries of success at bay when you go in a new creative direction?
Hodge: You have to be true to self, no matter what. A real artist is true to self; true to their craft. That’s what’s most important. It’s not that you don’t care about other people, but it’s because you do care about the integrity of your craft and your own personal integrity.
What changed as you moved from small to larger budget productions?
Hodge: I don’t know that anything changed other than I got more grateful for the journey and the opportunity to continue doing productions time after time. Then the people you get to work with, they are truly committed--not that they are not committed on small budgets, but on the larger budget projects [the people you work with] have been able to do it more often. Their expertise is wider and that’s so phenomenal.
Does success breed caution?
Eberhart: Oh, yeah, it definitely breeds caution because the more success you have the more risk you have with failure. When you have a small crew you can take more chances. When you have 50, 60 people on set you want to make sure that they are moving. If one person is 10 minutes late that translates into 60 people being paid for doing nothing.
So caution breeds that Hollywood in-crowd which hires those they know and trust.
Eberhart: That’s exactly why. You can’t afford to take chances. Not that you don’t want to give people an opportunity. It’s a Catch-22. You can’t try out new people, as much as you would like, because you want to work with people who have proven themselves.
Hodge: Because I’ve seen success breed caution in others, I’ve been conscious of making sure that I don’t get cautious. If I stick with the integrity of the piece, I’ll go to courage instead of caution.
What about popular success where a person is known, but has no money or critical backing?
Webb: I’m not really that interested in popular success. I didn’t understand the value of the [Chicago Black Light] film festival until years after I [produced] it. I knew it was a headache because I always had to spend so much time sacrificing in order to make it happen. It wasn’t until years later when I was running into people like Sandy who would say they really love coming to the festival because that’s what made them see that this was something they could actually do. You have to realize the impact that you have. Sometimes it doesn’t impact you directly. Sometimes you inspire other people. And maybe that’s the value in what you do.
What do you think will change for you when popular, critical or financial success strikes?
Hodge:Privacy. I like walking down the street and nobody knows who I am. As long as we are living a life that we are proud of when we look in the mirror, then being the automatic role model won’t be overwhelming. But if you’re not living the life you want to live regardless of being in the spotlight or not, then fame and notoriety become crushing.
Webb: Financial success is relative. It all depends on how far in debt you are before you get there, and how great the success is. I have minor successes all the time. If I measure my success by money alone I could be in trouble. I have to have a set of creative goals to reach because a lot of this stuff is about challenging yourself. [You’re] like an athlete, constantly challenging yourself. There are some things I do that I don’t even appreciate until I see them like a year or so later. I’m so self-critical of my work sometimes that I’m not always so sure of it. Other people will say that they like it, but [to me] my work sometimes doesn’t meet the standards I set for myself.
What does it take to get the attention of notable critics?
Webb: I find that it’s really important to do what you like, do what you feel most comfortable with. Eventually you’re going to turn it into something. Sometimes it’s about sticking to it long enough and having a persistent enough voice that you can’t be ignored. Your voice is diminished when you stop.
What are the differences and similarities between U.S. and international filmmakers?
Eberhart: The biggest differences are that international filmmakers usually don’t have the budgets or the access to A-List actors; also what we consider A-List actors are English speaking only. [Foreign filmmakers] have to concentrate more on the story, and that brings about a different type of film. A typical Hollywood movie gives you a film experience, where foreign films give you a film journey. An experience is Halle Berry, Arnold Schwartzenegger and an explosion; a journey takes a character from point A to point B for the duration of the film.
Hodge: Internationally, filmmakers are a lot hungrier than we are in the U.S. And they seem to be more collaborative, but that’s changing because the globe is shrinking, thanks to the Internet. The similarities are a passion for film, and the uniqueness of the stories.
Webb: There’ll be some difference in the approach because it all depends on who [a filmmaker] is trained by. It depends on exposure, training, and what they like. If you look at young black filmmakers who know who [director Andrei] Tarkovsky is, you’ll see that they want to use that inside the work they do. Most people only know popular American filmmakers, so that’s what you see. You see work that is derivative.
Does that keep black cinema in an exploitative type of filmmaking?
Webb: We don’t have a critical arm. I keep going back to jazz. Jazz wouldn’t be at the level it is if we didn’t have the jam session. The jam session is where you have to get up and play in front of other musicians who will tear your stuff up and put you on the killing floor. When you go to the killing floor and can’t play that horn, you are barred from the stage until you are able to come back and hold your own amongst your peers in that kind of situation.
We don’t demand excellence. We don’t have that kind of critical discourse going on in filmmaking. See, if anybody black is doing anything; it’s so hard to do it that you’re not supposed to say anything bad about it. It’s like Richard Pryor used to say, “I’m happy for anybody black who does anything.”
What is your take, in a nutshell, on being a filmmaker in today’s world?
Hodge: I can’t do it without a strong spiritual life. For me it’s art and spirit.
Webb: This is the best time in the world to be a filmmaker. You can start any film you want to. Instead of telling people, you can show them what you’re talking about. People respond better to the visual. You can show somebody a vision of your dream and engage them with that. Technology has made that possible and affordable. I would also say black filmmakers need to learn about developing international [contacts]. Once you get a certain kind of notoriety you want to develop an international audience, and build an international financial following.
What’s next for you, artistically?
Eberhart: I’m working on some projects for a smaller screen; the Web and mobile devices. Actually, there are more stories being told on mobile media because of the way our lives have changed [through technology].
Hodge: I’m outlining one script. I have three others to rewrite. And as usual, I’ll be on the funding line in order to get the cash to do them.
What are your summary comments on the creative genius of black filmmakers?
Webb: If I want to talk about the state of black cinema I could talk about the dearth of creative content that exists in black cinema as a body of work. The content is really limited. You have very few people stepping outside of a certain kind of race conscious “Oh, I’m black . . .”
Eberhart: Black filmmakers have a large responsibility to do things differently, as I have learned from my mentor, Eugene Morris of Morris Communications. We can make our own rules now that we are making our own movies, and we have a duty, I think, to make positive images.
Hodge: I would like us to know that we are genius and really embrace it, and feed it by study, by always learning more and more about our craft and challenging ourselves to make each project better than the last, and by staying hungry and energized. You know, don’t get lazy with success. It’s about trusting your creativity. Be a great original rather than a poor copy. The black voice is rich, creative, and very powerful. There is a lot of passion in that voice.
©2009Patricia Mackey
Across the timeline of cinema in America an untold number of films have been produced since the first African American filmmakers George and Noble Johnson released two films, circa 1915, through the Lincoln Motion Picture Company they owned. The degree of genius in the films by the Johnson brothers and later many others, is open for debate, but film buffs agree that some African American films have earned the right to be considered the result of genius, if not for artistic achievement, then certainly for the hard work, commitment and determination required to bring the black point of view to the silver screen. By the late 1920s, “race films”, made by blacks for black audiences, began enticing more African Americans to theatres to see themselves on screen. In a nanosecond, after the films became popular, white producers began turning out films with black actors.
High points of the African American impact on filmmaking have waxed and waned over the years, but still increase decade after decade. From producers, directors and writers Oscar Micheaux, Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles, Spike Lee and Tyler Perry to Oscar-winning actors Hattie McDaniels, Sidney Poitier, Whoopi Goldberg, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Jennifer Hudson to box office power house actor Will Smith and others, the mold for today’s crop of artists took shape when the film industry launched at the turn of the 20th century. Filmmakers from various cultural and racial groups reshaped the mold to tell their own stories; simple and ordinary at first, and then complex, coherent films focused on universal truths and tragedies.
Black filmmakers continue to tell stories, no matter how hard the struggle is to produce and distribute them. Manifesting genius in film is about the financial as much as it is about the art and craft. Genius needs to be fed and nurtured while the artist, and the piece itself, make their way through each stage of creation. The process, from conception to viability, sustainability, and full success, is especially difficult in filmmaking because production is costly. It soaks up massive amounts of money and teamwork. Filmmakers of every ilk wrestle with production demons because they love taking truth or fiction, as they see it, from seed form to the screen.
Chip Eberhart, Sandra Hodge and Floyd Webb form a virtual panel of independent filmmakers, who, like the critically acclaimed filmmaking team, Haile Gerima and Shirikiana Aina Gerima, have built strong voices in film. Each has a wise perspective on taking a message from Real 2 Reel.* Here they share their thoughts on making movies and what keeps them in the game.
*Reference to the 1998 Black Creativity exhibition title, Real 2 Reel: African Americans in Film, at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
### ### ###
Genius is inspiration, perspiration and perseverance.What keeps you going year after year?
Chip Eberhart: A passion for storytelling. I love cinema. I’ve always liked good stories. I like passing them on.
Sandra Hodge: It’s usually the content of the project. I want to enrich people and give them something to think about, laugh or cry about, but ultimately something to help them move through life. I don’t want to preach to anybody, I want to offer something that is maybe a little different from what they’re used to seeing. I love telling good stories that touch people, and hopefully move them to action. And, of course, God keeps me going.
Floyd Webb: Getting better, reaching milestones and goals, having something I need to say, Wow . . . that’s what keeps me going. I love what I do. You have to have a love for it. There are times I wonder, I mean, do I really love it. There are things that I’m not as cocky about as I once was because I know there are other things I could do in the world that would make more people happy and, perhaps, have a greater impact in the world.
How do you retain clarity in a film in the midst of production challenges?
Hodge: Everything comes from the script. If it’s clear, that’s what keeps you focused. If it’s not clear, then the other parts of the puzzle are going to be hazy. Many times, what’s planned for may not be the best thing for the piece. So when something unexpected happens, having the flexibility to embrace it instead of being upset can really save you. And it helps to keep the humor alive because then everybody opens up so that you can solve the problem. The project is king. You have to have a strong sense of self and project to keep [a film] on track. You don’t have the money to throw at a problem, so you have to be even more creative in meeting a challenge.
Eberhart: I take a very strong leadership role when I’m directing or producing. And I try to stay faithful to the storyline in the script regardless, unless there’s an obvious need for a change. But all that is usually flushed out in the pre-production.
What else is a big payoff?
Hodge: When somebody says, ‘Wow, I’m so glad you did that. At one of the festival screenings we did for the documentary, The Truth, the Pain, the Sacrifice: An Actor’s Reality, an actor came up to me with tears in her eyes and said “I’m so glad you made this [film] because now my family can see what I go through. Before, they didn’t understand.” It speaks to actors and everybody where they are at this point in their life. I made it for actors, but in its specificity it became universal. That’s priceless.
Eberhart: Being a filmmaker, like anyone else involved in the arts, allows you to become immortal. Your work lives beyond you. You get to leave your mark on this world beyond your physical self.
What do you do to stoke your creative fire?
Webb: I read. I look at what came along before me, and try to stay immersed in the things I do. Even though I’ve gone digital by 80 percent, I still look at the work of Dali, I still look at classic artists. I look at Romare Bearden, Charles White. I look at these things because they fascinate me, and there are all kinds of ways to make use of these ideas, but you have to be exposed to them. I try to know what’s going on, but I especially read because reading is an inspiration for every artist.
Eberhart: I [screen] a healthy dose of foreign films. I like the foreign genre because [foreign filmmakers] typically don’t have the big budgets or big actors a lot of Hollywood films do. They have to rely on storytelling, instead of effects and Halle Berry.
Hodge: I have to stay grounded and spend time focusing on my spiritual life. Reading helps. I love movies, obviously.
What would you like to see the next generations doing to keep filmmaking fresh and exciting?
Hodge: I want to see them honor their voice. I want to see them have the courage to do what’s in their heart, and not what they think will pay. Everybody’s voice is different and important, and sometimes it takes courage to stand alone. Create a village is basically what I’m saying. If I have information I share it with other filmmakers because what is for you, you will get it.
Webb: The art of filmmaking isn’t going anywhere . . . it won’t change. One of the points I was getting to in terms of content in black cinema is that we haven’t even tapped out our own literature. Many of us don’t even know our own literature, or the body of work that has come out of the black experience. They don’t read the [literature]. We’ve got a generation of people raised on one-note romance novels, and all of them make one-note romance films, or one-note gangster films.
What in filmmaking makes you happy?
Hodge: When I know that I’ve done my very best no matter what the outcome.
Eberhart: It’s getting a good performance, not just out of the cast, but the workers too, getting everybody into sync. That’s very gratifying whether I’m doing a documentary or a dramatic feature.
Does fame or popularity ever get in the way of your creativity?
Hodge: No, not at the level I’m on (laugh).
Eberhart: No. The hurdle for me was before I got into filmmaking. I was a music producer and it was a little tough shaking that. In that sense, there were a lot of doors that had to be knocked down because of my [active music producer profile].
How do you keep the boundaries of success at bay when you go in a new creative direction?
Hodge: You have to be true to self, no matter what. A real artist is true to self; true to their craft. That’s what’s most important. It’s not that you don’t care about other people, but it’s because you do care about the integrity of your craft and your own personal integrity.
What changed as you moved from small to larger budget productions?
Hodge: I don’t know that anything changed other than I got more grateful for the journey and the opportunity to continue doing productions time after time. Then the people you get to work with, they are truly committed--not that they are not committed on small budgets, but on the larger budget projects [the people you work with] have been able to do it more often. Their expertise is wider and that’s so phenomenal.
Does success breed caution?
Eberhart: Oh, yeah, it definitely breeds caution because the more success you have the more risk you have with failure. When you have a small crew you can take more chances. When you have 50, 60 people on set you want to make sure that they are moving. If one person is 10 minutes late that translates into 60 people being paid for doing nothing.
So caution breeds that Hollywood in-crowd which hires those they know and trust.
Eberhart: That’s exactly why. You can’t afford to take chances. Not that you don’t want to give people an opportunity. It’s a Catch-22. You can’t try out new people, as much as you would like, because you want to work with people who have proven themselves.
Hodge: Because I’ve seen success breed caution in others, I’ve been conscious of making sure that I don’t get cautious. If I stick with the integrity of the piece, I’ll go to courage instead of caution.
What about popular success where a person is known, but has no money or critical backing?
Webb: I’m not really that interested in popular success. I didn’t understand the value of the [Chicago Black Light] film festival until years after I [produced] it. I knew it was a headache because I always had to spend so much time sacrificing in order to make it happen. It wasn’t until years later when I was running into people like Sandy who would say they really love coming to the festival because that’s what made them see that this was something they could actually do. You have to realize the impact that you have. Sometimes it doesn’t impact you directly. Sometimes you inspire other people. And maybe that’s the value in what you do.
What do you think will change for you when popular, critical or financial success strikes?
Hodge:Privacy. I like walking down the street and nobody knows who I am. As long as we are living a life that we are proud of when we look in the mirror, then being the automatic role model won’t be overwhelming. But if you’re not living the life you want to live regardless of being in the spotlight or not, then fame and notoriety become crushing.
Webb: Financial success is relative. It all depends on how far in debt you are before you get there, and how great the success is. I have minor successes all the time. If I measure my success by money alone I could be in trouble. I have to have a set of creative goals to reach because a lot of this stuff is about challenging yourself. [You’re] like an athlete, constantly challenging yourself. There are some things I do that I don’t even appreciate until I see them like a year or so later. I’m so self-critical of my work sometimes that I’m not always so sure of it. Other people will say that they like it, but [to me] my work sometimes doesn’t meet the standards I set for myself.
What does it take to get the attention of notable critics?
Webb: I find that it’s really important to do what you like, do what you feel most comfortable with. Eventually you’re going to turn it into something. Sometimes it’s about sticking to it long enough and having a persistent enough voice that you can’t be ignored. Your voice is diminished when you stop.
What are the differences and similarities between U.S. and international filmmakers?
Eberhart: The biggest differences are that international filmmakers usually don’t have the budgets or the access to A-List actors; also what we consider A-List actors are English speaking only. [Foreign filmmakers] have to concentrate more on the story, and that brings about a different type of film. A typical Hollywood movie gives you a film experience, where foreign films give you a film journey. An experience is Halle Berry, Arnold Schwartzenegger and an explosion; a journey takes a character from point A to point B for the duration of the film.
Hodge: Internationally, filmmakers are a lot hungrier than we are in the U.S. And they seem to be more collaborative, but that’s changing because the globe is shrinking, thanks to the Internet. The similarities are a passion for film, and the uniqueness of the stories.
Webb: There’ll be some difference in the approach because it all depends on who [a filmmaker] is trained by. It depends on exposure, training, and what they like. If you look at young black filmmakers who know who [director Andrei] Tarkovsky is, you’ll see that they want to use that inside the work they do. Most people only know popular American filmmakers, so that’s what you see. You see work that is derivative.
Does that keep black cinema in an exploitative type of filmmaking?
Webb: We don’t have a critical arm. I keep going back to jazz. Jazz wouldn’t be at the level it is if we didn’t have the jam session. The jam session is where you have to get up and play in front of other musicians who will tear your stuff up and put you on the killing floor. When you go to the killing floor and can’t play that horn, you are barred from the stage until you are able to come back and hold your own amongst your peers in that kind of situation.
We don’t demand excellence. We don’t have that kind of critical discourse going on in filmmaking. See, if anybody black is doing anything; it’s so hard to do it that you’re not supposed to say anything bad about it. It’s like Richard Pryor used to say, “I’m happy for anybody black who does anything.”
What is your take, in a nutshell, on being a filmmaker in today’s world?
Hodge: I can’t do it without a strong spiritual life. For me it’s art and spirit.
Webb: This is the best time in the world to be a filmmaker. You can start any film you want to. Instead of telling people, you can show them what you’re talking about. People respond better to the visual. You can show somebody a vision of your dream and engage them with that. Technology has made that possible and affordable. I would also say black filmmakers need to learn about developing international [contacts]. Once you get a certain kind of notoriety you want to develop an international audience, and build an international financial following.
What’s next for you, artistically?
Eberhart: I’m working on some projects for a smaller screen; the Web and mobile devices. Actually, there are more stories being told on mobile media because of the way our lives have changed [through technology].
Hodge: I’m outlining one script. I have three others to rewrite. And as usual, I’ll be on the funding line in order to get the cash to do them.
What are your summary comments on the creative genius of black filmmakers?
Webb: If I want to talk about the state of black cinema I could talk about the dearth of creative content that exists in black cinema as a body of work. The content is really limited. You have very few people stepping outside of a certain kind of race conscious “Oh, I’m black . . .”
Eberhart: Black filmmakers have a large responsibility to do things differently, as I have learned from my mentor, Eugene Morris of Morris Communications. We can make our own rules now that we are making our own movies, and we have a duty, I think, to make positive images.
Hodge: I would like us to know that we are genius and really embrace it, and feed it by study, by always learning more and more about our craft and challenging ourselves to make each project better than the last, and by staying hungry and energized. You know, don’t get lazy with success. It’s about trusting your creativity. Be a great original rather than a poor copy. The black voice is rich, creative, and very powerful. There is a lot of passion in that voice.
©2009Patricia Mackey