richardmurray

Someone online made a great point in reply to my original post. The following is my reply

well said. My only addition to your position is, most black people today accept black individualism as the mantra. Yes, all... most... black people want betterment for the black community in the world. But, most black people in the usa, speak of individual actions. How many black people in the media light say: I Wanted to be ceo of this firm, I wanted to be president, I wanted to go to harvard, I wanted to be a black individual that did something that white people will tout as valuable. So, It isn't merely the idea of going independent is harder, which is the truth. Most black people dont' want to go independent. The ira was circa 400 people and most of their explosive hurt irish people. but they got 3/4 of ireland free from england. Why? even though most irish were not part of the ira or made a bomb or plotted to get a bomb placed, most irish people wanted to be free from england. Thus, what is my real point? Black people in the usa who want a Blackwood do not merely have to be independent from Hollywood, owned or run by whites, but they have to be independent from the majority of black people in the usa who are black individualists/integrationists whose actions will oppose or weaken in value Blackwood.

MY REPLY TO STEFAN from the forum post 

yes, if i do not place a name then I am communicating to the initial poster

After Reading your reply, my first thought was, what does it take to have a film environment. 

you said Black people were not on many screens in sci fi films or films in general. That is true, but it means you need a place to show films.

you said Black people didn't run film studioes or have financing to make equal budget films. That is true, but how cheap can one make a film.

You said you don't comprehend expecting a blackwood. But was a Blackwood impossible before modernity, meaning the last forty years.

Now you say, the internet provides possibilities. And I concur, but does that mean a Blackwood was impossible in the past. 

Now you say you want to enjoy a science fiction film first and be happy for who participates in it second. I am 100% certain most black people, over 90%, in the usa and definitely in the white countries in humanity, USA/UK/France/Brasil et cetera, concur to you. 

And yes, Nollywood exists today, though they don't make blunt science fiction films. Many people in the usa consider Daughters of the dust a science fiction film so the artistic debate I will leave alone. 

But, was it possible to have black financed/directed/produced/acted, ala a Black Wood?

Now, body and SOul by Micheaux to Meteor Man from townsend prove, Black people did make movies from the silent to today, with financial or quality standards that are on par to what audiences may have expected.

But, if the BlackWood was created, how could it be?

The questions are: 

Where to show the films?

Who to make the films? 

Who to finance the films? 

How to distribute the films?

My quickest answers, 

Where to show the films?

From the 1970s to the end of the war between the states, the most prolific places in the black community, that black people had control over was black churches. Black churches are the theaters. Take a wall, color it white, project on it. If someone has a white curtain use that. Now the white law will definitely find the act of a church theater fiscally improper, so show the films for free, people need popcorn, water, vending is the roots of retail. A person with a little cart is as ancient as the pyramids. Nothing bars the church from having a small set of vendors outside. The vendors are free to donate to the church some of their revenue.

Who to make the films? 

I think many Black people made films, but it was common Black folk, not the OScar Micheaux's or Robert Townsends of the world. And, if you have a video recorder, then you have all it takes to make a film, starting with yourself. animation is not new, I know for certain black people near 100 years old recall seeing animation as a child in NYC alone so I know it isn't fantastical. Common Black folk made films. Maybe not close encounters of the third kind in production level, but artistic display isn't about competition it is about creation. if you don't create it doesn't exists.

Who to finance the films? 

Black businesses are not new. The Black people who financed MLK jr, the Nation of Islam, Madame CJ Walker has her old house upstate new york. Somebody black had enough money to make a small production film, every year since circa 1865.  Now again, do they have hollywood money? no. But is the goal a blackwood or the goal competition with hollywood. 

How to distribute the films?

Oscar Michaeux's films were all found in Europe , not the usa. so somebody copied them and I think oscar micheaux knew who. so, I can't believe later, the ability to copy a film and send to the churches was beyond the means for the Black community in the USA.

Thus, in my view, a Blackwood should had existed already in the USA from the Black community in it. Now some caveats. yes, the Black community in the USA from the Negro leagues to my potential Blackwood are more interested in Black people aside whites than Black people alone. But, I think Black churches, showing films by Black people, spending money to make copies based on word of mouth, with small revenues was sustainable. I didn't even add historical Black colleges for the southern Black populace, which is historically or modernly the largest in the USA per a region. I can't deny many Black people wouldn't care, or would snub. But I think the model was sustainable... if attempted. 

South side home movies project 

https://sshmp.uchicago.edu/