Blueprint to an Oscar

Recently I was asked if the wildly lauded and multi-Oscar nominated film 'Moonlight' reminded me of my first film 'Blueprint.'  With a ton of trepidation, I responded, "Yes."

Both 'Moonlight' and 'Blueprint' share and explore certain and similar narratives, aesthetic and imagery.  However, 'Moonlight' director, Barry Jenkins, original text writer, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and I share very different experiences warehoused in familiar human vessels.  At our most visual, we are African American.  We are men.  At our creative core, we have been reared, cultivated, educated, slain, and rendered invisible and uniquely marginalized, if our achievements are off of the sports grids.  With this, it makes my, and maybe Barry's and Tarell's' storytelling and view of our shared world very special and quite nuanced.

As a filmmaker, 'Blueprint, was deliberately inspired by two (2) things.  The first was the lack of images which unfolded my particular life scenario; and, secondly, Marlon Riggs' 'Tongues Untied', Kai Wai Wong's 'Happy Together,' Jenny Livingston's 'Paris Is Burning' and Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing.'  I intepret, output and share with the world via my art, language and expression based on all of my days before today, all the way down to the shores of my ancestors' original departure.

So as I cheer on the filmmakers of 'Moonlght' from Director to Grip, I know 'Blueprint' is apart of the DNA and path into the Oscar spotlight and gold standard.

Thee Awards Season, Again

It is that time of year once more, autumn leaves, pumpkins, turkeys, silver bells, Santa and red carpets. As a dedicated independent filmmaker, who can only deal with Hollywood in the 4th quarter when $100 million dollar film productions are set aside to unroll the $100 million marketing and PR campaigns as Hollywoodteurs unleash their best and most thoughtful film fare with dreams of Oscar gold on their minds, ostensibly ushering in Thee Awards Season. It is a very special time of year where celebriots seek vindication after a year of bombastic cinemaplex distraction.

This year, 2016, showed promise for the likes of 'The Birth of a Nation,' however, in a bit of irony, as the nation elected its first outright racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynist, and so many of anti-human behavior traits, US President, a long overdue cinematic unfolding of the true story of American hero, Nat Turner, a man seeking full ownership of his body and person, the film was marred in reckless scandal, while the most unpopular 60,000,000+ Americans elected a completely unqualified verbal brut to the highest office in our land and the world.

Of course, there are no guarantees in the Oscar votership of Hollywood nor with the attitudes or behavior of the American public; however, unpredictability seems always to be omnipresent throughout the land. While films like 'Moonlight,' 'Loving,' 'Fences,' 'Manchester by the Sea,' 'La La Land' and 'Lion,' are certain to make Hollywood feel great again with nuanced, if familiar, storytelling and narratives, the red carpet and epic award season is the ultimate Hollywood escape.