New Jack Cinema Kendall.pdf

NEW JACK /piHe Lee John ziHgLetoN robert toWMZeNd the hudLih brother/ keehAh ivorv Wayahz biLL duke MArio VAh peepLez topper cAre^ chArLez LAhe kevih hook/ MichAeL rooert towN/eNO juLie dA/h erheZt dicker/oh jozeph vAZouez Mchehrv & jAckzoh jAMez bohd iii the hudLih brother/ johN ZihgLetoh MArio vAh...

NEW JACK /piHe Lee John ziHgLetoN robert toWMZeNd the hudLih brother/ keehAh ivorv Wayahz biLL duke MArio VAh peepLez topper cAre^ chArLez LAhe kevih hook/ MichAeL rooert towN/eNO juLie dA/h erheZt dicker/oh jozeph vAZouez Mchehrv & jAckzoh jAMez bohd iii the hudLih brother/ johN ZihgLetoh MArio vAh peepLez kevih hook/ Hollywood’s African American Filmmake: COPYRIGHT © 1994 BY STEVEN D. KENDALL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNDER INTERNATIONAL AND PAN-AMERICAN COPYRIGHT CONVENTIONS. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED, TRANSMITTED, OR UTILIZED, IN ANY FORM, OR BY ANY MEANS, ELEC­ TRONIC, OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPY, RECORDING, OR ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER. ALL INQUIRIES AND CORRESPONDENCE SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO: J. L. DENSER, INC., 14528 CUTSTONE WAY, SILVER SPRING, MD 20905 (301) 236-5330 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 92-075983 ISBN 0-9629513-1-5 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PrefacE What is a "New Jack"? That may have been your first question upon picking up this book if you were not familiar with the slang term. One of the earliest uses of the phrase has been linked to journalist Barry Michael Cooper. During the 1980s Cooper wrote several magazine articles that singled out music producer Teddy Riley as being the founder of "New Jack Swing," a type of pop music influenced by urban street culture. Riley's unique music, wrote Cooper, was a mixture of computerized sounds composed of elements from funk, gospel, hip-hop, and jazz. The street culture content of New Jack Swing, argued Cooper, was expressed by the craving many inner-city youths had for the expen­ sive cars, clothes, and jewelry made possible via the drug trade. One of Cooper's articles, about a highly organized gang, made its way to musician/producer Quincy Jones. Impressed with Cooper's knowledge and coverage of the street scene, Jones provided him with the opportunity to revamp a screenplay which later became the basis for the urban crime drama. New lack City. In time, the phrase New Jack became part of the cultural lingo in the early 1990s, as evidenced in an article by rappers Big-D and Doctor Dre, in their slang dictionary written for Emerge Magazine (March 1990), "Hip-Hop for the Unhip." The authors defined a New Jack as, "A member of the African American cultural vanguard of hip­ hop music." A few years later, author and host of the music video program, Yo! MTV Raps, Fab Five Freddie, referred to a New Jack as, "a person new to a situation making an attempt at being the best," in his book. Fresh Fly Favor: Words and Phrases of the Hip-Hop Generation (Long Meadow Press, 1992). My definition of a New Jack, as applied to African American film directors, is a blend of the two discussed above. I would consider Preface the filmmakers featured in this book to be members of the "AfricanAmerican cultural vanguard," and many of them are "new to a situa­ tion (filmmaking) making an attempt at being the best." They not only attempted to be the best, but had to in order to survive the Hollywood system, as they were not often afforded the same access and opportunities as their white counterparts. I chose to use the phrase "New Jack" not only because I thought it would make for a catchy title, but also because the slang term aptly described, I would argue, the passion and commitment with which a new generation of filmmakers brought to their work. Given my definition of a New Jack, I have excluded directors like Richard Pryor, Prince and Eddie Murphy as each had the oppor­ tunity to direct, in my opinion, as a result of their previous success as actors. Each of these men, at the time they directed their first films, were extremely popular performers whose access to the director's chair was dictated by their superstar status, which disqualifies them from discussion in this book. I have also made it a point to include only those films which received national distribution in the U.S. and are thus available on home video for additional study by the reader. There are also a num­ ber of excellent independent films which merit discussion, but unless they received wide exposure, I have declined to include them here, as the focus of this work is on New Jack films which have reached a mass audience. The films selected for discussion are arranged in the approxi­ mate order of their theatrical release, but the text is organized in such a way that the reader can ignore the chronology and read about a particular film or filmmaker by simply consulting the table of contents. The book is organized into three parts: Part One: The Beginning of the New Jack Era, covers the years 1986 to 1990 when at least four filmmakers. Spike Lee, Robert Townsend and the Hudlin Brothers, stood out and set the tone for those to follow. Part Two: The Renaissance Year, examines 1991, the historic year in which there were more feature films directed by AfricanAmerican filmmakers, and released on a national basis, than in the entire previous decade. Preface Part Three: The New Jack Spirit Continues, looks at the period after the Renaissance Year as established New Jacks secured a foothold in Hollywood while up and coming African American film­ makers made impressive debuts. Each chapter consists of a short biographical profile of a specific New Jack director and background information regarding their work. Box office figures for specific movies are from Variety magazine unless otherwise noted. In the Appendix, the reader will find a short list of production credits, for each of the major films discussed. 1 do not consider this book by any means to be the definitive, final discussion of African American filmmakers. It should be looked upon as an introduction of sorts. To be quite frank, 1 wanted to write this book, in part, out of a desire to maintain a dialogue about the new generation of African American filmmakers succeeding on a national scale. It is my hope that this book will reach the hands of young read­ ers as 1 wrote it primarily with them in mind, thus the easy-to-read style and the affordable price. 1 developed an early interest in filmmaking by devouring all of the books on the subject in my local library. In light of my personal history with books, may this book find its way into schools and libraries so that students of all ages may hopefully experience the same educational catalyst 1 encountered through reading. Steve Kendall Arlington, VA July, 1994 VII