Flocking to film school - minorities and the film industry

Black Issues in Higher Education, Jan 11, 1996 by B. Denise Hawkins

New York -- In recent years, many of the high School students clamoring for a coveted spot in New York University's Future Filmmakers Workshop -- designated for members of "traditionally underrepresented" groups -- have challenged the boundaries of what that means.

Among the more than 100 applicants competing for the program's 15 or 20 slots, there are students who have declared "Latino-Scandinavian" or "Jamaican-French" roots, says Carlos de Jesus who directs the program. When it began, the nine-year-old training program was aimed primarily at African-American and Latino students.

The film industry itself offers the clearest picture of who is underrepresented, says de Jesus -- "women, Blacks, Asians, Latinos."

"It's not a mystery. It's pretty blatant," he argues. "The film industry has been dominated, especially at the upper echelons, by white males."

Lacking systematic entry points, training programs or affirmative action that would allow outsiders access to power, Hollywood has long been dominated by an active old-boy network. But programs like NYU's Future Filmmakers are challenging that dominance by producing highly trained young filmmakers of all races and ethnicities whose vision may eventually change the way movies and television shows are made.

"We're going to make a whole bunch of people ready," said Sheril Antonio, assistant dean for the undergraduate film and television department at NYU's Tisch School. "We're not making people to fit," adds Antonio who helps select students for the 12-week training program.

Keisha Cameron, an undergraduate in the NYU's film and television program, got her start in film through Future Filmmakers. "A big part of why people apply to the program is to see the down and dirty realities of filmmaking.

By the time I got in [NYU's Tisch School] I was ready," Cameron declared.

In recent years there has been an upswing in the number of people of color and women working in front of and behind the camera. But one thing is certain in Hollywood, say many minority veterans and newcomers in the industry: affirmative action doesn't exist.

"If we understand affirmative action to be addressing the wrongs and ills that have been done previously to a certain point, has Hollywood particularly been a part of initiating that change? I don't think so," said veteran actor Danny Glover in a recent Los Angeles Times interview.

Producer Tim Reid scoffed at the notion of affirmative action in the film industry. He says the same anti-affirmative action backlash that is sweeping the nation has caught hold in Hollywood.

"The filmmaking industry has used the political landscape to avoid doing what it didn't want to do in the first place," says Reid who is best known for his acting role on the television show "Frank's Place." (See interview of Reid.)

That was not always the case in the nation's movie-making capital. Following a series of hearings held by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1968 on the status of people of color in Hollywood, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a five-year mandate calling for the creation of minority training programs at production companies, studios and networks, which improved career opportunities.

But almost as soon as the doors swung open for hundreds of people of color to get their big break in the entertainment industry, they nearly closed shut in 1975, when government monitoring of the industry ended. More than two decades later, only a handful of training programs still exist. Of the 2,057 entertainment companies contracting with Hollywood's Writers Guild for example, only 12 offer writing programs targeting people of color.

`Proactive Presence'

In large measure, say some observers, the nation's film schools reflect Hollywood -- largely white and male, a smattering of minorities and an active old-boy network.

Before Tisch School Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell arrived at the bustling urban campus in 1991, the institution was virtually a mirror image of tinsel town, she declares.

She readily acknowledges that before her arrival, "the school was pretty homogenous across the board ... it's a statistical fact.

"Since my arrival we have given not only the department, but the entire school a much more pluralistic and heterogenous content. When you have a plurality of points of view, it has by necessity, an impact on everything, on faculty, curriculum on choice of students ...," says Campbell, who is African American

For example, students of color at Tisch School make up about 40 percent of the student population. "Before that it was about 80 or 90 percent homogenous [white]." Today the assistant dean for television and film is African American and the head of the school's graduate film program is an Asian-American woman.

Having "a proactive presence" at the school and on the urban campus, is something Campbell relishes.

"What for me will be a sign of real influence is the extent to which students -- Black, white, green or purple -- are able to stay in the program and find a way of finding their voice and making films. That's it for me. To keep an eye on our ability to do that for all students, not just those with the resources, but for all students."