By Pete Chatmon "The goal of making cinema is to show that which without you might never be seen..." -Jean Luc Godard The French film critic-turned-director had it right when he breathed life into those words. No matter the genre, budget or country of origin, a great film always has a voice. Always. It may be the silent voice of a Ron Howard, carefully crafting the subtleties of his material, or it may be the artistic primal scream of a Spike Lee as he gives voice to a people on the periphery of Hollywood's lens. Either way, and no matter the conductor, audiences exhale when someone has skillfully orchestrated the film experience for which they have paid ten hard-earned dollars.
As a filmmaker of color, or a black man making films, I feel a responsibility to the images I create. At a film festival recently, Nicolas Cage spoke about how his entire perception of outer space is based upon the films that he has seen. 2001. Alien. Star Wars...etc. Movies shape our understanding of issues and/or people that are unfamiliar to us, and, if this is true (which it is!), I am concerned about the imagery of African-Americans on film and how that creates and solidifies a stereotypical portrait of a race and a culture.
With Godard as my inspiration and A New Wave in American Cinema as my goal, I have written, produced and directed my first feature film, Premium (in theaters February 23). While others may be quick to label what I do "Black Film," race is not a genre and the life I have lived is an American life that need not be hyphenated and sub-divided into something less. "Black Film" implies the target audience for a film is solely black people, as if the lives and emotions of these characters must be foreign to anyone who does not share the protagonist's complexion.
Premium seeks to change all of this. It stars Dorian Missick (ABC's "Six Degrees"), Zoe Saldana (Guess Who, Pirates of the Caribbean, Drumline) and Hill Harper ("CSI: NY," Lackawanna Blues) in a story about "the love before the love," or the most important person with whom you don't end up. It's a decidedly new twist on the love story and a definitive step forward in the depiction of black characters. It is the film that Hollywood said couldn't be made, and getting Premium from script to screen was incredibly challenging. To be honest, it was hard as hell.
With a production budget of $520,000, no studio backing, and the support of only 35 investors crazy enough to get involved...that's the only way to describe it. I knocked on anything that had a front door in search of people who could and would support the film. It's only one sentence as I write this now, but the entire process was six years in the making. I had started the script in May 1999 and principal photography in June 2005.
We had no release date to look forward to and about as much of a guarantee of success as a lucky charm or hot breath on a pair of Vegas dice.
I hedged my bets on a screenplay that gave life to characters in a world less seen. In addition to the talents of rising stars Dorian, Zoe and Hill, I had the opportunity to work with experienced actors like Frankie Faison (Do the Right Thing, Silence of the Lambs) and William Sadler (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), adding another level of credibility to the film and making my job as director a helluva lot easier!
But talent could not solve the problems related to our financial limitations, nor could it provide us with more time. We had no rehearsals, but every day my cast hit the high notes, delivering outstanding performances in one-set-up scenes. There were moments I felt we were making a play, as major turning points played out from one camera angle, but I never lost my faith and trust in the material and its ability to translate to an audience. There were moments of anguish as we filmed a major car crash off-screen (which I guess means we didn't really film it at all!), but independent filmmaking is about creating an environment where limitations are turned into assets, by any means necessary.
As director, I will be the one to receive the praise or the critiques, but there were more than 50 dedicated people, highly skilled and underpaid, who contributed to the ultimate realization of Premium. The collaborative spirit of filmmaking was exercised from beginning to end, including my editor K.A. Chisholm's brilliant idea to incorporate screenplay insert cards to carry us through the arc of the story where those pivotal moments had not been appropriately captured on film due to those damned time constraints. It may be one man's vision, but it is truly not a one-man show.
There is no moving picture worth seeing without a good script. With our hard-fought theatrical release on the horizon, I can only sit back and hope that, with Premium, a "New Wave in American Cinema" has begun and Mr. Godard would be proud. I'll hurry up and wait. |
