Come Get Your Uncle. The Tragedy That Is Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq

 

When I was an acting student one of the most valuable lessons I learned was about “pushing”. Forcing emotion. The difference between a “yell” and a “shout” or a “scream” and a “cry”. The former is more often than not the qualities of a performance that is not rooted, does not trust itself and is not working from inner truth and if you could achieve the later in your acting people would connect with the emotion you were representing and not feel like they were being forced to understand an experience that is very common and human – the feeling of pain and anguish. They would like you better because you are not insulting their intelligence. We all know emotion, recognize it, no need to make it any bigger than it is, you could stylize it to give a certain quality relevant to the piece but you must always remember to work from truth, always. So if Spike Lee’s film Chi-Raq was an acting student my first note would be…..stop pushing, your audience is smarter than you think.

From the very start of Chi-Raq Spike Lee is dictating to me how I am supposed to feel about a situation that much of us understand, some as well as Spike and many of us even more than Spike, the issue of violence in America and in particular the city of Chicago. But the initial problem with the film is that its built on one huge false pretense, the myth of how he sees to be a “new” phenomena of “Black on Black crime” – which has been proven to be a myth of white supremacist construction. So no wonder he is forced to yell it at us like he is damn College Football coach, he has nothing to back up this pretense with and thus the film does not trust itself, it over performs because it has to conjure up feeling for an idea that actually isn’t real. Is the violence in Chicago real? You damn right, but why is it happening? Spike fails in this as he sits us down for 2 hours, squeezes out all the genuine emotion that can be found in Chicago’s current situation and yells at us statements of why we as a people don’t have our shit together, never once does he ask any fundamental questions of how we got here, he never even shows us what Chicago was, what glory was “lost” outside of a Michael Jordan statue – and I doubt if you ask any real Black Chi-Town native they would say that is a leading symbol of their cities pride. Why he doesn’t show it? Cause he doesn’t know what it is and frankly has no interest in Chicago outside of that fact he can take whats happening there and in the ghettoes of America and make it an opportunity to grand stand and scream his moral judgements like a high class preacher. And now I understand why Chicagoans like Rhymefest and Chance the Rapper have been against this film and I stand with them in full support after seeing it.

Chi-Raq was an offensive experience for me. Why? Because there was no conversation being had. We are berated and told to “Wake Up”. He forces his actors into the quagmire of over performance to compensate for a script and premise that is one-dimensional, they have to “push” their performances (Angela Basset was so hard to watch) because there is nothing to draw from in the text that is constructed with the logic of an after school special. The only actors who seem to understand what they are acting in are Wesley Snipes, who gives a strange but often well done performance rooted in absurdism and Dave Chapelle who appears in one quite funny scene – probably one of my two out loud chuckles – but we shouldn’t be surprised since Dave is one of our greatest satirists. It is sad because if Spike would have chosen to not act like he has all the answers and asked questions of us and himself as an American and Black Male he could have had the chance to do something extremely investigative. Instead he hides behind the premise of a classical greek play and the banner of satire to shield himself from criticism for once again, limiting women’s agency to their sexuality and mens weakness to their penis. And he never gets to any roots, he skirts (pun intended) and hides by giving a finger snap and booty swing in chorus while 70’s soul music plays (I swear I was watching Tyler Perry at moments – the irony), a growling hood face that is holding a gun or sexing a half naked Black woman or a speech by a do-gooder white preacher that is the only moment where structural racism is mentioned (yup) yet he never works structural racism into the structure of his drama! He feels comfortable doing this because of his deflector, so when someone critiques his intentions based on what they saw he or his supporters can say back “Well…its a satire!”. Its cheap, something I would expect from someone like….well….Quentin Tarantino. There goes that thing called irony again.

But where Chi-Raq was the most head splitting and frankly insulting is the idea of how Black people can solve their own problem of what Jon Cusack’s white preacher calls in the film “self inflicted genocide”. Spike placates the audience several times by yelling Black Lives Matter, mentioning Dylan Roof or Sandy Hook, throwing Tamir Rice’s name and flipping in a Mike Brown mention in one of his hoot and hollering speeches, but at the end he throws the onus of the responsibility for the end of community violence on Black people. That if we want the trauma centers, better schools, hospitals and for the establishment to respect and help our community we must pull our pants up, get on our knees, beg for forgiveness and redeem ourselves! Structural racism yeah its a factor…but…but….yall negroes gotta stop acting like savages first! Then you can get what you want, look Lysistrata did!!!!! Why can’t y’all negroes??!!?? WAKE UP!! This is where the satire fails miserably. Hollywood Shuffle, Network, Weekend, Dr. Strangelove, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Chameleon Street, even Spikes flawed but strong film Bamboozled and other truly great social satires in cinema saw the trap in preaching the redemptive solution, they knew their power was simply in presenting the situation, the pain these conflicts cause and the river of shit that humanity is in and that the audience needs to have a sit down and start having some honest conversations so we can find the solution amongst each other. Chi-Raq is not a conversation starter, its taking the conversation back to Bill Cosby finger waving at stupid negroes during college commencements why they are not getting ahead. Chi-Raq is Uncle Ruckus crashing the conversation with dated material. And thus is completely irrelevant and sadly has to make us question Spike’s relevance as a Filmmaker outside of his past work. (Trust me, that was not an easy phrase to type)

Chicago deserved better than what Spike Lee gave them, he exploited their harsh situation so he could grandstand and he should be held to task for it. I didn’t think Spike could disappoint me more after Red Hook Summer, I was wrong…because now he has not only made a bad film, but he has also made an offensive one.

Mtume Gant 12/8/15

 

Spit an official Selection to 2 Prestigious Film Festivals!

Festival season has been great to us so far. We are having our North American premiere at this years New Voices in Black Cinema Festival at BAMCinematek this March 29th at 4:30PM.

And most prestigiously we have been recently informed that we are an official selection to the Aspen Shortsfest this April! I am extremely pumped and excited about what is taking place for this project!

For more information on how to see these films please go to the Spit Website

Spit Fundraiser!

What is good my people? Hope everyone is having a super start to their New Year. Wanted to let you all know about a very special and urgent event we have happening in just a few weeks time. Things have been going great over at team Spit, we recently released our trailer and are super close to wrapping up post production on this bad boy and its looking FANTASTIC. But in the reality of most films, we seem to need just a little bit more money to get this film completed, so we decided to have a little fun while doing it. So on Tuesday, February 17th we are having a very special Fundraiser/Happy Hour event in conjunction with the homies Monolodge at Taj Lounge in Manhattan, if you don’t know about these cats def give them a look, they run a great event and I am extremely happy they have opened their arms to us. It will be a great night where we can kick it, have a few after work drinks, good music, I’ll talk a little about the films journey in person with some of my cast/crew, a few special performances and most fresh of all I’ll show an exclusive, never seen before clip of the film! We will also have some raffles and other little things I’ll announce a little later on. All proceeds will go to help taking Spit over the Post Production hump as we gear to submit to some major film Festivals the end of February.

We have an exclusive 50 Early Bird Tickets at 9 Dollars you can click here to order them. Get them while they last!

And if you can’t make the event or live out of town but would like to still donate you can do it here. No contribution is too small. Trust.

We are real close y’all and I am extremely excited to show this puppy to you. We have some great announcements we are itching to tell you about coming over the next few weeks leading up to the event so keep on the look out!

Hope to see you soon!
Mtume Gant

Maverick Intentions: Remembering As an Act of Protest

It was a time of maverick intentions, passions born out of necessity and visions of a future we could make on our own terms. Late 90’s, pre 9/11 New York City. Man, the names still ring in my head like it was yesterday. Louima, Diallo, that Giuliani time New York. I was approaching my early years of manhood when by chance I linked up with Dennis Leroy Kangalee not knowing this union we would make would direct the course of my existence forever, design my artistic pathway as well as my manhood, citizenship and outlook as a Black person in America. So to be frank with you even though As An Act of Protest may be Dennis’s personal explosion of his trials as a young Black socially minded artist struggling to find a solid ground to build on, I can’t help but feel this is also my story being told, cause truth being a whole lot of As An Act of Protest, I lived. Its characteristics of high powered text, stellar acting performances coupled with low-fi camera and sound work make sense to me, it has kinship to how Dennis and I made theatre, in the trenches, with nothing but our desire to storm the barricades, thats how we made stage. As an Act of Protest is trench warfare, cinema By Any Means Necessary, it’s late 90’s afro-punk revolt. True guerilla cinema is ignored not because it lacks technical prowess – no that’s merely an excuse when people can give praise to crap like mumblecore – its ignored because of what it says. Make no mistake about that.

Dennis and I met as theatre students when we were quite young, Dennis being a little older than I – those age gaps always feel pronounced in your early years then they do when you get older as now Dennis and I exist very much more as peers – but back then Dennis was someone I highly admired and looked up to. He had wisdom beyond his years, a grasp of art that even his largest foe had to at the very least acknowledge and respect, I mean how could you not admire a 16 year old who was reading The Theatre And It’s Double and singing Curtis Mayfield at the same time? A few years later we found a bond as colleagues – he started the Theatre company Dionysus 2000 in 1997, I knew I had to join up. I, like he, was already frustrated with the prospects that being a young Black Actor in NYC afforded me. You know its funny, being young, of color and talented is a great novelty for many, until you begin to have your own ideas, god forbid you even begin to question the structures around you. They will pageant you around, shower you with compliments and visions of bright futures, even promise you support, until that front line moment happens, that youth they raised to be sharp gains that bit of extra sensory perception, can see through the fabric, the tall tales, false promises and lies all around them and start to do the one thing they should never, demand answers. This is As An Act of Protest, it a result of the doors that were closed on us because we desired to mount forgotten Black classical plays like The Toilet or Blues For Mr. Charlie because frankly we were tired of being upset, depressed, banging our heads against the wall cause we knew things just aint FEEL right! For 3 years, under Dennis’s lead we mounted plays all around New York City, aiming to start our own theatre revolution, we spent all our money, got critical acclaim, packed houses of highly inspired audiences but then found shut doors from the same theatres that’s housed us because of the ruckus our pieces caused, hired actors who touched heights they never previously achieved while in another moment fired actors who thought we were crazy to want to do Black revolutionary theatre in an actual revolutionary way – no I am not exaggerating. Got up close and personal with some of our idols only to see many of them so broken by the turbulence of their trials all they could offer was their inability to give us proper guidance, nothing left for us but disappointment. We were truly a band of misfits without a home, too scary for them all, but yet we kept going. So in August 2000, I remember like it was yesterday Dennis presented to me the script for As An Act of Protest, I sat and read it in his apartment in Harlem – where most of Cairo’s “home” scenes were shot – it felt like I was reading the life we had been living the last 3 years and also – speaking mostly in terms of the later part of the film – the life that we all deep down inside wanted to live, the Actor who TRULY acts! To be honest, the script for As An Act of Protest is one of the best I ever read, I still hope one day Dennis decides to publish it because it’s a tour de force in screenwriting, Paddy Chayefsky would be jealous. A true NY piece, with the same – if not more – relevance than scripts like Schrader’s Taxi Driver or Jules Feiffer’s play turned film Little Murders. I remember my blood pumping through every page, Dennis had written the myth of our times, we had been troubled that the Theatre we wanted could not be achieved, we had to many disappointments to continue down that road. Dennis had become impressed and inspired by the Dogma 95 movement – I remember him recommending I see Von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves” which pleasantly shocked us both – in it Dennis saw an opportunity to make a raw piece of art that was in kinship to his theatrical focus. After having read the script I desired the role of Cairo but I even felt deep down inside what Dennis already knew, I was too young and too bright eyed to enter the cage of that role yet and truthfully, the cosmos had their Cairo, my brother Che Ayende.

I had known Che for a few years, been an admirer of his work, I knew I had to take my ego out of it link those two up. I was not there for their meet up, but I remember Dennis giving me a call telling me he knew he had his man, his Cairo Media, that will always be the contribution to As an Act of Protest I am most proud of. I was in school at the time fighting my way through Purchase Acting Conservatory while they were shooting so, unfortunately, I missed the vast majority of its production – though I did make a cameo as Cairo’s fallen brother George. So when I finally saw the final product it floored me, I saw our lives on screen, I knew Jimmy the theatre manager, Professor Eastman the not so bout it revolutionary scholar, I knew Karen the frustrated loving girlfriend, I knew Abner, hell I knew him the best, made theatre with him for 3 years and I also knew Cairo who was all of us, or maybe who all of us HOPED we could become? I’ve always wondered was Cairo the Actor Dennis hope he would find one day? Or the Actor he was before he became disenchanted with it? Was he an Actor he knew? Or did he believe this was an unachievable archetype that haunts us?

As an Act of Protest went on to have less of life initially then I thought it would, I was happy for the self validation that it gave me and us who were in the artistic and racial trenches of NY in that time, but heavily disappointed that many of the points the film made came true, the Jimmy’s of the cinema world ignored it, as well as the Professor Eastmans of scholarly world. Why? Cause it exposed them, held them accountable. The whites who viewed the film were not ready to be the Charlotte’s and give their endorsement of it. I guess I should not be surprised cause it ended up having a life much like our plays, audiences were deeply moved by the film but no one with influence had the guts to be its champion. It was the roadblocks of Post 9/11 America, Giuliani became a hero, was morphed into Rudy The Rock and all the terror he spread throughout the City of New York was swept under the rug by an incident that had nothing to do with him, talk about a bouncing backhanded slap in the face. 9/11 changed New York, it took the focus off the real terrorists, grew patriotism in ranks it never before existed and then all those calls of “41 Shots” and the screams for ABNER and AMADOU became a footnote on a Wikipedia page. Much of what I have seen the last nearly 15 years since the release of “Protest” is  a degrading of our spirit as Black people, New Yorkers, Americans,  Human Beings. That is why As an Act of Protest is now as important as ever. It now exists like an old tape signal bursting into your screen, that sketchy memory you try to forget, but can not cause it haunts you – its inescapable truth. It still haunts us, I remember Dennis saying to me a few years after Protest he would never make cinema again, but – thankfully – he is back at it as he embarks on his next film Octavia: Elegy For A Vampire. Protest has followed me in my consciousness, it had a major influence on my upcoming film Spit, in many ways they are cousins. But it haunts all us when now nearly 15 years later the we hear names like Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Trayvon Martin and Aiyana Jones and countless others. It asks us, very strongly, when are we going to ACT???? And it stays with as a reminder that we, still, have not answered that question….yet.

Mtume Gant

NYC, November 2014

Spit Indiegogo Campaign raises nearly 6,500 Dollars! Thats 29% more than it goal!

I would be lying if I did not say the last few years were not some of the most difficult I have ever had in my life, personally I was disappointed, professionally I felt blocked/without access and thus artistically I felt without an outlet – I thought I was alone in the wilderness. Oh how wrong I was about that last feeling. Not saying how I felt was invalid but it was inaccurate, living in my pain made me disregard the massive amount of support I have within my community at large, the legion of individuals from many different walks of my life who without question have often given themselves to me cause they saw something, believed in my visions, felt kinship to my aims or in many instances were just simply dynamite people. So I write this to say with the deepest amount of gratitude, thank you. The whole process of Spit has given me new energy or maybe (and even better) reignited energy within me that has been resting dormant and anxious for sometime. The fact we raised a hair under 6,500 dollars is simply incredible, now I feel like have a mountain worth of champions, so when those little anxiety attacks begin to rear their ugly heads I can always think of you all, my cheering section, my my angelic army, my family in love and art. I now transition into less than 2 weeks (Yikes!) of the filming of Spit, so Ill be stepping of the Internet for a good long while (kinda need it) so I can hunker down and make the piece of art that you all have shown me – by contributing, posting, re-posting, sending words of encouragement, putting up with my constant updates (ha!) and simply being solid as a rock folks – believe I can make. You have all shown me you are there for me, know that the same is from me to you, I am a modern communication device away. So one last thank you to you all, thank you for reminding me to always honor my gifts.

With immense gratitude
Mtume Gant

Experts from “An Alter-Eye, Bitter Tongue, Broken Heart And Empty Gun”

“I was born and raised with a pretty care free attitude. Age and experience as a Black person in this country saw me develop anxiety, bitterness and paranoia. My work as an artist has always been a blend (at best) but mostly a tug between those two sides of me – the natural and the developed. That paranoid adult searching for how to let that care free being within me find a place to exist, express and say its name without edit. That’s why I have always loved the art of drama, cause I exist in conflict, we all do, the problem is here in America we want to act as if all things can be solved in 2 hours or in 45 minutes (with 15 minutes of additional commercials). Quicktime solutions are our national past time (just look at the Iraq war), you will not find this in my cinema. I’m not arrogant enough to say I got the answers, Kanye would never make that accusation of me. None of us do and if someone is wearing that front pat ‘em down for a wire and ask them if their name is Smith. What I do have is a journey, honesty of my sight and an unflinching willingness to tell you how I really feel about something.” M.G. – Expert from an unfinished essay/memoir “An Alter-Eye, Bitter Tongue, Broken Heart And Empty Gun”  (2014)

Rebels from the Underground

I have been thinking a lot about legacy as I journey to create my film “Spit”. The legacy and trials of Black Cinema. Our struggle through this terrain of American arts “culture”, how we have been limited and still in moments have found ways to “signal through the flames” and create great pieces, but then in turn have had them suppressed by those with the power to do so. None of these film ring louder in my head than the classic film Chameleon Street. Chameleon Street is a masterwork of cinema, one of the best film debut’s I have ever seen, an non typical look at Black psychological nature and struggle within the American capitalist structure and one of the only films I have ever seen to show a Black person as incredibly multi-dimensional, even in a ways that we may not like but must embrace. Often Black people in cinema, even the cinema we create our characters end up serving either stereotypes “they” want us to fit into or archetypes “we” want to be comfortable with. Chameleon Street and its Director/Star Wendell B. Harris, Jr. denies all of it and creates a character so nuanced that in the end he is left as he should be….a human being. And its because he is so human this film even after winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance was pummeled into obscurity. American Cinema has not shown its willing to accept Black humanity in all its facets. Chameleon Street is a energetic for father to “Spit”, and Wendell B. Harris is one of my hero’s. My homeboy Marcus Pinn at Pinnland Empire wrote a great piece on Wendell a few years back. Check it http://www.pinnlandempire.com/2012/06/what-happened-to-wendell-b-harris-jr.html

 

Check the campaign for Spit!

Azariah Gunn joins the cast for “Spit”

With great pleasure and appreciation I like to announce that Suzette Azariah Gunn has agreed to play the role of “Cassidy”, girlfriend of lead character “Monk One” in my film SPIT. I have been waiting to work with Suzette for some time , this maverick of a sister brings deep rooted power to her performances and frankly when I wrote this role she was the first who came to my mind. The role of Cassidy requires someone with a big heart, strong persona but a caring gentleness all in one, so this felt like a natural fit, frankly I had to have her. Can’t wait to get to work with her on this! – Mtume Gant Check the Campaign

Suzette Azariah Gunn is an actress, writer, director from New York. She is a young woman who not only chose to study all sides of acting but keeps herself actively involved with each entity. She has a degree in Acting from Howard University, DC and Oxford University, England. This multicultural actress known as the chameleon with electric eyes, has starred and guest starred on TV, film and in theater, having played a variety of nationalities and characters in a range of genres. She has received glowing reviews in the NY Times, Variety, NY Post and NY Sun. Azariah seeks to break barriers in this field looking for challenging unconventional roles that speak to the human condition.

​​In addition to acting, Ms. Gunn is a private acting coach. Her clients have booked numerous projects in film, theater and television. Her hands on and personal approach gives the actor an opportunity to find what is authentic to them.

She is an advocate for the self-esteem development and emotional well being of young girls and has spoken at various venues siting poetry and some of her own personal journeys from her book A-Z Diaries. 

She also speaks as an advocate on the awareness of skin cancer and the need for people of color to get tested. She is surviving the battle and thriving due to early detection. 

Her directorial debut film “Spare Change” had its red carpet premiere at the HBO International Latino Film Festival in 2010 and she  completed her first book A-Z Diaries which was released May 31st 2012.

Erica Chamblee joins the cast of “Spit”

It gives me the greatest pleasure to announce our first bit of casting for my film “Spit”. Erica Chamblee will be playing the role of “Selma”, Monk-One’s Mother who we see in her younger years. I have known Erica for many years, we trained together at Purchase College Class of 2002 and what I have always loved about her acting is her incredible honesty, I mean I don’t think I have ever seen her give a fake moment and as a Director these are the kind of actors you look for and have to have, they anchor your projects. Erica is also quite a maverick in her own right. I am ecstatic to have her on board! – Mtume Gant

Erica Chamblee is an actress, dancer, and visual artist from Washington, D.C., who studied theater and dance at both Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts and in the BFA program at SUNY Purchase. She has performed at many theaters in the D.C. area, including the Kennedy Center, H Street Playhouse and Roundhouse Theater Silver Spring. Erica recently appeared on Showtime and the Sundance Channel as “Kendra” in the film Toe to Toe, in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award winning Lincoln, and in Netflix’s critically acclaimed hit series, House of Cards as “Cassandra” . She recently performed in Lioness: Pride of America at the Interesctions Arts Festival in D.C. directed by Holly Bass, and served as assistant-choreographer to Ms. Bass for the Department of Public Works Touch Truck Ballet. She has been a company member with Contradiction Dance, a modern dance company based in the D.C. area for three years where she has been featured as a soloist as well as a member of the ensemble. In 2015, she will appear in Cherokee, a new play by Lisa D’Amour at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in D.C.. Erica also has a production company called Soblu Inc. with her sister and will be producing and appearing in a number of films beginning in 2015.

The Struggle for Honor. (For Ruby)

I will admit a part of me was angry when Ruby Dee passed. Don’t get me wrong everything that had to do with her physically leaving us left me with me the greatest of sadness, but whenever one of our Black unsung pass on my bitterness wells up because I am reminded that they’ll never have in life the platform they deserved within this nation. The unfairness that when a Sissy Spacek or Meryl Streep – deservedly so cause they are geniuses – were crafting careers for the ages, the Ruby Dee’s or Cicely Tyson’s had to settle for less than their worth in this industry. We applaud them for the grace of their resilience but something in me refuses to accept that as some kind of consolation prize for what I feel to be careers that should have been granted so much more. Back when I was in acting school a (white) classmate of mine asked me who was one of my favorite actors, I said “Al Freeman Jr”, he looked at me with bewilderment and asked “who is he?” (chances are a few you reading this just said the same.) The truth is I still have not forgiven this nation for the placism they have continually practiced, that Gloria Foster’s genius was not allowed to be recognized on a large scale until towards her very end in what can’t help but feel like a “slip through the cracks” appearance in The Matrix blockbusters coupled with an uncomfortable irony that her physical flesh extinguished just as her star began to have some recognition – I mean come on, the symbolism there is pretty much shouting at us – are we listening?!

The bile remains in my mouth because the placism is still in practice, the theatre just has a refurbished locale. When a study finds that 76.3% of speaking roles in motion pictures in the US are performed by Whites we can hardly call that progress – especially since other aspects like multi-dimensional content for people of color, non stereotypical representation and diversity in positions such as directing, screenwriting and other technical professions in Film and TV have for the most part gone unchanged. Now I speak about this from experience, from personal account. I have been an actor professionally for over 20 years of my life, it is common knowledge that while anyone can have a “stroke of luck” within this business, what is without a doubt is that if you are of color, any road you will take to reach that height will be traveled in second class, where there are less seats and often times you will be forced to ride in a compromising position. So acceptance becomes as much your life’s work as your actual craft, how much you can “not let it get to you”, “rise above it”, “be 2 times as good” and hope that you will be judged properly and the “best person for the job will get the role”

It’s taken me 20 years of disrespect of not only myself but the countless amount of other actor’s of color to accept not so much in my head but within my fiber that living the existence of “colored actor dictated by whiteness” is a trap. There is a reason why that white acting classmate of mine does not know who Al Freeman Jr is – sadly many Black folk as well – they were never meant too. It has taken me 20 years to fully accept that within the confines of the industry structure I am not meant to have the career I deserve, cause that would mean that the whiteness which shapes the lens of this industry would have to give up something, it would have to be willing to destroy itself, relinquish privilege, wave the white flag (pun intended) and with a repentant spirit surrender itself to something called equal footing, and frankly I learned to not hold my breath at a young age so forgive me if my belief in that as a remote possibility is at a complete zero.

The only acceptance I now find of worth is the acceptance of the evidence presented to me. What do I find when I observe that someone like Wendell Harris can make a film that wins the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance but is immediately pummeled into obscurity by racisms structure because its very existence challenges whiteness in total? Well my mind now goes to a quote by another unsung, Ivan Dixon that my good friend Dennis Leroy Kangalee put me on to recently:

“And I think that is the kind of horror of Black American life that we have accepted that struggle for the dollar instead of struggling for humanity. For honor”

I now know it is time for the struggle for honor. The only proper course. Wendell Harris’s refusal to allow his (unsung) classic Chameleon Street to be stripped of its folk spirit and morphed into a platform for god knows what in some kind of minstrel remake would be in vain if I continue to buy in (side note – tell me time a film by a white filmmaker that won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance that was asked to be remade instead of being released? Think they would have made that request for Welcome to The Dollhouse or The Brother’s McMullen? My sideways face is major on that one. But I digress). Wendell’s refusal, Dixon’s conviction, Bill Gunn’s lucid “madness” are roadmaps for me, for us. Recently I was told by a now former acting rep of mine that if I wanted to keep a career in the movie business I must refrain from talking about politics, I must keep my internet trail free of opinions on social issues, he warned me that producers and casting people search through actors on-line profiles to see if they are potentially too “controversial” to hire. Now how would I honor Ruby’s spirit of protest if I conformed to these demands? Let this modern McCarthyism define my actions and when to apply my solidarity? There is no honor left in Hollywood – you can debate if there ever really was any – they barely even let their fiery geniuses who are white move with any freedom – read about the career trials of Hal Ashby, Barbara Loden or John Cassavetes if you think I am off base. John Carpenter recently said in an interview that this is currently the lowest time for creativity in Hollywood’s history, so where do you think that leaves myself? Leaves that Asian actress or actor who accounts for 5% of speaking roles in movies in the US? That Latino thespian who is a member of 26% of the movie ticket buying market but only is allotted 4.2% of roles? If one is looking for Hollywood and even our supposed “indie cinema” network to be the place where we will one day display the many shades of humanity of people of color in this nation than I hope drinking artificial sweetener for the rest of your life is a proper trade off for living in reality.

The struggle for honor can happen, right now. We can birth a cinema that makes that humanity Ivan Dixon spoke about a requisite. How do I know it can happen? Cause I can look at the work we have already done, the best of it was when we refused and resisted. There is a reason that Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess was the only American Film shown in the Critics Week at The Cannes Film Festival in 1973. It or Chameleon Street’s repression symbolizes their excellence more than anything! They were confiscated because they where signals through the flames. Our only failure then were the times and its limitations. Technology and the lessons of our past give us now an opportunity, we can make the spirit of these works evident to all in way a Julie Dash couldn’t when she made Daughter of the Dust because she had to surrender its release to the mercy of the establishment that didn’t understand it. If you have a computer and some kind of screen now you have the potential for a theatre, it’s really that simple. So officially I relinquish my alliance to that “other” sector, if you ask me what I am, I will respond “A phantom dramatist of the cinema of the undead. Cold bones to remind me that my warmth of flesh is precious and the fire in my heart is something I must always honor by letting its beat harmonize with living things who are unwired to the hive”. It’s simply the natural order of things. Ruby, our “Mother Sister” is watching us, let’s make sure her and all our ancestors struggle for honor will not be in vain – Mtume Gant 8/24/2014

Peep my struggle for honor, the campaign my new film: Spit