Summary
Currently available to stream on MGM+,Hollywood Blackis afour-part docuseriesfrom filmmaker Justin Simien. The project is inspired by Donald Bogle’s book of the same name and “chronicles the history of cinema from a radically Black perspective.” Simien travels back in time to shed light on Black films that have been locked away or forgotten and emphasize their historical significance. The docuseries gives Black actors and Black creatives an opportunity to share their personal stories, with Bogle, himself, making an appearance.
In addition to directing,Justin Simienserves as an executive producer for Culture Machine alongside Kyle Laursen. He is known for his work on projects such asDear White People,Bad Hair, andThe Haunted Mansion. Simien shares that he grew up reading Bogle’s work, but found the themes even more relatable in adulthood. He feels lucky that the historian allowed the studio to adaptHollywood Black, and Simien hopes the docuseries will help the world realize how integral Black culture has always been to the film industry.
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Screen Rantchats with Simien aboutHollywood Black’soverarching questions, Black films that have impacted his own work, and cinema’s ability to control history.
Justin Simien Describes The Origins Of Hollywood Black & His Efforts To Bring It To Life
Simien Knew There Was “No Way To Embark On This Endeavor” Without Consulting Donald Bogle
Screen Rant: At the beginning of the documentary, you mention that this started with you reaching out to Donald Bogle about the history of Black cinema. What is it about him and his work in particular that inspires you?
Justin Simien: He is just sort of the seminal, preeminent historian about these things. I was feeling like I needed to revisit some of these stories and some of this history, and I just instinctively knew to start with him. I grew up with a book called “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks.” It’s one of those must-reads, and it’s something that I read in high school, but I wasn’t able to quite relate it to my present-day life until I read it in this particular season.
I just felt like, “Wow, there’s so much more here that I want to know,” and that I just couldn’t believe wasn’t already available in documentary form. So I knew that there was no way to really embark on an endeavor like this without consulting with him and using his work as the foundation. And luckily, he had this other book, Hollywood Black, that he was willing to allow us to adapt. So it ended up being very fortuitous.
One of the big questions that you address here is “What makes a Black film?” and there were a lot of different answers. What is a Black film to you?
Justin Simien: To me, it’s the audience. The film becomes something that the audience, specifically, Black people, need and value as part of our culture. I think that has to be the defining factor, because, of course, some of the great Black films, just by nature of our industry and the way things happen here, were not necessarily directed by a Black person or written by a Black person. So it can sometimes get tricky to define, but it’s the movies that we embrace in our community, I think, and really who it’s for. That really is, for me, the determining factor.
You talk about how the first movie you remember seeing wasThe Wiz. How has that movie impacted your work as a Black filmmaker and ignited your passion for cinema in general?
Justin Simien: It’s one of those things where I don’t even think I realized it until I was much older. I’ve seen The Wiz like a billion times, and I watch it all the time. I started to piece together, “Wow, this has a lot of things that all of my movies kind of have.” This sort of surrealist, Black-infused cinematic universe that is sometimes intellectual, sometimes it’s silly, sometimes it’s pop-culture, it’s infused with music. That’s one of those things I don’t even think I tried to do.
It’s something I’ve noticed about my work. When I think about it, there are certain things to me that weren’t all that radical by the time I started making movies, such as all Black people on the screen and all Black story. But yet, the story itself is not necessarily about race, per se. It’s political just by being there. It’s flamboyant. It has a camp factor. I don’t know. That must have done something in my brain chemistry to lead me down this road. This yellow brick road, as one might say.
Another point you discuss is how many Black films have been locked away or overlooked throughout history. Was there one, in particular, that you discovered during the making of this documentary that you really connected with as a filmmaker?
Justin Simien: Oh my gosh, so many. I think the two that made me angry, and anger is usually my indicator that I need to make something, was Symbiopsychotaxiplasm by William Greaves. It’s a documentary, but the premise is interesting. It kind of feels like reality TV. Everyone involved in the documentary believes they’re making a movie. They don’t realize that they’re actually in a documentary about the making of a movie.
And William Greaves is the Black filmmaker making both the fake movie inside the movie and the documentary itself. You kind of see this White liberal, very well-intentioned crew slowly turn on him and have these sort of weird shadow feelings that they’re dealing with by serving this Black intellectual at the top of the crew. The other one is Sidewalk Stories by Charles Lane.
This is a movie that came out in 1989, and I had been a Black filmmaker for some years before I even knew that something other than Do the Right Thing happened in Black cinema in 1989, and it was this incredible movie that just was buried, and a filmmaker who is such a genius that was also buried to time. I just felt really angry about that, and I wanted to talk about why that happens. It was definitely an inspiration point and a flash point for making this documentary.
Simien Admits It Was Difficult To Choose Whose Stories To Include In Hollywood Black’s Four Episodes
“There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of films that are just forever lost to time.”
You include a closer look at many of those films, and older footage, especially, isn’t always obtainable. Did you and the team run into any challenges when you were putting these clips and images together?
Justin Simien: There were tons of challenges. The funny thing is, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of films that are just forever lost to time. MoMA rediscovered this footage from a Bert Williams film. If it was completed, it would have been the first all-Black feature film ever made. Film back then would just disintegrate. Really, truly, if you didn’t put any resource into preserving it, you would lose this stuff. We had that as a starting point of trying to retrace what might have been there.
Some of my excitement about this began in 2020. This was sort of during the George Floyd protest times, and there was a bit of energy behind finding and preserving some of these films, so we did have the benefit of that. But some of this is stuff that we’re never going to ever recover, or if we do, it’ll be by accident. It’ll be locked away in some storage closet that you didn’t know that was in there. It’s a tricky situation, but I was quite excited by what we were able to find and lay our eyes on, for sure.
You speak with Black filmmakers and Black actors who share their stories. With this only being a four-part series, how did you decide who to bring on board?
Justin Simien: It was so hard. It was so hard whittling it down. Some of it was just who’s available. We been making this thing for a while. We had to pause, like everyone else, with the strikes, and deal with all kind of other factors, so some of it was just who is possible to get. But then within that, it was like, “Okay, there’s so much history here. There are so many stories here. We have so much more material than will fit in four episodes.”
It was really just about streamlining that overarching story of these individuals, one at a time, picking up some aspect of the puzzle of having ownership over our own narratives, whether that is Sidney Poitier in the star system or somebody like Spike Lee, who’s straddling both worlds. We just tried to pinpoint the individuals who move that baton through the ages, and make peace with some of the stories that we weren’t able to go into this time. Hopefully, this is an inspiration point for others to continue to excavate.
You make a fantastic point when you say that whoever controls cinema controls history. When future generations look back at your films, what do you hope the takeaway will be?
Justin Simien: I hope, especially in the case of this, that you realize we were always here. There really isn’t anything that has come out of American popular culture that does not have, as a foundation, Black culture. It is literally in the DNA of how this country was made, and the fascination with, appropriation of, and marginalization of Black culture is woven into the fabric of everything that’s come out of this country.
And film is one of those things that because, and this is a testament to what you just said, whoever controls it controls history, you look back at older films, and you see White people, and you just sort of think, “Well, those are the only people that were there.” They were the only people that were involved in this thing. Hopefully, this documentary is a bit of a counterpoint that says, “No. There were lots of other things going on.”
By nature of what cinema does, cinema removes things from the picture. It focuses you on a face, on a close-up, on a detail, but that doesn’t mean that the other things that brought that face to fruition, or that particular dance style, or even sometimes a narrative style, there are other things to consider, and Black folks are just as foundational to cinema, I think, as we were to rock and roll, or to other aspects of popular culture.
Now thatHollywood Blackhas been released, what films are you hoping to make in the future? Are you interested in creating more documentaries?
Justin Simien: I would definitely be open to doing a documentary again. There are a few features that we have in development, some that have been announced, some that haven’t. I’m writing something, and there’s a bunch of TV in development. I’m doing a Star Trek show next with Tawny Newsome and Alex Kurtzman. There are lots of plates spinning, I should say. But who knows? I would love to return to the documentary format at some point in the future, for sure.
About 4-Part Docuseries Hollywood Black
Inspired by the book from historian Donald Bogle, this four-part docuseries, directed by Justin Simien, chronicles the history of cinema, but from a radically Black perspective. By unearthing personal stories from actors, writers, directors, and producers who fought for their place on the page, behind the camera and on the screen, the series provides a critical reexamination of a quintessentially American story—in brilliant color.
Hollywood Blackis currently available to stream on MGM+.
Hollywood Black
A deep dive into the Black experience in Hollywood, this four-part docuseries explores the struggles and triumphs of Black actors, writers, directors, and producers. Featuring personal stories and historical context, it provides a critical reexamination of Hollywood through a radically Black perspective, showcasing voices like Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay.
