Post by Admin on Jan 28, 2016 11:59:07 GMT -8
Actor Danny Glover on Oscars Controversy: Maybe We Should Do Away With the Oscars
PARK CITY, UT — Danny Glover thinks Hollywood can learn a thing or two about diversity from the indie movies playing at Sundance.
“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth,” he said when asked about the current Oscar crisis. “(But) I don’t see diversity in film in the world at all anymore.”
In the 1970’s, Glover said he could easily go to mainstream theaters and watch Italian, Japanese and African films. But now, $100 million tentpoles are kicking these “real” stories out of theaters and now all he can find is a very “narrow” version of his himself onscreen.
“We need to talk about the process, the democratization of making movies, not 15 men deciding ‘You’re going to see this movie this year and this movie.”
He added: “The Academy and everything else has been what it is since the outset.”
But awards shows, Glover said, are “Subjective. They always have been.”
“Maybe we should do away with them,” he suggested. Even the Oscars, asks Variety? “Oscars.”
But, like the $100 million pics, Glover admits the Academy Awards are a giant business with lots of money and influencers behind the ceremony.
Bottom line, he said: “We don’t find movies that tell us about the real, everyday survival people. How they build families, communities…how to redefine family, community in the wake of all the devastation.”
Those were the types of films he saw as a kid growing up in the ’60s and ’70s.
“It would widen my whole sense of myself and my relationship to the rest of the world. That’s what the movies and art is supposed to be about!”
PARK CITY, UT — Danny Glover thinks Hollywood can learn a thing or two about diversity from the indie movies playing at Sundance.
“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth,” he said when asked about the current Oscar crisis. “(But) I don’t see diversity in film in the world at all anymore.”
In the 1970’s, Glover said he could easily go to mainstream theaters and watch Italian, Japanese and African films. But now, $100 million tentpoles are kicking these “real” stories out of theaters and now all he can find is a very “narrow” version of his himself onscreen.
“We need to talk about the process, the democratization of making movies, not 15 men deciding ‘You’re going to see this movie this year and this movie.”
He added: “The Academy and everything else has been what it is since the outset.”
But awards shows, Glover said, are “Subjective. They always have been.”
“Maybe we should do away with them,” he suggested. Even the Oscars, asks Variety? “Oscars.”
But, like the $100 million pics, Glover admits the Academy Awards are a giant business with lots of money and influencers behind the ceremony.
Bottom line, he said: “We don’t find movies that tell us about the real, everyday survival people. How they build families, communities…how to redefine family, community in the wake of all the devastation.”
Those were the types of films he saw as a kid growing up in the ’60s and ’70s.
“It would widen my whole sense of myself and my relationship to the rest of the world. That’s what the movies and art is supposed to be about!”
variety.com/2016/film/news/danny-glover-oscars-sundance-diversity-1201689476/#respond
I agree 100%. In addition to the lack of diversity in most mainstream awards ceremonies, there is absolutely no love or story-telling in most movies (or music) today. It's a very sad predicament when you compare what we have today (500 Superhero movies a year + unintelligible and negative "trap" "music") to things that came out prior to 2000. I also like that he mentioned the Oscars (and presumably other awards ceremonies) have been diversity-deficient since the get-go. People act like the lack of POC nominated and winning these awards is something new. It's not, and it won't change any time soon - so maybe we should just go ahead and create our own.
