Re: Selma and the Oscars. Those who are asking about the racial makeup of the nominees are asking an interesting, but ultimately a question that gets us nowhere. The issue is: why is it that Selma makes America so uncomfortable? I believe that it is that discomfort expressed as unfairness in portrayals of historical heroes such as LBJ that makes mainstream evaluators shy away. This is really about Americas relationship with its racial history. It has traditionally been treated in one of three ways: first, untold; second, revised as a story with whites as the centerpiece of the action, and as those who break the rod of the oppressed; or three, airbrushed to make it all very pleasant. Selma is none of the above. DuVernay tells the story of the everyday Black man man and woman, girl and boy of Selma who strategized, put one foot in front of the other, and sacrificed everything to register to vote. She emphasized that when every physical blow landed she slowed the motion such that the audience could see how Black people placed their own lives and bodies as a willing sacrifice to be beaten and broken by unrepentant and relentless white evil. That was their story. That is her story. That is her Exodus story of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Any film feature that focused unduly on the LBJ and MLK relationship would deny the real people of whom LBJ and King knew would suffer, their rightful tributes in history. King and Johnson can take a back seat, and even some sand in the face for once. This is not about them. America would be with us if the story were told in way that had been nicer to the white people. The same would be true of the Oscars, perhaps. But no Oscar can further polish or refine this powerful and profound story and its telling as a brilliantly crafted work of art. What makes my heart beat is that it is seen from the peoples eye view. Brava, Ava DuVernay! No Oscar is good enough for you.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 04:48:28 +0000