Is Hollywood Green?

The final words from Melvin van Peebles in Classified X were a statement saying something like Hollywood is not actually driven solely by money, which is the common belief. He makes this statement because he does not see films being made for black communities that are truthful or culturally relevent. Though I agree with Peebles that this kind of film has yet to come out of Hollywood, I don't know if it is right to condemn Hollywood because of this.

Recently we have seen that there is a large audience in America willing to spend money on tickets to see films from a black perspective. The immense popularity and box-office success of Tyler Perry's work (Madea's Family Reunion, Diary of a Mad Black Woman) shows us that there is, in fact, a market for films centered on issues within America's black community. What stands out about these films, though, is their relative safeness. Perry's work is conservative by anyone's means, maintains tidy allegories and life lessons, and stresses comforting ideas of family and tradition.

Today, the market for more radical black film, such as Peeble's own work, is much smaller than the market for this kind of feel-good film. This, I believe, is why Hollywood has not invested in more daring black film, while championing something like Perry's work. Moreso, Hollywood makes films for the masses, and by making films with a specific cultural focus, they would alienate a large portion of their possible market (in this case, us white folk).

As with any film addressing culturally specific ideas, the real outlet is found in independent film. In order to make a statement about anything other than culturally accepted, safe ideas, one must find a way to market to the people willing to hear them. This means Hollywood is out of the picture immediately since, as I said, they usually go for the larger audience.

This, unfortunately, means that black communities are neglected and rarely see their own culture presented on the screen, and with the lack of screening opportunities for independent black film, many communities will never feel like their own culture is accepted. Because Hollywood is driven by money, and the investors backing the films want to make good financial decisions (i.e. funding the safe box-office bets), how do we address this problem? Though I don't think it is fair to condemn Hollywood, I don't ignore that there is a problem presented by the way the system is.

Any thoughts?