/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CINEMA-BRITAIN: Black Oscar Success Brings New Hope

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Samanta Sen

LONDON, Apr 2 2002 (IPS) - The Oscars this year have brought new hope to black actors and actresses in Britain still struggling to break out of minor and stereotyped roles.

Black actor Denzel Washington won the Oscar for the best lead actor at the Oscars this year for his role in Training Day. The award for best lead actress went to Halle Berry for her role in Monster’s Ball. In addition, Sydney Poitier was given an honorary Oscar.

“One hopes it would have a major impact on black British cinema,” John Akomfrah, who directed Speak Like A Child and the famous documentary Handsworth Songs, told IPS.

“It probably would because British film culture takes its cue from what happens in the U.S. North America is the key market that British film producers want to break most, and if producers here find the U.S. moving in the direction of multiplicity, they will simply have to keep up.”

At present, he says, “the black presence in British cinema is way, way behind the U.S.” This year’s Oscars – also known as the 74th Academy Awards – on March 24 were given for complex roles, Akomfrah said in an interview with IPS.

“We hope producers will look to that example, and put an end to the small stereotyped roles that black actors and actresses are endlessly offered. We have to break out of this pattern.”

Black British actors and actresses look to the U.S. for success, Akomfrah says. Actors like Eamonn Walker, who starred in Othello and Unbreakable, and Adrian Lester, who played Hamlet in Peter Brook’s production, found success after breaking into the U.S. market, he says. “They are doing much better there and that should convince British producers to look at talent here.”

Akomfrah says a part of the reason for the relative success for black actors and actresses in the U.S. is that “they have in place the quota system which is not liked very much in Britain.” That system has meant “a steady stream of black, Asian and Hispanic talent getting through.”

Cary Sawhney, multicultural policy adviser at the British Film Institute says the history of race politics in Britain and the U.S. is different in many ways. “There is a more sizeable African American population of about 30 million,” Sawhney told IPS. “In Britain it’s about three-quarters of a million, so there is a difference of dynamics.”

That among other differences has brought a vastly different profile. ” Unlike the U.S. you haven’t seen a black lead actor emerge in Britain,” Sawhney says. “Lenny Henry became well known on TV for comedy. But there has been no black British lead hero, or heroine on par with African American film actors and this remains a problem.”

Only a couple of black British films are in production at present. “We badly need a hit Black British film,” says Sawhney. “There have been talented black directors like Isaac Julien and John Akomfrah but the full potential of black British talent has not been realised.”

Sawhney cautions against expecting too much to change after the Oscars this year. “The Oscars are an important moment for the profile of African American actors in America and this should not be taken away from them,” he says. “However there is a concern that black actors’ contributions, formerly under-represented at the Oscars, need to continue to be recognised; otherwise this year’s awards could be seen as tokenistic.”

The Oscars for black stars Halle Berry and Denzel Washington, with an honorary Oscar for Sydney Poitier, the first black star to break into a lead role in the early sixties have brought some hope to black presence in British cinema — but have come also as a reminder how far behind the British are.

“The industry’s attitude is not malicious, it stems from ignorance,” says Lennie James who starred in comedies like Snatch and Lucky Break. “I only began to get properly cast as an actor in my own right 10 years after I left drama school. The U.S. has huge race problems, but at least in the U.S. culture everyone gets a chance. Here, we are sidelined and insulted.”

Denzel Washington had pointed out at the Oscars ceremony that there was a time when black actors were filmed in a way that they could be cut from the final product in certain states in the U.S. “The way we feel in Britain is not far off that,” James said.

Black producer Johann Insanally and Akomfrah have launched workshops and special projects to promote black roles in British cinema. “But institutional racism exists,” says Insanally. “You go to a financier and say you want to make a film starring black people and you are hit with that backer’s economic concerns. We do not have a black British actor considered to ‘generate’ a certain amount of money here or abroad.”

But Insanally says “I am optimistic new writing, directing and acting talent will change that.”