Category Archives: television

Black Media Self-Determination, Exhibit A

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Good news is always welcomed here. So here’s some.

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http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060803/lead/lead4.html
 

Region tunes in to CaribVision
 

published: Thursday | August 3, 2006

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC: The Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) lead Prime Minister for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), Owen Arthur, has fully embraced CaribVision, describing it as the region’s very “own” television station.
 

Delivering the keynote address at Tuesday’s official launch of the channel by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), Arthur complained about cultural penetration and foreign domination of the media messages and the industry as a whole in the Caribbean.

“We might indeed be one people but we surely are better informed about the affairs of others and know more about others elsewhere in the world than we know about our own right here in the Caribbean,” he said.

The Barbados Prime Minister noted the Caribbean enjoyed a rich cultural heritage but further lamented that “our senses have by and large been shielded from enjoying this rich heritage, while we have been inundated by cultural imports, which sadly, have largely promoted gratuitous violence, amoral lifestyles, a profound disregard for good literature, among their most imposing effects.”
 

Caribbean artistes

He also complained about exploitation of Caribbean artistes by foreign media entities in pursuit of profit.

It was in this context that he welcomed the launch of CaribVision, which will be beamed directly from the Caribbean to the people of the region and the Caribbean Diaspora.

CMC’s Chairman Darcy Boyce noted that demand for the Caribbean product internationally was growing and that more Caribbean companies were becoming pan-Caribbean in orientation.

“Clearly, a media house with reach throughout the Caribbean is now necessary. Beyond that, such a media house must be able to carry its product into the international markets where there is an interest in and demand for Caribbean media content. No other media house is creating a Caribbean media space in the same way as CaribVision,” Boyce said.
 

CaribVision facts

CaribVision is a cooperative venture between CMC, regional and U.S. partners.

These include CBC of Barbados; TV6 of Trinidad and Tobago; CVM, TVJ and CPTC of Jamaica; ICRT, Cuba; ZNS, Bahamas; SoundView Broadcasting of New York and many independent producers around the region.

The channel is currently aired in Antigua, Anguilla, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominica, St. Eustatius, U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

"Eyes" Forward, Albeit Somewhat Blinded

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

So I read the small blurb in The Crisis magazine the other day that “Eyes On The Prize” will return to Public Tee Vee this fall. I was elated, until I read the (original?) Boston Globe story.

Excerpted out of order from Catherine Foster’s May 26, 2006 Globe account:

The clearance rights for the astounding amount of material, which had originally been negotiated to be used for varying periods of time by Blackside, gradually expired.

It took four or five years to raise $915,000 for research, rights clearance, and post-production costs, said Sandra Forman, Blackside attorney and director of the “Eyes on the Prize” Renewal Project.

So Blackside had indeed raised the $900,000 or so ( the total cost of any five Diddy parties, right?) for broadcast rights, but not the rights to allow the series to be sold again on DVD.

*SIGH*

Oh, yeah, and I gotta point out that:

The first six hours took 10 years to fund and produce.

I have the greatest respect for our ancestor Henry Hampton and the fact that he used up half his life to create Black documentaries and get them on American screens. It must be said, however, that “Eyes On The Prize” is a racially, politically and ideologically conservative, PBS- and Ford Foundation-approved version of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. I’ve always seen it as akin to a documentary series on the Jewish Holocaust that was partially produced and (under)written by a modern-day unified German government. “Eyes I,” from 1987, shows a part of the Black Freedom Movement as something called the Civil Rights Movement—a time, according to “Eyes,” in which small groups of whites and Blacks lovingly came together to nonviolently expand American democracy.

However, its national airing—particularly “Eyes II”‘s 1990 debut, showing the Black Panther Party and Attica to a generation (read: me :)) who had never seen anything like that level of resistance—was one of the biggest mistakes this system ever made. Back then. When many of us we were wearing African medallions and trying to read books on our history and culture. When Mandela released himself from a South African prison. When Spike Lee was still angry and BET still had its first newscast and its first version of “Teen Summit,” and when those shows were followed in subsequent years by SEVERAL talk programs/newsmagazines (“For Black Men Only,” “Screen Scene,” “Conservations with Ed Gordon,” “The Color Of Money”) . I’m just sayin’. 🙂

The tragedy of “Eyes” is that Black resistance against a system of oppression is somehow never seen. But I guess we can’t expect foundations created from the spoils of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy to actually pay to show that to our lil’ chillins, can we? Those innocent tykes might actually start to ask some questions about their society………. 🙂 Or even worse, ask questions about what WE have done, or not done, to further this Movement.

Time to get out the DVD recorders before the screen blacks out again.

BET To Air African Historical Animated Series

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

As a cartoon geek, a tangential student of African history and soon-to-be student of African mythology, I couldn’t be happier about this news :):

Click here for the story

LOS ANGELES – Vin Diesel will take on the Roman Empire in a new BET Networks cartoon series about military leader Hannibal.
Diesel will voice the noted general, and his One Race Prods. company is producing the show, titled Hannibal the Conqueror.

The half-hour series will span the life of Hannibal, from his tutelage as a warrior under his father, Hamilcar Barca, to his scaling of the Alps with an army of elephants, and his invasion of Italy.

Diesel, who also is in development on a feature film centering on Hannibal, called the series “groundbreaking.”

“I knew that BET would be the perfect place to launch an animated series that celebrates an African mythology and a general that is probably the most notorious general of all time,” Diesel said. “It’s a story that resonates with everyone–it truly is a celebration of a general who is able to bring everyone together with the common cause to essentially fight for freedom.”

The network has ordered six episodes, and is planning to air it in a primetime slot in fall 2007.

“This isn’t a Saturday morning show–we want to be able to show a lot more of the drama and action that you expect to see in primetime,” BET senior vp animation Denys Cowan said.

I thought my action cartoon-fiending days were over when Cartoon Network’s “Justice League Unlimited” ended this spring. Ancient history told properly from an African-centered mythological perspective…..it’s about damn time! Now, if BET Enterainment President Reginald Hudlin can only get a cartoon about Marvel Comics’ Black Panther green-lit, we’re in business! It shouldn’t be too hard for him to be the liaison, since he writes the character for the monthly comic.