It was a matter of minutes or maybe hours before Obama-boosting black film director Spike Lee was quoted in disgust that the black professionals who made Selma were overlooked for the Oscars, both for director Ava du Vernay and for actor David Oyelowo. (The film was nominated for Best Picture, and Golden Globe winners John Legend and Common were nominated for Best Song.)
Marlow Stern of the Daily Beast was already sent to Lee to do a profile for his latest movie, a horror project funded by fans on Kickstarter called Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. Stern mentioned Lee’s movies being overlooked for Best Picture, especially his ambitious biopic Malcolm X. (He was nominated for Best Screenplay for Do The Right Thing in 1990, when Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture.)
“Join the club!” Lee chuckled, before getting serious. “But that doesn’t diminish the film. Nobody’s talking about motherfuckin’ Driving Miss Daisy. That film is not being taught in film schools all across the world like Do the Right Thing is. Nobody’s discussing Driving Miss Motherfuckin’ Daisy. So if I saw Ava today I’d say, ‘You know what? Fuck ’em. You made a very good film, so feel good about that and start working on the next one.”
....One of the major problems, according to Lee, is the composition of the Academy voting body, which is 94 percent white and an average of 63 years old. In other words, it’s a different generation of people and thinking, which could explain why most Oscar-winning characters portrayed by African-Americans are subservient—from the slave (12 Years a Slave) to the maid (The Help).
“Let’s be honest. I know they’re trying to become more diverse, but when you look at the Academy and Do the Right Thing or Driving Miss Daisy, are they going to choose a film where you have the relatively passive black servant, or are they going to choose a film with a menacing ‘Radio Raheem?’” asked Lee. “A lot of times, people are going to vote for what they’re comfortable with, and anything that’s threatening to them they won’t.”
But Lee, who also expressed shock that the Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself failed to be recognized, said he was optimistic about the Academy’s trajectory under Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first black president in Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences history.
“The Academy is trying to be more diverse,” he said. “Cheryl is trying to open it up and have more diversity amongst the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But with Selma, it’s not the first time it’s happened, and every time it does I say, ‘You can’t go to awards like the Oscars or the Grammys for validation. The validation is if your work still stands 25 years later.’”
