New York

Real Classy Tribute to Derek Jeter

Posted on by in ad, New York, Nike, Sports.

What I love about this ad is that there is no dialogue, no grand special effects or grand proclamations. We see one of New York’s most revered athletes shown getting respect from a host of people (even opposing players) for all that he has achieved over the years. The fact that the gratitude is expressed by the simplest of gestures — a hat-tip — makes this ad all the more rewarding.

Well done, Nike.

Harry Belafonte on Race & Cinema

Posted on by in Cinema, Film Critics Circle Awards, Harry Belafonte, New York, Quotes, Race.

This is from a speech made by the legendary artist Harry Belafonte at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards last week.

“… The power of cinema is an uncontainable thing and it’s truly remarkable, in its capacity for emotional evolution. When I was first watching the world of cinema, there was a film that stunned the world, with all its aspects and art form. They did a lot, at that time. The film was done by D.W. Griffith, and it was called The Birth of a Nation, and it talked about America’s story, its identity, and its place in the universe of nations. And that film depicted the struggles of this country with passion and power and great human abuse. Its depiction of black people was carried with great cruelty. And the power of cinema styled this nation, after the release of the film, to riot and to pillage and to burn and to murder black citizens. The power of film.

At the age of five, in 1932, I had the great thrill of going to the cinema. It was a great relief for those of us who were born into poverty, a way we tried to get away from the misery. One of the films they made for us, the first film I saw, was Tarzan of the Apes. [Ed note: The movie is called Tarzan the Ape Man.] In that film, [we] looked to see the human beauty of Johnny Weissmuller swinging through the trees, jump off, and there spring to life, while the rest were depicted as grossly subhuman, who were ignorant, who did not know their way around the elements, living in forests with wild animals. Not until Johnny Weissmuller stepped into a scene did we know who we were, according to cinema.
Throughout the rest of my life … on my birth certificate, it said “colored.” Not long after that, I became “Negro.” Not too long after that, I became “black.” Most recently, I am now “African-American.” I spent the better part of almost a century just in search of, seeking, “Who am I? What am I? What am I to be called? What do I say? Who do I appeal to? Who should I be cautious of?” In this life, when we walk into the world of cinema, we use the instrument that is our ability to try to give another impression of who and what we were as a people, and what we meant to this great nation called America. I’m glad that Sidney Poitier should step into this space right after the Second World War, and new images of what we are as people, certainly as men.

A lot’s gone on with Hollywood. A lot could be said about it. But at this moment, I think what is redeeming, what is transformative, is the fact that a genius, an artist, is of African descent, although he’s not from America, he is of America, and he is of that America which is part of his own heritage; [he] made a film called 12 Years a Slave, which is stunning in the most emperial way. So it’s a stage that enters a charge made byThe Birth of a Nation, that we were not a people, we were evil, rapists, abusers, absent of intelligence, absent of soul, heart, inside. In this film,12 Years a Slave, Steve steps in and shows us, in an overt way, that the depth and power of cinema is there for now the world to see us in another way. I was five when I saw Tarzan of the Apes, and the one thing I never wanted to be, after seeing that film, was an African. I didn’t want to be associated with anybody that could have been depicted as so useless and meaningless. And yet, life in New York led me to other horizons, other experiences. And now I can say, in my 87th year of life, that I am joyed, I am overjoyed, that I should have lived long enough to see Steve McQueen step into this space and for the first time in the history of cinema, give us a work, a film, that touches the depths of who we are as a people, touches the depths of what America is as a country, and gives us a sense of understanding more deeply what our past has been, how glorious our future will be, and could be.
I think that the Circle Award made a wise decision picking you as the director of the year. I think we look forward in anticipation to what you do in the future. But even if you never do anything else, many in your tribe, many in the world, are deeply grateful of the time and genius it took to show us a way that it should be. Forever and eternally grateful to say that we are of African descent. Thank you.“
– Text provided by Vulture 

Telling It Like It Is for More Than 40 Years

Posted on by in ABC, Daily News, Ed Silverman, Gil Noble, Like It Is, New York, Newsroom.

It was very sad news to hear last week that the man of the only afro-centric news show on network television, had passed away. Gil Noble had died of a stoke. He was 80-years-old.

Gil Noble is perhaps most well known for his 1-hour long television show “Like It Is,” which aired locally on channel ABC 7 here in the New York area.

Noble was one the first of what would be a new wave of black journalists hired by major news organizations when he was hired by ABC in 1967. It was a tenuous time in America. Malcolm X had been killed just two years earlier, the Vietnam War was in full swing, riots were breaking out across the country and in just a matter of months, Martin Luther King would be assassinated on a balcony in Memphis. Times were changing, and so to were newsrooms.

Up until the mid 60s, many newsrooms (and TV studios) were essentially lilly white institutions. Few people of color were covering these rapidly changing times of the late 60s and that was a problem. Credit Ed Silverman, who was the director of public affairs at Ch. 7 and who eventually hired Gil Noble, for saying as much in this excerpt to the Daily News:

“We decided to get off our assess and hire some African-Americans. TV news was lily white then. There were no black faces.”

Soon after, Noble was hired and by 1968 had his own show, “Like It Is.” Noble interviewed diplomats, world leaders, religious figures, civil rights leaders, as well as those in and around the NY area who were prominent people in the news at that time, such as the wife of Sean Bell in 2007.

How rare was the position that Gil Noble held? I can’t think of another person of color who wrote, produced and headlined their own news show on network television. Not one. Considering blacks make up just under 5% of all employees in newsrooms in America, that is a stunning development.

In the late 80s when my mother was pregnant with me and still living in Brooklyn, she ran into Gil Noble on the street. Mr. Noble asked the name of her son to be. She remarked, “Warin. Warin for warrior.” He replied, “Make sure he lives up to such a name.” Rest In Peace, brother Gil.