Next in line

FOR many, it was more than just a low-budget romantic comedy about a sexually liberated woman -- it was the first shot in a cinematic revolution.

With his 1986 breakout film, “She’s Gotta Have it,” director Spike Lee unwittingly kicked open the door for a new wave of young independent African American filmmakers armed with audacious visions and fresh perspectives about black life. Robert Townsend (“Hollywood Shuffle”), the Hughes brothers (“Menace II Society”), Mario Van Peebles (“New Jack City”), Charles Burnett (“To Sleep With Anger”), Matty Rich (“Straight Out of Brooklyn”), John Singleton (“Boyz N the Hood”) and others won over not only black moviegoers but wider audiences as well, creating comedies and dramas barbed with sharp perspectives on race, class, social conditions and politics.

But now, more than 20 years later, and in a time when race has taken center stage in presidential politics, another type of African American filmmaker has established himself as the dominant voice. With “Meet the Browns,” which made more than $20 million when it opened last week, Tyler Perry has cemented his status as Hollywood’s most consistently successful independent black filmmaker. Urban audiences have lined up in droves to enjoy his traditional formula of romantic, family-centered melodrama -- spiced with over-the-top, insult-hurling characters -- which he honed years ago writing plays aimed at black churchgoers.

Despite the film’s popularity and its message of faith, family togetherness and perseverance against seemingly overwhelming odds, the celebration within the African American creative community has been muted, its volume registering several notches below the joyous acclaim that once greeted Lee and his contemporaries.

In fact, Perry’s popularity -- and the images he has presented, particularly Madea, the gun-toting, trash-talking grandmother portrayed by Perry wearing a dress and heavy makeup -- has ignited a debate among participants and observers of the black film scene.

If Lee laid the groundwork for a diverse army of black creators, then Perry has had the opposite effect, according to several experienced and aspiring African American filmmakers who want to tell dramatic, personal stories with complexity, and without bawdy humor, broad characters or facile resolutions.

They contend they are all dressed up with no place to show, all but shut out by studios who have embraced the Perry formula, as well as comedies such as “Who’s Your Caddy?” or the youth-oriented frolics “You Got Served,” “Stomp the Yard” and “How She Move.”

“We want to tell multidimensional stories with in-depth characters,” said D’Angela Steed, one of the heads of Strange Fruit Media, which produces films and television series (BET’s “Exalted!”). The company recently pitched a made-for-TV drama to a cable network. The response? “What’s the Tyler Perry version?”

Nia Hill, Steed’s partner, added that the situation extends beyond just a lack of opportunity. “The images that are being put forth are too powerful to be taken lightly.”

But others in the industry proclaim that the African American film landscape is not only alive but thriving. They say several filmmakers, including Perry, Tim Story (“Barbershop,” the “Fantastic Four” movies), David E. Talbert (“First Sunday”) and others have tapped into commercial sensibilities and have taken advantage of increased opportunities.

“The producers and people I talk to are thrilled by the success of Tyler and the opportunities this has presented for other filmmakers,” said Charles King, an agent with the William Morris Agency who represents Perry, Story, director Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”) and Andre Benjamin, actor (“Idlewild”) and member of the rap group OutKast. “It really shows there’s a marketplace that’s not being fed.”

A harder road?

Black film festivals around that country are where up-and-coming movie-makers meet to share projects and ideas. This next wave of black filmmakers is an amorphous group, perhaps less easily categorized than those who followed Lee. Though united in their goal to make artistic statements that will draw audiences (and financial success), they differ greatly in backgrounds and perspective. All have personal stories or insights about family, life and love that they want to share. Some are industry veterans who want to make their own mark after years working as publicists or in other jobs. Some are actors who want to create more satisfying roles than those they are being offered.

And they are trying to make headway in an industry that’s almost impenetrable for independent filmmakers of any race. But some black filmmakers feel they face a harder challenge in getting their voices seen and heard, especially during this time dominated by Perry and his distinct sensibility. They say they have hit resistance in trying to create universal stories with specific and realistic black characters that would be the equivalent of “Juno,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Sideways.”

Ava Duvernay, who has scored accolades and awards for her debut short film, “Saturday Night Life,” and a documentary about an underground club that was an early venue for hip-hop, “This Is the Life,” says she has experienced roadblocks at studios when pitching her script for a romantic drama called “The Middle of Nowhere,” about a woman whose life is turned upside down when her husband is imprisoned, even though Phylicia Rashad (“The Cosby Show”) and Sanaa Lathan (“Love & Basketball”) are attached to the project.

Actor Reginald T. Dorsey, who is seeking distributing for “Kings of the Evening,” a drama set in the Great Depression that he helped produce and was a hit at the recent Pan African Film Festival, said studios and backers often tell him and other black filmmakers that the financial risks in investing in projects without a high concept or a major star outweigh the benefits and that there is little international interest in small black films. “It’s like a slap in the face,” he said. “My movie is more than just a black film. It’s about where you’re from and what you know.”

New York University film school graduate Caran Hartsfield said she has been trying to get financing and distribution for a comedic drama, “Bury Me Standing,” for the last year and a half. The script, about four family members and their differing reactions to the death of a relative, has drawn interest from Alfre Woodard (“Desperate Housewives”), Mos Def (“Be Kind Rewind”) and Katt Williams (“First Sunday”).

“When it comes to Hollywood, there’s been all this hemming and hawing,” Hartsfield said. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, we love the script,’ but it makes people nervous because it’s a black drama. It doesn’t fit within the formula; it makes them nervous.”

Said actor-director Van Peebles, who bounces between working on his own projects (“Baadasssss!”) and appearing and directing TV series (“Damages,” “Law & Order”): “It’s not that we shouldn’t have our Tyler Perrys or that we don’t want to laugh. But we don’t have our ‘A Beautiful Mind’ or ‘Lost in Translation.’ The lack of variety gets to be reductive. In Hollywood, there are only so many slots that are going to be filled by African Americans. It’s all about what the dominant culture feels is making money at the time. Are there still cinematic minstrel shows? Absolutely.”

Seeing opportunity

Still, some surveying the black film scene say that those who feel creatively stifled are seeing only one side of the picture.

Said agent Charles King: “Studios emulate what is successful. I don’t think it’s specific to the success of Tyler. It shows that family-themed comedic vehicles with African American characters are being embraced by a wide audience.”

Kent Faulcon, an actor who has written and directed a thriller about a small-town teacher and a hit man called “Sister’s Keeper,” agreed. “I feel that there’s room for me and those who are bringing something new. The response I’ve gotten has been overwhelming. I’m not discouraged. I feel enthused -- there’s a hunger there.”

Clint Culpepper, the head of Sony’s Screen Gems, added, “We admire Tyler, but we don’t need to copy him. He’s the best at what he does, and he’s fulfilling that. We want to make movies that people want to see.” The studio is developing several culturally based films, including an African American version of “The Big Chill” and a version of Jane Austen’s “Emma” in an urban setting.

Screen Gems has been working on several of the projects with Rainforest Films, a black-owned production company. The Atlanta-based producers have been the key force behind several profitable urban-oriented films, including “The Gospel,” “Stomp the Yard” and last year’s holiday hit, “This Christmas,” which many critics felt had a Perry-style vibe.

“All ships rise and fall with the tide, and this is a very good time to be a black filmmaker,” said Will Packer, who runs Rainforest Films with his partner Rob Hardy and whose next project, “Obsessed,” stars Beyonce Knowles as the wife of a businessman (Idris Elba) who learns her husband is being stalked by a temp worker in his office (Ali Larter from “Heroes”). “I can understand the frustration, that black people are more than Tyler Perry. But you have to understand how Hollywood works, and that when there is that kind of success, other people take note.”

Perry’s robust output also fuels the debate. “Meet the Browns” is his second film in less than six months (“Why Did I Get Married” was released last October) and is the first of his five films to feature an Oscar-nominated actress (Angela Bassett).

“In many ways, Tyler is to be saluted,” said Melvin Donaldson, author of “Black Directors in Hollywood.” “He created this niche for himself, using large churches to build on his interest in presenting positivity, a sense of family and faith.”

But Todd Boyd, professor of critical studies at USC, called the films “cooning. He’s really done more damage than good to the image of black people.”

The tastes of African American audiences toward more serious fare further complicate the issue. “Akeelah and the Bee,” “Talk to Me” and “The Great Debaters,” dramas that featured major stars such as Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, won critical accolades but were not huge hits with black filmgoers.

Burnett, the director of the 1977 portrait of a working-class Watts neighborhood, “Killer of Sheep,” which is considered a landmark of American independent film, put much of the dissatisfaction over the current black film landscape on the shoulders of audiences.

“Trying to get black people to go see ‘The Great Debaters’ was like pulling teeth,” said Burnett, who is seeking distribution for his latest film, “Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation,” about the long battle waged by the African country for independence. “Our own people don’t support stories that make a difference, stories that support the independent spirit.”

But observers pointed out that those films were largely marketed to art-house and general audiences, bypassing promotion in black communities. And prominent insiders downplay the dominance of Perry, saying there is plenty of room for black projects.

“Right now there isn’t that balance,” said Donaldson. “But I think the audience is there, and they’re ready for diversity.”

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greg.braxton@latimes.com