A Slimmer Year for Black Films : Movies: Some blame the industry, others say the major black filmmakers are working on ’93 films.

Last year this time, “Boyz N the Hood” was emerging as one of the hottest films of the year, the latest in a wave of movies from African-American filmmakers that included “New Jack City,” “Straight Out of Brooklyn” and “Jungle Fever.”

But if 1991 was a breakthrough year for black-oriented movies, 1992 has been a comedown so far. Last year, about 20 major films dealing with African-American themes were released out of the roughly 140 films distributed by the major film companies. This year, the number will be half that, while the overall output of the studios will be roughly the same.

Certainly, by the end of the year, Spike Lee’s highly anticipated “Malcolm X,” starring Denzel Washington as the controversial ‘60s Black Nationalist leader will be in theaters, as will the South African musical “Sarafina!” starring Whoopi Goldberg. In addition, “South Central,” based on the Donald Bakeer book “Crips,” directed by Steve Anderson and produced by Oliver Stone, is due this fall. And, come 1993, the number of African-American-themed movies will swell again.

There are varying opinions among African-American filmmakers about why 1992 hasn’t been a more notable year for films by and about blacks. They range from obstacles for minority filmmakers in a white-dominated industry to the fact that many of the filmmakers whose films were released in 1991 are busy this year making movies for next year.

“In my view, it’s not like Hollywood is losing interest in black movies,” said Matty Rich, who directed “Straight Out of Brooklyn.” “The filmmakers from last year are getting ready for next year. The problem is the door is already closing. Those (filmmakers) from last year are in. But it’s not open for many newcomers. There can’t be too many of us. The system is not designed for us to be very dominant.”

The year’s biggest box-office hit by a black filmmaker is the current “Boomerang,” which was propelled into production by Eddie Murphy. So far the comedy, directed by Reginald Hudlin and produced by Warrington Hudlin (“House Party”), has grossed about $65 million at the box office.

But two earlier black-themed movies this year, “Juice,” about inner-city youths who become involved in violence, and “Class Act,” which starred the rap duo Kid N Play, proved box-office disappointments. And this summer’s “Mo’ Money,” with Damon and Marlon Wayans of TV’s “In Living Color,” has done only so-so business.

Producer Doug McHenry, who with his partner George Jackson made last year’s popular “New Jack City” as well as “House Party 2,” attributed the small response to “Class Act” to “little black involvement” on the production side. “It can be argued that the sensibility they brought to the films lacked a correct philosophy of what the target audience (blacks) wanted to see. As a result, blacks didn’t support the film.

“I’m not saying a white filmmaker can’t make a fine film about blacks. But the probability is that many of the proven black filmmakers are better able to do that than novice white filmmakers.”

McHenry and Jackson say that even with their success, they have run into financing problems at Warner Bros., where their production firm is based. “We’ve been trying to get an answer for a sequel on ‘New Jack City’ . . . but I can’t explain the holdup,” McHenry said.

He said that any film that grossed $50 million--which is about what “New Jack City” did--is a candidate for a sequel, but that “the same rules don’t seem to apply here for us. It’s not the same for African-American filmmakers as it is for others. It’s clear that despite the success that African-American filmmakers had last year, there aren’t the same number this year.”

Warner Bros. did not respond to requests for comment.

McHenry believes part of the problem is that the studio executives “we’re selling to . . . have an insensitivity to the black market. There’s also a lack of prerogatives for African-American filmmakers, whereas white filmmakers have a lot more access to more material and distributors and resources.”

He contended that the issue actually goes to a “greater issue of institutional racism. Why black entrepreneurs don’t have access to capital in the first place.”

Frank Underwood, who is a partner with his brother, “L.A. Law” cast member Blair Underwood, in Quiet Fury Prods., said, “The door is only open to the black filmmakers for a short time. We have to rush to get the product in. The last rush was in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Hollywood is always into trendy things. And it was trendy then to have black product. It is now again.”

With that in mind, the Underwood brothers and Matty Rich are busy planning films.

Rich is working on a script for TriStar Pictures called “The Forty Thieves,” about the first black organized crime family in America, which he hopes to begin shooting next year. The project is a much more expansive work than his gritty, shoestring “Straight Out of Brooklyn.” But he sees it as part of the need to expand upon the themes in African-American movies. “There are many dimensions to blacks. We’ve got to go beyond stereotypical themes.”

Underwood said that he and his brother are planning “In the Blink of an Eye,” about four upscale black men in Los Angeles who are racially harassed by officers in the Los Angeles Police Department but that at the moment they don’t have a distributor.

In both cases, the themes are attempts to get out of the black film “ghetto.”

Underwood suggested that black films in the ‘70s focused “on a lower economic side of our society. But like any society, there are many facets.”

“When a movie comes along like Eddie Murphy’s ‘Boomerang,’ some people say it’s not a black movie because it’s about an upper-class experience. But that, in effect, was my experience growing up. I know it exists. My father was a full colonel in the U.S. Army and mother was an interior designer.”

Insisted Jackson: “Alternative stories do exist in the inner city, but when you deal with Hollywood, it’s as if black Americans don’t fall in love. Certainly, we go through the same emotions as everyone else. But somehow it is rendered invalid.”

Then there is an ideal that many black filmmakers envision--black filmmakers being able to head up productions that don’t have racial themes.

Director Bill Duke, who made “A Rage in Harlem” for Miramax Films and “Deep Cover” for New Line Cinema, is doing just that. He’s making “Cemetery Club” and directing Danny Aiello, Ellen Burstyn, Olympia Dukakis and Diane Ladd. It will be distributed by Disney’s Touchstone Pictures.

Kevin Hooks is directing Warner Bros.’ upcoming “Passenger 57,” starring Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne, an action thriller about a terrorist in a plane.

Then there’s “Swing Kids,” also for Disney, directed by Thomas Carter, who directed, co-created and produced the Emmy-winning “Equal Justice.” The film concerns youths in Nazi Germany whose love of swing music from America puts them into conflict with Hitler.