I try so hard every year not to get mad at my peeps complaining things they assume are personal slights, but in reality are business decisions. Complaining year after year about no representation in film, media, whatever...getting an Oscar grants you nothing. Look at all the women and people of color with Oscar nods not working.
We get awards when we form our own corporations and create work and wealth for ourselves. We should be aiming to follow Shonda, Oprah or Tyler model. Self-employed, self-defining corporations. Not worrying about a fucking award. If you own shit, the awards will come. Shonda can't stop winning golden globes.... Beasts of No Nation was snubbed because Netflix for the first time in history paid a director TWICE his budget and took the film to no film festivals, just released it as if Netflix is a huge Hollywood studio of old. THAT NEVER HAPPENS... Usually indies like Beasts do the festival circuit, Sundance or Focus pick it up and do a small release and pay the filmmaker almost nothing for his work, but then those studios eat up what money the film makes. The filmmaker just gets a great credit. With Netflix stepping in and paying Cary Fujanaka directly, the message that was sent to Hollywood studios was a chess move: Watch out Focus, Sony, Fox, you bitches are about to be out of business because Netflix and Amazon have a larger subscription base.... So, how about we reframe the Oscar snub as not personal, but rather a business move. A business move that is going to free up a whole lot of filmmakers who will no longer rely on some Hollywood studio to decide what film gets released and who gets paid. With the new streaming, for the first time in history, independent self-producing artists (this includes the stars who get producer credits in the films) are finally going to fucking paid If we're going to get ahead in America, we're going to have to learn to take care of personal stuff at home and figure out how to make the business a place where we hold power. This is not meritocracy...this is a capitalist country. The Netflix move just put artists in the drivers seat.... So, now what you gonna do, complain, bitch and rage? Or start a production company and learn how to self-distribute...that is the final answer... All of that is so fucking easy right now, there 100's a platforms. Even the films I've produced got sold, went to Sundance, but here's the thing...eventually, we the producers will have to find a new to distribute it...that if you're still waiting around for someone to give you a job, you're about to be extinct. Power, power just got put in our hands, now we have to step and assume the responsibilities of power which are great, but the gains are immeasurable... When you run shit, you never ask, question your worth...you just know... #LeaveThePlantation #CorporationsRunShitSoUBetterGetOne
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AprilUnPlugged
April Yvette Thompson is a Tony-winning producer, actor, writer, thinker, dreamer in search of beauty, truth, love & flights of serendipitous grace. Archives
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