Jamaa Fanaka

Jamaa Fanaka (September 6, 1942, Jackson, Mississippi) is an award-winning American filmmaker.

Biography

Fanaka was born Walter Gordon on September 6, 1942 to Robert L. and Beatrice Gordon in Jackson, Mississippi. [cite book
last = Phelps
first = Shirelle (editor)
authorlink = Shirelle Phelps
title = Who's Who Among African Americans (11th Edition)
publisher = Gale Research
date = 1998
location = Detroit
pages = 405
isbn = 0-7876-2469-1] In 1971, Fanaka was accepted into the film school at UCLA. During his years at UCLA Film School (including study in both the undergraduate and graduate programs), Fanaka received competitive academic grants including a Ford Foundation Grant, Rockefeller Grant, UCLA Chancellor's Grant, UCLA Black Studies Center Grant, New York State Council for the Arts Grant and an Independent Filmmaker Grant from the American Film Institute. Fanaka took his undergraduate degree summa cum laude and his Master's degree with a straight-A average.

The early 1970s was a very important time for black filmmakers at UCLA.Fact|date=May 2008 Since 1952, when Ike Jones became the first black person to graduate from the film school, blacks were largely seen, but not heard.Fact|date=May 2008 However, upon the arrival of fellow Mississipian Charles Burnett in 1967 and Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima the following year, there emerged a significant black independent movement at the school. The first wave of these filmmakers also included Larry Clark, John Reir, Ben Caldwell, Pamela Jones, Abdosh Abdulhafiz and Fanaka. These filmmakers were part of what essayist Ntongela Masilela dubbed, "The Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers." [Citation
last = Masilela
first = Ntongela
author-link = Ntongela Masilela
contribution = The Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers
editor-last = Diawara
editor-first = Manthia
title = Black American Cinema
pages = 107
publisher = Routledge
place = New York, London
year = 1993]

However, while Masilela states that "a fundamental tenet of the Los Angeles school was an opposition to Hollywood," Fanaka was a notable exception. He describes Fanaka as "very much fascinated by Hollywood and averse to the contentious ideological and artistic discussions that were fundamental to the formation of the school." [Citation
last = Masilela
first = Ntongela
author-link = Ntongela Masilela
contribution = The Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers
editor-last = Diawara
editor-first = Manthia
title = Black American Cinema
pages = 115
publisher = Routledge
place = New York, London
year = 1993]

Fanaka maintains: "What some at the school may have mistaken for 'facination with Hollywood' was my tremendous respect for great Hollywood filmmakers like William Wyler and my desire to make feature-length films in order to reach the biggest audience possible."

Indeed, according to an article in The Los Angeles Sentinel, +Fanaka is the first and only filmmaker in cinema history to write, produce, direct, and achieve theatrical distribution for three feature films that were made as part of his or her academic curricula at a film school."Fact|date=May 2008 The films were "Welcome Home, Brother Charles" 1975, a provocative film about the ravages and dire consequences of racism; and Emma Mae (1976), the story of a young woman who arrives in Los Angeles from Mississippi to live with her mother's sister and her family after her mother dies, and survives the culture shock that accompanied the move; and Penitentiary (1979) which tells the story of a young man wrongly sent to prison, who, through his boxing talents, is able to win his freedom.

In researching Welcome Home Brother Charles, Fanaka states that he learned: "In order to frighten white women from having sex with the slaves, the slaveowners created a myth that equated the sexual prowess of the black man with their vastly exaggerated size of the black man's sexual equipment. Instead of scaring white women, the myth backfired and intrigued them."

In Welcome Home Brother Charles, Fanaka shows the ridiculousness of the 'all penis, no brain' myth surrounding black men by what fellow UCLA classmate Ben Caldwell calls, "Fanaka's powerful use of surrealism in one major scene." To the surprise of some people at UCLA, Fanaka not only completed his first feature film, Welcome Home Brother Charles, but he was able to obtain theatrical distribution for the film through Crown International Pictures.

The following year, an independent distribution company, Pro International, released Fanaka Master's thesis film, Emma Mae, which is arguably one of his most personal films.

Penitentiary (1979), was the third feature film that Fanaka completed as part of Fanaka's academic curricula while attending UCLA. It was distributed theatrically by The Jerry Gross Organization.

According to Todd McCarthy of Daily Variety and Turner Classic Movies' Web Site (TCM.com), Penitentiary became the most successful independent film of 1980 at the box office. The film received excellent reviews from such major newspapers as the San Francisco Chronicle, Daily Variety, and the Los Angeles Times. Gertrude Gipson, the entertainment editor of America's top black-owned newspaper, The Los Angeles Sentinel, called Penitentiary "Jamaa Fanaka's brutal masterpiece of violent prison life."

With the success of Penitentiary, Fanaka demonstrated that with the right material, black films could be extremely popular with audiences even without big budgets or name actors.

Fanaka completed Street Wars in 1992 and he is currently in post production on Hip Hop Hope, his first documentary feature film on the the underground Hip Hop culture.

The Los Angeles Times states: "Fanaka is the founder of the African American Steering Committee of the Directors Guild of America."

"As founder of the AASC, Fanaka says, "I felt it incumbent upon me to fight for the DGA's enforcement of Article 15-201, which is the non-discrimination provision of the DGA's Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Hollywood Studios and Networks. Instead of enforcing 15-201, the DGA charged me with 'Conduct prejudicial to the DGA'and kicked me out of the directors' union." Fanaka states with bittersweet pride that "I am the first person to be kicked out of the union for political reasons since Herbert Bieberman of the 'Hollywood Ten' was kicked out back in the Mc Carthy era."

Although completely unschooled in the law, Fanaka, on behalf of minority directors, next used the DGA's own self-failed racial discrimination lawsuit against Hollywood as a template to file "in pro per"1994 class action lawsuits against both the DGA and the Hollywood Studios and Networks. "The lawsuits were dismissed on legal technicalities. However, the recent increase of blacks before and behind the camera in Hollywood means, Fanaka proudly proclaims,"that we really won the lawsuit." Fanaka says that although he has personally been prevented from 'crossing the River Jordan', "every night of my life, sleep comes easily."

References

Filmography

* "A Day in the Life of Willie Faust" (short, c. 1972)
* "Welcome Home, Brother Charles" (1975)
* "Emma Mae" (1976)
* "Penitentiary" (1979)
* "Penitentiary II" (1982)
* "Penitentiary III" (1987)
* "Street Wars" (1992)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0266668|name=Jamaa Fanaka