''Selma''
Oscar Snub For It's Director, Ava DuVernay
Another
person who didn't make the cut for an Oscar this year was Ava
DuVernay, the Director of 'Selma'.
''Maybe
the Academy just didn’t think she was one of the five best
directors of 2014. If true, she’d be in great company: David
Fincher (Gone Girl),
Christopher Nolan (Interstellar),
and Clint Eastwood (American Sniper)
didn’t make the cut this year either. ''*
Personally
I think the Oscar Academy Panel are more embarrassed by DuVernay's
frank and blistering naked portrayal of modern day racism in America
than the denial of her skills as a great director – which are
unquestionable.
It's a
powerful and compelling film. If you are interested in justice,
civil rights and the dignity of those impoverished and dispossessed,
it's a must to watch.
The film
is about the golden quest of the African-American population for
justice and civil rights, the role of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all
those unnamed and unknown civil rights supporters and activists whom
together made a difference to the course of history.
It is
about a local issue in an Alabama town (Selma) which had profound
national and international implications. [In an eerily similar way
that Ferguson, Missouri, will, historically, demonstrate to have been
decades henceforth.]
In
reality, with Southern and Mid-West States applying voter
identification laws to disenfranchise poor Whites, Hispanics,
Latinos, Chicanos, it's a damning indictment of racist voter
gerrymandering which is widespread to this very day in the form of
modern equivalent of Slavery Laws barring minorities from exercising
their right to vote – by creating loops and hoops which make it
impossible for the poor and dispossessed to comply with. DuVernay's
portrayal of how the historical blunt application of racism prevented
African-Americans from exercising their civil rights and by
implication, the subtleties of racism which continue with a vengeance
today, were, in my view, too much for the Oscar Nominations Panel to digest.
It's a
sickening portrayal of hypocrisy and put Thomas Jefferson's famous
statement
''We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness '' on trial
in the year 2014 - since evidently these principles are not shared by
voter suppressionists who are making a comeback today in several
Southern and some Mid-Western States.
A whole
industry of disenfranchisement is growing up in America – and a
growing tsunami of like-minded Americans are finally taking up the
challenge to defend justice liberty and voting rights for all it's
citizens.
In view
of the above, it's no surprise that the Oscar Academy Awards Panel has
shelved DuVernay – but her genius will outlive the Panel –
probably to be posthumously awarded
her rightful title – when all Americans finally arrives at the
promised land: - ''Land of the Free and The Home of The Brave.''
[The "right to vote" is
not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution except in the above
referenced amendments, and only in reference to the fact that the
franchise cannot be denied or abridged based solely on the
aforementioned qualifications. In other words, the "right to
vote" is perhaps better understood, in layman's terms, as only
prohibiting certain forms of legal discrimination in establishing
qualifications for suffrage. States may deny the "right to vote"
for other reasons.
For
example, many states require eligible citizens to register to vote a
set number of days prior to the election in order to vote. More
controversial restrictions include those laws that prohibit convicted
felons from voting
or, as seen in Bush
v. Gore, disputes as to what rules
should apply in counting or recounting ballots.[5]**]
I could walk you through the movie.
From the racist firebombing of a Christian Church to voter
suppression and rejection, to the role of LBJ (which I have always
said, and stand on record for saying ,40 years ago, was undervalued)
but it's much better that you judge the film for yourself and you
decide what side of the tracks you are on.
I would say that the role of J. Edgar
Hoover has, in my opinion, been misrepresented. He was a bit of a tyrant but
he was also a patriot – and a fair patriot – if that makes any
sense?
Ironically
I think that DuVernay and Eastwood have a lot in common as 'no
compromise' 'raw flesh' 'tell it as it is' directors of the human
condition.
It would
be a powerful combination to see both collaborate on a movie.
But
sadly, this will never happen.
A
film you must see - or miss a priceless piece of American history -
in it's most honest portrayal.
©Patrick
Emek, 2015
''Selma''
Directed by Ava DuVernay
The Daily Show (Jon Stewart) with Eva
DuVernay
or if you are in the U.K.