whitewash ( 1994 film )
production credits supplied from video and 1994 peabody awards entry form. broadcast date supplied from 1994 peabody awards entry form. entry to the 1994 peabody awards, programs for children category. running time: 25: 06. copyright :
c1994 michael sporn animation, inc .
- - end credits .
originally broadcast on home box office on tuesday, august 16, 1994 at 7: 30 p. m .
[ los angeles, ca ]: hbo; [ place of publication not identified ]: michael sporn animation, ©1994 .
the latter even prompted an indignant proyas – whose other films include 1994’s the crow – to launch a bizarre (but oh - so - enjoyable) attack on film critics, via his facebook page .
a black girl learns about racism when she and her brother are attacked by thugs and spray - painted white. made in 1994 owned by hbo
whitewash
may provoke some valuable discussions between children and parents, but it' s less interesting than it should be .
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roger ebert' s speech on empathy for the
11th hour
series on april 9th, 1994, being republished here in honor of his birthday june 18 .
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whitewash is a poignant, animated half - hour special for children that deals sensitively with racism in an urban neighborhood. inspired by an actual incident that occurred in new york city, whitewash tells the story of helene angel (real names are not used), a confident and intelligent girl who on her way home from school is assaulted by a white gang. because helene angel is black, the gang decides to' make her
despite an impressive vocal cast that includes ruby dee and linda lavin ,
whitewash ,
an animated special on hbo dealing with the issue of racism among children, is more notable for its good intentions than its effectiveness .
“roger ebert wasn’t bad. he was a true film lover at least, a failed film - maker, which gave him a great deal of insight. his passion for film was contagious and he shared this with his fans. he loved films and his contribution to cinema as a result was positive. now we have a pack of diseased vultures pecking at the bones of a dying carcass. trying to peck to the rhythm of the consensus. i applaud any film - goer who values their own opinion enough to not base it on what the pack - mentality say is good or bad. ”
whitewash. first run features. $ 14. 95. 25 minutes. for the family. this multiple - award - winning animated film from michael sporn turns a despicable real - life event - - the attack by racist thugs on a little black girl in the bronx whom they sprayed with white paint - - into a profoundly moving message of hope, unity and strength .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
meanwhile, in the artwork, sporn' s textured, nuanced sweeps of color dramatically reflect the film' s warmth, violence, sadness, anger and uplift .
indeed, the deceptively simple film, written by noted poet ntozake shange, takes an unsparing look at how exploitative and intrusive the media can be in pursuit of a story .
proyas later apologised for the “whitewash”, telling forbes: “the process of casting a movie has many complicated variables, but it is clear that our casting choices should have been more diverse. i sincerely apologize to those who are offended by the decisions we made. ”
recent research has also shown that, when to comes to diversity in film, the ticket - buying public may be one step ahead of short - sighted production companies and financers .
this film chronicles the story of two young black kids being raised by their grandmother in the bronx. one day, on the way home from school, the children are assaulted by a racist white gang. the gang members hurl shockingly brutal racial epithets and the startling confrontation is culminated when the young boy is beat up and the girl is sprayed white. the film continues by showing how the community responds - the media, the classroom, the family itself. my initial response to the film was horror - i was watching it with my 8 - year - old daughter and was extremely surprised at the coarse language. yet, it is very real and i was pleased at the conversation that we were able to have afterward. my daughter told me that she felt the theme of the film was
being strong
. i highly recommend the film, but the viewers must be braced for the powerful reaction younger audiences may have .
this blog is a repository for all short films (and perhaps other special - interest films and documentaries). it is a project of mine to create a sort of short film archive .
some audiences may have been alienated by the film’s unintentional racism: god of egypt’s release coincided with the # oscarsso white controversy, and a renewed exasperation with the lack of diversity in cinema .
based on a real incident ,
whitewash
focuses on helene angel (serena henry), an african american fourth - grader who is attacked by a street gang on the way home from school. the gang members spray her face with white shoe polish to
make her white for a day .
white for a day' by spraying her face with white shoe polish. the rest of the story shows how, through the support of helene angel' s classmates, teacher and her grandmother' s tales of the civil rights movement, helene is able to overcome the fear and humiliation she feels .
- - 1994 peabody awards entry form .
when my book comes out i' ll connect those dots and set the record straight. but for those viewers who thought that they got the truth on ali mohamed from the nat geo channel, i can assure them, as the principal investigative reporter to uncover his story, what they got was a whitewash .
last week, gods of egypt lost out to marvel adaptation deadpool at the box office – and the hype surrounding the latter film, as well as audience “brand recognition”, probably paid a large part in this .
reviews so far have suggested that the film takes itself very, very seriously. dialogue is borderline ludicrous, but never intentionally so, leading to a tiresomely po - faced movie. even the jokes apparently don’t quite work .
my most astonishing, findings involved patrick fitzgerald, the former head of organized crime and terrorism in the sdny, who had allowed ali to remain free as early as 1994 even though he named him as an unindicted co - conspirator in the day of terror case. another of my key findings was that fitzgerald buried probative evidence of an al qaeda new york cell in 1996 .
in the us, the film received a pg - 13 rating, roughly equivalent to a uk 12a. it’s a certificate that means that, while gods of egypt isn’t shockingly violent, it still won’t attract big family audiences .
we’ve got a lot of sympathy with the director’s aims and his drive for originality (he was originally planning the film as the first part of a trilogy, although it seems likely that any planned sequels will now be scrapped) .
proyas’s attempt to blame critical “groupthink” for the poor reviews might raise a few smiles – but it doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s not just the critics: as the box office figures attest, us audiences are also staying away from the film .
a review from the mary sue suggested that, with its simplistic structure, characters and plotline, the film could have worked well as an adventure movie aimed at children – if the makers hadn’t also decided to spice things up with a bit of blood and a few sex scenes .
minorities remain underrepresented in animation, and producer - director michael sporn has worked to counter that problem, setting adaptations of the fairy tales
the red shoes
and
the little match girl
in contemporary inner - city neighborhoods. but
whitewash
sticks too close to live action and fails to exploit the power of animation to depict emotions symbolically. a child actress could have presented the pain the real little girl endured more effectively than these simple drawings .
even with these considerable faults “doctor strange” can also be charming. it’s a spry film brimming with great details, striking imagery and joy. it pushes the mcu into a fascinating world full of magic and villains that exists beyond our understanding of time and reality—maybe next time they’ll do something interesting when they get there .
swinton inhabits the sorceress with her trademark oddity and cutting humor. it takes only a careful tilt of her head or blithe remark to strange to believe this woman has lived for hundreds of years. in many ways, swinton’s presence seems to be from another film entirely—one that would truly embrace the weirdness of the premise beyond some trippy visual effects .
when casting for gods of egypt was first announced, many observers queried why a film ostensibly set in egypt had decided to cast white actors in almost all of its lead roles. posters showing thoth, the character played by boseman also came under fire, with many claiming that they were playing into the outdated racial stereotype of the “wise negro” .
strange may be a character that hews too close to the model of rich, egotistical white men with which superhero films are obsessed. but the film had the opportunity to do something different, by showing the interior of a character forced to rethink everything he knows and the nature of reality itself. instead ,
doctor strange
falls into some significant narrative mistakes .
there are many great actors that color the film' s margins, but “doctor strange” doesn’t make the best use of them. rachel mcadams plays one of the most poorly written superhero love interests i think i’ve ever seen. she has a warm, flirtatious energy that is a welcome addition to the movie. but she isn’t a person so much as a convenient prop forgotten about for long stretches until strange needs her .
“talking about why this movie didn’t work and how it could have, i realized that bek (a name that got laughs) should have been, like never ending story, a younger character so the movie could have at least been for kids, ” wrote the website’s lesley coffin. “this movie has sex and violence (although the blood is gold !), but narratively, it’s structured liked a children’s film. ”
when helene angel walks home from school with her older brother she is attacked by a street gang and painted white. the effect on helene and her family is devastating. helene locks herself in her room, her brother blames himself for not having successfully defended his sister, and the media descends on their neighborhood, completely disrupting her small family. but an outpouring of love and understanding from helene' s friends, classmates and family helps her face what has happened and draws the community together. inspired by actual events, whitewash conveys a powerful message that transcends age and race, told in an entertaining way perfect for children of all ages .
derrickson and co - writer c. robert cargill have spoken at length about the decision to cast swinton in a role that was originally a tibetan man in the comics. they feared casting an asian man or even woman would mean the character would fall into well - worn stereotypes. so, they whitewashed the role. if the only way you can bypass these issues is to whitewash the part (yet keep the asian setting and vague mysticism), the problem isn’t the character, it’s your lack of imagination as a creator. the filmmakers behind “doctor strange” may be well - intentioned but that doesn’t soften the racism threading the movie. despite the desire to be inventive, “doctor strange” unfortunately repeats many of the mistakes of its predecessors beyond uncomfortable racial politics .
“i could be wrong but i think this year gods of egypt is one of the very few original large - budget studio movies, ” said proyas, in a facebook post ahead of the film’s release. “such a sad state of affairs. is this really what audiences want these days? every movie to be tied into some other movie? so everyone knows exactly what they are getting before they step into the cinema… just like going to mcdonald' s anywhere in the world and the burgers always taste exactly the same. ”
t’s got a quasi - historical setting – essentially a theme park version of ancient egypt, complete with shape - shifting deities and a giant dragon - dog - thing – and a pyramid - sized dollop of unconvincing cgi. it’s got gerard butler, as an unashamedly scottish manifestation of the ancient egyptian god set, alongside marvel’s black panther - to - be chadwick boseman (also playing a god), and nikolaj coster - waldau (aka jaime from game of thrones, playing a god). it cost $ 140 million to make – and today the daily mail claimed that it’s going straight to dvd in the uk, a report since denied by the distributors, who have confirmed that the film will be released at some point in june .
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urltoken
helene angel is the little girl so devastated by the attack that she won' t leave her room. her loving grandmother (beautifully voiced by ruby dee) and the earnest, warm support of her teacher (linda lavin) and classmates - - white, black and every other color - - eventually restore her confidence and her spirit .
serena henry gives touching voice to helene, and ndehru roberts is convincing as an older brother who suffers conflicting feelings: remorse at his inability to protect his sister and self - importance at the intense media attention .
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the assault triggers a media frenzy, and the devastated helene hides in her room until her classmates arrive to escort her back to school in a show of solidarity. ntozake shange' s screenplay fails to explore helene' s feelings about the attack in any depth: all the viewer knows is that she hides in her room, remembering what happened .
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animated special about a little girl haunted by a racial attack, until her grandmother gives her a lesson in civil rights .
leonard maltin classic movie guide, copyright 2005, 2010. used by arrangement with penguin group (usa) inc .
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edited by ed askinazi; music by caleb sampson; backgrounds and production design, bridget thorne; production coordinated by masako kanayama; animated by michael sporn, sue perrotto, rodolfo damaggio; colored by masako kanayama, christine o' neill; inked by jason mcdonald; songs performed by
mad expression
, cassandra dallas, minbeleta dallas, mark merren; saxophone & gospel solo, stan strickland; animation photography, f - stop studio, gary becker, bob bushell; sound design, ed askinazi; sound mixed by riley steele .
starring ruby dee (mrs. calloway), serena henry (helene angel), ndehru roberts (mauricio), and linda lavin (ms. steunberg); cast, danielle robinson, randy kaplan, matthew jacobson, travis de lingua, ashanti williams, winnie zhang, meredith rosco, robert felice, michael mcgruther, tommy o' connor, joel briel, sue perrotto, jay aubrey jones, ed askinazi, heidi stallings .
1 videocassette of 1 (u - matic) (26 min .): sound, color; 3 / 4 in. arch master
home box office presents; produced by michael sporn animation, inc. ; [ executive producer, sheila nevins; supervising producer, carole rosen ]; produced & directed by michael sporn; screenplay by ntozake shange .
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i remember this as well. it aired on hbo. we watched it several times, but never really internalized the message, until ...
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942, and died a little over five years ago. i owe a good part of my success…
a look back at robert zemeckis' half - animated classic, who framed roger rabbit, on its 30 - year anniversary .
a tribute to the late tab hunter, a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
rated pg - 13 for sci - fi violence and action throughout, and an intense crash sequence .
one of the most glaring sins of “doctor strange” is how quickly strange masters magic. there isn’t much tension in his arc. while he struggles briefly at first to keep up with other students the ancient one has taken under her care, he’s soon stealing sacred books out from under wong (benedict wong), the sharp - eyed master who protects the texts at the ancient one’s behest. strange plays by his own rules, growing far beyond the skills of those around him. he even goes as far as bending time, secretly reading from forbidden texts and wielding the eye of agamotto. when karl mordo (chiwetel ejiofor) remarks that strange seems destined for this, i couldn’t help but roll my eyes. of course he was .
in effect, strange is proven right. who cares about rules and breaking the laws of nature when you’re actually right, and in turn you save the world? strange never grows much as a character since he proves to be right about far too much, justifying his ego and rank arrogance. cumberbatch is having considerable fun with the role (although he brings nothing unexpected) but he can’t distract from how nothing in strange’s story feels earned. you also can’t ignore that “doctor strange” is essentially the story of a white man who travels to an “exotic” land, whose culture and people he doesn’t respect let alone know the language of. yet somehow he just happens to realize he’s a natural at magic and gets good enough to beat practitioners who have been doing this for years .
in this way, “doctor strange” reveals the precarious place in which superhero films find themselves. director scott derrickson and marvel studios president kevin feige have repeatedly defended this movie' s controversial casting. they’re very aware of the increasing expectation of audiences. but it isn’t enough to cast actors like benedict wong and chiwetel ejiofor in supporting roles, you have to give them something interesting to do. and as fun and light as “doctor strange” is, it is impossible to ignore the problems inherent in casting tilda swinton as the ancient one .
doctor strange'
s worst sin in terms of casting comes in its villain. at this point, has any major franchise wasted as many great actors in thinly - written villain roles as the mcu? mads mikkelsen is an amazing actor who often creates an alluring mix of darkness, pathos and passion. his unsettling screen presence is perfect for this kind of story. but kaecilius, a former pupil of the ancient one, has such muddled motivations and little interiority that mikkelsen is surprisingly forgettable. strange’s battle with him ultimately comes down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. strange doesn’t care about being a hero. the juxtaposition between kaecilius and strange is one of the more ill - thought out central conflicts from a blockbuster in a long time. they aren’t battling because of opposing ideologies or deep emotional history. they’re simply an inconvenience to each other. if anything, mordo’s obsession with order would make him a more compelling foil for kaecilius .
an interview with terry gilliam, director of
the man who killed don quixote .
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alex proyas' s $ 140 million fantasy epic - which features gerard butler as a very scottish egyptian god - has been panned by critics, and had a disappointing opening week in the us. where did it all go so wrong ?
either way, gods of egypt, the recently - released fantasy epic from i, robot director alex proyas, has not had the easiest of openings in the us, with disappointing box office returns (since its stateside release on february 26 it’s reportedly only taken $ 14 million), and a swathe of extremely poor reviews .
“lock a critic in a room with a movie no one has even seen and they will not know what to make of it, ” he wrote. “because contrary to what a critic should probably be they have no personal taste or opinion, because they are basing their views on the status quo. none of them are brave enough to say “well i like it” if it goes against consensus. therefore they are less than worthless. now that anyone can post their opinion about anything from a movie to a pair of shoes to a hamburger, what value do they have - nothing. ”
he made one exception – the late and admittedly extremely great roger ebert – before labelling all other reviewers “diseased vultures” .
is gods of egypt really as terrible as it sounds? and if so, where did it all go wrong? let us count the ways .
“this swords - and - sandals escapade could’ve easily been milked for laughs, but its handful of jokes, delivered deadpan, fall flat, ” said time out’s anna king, in a one star review. “even a campy chadwick boseman performance comes off as heavy - handed and unwelcome. ”
the casting gaffe also suggested that god of egypt was simply another tired old epic, in which minimal effort had been made to shake things up, or to even pretend to be authentic / relevant: something that could easily have been made in 2006 (or even 1996) rather than 2016 .
a study by the university of los angeles in california, which looked at data from films released in 2014, found that those in which at least four of the eight highest - billed actors aren’t white tended to perform better at the world box office. the latest results are part of an ongoing research project: findings so far suggest that, in years to come, on - screen diversity will continue to have a positive impact on box office performance, especially when the overseas market is factored in .
the business insider story linked to above also noted that, in the us in 2014, only 54% of cinema audiences were caucasian, and that hispanic and asian cinema - goers form a key part of the market .
in gods of egypt the actor – who famously apologised to the nation of ireland for his terrible attempt at an accent in 2007’s ps i love you – has been allowed to keep his native scottish tones, with predictably ridiculous results .
“his untamped scottish accent buries every line of his dialogue under the pyramid of groundskeeper willie, ” wrote the wrap’s reviewer alonso durande. “a touch more self - awareness might have rendered his performance an elaborate inside joke, but as it is, he struts and frets across the screen with a misdirected intensity that, like the movie itself, goes from hilarious to tedious. ”
had the makers aimed for a higher rating, and included more graphic scenes, there’s a slim chance they could have appealed to a more adult, game of thrones - loving demographic – although they would then have risked losing on the teen market .
at it' s heart, god of egypt is a simple, lion king - esque story about a very bad uncle: coster waldau' s horus must reclaim his birthright from his evil uncle set (butler) after the latter murders his father and claims egypt for himself. along the way, things get a little more bizarre: eyeballs are removed, characters morph into various mythical creatures, and there' s a subplot involving a battle between a giant shadow monster and geoffrey rush' s sun god .
but the truth remains that big - budget films that aren’t part of a pre - existing franchise – or based on a well - known book or true story – often have to be better (or at least more enjoyable / popular) than their equivalents, in order to recoup their losses, and tempt in risk - averse audiences .
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in the fall of 2005 i was approached by jonathan towers, producer of inside 9 / 11, a four - hour documentary on the road to 9 / 11 in which i was one of 60 journalists and government officials interviewed. i told towers that i was working on a new investigative book exposing fbi negligence in its nine year failure to stop ali a. mohamed, al qaeda' s chief spy who infiltrated the bureau, the cia and the green berets at fort bragg, north carolina .
towers immediately optioned my research and flew me to washington where i presented triple cross, my new book to john ford, programming president of the nat geo channel. he bought the project in the room, declaring ,
i don' t know how we can' t do a documentary .
over christmas i wrote a 12 page ten - act treatment outlining the two key parts of the ali mohammed story: first, how he' d come to the u. s. in 1985, seduced a california woman into marriage, enlisted in the u. s. army and got himself assigned to the jfk special warfare school at bragg. from there, as he stole top secret documents for his chief sponsor, al qaeda' s no. 2 dr. ayman al - zawahiri, mohamed commuted to new york city on weekends where he trained key members of the first wtc bombing cell and the notorious
day of terror
cell responsible for a plot to blow up the u. n. and the bridges and tunnels into manhattan .
in 1991 mohamed moved bin laden and 100' s of al qaeda terrorists from afghanistan to sudan, set up al qaeda' s training camps in khartoum and literally wrote al qaeda' s manual of terror. in 1993 he trained members of the al qaeda contingent that downed two u. s. blackhawk helicopters in somalia, brokered a meeting between bin laden and the head of hezbollah and personally took the pictures of the u. s. embassy in nairobi that osama bin laden himself used to target the suicide truck bombs that killed 224 in kenya in 1998 .
that part of my research was presented in the nat geo documentary that aired on monday .
. the other half was the astonishing saga of how the two bin laden
offices of origin
- - the fbi' s new york office (nyo) and the office of the u. s. attorney for the sdny, allowed mohamed to operate with impunity for years. how key special agents in the bin laden squad (i - 49) like
, ali' s west coast control agent was totally outgunned by him, getting caught up as a material witness in a grisly triple homicide in fresno in 1992 when he should have been riding herd over the al qaeda sleeper. how it was zent who vouched for ali and got him released from canadian custody in 1993 - allowing him the freedom to help plan the
beginning in january 1996 fitzgerald effectively ran squad i - 49, but i learned that despite wiretaps on the key cell members and hard evidence in 1997 that ali mohamed (an fbi informant) was a major player in the embassy bombing plot - he allowed him to remain free .
most shocking were two face to face meetings fitzgerald had with mohamed in 1997. after the first meeting in april
fitzie ,
as cloonan called him, declared ali
the most dangerous man
he' d
ever met
and announced that
we cannot let this man out on the street .
my contract with towers stipulated that i was to get all interview transcripts immediately after on - camera shoots in order to incorporate the details in the book' s manuscript - yet these three ex feds demanded that nat geo keep the research from me and they simply acquiesced .
i couldn' t go on camera to narrate the doc without these key interviews, so ngc cut me out of the production and post production process - even refusing to send me a rough cut of the doc for fact - checking unless i signed a non - disparagement agreement .
all of this is documented in a series of letters between me and nat geo channel executives contained (along with the january 2006 treatment) in a press release on my website .
in effect, ngc ended up replacing me with jack cloonan, one of the very feds that my research had found grossly negligent. cloonan had two and a half years from january 1996 to august 1998 to build a file on ali and interdict the embassy plot and yet, despite evidence from i - 49' s own files of ali' s direct links to senior embassy plotters, cloonan, fitzgerald and other top feds failed to detect the plot .
in february of 2001, fitzgerald went on to prosecute three relatively peripheral players in the plot and cemented his reputation by convicting them of an act of terror that his own
bin laden squad
had failed to prevent. the fourth operative, wadih el - hage had been on the fbi' s radar since 1991. ali mohamed had stayed in his kenyan home in the mid 90' s as they plotted the bombings. another agent in fitzie' s squad dan coleman, had searched el - hage' s home a year before the bombings and found direct links to ali mohamed and yet fitzgerald failed to connect the dots .
but the viewers of triple cross - the nat geo documentary on monday night never saw any of this evidence critical of the feds because nat geo channel, allowed the story of fbi failures in the ali mohamed case to be told from the bureau' s point of view. it was like doing schindler' s list from hitler' s perspective .
the casualty of all of this was the truth - and under the guise of a documentary which nat geo channel claimed was
based in part
on my book, they perpetrated a factual distortion unknown in the recent history of broadcast journalism .
why does any of it matter and why is this not simply a case of a disgruntled writer, unhappy at a television adaptation of his work? because going in, the nat geo channel bought a documentary from a five - time emmy winning reporter that, once and for all, would expose the negligence of the dept. of justice on the road to 9 / 11. see the treatment that they green lit. it' s at the end of the august 27th, 2006 press release .
this matters because key feds who covered - up probative al qaeda intelligence in 1996 remain in senior positions at justice. fitzgerald is u. s. attorney for chicago and special prosecutor in the cia leak case. valerie caproni, who supported fitzgerald' s 1996 burial of evidence of an active al qaeda cell in new york, is now the fbi' s general counsel .
most importantly, as i discovered after five years of research, the fbi has failed to reform post 9 / 11. after more than $ 600 million spent on an updated computer system to track bin laden, they have scrapped the
virtual case file
system and fbi director robert mueller told congress in 2005 that it will be 2009 before they have the same ability to connect the dots that most americans have using google and other search engines .
first - person essays, features, interviews and q & as; about life today.
whitewash is a 1994 television special and animated short film that was based on a true story . the program was produced and directed by michael sporn with a screenplay by ntozake shange . ruby dee and linda lavin provide voices for the animated characters . 
whitewash is a 1994 television special and animated short film that was based on a true story. the program was produced and directed by michael sporn with a screenplay by ntozake shange. ruby dee and linda lavin provide voices for the animated characters.
whitewash is a 1994 television special and animated short film that was based on a true story. the program was produced and directed by michael sporn with a screenplay by ntozake shange. ruby dee and linda lavin provide voices for the animated characters.