ten new black fliems by and about african-americans will be released this year. including several award contenders from independent and major distributors. one film, based on the real life shooting death of 22-year-old oscar grant at the hands of a bay area transit officer in 2009. just one of the movies getting a lot of buzz right now. are we seeing a renaissance in filmmaking by and about african-americans? or is it just a little too early and maybe too late to celebrate? joining me now to discuss this is tim reid, famed actor, director and producer and co-founder of new millennium studios. an independent film production studio in virginia. beside him is filmmaker i messed it up. i just had done it perfectly before. at that nana reeve. i ve been practicing. she s also the cosby chair of humanities at spellman college. here is comedian, ver tan day
0 by itself changes the politics. so we know this from many examples. you gave some. i would add in my own life, the massacre, to the girl being napalmed and maim ee s till decision to show the open coffin of her son. when she showed that image, that image didn t travel around the world alone. there were a lot of people who were working on telling a particular story. what does that image actually mean? that story had to be controlled. it s the story along with the image. just about coincident in time with that image was the fact that there were lynchings all over the country and there were photographs made of them turned into postcards that were sent all over the country. right. that didn t spread civil rights and freedom. that spread terror and a sense of impugn at this. entering into a social movement and it feels to me like part of what s happened in our gun s conversation. another aspect is that, if the images just enter, they re just gruesome, they become pornographic rather