Saturday night my husband and I went to see The Best Holiday, which is the sequel to the 1999 movie The Best Man. This romantic comedy focused on the lives of eight major characters that are all African American are upper-to-upper Middle class citizens living or working in New York City. Throughout the entire movie the theater was filled with emotions of laughter and tears for two hours; in a room of anticipated movie goers that sympathized with these familiar characters many of us have loved for 14 years now.
On the contrary to the belief that African Americans do not go to the movies to promote positive African Americans films, The Best Holiday made $30.6 million this weekend at the Box office. Aside from showing our support, it also proves that the 1999 movie was not a fluke making $34 million its opening weekend. At the end of the 1900s and into the 2000s, contemporary filmmakers made a slew of positive African American films that were happily supported by its community. In addition to Malcolm Lee the director of The Best Man Franchise, there is Rick Famuyiwa who directed the movies The Wood, and Brown Sugar, Sanaa Hamri who directed the movies Just Wright and Something New, and Gary Hardwick who directed The Brothers and Deliver us from Eva. All of these movies embody the same theme of black success and love, where as society likes to usually paint a different picture.
Black images in cinema used to equal black images in society created by white film makers who believed America wanted to see African Americans appear to be a certain way or maintain a certain lifestyle. We’ve commonly seen African Americans depicted as drug dealers, dope addicts, thieves, living on welfare with a plethora of kids or ignorant individuals who needed to be saved by whites, due to a stereotypical image that was created early on in the 20th century. The literary works in film by current directors like Malcolm Lee defied that stereotype and proved African Americans want to see movies that happily depict themselves. These contemporary artists challenge society to love and embrace what is black and beautiful and are following tradition by doing so. This ideal comes from a combination of the New Negro Movement and the Blacks Arts Movement, which paved the way for these filmmakers to express themselves as they see fit. To be able to share a story about successful black couples and individuals who all embrace their blackness and love who they are, while facing issues that are relatable to average African Americans. These artists continue the tradition of helping our culture see there isn’t just one side to a particular race, but that there are many sides to all Americans.