Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/584985
dga quarterly 43 "I want to believe that there are people who are different at the stu- dios, but, of course, there are peo- ple who will never like to produce a black film," says Palcy. "It's a pity. I don't get it because this country is just like a garden with all kinds of flowers, and some are being put on the table and the others are just left there." What has changed for the better is that today's generation of black women filmmakers are not alone, as Palcy was. She is proud of directors such as Ava DuVernay and Dee Rees. "I fought for that and now they are doing it. I paved the way for all those young filmmakers who are coming out now. What I like about directors like Ava DuVernay is that they say, 'OK, I made a film, but there are other filmmakers who came before me and I've learned from them.'" The lesson Palcy most hopes to pass along is that directors should keep doing the work by any means necessary. "What I'm saying is that people need to keep making films. I mean, go outside [Hollywood], get some money wherever you can get it and make your films." It's always about the money, adds Palcy. "Maybe some projects by young black filmmakers will come out and be so successful that the stu- dios will understand that you have to make them, and that will finally open the door without excluding anybody." For now, Palcy is hopeful but doesn't yet believe the industry as a whole sees the importance of change. "I'm not a dreamer," she says. "I spent many years here and I worked with six studios, so I know how they function. I know how decisions are made and why they are made. I was inside and I saw it, so I'm anything but a dreamer. But I hope [the studios] will understand that they need to open up to women, open up to black filmmakers, because they don't know what they are missing." ® AT HOME: (above) Palcy directing one of the few professional actors in Sugar Cane Alley in Martinique; (opposite, bottom) Palcy working on a scene with Brando and Donald Sutherland in A Dry White Season. favorable reviews and he received an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor. But despite the success of A Dry White Season, Palcy was unable to get another project going in Hollywood. One of her passion projects at the time was the story of Bessie Cole- man, a pioneer in early aviation and the first African-American to get an international pilot's license. Palcy recalls a studio executive telling her, "Nobody here will ever make that movie because she's black and she's female and she's a lead. Put it in a drawer, work on something else, Euzhan. Don't waste your time. They're not ready for that." The studios, she says, were happy to work with her as long as she was telling stories with white heroes, but Palcy was committed to tell- ing black stories. "If it was a story that made the studio happy and made me happy, I have no problem with that, but not if I think it will hurt the film. That's a decision that I made early on. It's a difficult one, because when you do that you can starve, too. You can spend years waiting and doing nothing." Instead, Palcy decided it was time to go back to Europe and develop projects there. As a salve for the raw emotions of A Dry White Season, she directed Siméon (1992), a lighthearted fantasy about rascally Marti- nique musicians. She made a documentary about the Caribbean poet and activist Aimé Césaire and did a period miniseries for French TV. After joining the Directors Guild in 1997, she directed a TV movie for Disney, Ruby Bridges (1998), a true story about the first black girl to at- tend a public school in New Orleans, and a Showtime movie, The Kill- ing Yard (2001), about the Attica prison riots in 1971. As a longtime fan of Hitchcock, Lang, and Wilder, Palcy says she can work in any genre, and to that end is back in Hollywood selectively developing projects, including love stories, comedies, and even a science fiction piece. The common denominator is that they are all black stories. But is the busi- ness any different now from the one she left some 25 years ago? PHOTO: JMJ INTERNATIONAL PICTURES