Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/680832
Spring 2016 The Costume Designer 19 When asked how she made the transition from theatre to film so easily, Carter explains that she quite consciously chose to close the gap in the aesthetic distance. "In theatre, with the perspective from the eye, you lose a lot detail. The colors are always a little stronger. On stage, things are bigger, the aesthetic is broader, and you get away with more. On film because things are blown up three, four hundred percent, everything has to be detailed. It becomes like a microscope." That visual microscope became a tool, which Carter used to take her interest in painting to the biggest canvas in the world. Looking back upon Carter's early collaboration with Lee, it is easy to quantify the historical context. But at the time, the events were much more raw. There was but a handful of African-American filmmakers: Robert Townsend, Spike Lee, and Keenen Ivory Wayans. "The three of them shared me," says Carter. "For the most part, there were no real mentors because it was something new. It was a new frontier for me—filmmaking. I think as young, black filmmakers, we felt like we were doing something important because, up until then, the images of blacks in movies were not updated." This new genre of film had both its proponents and detractors, but most importantly, it waged a critical ground war on the imaginations of the public and ignited a conversation that included popular culture. Carter volleyed back-and-forth between two antipodes: come- dies like I'm Gonna Git You Sucka with Wayans in Los Angeles, and groundbreaking movies like Mo' Better Blues and Jungle Fever with Lee in New York. "We wanted to go against the norm. What I feel makes me the most proud of those films was that it really was kind of pure in its artistic approach. You really had the opportunity to grow, expand artistically, and experiment." It was her close connection to directors and their choice of material that lead Carter to personally find her voice as a filmmaker with a conscience. With the movie Malcolm X, Carter felt the full weight of this decision. "You are making a story about a person who many people misunderstood and had a great impact in the African-American community, and in the world at large. We were all excited to tell that story. We had a spectacular actor—Denzel Washington, to play the part and Spike Lee—the most radical of directors to paint the picture." In an effort to be as authentic as possible with Malcolm's life, Carter followed her heart. She started a letter campaign with the Department of Corrections in Massachusetts in order to see his file, which was not available to the public. Ultimately, they relented and allowed her access to all of the documents from his incarcera- tion, from his letters to his booking sheets. "It is one thing to do costumes for someone who is iconic and have a picture of this person which is really the public view. I wanted the private view of him and to feel that when I chose something, I was choosing something that he could pick." The results earned Carter her first Academy Award nomination. Ruth Carter's New Orleans Costume Studio.