The powers behind some of the most impactful Black television and film in recent history graced the Annenberg Forum on Feb. 1 for the SOUL 2023: Producing to Power in the 21st century panel.
The panel featured Melissa Haizlip (“Mr. Soul!”), Mara Brock Akil (“Girlfriends,” “Black Lightning”), Tendo Nagenda (“The Harder They Fall,” “A Wrinkle In Time”) and co-founder of the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Festival Stephanie Tarvares-Rance. Annenberg Professor Miki Turner moderated the discussion.
Panelists discussed the impact of “SOUL!,” a variety/talk show created and hosted by Ellis Haizlip that ran from 1968 to 1973, and the 2018 Peabody Award-winning documentary “Mr. SOUL!,” which was created, written, and produced by Melissa Haizlip. The programs highlighted the path forward to today’s thriving Black entertainment landscape.
When asked about her uncle’s understanding of Black art production, Melissa Haizlip’s answer was immediate.
“He understood the power of the word and the power of the Black story,” Haizlip said. “This idea that we are more than our trauma; we have always been excellent. Black excellence is not just a hashtag; it’s a reality and we don’t need to wait for others to ascribe value to our culture and our stories. [With “SOUL!”], he was saying ‘this is who we are’ and giving it back to the people and creating visibility, which is really the most important thing.”
“He understood that [Black culture was art],” added Nagenda. “There’s no otherness to it; it’s the legitimacy of your own experience as seen by yourself. He sort of gave us that with “SOUL!”, which in 1968 was revolutionary, audacious [and] bold for him.”
“I love the fact that he always showed Black people at their best.” Tavares-Rance said, before explaining how Haizlip’s work reflected a need for more Black storytelling — and how that need drives which content is shown at the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival. “He showed Black love, Black art.”
“[In 2023], there has been a lot of progress trying to make sure our value is reflected in the mediums and the spaces that we deserve; not because we’re special, but because we are human and we are part of this existence in the country and globally.” Brock Akil said.
One key element of getting your stories told is to “stay fresh”, according to Nagenda. “We’re in a very competitive business overall, but in terms of wanting to tell stories … [it] is just a continual evolvement and a commitment to being forward. It’s great what you did yesterday, but it’s nowhere near as good as what you’ll do tomorrow.”
Throughout the event, panelists emphasized the importance of advocating for the creatives who bring these stories to life when securing support for projects.
When making “The Harder They Fall,” Nagenda took a chance on first-time writer-director Jeymes Samuel. “I was like, ‘This guy should get the budget that he needs to make the film properly even though he’s never made a film before … Netflix, which is a microcosm of the industry in general, wouldn’t quite understand that.”
The streaming giant bristled at the idea of casting a then-unknown Jonathan Majors in the lead role and suggested a more well known alternative. “So it was like, ‘We’ll make it for a little bit less if you can get Michael B. Jordan.’ Michael is not doing the film and also, we can’t get every person to star in a movie about Black people from Black Panther.”
Nagenda, who at the time was the Vice President of Original Film at Netflix, ultimately had to take a stand. “I [ended up] just saying, ‘I’ll put my job on the line, you know what I mean? If I’m wrong, you can get rid of me.’”
In many cases, Black women specifically act as the support that empowers these sacrifices — often at their own expense.
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“We’re typically the first ones to understand the vision. We are visionary. But because we are in this country, we often have to be at the entry level in order to make movement,” Brock Akil said. “Some Black women, unfortunately, are the ones who were there at the beginning and they build the value and the need, then it goes on and [they get] left behind.”
Creating in the digital age has presented a new obstacle for creatives: data-driven storytelling.
“Data is backward-looking, so it can tell you what has succeeded but it can’t tell you what will succeed,” Nagenda said. “There’s so many trails to blaze that if you only kind of follow the data and you’re iterating on things done before and perhaps getting them better and entertaining, it’s not necessarily galvanizing. This is convenient for me to say as a producer, but sometimes the thing that the data is telling me not to do might be the way to go, right? You know, nobody was telling Jim Cameron to make a movie about blue people for $400 million in 2009.”
“One of the things that … white men in our industry get to do is that they get to try out the new thing. They get to try to test what data cannot measure,” Brock Akil added. “The only thing that can go against data is your persistence and your passion for telling it. Sometimes that does mean putting a story on the shelf.”
The rebuttal to data, according to Brock Akil, is simple: generating excitement.
“That is challenging because, where is the new measurement that excites everybody that can combat data, you know? The only thing it is are people and passion; the thing you see down the street, you see a line? Everybody’s turning, ‘What’s that?’ You have to create that,” Brock Akil said.
For audiences looking to start some buzz about upcoming projects, these panelists have several.
Brock Akil is currently producing a “reimagining” of Judy Blume’s controversial 1975 novel “Forever” for Black teenagers, while Nagenda is set to co-produce Book of Clarence, which will come out later this year. The film will star Lakeith Stanfield, Benedict Cumberbatch and Omar Sy. Jeymes Samuel will direct.
Additionally, Tarvares-Rance’s African-American Film Festival will return to Martha’s Vineyard from August 4 through August 12.
Haizlip is juggling several upcoming projects, including a four-part Steph Curry series, a four-part Netflix miniseries about women in hip-hop, a collaboration with LeBron James that aims to change the way we view reparations and finally, Mr. Soul, the Broadway musical.