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In reply to the discussion: Al Sharpton Calls For Emergency Meeting To Address 'Appalling' All-White Oscar Nominees Read more: [View all]BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)NO WHERE did I say that the Academy is "under obligation" to nominate a film that can advance certain political interests. That's what YOU make of it. Selma should get Oscar nominations simply because it's a powerful movie directed by a BLACK woman - a first in our history - and it is an incredibly moving film based on historical events some Americans, apparently, don't want to be reminded of.
That said, [font color="red"]IN AN ERA WHEN CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE[/font] is being systematically taken apart across the country, Selma would have been THE movie of the year to promote. They had NO problem with Schindler's List, and I didn't even like the movie. It was BORING. But I understood they needed to send a message - a POLITICAL message. And they did.
If you believe the Academy doesn't nominate movies based on current events or in order to send a POLITICAL message, I have a bridge in Gravina, Alaska I'd like to sell you. Dirt cheap, too.
The message they've sent now on Selma is, "meh". We'll nominate the movie - we've got to do our due diligence here - but the FIRST Black FEMALE director gets nada. Selma is an incredibly well directed, well-acted, and powerful movie that has the people who have seen it in tears by the time they leave the theaters. But Ava DuVernay get's shut out from the nominations??
The scene with Oprah Winfrey, when she goes to register to vote and is "poll-taxed" by some obnoxious White Southerner is heartrending. When she tells him that the papers are in order, he rudely interrupts her and tells her that HE will decide if they're in order. And they were. Then he tells her that she had to recite the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and when she got it down perfectly, he then made her tell him how many county judges there were, and when she answered that correctly, he then demanded that she name them - something I'm certain not even he knew. When she couldn't, her right to register to vote was DENIED. That scene alone broke my heart, but it also reminded me of the voter suppression laws being signed into law all across the Red States since 2010.
But it doesn't matter that the first BLACK FEMALE director has been snubbed (Selma has received a nomination for Best Picture - I thought you'd know at least that much but it doesn't appear you do) or that the actor who portrays Martin Luther King Jr. had been snubbed, because the uproar for being snubbed is getting a LOT of coverage...and we can thank Rev. Al Sharpton for that.