Scott Sanders, a director and screenwriter, relayed his personal experiences with black television and film and how the industries are changing Tuesday night during the ninth annual ‘Conversation on Race and Entertainment Media’ in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium.

‘It was just a different world of television,’ Sanders said about his start in the industry. ‘There was a much bigger middle class of TV. There was a lot more money. People were just throwing money at sitcoms, which doesn’t exist today.’

Sanders and Richard Dubin, a television, radio and film professor who moderated the event, began the evening by talking, but Dubin encouraged the audience to ask questions. It took a question from Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham to get the audience going, but after her preliminary question, students openly and willingly engaged.

Several audience members asked Sanders about his latest film, ‘Black Dynamite,’ which was shown at two separate times on Monday in Newhouse. The film was an example of what Sanders called ‘black exploitation movies.’ Sanders wanted to create his own black exploitation movie because he said he personally found them to be funny, while also creating a satire on the genre.

Currently, Sanders is working on a cartoon TV version of ‘Black Dynamite,’ which will be shown on Cartoon Network’s adult-themed late-night programming, Adult Swim. He’s also in the process of making a film that he described as ‘a Jamaican zombie movie.’

When Sanders was asked about his favorite scenes in his most recent film, students yelled shouts of agreement and affirmation when he mentioned a scene in which the character Black Dynamite threatens a prostitute with a hot coat hanger.

But not all those in attendance were completely satisfied.

‘I went last year, and the guy last year I thought was very interesting because the conversation got a lot more heated,’ said Kimberly Ndombe, a junior television, radio and film and political science major. ‘And he would say things like, ‘Yeah, I knew when I was around white people I had to talk like this. I had to do this. I had to acclimate to their world, and that’s how I made it.’ It made a lot of people mad, but it was honest. It was something I appreciated a lot more.’

Dubin disagreed, saying the fault fell more on the audience because they were in control of the conversation.

‘Not a year goes by when people don’t say it couldn’t be this or that,’ he said. ‘I see it as a lack of courage on the part of people to say, ‘Here’s what I really want to talk about.”

Dubin said he was happy with the diverse audience that came, the questions that were asked and especially the atmosphere in the auditorium.

‘People were people,’ he said. ‘It was clearly a free environment. They were free to say whatever they wanted. It was clearly relaxed.’

lefulton@syr.edu

Published on February 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Lorne: lefulton@syr.edu