Justin Simien, creator of Dear White People and director of Haunted Mansion, offers a compelling perspective of the challenges faced by Black filmmakers in both distant and modern times. In ‘Hollywood Black,’ Simien looks back at a century of cinema, uncovering untold stories and sharing new ones. Ava DuVernay, Forest Whitaker, Issa Rae, and Ryan Cooglar are among the Black creatives featured. And they all have their stories to tell.
Simien’s own journey in Hollywood has been marked by triumph and plenty of adversity. He candidly shares his struggles, confusion, and frustration with NPR TV critic and media analyst Eric Deggans.
“I was seeing my peers, who were, you know, notching the same kind of career wins as I was, but they were white, and they were just doing a lot better,” he says. “They were getting, you know, bigger gigs. They were making a lot more money.”
Simien emphasizes the importance of perseverance and risk-taking in an industry that often marginalizes Black voices.
“There were dozens of things that I worked just as hard on, that just sort of fizzled away for reasons such as, ‘Well, we don't know how to sell this with an all-Black cast,’ or ‘We can only green light this if you get that one Black actor that we've identified as marketable and profitable.’”