By Antonio Ray Harvey
California Black Media

Film studios in Hollywood took a one-two punch last week after actors announced they were joining the ongoing writers’ strike while legislators in Sacramento questioned their commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

On July 13, California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) members Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) led a group of lawmakers at a news conference at the State Capitol to express their concerns over various news reports of abrupt departures of Black women leaving high-profile careers in Hollywood after the state recently approved $1.6 billion in tax credits for the industry.

The press conference was held the same day the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing Hollywood actors, joined striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) members in the biggest labor dispute the American entertainment industry has seen in 63 years.

In recent weeks, several Black women who were executives leading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives at major entertainment companies have left their positions.

“We are here today, calling on industry executives to meet with the state legislative Black caucus and leaders in the coming weeks to explain what is behind this erasure,” Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) said at the press briefing.

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“(We want them to) provide the evidence of how diversity, inclusion and the progress made will continue to move forward given the lack of leadership and gravitas at the forefront of those proposals,” added Smallwood-Cuevas.

Netflix’s vice president, inclusion strategy, Vernā Myers; Disney’s LaTondra Newton, chief diversity officer and senior vice president; Joanna Abeyie, the British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) creative diversity director; and Warner Bros executive, Terra Potts, executive vice president of worldwide marketing, have all moved on.

In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery’s DEI specialist Karen Horne and Jeanell English, executive VP of impact and inclusion at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences left their DEI roles.

The lawmakers say more Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) could join the mass exodus.

Lawmakers at the press conference said the departure of DEI specialists from major Hollywood companies gives the impression that creating an inclusive culture in the American film industry is not a priority for a sector that has a well-documented history of discrimination and exclusion.

“As vice chair of the Asian and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, we are proud to stand in solidarity with the Black Caucus,” Sen. David Min said. “I don’t want to accuse anybody of anything, but it certainly looks suspicious when in a short timeframe after … the $1.6-billion tax credit was signed into law that we see a number of leading African American female Hollywood executives let go.”

Senate Bill (SB) 485, introduced last year by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D- La Cañada Flintridge), provides $1.65 billion in tax credits, or $330 million annually, in financial support for film and television makers and other media content creators. The California Film and Television Production Tax Credit Program was scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2025.

State lawmakers are now asking for meetings and are looking for ways to hold television and film studios executives accountable for benefitting from state investment that essentially helped create DEI programs.

SB 485 was created after a series of production companies opted to leave California for states that offered larger tax incentive programs. The bill was amended to reflect California’s diverse population.

“I was highly offended to see the industry’s response to a $1.6 billion tax subsidy by quietly eliminating Black women from executive positions with a number of studios,” said McKinnor. “Many of these women were involved in their studios’ diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, which raises a serious question about their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in the film industry.”

SB 485 states that “This bill, for credit allocations made on or after July 1, 2023, would revise the definition of a qualified motion picture for purposes of the credit to require an applicant to provide a diversity workplan that includes goals that are broadly reflective of California’s population.”

On July 10, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 132 to extend the state’s $330 million-a-year Film and TV Tax Credit Program an additional five years through fiscal 2030-31.

The governor’s office put out a statement that SB 132 builds “upon a strong track record of success” and “whose productions have generated more than $23 billion” for the economy.

More than 178,000 cast and crew have been supported by the program. The new budget will create the state’s fourth-generation film/TV tax credit program — known as “Program 4.0.”

“The California Film and Television Tax Credit program has led to the creation of hundreds of thousands of high paying union jobs, it’s supported countless local businesses, and pumped billions of dollars into the state’s economy,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association. “The 4.0 version of the program, signed into law by Governor Newsom, will build on that success by creating new commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion and establishing a pilot program on production safety, among other provisions.”

McKinnor said, “While the California film tax credit 4.0 proposal builds upon previous work to solidify California as the entertainment capital of the world, it does not include requirements to increase diversity of its below-the-line hiring.

“The California film tax credit 4.0 only requires a good-faith effort. California, that’s not good enough,” McKinnor continued.  “We should all expect more from an industry receiving $1.6 billion in subsidies from California taxpayers.”

Smallwood-Cuevas, McKinnor, and other members of the California legislature want to make amendments to SB 132 that will keep DEI programs intact.

They expect to sit down with members of the film and television industry, union representatives, and Newsom to get clarity of the entertainment business’ efforts to promote and stabilize DEI initiatives.

“We want progress towards real inclusion and equity in this industry and we want to make sure that our tax dollars are not in any way involved in this erasure,” Smallwood-Cuevas said. “We hope that these conversations will lead to a commitment and level of trust that will allow us to continue to move forward and expand our investment in this important industry.”

“Stephen Curry: Underrated” will premiere on Apple TV+ on July 21, 2023.

The remarkable coming-of-age story is about one of the most influential, dynamic, and unexpected players in the history of basketball: Stephen Curry.

This feature documentary — blending intimate cinéma vérité, archival footage and on-camera interviews — documents Curry’s rise from an undersized college player at a tiny backwater Division I college to a four-time NBA champion, building one of the most dominant sports dynasties in the world.

The film draws its name from Curry’s college experience and early years in the NBA. In the authorized trailer of the film, footage and photos of him at Davidson College show a boyish Curry, at 150 pounds, swamped by his outsize uniform.

Sportscasters openly scoffed. “Steph Curry: Do not rely on him to run your team,” one warned. “He looks like a little kid,” another said.

In a voiceover, Curry asks himself, “How did I get here? I was an undersized, scrawny kid just trying to figure out how to make it.”

More footage shows him under pressure at a game, plotting his next move and another grinning at advice from a toddler.

In relaying how overwhelmed he had felt, he said “the feeling of being underrated is part of the drive that keeps [him] going.”

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The film is produced by Peter Nicks, Ryan Coogler, Erick Peyton, Sean Havey, Ben Cotner and Marissa Torres Ericson. Emily Osborne, Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler are executive producers.

The film features (in order of appearance): Reggie Miller, Stephen Curry, Dell Curry, Bob McKillop, Kevin Durant, Jason Richards, Sonya Curry, Brandon Payne, Shonn Brown, Matt Matheny Candy Adams, Lexus Safford, Mercedes Safford, Ryan Curry, Dr. Gayle Kaufman, Canon Curry, Riley Curry, Ayesha Curry, Andrew Lovedale, Jim Fox, Thomas Sander, Michael Kruse, Lauren Biggers and Steve Rossiter.

The film is rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Story courtesy Apple+ films media relations division.

By Godfrey Lee

The Marin City Library, located on 164 Donahue St., will show the film “Against All Odds: The Fight for a Black Middle Class” on Tuesday, April 18, at 5:30 p.m.

All library events are free. Call 415-332-6158 or visit www.marinlibrary.org.

The film, “Against All Odds,” written and produced by Bob Herbert in 2017, probes the harsh and often brutal discrimination that has made it extremely difficult for African Americans to establish a strong middle-class standard of living.

The Black middle class is nearly invisible when it comes to daily news and headlines that tend to focus on the dysfunction in poor Black neighborhoods, confrontations with police, and disappointing achievements in urban schools, writes PBS.

“Against All Odds” further explores the extraordinary difficulty that African Americans have historically faced in their efforts to establish and maintain a middle-class standard of living.

Nearly 40% of all Black children are poor. In proportion to the white middle class, the Black middle class remains significantly smaller and far less healthy, according to the imdb.com summary of the film.

Herbert explains what African American families have confronted in pursuing the American Dream, and explores, through historical footage and personal interviews, the heroic efforts of Black families to pursue that dream despite the obstacles and setbacks that have emerged from the Jim Crow era through the Great Recession.

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Herbert was born March 7, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Montclair, N.J. He became a reporter in 1970 and later the night city editor for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. From 1976 to 1985 Herbert worked as a reporter and an editor for the New York Daily News where he joined the editorial board and became one of its columnists.

He received a B.A. in journalism from Empire State College in 1988. He then worked for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) as a national correspondent for The Today Show, and the NBC Nightly News from 1991 to 1993.

He joined The New York Times as an op-ed columnist in 1993 and wrote about politics, urban affairs, and social trends until 2011. That year Herbert became a fellow at Demos, a progressive think tank and also began writing for The American Prospect magazine.

Herbert taught at Brooklyn College and at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and has written several books, including “Promises Betrayed: Waking Up from the American Dream” (2005), and “Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America” (2014).