Justin Simien evokes Quentin Tarantino and explains what constitutes a black film

Justin Simien recently directed a loving have a look at the history of black cinema called “Hollywood Black.” so when he sat down for Masters of the Game, it gave us a probability to discuss different elements of cinema. “Hollywood Black” takes us from Oscar Micheaux and Dorothy Dandridge, to Denzel Washington and Issa Rae, but I understand how he feels about all of them. Simien is the form of guy who roots for all Black people. He loves us. But when Black people discuss modern film history, one name all the time results in arguments: Quentin Tarantino.

I do know Tarantino is just not black – after all, I do know that – but he’s a filmmaker who loves black history, black cinema and black actors. While most of today’s major directors create worlds through which Black people don’t exist or are only marginal characters, Tarantino makes Black people and Black history a full a part of his cinematic universe. He made a Blaxploitation movie with “Jackie Brown.” He made a movie about slavery, “Django Unchained.” He gave Samuel L. Jackson a few of his best roles ever, catapulted Ving Rhames into the stratosphere and revitalized Pam Grier’s profession. But to many black people, he’s an outsider with a strange fixation on black culture that causes his characters to say way an excessive amount of of the n-word. No matter what Tarantino does, lots of us won’t ever be forgiven for saying the N-word – with a hard “R” – in Pulp Fiction.

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I knew that talking about Tarantino would stir Simien’s blood. Tarantino inspires the defensiveness of most Black people. I knew this may be a fun discussion because I really like Tarantino’s work and appreciate that he believes that African American history can also be a part of his legacy as a filmmaker and he could make movies about it. Sometimes, as an interviewer, you want to bring up topics that can result in some funny arguments. It’s fun to argue with a cinema expert like Justin Simien on a topic as wealthy, complex and divisive as Quentin Tarantino’s movies.

Watch Justin Simien in “Masters of the Game,” now streaming on theGrio.