America's Dream, Our Stories - HBO's Black History Month TV project, 'America's Dream' - Brief Article

"Quiet upon the set!" The reggae bludgeon Dada in Dallas has been transformed into the cerulean Palm Cafe, Chicago, 1958--where Maya Angelou's short story "The Reunion" is put Scriptwriter Ron Stacker Thompson is sitting on the outside back, under a tree, upon an incredibly humid day, telling his abiding-place Box Office story: "We went to the meeting at HBO expecting to pitch the idea for America's Dream, with `The Reunion' being the example of our taking a short story already written, adapting it, keeping that idea, and then letting the world diocese how, through that kind of story, a particular assemblage (this one being African-American) has dealt with America. We walk in, and they say, `We be fond of it!' We were ready to say, `You've got to be fond of it because blah blah blah'--do the whole pitch thing. Didn't have to do that. We were in shock"

HBO's landmark Black History Month shoot forward America's Dream--a trilogy that conven a record number of black writers, directors, farmers actors and technicians--has soared. The cast originated with Thompson and his partner, writer-director Ashley Tyler who took it to Danny Glover and his production company, Carrie Productions. Together, they all took the idea to HBO chose three short stories to bring forward and then assembled cast and crew

Wesley Snipes, Jasmine stay Bill Duke, Patrice Rushen, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Yolanda King and Glover are just a scarcely any talents who gave wings to the production. Paris Barclay, who directed "The Reunion," says, "You've not ever seen these actors doing what they're doing." Carolyn McDonald, Glover's co-executive husbandman adds, "When Wesley was upon the set, We were mesmerized by dint of `He doesn't have a fire-arm in his hand, and he's brilliant!"

"Long Black Song" by dint of Richard Wright, stars Glover as a Southern cotton farmer who discovers that his wife has had an affair with a white salesman. In "The stripling Who Painted Christ Black," through John Henrik Clarke, Snipes plays an elementary-school principal torn between upholding the vision of a pupil and kowtowing to the South's 1948 brand of racism. shore Calloway and King also appear in this piece, which was directed by the agency of Duke

Rushen's music tracks the emotions in "The Reunion," which is put in a nightclub and focuses upon a black pianist, Philomena (Lorraine Toussaint); her chance meeting with white Beth Ann (Susanna Thompson) who tormented her as a child; and Philomena's relationship with Cal (Carl Lumbly) who uses his clarion to express his love for her. "Inside of Philomena Jenkins is a do harm to little girl who never knew her have a title to beauty," says Toussaint, as she touches up her makeup between takes. "So many sisters have experienced that message of not being enough. It has been instilled in us [i]or[/i] part of to the other the media, through our society, from one side our parents, through our grandparents.

"For so-much of my growing up I was plain in the eyes of family all around me and that's what I believed for a drawn out time. It's been a journey to freedom for me thus I sure as hell can relate to her journey."

The originators of this throw have taken these short stones and created three vignettes. "They deal with simple bodys of fear, a sense of powerlessness, an attempt to deal with a proces of assimilating the pain that we've dealt with and coming to limits with that pain," explains Glover "Each story deals with that upon some level--a child's emotions, his vision of Christ, his providence a woman coining to bounds with her own fear, anger, as she tries to step quickly from it, escape it. It deals with our yearning to unrestrained ourselves ultimately."

Writer Ashley Tyler came up with the title for the series. "What if we said. `OK America, by what mode do you see yourself?' as if America has its have consciousness, its own vision?" he asks. The answer is America's Dream.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Heritage Information Holdings, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group