'NEW JACK CITY' MEMORIES

#RIPBARRYMICHAELCOOPER

The death last week of journalist and screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper, got me thinking about the hit film he co-wrote in 1991 and the ways in which it intersected with Barry’s crime reporting. It was part of an era when black films were briefly in vogue in Hollywood (I’d say from 1986 to 1996) and the opportunities and challenges that created. I had two movies produced during that period (‘Strictly Business’’ in ‘91, ‘CB4’ in ‘93) that were linked to ‘New Jack City’ through casting. For more of my reflections on that era find a copy of Blackface: Reflections on African-Americans in the Movies that I published in the mid-90s. I feel like with Trump’s election and retrenchment at the streamers, we’re at the end of what I think of as the Black Lives Matter cinematic universe with fewer black themed series and movies being financed. But that’s a topic for another day.