America Beyond the Color Line

In the conclusion, Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. surveys the state of blacks in the movies. “Has Hollywood become colorblind in pursuit of profits at the box office?” he asks. Not yet, Gates concludes after interviewing a number of successful figures. “Hollywood is anti anything that isn’t green,” Samuel L. Jackson tells him, but Jackson shows how that can cut both ways, a point echoed by Israeli-born producer Arnon Milchon, who casts a hypothetical film with combinations of white and/or black actors and speculates on how much money they’d make. Also interviewed: Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, Alicia Keys, Don Cheadle, Nia Long, and directors John Singleton, Reginald Hudlin and Reggie Rock Blythewood., America Beyond the Color Line With Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Los Angeles — Black Hollywood is the final installment of a four-part PBS documentary series. Host Gates is looking for the new challenges faced by black Americans over 100 years since W.E.B. DuBois identified “the problem of the color line.” With the historical success of black American actors, Gates wonders if this signifies a change in the entertainment industry. He examines the factor of race in Hollywood and the music recording industry. Includes interviews with Chris Tucker, Samuel L. Jackson, Alicia Keys, Quincy Jones, Nia Long, Don Cheadle, and John Singleton. This series was originally broadcast on PBS in February of 2004.