February is Black History Month and March is Women’s History Month and the Tribeca Film Festival took an interesting approach to a social media campaign that celebrated both. Each day, for the month of February and March, Tribeca is highlighting a movie made by black, women directors. What was meant to be a campaign that raised awareness and celebrated a genre that gets little to none recognition by the big awards, in turn, resulted in a number of surprising responses.

Some people didn’t understand why Tribeca chose to highlight female black directors and not just women directors of various ethnicities.

In 2019, director Spike Lee was nominated for the best director Oscar for the movie BlacKkKlansman should he have won, which he didn’t, he would have become the first black director in history to win the Oscar. Yes, that’s right. The first black director to win an Oscar.

As of now, there haven’t been any black males or females to ever win the coveted prize.

Halle Berry won the best actress Oscar in 2001. No black woman has won the award since. If things are tough in Hollywood for black males, they are worse for black women and other minority groups face an even harder uphill climb.

Some of the black, female directors Tribeca has chosen to highlight include: Ayoka Chenzira for Alma’s Rainbow, Amma Asante for Belle, Gina Prince-Bythewood for Beyond the Lights, Zora Neale Hurston for the 1940s film Commandment Keeper Church, Maya Angelou for Down in the Delta, and Ava DuVernay Middle of Nowhere.

You may see the full list of movies for February and March in the link below. Each day of #BlackHistoryMonth and #WomensHistoryMonth, we're highlighting films by black women directors. Some of these titles are classics; many more are under-seen masterpieces. What they share is a daring artistry that makes them deserving of your time and attention. Join us: pic.twitter.com/DGdPQVUbk6 — Tribeca (@Tribeca) February 1, 2019 The responses to each day’s highlighted movie reveal that some social media users aren’t aware of the disparities between ethnicities that still remain in the modern world. Directors such as Spike Lee and Jordan Peele are breaking ground. Female directors like Ava DuVernay is claiming territory that women before her silently toiled. And though there is no question that caucasian female directors aren’t getting the recognition they are due either (Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won best director in history), Tribeca chose to highlight black women for the thread.

What do you think about the thread? Do you agree with those who question why Tribeca is highlighting black women and not all women?

Source:http://celebrityinsider.org