John Singleton made history

by Cláudio Alves

As previously explored in our 1991 pre-Smackdown ruminations, the 64th Academy Awards were marked by several first in the annals of Oscar history. The Silence of the Lambs became the first horror movie to conquer Best Picture, and it was also only the third flick to win the Oscars' Big Five (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay) after It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Among the other Best Picture contenders, Disney's Beauty and the Beast also made a splash, becoming the first animated feature to be nominated for that most important category. Still, more important even than that landmark for animation, we have the case of John Singleton who, in one fell swoop, became the first Black man to be in contention for the Best Director Oscar, as well as the youngest nominee in the category's history…

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John Singleton (1968-2019)

by guest contributor Alfred Soto 

Few young filmmakers get their scripts approved and direct a film in which most things go right, and John Singleton did with Boyz n the Hood. The 1991 depiction of life in blighted South Central L.A. starring a mesmerizing Ice Cube became the kind of phenomenon that absorbs cultural currents and creates new ones; for a few years pop music and MTV took their cues from Boyz n the Hood. It made $60 million and, in one of the Motion Picture Academy’s occasional gob-smacking beau gestes, earned Singleton a Best Director nomination, the youngest in history and, more crucially, the first nomination for a black director. 

Please consider the times...

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