Gina Prince-Bythewood
1. Gina Prince-Bythewood (38) is an African American woman film and television director and writer. She studied at the UCLA Film school, where she received the Gene Reynold's scholarship for directing and the Ray Stark Memorial scholarship for outstanding undergraduate. Upon graduating from UCLA in 1991, she was immediately hired as a writer on the TV series "A Different World." She continued to write and direct for a number of TV series, before making the transition to film direction with award winning films such as "Love and Basketball." She currently works and lives in Southern California with her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood, who is also a film writer and director and their two sons, Cassius and Toussaint.
2. Her most well recognized films include "Disappearing Acts" (2000) A love story about an African American couple in Brooklyn New York and "Love and Basketball"(2000) which was produced by Spike Lee and debuted at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. For "Love and Basketball" she won an Independent Spirit Award for best first feature and a Humanities prize.
She earned her first feature film producer credit for her work on "Biker Boyz"(2003). Which is a Dreamworks film, that she co-wrote with her husband. Although she is best known for her work on the films "Love and Basketball" and "Disappearing Acts", she has also written and directed a remarkable number of television episodes and series. Including, her directorial television debut on the CBS school break special "What About Your Friends" (1995) for which she earned an NAACP image award, for best children's special and two Emmy nominations for writing and directing. Some of her other television works include, Felicity (1999), Reflections (2007), Damn Whitney (1997) and the Courthouse (1995). She is currently working on the upcoming film "The Secret Life of Bees", which is a film adaptation of the book written by female author Sue Monk Kidd that should hit theaters in 2009.
3. I have not seen and was unable to find online, any of her television work, or any of her films besides "Love and Basketball." Love and Basketball was one of my favorite movies as a teenage, which is why I was excited to finally learn more about it's amazing African American woman director. Love and basketball is a very inspiring, touching love story, about two African American teens' love for each other, and of course, for basketball. The female character is a great role-model for young women. She is simultaneously strong, beautiful, athletic and uncompromising. Also, I have read The Secret Life of Bees, and I love the story. It is about young girls coming of age and mother-daughter bonds. I am very excited to see Gina Prince-Bythewood's interpretation of Sue Monk Kidd's story.
4. In Love and Basketball Gina Prince-Bythewood is essentially telling a story about breaking the athletic glass ceiling. The lead female character has incredibly agency and resists several gender and racial stereotypes in her role. Specifically, the character of Monica repeatedly stands up for herself, by choosing her professional career as an athelete, over romance and the "lady-like" way that her family and friends want her to bahave. Although she struggles with many of the same aspects that women in society do such as, the balance between family and career, the last scene depicts her husband holding their baby while watching her in a WNBA game. Demonstrating a contradiction to the stereotypical gender roles in relation to sports and familiel roles. Furthermore, throughout the film the "gaze" is most often from the female protagonist's perspective and the sex scenes focus far more on the male character's body than the female's. Furthermore, when the gaze does focus on the female characters' bodies, it highlights their muscles and shows their sweat, in effect, making strong sexy in a similiar manner to the way hollywood movies depict men as strong and sexy.
5. I found "Love and Basketball" in the new release section of Hollywood video in 2001. Apparently you can easily rent her films and probably see her TV work either on network or cable television, or by renting the episodes or series that she has worked on. I found some trailers and music videos for "Love and Basketball" and "Reflections" on youtube but no feature length stuff. I found several photographs of her on google images and I read her biographies on IMDb and Wikipedia, although her biography on Wikipedia's was missing a great deal, to put it nicely.
6. It was very easy to find information on many women of color film-makers. The links definitely helped but it made me realize how many women of color film-makers there are and how much more I have to learn about them!
Comments
I have an intresting story to tell. I know everyone in the world has a story to tell or something to say, but this story is one for the masses, it's a story that men and women will be familiar with and also be able to learn from. I have a manuscript that i'm looking to have turned into a screenplay, it kind of put you in the mind of love and basket ball,Disappearing acts and psycho all in one. it's something to read and i know it will be something to watch. If there is anyone one looking for a sreenplay to produce, please feel free to contact me it will be worth your time
Posted by: K.M WELLS | January 19, 2008 09:30 PM
Wow, I think thats pretty inspiring doesnt it?
http://basketballnonsense.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Melvin | March 7, 2008 09:07 AM
I did not know Gina Prince-Bythewood did both "Love and Basketball" and worked on "A Different World". I used to love "A Different World" and "Love and Basketball" was a good movie, not as much about sports but about life and obstacles and being true to who you really are. I'm gonna look out for more of her work.
Posted by: Tennis Picks | March 26, 2008 03:02 AM