‘Sidney’ Director Reginald Hudlin On Impact Of Sidney Poitier: “He Changed The Global Image Of Black People” DeadlineContenders TV Documentary + Unscripted
appeared at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted virtual event to discuss their film about the Oscar-winning star of and many other iconic movies. The film explores Poitier’s origins growing up in the Bahamas on Cat Island. As a teenager he arrived in Miami and later headed to New York, where he got a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant and began his acting studies at the American Negro Theatre.
“It’s an important takeaway in this film,” Murray said, “the fact that he was a self-made individual.” Poitier would not take roles that demeaned Black people. And from his early days in movies, he was a force to be reckoned with. “Sidney was a person who took charge of his life and took charge of his career. And if that also meant taking charge of the set, he did it,” Hudlin said. The filmmaker cited an important example from 1967’s when Poitier’s character, detective Virgil Tibbs, is struck by a white man. Virgil doesn’t take that abuse passively but strikes back. The return slap wasn’t in the script – Poitier insisted it be incorporated.
“His instinct was 100 percent right in this case that, without the slap, it would be nothing, would be in fact a bit of a negative,” Hudlin observed. “Instead, he made it a moment that has lasted and is still relevant 50 years later.”, starring Poitier and his friend Harry Belafonte, and Contenders Docs + Unscripted Deadline’s Complete Coverage
“That’s an aspect of Sidney’s life that I think very few people would know,” Murray said. “Not only was he a very successful director, but ultimately the genre was comedy that he stepped forward into. … I think his directing career… in the comedy genre was probably a surprise for many. But no surprise — he was exceptional at it and had great success.”
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