Inside the Shrine World Music Venue in Harlem on Sunday afternoon, four golden statues stood under the stage on a table covered in white. The statues were shaped in the likeness of Ptah, a creator god in Egyptian mythology—the model, the organizers of the Harlem Oscar Boycott party claimed, of the familiar gold-plated Oscar statue.
As the DJ played Afrobeat music and voters danced, movie trailers of the nominees rolled on a big screen: Idris Elba’s warlord, taunting a child-soldier played by Abraham Attahin in Beasts of No Nation; “THIS IS AN EMERGENCY” flashing in blood-red letters in director Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq; Will Smith as a doctor reviewing the brain scans of a NFL player in Concussion, Michael B. Jordan sparring in the boxing ring in Creed; and O’Shea Jackson Jr. portraying his father and former NWA rap group member Ice Cube being slammed by a police officer onto the hood of a car in Straight Outta Compton.
None of these five films—movies starring black actors and centering on black stories—were to be honored at the Academy Awards later that evening, an event that was overshadowed by debates over Hollywood inclusion and racial injustice. But while Chris Rock was preparing his monologue, a different awards ceremony was underway at the Shrine, where about three-dozen people came together to celebrate films overlooked by this year’s Oscars.
“Come
on, Beasts of No Nation?” said Nadhege Ptah in
disbelief that the film did not receive a
nomination. The local actress and
filmmaker helped organize the Harlem Oscar Boycott along with
three mutual friends, and had the idea to use her namesake, the Egyptian god, as the award. “We nominated the films that should have been
nominated.”
Ptah and her fellow partygoers were among many around the country who spent yesterday celebrating the work of black actors and actresses instead of tuning into an awards ceremony that once again failed to include racial diversity. April Reign, the 45-year-old creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, joined her followers in live-tweeting the 1999 film The Wood. In Los Angeles, Dennis Dortch and Numa Perrier, the creators of digital network Black&SexyTV, hosted about 50 people in their home (with more watching online) for a film debate that included whether Boomerang is better than Coming to America, the greatest Denzel Washington performance, and the best movie soundtrack: Waiting to Exhale, New Jack City, Purple Rain, or Love Jones.
“We wanted to not take a defeatist approach,” said Perrier. “If we only focused on the films shunned this year, it leaves a stain. We can talk about this until we are blue in the face, but what can we do, the people who know these films the most? We can support that feeling of celebration.”
The Harlem event
came about in a similar spirit. In late January, Christine Scott,
co-founder of Cultsha and a
freelance producer who has worked for HBO, met with Ptah at a tea
shop in the neighborhood to discuss
screening Ptah’s first film, Dodo Titi, a story
about a Caribbean nanny who competes with the family’s dog for
respect. The conversation eventually turned to #OscarsSoWhite, and
the two women decided to work together to host a counter
event.
Scott and Ptah phoned their friend Laurent Delly for
help. Delly, an engineer, organized online
voting and contacted Gary Bimblick, a designer he met
years ago at a neighborhood association meeting, to make the
award. Bimblick, who has worked with the company that makes the
Oscars, bought nine-inch museum replicas of the Egyptian god Ptah. In
his home shop, Bimblick painted the figures gold, hollowed out
the base, and added modeling clay and glass beads for weight. “That is the
commentary on this thing,” said Bimblick. “Hidden gems that no one seems to want to notice and recognize.” He added engraved plates that
read Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best
Director, and Best Film.
At the Shrine, where old album covers and music posters fill the
walls and ceiling, the DJ played James Brown’s “The
Payback” while voters debated their picks. Despite the event’s
name, not everyone at the Harlem Oscar Boycott was wholeheartedly in favor of
boycotting the Oscars. Some attendees admitted that they might watch the
ceremony later that night, if only to hear Rock’s monologue. Harlem resident
Christine Melton told me she disagreed with Will
and Jada Pinkett Smith’s decision to skip the Oscars ceremony,
especially after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced
changes to its membership rules. “Jada and Will should have said they are
on the right track and shown up to say ‘We’re watching y’all,’” said Melton, who
had cast her vote for Smith’s film Concussion.
The music and dancing were interrupted to announce the winners.
Voters gathered around the stage and a quiet fell across
the crowd as celebrity blogger Lisa Durden, who posted live
clips from the event on social media, read the names of
the first-ever Ptah awardees, whose publicists would soon be
receiving nine-inch tall golden statues by mail: “Best Actor: Will
Smith. Best Supporting Actor: Idris Elba. Best
Director: Ryan Coogler for Creed. And Best Picture: Beasts
of No Nation.”