How John Singleton Inspired an Entire Generation of Minority Filmmakers
He was more impactful than you will ever know.
You will hear all sorts of things about John Singleton, who died Monday, April 29. You will hear that he was the first African American nominated for an Academy Award in Directing. You will hear about how he brought “hood films” into the mainstream. You will hear how Boyz N The Hood launched black celebrities Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Regina King, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, and Cuba Gooding, Jr into superstardom. You may even hear that Boyz N The Hood had origins as a USC Cinema student project.
But what you really should know about John Singleton is just how much he believed in passing the torch. How he was willing to mentor young filmmakers. How — in a hostile world such as Hollywood — refreshing it was to meet a down-to-earth person who believed in minority filmmakers just as much as we believed in him.
For many of us in the generation that followed, John Singleton was a deciding factor in whether or not we…
