The Oscars Get Small

Because of the ongoing pandemic, which for Hollywood meant closed theaters and many movie projects being moved to later this year or sometime next, the 93rd Academy Awards that were held Sunday was a small gathering seen by millions around the world.  Union Station (also known as Alison Krauss' backup band) was used instead of the usual Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, leading to a dinner party atmosphere not unlike (ahem) the Golden Globes.  There was no host for the third consecutive year.

The pictures got smaller too.  Most of the nominated films intended for the big screen ended up on Netflix, Disney +, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and HBO Max.  They're streaming services that can be accessed at home for the price of a monthly subscription.

"Nomadland", streaming on Hulu, was the big winner with Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress for Frances McDormand (her third), and Chloe Zhao for Best Director.  Zhao was the second woman to win the honor (Katheryn Bigelow was the first), and the first from her native China.

It was a good night for actors of color, if only because the Academy wanted to prove they're oh so diverse.after many years of not being that.  Besides Zhao, Youn Yuh-Jung won Best Supporting Actress for "Minari", and Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for "Judas and the Black Messiah".

It was all set up for Chadwick Boseman, the actor best known as "Black Panther" who died last year, to win a posthumous Oscar for his role in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".  In fact, the producers switched the order of the last three awards from Best Actor, Actress and Picture to Best Picture, Actress and Actor so Boseman would have a nice, emotional sendoff.  And the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role went to . . . Anthony Hopkins for "The Father".  He didn't bother to show up to accept the award.  No disrespect to either Boseman or Hopkins or any of the other nominees, but maybe the Academy should never have messed with tradition.

It also would have been nice to see clips of the nominated films, so we had some idea what they're about.   Instead, we got actor testimonials, longer-than-usual acceptance speeches, and Glenn Close dancing to "Da Butt" in a trivia segment meant to fill time.  The telecast clocked in at three hours and 15 minutes, which is right on time if you're doing the show from a train station.  Or else it's just a pandemic thing.

One more thing that got small.  Everyone thought the ABC telecast would tally the smallest audience in Academy history, and everybody was right.  Less than ten million viewed the proceedings, a 58% drop from last year.  But that's typical of every other awards show that's been aired since this pandemic began a year ago.  If we just figured out that no one wants to watch people giving other people awards, what's going to happen when nobody wants to watch movies in a theater any more post-pandemic?  That's a doomsday scenario no one in Hollywood wants to contemplate. 

Derek Chauvin: Guilty Times Three

 On Tuesday, a former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty of kneeing a Black man to death.  Two days later, in a suburb a few miles north, they held a funeral for another Black man who was shot to death by a police officer a week and a half earlier.

Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer in question, was found guilty by a jury on three counts of the murder of George Floyd nearly a year ago.  It was the rare case of a jury not being taken in by the defendant with the blue uniform and police badge, a real-life Superman upholding Truth, Justice and the American Way.  It was no help to Chauvin that he no longer had the support of his colleagues, who also happened to wear blue and a badge. No "Blue Wall of Silence" here.

There was more temporary relief than celebration among those who gathered outside the courtroom, the area of 38th and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis where the killing occurred and has been turned into a memorial for Floyd, and the millions watching on TV and on the internet when the verdict was announced.  No more worrying about National Guard troops and curfews cracking down on Black Lives Matter protesters, and the media that was covering them.  This was an overreaction to the aftermath of Floyd's death last year, when violence and looting turned the Twin Cities and its suburbs into an armed camp because local officials were too slow to see what was going on.

It could be argued that Chauvin's trial and conviction would not have been made possible if a teenage girl named Damatia Frazier hadn't recorded for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds on her phone, which is how long it took for Floyd to stop breathing as Chauvin sucked the life out of him.  Or the numerous times that video has been shown on TV and in the courtroom.

In the Twin Cities alone, Black men like Floyd and Philando Castile, a white woman named Justine Ruszcyk and who knows how many more have all lost their lives due to bad decisions on the part of local police.  We now add Daunte Wright to the list.

Wright was being questioned by police in the suburb of Brooklyn Center for driving with expired license tabs and an air freshener hanging from his car's rear-view mirror.  Resisting arrest, officer Kim Potter decided to use a taser on Wright.  Only instead of a taser, she reached for a gun and shot him.  He was 20 years old.

The reaction was swift.  Parts of Brooklyn Center, previously known as a bedroom community which once had an indoor shopping mall as its focal point, were damaged as police and demonstrator clashed and the city put on curfew for most of the week.

This isn't the end of the legal trauma for Minnesota.  After Chauvin's sentencing in June, the three other officers who were bystanders will have their own trial in August.  Then sometime in 2022, there will be another high profile trial focusing on the death of Wright.

The Twin Cities aren't the only place where persons of color are fighting for their rights and their lives.  Eight Asians are dead in a rampage on massage parlors in Georgia, where Republican politicians are drawing up legislation to limit the voting rights of minorities.  Police in Columbus, Ohio shot and killed a Black teenage girl who was carrying a knife.  Florida and other states are preparing their own anti-protest laws.

Most who choose to wear blue are usually responsible citizens who uphold the law, and who do their jobs without incident.  It's the bad actors and military-like training and equipment that has given policing a bad name. Reforms are necessary, but defunding them is not a good idea.  There's a police reform bill going through Congress that addresses many of the abuses that need to be fixed.  The chances of it passing through a 50-50 Senate are not good.

Even after Chauvin starts spending the rest of his life in prison, there's still a lot of anger and cynicism out there.  People of color think twice before taking the wheel or being seen in public.  White supremacy, which used to be underground, is a lot more blatant than it used to be.  Police departments across the country are on notice that they may be next.  Oh, and be aware of your surroundings.  Somebody who thinks the world disrespects him might have an assault weapon aimed at you.

This is the world George Floyd, Daunte Wright and others have left to us.  It is up to us to see that their lives were not in vain.