Prince-Bythewood, Gina 1968–

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Gina Prince-Bythewood 1968–

Director, writer

Recognized for Portrayal of Positive Characters

Though minorities have made footprints in the world of filmmaking, the trails they have blazed are often distorted by the winds of sexism and racism. Women, especially, bear the brunt of this reality. While the filmmaking business is booming, the number of women breaking through in the market is bleak; the pool of African-American women may be even shallower. According to www.sundance.org, while African-American women directed nearly 30 feature films in the 1990s, most of these films were in the independent market, an indication of Hollywood’s rejection.

Hollywood has only in recent years begun to accept black films, but it has not yet opened its doors to varied genres. While African-American men like Spike Lee, John Singleton, and the Hughes Brothers have caught the eye and fattened the pockets of big-name studios through their urban stories, Hollywood has all but shunned the scripts written by African-American women. According to www.sundance.org, of the 450 feature films released in 1991, African Americans directed 12; none of them were directed by a woman.

While so many African-American women continue to watch doors slam in their faces, Gina Prince-Bythewood is doing a stellar job of pushing doors open. With her first feature movie, Love and Basketball, Prince-Bythewood managed to become the second African-American woman to have her work produced by a studio; her work also became the top-grossing film ever directed by an African-American woman. Her efforts and recognition led to a path of additional opportunity and made it apparent that Hollywood may be taking a second look.

Prince-Bythewood grew up in Los Angeles and spent much of her time reading. According to Time, she was reading 20 books a week at the age of seven—a habit she developed after her family’s television broke, only to be replaced eight years later. She attended UCLA and was on the track team but realized she had a desire to direct as a student in UCLA’s School of Theater. “[W]hen I was crewing on a student film, I had an epiphany—I wanted to direct. From that moment on, I knew I had to direct. But the first job I got out of school was writing,” she was quoted as saying on www.dga.org.

Began Writing for Television

Prince-Bythewood began her career in television, writing

At a Glance…

Born Gina Prince on February 16, 1968; married Reggie Rock Bythewood, 1998; one child, 2001. Education: UCLA School of Theater, 1991.

Career: Writer/Director. Wrote for A Different World, 1987; wrote for Sweet Justice, 1994; wrote for South Central, 1994; directed Stitches, 1991; directed What About Your Friends, 1995; wrote for Courthouse, 1995; directed Progress, 1997; directed Bowl of Pork, 1997; directed Damn Whitey, 1997; Felicity; Love and Basketball, 2000; Disappearing Acts, 2000.

Awards: Emmy Award nominee What About Your Friends; NAACP Image Award recipient, What About Your Friends; Humanitas Prize, Love and Basketball.

Addresses: c/o Jeanne Williams, ICM, 8942 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211.

for shows including A Different World, South Central, Sweet Justice and Courthouse. “I would be selected to write from a black woman’s perspective on these TV shows; after I got in there I’d prove that I could write for all of the characters,” she was quoted as saying on www.uclalumni.net.

Prince-Bythewood spent five years writing for television. During that time she directed the NAACP Image Award winning and Emmy nominated CBS Schoolbreak Special, “What About Your Friends.” She also wrote for and co-produced Felicity and directed the short film, Bowl of Pork, which was dubbed the black Forest Gump, for Def Comedy Jam/HBO.

Despite her accomplishment, Prince-Bythewood found that television limited her creativity, as she had no control over the scripts. “The whole time I was working in television, I kept waiting for someone to hand me a screenplay. I soon realized that I would have to write my first screenplay and get myself my shot,” she was quoted as saying on www.dga.org.

Broke Mold with Love and Basketball

After five years of television writing, the self-proclaimed control freak decided to dedicate a year to writing her first full-length film. Her film was a story that captured the relationship of an African-American boy and girl from upper middle-class families who share the dream of playing professional basketball and eventually fall in love. For Prince-Bythewood, getting her script in the door of a studio was a task in itself. “That year turned into two and everywhere we sent the script, it got turned down,” she was quoted as saying on www.dga.org. “. The biggest obstacle I’ve faced is the marketing of black films. In general, people and film companies look at them as if they’re all the same. There’s so little diversity in black film,” she was quoted as saying on www.uclalumni.net.

Eventually, Love and Basketball was accepted into the Sundance Institute Writer’s Lab and Director’s Lab and released in 2000. Spike Lee produced the film, which starred Omar Epps as Quincy and Sanaa Lathan as Monica. Love and Basketball, a #15 million project, grossed #22.5 million, more money than any film produced by an African-American woman.

Prince-Bythewood’s success with Love and Basketball placed her name on the mantle with other leading women in filmmaking like Julie Dash, who directed Daughters of the Dust (1992) and was the first African-American woman to receive national theater distribution, as well as Kasi Lemmons, who directed Eve’s Bayou (1997).

Recognized for Portrayal of Positive Characters

Prince-Bythewood has made it clear that her goal is to do more than just make movies. “I want the viewer to feel uplifted and hopeful at the end. If it’s not a brilliant movie with this sort of message, I don’t want to make it,” she was quoted as saying on www.dga.org. Critics noted her zest for the extraordinary.

A writer for Entertainment Weekly evaluated the movie this way: “The story of Quincy and Monica, their personal clashes and their athletic dreams, breaks away from other sports-themed dramas, thanks to the clarity and dash of Prince-Bythewood’s agile directorial style and the exciting originality of the subject. We just haven’t seen characters like these before.” “Prince-Bythewood gives us a view of a different Los Angeles and characters we don’t often see on a screen. Her game is fresh and entertaining on and off the court,” a Los Angeles Magazine article stated.

In 2000, the Humanitas Prize Foundation, which presents awards to television and motion picture writers who not only entertain, but enrich their viewing audience, rewarded Bythewood’s Love and Basketball with a Humanitas Prize. The prestigious award has various categories and is a cash prize that ranges from #10,000 to #25,000. The accomplishments of Love and Basketball brought with them another great reality. As quoted on www.sundance.org, film director Bridgett Davis (Naked Acts, 1995) said, “the most revolutionary thing an African-American female director can do is to make a second feature, because unfortunately it happens so rarely.”

Directed Second Full-Length Film

Almost immediately after her breakthrough success with Love and Basketball, Prince-Bythewood beat the odds when she began filming Disappearing Acts, an adaptation for HBO of Terry McMillan’s novel which tells a love story between a construction worker and an aspiring singer. Ironically, Prince-Bythewood had previously been turned down for the project, but Wesley Snipes production company, Amen Ra, decided to revisit her as a possible director. Prince-Bythewood became the fist African-American woman to direct a McMillan novel, and according to www.dga.org, she prepared for the project by reading the novel version of Disappearing Acts, cover to cover, more than 10 times. “I knew the characters, but it was still really hard because this book is many people’s bible. When we would hit a snag, we would go back to the book. It was really important to me that the film remained true to the book.”

She did, however, deviate from the true character of Franklin Swift, the novel’s leading man, played by Wesley Snipes. “I didn’t want this to turn into a male-bashing film. I wanted the audience to see both sides,” she was quoted as saying on www.dga.org. In order to achieve a balance, Prince-Bythewood deleted some emotional as well as physical violence to make Snipes’ character “more sympathetic and less self-destructive,” according to Los Angeles Times.

Her decision to alter the book slightly did not bother McMillan, who was one of the movie’s executive directors. “I was crying like a baby,” she told Los Angeles Times. “I had to run to the bathroom and compose myself. I finally told everyone, ’I like this better than the book.’ It took me back to the memories I had 20 years ago, and made me look at where I am now and what you’re willing to go through when you’re younger. It’s elegant, sexy, gritty and honest. They didn’t sugarcoat this the way they usually do in Hollywood.”

Prince-Bythewood shares her passion for film with her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood, whom she met while writing for A Different World and married in 1998. His television credits include New York Undercover and his movie credits include Get on the Bus. The Bythewoods recently expanded their union with the birth of a baby, and have hopes of owning a production company that will specialize in promoting black films. According to Essence, Prince-Bythewood’s next movies include directing an action film.

It is evident that Prince-Bythewood is making her mark as a director of a different breed. On one account, her attitude about actors sets her apart. “On my set, people have to respect the actor’s process. I totally respect what actors do. I give them whatever time they need and I never scream out directions from the camera. I take the time to walk up to them personally,” she was quoted as saying on www.dga.org.

On another account, her attitude regarding her own work may be a true reflection of what she has in store. “There’s a comfort in continually working. But I don’t want to end up just being a director for hire. I think my career would suffer,” she was quoted as saying on www.dga.org. “I want a career like Carl Franklin’s. He hasn’t done a lot of films, but all of them have been great films. Like him, I want to do great work.” If her track record indicates what is to come, the public is just beginning to see what Gina Prince-Bythewood has to offer.