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Dialed In to Disturbing Drama
At the beginning of the decade, Lee Daniels helped Halle Berry become the first African American Best Actress winner. This year, he will almost certainly join her in the Oscar record books.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 1:00 PM
By Pam Grady
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Brian Bedder/Getty Images
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Genius in the hood
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In 2001, Lee Daniels produced Monster's Ball, the tough drama about an affair between a racist death row prison guard and the African American widow of one of his prisoners that netted Halle Berry a Best Actress Oscar. Three years later, Daniels produced The Woodsman, an even more disturbing drama starring Kevin Bacon as a paroled pedophile seeking redemption.
The wrenching one-two punch of those experiences left Daniels devastated and in no hurry to visit the dark side of human existence again. But then the Sapphire novel Push came into his life, bringing with it the harrowing tale of a teenage girl attempting to overcome a lifetime of neglect and abuse struck a chord. The result is Precious, a leading candidate for Best Picture of 2009 honors.
"Precious touched me," Daniels observes to FilmStew of his sophomore directing effort (following 2005's Shadowboxer) during a visit to the Mill Valley Film Festival. "I promised myself after Woodsman that I would not go to that place again, but I am for the underdog. I'm just drawn to the voices that are never heard and the people that are never seen, the people that we walk by and ignore. I'm just so fascinated by them. I'm so fascinated by the way we treat them."
The story has certainly resonated with audiences ever since it made its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience and Grand Jury drama prizes, as well as a Special Jury award for Mo'Nique for her searing turn as the titular character's monstrous mother. Since then, the film has picked up a raft of festival prizes, including audience awards at the San Sebastian, Toronto International and Mill Valley film festivals.
The film made news again when it averaged a stunning $100,000 per theater on its limited release opening weekend earlier this month. Daniels himself also has a legitimate shot at becoming only the second African American filmmaker to snag a Best Directing Oscar nomination. (John Singleton was the first for 1991's Boyz N the Hood.)
Everything is shaping up Cinderella for a movie that arrived at Sundance with no distributor and little buzz. Even now, Daniels downplays any talk of awards. "The win really is that it didn't end up going straight to DVD," he laughs.
"When I make films, each film is a dream come true, that you were actually able to get a film up off the ground," he shares. "It's such a delicate thing. At any given moment, it can all fall to pieces. To make a good one, one that you feel good about at the end of the day, is an even bigger accomplishment."
| Daniels looks at life as a journey and each film as a learning experience. In that regard, Precious was already a success long before its January premiere. "This experience was just devastatingly beautiful and a growth for me beyond anything I'd ever experienced before in my life," he says.
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"You know, I walk by girls like Precious every day and I used ignore them," he concludes." I will never ignore her-them again, ever."
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