The relationship between Bob & Harvey Weinstein and African-American filmmakers was\u00a0 spotty at best. During the great Black-filmmaker renaissance of the early \u201890s, when such young guns as Mario Van Peebles, John Singleton, and the Hughes brothers were dropping their debut, inner-city dramas, Miramax\u2019s only releases from stateside Black filmmakers were Bill Duke\u2019s A Rage in Harlem<\/em> in 1991 and Leslie Harris\u2019s\u00a0Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.<\/em>\u00a0in 1993. (Hey, at least they distributed a movie from a woman<\/em> of color!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like so many pale-faced directors, Black filmmakers have also had tumultuous experiences getting their movies distributed by Miramax. (That is, unless you were the Wayans brothers, who churned out crowd-pleasing parody piffle like the first two Scary Movie<\/em>s and that hood-movie spoof Don\u2019t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood<\/em> for Miramax.) Charles Burnett (The Glass Shield<\/em><\/a>) and Charles Stone III (Paid in Full<\/em><\/a>) had their respective films shelved for a bit before the studio dumped them into theaters. The iconic poet Maya Angelou thankfully walked away unscathed when Down in the Delta<\/em>, the one and only film she directed, was released by Miramax on Christmas Day, 1998. (The film was originally supposed to air on Showtime, until Miramax got the theatrical rights, hoping it would get some Oscar buzz.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other Black filmmakers smartly kept their distance. Spike Lee, who was once in talks with Miramax to helm a big-screen version of the Broadway smash Rent<\/em>, would go on to warn others about going into purgatory with the Weinsteins. He famously told Martin Scorsese, when he was about to make Gangs of New York<\/em> for Miramax, \u201cYou really sold your soul to the devil on this one. The devil himself. Satan! Lucifer!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christopher Scott Cherot knows all too well what can happen when a Black filmmaker hops in bed with Harvey and them. His debut film Hav Plenty<\/em> was snapped up by Miramax after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 1997. Writer-director Cherot also stars as the lead character, aspiring writer Lee Plenty. (According to this interview<\/a>, the actor who was supposed to play Plenty dropped out at the last minute when he got a role in a Spike Lee joint.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plenty is crashing at the apartment of his snobby, platonic pal Havilland Savage (Chenoa Maxwell), who calls him up and invites him to her mom\u2019s house in D.C. for New Year\u2019s Eve. The visit turns out to be an eventful one for our boy, who gets stuck there for a couple days. (Savage constantly asks him for favors that prevent him from splitting.) And even though dude is sporting acne, hole-covered jeans, and an aura of bohemian brokeness, he fights off the advances of both Hav\u2019s loopy gal pal (Tammi Katherine Jones) and Hav\u2019s conflicted sister (Robinne Lee), who\u2019s married to a very buff dude (Reginald James) in glasses. Plenty is secretly smitten with Hav, even though she\u2019s going through some drama with her two-timing boyfriend (Hill Harper), a R&B star whose most famous track is \u201c40 Ounces of Love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, it seems like Cherot is getting his male, wish-fulfillment fantasy on by making this smart-ass vagabond an object of desire for several women. (Even Hav\u2019s grandmother loves his broke ass.) However, Plenty occasionally breaks the fourth wall to remind the audience that this cocoa-colored comedy of manners is based on true events. It\u2019s inspired by the early-\u201890s unrequited crush he had on Drew Dixon, a former A&R executive for historic hip-hop label Def Jam. (Anyone who\u2019s seen the 2020 documentary On the Record<\/em>, where Dixon alleges she was raped by Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, knows she may not have wanted a relationship with any man at that time.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Made for $65,000 and shot on Super 16mm (the movie looks intimate to the point of claustrophobic, as the actors are usually tightly squeezed into frame together), Plenty<\/em> is a charming enough film. Cherot subtly shows how African-Americans aren\u2019t a monolith with this tony rom-com, featuring melanin-enhanced versions of the neurotic, upscale characters you\u2019d usually find in Whit Stillman movies. Music legend Kenneth \u201cBabyface\u201d Edmonds and his then-wife Tracey Edmonds, who attached themselves as executive producers after seeing Plenty<\/em> at the Acapulco Black Film Festival, did make sure the movie doesn\u2019t get too saditty for audiences by providing a hip-hop and R&B-heavy soundtrack. (The soundtrack, which features songs from Jay-Z, SWV, Faith Evans, Erykah Badu and \u2014 yes \u2014 Babyface, was yet another \u201890s Black-movie soundtrack that was more successful than the movie.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back to the Toronto Film Festival screening. After Miramax snapped it up, guess who wanted a gotdamn happier ending? The studio told Cherot to tack on a more pleasant coda, giving Plenty some proper, less ambiguous closure. The new ending has Plenty screening his debut film Tru Love<\/em> at a film festival, where the characters watch themselves played on-screen by a cast that includes Shemar Moore, Nia Long, Mekhi Phifer and a pre-pop star Lauryn Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Edmonds also appear as moguls who want to distribute his movie \u2014 but it needs an upbeat ending. I don\u2019t know how he did it, but Cherot got Miramax to fork over an additional $50,000 to explain to audiences why this film has a sappier, obviously-reshot ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plenty<\/em> hit theaters in the summer of 1998, grossing $2 million \u2014 a decent amount for a $65,000 film. Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t enough to make people start calling Cherot the next, great Black hope. Cherot didn\u2019t drop another movie until the hip-hop Great Gatsby<\/em> adaptation G<\/em> (which finished filming in 2002) came out in 2005. He also served as a producer\/director on the BET reality series College Hill<\/em>, which was also produced by the Edmondses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plenty<\/em> was another Black film made by Black filmmaker that Bob and Harvey and Miramax slipped out there in the world with minimal fanfare and a pitiful lack of support. Sure, the Weinsteins began courting and championing filmmakers of color more when they started up the Weinstein Company. (In 2013, they released three movies from Black directors: Ryan Coogler\u2019s Fruitvale Station<\/em>, Lee Daniels\u2019 The Butler <\/em>and Scary Movie 5<\/em>, directed this time by Spike\u2019s cousin Malcolm D. Lee.) But we shouldn\u2019t forget about Cherot and the brothas & sistas who made low-budget, independent films that time \u2014 and the brothers who ran Miramax \u2014 forgot. Hav Plenty is streaming for free on <\/em>Pluto TV<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/hav-plenty2-1024x576.jpg\")
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