In 2020, while the world was on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of us felt isolated from our loved ones; on top of that, an astounding death toll, hundreds of thousands of layoffs, and a whole new level of respect for essential workers.
While many of us were planning our next move at home, that year provided an outlet for independent filmmakers: Tubi, a free-to-use streaming platform that is more lenient with content and offers better profit splits compared to Netflix, Hulu, and other similar services. Fox acquired Tubi in March 2020, and within months the platform achieved record growth, solidifying its position as a true contender in the streaming world. Detroit-based film creators such as Dennis Reed II, Beasy Jones, Lisa Brown, Thomas L. Harris, and others have contributed dozens of films and television episodes to the platform, usually working with a shoestring budget and most of them with a shooting schedule just under two weeks and a crew of fewer than 30 — gaffers, makeup artists, stylists, production assistants, script supervisors, actors, sound engineers, videographers, producers, and other on-set jobs to make sure things run smoothly. Did I forget to mention that the cast and crew of these productions are predominantly Black or people of color? Films and television shows such as Weight, Buff’d Up, The Dirty D, Pillow Talk, McGraw Ave, and a seemingly endless amount of content created by Detroiters for Detroiters flood the platform, giving the city the nickname “TubiTown.”
While going down the rabbit hole of Black-led original Tubi content, I couldn’t help but notice the striking comparison between TubiTown films of now and a genre of movies from the 1970s that cast people of color as a new type of protagonist. Until then, Black actors were mainly depicted in roles such as servants, sidekicks, or victims, and seldom in leads, which let Hollywood control the narrative of how Black people were perceived to general audiences. Films such as Superfly, Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song, Coffy, Shaft, Dolemite, and more gave power to Black creators during a tumultuous time in American history. Of course, I’m talking about Blaxploitation films…