Special Report: The Life of Singleton

John Singleton was twenty-three when he wrote Boyz N the Hood and twenty-four when it made him the first Black filmmaker and youngest person ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Released in 1991, the film drew from Singleton's own upbringing in South Central Los Angeles to deliver an unflinching portrait of Black life there, launched the careers of Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, and Nia Long, and established Singleton as one of the most important voices in American cinema. Over the next three decades he directed Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Shaft, and Four Brothers, and served as a producer on Hustle & Flow and the FX series Snowfall, which was still in production when he died of a stroke in 2019 at age fifty-one.

The Life of Singleton: From Boyz N the Hood to Snowfall by journalist Thomas Golianopoulos draws on nearly 400 original interviews to document Singleton's full arc — his years as a driven film student at USC, his rapid ascent in Hollywood, his complicated personal life, and his final years. Published by Andscape Books in 2025, the biography traces how Singleton's commitment to putting authentic Black stories on screen shaped an industry and inspired generations of filmmakers. Mike talks with Golianopoulos about his four years reporting the book and the life of Hollywood's first self-proclaimed hip-hop director.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(1000)

Special Report: Boy George and Culture Club (2025)

Few bands burned brighter—or more colorfully—than Culture Club, and director Alison Ellwood joins Mike to unpack the making of her acclaimed documentary Boy George & Culture Club. From the group's imp...

25 Juni 17min

Episode 805: I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

What kind of man doesn't drink, avoids women, and prefers the company of other strange men in the park? Gene Fowler Jr.'s I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) plays the alien-infiltration premi...

24 Juni 2h 33min

Special Report: Dear Upstairs Neighbors (2026)

Editor Sarah Affleck pulls back the curtain on one of filmmaking's most invisible—and essential—arts. From cutting reality television to shaping animated features at LAIKA and Pixar, Affleck traces he...

23 Juni 19min

Special Report: Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul (2026)

Gregg Allman lived inside the central contradiction of American music — a white Southern kid who built his art on the blues, fled his demons while pouring them into song, and emerged as one of rock's ...

19 Juni 30min

Episode 804: Dark City (1998)

Rob St. Mary and Rob Spencer join Mike to dig into Proyas's tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes in a cheap hotel room with no memory, a dead body nearby, and a city that refuses to add up. ...

17 Juni 1h 46min

Episode 803: Timerider - The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982)

Mike and Aaron Carruthers kick off Sci-Fi June with William Dear's time-travel oddity Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, in which motocross racer Lyle Swann (Fred Ward) accidentally blasts a cent...

15 Juni 1h 36min

Kenji Tanigaki on The Furious (2025)

Kenji Tanigaki is anything but furious when he discusses his latest film, The Furious (2025). The film stars Xie Miao and Joe Taslim as two men united by a common enemy - child trafficking. The movie ...

4 Juni 11min

Episode 802: Dark of the Sun (1968)

Mike welcomes Andrew Nette and Jedidiah Ayres back to dissect Dark of the Sun (1968), a brutal, kinetic men‑on‑a‑mission film whose pulp thrills sit atop a surprisingly rich political and historical f...

3 Juni 1h 32min