The Honoraries: Danny Glover as Producer
Saturday, July 24, 2021 at 5:17PM 
Danny Glover's cameo in BAMAKO
Despite his fantastic career as an actor, Danny Glover isn't receiving an Honorary Oscar to recognize that work. Instead, AMPAS is honoring him with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award as a way of celebrating his lifelong actions as a community activist, fighting for worldwide justice, and other such efforts. If anything, those values are more imminently evident in Glover's filmography as a producer rather than as an actor. Since the early 90s, after becoming a box-office star, the American thespian started leveraging his success to try and make specific projects happen. Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger marked Glover's first experience as a producer, and the funding was mainly secured through his participation in Lethal Weapon 2. From then on, Danny Glover has been a strong supporter of underrepresented filmmakers, helping them make their cinematic dreams come true…
More than almost anyone in Hollywood, our recent Jean Hersholt Award honoree has promoted world cinema with a consummate passion. In my book, that makes him one of the coolest folks from Tinsel Town nowadays. After some time devoting his producing acumen to stories centering on African Americans for the big and small screen, the aughts found Glover expanding his horizons. Focus shifted to the cinema of the global south, where the star turned producer forged friendships with several directors he admired. One of those artists was Ousmane Sembène, the cineaste that's often called the father of African cinema. In 2004, Glover was involved in the making of Sembène's final film and ultimate masterpiece, Moolaadè. After that work in an executive capacity, Glover decided to create his own production company.
Co-founded with Joslyn Barnes, Louverture Films is dedicated to the making of independent films and series. It privileges projects of historical relevance, social purpose, and artistic integrity. The very name of the company reflects Danny Glover's ambitions as a behind-the-scenes figure. For decades, he's wanted to do a film on Haitian revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture. While they produce a lot of international fare, Glover and company are also interested in financing American productions, especially those made by members of marginalized communities. In the last few years, such objectives have resulted in excellent documentaries, some of which even got Oscar's attention. Recently, two of Louverture Films' projects premiered at Cannes. They were Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria and Tatiana Huezo's Prayers for the Stolen.
Here are some recommendations from Danny Glover's filmography as a producer. All of these pictures are available to watch online:
BAMAKO (2006)
An outlier in the oeuvre of Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako, Bamako was also the first feature produced by Louverture Films. Through an impassioned mock trial, the IMF and the World Bank are prosecuted for the crimes committed against the African people, for their part in chaining an entire continent to perpetual underdevelopment. At the same time, Sissako's camera finds time to observe quotidian life in the city of Bamako, focusing on the tribulations of a bar singer. Equal parts academic, political, and mercurially moving, this anticolonial allegory is highly recommended.
Streaming on Fubo TV and OVID. You can also rent it on Apple iTunes and Amazon.
TROUBLE THE WATER (2008)
A work of filmmaking as a community effort, Trouble the Water was the first film that Danny Glover produced and got some attention from AMPAS. The Best Documentary Feature nominee witnesses the ravage of Hurricane Katrina on Black communities, examining the prelude to the disaster and following through to regard its tragic aftermath. As much as this is an example of cinemas as journalism, it's also a loving testament to its makers' courage and their subject's resilience.
Streaming on AMC+, Kanopy, DirecTV, Fandor, Sundance Now, and Spectrum on Demand. You can also rent it on Apple iTunes.
THE TIME THAT REMAINS (2009)
In the intersection of an epic odyssey and cinematic minimalism, Palestinian director Elia Suleiman follows the development of Israel from 1948 to the 21st century. Inspired by personal experiences and familial memories, The Time That Remains is a deadpan oddity that weaponizes its director's particular brand of stone-faced humor. While one might laugh at the stiltedness, there's an undercurrent of political fury as the Palestinian people that refused to leave their lands are systematically marginalized, labeled as Israeli-Arabs. Moreover, it's episodic and repetitive by design, illustrating the absurdity of what it portrays.
Available to rent on Google Play, YouTube, Apple iTunes, Amazon, and Microsoft Store.
THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (2012)
Dissecting the War on Drugs with lacerating precision, Eugene Jarecki explains how America became the world's largest jailer in a process that saw its most impoverished communities forced into further disenfranchisement. The House I Live In may be blunt at times, and the narration is vexingly didactic. Still, the clarity of purpose, the brutal sagacity of its arguments make the documentary an essential viewing.
Streaming on Tubi, IndieFlix, and Plex. You can also rent it on several services.
CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR (2015)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives marked the first collaboration between Glover and Weerasethakul. Since then, the American has been involved in almost all of the Thai auteur's projects. Cemetery of Splendor rises above the rest of those films, spellbinding the spectator with a somnambulistic meditation on national traumas, hauntings from a shared past, traditions bleeding into modern life as hallucinatory anachronisms. This is slow cinema at its most hypnotic and cinematographically sublime.
Available to rent on Vudu, Apple iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, and Google Play.
STRONG ISLAND (2017)
Another documentary that AMPAS heralded, Strong Island benefits from a sense of profound simplicity, verging on audiovisual minimalism. This approach prunes the ramifications of potential melodrama away from this story of loss. Consequently, the case of an unprosecuted murder hits the audience like a kick to the solar plexus. In addition, any barriers of formal alienation have been torn down by Yance Ford's direct-to-camera strategy, resulting in a fearlessly personal piece of filmmaking.
Streaming on Netflix.
THAT SUMMER (2017)
If you're a fan of the celebrated 1970s doc Grey Gardens, then you must watch That Summer. Over the last decade, Danny Glover has found many opportunities to work with Swedish director Göran Olsson, whose films primarily emerge as investigations of hitherto unexplored footage. In this case, they are the shelved reels that preceded the making of Grey Gardens, a treasure trove of information about Edith and Little Edie Beale, the summer of 1972, and the collision of eccentric personalities both in front and behind the camera.
Streaming on Hulu, AMC+, and DirecTV. You can also rent it on many platforms.
ZAMA (2017)
Like many of the projects Glover produced, Zama is an anti-imperialist screed that reveals the scars of colonialism by philtering history through prisms of absurdity. Lucrecia Martel's willfully mystifying masterpiece is as much a bureaucratic comedy as it is an epic mural on the fool-hardy advance of European forces into Latin American land. Zama is formalistically pristine, the sort of film that belongs in any "best of the 2010s" lists. At the very least, it's got a place on mine.
Streaming on Kanopy. You can also rent it on several platforms.
CAPERNAUM (2018)
Nadine Labaki's tale of childhood miseries has sparked polarizing reactions ever since it first screened at the Croisette. While much of Capernaum is founded on clichéd contrivances and its determined dive into suffering can feel exploitative, it's hard to deny the picture's power. Anchored by an unbelievable performance by young Zain Al Rafeea, the film's a searing experience. Capernaum won the Jury Prize at Cannes and went on to secure a Best International Feature nomination, representing Lebanon.
Available to rent on many platforms, including Youtube, Google Play, and others.
HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING (2018)
Photographer turned director RaMell Ross's documentary condenses years of observation into a long day's journey into night. It's an abstract immersive marvel that depicts the life of African American residents of Hale County, Alabama. Deftly avoiding ethnography, the work achieves the status of audiovisual poetry enshrined in the glow of adventurous editing, intimate feeling, and entrancing form. What's more, Hale County This Morning, This Evening managed to secure an Oscar nomination, an unexpected but richly deserved honor.
Available to rent on several platforms, including Youtube and Google Play.
What's your favorite film that Danny Glover helped produce?
Reader Comments (5)
This is a thoughtful piece that promotes understanding of why this filmmaker is deserving of this distinct honor. Thanks.
Notably not listed here is Danny Glover's passion project: a big sweeping biopic about the Haitian Revolution from the perspective of Toussaint Louverture.
It never got off the ground because potential backers weren't willing to finance a historical epic with no "white heroes" in it.
Giving big Kael, Ebert, Alves energy in this piece.
I am one of those who believe that one should separate personal life from artistic life but I must admit that I was very disappointed when I read that Danny Glover supports the regime that governs Venezuela that has caused so much damage in the Latin American country.
Still not for that I am going to ignore the talent of Mr. Glover. He should have been nominated for an Oscar for The Color Purple. He was the perfect partner for Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, I enjoyed seeing him as an action hero in Predator 2. I also highly recommend The Saint of Fort Washington which also has a sensational performance by Matt Dillon.
I was actually reading your article and found some really interesting information. The thing is quite clear that I just want to thank for it.
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