MARC HENRY JOHNSON
PRODUCER OF COLORVISION

Marc Henry Johnson was brought in to work on COLORVISION in February 2002 — just after he worked on A Huey P. Newton Story with Spike Lee.

Q: You’ve been working almost exclusively on COLORVISION for the past 15 months. What were your dreams and hopes when you started the project and how are you feeling about it now?

A: When I got the job, I was very excited. I was in Los Angeles at the time for a screening of A Huey P. Newton Story. I was offered this job on Friday, woke up on Saturday, and thought, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do now?’ Because the job is created and funded in part by the National Minority Consortia — five minority groups (Black, Latino, Native American, Pacific Island and Asian American) my challenge was to represent those five groups in a manner that was fair to each of them. Shortly after accepting the job, I came across my very first resume from 1986 with my objective at the top of it, and that objective (grandly and naively stated) was ‘to help give people a voice in mainstream media who don’t have a voice in mainstream media.’ Fifteen years later, I’m realizing that first objective.

Q: There are three distinct elements to this project — independent films, segment reports and studio wraparounds hosted by host Daisy Fuentes. Now that the last piece has been shot — if you were to explain this project — how would you explain it to someone in the world of public television?

A: Well, it started as an anthology series for short films. I’m an avid film watcher, but when I see a short film on the Sundance Channel, IFC or HBO, I don’t necessarily go back the next week to watch another short film. But, when you’re talking about a series, of course, you want repeat viewers. The best way to get people to watch week in and week out is to provide hosted segments out in the field covering different cultural events related to our communities. Hopefully, the viewer will find this enticing and come back. So, we got Marc Anthony Thompson, Dan Ho, Jill Momaday, Lisa Ling (she actually reached out to us, saying she wanted to do something) as field reporters. We’re very excited to have Daisy Fuentes as the series’ host. If you asked me what I would describe it as now, I would almost call it a magazine show.

Q: Each of your segment reporters/hosts has a very different background — musician, poet, news journalist, radio host, entertainer/actress, and comedian. How does each of them make his/her mark in this film and why did you go after such a variety of people?

A: The idea was to get people who represented each community and then for them to report on stories outside of their communities. Dan Ho, had never had a reservation experience, YET reported on the Monument to Crazy Horse segment. I wanted the host to experience this newness to the viewers. As the reporter experiences it first, the viewer will experience it first.

Q: If there is a season two for COLORVISION, what is the natural evolution for the next series? Are there things you could not fit in this season?

A: I would like to end each show next season with some sort of a musical performance or spoken-word performance. We have had stuff throughout the show, but it comes out more and more in the segments than in the films. We have the spoken words of Ice Cube and Catfish Stevenson. We have these wonderful love songs by a group of Polynesian musicians headed up by Malu’i Funaki, we have a performance by El Vez and songs by John Trudall. This musician, Malu’i Funaki, literally sings the sweetest love songs you’ll ever want to hear.