John Singleton, a screenwriter and film director whose powerful 1991 debut, “Boyz N the Hood,” earned him two Oscar nominations and was considered groundbreaking for its humane depiction of the lives of young black men on the violent streets of South Central Los Angeles, died April 29 at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 51.
It's my story, I lived it. What sense would it have made to have some white boy impose his interpretation on my experience? Singleton filmed on location in neighborhoods beset by violence, in which drugs and police brutality were rife, yet he described the movie as “my ‘American Graffiti,’ my coming-of-age story.” He enlisted local gang members to add an extra edge of realism to the clothes and dialogue.
When “Boyz N the Hood” was released, it was considered a breakthrough in its depiction of a world previously overlooked by Hollywood filmmakers, even though the movie-making capital was only miles away. Singleton joined a group of other African-American directors — among them Spike Lee, Robert Townsend and Mario Van Peebles — who were making films about racial justice and the ordinary lives of black people.
To far more mixed critical results, Singleton went on to direct films including “Poetic Justice” with Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson, and “Rosewood” , about the massacre of residents in a black town in 1920s Florida. In 2005, Singleton bankrolled and produced the box-office hit “Hustle & Flow,” the story of a Memphis pimp and aspiring rap star written and directed by Craig Brewer, and in 2017 he was executive producer of A&E’s documentary “L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later,” which examined racial violence in Los Angeles. The same year, Singleton created the FX television series “Snowfall,” set amid the 1980s crack cocaine era in Los Angeles, which is still airing.