Summer time of Soul Producer Says Will Smith “Robbed” Questlove’s Oscar-Profitable Documentary of Its Second

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson gained the Oscar for Finest Unique Documentary at the 94th Academy Awards this weekend for his directorial debut, Summer time of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution May Not Be Televised). Proper earlier than it was awarded, Will Smith walked onstage and slapped comic Chris Rock, who was presenting the Finest Unique Documentary award, for making a joke about his spouse Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair. Now, Summer time of Soul producer Joseph Patel has taken to social media to shares his ideas on how Will Smith “robbed” the Academy Award-winning movie crew and the remainder of the documentary nominees of the highlight. 

“I believe what Will did was egocentric,” tweeted Patel. “It robbed the class of its second. It robbed the opposite wonderful and wonderful movies of their second to be acknowledged in what was a STRONG 12 months for docs. And it robbed Summer time of Soul and our crew of our second. Of a loud, enthusiastic cheer for a celebrated movie.”

Patel then went on to criticize Rock for studying the winner’s card as “Amir Thompson and 4 white guys.” Summer time of Soul was made by Questlove and three producers: Patel, who’s of South Asian descent, and David Dinerstein and Robert Fyvolent, who’re each white. “The rationale that makes me SO SO VERY ANGRY is as a result of I used to be so proud to be one in all a handful of South Asians to have ever gained an Oscar within the historical past of the award,” Patel tweeted, referring to Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia’s Oscar win earlier that night time. “I’m an enormous boy — I can take a joke. Comedians make jokes. However not in that second. What a shitty, disrespectful factor to do… What each Will AND Chris did actually stained what ought to have been an exquisite second for us.”

Throughout an interview on The Tonight Present with Jimmy Fallon, Questlove revealed that he was making an attempt to meditate throughout the construct as much as the Finest Unique Documentary award announcement and missed the interplay between Smith and Rock. “When the business break was taking place, I used to be [humming] like I used to be actually not current for that whole second,” stated Questlove. “In my thoughts, they have been simply doing a sketch or no matter. I used to be not current in any respect. I used to be in a clean state.” Watch that under across the 3:00 minute mark.

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Revisit Pitchfork’s function “Questlove on Restoring Black Music Historical past and Making One of many 12 months’s Finest Movies.”