September 13, 1999

by Veronica Mixon

"I knew the controversial side of it - a guy who spends his whole life palming off other guys' girlfriends - but I figured if people liked him and could laugh, I could explore a lot of things. There's a serious undertone underneath the humor."

The film which stars rising star Hill Harper ("In Too Deep"), black indie queen, Nicole Ari Parker ("Boogie Nights"), Laurel Holloman ("The Myth of Fingerprints"), David Moscow ("Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane") and Phylicia Rashad ("Cosby") is the latest example of entertaining filmmaking featuring African American characters in lead roles. "The way I look at it, there's still so much of us that haven't been portrayed," Bader explained. "There's a group of us that will be coming that will probe all areas of our lives. They're not going to be confined to narrow urban stories set mostly in non-affluent areas. I feel that it's really important for us not to let other people put definitions on us about what we can be so, that we can do everything. I give Spike so much credit. He was at the forefront of the independent movement."

I spoke with the 30-year-old director at his New York office before he returned to Los Angeles where he's taking meetings and searching for his next project. Kwyn Bader grew up in the Rockville, Maryland suburbs of Washington of bi-racial parentage. His father's white from Albany, New York and his mother is Black from Hampton, Virginia and they're both biochemists. After majoring in English at Columbia University, he started making documentaries on Richard Wright, Jazz and the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum.

"Last year, I wrote a script on the Tuskegee Airman with Ossie David narrating. It went into national syndication," says Bader. "Documentaries are great because you're walking into history and people's lives very intimately and quickly." That was his entry into films and while working in production assistant, he would write scripts.

"It was a hard road, too," he concedes. "I did everything in film from write a script to sell ancillary rights in Hong Kong. But, for me, it's an inspiring way to live and I like what some people would say 'the insecurity of it.' If you don't have the passion for it, then it's not worth it because there are too many opportunities for destruction. I'm a very positive person.

"If you have a vision, it is one of the places where anything can happen. You can live the American Dream in it. You do see the people who were PA's in movies four years ago and they're directing movies and on TV today. There's something equalizing about it. You will see the Harvard MBA carrying a light just so he can learn how to make a film. The guy that grew up in the South Bronx might be the first assistant director and I think that's one of the great things about the industries."

"LOVING JEZEBEL" has opened a lot of doors for Kwyn Bader and he says that some really good job offers have come his way. "Ideally, I'd like to be writing a script for a studio or be a director for hire just to get into that flow because it does take so much time to do your own film from start to finish," he explains. "Besides, for my dream project, a romance set in the 1940s Paris, Harlem and London between a jazz musician and a ballerina, I willing to wait until I can have the best budget possible."