Hollywood Shuffle is a movie directed by Robert Townsend that depicts the climate in Hollywood for African-American actors and actresses during the 1980s, when the vast majority of available roles portrayed stereotypical Black people. The movie starred Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, John Witherspoon and Ann Marie Johnson and featured appearances by Paul Mooney, Damon Wayans and Helen Martin. It was entirely self-financed by Townsend and was recorded on scraps of celluloid that Townsend could get from movie studios.http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/22791/Hollywood-Shuffle/overview

Hollywood Shuffle was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and won the Critics Award at the Deauville Film Festival in 1987.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093200/awards Following the critical success of the film, Townsend went on to direct several more movies, including Eddie Murphy Raw, Meteor Man and The Five Heartbeats.http://www.roberttownsend.com/bio.html

In Hollywood Shuffle, Townsend plays Bobby Taylor, a struggling young actor who dreams of making it big in Hollywood. His blue-collar family and friends find it hard to support Taylor's aspirations, especially after he is cast in a movie called "Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge" which depicts Black pimps and prostitutes. Taylor's girlfriend, played by Ann Marie Johnson, encourages Taylor to stick with his acting career in the hopes he will be able to play a respectable role.http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/22791/Hollywood-Shuffle/overview

Throughout the film, there are several mini skits. In one scene, Taylor envisions a "Black Acting School" where accomplished African-American actors learn how to play Black stereotypes from White teachers. In another daydream, Taylor pictures "real brothers" doing movie reviews similar to Siskel and Ebert. One of the longest sketches in the film features Taylor and his girlfriend watching a film noir starring "Sam Ace" (played by Townsend). Ace is a private detective trying to find the killer of a breakdancer named Cookiehead Jenkins. In one of the movie's most memorable scenes, Ace confronts accused killer Jheri Curl (played by Keenen Ivory Wayans) and gets him to confess to the murder by withholding his curl activator.http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hollywood_shuffle/