'Summer of Soul' won the best documentary feature at the 94th Academy Awards. One of the producers, Joseph Patel explained his views on the entire Will and Chris incident that happened just before the category announcement and how it robbed the film's moment via Twitter thread, which he deleted later on.
Joseph Patel, one of the producers of ‘Summer of Soul’ (..or, when the revolution could not be televised), slammed both actor Will Smith and comedian Chris Rock for ruining the film’s moments at the 94th Academy Awards. The entire slap incident between Smith and Rock happened just before the documentary won the award. Patel took to Twitter and explained his view on the entire incident via thread, which the producer deleted later on calling it unproductive.
According to the thread which Patel deleted later on, he said that everyone was still processing the incident that happened when comedian Chris Rock was already reading out the nominees. He said that Will's 'selfishness' robbed the documentary and even the winners who were announced later on of their acknowledgement moment at the Oscars.
Patel also pointed out Rock for calling the three producers as ‘4 white guys’, when Patel was the third Asian American to win that night after actor Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia’s win for ‘The Long Goodbye’. Patel said it was highly inaccurate to call three producers as ‘4 white guys’ and disrespectful to be counted together instead of announcing individual names. The producer expressed hope that over time, they would be able to separate their achievement from what happened during the ceremony
At the 94th Academy Awards, actor Will Smith lost his cool and went up on the stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock, after the comedian made an insensitive joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. The incident took place moment before the winner of 'Best documentary feature' was announced.
The documentary, ‘Summer Of Soul’ is directed by Ahmir Thompson who is known by his stage name Questlove. Patel backed the movie along with producers Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein.