Like J-Lo, Halle Berry is a head turner for both men and women. This proved to be the case during her appearance at the 37th Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) to receive a tribute by the festival founder and artistic director, Michael Kutza. The tribute was presented as part of the CIFF's Black Perspectives program, which began five years ago. Prior recipients have been Spike Lee, Laurence Fishburne and Pam Grier. Joining Ms. Berry for an evening of film clips and serving as moderator for a discussion was film critic and author Duane Byrge. Mr. Byrge was a former senior film critic for The Hollywood Reporter and is senior editor for ShowbizDATA.com.

Halle certainly brings star quality to an event, evidenced by all the eager press photographers, and others, anxious to catch her radiant smile. She is a composed woman whose focus prior to her film retrospective, discussion and award was to participate in Etta Moten Barnett's 100th birthday reception. Before Halle's film snippets where shown, there was an extended clip from 1933 of Barnett singing "My Forgotten Man". This was noteworthy because Etta Moten Barnett is a relatively unknown black movie star who must not be forgotten. When Ms. Barnett sang on-screen in 1933 that was the first time a black woman was shown as an ordinary everyday person and not as a servant or other type of stereotypical role in a movie. In the film she was treated just as an American who had something to say about her life during the depression.

It was encouraging to learn that eta Creative Arts Foundation, a community theater on the south side of Chicago, which is celebrating its 31st anniversary, is doing a play on the centenarian called Papa's Child: The Story of Etta Moten Barnett, on-stage from November 15th- December 30th. The purpose is in honor of the centennial year of her birth and to recognize her vast achievements and contributions to the world of entertainment and African-American culture. Ticket prices range from $8 to $25.00 and every seat in the house is outstanding. For more information, call 773-752-3955 or visit their web site at www.etacreativearts.org. It's also very fitting that both of these women are here today, it's as if Ms. Barnett is passing the baton to Berry.

It's important that Berry appreciates why she is able to do what she does. Even with all of her riches, fame and attention, she knows she needs to blaze new trails for actors of color working their way through the system today. Her star turn in HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge won Halle Berry a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Mini-Series in 1999.

Halle got her start as a beauty queen during high school. She was first runner-up in the Miss USA contest (1986) and Miss Ohio that same year. She moved to Chicago to be a model but soon realized she was not tall enough. Wanting to stay in that general field, she took an internship with Second City in Chicago. When someone was looking for a beautiful black woman her age for a movie part, Halle found herself in New York for an audition.

This led to a part in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991) with Samuel L. Jackson. She was supposed to play the role of Spike's wife in the movie but she campaigned hard for and won the role of Jackson's crack head girlfriend. Jackson was three months out of crack recovery (true story) at the time and with Berry's talent and his guidance and some research, she delivered a memorable first role as an actress in a major film.

Halle Berry started to turn heads with Strictly Business (1991). Also that year she made The Last Boy Scout with Bruce Willis and in 1992 worked with Eddie Murphy in Boomerang. Working hard not to get into a rut, Berry seeks out roles that are quite different and challenge her to be a better actress in each new film.

Like other respected actors, she sometimes works in films that she knows will not be big at the box office. As she said, "If I can get a good pay day in something like The Flintstones, I can work for close to nothing in a film like Losing Isiah (1995) or the upcoming Monsters Ball (2001)."

Although I've not previously thought of Halle Berry as an actress with "range," I can appreciate more of that after seeing much of her film retrospective. It may be that her beauty and a perception that she is in a film primarily because of her charm have blinded me.

The eeriest film to look at is Executive Decision (1996) in which she was a flight attendant on a hijacked plane that might be blown up. The dilemma is that Air Force fighter planes are on its tail and must soon make a decision to shoot it down or not. It's thought that if a commercial plane with 400 Americans on board is shot down by the Air Force, the President would be politically finished. My, how times have changed.

Berry's role, as Rosetta Stone, in The Flintstones (John Goodman) was written for Sharon Stone and she had to fight hard to get that part. That was her first race neutral role and it was a goal important to the development of her career as well as how other actors of color are viewed.

In Bulworth (1998 with Warren Beatty), she showed her best acting ability to date as she rattled off a complexity of political awareness that one cannot state unless they understand it. Also that year she had a major supporting role in Why Do Fools Fall in Love? with Larenz Tate as Frankie Lymon. Those seem to be stock roles in decent films much like we see today with Two Can Play That Game and The Brothers. She stepped forward with her performance in Introducing Dorothy Dandrigde.

Most recently Halle was in the huge box office success, X-Men. We'll see her again in X-Men 2 in 2002, which will likely be a moneymaker for her like Matrix for its stars. Halle says she feels more comfortable about herself at this point in her life and career as evidenced by the passionate kissing and nude scenes she did in Swordfish (John Travolta 2001).

She is often asked where she wants to be ten years from now and her response is one that many of us can take to heart. If she says something that is too modest, she could be holding herself back. Should she pick a target and achieve it, then she does not want to feel like a failure because she did not aim high enough. Many goals are very personal and for most of us, the best long-term plan is a good short-term plan.

If there is a legacy that Halle Berry may leave on Hollywood films, it's that actors of color will be thought of for how well they fit the role and what they can bring to it, rather their color being the first and primary consideration a casting director thinks of. Halle's words were that she would like to lead with her talent rather than her color. A role may call for a specific sex, race or color but many do not. I'm looking for a day in the not too distant future when we accept the diversity that we preach.