Yet critics like Mr. Crouch observe that no matter how thoroughly black iconoclasts have embraced the word, intending to deflate its impact -- as Richard Pryor did in the 1980's and Chris Rock did in the 1990's -- the word retains its sting.

Mr. Crouch also deplores the coarsening that comes with its unhesitant use. ''Men and women say things to each other in private, at the dinner table, that they're not going to say to somebody in public,'' he said. ''Now if you get to the point where that becomes chic, the private thing is said in public, then you're going down a decadent road.''

None of that, the filmmakers say, persuades them that any word should be stricken from discussion. ''That's the crux of the issue: Why don't we talk about the stuff that's hanging in the air?'' asked Ms. Echegoyan, a Bronx native who has worked in Hollywood for more than a decade. ''Nothing is going to get better unless you can speak your mind.''

Both Mr. Williams, who grew up in North Carolina and Brooklyn, and Ms. Echegoyan say they are disturbed by the knee-jerk reactions dictated by contemporary political correctness. When the Eddie Murphy comedy ''Trading Places'' is shown on television, they observed, a scene has been deleted in which the character played by the actor Don Ameche uses the slur in explaining that he would never let Mr. Murphy's character run his company.

''That's a critical scene, and it's been edited out,'' Mr. Williams said. ''There's a real danger in doing that. If you can say a word never existed, you can say Jim Crow never existed.''