Hollywood. Technically just another district in the city of Los Angeles, with barely 150 thousand people. It covers roughly 30 miles in a city of more than 500 square, but the myth and reach of Hollywood stretches a lot farther. Although people have settled there since 1853, what we call “Hollywood” didn’t spring up until 1902– And the first film wasn’t made there until 1908: The Count of Monte Cristo. Ever since “Hollywood” has become the chronicler of North American culture – and with that comes great power. You know the line: with great power comes great responsibility. Intended or not, Hollywood holds the reins of history and decides who will be revered, who will be remembered, who will inspire fear… and who will be left out entirely.

Just the facts, Ma’am

Around the time that Hollywood was making its first pictures, the United States was taking its thirteenth census, and surprise: The U.S. was nearly 89% White. That had a huge impact on the way Hollywood would develop over the next one hundred and thirteen years. The country was about 11% Black, 0.9% Hispanic, 0.3% Indigenous, and 0.2% Asian. Fast forward to 2021: The country is around 59% White, 18.5% Hispanic, 13.4% Black, 5.9% Asian, 1.5% Indigenous, and about 2.8% Mixed Race. Very different numbers. Yet, the films and shows coming out of Hollywood haven’t changed with the pace.

In 2011, American diversity in film was tracked for the first time. Most films fell into the lowest diversity bracket– less than 11%. In 2020, however, nearly 29% of all American films had a cast diversity level of 50% or more—- Quite an improvement. But all in all, that still means that 71% of American films were hardly diverse at all. And if you consider that for many Hollywood films “diversity” means the minority characters are glorified extras or so whitewashed themselves you’d be hard-pressed to even notice their minority status, even that 29% starts to look suspect.

The one with the all-White cast

Only in the most recent of the last eleven consecutive decades has diversity been a real goal in “Tinsel Town”; before then you’d get the occasional multi-cultural hit, such as ‘Rush Hour’ (Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker), ‘Lethal Weapon’ (Mel Gibson, Danny Glover), and ‘Men in Black’ (Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones), but more likely you’d get movies like ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Dirty Dancing’, and tv shows like ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Friends’. I could easily list one hundred movies and Tv shows that somehow make the United States appear magically one race. Shows like ‘How I Met Your Mother’ depict New York City—- one of the most diverse cities in the world—- as completely one-note. As someone who spent over a decade living in Manhattan, I can tell you many tourists are genuinely surprised when they realize that nearly 6 of the 8 million people in NYC aren’t White. Lee Atwater coined the famous phrase, “Perception is reality”. Which means with representation in the U.S.A. being what it is, American minorities are marginal… or don’t exist.

Show me the money

Every studio swears they are committed to providing diverse film casts, but something tells me their newfound commitment isn’t completely altruistic: Movies that were made up of 41% to 50% minorities had the highest median global box office receipts; Films with less than 11% minorities performed the worst. In recent years projects such as Black Panther (Grossed $1.3 BILLION, Budget $200m) and Crazy Rich Asians (Grossed $238m, Budget $30m) have been turning the heads of Studio executives, and a tidal wave of diversity may be coming. A clear sign of change lies in the fact that people of Color made up 39.7% of film leads in 2020 – a substantial leap from just 10.5% in 2011. However, there’s still a lot of room for growth behind the camera: Across 886 directors from the top 800 grossing films from 2007 to 2015 (excluding 2011), only 5.5% were Black and 2.8% were Asian. 

Houston, we have a problem

Aside from diversity issues in general, lies the problem of the true re-writing of history: Whitewashing. From the nearly all-White cast of ‘Gods of Egypt’ to Angelina Jolie playing an Afro-Chinese-Cuban-Jewish woman (‘A Mighty Heart’), some minority roles have been literally appropriated by White performers.

In The Human Stain, Anthony Hopkins plays an African American professor that has apparently been passing for White since college. Yes, the argument could be made that if he could pass for White, why not get a famous White actor to play him? Why indeed, aside from the fact that it’s not remotely believable that Hopkins comes from a Black family, and there are plenty of light-skinned Black actors that would have done justice to the role. Passing as White does not indeed make you White, and there was no part of Hopkins performance that conveyed any level of Blackness.

Even when it’s inspired by a true story, such as in Stuck, based on the story of a Black woman who hit a homeless man, but was cast as White in the film, or Ring of Fire, the story of Johnny Cash in which his Black Italian first wife was played by the same woman who portrayed Snow White on the tv series Once Upon A Time, minority characters are unapologetically replaced by White ones. Here’s a quick sample, but the examples are countless:

Tom Cruise, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’: The Japanese character Keiji Kiriya was changed to Major William “Bill” Cage.

Rooney Mara, ‘Pan’: The Indigenous American character “Tiger Lily” is played by White actress Rooney Mara.

Ben Affleck, ‘Argo’: Ben played the part of Tony Mendez, based on a real-life Hispanic CIA agent.

Bye, Felisha

Throughout this article, each section is prefaced with an old movie or tv quote, all of which has come from a traditionally “White” film; This last one I pulled from a Black movie just to make a point: Many of you won’t know it. This film (‘Friday’) had some of the best comedic actors of their time— Chris Tucker, Bernie Mac, & John Witherspoon to name a few— but until now “Black” movies & shows are considered for Black people only, while “White” films are thought to be for everyone; This way of thinking created one of the biggest cultural divides in our country. After nearly 530 years of sharing this country with each other, White America still hasn’t bridged the cultural divide. Everyone says that America is a melting pot but until now, it’s been more like oil and water. But if we continue this trend of diversity, easing the (sometimes unintentional, sometimes not) grip White Supremacy has had on Hollywood, if we open our eyes to each other, and welcome each other’s stories into our lives and our living rooms, I think that we would suddenly realize that what they say is true— There is only One Race: The Human Race.

Also Read: BLACK to the Future: The Rise of AfroFuturism

The post The History of Whitewashed Hollywood appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

If you aren’t entirely sure what AfroFuturism is, there’s a reason for that: There isn’t a lot of it. And it casts a wide net. It includes the music of performers like Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton, Afrika Bambaataa, even more modern artists like Erykah Badu, Outkast, and Beyonce.

Out of these many branches, its deepest roots lie in literature. Novels like Rose Water (Tade Thompson), set in a Nigerian settlement on the edge of an alien biodome, The Unkindness of Ghosts (Rivers Solomon), set on a segregated spaceship carrying the last of humanity, and the better known Kindred (Octavia Butler), the story of a modern woman dropped into the time of Black slavery, forced to relive it, with no idea how to escape.

As for film, everyone points to Marvel’s Black Panther as the most popular example. I disagree. Although it technically encapsulates the tenets of AfroFuturism: Black characters, in a technologically advanced African country, that exhibits magic in a SciFi world, I contend that it’s still a Marvel movie. Which constrains the story to the “White gaze”.

A better example would be Brother from Another Planet, the 1984 film by writer/director John Sayles, starring Joe Morton (Justice League). Although not a Black director, the film is so intrinsically from the Black point of view, you’d never know it. It follows the experience of an alien (Joe Morton) who finds himself in Harlem, New York. We later find he is being chased by interplanetary law enforcers– Who happen to be the White versions of the Men in Black. I’d even go so far as to say that Men in Black was loosely based on this film.

Another great example is Sleight, written/directed in 2016 by J.D. Dillard, starring Jacob Latimore (‘The Chi’). This film would be easy to miss because its description on Netflix is as follows:

“Struggling to raise his little sister on his own, a young street magician turns to drug dealing, unaware of how ruthless his supplier can be.”

Does that in anyway sound like a movie that has SciFi or is afro-futuristic in nature? Here’s my description:

“A scientific savant has to resort to dealing drugs after he and his sister are orphaned. When he gets in over his head, he and his mentor build a machine that will get him out of trouble… And change the power structure of his world.”

Neither of the aforementioned films feel like fantasy; They just tell their stories as if the world we live in is a world where these things exist. Both completely grounded in Black culture, or at least, American Black culture.

But I think the true destiny of Afro-Futurism is in television. 2020 birthed several Afrocentric shows, all taking racial issues by the horns. For instance, HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’, written by Misha Green, produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out) and co-starring Jonathan Majors (Da 5 Bloods), Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey), and Wunmi Mosaku (Luther). Based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff, which in turn was based on the collective works of author H.P. Lovecraft, the series pairs outrageous aspects of magic, science, and mysticism with the equally outrageous environment of the American Jim Crow era.

Second on the list is another HBO series, Watchmen. Though not solely told as a Black story, Watchmen in anchored by them. Written/produced by Damon Lindelof, and starring Regina King (‘Ray’), the show is based on the 2009 film also entitled ‘Watchmen’, which itself was based on the 1986 graphic novel of the same name. The show is centred around the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 and follows the exploits of self-appointed gods and heroes while wrestling with the likes of crime, betrayal, clones, and mind control.

With all this in mind, I think Mark Dery’s original question is still valid: Why aren’t there more Black voices in AfroFuturism? Many of the projects I mention have their origins in White America. But my theory and my answer to his question is this: HOPE. Many in the Black Community cannot stretch our imaginations far enough away from the horrors of our realities to see a future at all. To quote a few lines from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Hamilton’:

“I never thought I’d live past twenty. Where I come from, some get half as many. Ask anybody why we livin’ fast, and we laugh, reach for a flask… We have to make this moment last.”

But, we’re finally starting to shake off the demoralization that racism has wrapped like a blanket around our shoulders. And many of us are opening our eyes to see, not just the pain of the past, but the power of the future. As we step into a literal Golden age for this genre, where our stories are told by us, for us, we’re breathing new air, and we are indeed going BLACK to the FUTURE.

Also Read: The Rise of Nigerian-British Filmmakers

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Set in 1980, the film gives us a voyeuristic look into the life of Richard Collier, a successful playwright portrayed by Christopher Reeve (Superman, Deathtrap). Collier goes on an unscheduled getaway prompted by a bout of writer’s block, ending up at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Wandering the hotel, Richard stumbles upon a small museum of hotel artifacts and… this is where the movie really begins. We watch as Richard is drawn— almost against his will— to a photograph that changes his life: A portrait of actress Elise McKenna, played by Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die, Dr. Quinn).

From that moment, Richard is captivated by Ms. McKenna and her Mona Lisa smile. Finding the picture was taken sixty years earlier, Collier goes down a rabbit hole of research. He learns all he can about Elise, each clue deepening his obsession, hinting at an implausible truth: Somehow, in the distant past, the two had known each other. This sets Richard on a quest to see if time travel is possible, as he is determined to achieve it.

( Major SPOILERS ahead )

Locking himself in his room, he dons an early twentieth century suit, and cuts his hair to match. He spends the better part of the day listening to a recording of his own voice, trying to convince himself that it is 1912, the last time Elise McKenna was seen at the hotel. After several hours, he realizes the recording– made with technology that hadn’t existed in 1912– was the very thing preventing him from transporting to the past.

Removing all reminders of the present, Richard again attempts to will himself back in time– and it works. He finds himself in 1912, exactly as he had imagined.

This is a rare moment in movie history, more fairytale than science fiction, where time travel is not achieved via wristwatches or cars or phone booths: It’s more like Dorothy, caught in a tornado, carried off into the Land of Oz.

Collier proceeds to find Elise, overcomes her initial rebuttals, and convinces her of his sincerity of heart. In the span of three days, they go on a horse & carriage ride, share a romantic afternoon in a rowboat (anyone else getting ‘Little Mermaid’ vibes, here?), and bond as only movie lovers can. The only obstacle to their newfound happiness is Elise’s manager, William Robinson, portrayed by Christopher Plummer (Sound of Music, Doctor Parnassus). Regarding himself as her protector, he opposes the match in every way. He even has Collier attacked by thugs. Still, Richard and Elise find their way back to each other, Elise turning her back on her life as an actress, and Robinson.

But just as the couple start to make plans, Collier accidentally pulls something from his pocket that reminds him of the future: A 1979 penny. In one of the most heartbreaking moments I’ve ever seen, Richard is pulled away from his love. In a scene extremely reminiscent of “the sunken place” in Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Richard watches Elise fade into the distance, as we’re left with her screams of abject terror.

My Thoughts

Each side of me has her own thoughts. Here are a few:

The Feminist finds Richard’s obsessive desperation insulting: A successful writer, fresh off a breakup, runs from his problems, then promptly fixates on an unobtainable pretty face. Richard essentially time-stalks a dead woman, then applies emotional pressure until she responds the way he’d like. That’s not love. Not a healthy one at least. It’s also ridiculous that she gives up her career and her father figure for a three-day love affair.

The Activist is concerned that there were apparently no Black people in 1980. There didn’t even appear to be any Negro servants in 1912. #Erasure

The Romantic & The Christopher Reeve Fangirl feel like he was the only person that could sell this character on screen. There are moments of such breathtaking sincerity that they make me believe in time travel, magic, and destiny. No one could sell love and heartbreak like Christopher Reeve. Just watch the Lois Lane death scene in Superman: The Movie. But there are also moments of inappropriate camp that jolt me out of the story.

Plummer, as always, is menacing, charming, regal, and believable. Seymour puts in an excellent performance, as well. For me, however, Reeve is the breath and heartbeat of this film.

Yes, this movie is a mixed bag, depending on what values you bring to the viewing, but all in all, I think it is a semi-polished gem: It may not sparkle, but it’s priceless.

Also Read: The Film Fan’s Guide To Time Travel

The post Somewhere In Time: A Tragic Fairytale appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

We know the names: Cynthia Erivo (Harriet), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Thandiwe Newton (Westworld), Idris Elba (The Wire), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Game of Thrones), David Oyelowo (Selma), Ruth Negga (Preacher), John Boyega (Star Wars), and dozens more. They’ve played comic book characters, civil rights activists, sci-fi heroes, inner-city drug dealers— The entire gamut of Black American cinema and tv. Some of my AfrAm brothers and sisters take exception to that. And I understand why.  But hear me out. And stay ’til the end. 

The Americans

Since the moment we set foot on the American continent, Black Americans have been inundated with accusations of inferiority. This issue isn’t unique to us; However, no other country was built around that concept. Each generation has inched along, fighting the destruction of our self-esteem and our bodies by White America, as well as generational poverty, injustice, and erasure. And after centuries cut off from our roots, from global “Blackness”, we’ve developed in a vacuum. Everyone is other. We are surrounded on all sides. We will not be erased. 

With that in mind, Black British actors, in a sense, are seen as performing “American Blackface”. Someone outside of ourselves, “… that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more…” From our perspective, British actors swoop in, are granted coveted roles, then disappear with accolades. It’s just another case of outside exploitation.

There’s also a feeling of loss: In the film ‘Black Panther’,  the antagonist Killmonger says, “Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.” That line was added by Chadwick Boseman, who played the titular character. A British actor would not think to add or change lines to better reflect the Black American experience, nor would they fight for those changes, even if they occurred to them. Although David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo, who played Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King respectively, did excellent jobs, their performances came across as sterile, and exact, as a concert pianist trying to capture “the Blues”. Technically correct, yet missing the “flavor” and “heart” of Black America.

The British

In contrast to the isolationist viewpoint of Black Americans on this topic, Black British performers seem to take the view that, although not always as explicit, the tendrils of racism have stretched far and wide– and touch Black Britons as much as anyone. Perhaps more so, as the insidiousness of the systemic racism they’re entrenched in is a quiet, creeping thing: Hard to suss out and defeat. When George Floyd was killed in May of 2020, marches sprang up around the globe. Like Superman’s death cry in the opening scene of Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’, the pain of Black America sent piercing ripples throughout the world. And when those self same people appear to reject the British experience of Blackness– there’s a sense betrayal. The knife cuts deeper.

Theirs is the same quest for opportunity. The same desire for Black stories to be told. The same drive to give a stellar performance. Only to be told you’re the wrong kind of Black.

My Thoughts

Are Black British actors more prepared, and better trained? Perhaps. When you’re coming to a topic from the outside, you don’t coast. You don’t take it for granted. American actor Brian White is quoted as saying: “I have not seen one British actor that hasn’t trained in theatre show up in an audition.” Pair that with the dismantling of the arts in America, and you may have a point.

But is that really the core issue? This river has two heads: The lack of opportunities for Black performers… and the need for unification amongst the Diaspora. United Artists, currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, was founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin et al on the premise of empowering actors to control their own interests, breaking dependance from commercial studios. I propose Black Americans put suspicion and offense aside, and take the long view: The more we embrace and reconnect with our allies in the Diaspora, the more of an empire we build around the world. It’s time to abandon the internal skirmish mentality, and embrace the Big Picture: We’re stronger together. As they say, “United We Stand, Divided We Fall”.

Also Read: The Rise of Nigerian-British Filmmakers

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