Showing posts tagged Film
“
When I was a kid, you know I immigrated to the States in 1978, and I’m six years old and watching TV and I didn’t see any Asians on television. And you turn on Star Trek and there’s this Asian guy not chopping anybody up. He’s honorable, a helmsman of a spaceship, and it was a big, big deal for me to see that and have a role model.

John Cho (x)

The only Asians I remember seeing on mainstream TV when I was a kid were Sulu on Star Trek, nameless Asians loading trucks in the background or dying on MASH (which was all about funny lovable white US Americans waging war on Asians), and the “ancient Chinese secret” Calgon laundry detergent commercial.

(via zuky)

Was the same when I was a kid. That moment of seeing George Takei not being overly-stereotyped when I was a kid was a powerful one. I think the only place I had really seen other Asians on the screen was finding the rare (because I was a kid in mountains, far from the rest of the community) movie that had Asians in it. Unfortunately, a lot of those were the “white guy learns martial arts, beats up Asians because ‘Merika” type movies. Which, of course was not TV. They were still the “Asian other” just as in MASH backdrops. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Sulu always has a special place in my heart. Star Trek helped me get through some bad emotional spaces as a kid, and I think part of what made it welcoming was having POC, especially George Takei ( since I’m JA too, and the other Asian American actors who came later), represented on screen in positive and whole characters, with names instead of “Solider #1, Henchman #4, Ninja #18”.

(via reallifedocumentarian)

(Proper) representation matters. 

(via angryasiangirlsunited)

(Source: divorcedreality)

(Reblogged from coorio)
bapgeek: racebending: New photo released of Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham, a military commander of Maori descent, in “Ender’s Game” (2013). Regarding the ta moko, Kingsley says: “Every gesture in the tattoo carries family history, family struggles – it’s your past,” the actor says. “I was so enthralled. He’s in quite a contained, stylized uniform but then this wonderful face tells his warrior history.” Rackham is an important character of color in the Ender’s Game novel—and arguably the highest profile Maori character in any upcoming tent pole movie this decade. Roles like this one do not come along often for actors of Pacific Islander descent. While the role is being portrayed by an actor of color, it is hard not to feel disappointed that the production did not cast a Maori actor to play this role. This is getting exhausting. But at least these studios are helping me save my hard-earned money. ^^^ View high resolution

bapgeek:

racebending:

New photo released of Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham, a military commander of Maori descent, in “Ender’s Game” (2013). Regarding the ta moko, Kingsley says:
“Every gesture in the tattoo carries family history, family struggles – it’s your past,” the actor says. “I was so enthralled. He’s in quite a contained, stylized uniform but then this wonderful face tells his warrior history.”

Rackham is an important character of color in the Ender’s Game novel—and arguably the highest profile Maori character in any upcoming tent pole movie this decade. Roles like this one do not come along often for actors of Pacific Islander descent. While the role is being portrayed by an actor of color, it is hard not to feel disappointed that the production did not cast a Maori actor to play this role.

This is getting exhausting.

But at least these studios are helping me save my hard-earned money.

^^^

(Reblogged from bapgeek)

blackfilm:

afreefa:

Wildcat

Kahlil Joseph’s Film Meditates on the Origins of an All-Black Rodeo in Oklahoma

A dreamlike narrative binds cowboy and an angelic specter clad in white in director Kahlil Joseph’s exploration of a little-known African-American rodeo subculture. Joseph, who is part of the Los Angeles-based What Matters Most film collective, visited the annual August rodeo in the sparsely populated Oklahoma town of Grayson (previously Wildcat), an event that attracts African-American bull riders, barrel racers and cowgirls from all over the Midwest and southern USA. He set out to celebrate the origins of the rodeo by paying respect to the spirit of Aunt Janet, a member of the family who founded the event, passed away last year and is embodied as the young girl in the film. “Black people are light years more advanced than the ideas and images that circulate would have you believe. The spaces we control and exist are my ground zero for filming, at least so far, and there are opportunities for me to tap into the energy,” says Joseph who has also made films for musicians including Shabazz Palaces and Seu Jorge. “So an all-black town with an all-black rodeo in the American heartland was a kind of vortex or portal through which I could actually show this.” Wildcat is scored by experimental musician Flying Lotus, who has previously collaborated with Joseph on a short to accompany his 2012 album Until the Quiet Comes, which is showing during Sundance London this weekend.

(Reblogged from jessehimself)

San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival /// SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN

deafmuslimpunx:

Here is a call for film submissions from Desi filmmakers (both in the motherland and Diaspora) … just to note, they do not accept unsolicited submissions from filmmakers outside San Francisco. you have to email them and ask them. They have accepted my request and I will send one of my short films to them shortly. (there’s a small submission fee included w/ the application)

deadline: July 13, 2013

(Reblogged from poc-creators)
theswellestdame: Hispanics Rare In Hollywood Despite Numbers **Picture above: Some question why a Spanish family was made British in The Impossible  And critics like Ms Nieto say most of the few roles that are written for Latino actors rely heavily on stereotypes: domestic worker, criminal, voluptuous siren. “Fifty million Latinos in the US are all primarily gardeners and maids and gang members?” Ms Nieto asks. It begs the question, she says: “Does film and television reflect people’s perception, or does it foster a perception? “Images and narratives have power.” Check out this article by Hilary Costa in Sky News regarding the rising population of Latinos in the United States while the number of Latinos in the media remain woefully low, in which A.B. Lugo and María F. Nieto are quoted and the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) prominently mentioned by clicking here. View high resolution

theswellestdame:

Hispanics Rare In Hollywood Despite Numbers

**Picture above: Some question why a Spanish family was made British in The Impossible

 And critics like Ms Nieto say most of the few roles that are written for Latino actors rely heavily on stereotypes: domestic worker, criminal, voluptuous siren.

“Fifty million Latinos in the US are all primarily gardeners and maids and gang members?” Ms Nieto asks.

It begs the question, she says: “Does film and television reflect people’s perception, or does it foster a perception?

“Images and narratives have power.”

Check out this article by Hilary Costa in Sky News regarding the rising population of Latinos in the United States while the number of Latinos in the media remain woefully low, in which A.B. Lugo and María F. Nieto are quoted and the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) prominently mentioned by clicking here.

(Reblogged from theswelldame)
“
…having a non-white character lets a show or movie look like its covering its bases, but refusing to actually create character details that are drawn from or rooted in that character’s race or ethnicity means that a writer or director doesn’t risk getting those details wrong. Race-blindness is more risk management strategy than a means of actually making television, movies, and books more diverse.
Alyssa Rosenberg, at TP (via thesmithian)
(Reblogged from thesmithian)

WATCH "ETHNIC NOTIONS" ONLINE

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

darkjez:

A lot of people have asked if the full version of the documentary is online since I made this post. Thanks to shebecameakiller for the referral!!

If only people could understand that what they think Black people are like… was constructed by Whites a very long time ago. And, each stereotype was constructed for very particular purposes. 

Please watch this Emmy award winning documentary. Watch the first minute, and you won’t want to turn away from it.

image

(Reblogged from knowledgeequalsblackpower)
bronxdoc: Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype Saturday February 23, 7:30pm Screening followed by Q+A with filmmakers: Miguel Picker, Chyng Sun and Edwin Pagan. View high resolution

bronxdoc:

Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype

Saturday February 23, 7:30pm

Screening followed by Q+A with filmmakers: Miguel Picker, Chyng Sun and Edwin Pagan.

(Reblogged from diasporadash)

Shonda Rhimes on diversity in television

  • Salon.com: How much pride do you take in the fact that your casts are much more racially diverse than most other shows?
  • Shonda Rhimes: I don’t take pride in it at all. I think it’s sad, and weird, and strange that it’s still a thing, nine years after we did “Grey’s,” that it’s still a thing. It’s creepy to me that it’s still an issue, that there aren’t enough people of color on television. Why is that still happening? It’s 2013. Somebody else needs to get their act together. And oh, by the way it works. Ratings-wise, it works. People like to see it. I don’t understand why people don’t understand that the world of TV should look like the world outside of TV. Like, why is there an assumption of whiteness on television? It’s very weird to me. I think there are some people who work really hard at it. I think J.J. Abrams really goes out of his way to try to make television look diverse. I think it’s happening. And I think that some people just assume whiteness, because that’s what they see. It’s weird.
  • Salon: Do you feel like that’s because it is mostly white guys making TV?
  • SR: I don’t think it’s about that. I really don’t. J.J. Abrams is a white guy, he does it. Norman Lear, years and years and years and years ago, did it. I think it’s ridiculous, that the networks don’t demand it more. I think it’s crazy that the person who everybody asks this question of is me. Everyone always says to me, “Why aren’t there more people of color on television?” I’m like, “Why don’t you ask a bunch of people who aren’t putting people of color on television why there aren’t more people of color on television.”
  • Salon: You’re right. But you know why we’re asking, it’s not because you’re not doing it.
  • SR: But, you know what I mean? Like, but I can’t tell you why. I don’t know why the white guys aren’t putting people of color on television, maybe we should ask them. And if you ask them all the time, after a while they might start thinking about putting people of color on television.
(Reblogged from ai-yo)
filmmemory: New Sundance review on Shadow and Act: The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete Outside the theater after a recent Sundance screening of director George Tillman Jr’s The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, a buyer, who shall of course go unnamed, gave his final appraisal of the film to a group of friends. He declared the movie to be: “Precious-like,” “not quite the essence of the ghetto movie,” and in no way “marketable.” Comparisons to Precious may abound with this movie and though they are lazy comparisons, they should not be wholly surprising: both films deal with the overall awful lives of young youths living in the ghetto. What the “essence” of the so-called ghetto movie actually is remains to be determined, but certainly what lies at the heart of The Inevitable Defeat… is something that transcends any genre or pseudo genre, a unique and oddly uplifting film that’s part coming-of-age, part survival story… Read the rest here. View high resolution

filmmemory:

New Sundance review on Shadow and Act: The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

Outside the theater after a recent Sundance screening of director George Tillman Jr’s The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, a buyer, who shall of course go unnamed, gave his final appraisal of the film to a group of friends. He declared the movie to be: “Precious-like,” “not quite the essence of the ghetto movie,” and in no way “marketable.”

Comparisons to Precious may abound with this movie and though they are lazy comparisons, they should not be wholly surprising: both films deal with the overall awful lives of young youths living in the ghetto. What the “essence” of the so-called ghetto movie actually is remains to be determined, but certainly what lies at the heart of The Inevitable Defeat… is something that transcends any genre or pseudo genre, a unique and oddly uplifting film that’s part coming-of-age, part survival story…

Read the rest here.

(Reblogged from filmmemory)
sarraounia: Pokou Princesse Ashanti, the first 3D animation movie from Cote d’Ivoire produced by Afrikatoon. Synopsis: Abla Poku is an eighteenth-century Princess from the kingdom of the Ashanti people. She is an influential advisor to King Opokou Ware. One day, she learns that the King’s best friend, Kongouê Bian is plotting a coup against him to take the throne. Poku, refusing to see a war between her people uses her charisma and mystical powers to avoid the conflict. She unfortunately fails and is forced to live under the regime imposed by Kongouê Bian. Refusing to live under his rule, she chooses exile. Despite her departure, the current King decides to chase her, following a prophecy stating that a woman will lead the kingdom, something he doesn’t want to see happen. Abla Poku or Abena Pokua, Abraha Poukou or Aura Poku is a Princess who existed. She is known among the Ashanti people and is part of the History of Côte d’Ivoire where she is considered the mother of the Baoulé people, one of the main Ivorian ethnic groups. Release date: Summer 2013. View high resolution

sarraounia:

Pokou Princesse Ashanti, the first 3D animation movie from Cote d’Ivoire produced by Afrikatoon.

Synopsis: Abla Poku is an eighteenth-century Princess from the kingdom of the Ashanti people. She is an influential advisor to King Opokou Ware. One day, she learns that the King’s best friend, Kongouê Bian is plotting a coup against him to take the throne. Poku, refusing to see a war between her people uses her charisma and mystical powers to avoid the conflict. She unfortunately fails and is forced to live under the regime imposed by Kongouê Bian. Refusing to live under his rule, she chooses exile. Despite her departure, the current King decides to chase her, following a prophecy stating that a woman will lead the kingdom, something he doesn’t want to see happen.

Abla Poku or Abena Pokua, Abraha Poukou or Aura Poku is a Princess who existed. She is known among the Ashanti people and is part of the History of Côte d’Ivoire where she is considered the mother of the Baoulé people, one of the main Ivorian ethnic groups.

Release date: Summer 2013.

(Reblogged from karnythia)

blackfilm:

The Abandon

the pilot episode of a new Black sci-fi webseries directed by Keith Josef Adkins. 

“There’s so little representation of black people on TV, period. But even when you think about thrillers and sci-fi and horror, the black person — particularly the black guy — is usually killed off first. So for me, the part of me wanting to put black people central to this story, it’s just to allow, you know, black characters to be central to the story!

… I’m putting myself and the people who I know on-screen. It’s not like I’m literally sitting down and saying ‘I want black people,’ because I don’t always wake up and say ‘Oh, I’m black!’ I’m writing, and that’s the voice I’m writing from.

And for me, because the central characters are all black, it takes race away. When everyone’s black, you’re not worried about who’s black or not. You’re invested in who they are, and in what’s happening to them. That’s my attempt with the series.” - Adkins via ClutchMagOnline

(Reblogged from blackfilm)