One more thing: Here’s an article I wrote for Salon. “How Can White Americans Be Free?” The default belief that the white experience is a neutral and objective one hurts both white and American culture. I also talk about Spring Breakers (great), and Girls (great and not great). Fighting the Default has been the main point of Mirror in many ways. Who knows what infamous commenter Max Oblivion will think. How Can White Americans Be Free? Measure, measure, measure. We learn to measure first. We spend our days measuring. And when we count we start at one. Every number after is in relation to one. Two is one after one. Three is two after one. And so on. Every child …
Race in film
Django Unchained
django Hello dear readers, and when I say “dear” I mean it sincerely. You are dear to me and have saved me from the depths of self loathing because you said what I did was good, or semi-good, or you found something in it that was worth thinking about for two seconds, even if you disagreed. I started writing about film here because I couldn’t work on my own movies. For many reasons, I could not and would not hear my own ideas. I could say a lot here that would be very dramatic but lets cut it short and not kid anyone. I’m trying to thank you and there’s no non-dramatic and non corny-way to do it. And in …
Ebert Presents: Race and the Movies
See parts 2 & 3 of the episode at www.ebertpresents.com And below are a few of my previous Race in Film posts that elaborate on some of the films and ideas mentioned on the show!
Attack the Block
streets On Saturday nights in 1993, the TNT television channel played science fiction movies back to back beginning at midnight. They called this the TNT “Monster Movie Marathon.” As my parents had recently divorced, my sister and I now spent weekends at my father’s house and the Saturday night Monster Movie Marathon quickly became our tradition. We made our bed on the living room floor and taped each movie on the VCR. Them! was a favorite, as was The Day the Earth Stood Still. The Thing, both the 1951 version and John Carpenter’s became beloved, as did The Day of the Triffids and Cronenberg’s The Fly. When I think of great science fiction now, these are a few of the …
Race in Film: L’eclisse
In Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1962 film L’eclisse (Eclipse), time is the enemy. For this reason the chronically depressed will understand it implicitly. They will know that a fan turning left to right makes all the more stagnant the air in a room. They will understand that no part of that room, no corner or cushion, can provide relief from the realization that every approaching minute is opportunity for life to prove itself meaningless. Do you not hear the constant victory, in the human footrace of time, slow as fire, sure, and thick and Herculean accumulating its volume and adding its sad fiber? – Pablo Neruda (Cold Work) Faced with this pointless existence, the only thing to do is roam listlessly about, …
Race in Film: Stormy Weather
**This video was made specially for Roger Ebert’s Far Flung Correspondents. That is why my mug is in it. Now you can see all the facial expressions you could only dream of before… and I apologize now for the state of my hair.** The first thing you must realize about Stormy Weather before anything else, is that it is not real. Of course it isn’t real in the sense that it is a narrative film and as such it is fiction, but it is unreal in another way. It is a romanticization of African American life offering one-dimensional characters without nuance– in “response” to the one dimensional un-nuanced characters in other films. The movie opens as famous dancer Bill Williamson …
Race in Film: Swing Time & Shall We Dance
*This video includes clips and commentary for both “Swing Time” and “Shall We Dance”, so don’t turn it off after the Bojangles number! Also my voice cracks a lot in a weird way… I guess I’m becoming a real man.* This, more than any previous Race in Film post, gets to the nitty gritty of the whole series, and I am very nervous. It might be strange to get timid nine posts in, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what I am comfortable talking and not talking about. Judy Garland is fair game, but Fred Astaire… Fred Astaire… He is the man that makes my knees lose themselves. I am in love with his high waisted …
Race in Film: Freaky Friday
As you know, I have always remembered Rosalind Chao in The Joy Luck Club sitting proudly in the rain with the memory of her ancestors (see previous post). As depressing as the movie was to me as a child, this scene remains inspirational. I ask the world: Is it so hard to create more strong Asian characters like Rose? Then I saw Freaky Friday and the world answered “…Yes, it’s totes very hard. Obvi” I’m referring to the 2003 Lindsay Lohan/Jamie Lee Curtis Freaky Friday (If you’re thinking of the Jodie Foster version, bless your heart). I’m a fan of the movie actually. Lohan is great. But Do you recall the Chinese restaurant? It’s where the whole switcharoo is set …
Race in Film: The Joy Luck Club
I know The Joy Luck Club like the back of my hand…Unfortunately. While I recite lines from The Thin Man Goes Home at the drop of a hat, I carry the script of The Joy Luck Club in my mind’s eye like the scene of a horrible crime. I cannot shake it. It will not be shook. It is not the film’s fault. It is a fine film. A moving film. A film about mothers and daughters. Chinese mothers and daughters. Asian mothers and Asian American daughters. About generational and cultural rifts in communication, and the importance of knowing one’s history. Honoring the lives that have given you life. Remembering who you are. This is a story I should have …
Race in Film: Festen (The Celebration)
The inclusion of an African American character in Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film Festen (see previous post) is a curious thing. First I should make clear that the character is indeed an American man of African descent, not a black Dane, or an African immigrant (an important distinction). In the middle of Helge’s birthday dinner, sister Helene’s boyfriend Gbatokai (played by Gbatokai Dakinah*) arrives outside in a cab. Surprise! He’s black! Thinking he’s a hotel guest come to rent a room, brother Michael runs out to send him away, and is ridiculously offensive. Poor Michael can’t stop trying to prove his masculinity. He makes a fool of himself once again attempting to defend an institution that will soon be proved a …