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ABOUT
GUIDED CAMPAIGN ACCELERATORSTRATEGY MASTERCLASSTHE SHOPWORKSHOPSServices & Pricing
RESOURCES
FILMMAKER SELF-CARE SUMMITUnlock The VaultNewsletterPodcast/Webinar
PARTNER WITH US
RESULTS
Apply to the Accelerator

DO THE WORK

DO THE WORK

Hi there, distributor, film funder, theater, board member, film production company, distribution consultant, impact production company, educational distributors, filmmaker, film festival, film school, and any other film industry gatekeepers.

You are very powerful in shaping cultural narrative, perception, who get to tell stories and who gets to access them.

Take a look at yourself.

If you’re a majority-white institution/company, working primarily with stories that are about BIPOC, and you've never addressed your racial make-up as a problem, then you're part of the problem.

Please take a look at yourself, personally, and take internal action; not an event or panel for other people or by posting a list of films to watch, go inward. A statement of solidarity is empty without *internal* action.

Film industry, do the work: a solidarity statement

If you are a black filmmaker or decision-maker in the film industry, we humbly hold space for you and lovingly suggest considering doing what serves you right now--rest is also resistance. <3 To quote Ava DuVernay, “We take on the emotional labor of racism and it’s not our job to explain to white folks how to fix their broken selves in this context.” Also, here is a piece by Stanley Nelson that may serve you.

If sharing your film, a film recommendation (or anything really) in a list that will be linked below, serves you, then you may do so here by June 17th at 5pm ET (it’ll be posted June 18th). We are only taking recommendations from black storytellers.

FILM INDUSTRY,
DO THE WORK.

Film industry specific

  • Hire BIPOC as decision makers--on your board, in your c-suite, on your selection committee. Start here (thank you Brown Girls Doc Mafia for first compiling these):

If you...

  • fund filmmakers or impact production, are you asking why they’re the ones to tell the story or what their personal connection to the community is?
  • host a webinar or podcast, are you asking your guests how they identify so that your platform is accountable to many voices?
  • are an impact producer, are you asking documentary filmmakers of stories with BIPOC protagonists what the *protagonists* hopes & dreams are for the film’s impact?
  • are overwhelmed by all this, then you’re on the right track!

Race in the workplace

Watch & Discuss

Films about media and media history to help you think (and see!) more critically about the images you produce on screen.

  • They’ve Gotta Have Us, “a timely look at the impact of art, activism, and race on Black Cinema over three generations featuring in-depth interviews with some of Hollywood’s most iconic voices, including Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll, John Singleton, Robert Townsend, David Oyelowo, John Boyega, Kasi Lemmons, Barry Jenkins, and many more! This three-part documentary series was conceived, produced, and directed by Simon Frederick, a UK-based self-taught artist, photographer, filmmaker, and broadcaster.” (Array Now)
  • Merata, “A documentary portrait of the pioneering indigenous filmmaker and activist Merata Mita, MERATA is an intimate tribute from a son about his mother that delves into the life of the first woman from an Indigenous Nation to solely direct a film anywhere in the world. Known as the grandmother of Indigenous cinema, Merata’s independent political documentaries of the ‘70s and ‘80s highlighted injustices for Māori people, and often divided the country. Mita was fearless in her life, her activism and her art. Chronicling the director’s journey to decolonize the film and television screens of New Zealand and the world, the film documents her work, her early struggles with her family and her drive for social justice that often proved personally dangerous. Programmed as MERATA: HOW MUM DECOLONISED THE SCREEN, the film made its World Premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.” (Array Now)
  • Color Adjustment: “In this documentary, Marlon Riggs carries his landmark studies of prejudice into the Television Age. It traces 40 years of race relations through the lens of prime time entertainment, scrutinizing television's racial myths and stereotypes. It allows viewers to revisit some of television's most popular stars and shows, among them Amos and Andy, The Nat King Cole Show, I Spy, Julia, Good Times, Roots, Frank's Place and The Cosby Show. But this time around, Riggs asks us to look at these familiar favorites in a new way. The result is a stunning examination of the interplay between America's racial consciousness and network primetime programming.”
  • Ethnic Notions “is Marlon Riggs' Emmy-winning documentary that takes viewers on a disturbing voyage through American history, tracing for the first time the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice. Through these images we can begin to understand the evolution of racial consciousness in America, shedding light on the origins and devastating consequences of this 150 yearlong parade of bigotry. It situates each stereotype historically in white society's shifting needs to justify racist oppression from slavery to the present day. The insidious images exacted a devastating toll on black Americans and continue to undermine race relations. The film equips viewers to view media and other cultural representations with a more critical eye. It's a direct challenge to those who say, "It was just a joke." (News Reel) Marlon Riggs Resource Page
  • Documentaries to watch curated by Firelight Media

IMPORTANT NOTE

“I don’t need you to understand my experience. I need you to understand your own.” - Ani Mercedes, CEO & Founder, Looky Looky Pictures

Unless you have done everything on this list, then please do not contact us to talk about this post. Unless you are client paying us to be a thought partner with you, then we do not have volunteer capacity to advise you on this. In other words, we do hold a safe space for all of our clients to talk about any and all of your hopes, dreams, fears, and concerns; we are here for you.

Note, our offices have been closed on Juneteenth, and have been for years before it was a U.S. federal holiday.

CHALLENGE

Unless you’ve taken an internal action in your own institution, then do not passively post this on social media. Instead, just do the work internally.