Liberal Inaction

Topic: White Directors

Liberal Inaction

            It is true that Hollywood has made great strides to ethnically diversify itself in every field. There are more directors, actors, writers, and studio employees of color than ever before. Yet, for such a liberal left wing community we are still not as advanced as we should be. The majority of directors in this industry are still white men between the ages of 30 and 60. We have been introduced to mainstream female directors over the past several decades but only recently have they been given the notoriety of their male counterparts. A good example of this notoriety is Kathryn Bigelow’s 2009 Best Director win for “The Hurt Locker.” Other recent female directors include Nancy Meyers (“Something’s Gotta Give”), Catherine Hardwicke (“Lords of Dogtown”) and Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation”). The film industry is a male dominated business that is making moves in the right direction of equal employment for women, but are we doing all we can to make sure directors of color are being given the opportunity they deserve? I have never worked with an African American director, perhaps this is a coincidence or maybe it’s not. I can name only two African-American directors off the top of my head Tyler Perry and Spike Lee. So, I suppose this poses the question, what is preventing studios from entrusting black directors to make films?

            First, let’s look at the studio system. If you walk into any major studio today, the majority of executives you run into will look very much like the white male directors I mentioned above and since these executives are the ones who make the decisions as to who will direct a movie, I think we found our answer. Studio executives are all mostly white and were raised in upper middle class households. When choosing a director, a studio executive is potentially putting his job on the line. If the director doesn’t turn out a product that is financially successful then the executive could loose his job. So, what type of person would you entrust up to 200 million dollars and your job with? Most likely, you would choose someone like you. I believe studio executives choose white directors consistently because they see themselves in these directors. Perhaps, they believe they can relate to and understand them more than a person of color. Whatever the reason for this imbalance of ethnicity in the directing field, it needs to be fixed.

            Let’s go back and focus on the two African-American directors I mentioned earlier, Tyler Perry and Spike Lee. The quality of these two directors work isn’t comparable. Spike Lee directs forward thinking, message driven movies that ask important questions. Tyler Perry makes movies that play into the stereotypical slapstick black comedy that portrays people of color as being simple-minded and ridiculous. It’s directors like Perry that make it more difficult for other African-American directors to make a name for themselves.

            The film industry has fixed the lack of ethnicity in front of the camera, but what about behind it? Something needs to be done to ensure that directors of all colors and genders get an equal opportunity to prove they can turn out a great product. There are African-American directors working everyday in the film industry, but the projects they are offered to work on are usually low-budget films or TV shows that target a very specific audience, other African-Americans. In conclusion, the film industry is modern, liberal, and left wing, yet we still don’t quite have equal rights for directors and many other jobs behind the camera.