Hollywood needs to do Better

True diversity needs to happen behind the scenes and onscreen in Hollywood.

by Khadija Sharif

Throughout my childhood I looked for myself in the media I consumed, and there weren’t a lot of films that really portrayed the experiences of a Black girl in the United States. You can’t imagine how excited I was when The Princess and the Frog first came out, and how there have been milestones in media representation for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) since then. As I grew older, though, and got more invested and interested in film, I started to notice a pattern in how production agencies treat “groundbreaking representation” and how in many cases it falls short.

The Disney Corporation’s new liveaction era is a key example of where onscreen representation falls short. A prime example of this is Disney’s Mulan. Although having an all-Asian cast is a milestone for representation, it’s important to note that the composer, director, and writers are all mostly white. You have to wonder why a movie marketed as a new step towards a more progressive era for Disney is so white behind the scenes. Hua Mulan is a popular folktale in Chinese culture, so it would’ve made sense for the behind-the-scenes crew to look as diverse as the film’s cast.

Disney has hollow representation; they reap all the benefits from presenting BIPOC stories but from the white lens. They don’t open opportunities for BIPOC writers, directors, and composers because they don’t really care about doing the work. Disney would prefer to present BIPOC stories through the lens of white writers and directors because it’s easier and they can still push this idea of progress and representation. Mulan suffers the same fate that many “multicultural” Disney films do: homogenizing a culture to profit off of it while largely ignoring the actual people from whom the movie is based. To me, it felt like a cash grab for quick nostalgia and the magic that I felt as a kid was gone.

When Carmen Garcia, a first-year at Hamline was asked what representation meant to them, they said,

I haven’t felt represented growing up as a Latinx person with all of the kids’ media I used to consume. I feel like Hollywood needs to start talking to communities and including BIPOC when making movies about their culture. Some people are taking these steps but not as many as there should be. It’s important for kids growing up to see themselves in the media they consume.

On the flip side, we see stories of real progress in Hollywood. A key example of this is Lulu Wang’s The Farewell. The Farewell is the story of a Chinese American daughter going back home to visit her family and feeling disconnected from family in a place she once called home. It’s a powerful story, full of culture and life because director and writer Wang based it on her own experiences. There is no white gaze present. This movie was a milestone for Asian American representation because people actually saw themselves on screen and the story resonated with them since the lead is Asian American and the crew is much more diverse. There is a distinct joy I felt since the story was authentic to not only the filmmaker but everyone involved in its making. It felt like it was opening doors for more unique stories like it.

Image © IMDB.com

Minha Virk, an incoming first-year, who plans on majoring in Digital Media Arts, had this to say about the film:

The way that The Farewell beautifully portrays aspects of Asian American culture and really resonated with me as a first gen. The entire movie sparked such joy in me—to feel that representation on screen that many of us minorities are robbed of day-to-day.

At the end of the day, Hollywood executives reject screenplays like The Farewell for fear that it won’t make any money, but Disney gets to produce watered down, whiter versions of stories already told because they have such a hold over the industry. It’s time to stop applauding Hollywood for doing the bare minimum and start supporting films that are made by BIPOC communities. There are some wonderfully crafted films made by BIPOC that don’t make groundbreaking box office numbers, but are still completely deserving of our support. Among these include Miss Juneteenth, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Sorry to Bother You. It’s time to throw away the idea of hollow representation and opt to support fresh and actually diverse stories in Hollywood. It’s not fair that there are only a select few films that showcase the experiences and lives of BIPOC in America. We need more stories where we can see versions of ourselves on the screen.

Cover image © Disney.com