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Racism and the Hunger Games

April 4, 2012 • Guest Blogger

Like almost everyone I know, I saw The Hunger Games on opening weekend. I sat in a packed theatre, sandwiched between my friends and an opinionated preteen girl who read a massive fantasy novel until the lights dimmed. She wasn’t the only one; it was the first time in a while that I saw so many young people avidly reading in a movie theatre, and I’ve been to many midnight showings of Harry Potter. From my limited observations, and from the film’s massive box office sales, it’s clear that the Hunger Games franchise has really resonated with many people, both young and old, who gravitated towards the strong female protagonist, interesting social commentary, and gripping action sequences of the story.

In the days following the film’s release, I was also one of many who saw the racist tweets compiled on sites like Buzzfeed and Tumblr. (The comments appeared to come mostly from young people, who expressed outrage and confusion over the casting of black actors in the roles of Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi) and Rue (Amandla Stenberg). Some of the commenters accused the film’s producers of not “staying true” to the character descriptions in the novels, when in fact, Rue and Thresh are described as having “brown” skin and Cinna’s race is not described in any detail. Others confessed that they did not feel as “sad” about the death of Rue because she was black, with one tweeter adding “#ihatemyself.”

At first, I was shocked and angry to read these hateful and disturbing tweets, especially because I had spent a lot of time sniffling through Rue’s death scene when reading the books and watching the film. I was furious with the commenters for questioning their own feelings of loss and sadness when Rue died, purely based on the fact that they weren’t expecting her to look a certain way. But after reading through the comments a few times, and reading an exchange between the moderator of the Hunger Games Tweets Tumblr and one of the racist tweeters, I started to focus more on the theme of confusion present in many of the tweets in an attempt to make sense of the events.

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Free film festival screenings: Spotlight on Muslim and Arab Women’s Stories

November 2, 2011 • Ronak Ghorbani

In April I made a short film for a class project exploring my love for moustaches and the pressure I feel to remove my natural facial hair. It was quite possibly one of the most empowering things I have ever done: to pick up a camera, create a narrative, edit film and have my own self-told-story shown on a TV screen.

When a professor at Ryerson (where I go to school) got wind of the film she asked to see it. As the coordinator of the Spotlight on Muslim and Arab Women’s Stories, which is part of the International Diaspora Film Festival, the professor, Dr. Nima Naghibi, encouraged me to submit my film.

My film Sibil (the Farsi word for moustache) is now part of the Spotlight on Muslim and Arab Women’s Stories.

The Spotlight on Muslim and Arab Women’s Stories features free screenings of six feature-length films and is co-sponsored by various Ryerson University departments and faculties.

Some of the other screenings include:

• Unveiled Views – Muslim Women Artists Speak Out (2009, Director: Alba Sotorra), a documentary that follows five Muslim women artists from Turkey, Bosnia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran as they discuss their aspirations and the rights and status of women in their countries.
• Round Trip (2010, Director: Golkou Parhizgar), a documentary inspired by director’s experience of returning to Iran after 11 years of living in the UK and rediscovering relationships of those left behind. All of the films are being screened at Toronto’s Carlton Cinemas (20 Carlton St.).

One of the best things about the Spotlight on Muslim and Arab Women’s Stories is that all of the film screenings are free. All you have to do is e-mail info@diasporafilmfest.com to reserve a seat. Click here for a complete schedule.

To kick-start the festivities, there’s a free film event at Carleton Cinemas on Thursday starting at 5 p.m., featuring a screening of the film Forget Baghdad, a documentary following four Iraqi Jews living in exile in Israel who negotiate between their Arab and Jewish cultures. The screening is followed by a talk by academic Dr. Ella Shohat, from New York University.

To say I’m excited to be a part of this roster of amazing films and women directors is an understatement. My short film is being screened twice, once on Friday at 9 p.m. before the documentary Les Secrets and on Sunday at 6 p.m. before the documentary Round Trip .

Check out this preview of Unveiled Views – Muslim Women Artists Speak Out:
- Film Reel
- On The Job
The Made in Dagenham Method

June 7, 2011 • Meg Pirie

When I was trying to figure out how to write about organizing collectively, several issues jumped out at me: 1) I have little experience making broad demands to my employer and 2) I have never had to go on strike. What I can tell you is how to ensure your manager purchases a new kettle for the staff room or making sure you are not shamed into taking 38 minutes for lunch instead of the allotted hour. “But Meg, I want to overthrow the system,” you think.

Alas, don’t we all? Nevertheless, there are some useful places to start and it took a recent viewing of Made in Dagenham to reveal the ways in which large-scale labour actions and seemingly benign quotidian confrontations are, in fact, interconnected.

As a brief aside, if you have yet to see this film, you must. Aside from a couple vomit-inducing moments that can only be described as cheez and some minor- to medium-sized historical inaccuracies, Made in Dagenham is enjoyable from start to finish. The film tells the story of the 1968 Ford sewing machinists strike in England. Ultimately successful, the strike leads to the introduction of the Equal Pay Act in 1970 by the then-Labour government. Besides stellar performances from Sally Hawkins and Rosamund Pike, Dagenham balances contagious optimism with realistic observations concerning group dynamics, ruptures between labour policies and gender that are still felt today, and that in spite of a movement’s surface-level coherence, resistance is often fraught with internal schisms. Rating: 3 beehive hairdos out of 5.

But I digress. (more inside…)
- Activist Report
- Film Reel
Recommended Film: ReGENERATION

April 10, 2011 • Michelle Kay

I’ve been thinking a lot about passion lately. Not the amorous kind, but the fire-in-your-belly, intense enthusiasm for intellectual pursuit kind. I realized the people I most admire are the ones who are passionate about something, whether it is feminism, cycling, animal rights, environmentalism, fighting for social justice, etc. The opposite of passion is apathy, and according to the film ReGENERATION, apathy is something that plagues youth culture these days. Throw in an unhealthy dose of cynicism and despair, and society faces a major problem.

I recently had the opportunity to watch ReGENERATION, a documentary that examines some of the issues afflicting youth that “perpetuate our culture’s apathetic approach to social and political causes.” I was also able to chat with the film’s director, Philip Montgomery, about empathy, action and learning to think critically.

The film, which is narrated by Canadian actor Ryan Gosling, tackles difficult subject matter, exploring some of the issues that perpetuate cynicism and apathy in youth culture, such as a disconnection to history and nature, severe economic factors and the failure of the education system. Often these factors are systematic in nature, designed to keep us subdued. ReGENERATION looks at the effects of media, education, lackadaisical parenting, technology and consumerism as some of the prevalent reasons why youth culture may feel disengaged, isolated and fragmented. The film features high school students, teachers and young parents telling their stories and personal reflections as leading scholars and social activists such as Amy Goodman, the late Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, media personalities including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson as well as musicians Sound Tribe Sector 9 and Talib Kweli ruminate on some of the challenges the “narcissistic, me-generation” faces today.

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- Film Reel
Rage: The Toronto Bathhouse Raids

March 30, 2011 • Michelle Schwartz

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Track Two, a 1982 documentary on the Toronto bathhouse raids. After nearly being lost to time and decay, the film has finally been digitized and made available in its entirety for free online, thanks to the generosity of Xtra! and the Pink Triangle Press.

The screening took place at Buddies in Bad Time Theatre and was sponsored by Queer Ontario and Xtra!, with proceeds benefiting the 519 Community Centre’s Seniors program. In attendance were two of the filmmakers, Gordon Keith and Jack Lemmon, as well as The Body Politic‘s Ken Popert and Gerald Hannon. It was a truly amazing experience to share a room with so many of Toronto’s gay liberation activists, without whom queers such as myself wouldn’t have all the rights we have today.

After the screening, I spoke with the filmmakers, who wanted to know how I, as a woman, felt about the movie. They said they had tried very hard to show lesbian contributions to the fight, and they were curious to know if they were successful. I told them that it was incredibly powerful to see the footage of lesbians taking to the street in defense of the men and the gay community as a whole. It was also thrilling to see interviews with some of my queer heroes, Pat Murphy and Chris Bearchell, and rousing speeches from Margaret Atwood and June Callwood.

Watch the entire film on YouTube, or read more about it and download a copy from Xtra!
New documentary explores the issue of shadeism

November 15, 2010 • Ronak Ghorbani

In the opening of the documentary Shadeism, director and writer Nayani Thiyagarajah stands on a beach looking intently at the sun. As the sun rises, her voiceover says, “the sight of the sun is not always a good thing – at least not in my family. Though we may come from a small island that sees sunshine almost daily, the sun doesn’t receive a lot of love from us.”

In this short 20-minute documentary, Thiyagarajah, a recent Ryerson Journalism School graduate, unravels the issue of shadeism (discrimination between lighter and darker skinned members of the same community) by exploring how it affects young women. Thiyagarajah was inspired to make this documentary after realizing her four-year-old niece already felt that in order to be beautiful, she needs to be white. By incorporating interviews and media analysis, the film sheds light on how relevant the idea of being “fair and lovely” is in South Asian, African, Caribbean and South American cultures and how this notion is tied to colonialism.

Since being posted online a few weeks ago, the documentary has received 18,000 views, had its premiere at the Regent Park Film Festival and was featured on CBC radio’s Metro Morning (click the link for a podcast of the interview). On November 25, there will be a free screening of Shadeism at Ryerson University with director Thiyagarajah in attendance.

Check out the film in its entirety after the jump!(more inside…)
Unexamined privilege: Bite Me! Festival review, part 2

July 25, 2010 • Julia Horel

This is part two of my previous post reviewing the Bite Me! Toronto International Film and Arts Festival.

A Question of Beauty is a Canadian documentary directed and narrated by Moncton-based Colleen Furlotte that seeks to answer the question: what is beauty? The film features approximately 20 women of varying ages, and uses art and other creative pursuits in an effort to broaden the audience’s definition of beauty. The film is a feel-good celebration of beauty that asks the women involved to speak against the beauty ideal and celebrate their own beauty through art, dance, and discussion.

As a critical look at conventional definitions of beauty, however, this film falls extremely short. While watching it, I wondered: while it does contain a few positive elements, can anything be gained from such a problematic film?

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Bite Me! Festival Review

July 23, 2010 • Julia Horel

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the Bite Me! Toronto International Body Image Film and Arts Festival, at which I saw six of the nine films being shown.
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All about the BITE ME! film festival

July 14, 2010 • Julia Horel

The BITE ME! Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival will take place this weekend, Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18 (details on Shameless here and on the festival’s website here).

Shameless had the opportunity to speak with Jill Andrew, the festival’s director, who explains what this festival is all about.

The festival’s conception:

At the time I was completing my Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto New College, and I had been consumed with readings about body image, media representation, eating “disorders” (which I, inspired by feminist theorist Becky Thomson, refer to as “eating problems”), and the importance of interrogating issues of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, dis/ability, and class when discussing eating problems and body dissatisfaction. I began to read qualitative data surrounding women’s experiences in and outside of their bodies. Women reported feeling “homeless” within their bodies and not being able to talk about body image because they didn’t feel like they had an image at all.

I’d also read about women who were redefining themselves and challenging labels: fat activism, challenging feminist consumerism, and creating zines in order to “talk back,” or, as I call it, “bite back” against those who try to keep us in stifling boxes.

I wondered if there were folks out there talking about their bodies and other people’s bodies, grappling with the way bodies are constructed. Were people taking this up through creative mediums? I came across many fat activism groups that used theatre: for instance, Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed challenges heteronormative assumptions about femininity and masculinity and, thus, the female body.

The festival’s aims:

I decided to attempt to share the telling of folks’ stories through film. I wanted to redefine what body “image” meant to my audience. I wanted women and men in attendance to walk away realizing that body politics include discussions around race, class, and sexual orientation. I want them to know that body “image” is also a public health issue. If we do not interrogate the images we see all too often on TV, we are continuing to validate a climate that validates and glorifies violence against women (check out Jean Kilbourne – she is my shero on this issue!). I want people to leave the festival with a newer understanding of how we move through our bodies when they are ill, how we must re-negotiate our identities and our limitations, how others view us, etc. I want this festival to encourage us to challenge how we define “beauty,” “femininity,” and “body image.” I want it to expand our minds into spaces of identity.

Collaborating with filmmakers:

I had followed Jean Kilbourne’s work and knew instantly that once Killing Us Softly 4 came out, it would be hot off the press in my festival!

Colleen Furlotte’s Question of Beauty has a great intergenerational approach to the issue.

Elizabeth St. Philip’s film Colour of Beauty discusses issues of colourism/racism in the fashion industry, which speaks to my goal of expanding our discussion on “body image.” All too often, we discuss the fashion indudstry from the perspective of the size of models, but very rarely have we had critical discussions about colour. Is colour only good when exoticized? For the most part, it’s still an industry with a very Eurocentric standard of beauty.

The majority of the films were programmed by Aisha Fairclough, my partner in both love and war! She was simply amazing. Members of our festival advisory board have also played key roles in pulling this together. Members include Tina Reid, Ai Rei Dooh-Tousignant, and Ashley Demartini, all of whom work or have worked with the National Film Board, where all our films are screening on July 17-18. So while the festival was my vision, and truly sprang from work I’ve been doing for years, you can see that it’s nothing short of a group effort!

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Shameless readers, take note: there is a YouthZone component of the festival that will take plcae on Saturday, July 17, from 10am-4:30pm. Young women aged 12-18 will have the opportunity to see films, participate in workshops, get free feminist, and have a free lunch! For registration, please contact info@bitemefilmfest.com with the subject line: BITE ME! YouthZone.
BITE ME! Film festival July 17-18

July 10, 2010 • Julia Horel

BITE ME!
Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival

Exploring issues of body image, media (re) presentation, identity and advocacy through creative mediums…

Where: National Film Board, Toronto Mediatheque, 150 John Street, Toronto, ON M5V 3C3
www.nfb.ca/mediatheque, 416.973.3012/ 416.973.0896

Information: http://www.bitemefilmfest.com/index.html

When: Saturday July 16- Sunday July 18, 2010

Shameless readers, take note!

BITE ME! YouthZone @ NFB Mediatheque
Saturday July 17, 10:00a.m.-4:00p.m.

Free Film Screenings, Media Literacy & Self Awareness Workshops, Books and Lunch for Girls 12-18 years of age.

For registration, please contact info@bitemefilmfest.com
Subject Line: BITE ME! YouthZone

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