When I say...

[coniraya]

that racism effects almost every part of my life I'm not kidding. Even something as seemingly innocuous as a film festival. There's a Noir Film festival happening in my city which I was almost pumped for until I saw the poster they're using:

Comments

[coniraya]

Ugh that whole Birth of a Nation being a cinematic achievement has made me walk out of groups before without a word. I don't want or need to engage with people who are ready to set aside the horrors that film was used to justify and talk about camera angle. Like hederahelix said above the racist aspects and horrible stereotypes need to be a part of the discussion they can't just be pushed aside because it makes the white kids in class uncomfortable to discuss it. And like you said above we need more deconstruction and critical analysis of these films and I think those two ideas feed into each other.

If we have people critically analyzing and deconstructing these films more students and teachers will feel comfortable discussing the political aspects of a film because they have a support base that proves they're not crazy for talking about this stuff no matter how the class looks at them.

And the reverse...

If we have people willing to discuss the movie as a whole in the classroom we'll have more people ready to really look at all the social implications of a film with a critical eye instead of critiquing the lighting of a scene.

Shit, now I'm all worked up. It just fills me with such anger.