Actor Nate Parker, director of the recent revolutionary US film “Birth of a Nation”, attends the 68th Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on February 6, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP
Lindiwe Dovey, SOAS, University of London
Confronted with questions about why the jury of the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has no people of colour, the jury president - and three-time Oscar-winner - Meryl Streep said:
We are all Africans really.
In the wake of the OscarsSoWhite controversy about lack of diversity in the film industry, Streep’s comment added fuel to the fire and prompted a storm of criticism about what was seen as a patronising attempt to silence the debate.
Few of the critiques of Streep’s comment focus on its original context. It was actually made in response to an Egyptian journalist asking her whether she knew anything about the Middle East or Africa and about films made in these regions. She admitted she didn’t.
At best, Streep’s comment was a clumsy attempt to show solidarity. But what it underlined was the continued absence of Africans and African film-making from international film festivals and mainstream cinema. If we are all Africans, why are we not watching African films? READ MORE...>
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