Monday, September 22, 1997 The Reel World
By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
For many, Audrey Hepburn’s 1961 classic "Breakfast at Tiffany’s"
is a flawless favorite, praised on all accounts, save that there is
a buck-toothed, squinty-eyed, incoherent Mickey Rooney bumping his
head on hanging lanterns trying to act Asian. Today Hollywood would
not dare make such an offensive blunder. Most people feel that the
industry has come a long way.
However, 83 percent of all feature films produced in the US are
written, directed and produced by white males, although they
comprise less than 39 percent of the actual population. All is not
well and ethnic representation is still a source of great tension
and conflict.
"I actually haven’t seen an enormous improvement," says UCLA
communications studies professor Marde Gregory. "I think that there
are increasingly more of what I would call ‘separatist’ films that
are targeted to a specific ethnic group. I don’t see them
increasing opportunities for actors and actresses and directors
outside their own genre."
The lack of opportunities for minorities in the business has
sent people scrambling to try to remedy the problem. This past
weekend, the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) held its very first
summit on diversity.
The diversity problem has also spawned many groups such as the
Aurora Project, which creates job training and production
opportunities for minorities in film. UCLA has its own Chicano
Studies Research Center (CSRC) Cinema Project which holds special
events with industry professionals, aids Latino student filmmakers
by providing endowments for their films and initiates networking
and mentoring programs.
Cinema Project director Mario Hernandez Jr. feels that with the
success of films such as "Desperado," "Mi Familia" and "Selena,"
representation has gotten better. He does not have a problem with
these being "separatist" films.
"I think that we’re such a diverse people that we’re going to
have different kind of films and Hollywood is going to gravitate
toward the films that are going to make money," Hernandez explains.
"Right now they feel comfortable making films that are thematic,
that have to do with a Mexican family immigrating to the U.S. and
they’re going with a director that’s made money off his films
before, then that’s what we have to do, because they feel safe
doing that."
Despite more Latino films and the rise of African American and
Asian actors, most feel that it is not enough.
"In my opinion, it is still too low," says DGA president Jack
Shea. "It still does not reflect the same population break in the
overall community, but we’ve made great progress for a number of
years."
However, over the past several years, the DGA worries that their
progress has been slowing down. In response, they formed a
diversity committee as well as this year’s summit on diversity,
where executives and major network heads discussed diversity and
the DGA handed out awards to those who have made good choices in
diversity hiring.
"While racism is a problem, part of the problem is also that the
studio executives – people doing the hiring – the people they know
are white men," Shea says. "It’s a lack of networking for women and
ethnic minorities."
The guild has been establishing regular programs and events to
increase network opportunities for minorities since the mid ’70s.
There are mentoring programs, networking mixers and special
minority directories.
"We’re trying to do as much as we can to get people a place,
because it’s not just getting into the guild. It’s finding work
after you’re in a guild," Shea points out. "Guild membership does
not guarantee work."
Despite of these efforts some are critical of the DGA, citing
the fact that 93.8 percent of its current members are white. Shea
himself is disturbed by the figures, but is quick to point out that
in order to gain membership in the guild as a director, one must
first find work as a director. Thus, the numbers reflect an even
greater problem in the industry as a whole.
"(In any paradigm), it is very difficult to break through,"
Gregory explains. "It’s very difficult to break through an
organized set of rules and create a new rule, create a new genre, a
new attitude."
Gregory says that some stars who have developed clout help speed
up the process in their choice of projects. But viewers can also
play an important role in addressing the dilemma.
"I mean we’re sitting here now in a summer than has made more
money than any other and where the representation question was
poorly addressed as I see it," Gregory says. "Yet people went to
movies and spent their money and put their money in the line to
support these kinds of processes."
Shea agrees that the public can help this cause. "When they see
something that they don’t like or they don’t think is properly
represented, the public should comment on it. Send a letter," Shea
advises.
In a world that is fast becoming more global, it seems backwards
for Hollywood to maintain inaccurate and narrow
representations.
"I just think it’s accurate for our whole society to be as
diverse as possible," Shea says. "A particular group, whether they
be a racial group or an ethnic group or even a professional group,
are misrepresented on television because the people who are writing
it or directing it either haven’t done enough research or don’t
know enough about the people they’re talking about."
Hernandez looks to his childhood to realize how damaging
improper representation can be.
"As a kid there are very few things that you question in the
first place, especially something that’s being portrayed in the
media," Hernandez says. "It’s just a cycle. You grow up with an
image and you keep seeing it throughout your lifetime, so you don’t
teach it to your kids. You don’t say, ‘Hey that’s a bad
image.’"
The task still seems daunting, but Shea paints an encouraging
picture of ideal film representation.
"It would make us very happy if the time arose where we
reflected the same kind of population split that we have in the
rest of the country," Shea says. "That would be ideal for our
purposes."
THE PLAYERS THE FILMMAKER"Mark Cohen" played by Neil Partick
HarrisCharacter from "Rent" Mark lives in a crumbling apartment
building and spends an icy winter filming homeless people, a local
protest and his friends’ antics. He foregoes fame in favor of
scruples when he turns down the change to air his footage on
"Buzzline," a "Hard Copy"-esque news show. Young filmmakers take on
one of the nation’s most powerful industries, where a limited
budgets and a desire to leave tradition behind can stifle
careers.