Race and Film: The Release of Skin
by Guest Contributor Melissa Silverstein, originally published at Women and Hollywood
Interesting story out of England about how director Anthony Fabian is resorting to guerrilla type outreach tactics to raise awareness and get an audience to see his new film Skin starring Oscar nominated actress Sophie Okonedo. The film premiered at Toronto last year and won awards at last winter’s Pan African film festival in LA. Here is my piece from last winter with a link to the trailer.
But it can’t get distribution here in the US and is in very limited distribution in London because as Fabian says, it is a story about black people. I would also venture to guess that because it is about a woman it makes it even harder.
Here’s what he was told:
“I was told by a respectable distributor in Britain that it would not distribute a film with a black cast,” he said. “That appears to be the attitude in the industry. These films are perceived not to make money. So [because we didn't have a major distributor] we did not have any trailers in cinemas, or posters on the underground, or posters on the sides of buses,” he said.
Here’s a description:
It tells the story of Sandra Laing, played by Okonedo, who was born to white parents but was classified as “coloured” during the Apartheid era. The biopic depicts the struggle of her parents – who were white with black ancestry – to have her re-classified in order to provide her with a formal education in a “whites-only” school.
Director Anthony Fabian refuses to allow his film to go away and he has literally taken to the streets, as have other members of the film’s team and a few people from the public, to let people know that the film is playing.
Those of you in London should get out there and support this film. If I was working on the film I would have them reach out to women’s film organizations like The Bird’s Eye Film Festival and Women in Film and TV in London and have them organize their members. I have a sneaking suspicion that if it fails to get any type of audience in London we will never see it here.
An apartheid story no one would screen (The Independent)
Update: In EW fall preview they have Skin opening in the US on October 30.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/business/23steal.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
This is FUCKING DEPRESSING. Hollywood, the so called “liberal” center of the entertainment industry… my arse!
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 11:11 am ¶
Lola wrote:
You can save it on your Netflix queue but it does not give an expected DVD release date
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 11:43 am ¶
9jah wrote:
Sophie Okonedo is of mixed Nigerian heritage. I bet neither her nor her Nigerian parent has ever killed and eaten Albino flesh. Director Anthony Fabian: PASS; Neill Blomkamp: EPIC FAIL.
I really hope this movie gets made. It would be interesting to see the evolution of other systems of racial classification that didnt utilize the ODR. Clearly, all were problematic in some way, which is probably inevitable in any system that undermines self-identification.
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 12:50 pm ¶
Ebony Intuition wrote:
I would like to see this film.
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 1:00 pm ¶
Slush wrote:
This sounds like a great film. I will hope to see it!
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 1:24 pm ¶
Fiqah wrote:
I’m wondering if IFC in Theaters will offer this on demand for cable? They do that sometimes for under-represented (indie or no) flicks. It might happen. I’d love to see this.
@9jah: Too funny. I was waiting for someone to touch on the thread irony there. Cannibalism…sweet, merciful Lord. ::: rolls eyes :::
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 3:55 pm ¶
Brigitte wrote:
I read about the woman this story was based on. I’d love to see this flick.
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 4:12 pm ¶
politicallyincorrect wrote:
LOL at all those folks who think Europe is just so open minded and accepting.
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 4:33 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:
I saw the LA premiere of this movie at the Pan African FF. There was a talk back with the director and Sandra Laing.
First of all, the movie is truly outstanding. Quiet and haunting, with incredible portrayals from the cast members.
Secondly, Sandra is a very quiet soft spoken woman who still seems haunted by demons most of us can’t imagine living with every day of our lives.
It is so worth seeing and I am sure that if it has a US release it will be VERY limited so if you see it in the theater, GO BUY A TICKET! Even if you can’t make it to that show. Just buy a ticket! And of course see it when you can, but don’t wait for your schedule to clear up because it will only be in theaters as long as it takes to cry freedom.
By the way, it was never actually proven that her family had Black ancestry. The way it is told in the movie, neither parent had any knowledge of any Black people in their family. Obviously it had to come from somewhere, but we never find out.
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 7:18 pm ¶
jvansteppes wrote:
IT’S SOPHIE FRICKIN OKONEDO!
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 8:53 pm ¶
TN wrote:
I was really hoping to see this movie in Australia! Hopefully it might get played in Dendy or something… I hope that Sandra Laing will be getting much financial help from this movie too. Her story is so sad, her parents obviously was torn between loving their daughter unconditionally and the extreme racist mindsets that caused their family to break up.
People really have to see this movie, Sandra Laing’s story shows how crazy but unfortunately very real, the concept of race is. People are just people and give birth to people! Any differences are socially constructed and are only as real as those who are willing to believe in it mindlessly.
Posted 24 Aug 2009 at 11:15 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
I am glad that I live in NYC, where there’s always a home for a little lost indie film, but the fact that people always tote the UK as far better racially than America when a movie about a HUGE part of our racial global history can’t get picked up tells far more of the story than we’d like to think.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 12:09 am ¶
Urban Suburbinite wrote:
When I watched the trailer on youtube, there were comments about what theaters it was playing at in the U.K. So maybe it is getting some indie art house love.
I cannot put all of the blame on the movie companies. If nimrods shelled out more money to see these types of films or even 1/2 as much as they are willing to mindlessly spend on a ticket to racist drivel like Transformers II: Electric Jiggaboo, then the movies would be more likely to get distribution.
Like the old saying “Money talks…”
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 2:28 am ¶
Neville A. Ross wrote:
@Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist:
Did the words ‘In EW fall preview they have Skin opening in the US on October 30′ not ring a bell? Calm down, guy.
As for me, this looks like it might be picked up by a Canadian distributor, so I will try to see it if it’s released here.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 4:29 am ¶
Alex wrote:
I’m a white British woman and I love Sophie Okonedo and would see the film for her alone. Unfortunately I live in Germany and even when I visit Britain, I go to Northern England where my family live, so it doesn’t look like I will get the chance. I wish the film industry would give us a little more credit and at least offer us the CHANCE to see a wider range of films.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 7:33 am ¶
MissZ87 wrote:
What makes this even sadder is the fact that I’m not surprised. Why does hollywood deny the humanity of people of color?
The only way I can see for minority films to get shine is for black people to start their own production and distribution companies. It’s been 400 years of the same shit and black people still don’t realize that if you want representation you have to do it YOURSELF. There should be more black people getting together and SUPPORTING THESE FILMS THEMSELVES.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 8:26 am ¶
Joy-Mari wrote:
It’s not that easy to do. Why should we as POC have ‘our own’ of everything to be represented?
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 12:42 pm ¶
veebot wrote:
We need to have our own because there is no other way. We could sit around and wait for the racist but i wouldnt hold my breath.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 3:05 pm ¶
Lisa J wrote:
I’ve been looking forward to getting to see this since I saw it months ago on the BBC news. I’ve had it on my Netflix saved queue for not released items for awhile. It looks like an excellent film.
I also never got the UK being more advanced on racial issues. I spent some time there, and though it seems like interracial dating is a bit more accepted (at least in London) I felt much more insecure racially there than here in the US. Plus people of African descent are about 2% of the populations so you can only expect so much.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 5:36 pm ¶
brownstocking wrote:
@16 mm, on the one hand, I agree, but here in the US “our own” is Tyler Perry’s film studio. Which has nothing to do with me or my experience whatsoever! LOL
We do need some indie POC networks, though. I missed the Wyatt Cenak (sp) movie, because I couldn’t get up to San Fran before it got pulled. Just like I can’t get see good Bollywood films in theaters before they get pulled, I live a little too far away from diversity, LOL.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 5:56 pm ¶
Evan Carden wrote:
@Neville A. Ross
Not to speak for DIMA, but I think she was referring to the article it linked, which was talking about how most hollywood directors are white guys around 45, which is a bit off the national average.
Posted 25 Aug 2009 at 9:53 pm ¶
MissZ87 wrote:
@Joy Mari…It really is the only way. When you see the big five of Hollywood. Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, etc. it took them decades to become the power houses they are now. For example, Tyler Perry, if he plays his cards right, he could be like them in the next 30 years.
Many black people expect it to happen over night, but it takes years to builds these institutions ( and yes they are institutions) that not only makes billions of dollars, but also shapes people’s perceptions of the world. And why can’t we profit off of our own images and representations? It is that very same defeatist attitude that holds us back.
Posted 28 Aug 2009 at 8:47 am ¶
doloresUK wrote:
As a BW in the UK, I think the British film/TV industry is very racist and elitist. Black people are poorly represented in front and behind the camera and the depictions of us are usually stereotypical. The people who run the media industry are very white middle/upper class males and females, who do not have much interaction with black people on a social level, even in London where I live. No one can name an equivalent to Terry Perry, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry etc in the UK because it doesn’t exist.
If people look at the films the UK produced, there is never a black person in a lead role because the film industry thinks people will not go to see it.
That how bad the situation is and this is why a lot of black actors are ending to the US for work and opportunities which they are denied here.
I also agree with Lisa J’s comment that the UK is not that advance in terms of racial issues than the US, it just that we have more interracial relationships but in terms of political, social, economical standing we are a long way behind the US.
Posted 31 Aug 2009 at 10:30 am ¶