TMD's Creatively Named Blog

I don't necessarily think too much about what a character looks like, but I do take interest in increasing the diversity of the cultures that they come from.  Having more cultures in cinema gives us more stories to tell.  When everything is set in the same American cities, things get a bit flat.  And don't get me wrong, in just one American city, there are still billions of unique stories you could tell.  But I remember watching the movie Slumdog Millionaire and I found it so fascinating to see perspectives and real experiences that I wouldn't normally have thought to understand.

 

That, and it makes life a little bit more of an adventure.  Have you noticed that all of the superhero movies are labeled as being in the action/adventure genre, and yet so few of them actually include any real adventure settings?  C'mon.  Adventure!  I've craved it since I first watched Indiana Jones as a kid, to become savvy in new cultures and take part in the opportunities and challenges that each one provides.

 

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I don't necessarily think too much about what a character looks like, but...

 

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Yeah, see, you might not, but I do. When I watch movies or tv, play video games, or read comics, four times outta five I'm gonna see folk who look more like my mom than my dad, and consequently not a lot who look much like me. It's cool than you don't have to think too much about what a character looks like, but believe you me I do, especially when I see a character who looks like me or has a similar background (shout out to Big Hero 6!).

I notice it and I appreciate it.  I just don't necessarily think that it's as significant for diversity as cultural diversity is.  My outlook is that a person can have a different ethnicity, but that kind of diversity is only skin deep.  I see plenty of movies with African American protagonists, but the emphasis is on American for me and I tend to notice those things a bit more.  Which is a good thing, of course.  It means that people of all different races in the American melting pot are equally part of our national identity.

 

With that having been said, I do notice when a character looks like me.  Not necessarily when they share my same race.  As in, I don't think, "That person is white, and I relate to this person more!"  It's more like when Matt Smith was the Doctor, and everyone said that he looked and dressed just like me.  They were right, and consequently, I really enjoyed his first two seasons on Doctor Who.  Psychologists have performed studies that we emotionally connect with people more when we're reminded of ourselves looking at them.  So yes, physical appearance does matter.  I just come from a position where I don't necessarily think too much about race, and I understand that a large part of that come on account of me being part of the West's majority race.  Now, I can't necessarily say from experience what it's like to relate to be in the minority, and not be targeted with the same consistency.  Statistically, if I was African American, seeing someone of the same race as myself would probably be the closest that I would get to seeing someone who looked "like me."

 

Anyway, like I said, I'm usually more interested in seeing cultures represented, since I think that it's a bit of a bigger step.  Western movies have branched out with racial representation, but the characters and archetypes are still ultimately American.  Understandably, because it takes more work to make audiences relate with a character who looks different and comes from a completely different frame of reference than most Americans.  That's one of the reasons why I thought that Black Panther succeeded, since it represented a world that not only differed from ours aesthetically, but in its identity.  Creating that very different culture required Coogler to up the level of his storytelling, and ultimately it forced the audience to see the world from a significantly different perspective, which I think is the next major step in creating a cinematic landscape that can communicate for all people.

 

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