February 12, 2017

Amma Asante Responds to Backlash Against Interracial World War II Love Story ‘Where Hands Touch’ — Exclusive

Late last week, Variety debuted a first look picture (see below) from “A United Kingdom” and “Belle” filmmaker Amma Asante’s latest feature, a World War II-set interracial romance titled “Where Hands Touch.” The film follows the romance between pair of German teenagers — Amandla Stenberg as the biracial Leyna and George MacKay as Lutz, the son of a prominent SS officer and a member of the Hitler Youth — and it unfolds against the backdrop of the war and the Holocaust.

The first look image was met with backlash across social media platforms, and various commenters loudly voiced their displeasure that, in crafting a story around a persecuted person and a Hitler Youth, Asante was “romanticizing” Nazis and otherwise diminishing the experience of those that suffered during World War II and the Holocaust.

I didn’t realize until @mixedtck told me a second ago that “When Hands Touch” is a Nazi romance. This is gross: https://t.co/3DPnCzbWMK

— Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi) February 10, 2017

Coming from the romance novel world, where Nazi romantic heroes is suddenly A Huge Fucking Problem, Where Hands Touch greatly concerns me.

— Kayleigh Anne (@Ceilidhann) February 12, 2017

In debuting this first look at the feature, Asante also addressed the difficult nature of the film’s subject matter. She told Variety: “It has been a passion of mine to tell this story for many years — to shine a light on the existence of German children of color who were forced to grow up under Hitler’s rule, labelled as ‘Rhineland bastards.’ Against this historical backdrop, Leyna and Lutz enter a rite of passage negotiating the path to true identity in a society that has turned in on itself and is eating its own tail. Completing this film brings together everything I am as filmmaker.”

READ MORE: Rosamund Pike Interview: How ‘Gone Girl’ Fame Allows Her to Make Films Like ‘A United Kingdom’ – TIFF 2016

Asante was soon compelled to respond on her own Instagram account, where the filmmaker emphasized her desire to shine a light on the atrocities committed against children during the war — not just young biracial and black Germans, but also the German youth who were forced to join Nazi groups — and how she hopes that story will be reflected in her newest film.

In an updated statement to IndieWire, Asante again emphasized her intentions and hopes for the film, and she also provided another exclusive image from the film (see above):

“This week, a First Look image of the film I have made starring Amandla Stenberg was released, and it revealed all sorts of concerns, questions and worries with fears on what this film will be about. My passion has been to shine a light on the existence of the children of colour who were born and raised under Hitler. These children were also persecuted and my wish has been to explore how Black and Bi-racial identity was perceived and experienced under Nazi facist rule. The young girl’s experience in ‘Where Hands Touch,’ sits alongside the Jewish experience and the experience of others who were persecuted. It looks at how Germany became Nazi Germany and ‘slept walked’ itself into a disgusting and murderous state that resulted in it killing its own people and those of other countries.

Leyna’s story (Amandla Stenberg) is told in this sad and terrifying context. My reasons for making this film sit around my concerns of the current climate but also a continued and growing intolerance of racial and religious difference, that we all have sensed for many years and which is becoming even worse now. As a filmmaker, my wish is to center on bringing attention to this through my work.

Amandla and I teamed together to shine a light on the hatred that Nazi Germany visited on Europe and to make a film that might contribute to the dialogue of how we fight this horrific racial and religious ignorance today, along with the intolerances visited on the many other marginalized groups and intersections.

“Where Hands Touch”

Tantrum Films/Pinewood Pictures

With only a few lines and one image ever offered to a filmmaker to comment on when a First Look image is about to be released, and with the lead character in this film embarking on such a large rites of passage story, it is difficult to summarize all the things one might want to about a film in a brief article. Amandla’s role as a sixteen year old in this film brings attention to an, as yet, untold story in the arena of drama cinema, to the existence of the other ‘others’ who suffered during the holocaust. This does not mean that the Jewish experience is not also key to our story. It is.

When, as a 17 year old member of the Hitler Youth (compulsory since 1936), George MacKay’s character discovers exactly what his country is and what it stands for through learning the truth of what is happening to Jews and then to Leyna as she is thrown into a camp system, he rejects the doctrine and challenges his father’s belief system.

I hope that this at least clarifies concerns as you encounter the image of this German girl of color being raised in fascist Germany. I have all the respect in the world for those who have enjoyed my films thus far and i would never make a movie that glorified, glamorized or romanticized hatred and murder in any way. On the contrary, I want to explore the voices of the marginalized. By exploring the experiences of yesterday we can hopefully be better prepared when ugliness heads our way today. Sending you all, love and light.”

Two of Asante’s previous films, “Belle” and “A United Kingdom,” are historically-set dramas that focus on interracial relationships that unfold despite intense racism and persecution.

READ MORE: ‘A United Kingdom’ Trailer: David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike Fight For Love & Country

“Where Hands Touch” was shot last year in Belgium and the Isle of Man and is currently in post-production. Asante’s latest film, “A United Kingdom,” opened last week.

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Source: IndieWire film

February 12, 2017

‘Dear White People’ Filmmaker Justin Simien Pens Heartfelt Essay Addressing Racist Backlash

Three years after making his auspicious debut with “Dear White People” — and ahead of the upcoming TV adaptation coming to Netflix — writer/director Justin Simien has answered the question he’s been getting asked since before his film even hit theaters: Why did he name it that? “Had I made a terrible mis-calculation?” he recalls wondering after receiving harsh questions at early screenings of his film and being subjected to overt racism online. “Had I doomed my film and career to obscurity because I dared to put the words ‘white’ and ‘people’ next to one another in my title?”

READ MORE: ‘Dear White People’ Director on Alt-Right Backlash to Netflix Show: ‘I Reject Any Notion of ‘Causing a Divide’’

Thankfully not — after winning a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at Sundance, Simien went on to receive strong reviews for “Dear White People,” and is writing the first 10 episodes of the Netflix version. But a boycott of the show has been called for on some corners of the internet (you can probably guess which), and so now he feels compelled to respond.

In his Medium post, Simien reveals that the movie’s original title was “2%,” a reference to the percentage of black students at the fictional Ivy League university where his film is set. “Sending ‘Dear White America-isms’ back and forth had become a snarky but satisfying past time initiated by my friend,” he writes. “During such an exchange it dawned on me that ‘Dear White America’ would make a great name for the radio show hosted by firebrand Samantha White, a divisive fictional character in a screenplay I’d been writing called ‘2%.’”

“But the title had to go,” he continues. “‘Number titles’ never worked, I’d been told, assisting in the publicity department at Focus Features. ‘2%’ was too nondescript. This film needed something…louder.

READ MORE: Netflix Gives ‘Dear White People’ TV Adaptation a Release Date and First Look

As a sort of dry run, Simien made a Dear White People Twitter account. It did well, and the popularity of websites like Stuff White People Like and Shit White Girls say further emboldened the aspiring filmmaker. “It occurred to me that by naming the film itself Dear White People I could tap into the burgeoning meme culture as well as make a meta-commentary about the controversies within the film,” he recalls.

“As a title it felt right. It was a clutter buster, the kind of thing that made you sit up and go ‘What is THIS going to be?’” continues Simien. “Perhaps naively I assumed that most people would move quickly past their knee jerk reaction, whatever that may be, take a look at my little art film about the lives of black students, and either be surprised or validated by seeing themselves in characters mostly absent from popular culture.”

Simien offers more thoughts and insights in hist post, which can be read in full here.

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Source: IndieWire film

February 12, 2017

Meryl Streep Fires Back at Donald Trump in Blistering Speech: ‘We Have the Right to Live Our Lives’

If you thought Meryl Streep was done with Donald Trump after the Golden Globes, think again. At a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign held last night, the three-time Oscar winner — who Trump called “overrated” in response to her blistering takedown of him at last month’s awards ceremony — doubled down on her criticism of the president.

“If you think people got mad when they thought the government was coming after their guns, wait until they come and try to take away our happiness,” Streep said, apparently to a two-minute standing ovation.

READ MORE: Golden Globes: Meryl Streep Calls Out Donald Trump in Cecile B. DeMille Award Acceptance Speech

Streep was there to accept the gay rights organization’s Ally for Equality Award, and used the occasion to defend the LGBTQ community. “We’re not going to go back to the bad old days of ignorance and oppression and hiding who we are,” she continued. “We owe it to the people who have died for our rights, and who have died before they even got their own.”

For all her criticism of Trump, Streep said he may have given us a small gift, however unintentionally. “If we live through this precarious moment,” she began, “if [Trump’s] catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn’t lead us to nuclear winter, we will have much to thank our current leader for. He will have woken us up to how fragile freedom is.”

READ MORE: Donald Trump Praised Meryl Streep as ‘Excellent’ in 2015, Two Years Before ‘Overrated’ Insult

Streep received her latest Academy Award nomination — her 20th, which is more than any other actor has ever received — for her role as the title character in “Florence Foster Jenkins.” She isn’t expected to win, but one can imagine what her speech might be like if she did.

“We have the right to live our lives, with God or without, as we choose,” added Streep. “There is a prohibition against the establishment of a state religion in our constitution, and we have the right to choose with whom we live, whom we love, and who and what gets to interfere with our bodies. As Americans, men, women, people, gay, straight, LGBTG. All of us have the human right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

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Source: IndieWire film