Faculty Forum Spring 2011

How much can film viewers identify with an on-screen character from a different race, gender, or class? Film theorists such as Manthia Diawara, Judith Mayne, and belle hooks have identified several problematic issues dealing with the relationship of race and spectatorship. One of the most important is the paradox presented to people of color in traditional Hollywood narrative when, as spectators, they are forced associate themselves with negative, tainted, and unrealistic images of their own race or to suspend their disbelief to associate themselves with a white character. This problem has been addressed in recent years by filmmakers as film has become a powerful medium of self-expression for traditionally marginalized race and gender groups. In addition, interest in multiculturalism has spawned scholarship that advocates the examination of this self-expression for the dual purpose of exposing members of diverse cultures to issues and values outside of their own sphere of experience and persuading them to appreciate the merits of other cultures. The combination of the recent increase in the number of filmmakers who seek to explore these issues as representative members of their own cultural groups and the current scholarly interest in multicultural issues, however, creates a problematic situation. Although such films may aim to foster multicultural appreciation, the rhetorical appeal often excludes those from whom it would ostensibly garner identification, invoking racial barriers that still prevent audience members from associating themselves with the protagonist and which enable them to identify only with secondary, often negative characters.