As noted by Rhian Daly on NME, Idris Elba has championed the importance of independent film to diversity in an essay in The Sunday Times.
Idris writes, liberally edited:
“Film isn’t elitist. We all express ourselves through the stories we tell, what we watch and the communities we create. One person’s film culture is watching Spider-Man at the Rio, another’s is going to a Kurosawa season at the BFI or catching the new Christopher Nolan movie at an Imax. But it’s those smaller independent and community cinemas that have been hardest hit by the lockdown… Film isn’t just entertainment. We’re looking at each other, watching what other people do and encouraging greater honesty about each other’s cultures. It’s the age of mass storytelling in which a video recorded on a phone can bring together families separated by lockdown — or inspire a powerful global movement… A nation finally acknowledging its diversity needs a diverse film culture — we have to protect it at the time we need it most… We may need the money mainstream cinema from America brings in, but to create future stars and introduce new voices, independent film is where it’s at. I wouldn’t be here without it.”
Rhian also quotes Sandra Oh as claiming UK TV is not diverse:
“The UK, I’m not afraid to say, is behind. I am not only the only Asian person on set, but the development of people behind the camera is very slow in the UK.”
My take: yes, independent film is indispensable to diversity, mainly because no one can stop you from making your film with your particular point of view. Inclusion, on the other hand, still has lots of gatekeepers, those thwarting your message from getting out and keeping you out of their club. I think the fact that we’re discussing the problem shows we’re firmly on the path to change it.
I find Sandra Oh’s comments about UK TV as being “not diverse”. When my hubby and I were in Scotland and in Northern Ireland, we were surprised at the use of both Sign Language and captions on all channels. All phones are hearing aid friendly and all stores have loop systems which allow for hearing aid users to hear clerks/cashiers better. Also, at Titanic Studios, half of its BG were deaf. In Game of Thrones, they used war veterans with missing limbs for almost all battle scenes. UK TV is well influenced by the likes of Samantha Renke and a few other disabled TV personalities. I admit that I wasn’t looking for Asian actors in the UK. (My Great Grandmother was Chinese and many of my cousins appear half-Chinese.) However in Canada, my experience confirms what a few local film industry friends and I have discovered these past few years. Personally, I have been finding more and more screenplay contests that claim they promote diversity or are advertised as being only for “diversity only”, yet do not have space nor a ID button or tab that has “Person with Disability” or “Disabled”. They have ID buttons, spaces or tabs which clearly identify: c I am hearing disabled. I sometimes write about disabled people – even in my fantasy screenplays – and I can not get into these so-called “diversity screenplay contests” which promote new and different perspectives. Even in the Telefilm contests, there is no identity button nor tab for “Person with Disability”. It is fine to have disabled actors, but strangely it appears that there can not be disabled crew. My production team noticed this blatant absence and the Director (non-disabled yet his ID was visible minority) was surprised. He remarked that “persons with disabilities” go right across the board and that there should be a button or tab with this identifying marker. We had at least three crew who identified themselves as Disabled. The BC Disability Caucus has taken note of this as well as others. Then one week ago, the Caucus founder just participated in the Human Right Commissioner’s first provincial public meeting (in this region).We learned that the commissioner has chosen to NOT to identify the disabled as the ones who lodge the MOST Human Rights Complaints in BC despite the fact that such data has been identified year after year in BC, nationally and across Canada by province. She blatantly refused to acknowledge this! Unemployment among the disabled went up from 48% to 52% in 2019 alone! The BC Human Rights Commissioner is now referred to as an ‘Ableist’. (One person in the BC Disability Caucus asked, ‘Can the BC Human Rights Commissioner be sued for refusing to deal with our rights?’) Isn’t it any wonder that one of my deaf friends who communicates via ASL was trained in film and theatre gave up and moved to Quebec to be closer to family?! One of my stalwart supporters in IATSE 168 who made sure I received a phone call – not a text – recently died from cancer during the pandemic. I have not been phoned for any meetings since the slow reopening of BC – I find out after the fact about these meetings – at least three times now. I can not use a cell phone because my hearing aids are not compatible. I don’t know who to call because they haven’t properly replaced him – I have tried. It quietly gets passed on – to who? To where? I made less than $5,000 for two years in a row and therefore do not qualify for CERB. I am unable to go on Disability because I am married. What most people don’t know is that if you are on Disability, you can not marry. Or if you do go on it, it is deducted. Refer to the Facebook site “Marriage Equality for Disabled Persons” to find out this little known fact. In the 1980s before I returned to my home province of BC from Ontario, two film industry friends/acquaintances committed suicide because they couldn’t bear the thought of going on Disability. I detest politics it does not have a benign face, but I am constantly pulled in because of tragedies and injustices like these. If true diversity is not supported in Canadian society, it is not supported in the film nor theatre industries. Diversity needs to include everyone without exception: LGBTQ2, Indigenous, Visible Minority, and the Disabled. Too often, exclusion is as subtle as not putting buttons nor tabs identifying those who are disabled. Enough of my expounding.