It is indeed a tough task to drive out racism from its core. Tough but a necessary action indeed. 2015’s Academy awards proved how deep racist culture is embedded in the United States of America. ‘Selma’, a historical film, based on the 1965 ‘Selma to Montgomery voting rights march’ led by Martin Luther king jr was an important film, received rave reviews but got snubbed at the 2015 Oscars. The film’s main lead David Oyelowo, in a recent roundtable interview revealed why the film was snubbed.
In the roundtable he said “I remember at the premiere of Selma us wearing ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirts in protest,
“Members of the Academy called in to the studio and our producers saying, ‘How dare they do that? Why are they stirring S-H-I-T?’ and ‘We are not going to vote for that film because we do not think it is their place to be doing that.”
The cast and crew of the film protested to show their support in the wake of ‘Eric Garner’s’ death at the hands of the New York police. The Black American died after being held in a chokehold for a few minutes. The man died in July 2014 while the film ‘Selma’ premiered in December 2014.
Oyelowo was speaking this on the virtual roundtable hosted by ‘Screen Daily’. The British actor further went on to describe how the #OscarssoWhite movement originated. He said “It’s part of why that film didn’t get everything that people think it should’ve got and it birthed #OscarsSoWhite,
They used their privilege to deny a film on the basis of what they valued in the world.”
Director of the film Ava DuVernay retweeted ‘Screen Daily’s’ post with the caption “True Story’. The Academy replied “Ava & David, we hear you. Unacceptable. We are committed to progress.”