Jan. 11, 2017 "Mixed feelings": Today I found this article by Lauren La Rose in the Edmonton Journal:
It’s been 50 years since the debut of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, yet film portrayals of interracial couples remain a rarity in Hollywood.
The 1967 movie was a watershed in its positive depiction of the relationship between an accomplished black doctor (Sidney Poitier), and his white fiancee (Katharine Houghton), at a time when interracial marriages were still illegal in many U.S. states.
A half-century on, there are few examples in modern films of romances involving interracial couples.
If anything, the subject of race tends to be the focal point of such pairings — such as Spike Lee’s 1991 film Jungle Fever and 2006 romantic comedy Something New — or are based on real-life stories like the Golden Globe-nominated Loving and Lion, and forthcoming biopic A United Kingdom.
Loving writer-director Jeff Nichols says Hollywood seems reluctant to give screen-time to interracial couples unless “you’re trying to make a point about something.”
“Where we need to get is that you could have (interracial couples) included and it not be something you’re trying to make a point of — it just happens. This just is,” said Nichols during an interview.
“I’d like to think we’re getting there. I think it will happen. But I also think writers work from their own experiences, and the more diversity that we get in these groups of storytellers and these writers, I think the better the reflections will be.”
Loving centres on Mildred and Richard Loving, the Virginia couple at the heart of a historic 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that unanimously struck down all antimiscegenation laws.
Still, it wasn’t until the year 2000 that Alabama became the last state to overturn laws that criminalized interracial relationships.
“We’re talking about hundreds of years of institutionalized racism in the form of laws, but also in the form of society, hearts and minds,” said Ken Tanabe, founder and president of Loving Day, a global network of annual celebrations commemorating the landmark Loving case.
“Bringing that to the present day, you don’t reverse something like that overnight when it’s so deeply ingrained. So I think the absence of interracial couples and families and multiracial individuals in film and television is a part of that system,” added the New York-based Tanabe, who is of Japanese and Belgian heritage.
Tanabe recalled a 2013 Cheerios commercial featuring a black father, white mother and biracial child. The backlash to the ad produced enough vitriol on YouTube that the company requested that comments be turned off.
General Mills, which owns Cheerios, had said it was looking to reflect the changing U.S. population with the ad, and didn’t relent in the face of negativity.
The same fictional family was brought back for a 2014 Super Bowl commercial.
“Those who depict interracial couples and families in a non-controversial way are trying to reset the standard to demonstrate a way forward,” said Tanabe.
Mixed unions made up about 4.6 per cent of all married and common-law couples in Canada in 2011, according to data from the National Household Survey, up from 3.9 per cent in the 2006 census, and 3.1 per cent in 2001.
Vancouver-based filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns explored his own heritage in the documentary One Big Hapa Family, and set out to discover why everyone in his Japanese-Canadian family married interracially after his grandparents’ generation.
His latest documentary Mixed Match, which looks at the need to find mixed-ethnicity bone marrow and cord blood donors for multiethnic patients, won awards at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival and Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.
“It’s great that these festivals exist because there’s a platform for people that want to tell these diverse stories, but again, it’s still kind of within the independent realm,” said Chiba Stearns.
“It’s like guys like me who are (saying): ‘Yeah, I’m mixed, so I’m going to tell the mixed-race experience.’ If I was doing Hollywood stuff, I would definitely be putting that in.
“The only way that we can be represented properly is by actually speaking from our own experiences. I think it is hard for some Hollywood executives who maybe are not well-versed in those areas to really think about it,” he added. “Maybe there’s some of that happening, but it’s also the writers, the directors, the producers.
“As long as we have the creatives who identify as mixed or particular minority groups, we will get some of those stories or characters seeping into our movies.
It’s just one of those things that we’ve got to fight the good fight and make movies that reflect our society — and that’s what’s happening.”
Jul. 21, 2022 Something New:
"Kenya McQueen, an accountant finds love in the most unexpected place when she agrees to go on a blind date with Brian Kelly, a sexy and free-spirited landscaper."
I looked it up and Simon Baker from The Mentalist is in this movie. I saw the trailer and I would like to see this if it came on TV.
Dec. 17, 2021 "Same-sex kiss made this Hallmark actor a target of hate — but on-screen diversity is important, she says": Today I found this article written by Jason Vermes. Interview with Ali Liebert produced by Devin Nguyen on CBC news:
Vancouver-based actor Ali Liebert recalls receiving a torrent of negative online reaction over her character's on-screen same-sex kiss in a recent Hallmark Christmas film.
People criticized the go-to holiday movie network for embracing "politically correct" and "woke" story lines, suggesting the inclusion of a lesbian couple in Every Time A Bell Rings, starring Liebert, was not family friendly. Viewers commenting on a YouTube trailer for the film suggested they would stop watching Hallmark films because of the same-sex relationship portrayed.
Despite the backlash, Liebert, who is queer, says the feedback she's received for positively presenting an LGBTQ love story in the film has far outweighed the criticism.
"I have been overwhelmed with the love and positive comments as well that I have been receiving from folks all over the world who have been watching the movie and feeling so excited that this story line is in a Hallmark Christmas movie," Liebert said in an interview with Day 6 host Peter Armstrong.
In multiple tweets related to Liebert's film, Hallmark signalled support for diversity in its films. "Our priority is to develop a diverse mix of content, characters and narratives in order to create a Hallmark experience where everyone feels welcome," read one tweet.
Christmas films have long stuck to traditional story lines featuring saccharine — yet, comforting — romances between women and men. But in recent years, networks and film studios have embraced diverse love stories.
In 2020, films like Happiest Season, a Hollywood blockbuster featuring a lesbian couple (Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis) who return home for the holidays, and Hallmark's own The Christmas House, starring openly gay actor Jonathan Bennett, broke the mould of what stories holiday films could tell.
The trend continues this year with a number of films featuring LGBTQ characters and romances, including Netflix's Single All The Way.
"I was very pleasantly surprised when I received the call to play this role of a lesbian in a hallmark Christmas movie," said Liebert. "For me, as a queer person, [I] felt very moved by that and I am proud of the steps that they are making."
She adds that in a change for LGBTQ-focused stories, the character Nora's sexuality is not portrayed as a problem or an uncomfortable reality. Instead, it's just one of the aspects of her life that make up the character.
Hallmark embracing more diverse stories
After pulling an ad featuring two women kissing from its networks in December 2019, saying the display of affection violated its policies, Crown Media Family Networks — the company that produces Hallmark's films — came under fire for its lack of diversity. The company later apologized.
Since then, Wonya Lucas, who was named Crown Media CEO in August 2020, said the company is committed to diversifying the stories it tells.
"I'm proud of the progress this team is making to expand diversity in our programming and it is nothing short of seismic," she told Deadline last February.
"We will continue to strive to defy common stereotypes and give our characters more depth and dimension; in short, to more broadly represent the human condition."
That's a welcome shift for Liebert, who is best known for her role in the TV series Bomb Girls. The actor says had stories like Every Time a Bell Rings existed when she was younger, she may have felt empowered to come out sooner.
Queer or straight, Liebert says holiday films where "nothing bad happens" are a pleasant reprieve for viewers.
"The holidays can be a really hard time of year for a lot of people," she told Armstrong.
"Knowing you are going to be safe and laugh — maybe you'll cry — you can enjoy a couple of hours."
Same-sex kiss made this Hallmark actor a target of hate — but on-screen diversity is important, she says | CBC Radio
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