On ‘Moonlight’ and the Subject of Positive Representation
Note: This Article was originally published on February 3, 2017, on medium.com/@gabriellabregman
I’m still buzzing with excitement over an inspiring start of the Film Independent Directors Close-Up Series last night. One of my favorite directors, Kimberly Peirce moderated a panel discussion with one of my new favorite directors, Barry Jenkins, (now I have to see his first film ‘Medicine for Melancholy,’) along the insanely talented Naomie Harris and casting director Yesi Ramirez, the woman responsible for finding the amazing ensemble cast of ‘Moonlight.’
I had secretly hoped that the co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney would be in attendance as well, after realizing the story of ‘Moonlight’ was mostly based on his own story, or around his own identity, as a black gay man, and his play, ‘In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,’ the original inspiration for the film, and am now curious to find out more about him.
I had initially assumed the story was based on Barry Jenkins’ own life, (there are definitely elements of the story he also identifies with,) and had assumed therefore that he was gay, which apparently he is not, and which does not take anything away from his incredibly accurate interpretation of the LGBTQ-related aspects of the story, (and which, all identity politics set aside, is after all the hallmark of a great director.)
Barry Jenkins is super cool and extremely talented and made a very important point about not thinking in terms of positive and negative characters, but rather in terms of whether or not a character is, what he called, productive. In my opinion, another indication of a great artist.
In light of all the public artistic discussion around positive representation, it is indeed important to make sure the behavior of minorities in film does not get oversimplified in an attempt to make them seem perfect, in an attempt to inspire real life minorities for whom seeing representation is so crucially important, and maybe even appeal to the privileged groups of people who have kept minorities down for so long.
While representation is incredibly important, it simply cannot boil down to positive and negative, and minorities have to harness themselves against thinking things like, “we’ve seen enough slavery films,” (while black people are still being incarcerated incredibly unfairly and the connection between slavery and incarceration rates are undeniable,) and “we’ve seen enough LGBTQ characters get killed off in films,” (while we are still being murdered on a regular basis for who we are,) and “we are so over coming out stories,” (while we are still being pushed in the closet all the time by society and discriminatory legislation, and isn’t the best narrative feature of 2016, ‘Moonlight,’ indeed about the incredible suffering of being “in the closet.”)
Life and art are infinitely more complex than the extremes of positive and negative and we must try, as human beings and as artists, to understand all the subtle nuances in between. American films in particular have always been good at oversimplifying reality, besides twisting the truth around altogether, making white, heterosexual male society into “the good guys” and everyone else necessarily bad, and that is partially why my interest in American films has always been almost exclusively towards the independent ones.
I’ve heard a lot of talk in general about the need for films with female superheroes, black superheroes and LGBTQ superheroes as well, and while I appreciate the sentiment I can’t help but wonder why we need superheroes altogether. I can definitely understand the need to do this for minority children specifically but for adults it seems too much, and it will also create a dangerously unrealistic world for children either way.
But the real danger with simply flipping mainstream movie aesthetics and projecting them onto minorities now, instead of privileged white people, privileged men, privileged heterosexual people, lies in the fact there is no political, legal system in place backing us up, and so any deviation from perfection by minorities will immediately become our downfall. The moment a minority is not perfect, or cannot embody every minority’s experience, we will be taken off of our self-imposed pedestal in no time, and the white, male, heterosexual world will go on about their business of keeping others down.
Also, we will create the same problem of lack of identification, with a “superhero,” as the lack of representation overall has created. Creating minority superheroes, rather than a realistic portrayal of the difficulties of being a minority, will not have the same effect as creating white, male superheroes. Many white, straight male folk already see themselves as superheroes and are creating and watching these films only to reflect that false sense of superiority. Projecting that unrealistic expectation of exclusive positivity, or superhero quality, onto minorities will only make a lot of suffering minorities cringe in agony at the unrealistic portrayal they will now see of themselves instead, and as a result disassociate with the very films supposedly created for them.
All these things rushed through my head in response to Barry Jenkins’ similar view on things. He didn’t talk about superheroes though, that’s just a subject matter I’ve been hearing about in general, but gave very good reasons for not focussing on whether or not a character is positively portrayed.
(I actually just discovered Barry Jenkins is a fan of my biggest film hero as well, or at least the ‘John Cassavetes: Five Films’ box set is amongst his favorite Criterion Collection DVDs. I always feel a little guilty for watching any great film and automatically thinking I’m seeing some John Cassavetes influences in it, however indirect, especially when it comes down to minorities because why should they be influenced by a Greek American when they/we have so much real suffering going on, and undoubtedly many other inspirations to draw from, but I so often hear my favorite filmmakers actually confirm they were to some extent influenced by Cassavetes it makes me kind of chuckle at being usually kind of right about my first hunch about it.)
And by the way, this whole rant on positive representation is in no way a critique of Naomie Harris, who was initially reluctant to play the crack addicted mother of the main character in ‘Moonlight,’ and which was the catalyst for this part of the overall discussion of the film at the Directors Close-Up Series.
In fact, all the more praise for Naomie Harris for taking the role after all and giving the most realistic, beautifully complex portrayal of a woman and mother in conflict with herself. The fact that this character was so far removed from her own experience, and the impossibly brief timeframe, in terms of the film’s actual production, in which she delivered this performance, (after doing plenty of her own research only 3 days of actual shooting!,) only attest to her absolute greatness as an actress.
There are so many more things I could say about ‘Moonlight’ in general but I don’t want to spoil it for people who haven’t seen the film yet, and I also have a ton of other things I should be focussing on doing myself, instead of continuously getting inspired to write more pieces.
So I’ll just finish this up by saying, do yourself a huge favor and go watch the best narrative feature of 2016, ‘Moonlight.’
And thank you ‘Moonlight’ cast and crew for being so inspiring, director Kimberly Peirce for being such a smart and engaging film panel moderator, and of course Film Independent for organizing the event.
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And please check out my other articles at medium.com/@gabriellabregmanon mainly LGBTQ- and Immigration Issues, and the State of Women and LGBTQ People in Film, and at medium.com/queerwomenfilmmakersmagazine , on Lesbian/Queer Film and Intersectional Feminism as well as Queer Female Sexuality and Gender Identity.
Here are a few titles:
A Few Notes on US Immigration Exclusion Policies Towards Women- and LGBT Immigrants (2014)
A Few Notes on LGBTQ Filmmaking (2017)
On ‘Moonlight’ and the Subject of Positive Representation (2017)
The 2016 Valentine’s Day Filmmakers Manifesto (2016)
THE ROOT CAUSE OF MISOGYNY, AND THE NECESSITY OF FREE WILL(Gender Binary System notes, part 1 of 7)
THE MALE AND FEMALE BRAIN, AND THE CAUSE OF TRANSGENDERISM (Gender Binary System notes, part 2 of 7)
THE REASONS I AM NOT TRANSITIONING (Gender Binary System notes, part 3 of 7)
MY PRONOUNS: THEY/THEM/THEIRS (Gender Binary System notes, part 5 of 7)
ON LOOKING ANDROGYNOUS THROUGHOUT MY YOUTH, WHILE ALSO BEING GENDER NONCONFORMING (Gender Binary System notes, part 6 of 7)
Click for Complete List of Articles (2016)
My name is Gabriella Bregman, I am a Hollywood-based writer, filmmaker, producer, currently in post-production of a feature documentary called ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights,’ through my film production company ‘Bregman Films.’
You can find me mostly on Facebook for right now, (facebook.com/gabriellabregman,) where I also maintain a Facebook Group called ‘Queer Women Filmmakers and Writers - Los Angeles’
In September of 2017 I founded a nonprofit organization, ‘Queer Women Filmmakers Magazine,’ a Media Site and Magazine Publication for Queer Women Filmmakers.
In early 2018 article submissions will be accepted for paid publication on the site and in the print version, (quarterly.)
The publication medium.com/queerwomenfilmmakersmagazine exists in conjunction with the Queer Women Filmmakers Magazine website queerwomenfilmmakersmagazine.org
