February 13-19, 2015
News
Black and
white and
suburbia
all over
Suburbia” and stereotypes and assumptions
- again, it’s these little micro-aggressions
that happen on a day-to-day basis with kids
of color, not just African-American kids. It’s
the sort of stereotype where - 1 always use
this example: “The Cosby Show” would be
on Thursday. And then I’d go to school on
Friday and I’d always get a question about
why Vanessa wore her hair like that. Like I
know the Cosbys like they’re real people,
and I go to Brooklyn every weekend to visit
them to say, “I’m going to get some
questions on Friday, and I’m going to need
some answers.” Or the generalized, “Why do
black people ...?” Which is assuming, “Oh,
you know every black person in the world,
so just tell me about it.” Those are the sort
of assumptions of people who kind of live in
a bubble and don’t go outside of the bubble
because it’s too scary. If they stay in that
bubble, all they see of other people is on
television or media.
Filmmaker Melissa Lowery talks
about the impact o f her movie,
“Black Girl in Suburbia”
BY SARAH HANSELL
STAFF W RITER
n 2010, Melissa Lowery set out to create
a film - her first feature-length film -
that could serve as a guidebook for her
two daughters. Her documentary, “Black
Girl in Suburbia,” shares the experiences of
race and identity of black girls growing up in
mostly white communities. Oregon, it
seemed, was the ideal place to film. With
only 2 percent of the population identifying
as black in 2013, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau, many of the black youth in
Portland look in their schools, their
neighborhoods, and their communities, and
find theirs is the only black face to be seen.
S
The spark for “Black Girl in Suburbia”
Was first/ignited when*Lowery’s oldest £
S.H.:As a woman and director of color,
what are your thoughts on the current
conversation about “Selma” director Ava
DuVernay’s Oscar snub and the whiteness of
the Oscars and the mainstream movie industry
in general?
Melissa Lowery, right, reflects on the
isolation for black youths who grow up
without other black youths in their
neighborhood. Above, a poster image for
Lowery’s film “Black Girl in Suburbia.”
you received, especially from young black girls
growing up in mostly white communities?
Melissa Lowery: It’s different at every
daughter came home from school with a
screening, but the conversations are just as
story about a classmate asking why her hair
deep and just as rich and just as authentic
was different. The conversation that ensued
inspired Lowery, a recent graduate of Pacific for each group. At my premiere I had a
black woman come up to me — she was
University’s media sthdies program, to
maybe in her 70s, just crying and saying,
create a film that could help her daughters
“I’m so happy because I went through that
navigate growing up as some of thè few
same thing when I was a girl and never told
people of color in their community in
anybody my feelings, about my experience. I
Hillsboro, just as Lowery grew up in a
didn’t think anyone would understand. I’m
mostly white community in West Linn. But
so thankful that I get to see this story being
when Lowery searched online for
told out loud and being talked about and
information on black girls growing up in
shared.” And
suburban
younger girls,
neighborhoods, the
kind of the same
results were not
thing: “I’m not
helpful. This was a
"Mt siy premiere I had a black
by myself.” It
story that hadn’t
woman soaie up la me she was
makes sense
really been publicly
maybe la her IO sy jo sl crying and
that kids of
shared before. So
color who have
sayings T i» sa happy because 1
Lowery got to work.
And the response
went through that same thing when this experience
was overwhelming.
1 was a g irl and never la id aaybady don’t share,
because unless
Within two days, the
my feelings abant my experience« I they have a
Kickstarter account
close friend who
She set up to fund the dldn?t th in k anyone would under-
is also a person
project raised $2,000. s t a m ir
of color going
In the end it raised
through the
more than $13,000,
same thing,
more than Lowery
.nobody else is
needed, and once her
really going to understand. Their white
film was released, she began to receive
teachers and white friends are not going to
feedback from women across the country
understand.
who felt that the stories shared in the film
And the white community has been really
deeply resonated with their own lives. The
great and open about the information
film has screened in the Portland area and
they’re receiving. And I know that it’s
will be featured in this month’s Black Film
difficult for them, because a lot of the white
Festival at the Hollywood Theatre on Feb.
people
that come to my film have never had
21.
a conversation about race in their entire
life. So when they come to something like
Sarah Hansell: Having screened your film
all over the Portland area, what responses have this, it’s the first time they’re really part of
PHO TO BY SARAH HANSELL
a conversation and that to me is really
great I’m always asking: “Please share,
what has kept you from having that
conversation? How is this helping you now,
in your experience with race?” -
S.H.: The film is and was being worked on,
released and screened in the midst of the Black
Lives Matter movement and widespread
protests. Tell me about the experience of having
critical discussions in the context of the film
about race, identity and racial stereotypes
during these events.
M.L.: That was a rough time — just
having discussions about racial profiling and
how media tends to put together
circumstances. For example, having Eric
Garner being looked at as a criminal and a
sort of animal. Instead of being looked at as
a father and a husband, he’s a thief. And
then, compare that to a white guy who goes
into a movie theater and shoots the whole
place up, and people say, “Oh, but he was
so quiet, he was such a sweet boy, I don’t
know what happened.” These are the things
you have to look at, instead of make excuses
for.
Having those kinds of conversations in
relation to experiences with “Black Girl in
M.L.: This is my first film. I’m still a
newbie. When it comes to the Oscars, I take
it with a grain of salt because it’s just like
any other organization. You have your elite
group, mostly white men, and their
decisions come down to what they like to
see. It’s not necessarily how great your work
is. So for me, with Ava kind of being
snubbed for a nomination, which I absolutely
feel she should have had, I don’t feel that
takes away from anything that she’s done as
a director. I just think it is part of that
organization that has not really changed. It’s
one of those systems that is slow to change.
But absolutely we need more films of
color and more people of color oh TV. And
again, not just African-Americans. We need
to see a representation of what the world
looks like right now, and what our country
looks like right now. But we never really see
that, and it gets a bit annoying. I’ve had
conversations with people who say, “Well,
you have BET.” And I say, “Yeah, and you
have ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN. You’ve got all
of these shows where there might be one
person of color, but then it’s that
stereotypical representation that I’m n o tic e
that doesn’t really represent me.”
There’s still a lot of work left to do, and I
don’t want to put pressure on myself as an
African-American woman director, because I
want to be seen as a director. I’m already a
woman and I am African-American; those
things are never going to change. I’m
confident in my work right now, and I hope
to be confident of the work that I do in the
future based on myself as a director, and
hopefully I can be seen in a sort of equal
light with a white director, but we’re not
there yet. And that’s OK. I don’t have to win
awards to know that my work is good and
it’s reaching people.
More information about the Black Film
Festival is available at hollywoodtheatre.org