(Lack of) Diversity in Hollywood - Brittney Seegers

Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily (Twitter)

For my convergence project, I plan on focusing on the lack of diversity in media, specifically the film industry. Even with the success of films from this year like Straight Outta Compton and The Perfect Guy, or last year’s critically acclaimed Selma, major studios are still either feigning surprise when a film targeted towards audiences of color does well or ignoring those successes and continuing to whitewash upcoming films (Pan, Death Note, etc.). My main focus in addressing the lack of diversity is specifically towards women filmmakers, and filmmakers of color.

                  The form my project will take is a written piece, in the form of various articles that speak to the state of diversity in Hollywood from the past up until present day. The articles themselves will most likely be posted on a tumblr blog, because the site makes it easy to share posts through reblogs, and it allows for multiple types of media to be uploaded, so I can supplement the articles with video if the need arises.

                  For the scope of my project, I want to start with a historical look at diversity and Hollywood, leading up to as recently as last year. At this point, I’ll be using a mix of academic essays and studies on the topic for more recent information, and books for a more historical perspective. I also want to focus on the idea that diversity in film starts behind the camera, and isn’t necessarily something that only needs to be reflected in the actors chosen for films, but also in the directors, producers, and screenwriters.

                  I’m still weeding through a lot of my sources in terms of books and articles, but beyond that I have also reached out via twitter to various filmmakers that I hope to interview. Getting the perspective of filmmakers of color is crucial to this project because it speaks to the idea that diversity issues are still ongoing, despite films starring people of color doing extremely well at the box office. By the end of the semester, I hope to have posted 5 strong articles in regards to my topic, and I hope that they will have been shared with the "film twitter" audience whether it's through Twitter or Tumblr.