{"id":18030,"date":"2019-01-30T13:23:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=18030"},"modified":"2023-09-29T10:09:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T17:09:20","slug":"the-challenge-of-making-a-film-about-racist-relics","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/the-challenge-of-making-a-film-about-racist-relics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Challenge of Making a Film About Racist Relics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filmmaker and teacher Chico Colvard’s first feature doc,\u00a0Fami<\/i>ly<\/i> Affair<\/i>, premiered at Sundance and was the first film acquired by Oprah Winfrey for her cable channel, OWN. The\u00a0searingly personal documentary explored his family’s own troubled history that ultimately had a message of forgiveness and resilience. While his new film Black Memorabilia<\/strong><\/em><\/a> is less personal, it maintains that spirit of resilience, of overcoming troubled history, in its exploration of disturbingly racist objects from our nation’s past, some of which are still collected and even produced today. The film asks “When are objects immoral, and when is it right or wrong to possess them? Does historic value supersede offensiveness?”<\/p>\n

IndieWire writer Tambay Obenson called it\u00a0“essential viewing.” Colvard here thoughtfully looks back on his provocative film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What led you to want to make a film about racist memorabilia?<\/b><\/p>\n

Like many of us, I grew up unconsciously consuming a steady diet of black memorabilia. This film stems from a heightened awareness of the often unquestioned presence of racist memorabilia and is the result of my desire and curiosity to explore ways to move beyond perverse attractions and absolute objections to the harmful and derogatory material. I set out to make a film that subverts expectations both socially and cinematically. <\/span><\/p>\n

To that end, <\/span>Black Memorabilia<\/span><\/i> is transgressive; meaning certain moral, social and artistic boundaries are questioned in an effort to spark conversation and action that distances itself from a mere indictment piece.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you hope this film reaches the most?<\/b><\/p>\n

Michael Ray Charles, a renowned artist and academic, speaks of black memorabilia, from \u201cJolly Nigger\u201d banks, to Confederate flags, Nazi insignia and other racist material in his work as \u201c<\/span>often-unquestioned appearance[s] of truth<\/b>,\u201d which is \u201ca constant in the American subconscious.\u201d By that measure, <\/span>Black Memorabilia<\/span><\/i> should appeal to a wide cross-section of viewers. Still, I hope the film reaches a younger demographic, who I believe are kept unaware of the modern-day reiterations and harmful social currency the material persist in promoting.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Could you talk about your approach to this film, and the challenges in making it?<\/b><\/p>\n

I tried to make a film that not only called attention to the material culture of racist memorabilia and its persistent mark of white supremacy, I also wanted to illuminate the limitations on the kinds of stories Black\/Brown people get to tell. It\u2019s sad that we are limited to shaping stories about ourselves as victims \u201cdancing on our bruises\u201d or objects of study. Yes, there are issues specific to us as a target group, but it precludes the realities of our interests in so much more: The economy, environment, politics, space, architecture or any number of topics not annexed with notions of race. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another way to illustrate the challenge is to ask people to name more than two Black\/Brown emerging American filmmakers, who\u2019s first films did not address issues of race \u2013 not this year, or in the last decade, but in the history of cinema. For these reasons, there is an aspect of\u00a0Black Memorabilia<\/i> that serves as a \u201cTrojan Horse,\u201d where the narrative structure of the triptych, hybrid-doc elements and resistance to indict are all factors designed to address this challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

And how did you approach working with the people in the film who talk about black memorabilia? How did you get them to feel comfortable?<\/b><\/p>\n

I entered the project with assumptions about black memorabilia, but not the subjects nor the reasons for their relationship to the material. In addition to taking a nonjudgmental approach, I spent most of my time with the subjects with the cameras off. <\/span><\/p>\n

While I didn\u2019t shy away from interrogating the subjects, I did allow for the empty space of silence and ambiguity to breathe and stayed fairly disciplined about not filling it with questions and small talk, but instead ceded the floor to them or whatever might pass through. It also wasn\u2019t uncommon for the subjects to suggest unique angles on the story to pursue or work their personal and professional connections to help better the film, which resulted in an even greater strand of mutual trust.<\/span><\/p>\n