[su_label type=”info”]The Devil’s Advocate[/su_label]
Will they also make a big impression among less colorful people? The answer is a definite “maybe.” Although, according to the cha-ching of the cash registers, both movies are clear winners on the green front, which stretches across color lines.
I enjoyed both films—good production values, plenty of action and unusual (for the current film industry) but credible characters. Featuring mostly Black and Brown faces, the scripts are rooted in stories, and peoples that we might actually experience around us. Or perhaps dream about?
As per the languages spoken, we heard English, some Spanish, some Spanglish, some “Black English” and even some “Wakandan” multilingualism.
In “Black Panther” the language spoken by the mythical and super developed Wakandans is the real-life isiXhosa, a language claimed as mother tongue by more than eight million South Africans. Two iconic leaders of the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela, were members of the Xhosa people.
Both films have become big box-office successes. Should that fact guarantee that we might begin to see more movies like those two coming down the creative pipes of Hollywood? After all, like the saying goes: “Money talks. BS walks.” Which reminds me of a song from the movie “Cabaret”:
“Money makes the world go around, the world go around, the world go around!”
“Coco” and “Black Panther” are undisputable winners, in the hearts and minds of many as well as at the cash registers, but their success doesn’t necessarily mean we will see similar efforts and patronage. The struggle for relevant and continuous representation, in all fronts, continues.
Perhaps “Coco” and “Black Panther” are the exceptions that confirm a rule?
Even without guarantees of further financial backing, perhaps some doors have been opened— willingly opened, or opened by having been kicked down by the forces of evidence.
As a relevant parallel example, not so long ago the National Basketball Association (NBA) did not include Black players. Today, Black players make up the overwhelmingly majority of the NBA. And yet, there is only one majority team owner who is Black, Michael Jordan of the Charlotte Hornets. Black folks do not control the decision-making process in the NBA.
The players, the reason why the sport is popular (and profitable) are still disrespected. Recently, Laura Ingraham, a White female commentator from Fox News, said something obnoxiously racist to LeBron James, the greatest player of his generation and a very articulate man: “Shut up and dribble!” Never mind that James is an intelligent person, a self-made millionaire (he did not inherit his fortune from his dad, the way many rich people do) who is clearly deserving of respect.
To that “commentator” (and to many people in the United States) LeBron James—and all players—are mere “hired hands,” peons who should not speak their minds. “Just dribble!”…and be grateful to the masters and mistresses.
The performers on the basketball courts and the performers on the films are not in control of the business. Neither the sports business nor the film business.
You need money in order to win in this capitalistic system, be it in the “real” world of politics and sports, or in the “fictional” world of the movies, but, in this country, the control of the deep pockets behind the creative apparatus remains firmly housed elsewhere, not among “Wakandans,” Chicanos, Latinos, Latinx… or any other people of alternative colors.
With that reality, how will movies like “Coco” and “Black Panther” keep on being made?
In my opinion, the overwhelming success of those movies should awaken the producers to this fact: There is money to be made in respectful multicultural collaborations.
“Coco” is a handsome depiction of the Day of the Dead celebrations, as they happen in México. “Black Panther” is a well-made film that hints at a distant past of African greatness and/or a distant future of self-reliance and self-respect for African Americans.
For a very rare time, many elements on both films “feel” real, believable, respectful, well-researched and planned out.
To me, the main reason is that this time the producers opened the well-guarded creative doors (together with the money vaults) and asked African American, Mexican and Chicano/Latino artists and “cultural consultants” to collaborate in the realization of the films.
Thus, the colors, the music, the characters, the plots, resonate most strongly with the African-American and with the Mexican/Latino audiences, but they also engage intellectually and emotionally anyone who watches the movies.
There is a clear aura of authenticity emanating from both films. Even if you never heard of Mictlán (the main realm of the pre-Columbian underworld), or “Wakanda,” or even if you never set up an altar for the Dead on Nov. 2. The movies touch universal nerves.
Today, my former student Francine Torres wrote on social media about the limited scope of most films nominated for an Oscar:
“This world is far bigger and more interesting than the sliver of life we’re being fed. It’s perpetuating this horrible wave of homogeny and racism in this country.”
I agree and this time I will not question: “Coco” and “Wakanda” forever!