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This is a great article. Looks at the systematic issue at play here - meaning white men continue to follow the taste of other white men. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/20/movies/criterion-collection-african-americans.html
I love this quote from Amy of @MilestoneFilms
MIDDLE OF NOWHERE DESERVES THIS
in July 2018 on @FilmStruck we had films from over 70 countries on the service and if you check out the hashtag #AroundTheWorldWithFilmStruck you will see that I did my damndest to promote all of those titles and get people to watch a broader array of films beyond the canon
This article gives me hope that Criterion will do better. There is self awareness of their failings that is long overdue and you can get mad that it took this long and you should - especially when you see what Kino and Milestone and Cohen Media have been doing for years - but
self awareness of your failings and complicity in a racist and sexist system - in this case the film canon and film distribution - is a needed first step to doing better and activity fighting to change the system in which you thrived. I hope they keep it up.
When I was at FilmStruck we definitely had moments where we went up against a wall - and not just from Criterion, but TCM as well, over this very issue and I wonât go into details, but it is a hard battle to change minds when the canon is so set, but if you look at
The Essentials that Ava programmed last year and this upcoming Women Make Movies that will be on TCM for the next 14 weeks, you can see both of these institutions moving leaps and bounds from where they were just a few years ago. We just have to keep pushing.
Itâs also not enough for us to demand this, you have to actively SUPPORT IT when it happens. If you have the means, order all of the films that are by women or black directors. I have the means now, so whenever they release a film directed by a woman I preorder it right away.
