12 Years a Slave...
12 Years a Slave is based on a illustration called Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, the film was directed by Steve McQueen and Produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan and Anthiny Katagas. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures and supported by studios called Regency Enterprises, River Road Entertainment, Plan B, New Regency and Film4. Moreover the films budget was $20 million and reached up to $52,192,000 at the Box Office. The release dates for the United Kingdom was January 10th 2014 and United States was November 8th 2013.
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt and Alfre Woodard.
12 Years a Slave relates to the Diaspora identity as the characters in the film are forced into migration and experience belonging to a culture which is other to the dominant culture of the country of residence which is portrayed in the film as White Americans are controlling the Black Americans as slaves. I think this relates to Alvarado's (1987) theory as themes such as racial representation is significant in the film therefore the audience are feeling 'Pitied' for the characters as they are treated as slaves. The film focuses on Racial and cultural inequality as the Black Americans are suggested as slaves for the White Americans who are the dominant culture, they have imperial powers and the colony between exploitation.
Django Unchained...
Django Unchained was directed by Quentin Tarantino and produced by Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone. The film was supported by A Band Apart studios and distrubuted by The Weinstein Company, and Columbia Pictures. It's budget was $100 million and achieved $425,368,238 at the Box Office. The release date was December 25th 2012.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson.
Django Unchained relates to Orientalism as the East and the Orient are representations of both fear and fascination which is portrayed in the film, this was introduced by Edward Said (1995). Furthermore the film also relates to other two key theorists called Alvarado (1987) and Frantz Fanon (1925-61) as the film relates to racial representation and the theory of Fanon 'Putting on a white mask'.
- Alvarado's Themes in racial representations include: Exotic (Models, music artist, etc) , Dangerous (Crime, gangs, socially dysfunctional, etc), Humorous (Comedians, sidekicks, etc), and Pitied (Poverty, etc).
- Frantz Fanon was a Black psychoanalyst and philosopher, he believed in the Black skin, white mask theory(1952 - translation published). An example of this is that the 'universal' criteria for 'beauty' tends to be 'White'. In many countries Black people straighten their hair and lighten their skin. There language to speak means to assume a culture. Have to wear a white mask to be successful.
"Putting on the White Mask": Typically Black stereotype can be:
- Infantilize: such as the cute children in charity posters.
- Primitvize: The exotic and virile tribal warriors or bare-breasted maidens with a natural sense of rhythm.
- Decivilize: The gangsta, pimp etc.
- Essentilialize: Undifferentiated mass, 'they all look the same to us'.
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