New Hollywood diversity rules a timely topic for this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival

Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive

Every October Marin becomes the center of the movie-making planet when the Mill Valley Film Festival kicks off, featuring scores of renowned films.

Marin’s hard core movie aficionados are in heaven. I’m not quite in the aficionados category. But, I do like movies. I see a lot of them and it has me wondering whether the organizers of this year’s MVFF might be brave enough to delve into the merits – or demerits – of Hollywood’s new diversity rules. 

The MVFF has become such a big attraction for movie movers and shakers  – Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Ang Lee and Viola Davis to name just a few – and Marin culture is so attune to diversity issues of the day, I’d love to hear it publicly discussed here.

To now be considered for “Best Picture” at the Academy Awards, a motion picture must meet diversity requirements in on “screen representation, creative leadership, industry access and audience advancement.”

Some see the rules as restrictive to the creative process because movie companies may not make a movie that can’t hit the diversity mark. Being nominated for “Best Picture” is a big deal. It can bring millions of extra dollars to a motion picture’s bottom line. So why make a picture you know from the start won’t qualify.

Actor Richard Dreyfuss is the most notable movie icon to voice concern. 

“This is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money. But it’s an art,” Dreyfuss said recently on PBS. He added:  “And no one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is.”

“This is so patronizing. It’s so thoughtless, and treating people like children,” he said.

That criticism rings true for me not so much in what I’m going to see more of from Hollywood moviemakers, but what I’ll see less. 

Take the flick “The Quiet Girl,” for example. It’s a tale of an Irish girl who is part of a big family that temporarily shuffles her off to relatives to help make ends meet. It’s a fine movie in its simplicity. I enjoyed it. 

But would it meet the new diversity rules? It is about a girl, so that would give it a diversity point. But it’s set in Ireland in 1981 between two rural, white Irish families. No people of color in sight. No disabled characters, or gender fluid folk, either. Demerits for that? Are we really going to do those kinds of calculations?

More on point is “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which actually was nominated for Best Picture last year. If it were in the running this year, it would not be eligible for the Best Picture category because of the diversity mandates. 

Look, I’m not saying Hollywood won’t churn out good movies that align with the diversity rules. Sure they will. But the worry is in what won’t get made.

Will whatever good the new diversity mandates bring to future movie making projects, will that be overcome by restricting the art? 

That’s a worthy conversation well suited to the Marin ethos. Why not have it at the next Mill Valley Film Festival?

HUMANS ARE HUMANS

I’m reading Dan Flores’ book “Wild New World.” I don’t think it’s going to sit well with my friends who like to romanticize Native American cultures, who they like to think lived in complete harmony with the planet. 

According to Flores, the first humans to arrive in North America wiped out whole species of animals. Hunted them into extinction with a spear tipped with a Clovis point. And, European arrivals to the new world did the same thing because, well, humans are humans. 

Genetics and genomics are increasing our knowledge at a rapid pace and the fate of scores of species who share a common experience at the hands of us, he argues. Mammoths, bison, wolves, passenger pigeons, spotted owls and scores more share a similar story. 

I’m no scientist. I’m just a state educated journalist who defied the odds and managed to maintain a fair amount of independent curiosity. What the hell do I know about the ability of humans some 30,000 years ago to wipe out whole species of beasts? But apparently they not only could have, they did. 

Flores brings into focus his take on the current thinking on the topic. Humans of all ages are culpable, he says. It’s a good read.

ONE MORE THING

Thanks for reading. Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority. 

(“Properly Subversive” is a commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)