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239 Conclusion the Story Behind the Numbers People who are smart kind of let us do our thing. i keep saying that because i want studio executives to read this. the ones that are smart let us do our thing. We bring back a great movie and never go over budget , and everyone’s happy at the end of the day. —ice Cube, 2008 Black cultural producers continue to occupy a precarious position in Hollywood , but there are promising indicators that suggest change is afoot. On July 1, 2012, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin’s cinematic adaptation of southerner Lucy Alibar’s play, opened on four screens in the United States. Produced in collaboration with Court 13 and the playwright, the film focuses on a little black girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) and her relationship with her ailing father, Wink (Dwight Henry), in a fictional southern Louisiana town known as “the Bathtub,” where they are constantly under threat of flooding. Less than a year after its initial release, the film earned box office profits almost twelve times its budget in addition to numerous high-profile accolades (including four Academy Award nominations). The film’s onscreen narrative and offscreen successes conjure both hope and concern for the future. The film included a number of significant alterations from the source text. Hushpuppy evolves from an eleven-year-old boy into a six-year-old girl, while the setting shifts from the clay hills of Georgia to the bayous of Louisiana, more specifically an area made famous by disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. The filmmakers rely on ghosting to convey the environmental dangers visualized through Hushpuppy’s fantastical imagination. They forgo the typical casting of big-name stars that would have guaranteed broad distribution of the film. As a result of their choices, they introduced new black talent to Hollywood (Wallis was a nominee for Best Actress, the youngest ever in this category). But race ideology continues to influence outcomes, economic 240 CoNCLuSioN and otherwise. While the filmmakers for Beasts have been vocal about their highly collaborative filmmaking process, they have been less clear about the role of race in the casting process. Photographs of the original stage play’s cast are not included in the press kits or commentary about the film, and the characters ’ races are not specified in the play’s cast list. In fact, the only racially marked character in the play’s cast list is a Japanese woman. Frequently, the lack of a racial description infers the character is white, just as lack of gender frequently reads as male. There is no playwright’s note indicating otherwise. In this case, there appears to be a deliberate choice to change the race of the lead characters from white to black, although they appear in a mixed community . The film’s notable lack of a traditional white point of entry presents a very promising deviation from established precedent. Through these characters , the filmmakers index the racial underpinnings of socioeconomic class exposed by the disasters in the Gulf region. This was not accidental. Court 13, a predominantly white group of filmmakers, and white American playwright Alibar recognized the potential of black film subjects, worldviews, and characterizations. Like earlier films, Beasts of the Southern Wild provides us with an important example of the limitations and possibilities for exploring black subjects on film. The characters refer to themselves as “beasts” to articulate their strength and determination to survive, though their humanity is the focal point of the story. The filmmakers even refer to Hushpuppy as “a little beast” in the press kit, which, considering the history of black representation in the United States, could be considered problematic, potentially reinforcing old stereotypes if taken out of context or if one ignores the way “beast” has been used as positive slang within some communities. Recall from chapter 1 Barnum’s museum and carnival displays that portrayed Africans as animalistic. Beasts of the Southern Wild illustrates the importance of cultural literacy, which is not racially predetermined . Filmmakers crossing the color line can and should become culturally literate in order to transcend the race ideology that has historically undermined stories such as Hushpuppy’s. Still, Alibar’s southern background and Zeitlin’s permanent relocation to the Gulf region places both in close proximity to the people and culture they attempt to represent in the film. They collaborated with actors and actresses from the area to ensure cultural resonance, enabling them...

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