Transcript:

 Hello and welcome to  CinéTalk, a podcast for and by film lovers about social and cultural topics in film and television. I’m Keva Elie, and today’s episode is about technological racism in film production.

At the 2026 BAFTA Awards, an advocate for Tourette syndrome, a disability that causes people to make involuntary actions or sounds, which are called tics, shouted the N word at Sinners, actor[s] Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo during their speeches. Despite his apology to both the actors and the public, the BBC made an inadequate response to the issue, neglecting to pull the video from airing as it occurred. This event was just one example of the hundreds of ways institutions in film respond to issues regarding Black identity improperly. Racism and lack of regard for Black people in the film industry don’t stop at poor decisions like this. Rather, they are ingrained in the history and system of filmmaking, including technology and implicit bias in learning about filmmaking.

For most of history, Black actors and accurate representation were considered secondary elements in film production. Film sets typically didn’t consider the different lighting techniques necessary for properly lighting a Black actor than [those] needed for a White actor. Light meters in cameras and the chemistry in film had specifically been produced and calibrated with solely capturing White people in mind. Photo labs used Shirley cards produced by Kodak in the 70s to calibrate the colors to a model with perfect skin and colors, a White woman. Models like these weren’t discarded until they inconvenienced furniture companies that found the browns of their furniture to be inaccurate. It wasn’t until movies like In the Heat of the Night, directed by Norman Jewison, that film companies and productions began to cater to Black people and darker skin tones. According to Mark Harris’ Pictures at a Revolution, In the Heat of the Night was one of the first movies “lit with proper consideration for a Black person.”

For example, in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel, who plays Mammy, was lit with what many find improper lighting. Gone with the Wind was filmed in full Technicolor, an outdated process that requires high levels of lighting that often don’t compensate for dark skin. 

In an NPR interview, photographer Syreeta McFadden explained, “A lot of the design of film and motion technology was conceived with the idea of the best representation of white people… So color film in its early stages pretty much developed around trying to measure the image against white skin.”

While teaching a course at MetFilm School, Akinsehinwa recounts, “[Actors] were frustrated by the way they were being lit, which often failed to represent their true likeness and made them feel neglected.” He continues, “There is a mental well-being impact to consider. Most actors and actresses desire to look good on screen.” 

Ava Berkofsky said in a phone interview with Mic [Magazine] that when she was in film school, no one ever talked about lighting nonwhite people. Berkofsky worked on Insecure, the 2016 show that featured an all-black cast with comedian Issa Rae as the main character. Berkofsky uses whiteboards with special led’s inside to reflect on the actor’s skin rather than “light it” as well as a light dab of shiny makeup. 

Additionally, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman of black ancestry to receive the best cinematography award at the 2026 Oscars for Sinners, stated that overlighting Black characters is a common piece of advice in the cinematography world.

In productions like Moonlight and Insecure, colored lights are used as often as possible to create a nice, creative look. For context, Moonlight was created in 2016 by Barry Jenkins, which follows a boy in Miami over three different periods in his lifetime, dealing with his sexuality and identity. Interestingly, the name for Moonlight before it was adapted for film was ‘[In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.]’ This idea was taken very literally during production, with many of the scenes incorporating blue hues that, in fact, [brought] out some of the cool undertones in some of the actors’ skin. For shots like these, cinematographers often use gels in front of the lights to create a pop of color against the actor’s face. 

Advancements and improvements in digital cinematography have allowed for capturing both shadows and highlights with greater detail and accuracy than film has previously. LEDs and smaller light sources help prevent overexposure, making it easier to preserve clarity and sharpness in both dark and bright areas of each scene. In the future, [improving] technological racism will include ongoing discussions of the history of film technology and opportunities for cinematographers like Arkapaw and Berkofsky to continue illuminating darker skin tones.

That’s all for this episode of CinéTalk, and thank you so much for joining me as I explored technological racism in filmmaking. Feel free to check out moviesinmotion.org to view the transcript for today’s podcast.

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To understand the symbolism behind the film, the history of ballet and Swan Lake must also be understood. The art of ballet has historically been a field characterized by exclusion of people of color, with Black dancers not appearing in performances until the early-mid 20th century in Britain. This legacy is prominent in the film, where the girls in Obe’s class laugh at the idea of a “black swan” playing Princess Odette, the traditional white swan.

One quote from the Melbourne International Film Festival website describes this perfectly.

Slowly she realises she must dance with her African spirit and not against it.

Part of Obe’s conflict in the movie was her desire to fit in with her peers and British society by pursuing this role in the Swan Lake, which was a goal she needed to repress her culture and identity to achieve. Despite her attempts to fit in with ballet, Obe receives a racist mammy doll in her bag from a classmate to discourage her. Obe’s rejection from prejudiced environments pushes her to embrace what she was running away from all along at the end.

The African Spirit was my favorite element of the film as it really resonated with me as a Black former ballerina who often also felt out of place in similar environments. The African Spirit, played by Wunmi Olaiya, embraces traditional Nigerian culture and dance, and is consistenly depicted as being happy and smiling even when shes in the same predominently white spaces that Obe is in.

The film also seems to be ahead of its time. At the time, many movies surrounding black identity were very narrowly focused on the struggles resulting from systemic racism, not helping the perception that Black identity was strictly tied to struggle. In Flight of the Swan, while Obe faces the very real force of racism in her life, the story evidently has much more to do with assimilation and Obe leaving her home in Nigeria to seek places with closer proximity to whiteness.

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Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers. 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

He knew then that the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued. – Yaa Gyasi

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Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing revolves around two half-sisters in colonial Ghana, Effia and Esi, and their descendants, told from their perspectives as the slave trade splits them further apart and how their descendants eventually reunite.

Homegoing is one of my favorite books of all time, and I mainly like it due to the incorporation of the different perspectives of each family member. Each chapter represents the respective experiences of descendants of Effia and Esi, and I believe that in movie format, this could be a very strong element that would set it apart from many movies coming out today. 

On the online source myCast.io, media fans can submit suggestions for actors to play roles in their favorite series. On the myCast for Homegoing, the top suggestions for Effia and Esi are Diamond White and Yara Shahidi. The casting for the descendants is as follows: 

Richard Madden as James Collins, 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ness, 

Marcus Scribner as Quey, 

Kylie Bunbury as Maame, 

Octavia Spencer as Baaba, 

Don Cheadle as Cobbe Otcher, 

Shameik Moore as Marcus, 

and Mahershala Ali as Sam.  

While these casting choices seem good for the most part, I believe that a lot of the choices seem centered on Western actors, and there might be a better connection to the themes of the book if Ghanaian actors were cast. While successful movies like The Woman King, which centered on the impact of colonialism on West African nations, have a wide assortment of actors who are mostly from Britain and America, I am a firm believer in casting more unknown and accurate talent in movies to get a look that is as representative of the culture highlighted in the film as possible. I would also make sure that the actors cast phenotypically fit with the storyline, as some of these choices don’t seem like they fit with a story surrounding Ghanaian tribes and ancestry. 

Producing this potential film would be Viola Davis, as she has produced a lot of movies with Black relationships and history at the forefront, like The Help (2011), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020), and The Woman King (2022).

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 

I only know the stony plain, wandering, and the gradual loss of hope. I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct. Perhaps, somewhere humanity is flourishing under the stars, unaware that a daughter of its blood is ending her days in silence. There is nothing we can do about it. – Jaqueline Harpman

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Harpman’s novel contains a mystifying tale about a dystopian world where forty women are imprisoned in an underground bunker with no recollection of their pasts until one day, the guards leave, and they are freed. 

This novel’s myCast casts Thomasin McKenzie and Elizabeth Debicki as the narrator and her older self, respectively. The rest of the women in the bunker are also cast, with actors like Andie Macdowell, Keke Palmer, and Isabella Merced potentially playing Anthea, Rose, and Laura. 

The setting is one of the most intriguing parts of the story as it is constantly changing from the bunker at the beginning of the novel, the vast abandoned towns and mountainous areas that they go to, and the final house that the narrator lives in. While the group of women is traveling to see whether or not any other people survived, their surroundings are described very interestingly and remind me of America’s abandoned towns. A lot of these bunkers are described to have been in taverns and shops in the book, which often remind me of ghost towns and St. Elmo, Colorado, or Custer, Idaho, and they would serve as good filming sites because not only do they have a small population, which would make filming logistically easy, but they would also successfully portray the scenery well. 

I would want Denis Villeneuve, director of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Dune (2021), to direct this film, as he is very experienced with directing dystopian films. While I Who Have Never Known Men does not contain much action like Blade Runner 2049 and Dune, Villeneuve has multiple films like Incendies (2011) that include less action and more drama/emotional elements and production. 

Heatwave by Victor Jestin

Oscar is dead because I watched him die and I did nothing. – Victor Jestin

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Heatwave is about a French teenager, Leo, on a family vacation, where one night, he witnesses his acquaintance, Oscar, commit suicide. Instead of attempting to save him, he buries him after he stops breathing in the sand on the beach. Over the next 24 hours, he deals with the outcome of his actions and his overwhelming guilt. 

Directing this potential film would be Damien Chazelle, director of La La Land (2016) and Whiplash (2014). Chazelle would serve as a perfect director for Heatwave, as his films, specifically Whiplash, have very fast-paced yet clear and enticing narratives. He also employs dramatic color shifts that add a fun element to the plot. The cover of Heatwave itself evokes both the warm tones and particular images associated with summer, as well as dark shades of worry and regret. 

The novel takes place at a campsite in Landes, a popular vacation spot in the Southwest of France. The ins and outs of the campsite were a particularly important part of the story because Leo was essentially trapped in the campsite while figuring out his next steps. Le Saint Martin, a seaside campsite in Landes, would serve as an amazing potential filming site. 

I would cast Paul Kircher as Leo and Thomas Chomel as Oscar. These two are both French actors who have acted in roles in films that I enjoy, with Chomel in Parallels (2022) and Kircher in And Their Children After Them (2024), where he played a 14-year-old. While they are slightly above the age of the characters, they fit the role with Kircher embodying the awkward and Chomel embodying the youthful, alluring, and composed but vulnerable look.

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