Media Monday

Media Monday: Queer and Trans Artists of Color – Interviews by Nia King

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4659300I finally got around to reading through Nia King’s book “Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives” and I honestly could not love and recommend this book enough. There are so many honest and amazing stories from queer and trans artists of color who share their experiences of trying to or making it as an artist. The spectrum of jobs and experiences are amazing to read through and it’s refreshing to read through the stories told by the people living through them.

Not only that but Nia is a really great interviewer – each conversation always covers an amazing array of topics. And each conversation often talked about similar issues (struggling to make it as an artist, gender, sexuality, the person’s story) but reading through each interview still felt fresh and nothing seemed repetitive. In addition, every interview reads really organically (props to the co-editors for helping the words go from the way people talk to paragraphs and sentences that are easy to read).

One of the things that I also really love about this book is being able to read and understand the stories and beliefs of the artists in their own words. They are the ones controlling their own narratives and that is so often missing from mainstream media. (Hello lack of diversity in so many mainstream things.)

I also know how much work Nia has and continues to regularly put into this project – from getting other queer and trans people of color to write transcripts (and compensating for the work), to having the interviews in audio form, to getting a wide range of people with different backgrounds and art forms to talk with. Her book comes from the interviews she does on her podcast We Want the Airwaves and if you have the ability to, I definitely recommend supporting her work!

Media Monday: Aloha (the movie)

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Okay so full disclosure: I haven’t seen this movie and actively plan to avoid watching it for so many different reasons. Rather than reviewing then, I wanted to share the many criticisms that have been thrown at the movie over the past few weeks. These criticisms are incredibly important because many highlight the whitewashing nature of Hollywood and the tendency of the US to use the Hawaiian islands as some white person tourist spot.

One of the biggest criticisms to come out of the movie is the fact that one of the main characters is multiracial (Chinese/Hawaiian/Swedish if I remember correctly?) but is played by the very white actress Emma Stone. This is of course a huge problem because it helps to erase Asian Americans from the big screens, a diversity problem that repeatedly occurs for many people of color. There have been many critiques of Emma Stone’s casting, not because she is a terrible actress or anything like that but that people of color are regularly overlooked and underrepresented in the media (even in stories that are supposed to include/be about them). Some of the critiques include:

  • Emma Stone plays a part Asian character in ‘Aloha’ and that’s not okay
  • WTF ‘Aloha’: Why is Emma Stone Asian and Other Problems
  • I’m not buying Emma Stone as an Asian American in ‘Aloha’
  • ‘Aloha’ draws Accusations of Whitewashing Hawaii

There are more criticisms following the movie, including the fact that there are some native Hawaiians who disapprove of the movie’s title:

The concerns are based largely on a trailer that depicts a military-themed love-story that appears devoid of a genuine connection to Hawaiian culture.

…

“If you have a romantic comedy about the military in Hawaii … but a title that says ‘Aloha,’ I can only guess that they’ll bastardize the word,” said Walter Ritte, a Native Hawaiian activist on the island of Molokai. “They’re taking our sacred word … and they’re going to make a lot of money off of it.”

And it’s not just the casting and complete whitewashing of Hawaii that draw criticisms. One review from the Associated Press wrote about the incoherent story line, saying that even with a star studded cast:

…in execution, “Aloha” is a meandering, needlessly confusing cacophony of story, performance, and spiritual blather. Not only does it feel inauthentic, it’s often downright alien.

Overall, I haven’t heard any good things about this movie. And the reactions from Sony regarding the criticisms have also been really problematic. I’m definitely planning to avoid seeing the movie.

Media Monday: Web Series and YouTubers

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To be completely honestly, part of the reason I love web series is because I usually have the attention span slightly larger than a goldfish and the videos of web series tend to be the perfect amount of time before I move on to the next thing. So for this week, I thought I’d write about some of my favorite web series and regular Youtubers.

Ackee & Saltfish is a comedic web series that follows around the everyday interactions of two friends, Olivia and Rachel. There’s a short film in addition to the web series (for which the trailer is for above) that highlights more of the everyday experiences and conversations of two young black women raised in a quickly gentrified London.

Qraftish by Cristal is a (relatively) new part of the site Black Girl Dangerous and so far, only has a few episodes. But each episode takes on a different issue faced by Cristal, an 18 year old black queeringly.

The Peculiar Kind is a show I was introduced to by accident a few years ago and when I first found it, I watched all of the episodes on repeat for like two weeks. It’s a refreshing take on different aspects and issues of the LGBTQ+ community from mostly LGBTQ+ people of color.

WeHappyTrans is slightly different from the ones above but still so important. WeHappyTrans is a collection of videos of trans identified people talking about positive experiences they’ve had. And that’s exactly why I love it – the videos show a different side of the trans community, one of positivity and depth and context. It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the violence faced by trans individuals (which is an important aspect to remember and fight against) so having a place of a bunch of trans individuals talking about other aspects of their lives is so great. The one above is just one of many videos that exist for WeHappyTrans!

Kina Grannis is a beautiful singer who posts original songs and covers on YouTube. The video above is just one of many that she has posted on her channel and was made using stop motion and a ton of skittles! Her voice is so beautiful and generally, I love her covers significantly more than the original version. Plus, her own songs are just wonderful.

All of these videos are a few of the many that exist from not only the same people I’ve written about but just some of the numerous creative ventures that are currently out in the world.

(yet another belated) Media Monday: What We Do in the Shadows

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*trigger warning of blood, body gore in the movie and the videos I’ve posted*

Last week, I had the lovely pleasure of seeing the mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. The movie comes out of New Zealand, from one of the Flight of the Conchords duo Jemaine Clement, and follows around a few vampires that all live together in the modern world. The movie does center on vampires and a few other members of the undead nature so there is some horror/blood/body gore throughout the movie, just as a warning.

Where do I even begin with the things I love about this movie. The mockumentary style has been done so much over the past few years and can easily be done wrong but not here – the style works so well with the story and writing and is very well paced. The movie also brings this dry sense of humor to the extremely overdone vampire trope, allowing the movie to be funny rather than annoying. And there’s enough of a modern humorous twist to the characters and story that allows for this movie to be a refreshing parody than repetitive.

The characters are each hilarious and wonderful in their own ways, with the supporting cast of characters just as wonderful as the main trio. There is the massive downside that most of the cast are white men (with very very few exceptions of a few ladies and far fewer people of color in any regard). As a sidenote, I’ll eventually write about representation and how a lack of diversity within media is incredibly annoying but that’ getting slightly off topic for today. And the mockumentary style allows for some history and context of the vampires, giving each a little more humanity (if possible). Plus, the rivalry between the vampires and werewolves is yet another hilarious aspect of the movie.

Overall, I really liked this movie – it’s definitely a refreshing parody of the vampire genre and great use of the mockumentary style. I definitely recommend seeing it if you have the chance!

Media Monday: Agent Carter

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For this week’s media Monday, I thought I’d write about Marvel’s newest limited television series, Agent Carter. I know I talked about the Marvel Cinematic Universe a couple weeks ago but hey, thought I’d focus in a little more on Marvel’s latest production.

The setting of the show is post World War II New York City, with Agent Peggy Carter working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve and struggling to be noticed as an actual agent rather than the secretary her coworkers seem to think of her as. The eight episodes in this season follow a single overarching plot of Carter being asked by Howard Stark to work as a double agent and clear his name from accusations of treason.

I do love a few things about the show, most importantly being how the episodes follow an overarching plot and come out to be more like a long movie than a television show. I also love many of Peggy’s outfits (oh how I wish I could pull off and/or afford that wardrobe).

There is, of course, a lot to critique about the show – from the cast being almost completely white to an underdeveloped Peggy Carter to the writing focusing too much on the 1940s sexism and not at all on the racism of the time. H. Shaw-Williams wrote an article for ScreenRant about how the first (and possibly only?) season of Agent Carter should not be praised as a feminist triumph, articulating the phenomenon of stereotype threat and wrote that:

It’s a common problem that female characters – particularly in male-dominated genres – are obliged to be Strong Female Characters who carry a standard for their entire gender, while male characters get to just be characters. Peggy Carter doesn’t get to have personality flaws like Thor’s arrogance or Peter Quill’s dumb brashness, because she’s too busy trying to prove that women are just as good as men. The closest she comes to being flawed is crying over pictures of Steve Rogers and going through the five thousandth iteration of the “It’s dangerous to get too close to me,” superhero story arc.

And Peggy Carter is just that in her own show – a seemingly flawless character with almost no back story and the feminist messages of the show are more standard issue and simple 1990’s White Feminism than anything else. On one hand, it’s great that Marvel is (very) slowly starting to branch out from it’s usual lead demographic of attractive white men. But as Shaw-Williams points out, having a female lead is a rather low bar for something being praised as a triumph for feminism, one in which Agent Carter barely meets.

The show being hailed as a feminist triumph that it fails to live up to is not the only problem – the complete lack of diversity within the show is appalling, especially since it is set in New York City. Not only are most of the characters white, but many are white men. Ube Empress makes a ton of really great points regarding the incredible erasure and white washing of the time period done by the writers and producers of Agent Carter. Ube Empress makes the point that people of color existed during that time in a multitude of different careers, from actors to health professionals to lawyers and having people of color within the show would have been historically accurate. (With that note, we can have Captain America be an actual man made superhero but people of color can’t really exist in some capacity that same universe?! This seems to be a growing problem within sci-fi and fantasy – like Lord of the Rings, Frozen, etc. I mean, there were people of color in a variety of roles during that time, allowing for historical accuracy to actually be a thing with representation but still. If gamma radiation can turn Bruce Banner into the Hulk, I think we can handle more diversity in the characters and story lines without having to have historical accuracy.)

One of the great points that Ube Empress brings up is that:

It’s hard to understand why the writers didn’t think to include a single thing that indicated how race was playing a role in society at that time. Just imagine all of the POC who contributed to the war effort, only to return home to and be subjected to terrible wages, racial slurs, discrimination, hate crimes, and little to no government or legal protection. Imagine how that tension would influence the world around Peggy: the city, the thing she sees on TV and in newspapers, the conversations she overhears, the people she interacts with. Talking, thinking about, and/or seeing race would be unavoidable.

Ultimately, I want to like Agent Carter a hell of a lot more than I actually do because the show had incredible potential to be amazing but fell really short of an already low bar. And it’s important to keep critiquing and analyzing things that come out – blindly praising a production because it barely meets a few criteria won’t fix the rampant under representation, complete lack of diversity, and overall problematic nature of mainstream media.

Media Monday: Marvel Cinematic Universe

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There are plenty of things that I’m an absolute nerd for: Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Warehouse 13, Supernatural, and several others. I grew up reading and rereading Harry Potter (practically damaging a couple of the books because I read them so much) and read so many other fantasy/sci-fi books. Mugglecast (a podcast about Harry Potter) was the first podcast I ever listened to and I’m about halfway through knitting my own fourth doctor scarf.

But as nerdy as I was (and still am in so many ways), I never really got into comic books or the comic world. A part of it was no one I knew was into them so I never really had an introduction to them growing up. Another part was I really didn’t see comics being marketed to or being made for me – I didn’t fit into the stereotypical demographic of comic book nerds and going into a comic shop was intimidating. (Which I now realize is complete bs.)

My introduction to the Marvel universe really came from watching the Avengers in mid 2012. I had seen Iron Man and Iron Man 2 before watching the Avengers and knew some random things that bled through popular culture but a lot of the universe was very new to me. So watching the Avengers opened a completely new door for me. Since that summer, I’ve watched all three Iron Man movies, both Captain America movies, both Thor movies, Guardians of the Galaxy, a couple of the X-Men movies, the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and Agent Carter. (Although, I’m a little behind with Agent Carter unfortunately.) While I’m not big into comics still, there is so much I love about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and of course, so much I don’t like).

captain-america[GIF image of Captain America in the Avengers saying “I understood that reference”]

One of the things I do love about the cinematic universe is how the movies and shows tie into one another in subtle and not so subtle ways. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has several episodes that tie in with Thor: The Dark World, the Avengers, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Plenty of the movies reference/flash back to each other and rely on a single universe for context. The characters and stories exist in a world with each other. Marvel has created a world that is interconnected and complex and for me, there’s something so satisfying about how there is so much that ties in together. (Although, different studios working on different Marvel character movies makes the shared universe a bit more difficult.)

My least favorite thing about the Marvel cinematic universe (unsurprisingly) is the almost complete lack of diversity among the characters in the movies and shows. There are so many white men in the movies and shows and I just want to flip tables over every time I think about it. We have three Iron Mans, two Thors, and two Captain Americas that are all played by white men but god forbid Peter Parker might be black in a future movie?? (Fully on board for Donald Glover to play Peter Parker. The video below is from his stand up hour and he starts talking about #DonaldForSpiderman roughly a minute into it.) Or that there be more diversity and media representation in the movies and shows?!? Nerdy white boys aren’t the only people who love the comic book world – it’s definitely time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to follow the Marvel comics and have more representation. (Ms. Marvel movie maybe??) (And even the comics aren’t 100% great.)

Diversity and media representation is definitely not limited to just the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are so many shows and different media mediums that are so white washed and lacking in diverse/complex characters. And of course, a big corporate business like Marvel isn’t always going to get diversity and representation right.

Media Monday: Criticisms and Being a Fan of Problematic Media

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Trying to find media that isn’t problematic in some way can be difficult to find, particularly in any mainstream media. So for this week, I’ll be addressing some of the problematic aspects and different critiques of different things in the media. All of which are pretty nerdy and I would apologize for that but I’m definitely not sorry for it. (And some of the critiques will contain some general spoilers, just as a heads up.)

*This also ended up being so long with just two things so for now, I’m just going to stick with the two shows below.

The 2005 Reboot of Doctor Who

I only recently (in the scheme of things) started watching the new reboot of Doctor Who but I was instantly hooked after watching the first episode. However, the more I watched and the more the series progressed (particularly the last couple seasons under Steven Moffat), the more I realized how problematic the show is. There’s a tumblr called stfu-moffat that highlights some of the problems not only with Moffat’s work (and the man himself) but in other types of media as well. That same tumblr also has a list of problematic stuff from Doctor Who.

There was a university study done on the sexism within Doctor Who, highlighting the fact that under Moffat’s run, the show has been signficantly less likely to pass the Bechdal Test (and the writing is so poorly done). Characters in the earlier seasons are much more developed and actual characters than others later on. With Rose, Martha, and Donna, you get to know them as characters during their time. We met their families, they argue with the Doctor, we learn about their past. They have depth and yes they’re not perfect but they are characters filled with humanity and richness and equals to the Doctor.  Martha constantly proves her worth to be a companion to the doctor and to be a licensed badass in her own right. Donna is stubborn, opinionated, and constantly argues for the good to come from the Doctor.

But then we get to Amy Pond and River Song, both characters that revolve around the Doctor and his world. We know almost nothing about Amy, especially about anything other than Rory and the Doctor. Her stories all pertain to deciding between the two or are exceptionally defined by either and there’s not much to her outside the two of them. (And the entire story line about her pregnancy is so fucked up.) And while River is a stereotypical female badass, there’s not much to her either. All of her stories center on the Doctor in some way.

(Okay at this point, I’ve linked to the stfu-moffat tumblr several times… Really recommend reading through it. There are a lot of really good points about the direction that Doctor Who has gone since Moffat took over in 2010.)

There’s a list of some great feminist moments in Doctor Who, all of which I just love and are just a few in the series. That list was made by the tumblr Feminist Whoniverse, which reading through the first page or so, I like so far! There’s another tumblr called Whovian Feminism that I’ve seen around. Gah, there are so many really great reviews of the revived series of Doctor Who out there but I’ve rambled enough for now.

Welcome to Night Vale

I wrote about Welcome to Night Vale last week when I wrote about some of the podcasts I listen to and since then, I’ve read some critiques of the show, particularly regarding the Apache Tracker story arc and the creators’ complete dismissal of pretty much all critiques. A lot of the critique with this part of the podcast/Night Vale universe  that I have read (but are not the only ones) comes from idkunicornthings on tumblr, who has made it exceptionally clear that they do not want to engage with white WTNV fans so if you fall into that category, talk to me. Not them. There is one post that describes what initially happened but they also have many posts in their tag “the apache tracker saga” that highlights what happened, how the creators completely shut down any sort of discussion, and other things. Really recommend reading through those posts.

One HUGE issue with this whole thing (other than the problematic nature of how the story arc and character were written) was Joseph Fink’s response to the criticisms. He was incredibly dismissive of any criticism, especially from PoC fans, AND completely shut down any chance of a further discussion. That’s so frustrating to hear, especially since he presents himself (whether he does so intentionally or not) as this quirky anti-racist white person.

In the end, I constantly struggle with so many of the problematic aspects of the things I have some interest in. But being critical and being a fan should not be mutually exclusive – loving something in the media should not mean you accept every piece of it at face value with no critical analysis and accountability. Calling out bullshit and holding others accountable to their problematic behavior shouldn’t make you any less of a fan of something.

At the same time, I also struggle with still being a fan of problematic things and with the question of whether it’s okay as an activist/feminist to continue being a fan of problematic media. To be really honest, I don’t really have a definite answer to that. I do think it’s exceptionally important to critically analyze any type of media, particularly if you are a fan of it, and to hold creators of media (particularly creators of mainstream media) accountable to the bullshit they produce. There’s a post from the Social Justice League that discusses being a fan of problematic things and brings up some really good points, particularly to not excuse problematic aspects and natures of different things you might be a fan of. I also think it’s important to hold the creators/show runners of popular shows/media (like Steven Moffat and Joseph Fink) accountable to their fans and the mistakes they make.

Media Monday: Podcasts

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I love podcasts, partly because being an introvert with anxiety and depression means getting out of the house and interacting with others for extended periods of time can be really overwhelming. But also because there are so many podcasts that cover so many topics and interests that I usually end up learning a lot by listening. So for this Media Monday, here are some of my favorites.

  • Welcome to Night Vale: This is an twice a month podcast with community updates from the fictional (and strange) desert town of Night Vale. It’s told through a radio show, narrated by the character Cecil Palmer. There are announcements from the Sheriff’s secret police, mysterious hooded figures, angels, science, cultural events, sports, anything you might imagine for a community radio show (just a little weird).
    • I started listening to Welcome to Night Vale around a year and a half ago and was immediately hooked. It’s weird, spooky, Twilight Zone like, and is well written.
    • EDIT (Feb. 18th): Started reading some critiques of one of the WTNV character’s story arc (the Apache Tracker really) and realized how problematic and racist the entire thing was. And a big problem seems (to me) to be the fact that the creators (one in particular) are both white men and completely unwilling to have a discussion about what was wrong about that story line and character. There have been a few people to try to talk to them but the creators seem to continuously shut down the conversation, even though they seem to be adamant about being anti-racist.  I’m exceptionally disappointed in the creators for this.
      • Currently planning on writing up another post with more information (particularly some of the points of how the Apache Tracker story is problematic/racist) in the next couple days. Just want to make sure I get everything right…. And will probably email the creators with that as well.
  • Stuff You Should Know and Stuff You Missed in History Class: Both of these podcasts come from the website How Stuff Works and are incredibly informative and educational. They cover a wide range of topics, usually covering one topic in a single episode, with the occasional two part topic. I’ve been listening to both of these podcasts off and on for a few years, usually just listening to the topics I find interesting. (I just listening to the SYSK one on Charles Darwin and really liked it!)
  • Women of Marvel: I just recently found this one and started listening to it but so far, I really love it. A lot of the episodes (that I’ve listened to) have been discussing what working at Marvel is like, discussing different female characters in the Marvel universe, and there was an entire episode about San Diego Comic Con and cosplay (which I loved listening to!). I’m just starting to really get into the Marvel universe by watching the recent movies (Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers, etc) and television shows (Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) but listening to this podcast is really making me want to pick up some of the comic books.
  • We Want the Airwaves: This podcast is hosted by Nia King and each episode is an interview of different queer and trans artists (usually people of color as well). King’s own description of the podcast is: “Nia King’s trying to figure out if her dream of making a living as an art activist is beyond reach. In this podcast, she seeks advice from other political queer artists, trans artists, and artists of color who seem to have figured out how to make art and make rent without compromising their values.”
  • Gendercast: This podcast hasn’t really been updated recently but the past episodes are still really good. It’s hosted by Sean and Jesse and “is a podcast exploration of gender and what is means to live in, challenge and exist beyond the binary. It is a conversation between all those who identify along the transmasculine spectrum and our allies and supporters. It is a commentary on our culture and a reflection on where we have come from and where we are headed.”

Movie Monday – The Imitation Game

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With an unlimited supply of free time (thank you unemployment) and a seemingly longer list of movies I have yet to see, I’ve decided to start doing a regular feature here on Contagious Queer – Movie Mondays. At least once a month (and hopefully more than that), I’m going to start watching and reviewing movies. I guess the true start of this was with my review of Selma coming out last Monday but hey. Anyway, this time I’ll be discussing The Imitation Game.

The movie is mostly set during World War II and follows the work of Alan Turing and others on breaking the code of the German Enigma machine. There are flashbacks to Turing’s time in school and his time at Bletchley Park is told by Turing to a police officer when he’s arrested in 1951 for “gross indecency” because he was a gay man. He later died in 1954 from cyanide poisoning, which had been ruled a suicide.

If you remove all expectations that the movie will be historically accurate and anything other than completely sensationalized by Hollywood, then the movie is pretty decent. I knew very little about Turing and his work before seeing the movie for the first time and initially found most of the story to be gripping and emotional. The movie is good for the most part but once I started to reflect and read more about Turing, there are some things that didn’t quite sit well with me. And it’s not that Alan Turing’s life was boring in any sort of way but there’s just something about the movie that didn’t seem quite right for me as an audience member. Joe Morgenstern put it well in his review of the movie for the Wall Street Journal by saying that:

“It’s a marvelous story about science and humanity, plus a great performance by Benedict Cumberbatch, plus first-rate filmmaking and cinematography, minus a script that muddles its source material to the point of betraying it. Those strengths make the movie worth seeing, but the writing keeps eating away at the narrative’s clarity—and integrity—until it’s impossible to separate the glib fictions from the remarkable facts.”

If you like historical accuracy, I definitely recommend reading Christian Caryl’s review of the movie for The New York Review (“A Poor Imitation of Alan Turing”). Actually I recommend reading this regardless; Caryl points out the ways in which the movie fails to capture the actual nature of the story and of Turing himself. It was reading this review that really made me rethink what I thought of the film, including how the film treated Turing’s relationship with his childhood crush (which seemed exceptionally overdone and exaggerated).

Ultimately, if you’re able to divorce historical accuracy/expectation and realize that the movie is done well enough by Hollywood standards, then I recommend seeing it. (Do be ready for a completely white cast though.) And I did appreciate the fact that the movie highlighted the fact that there were thousands and thousands of gay men who were prosecuted and criminalized for being gay in Britain. But having seeing The Imitation Game twice now, I might passively see it again in the future but I’ll probably just pick up one of his biographies if I want more of Alan Turing in my life.

Movie Monday: Selma

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About a week and a half ago, I went to go see Selma and thought it was really well done. Michael Darer on HuffPo does a significantly better job reviewing the movie than I ever could (found here).

For those who don’t know, the movie follows the events leading up to and during the march from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL in 1965 to protest the voting laws that kept many black people from being able to vote. There was a ton of stuff in the movie that I had no idea had happened, including the first march ending in 600 unarmed marchers being attacked by troopers with billy clubs and tear gas. (This first march was called Bloody Sunday because of the attacks.) After another attempt to march (that hadn’t ended in violence) and obtaining federal protection, the third march started on March 21st and successfully ended at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25th, 1965. The Voting Rights Act was passed by Congress that year.

Before going to the show, I was aware of one criticism the movie had – that the movie portrayed President Johnson as not supportive of the voting rights cause. But honestly, I didn’t really see that in the film; instead, I saw the portrayal of President Johnson as supportive but more concerned about the timing of passing a federal voting rights act. (Which as far as I know, is historically accurate??)

One of the many things I liked about how the movie was done was the occasional text from the FBI surveillance that was on Martin Luther King, Jr. and it was through this movie that I learned that J. Edgar Hoover had an incredible amount of hatred towards MLK. The FBI kept Martin Luther King under incredibly intense surveillance after the March on Washington and his “I have a Dream” speech. Although I’m unfortunately not surprised, this intense surveillance was definitely something that I learned about during the movie.

There were clear parallels between Selma and Ferguson and when the movie was first released, there were protests outside of many theaters highlighting the demands and beliefs of the movement. Some include:

  • Political accountability for the death of Micheal Brown Jr.
  • End over-policing and the criminalization of poverty
  • The right to protest
  • Pass the national “End Racial Profiling” legislation

(All of these and the rest can be found on Ferguson Action, thedemands.org, and Selma Sound Off. Definitely recommend looking through those websites.)