Far too often, Black and other Film/TV crew members of color often hear a variation on trite excuse, “We keep hiring this white person because there aren’t a lot of [insert specific POC identifier here] directors, producers, cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, editors, etc.!”
There were never any wanted signs outside the police academy or candlelight vigils in suburbia. The four police officers who shot and killed Amadou Diallo in his doorway 21 years ago were acquitted. One of them, Kenneth Boss, eventually got his gun back and earned a promotion.
The Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP) will fund 25 projects — including film, theater, photography, poetry, music, sculpture and dance — over the next two years through DuVernay’s Array Alliance nonprofit.