the photos began to pile up, I decided to showcase a selection of my best ones in a photography book named Distance. It’s a 24-page hardback zine which features fourteen photos and a double-page poem called The Light in the Dark which was written by Milly Hitcham. Sold for £12.99, 100% of the profits are being donated to NHS Charities Together, and for every order £1 will be donated to support Black Lives Matter. The book is available for pre-order and will end mid-July.
Kai-Yan Lai Distance My interest in the film industry began in 2016 when a short film of mine won a Young Creative Award for Best Film in the 14-16 age group. This led me to do work experience with Skeleton Productions and LeftLion, which eventually developed into a freelancing job filming events like Hockley Hustle, Beat the Streets and even having a small role in Lord of Milan. During the same year I was offered the opportunity to go to Rome to film a corporate video for Rushcliffe Borough Council as part of a collaborative project with Young Network Group. By then I knew working in film was what I wanted to do as a career, and so I kept on networking and developing my skills. I am now studying BA Film at Middlesex University, London, where I am focussing on specialising in Cinematography.
Since returning from University, I’ve also finished a short film I wrote and directed named Dancing in the Dark, which features some local actors. It sees a young couple’s car break down in a car park and as they wait for help from a close friend, they begin to realise there's more to one character than it seems. It will be released late this year after its festival run – it’s already been chosen for the Official Selection of London Liftoff. kaiyanlaifilms.wixsite.com/book @kaiyanlalai
Two weeks ago I was in the park with a six-yearold friend when she said to me: “Ahinee, you know you should never go to America.” I asked her why, “Because you are black and I am black and they keep killing black people.” I explained to her they are not killing all black people, and that there’s just a few racist and prejudiced people around. Her older sister then turned to me and said, “I don’t get it, people are just people.” She is ten years old. I told them most humans are good, there are just a few crazy ones. I thought it was beautiful to see the rainbow of humanity come out and protest. I saw people from Asia, India, and many white people as well as black. The first thing that came into my mind after hearing that George Floyd died after apparently using a fake $20 bill was to put his portrait on one, using an ordinary biro pen and then placed on the $20 note using Photoshop. On the note, I have included some words from a poem I wrote. The letters and numbers all represent facts about his life: birth date, date of death, the minutes that the police officer had his knee on his neck. He is wearing a kente cloth which is a traditional African print from Ghana. I watched a documentary about Nina Simone called What Happened, Miss Simone? She was part of the civil rights movement and struggled a lot with the racism in America, but she dated and married white men too. The reference to the United Snakes of America was from this documentary – it gave me the idea for the third dollar design. I have coloured the White House with blood, for the bloodshed not only of African Americans but the Native Americans too. All
Screen co-Editor George White explores the problem of underrepresentation in cinema... There has rightly been a lot of emphasis on the importance of diversity in recent weeks, and in this regard, Hollywood certainly needs to shape up. For too long, white men have run the show in front of the camera and behind the scenes. While things may have shown signs of improvement in recent years, now is the time for films to more accurately reflect the audience that consumes them.
Only 9% of film roles were filled by black actors in 2017, 68% lower than the figure for white people
When lockdown measures were announced I had just returned from London. Knowing the film industry would suffer greatly, I wanted a way of continuing my skills behind the camera. I would go on my daily exercise and take photographs of my surroundings through different perspectives. As
Naa Ahinee Mensah George Floyd triptych
Hollywood’s Diversity Problem
the anguish, the rape, the lynching, the killing, the slavery is what has made America what it is today. The White House depiction dollar is obvious I think. I made the White House the Black House, because it is the slavery of the black people that built America. facebook.com/Naa.Ahinee.Mensah
Looking at filmmaking statistics is always sobering as far as equal representation is concerned – in that there is very little equality whatsoever. Only 9% of film roles were filled by black actors in 2017, 68% lower than the figure for white people. Even worse, only nine of the top 1,200 highest-grossing films between 2007 and 2018 were directed by women of colour, equating to just 0.0075%. Such shocking figures emphasise how little Hollywood is supporting diverse storytelling, and this needs to change. Film critic Helen O’Hara sums up why studios are so reluctant to support BAME directors, saying: “There’s been a long-standing belief that diverse filmmaking doesn’t sell. There are all of these very toxic myths that happen to benefit white men, and the problem is that there have been so few examples to say otherwise that it's quite hard to rebut those myths.” Despite the disheartening statistics though, Helen believes there is cause for hope. “I think we're getting to the point now where we've got a handful of these counterexamples. We've got Black Panther, we’ve got Moonlight,” she says, “so I think we're beginning to take those kinds of myths apart.” The push for more equal representation in Hollywood is absolutely vital. Now is the time to take these myths apart with greater conviction and bring diverse storytelling to the fore.
words: George White
