Our creators lose their freedom

A few weeks ago, director Barry Avrich caused a storm by declaring that you don’t have to be black to write black stories.

The director who just won a screen award for his documentary Oscar Peterson: Black + WhiteHowever, he wanted there to be more films and series about black people. He said, “There are so many dark stories that, no matter who tells them, they must be revealed!” »

The reaction was not long. All those crowds and scribbles in the world of English-speaking audio-visual, which are clearly increasing and wicked, condemned the unlucky director with one voice. Where was this crazy head to make such a light statement?

Didn’t he know that “cultural appropriation” “officially” ended in Canada on Wednesday 4 July 2018, the day the Montreal International Jazz Festival abruptly concluded Robert Lepage and Betty Boniface’s SLĀV, after a small group of glorified ones emerged? In an era of extreme political correctness, the Canadian Film and Television Academy was quick to put Avrich down.

Even Celine Peterson, daughter of the famous Gazman, said that the strong response to Avrich’s insulting comments reassured her. In the days that followed, the director had to publicly slap his guilt. He promised that he would now devote himself to outright support for black creators and all other underrepresented creators.

End white privileges!

In the current state of things, there is no longer any chance for a white director or artist to imagine a screenplay or show related to blacks, and, by extension, indigenous peoples. Now our creators who offer the physical characteristics historically associated with the European population know that the doors of Technical Councils, Telefilm, NFB, Radio-Canada and all aid organizations are doubly closed to them. Projects include black or indigenous people.

but that is not all. Their chances of getting supported in stories that matter only to whites are much better if they have the intelligence to integrate into their teams or be cast by a few black or indigenous, disabled or LGBTQUIA+. Thus they can earn valuable points from aid organizations.

Like a criminal record

Be careful, you don’t have to play at its best. Because she could not prove her Algonquin descent from Ketigan Zibe to Manyiwaki without a doubt, director Michelle Latimer was forced to quit the series. a fraud It succeeded in causing pain and misery. The series was promptly canceled by CBC despite the success of the first season. The director’s mistake was unforgivable and “the sea passed through it without washing the spot,” in the words of Alfred de Musset. For more than two years, the unfortunate, as far as I know, did not work again, as she pulls out her fatal mistake like a criminal record.

Our authors and artists are now walking on eggshells, whether it’s white or black. The aid organizations without which they will not be able to express themselves are gradually weaving a web around them that ends up suffocating them. For all their good intentions, the rules they impose on our creators will end in sterilization like those suffered by creators in totalitarian regimes.