Now that I'm more than halfway through my first year at college, I've seen more films, learned more about film as an art, and, most importantly, learned more about the people whose cinematic works have historically been erased, ignored, and/or not taken seriously. As a self-proclaimed "film buff", I absolutely consider it my responsibility to explore a wide scope of filmmakers, actors, screenwriters, editors, etc.-- and that means having to do a little searching sometimes. I've found myself more often than ever lingering on the "woman directors" Wikipedia page or the "Native American actors" Wikipedia page, each time realizing that I recognize only a few names, and that to some people the entire list will appear to be full of "unknowns".
When we live in a society that is still so deeply white-supremacist-capitalist-ablist-transphobic-homophobic-biphobic-neuroatypical ignoring-fatphobic-xenophobic-patriarchical-ageist-the list goes on and on and on, being on a list that is simply called "directors" or "actors" is a privilege. Being an artist whose merit is not constantly questioned because of whatever "others" you is also a thing of privilege.
Thus, I'd like to tell anyone who sees my pursuit of watching the works as "affirmative action" or "white liberal guilt" to take a hard look at the film industry, its place in the kyriarchy and the effect of those two things on hir own tastes.
