Cannes Film Festival a Continued Source of Racism

Despite the progress that has been made in the U.S. in representation of minorities in the film industry, it seems that it's still the same old elitist "old boys club" at the Cannes film festival (the supposed center of world cinema, but that's for another day).

African-American film critic Valerie Complex from Deadline Hollywood recently wrote about the mistreament she experienced while reporting from the recent edition of the (in)famous French film festival:

"On May 16, the first day I got there, I made my way to the American Pavilion when I was again “randomly” stopped by security. Their reasoning: I had a large bag with me. But everyone else had large bags as well. You would think Interpol was searching my bag as security dumped its entire contents onto the table so they could examine the items and check every crevice of my bag. Even passersby were shocked by what they saw.

The scrutiny of my credentials was constant, especially at screenings in the Palais. Guards and personnel would put my ID up to my face to ensure it was me, even before scanning it. I didn’t see anyone around me treated this way. Once when I attended a premiere screening at the Debussy theater, I headed toward the reserved seated section as those seats were what was printed on my ticket. Every seat usher requested to see my seat number the closer I walked to the front of the orchestra.

I saw plenty of white moviegoers who came in with me, walking toward the same area without anyone checking their tickets. When I finally got to my seat, I looked around me and didn’t see any folks of color in or around the rows directly near me. Maybe this is why? At another premiere screening, I sat down in a reserved row, and three different seat ushers came over to my seat to check my ticket to make sure I was in the proper place. They weren’t checking anyone else’s tickets, just mine.

These types of things happened to me daily. I tried not to let it get to me, but it was taking place so often that I became depressed. When you review a film, you want your focus to be on what is on the screen and nothing else. It was hard to dismiss the emotions of being singled out like this.

I understand the dynamics. Marginalized groups, specifically Black people, are excluded from these “elite” environments. Those in power refuse to accept that the media landscape is changing. The higher one climbs, the more egregious the microaggressions become. It is attributable to gatekeeping, where there remains a misunderstanding of what being established looks like. It’s hard for some to believe that I could be sitting in the reserved section of a premiere at the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière, which is usually occupied by people who don’t look like me. That in itself becomes an unflattering reflection of the festival."