How ‘Passing’ Upends a Problematic Hollywood History - podcast episode cover

How ‘Passing’ Upends a Problematic Hollywood History

Nov 18, 202132 minEp. 35
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

Hollywood has a long history of “passing movies”—films in which Black characters pass for white—usually starring white actors. Even as these films have attempted to depict the devastating effect of racism in America, they have trafficked in tired tropes about Blackness. But a new movie from actor-writer-director Rebecca Hall takes the problematic conventions of this uniquely American genre and turns them on their head. Hall tells the story of how her movie came to life, and how making the film helped her grapple with her own family’s secrets around race and identity.

A transcript of this episode is available. 

Further reading: Netflix’s ‘Passing’ Is an Unusually Gentle Movie About a Brutal Subject

Apply for The Experiment’s spring internship. Applications will be accepted through November 29, 2021.

Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at [email protected].

This episode was produced by Tracie Hunte and Peter Bresnan with help from Alina Kulman. Editing by Emily Botein, Julia Longoria, and Jenny Lawton. Special thanks to B.A. Parker. Fact-check by Will Gordon. Sound design by David Herman with additional engineering by Joe Plourde. Transcription by Caleb Codding.

For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android
Open in Metacast
How ‘Passing’ Upends a Problematic Hollywood History | The Experiment podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast