The awesome Taylor Lorenz reports this on Mastadon. Highly recommend to follow her if you like these updates about what’s going on.

  • Tb0n3
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    -3711 months ago

    But why though? Why the insistence on portraying people in documentaries or biographies as someone completely different? Why not do a biography on a black dude or black lady who can be played by such instead of trying to change the race of historical figures for fun?

    • @WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Holy shit man. That joke was strapped into a car, stuck on a rocket, and blasted so far over your head it’s circling the sun.

    • @Shikadi
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      1011 months ago

      People don’t generally do that. If you’re referring to Hamilton, it was not a documentary or a biography. And historically white people did that all the time in plays/movies for entertainment, so why get all angry about it now that it’s not white people?

      • @ThoughtGoblin@lemm.ee
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        111 months ago

        I mean, if we’re talking Hamilton it’s even further, being pretty clearly a commentary on the whole “founding fathers freeing everyone while most of them owning human beings they refused freedom to” thing.

        • @Shikadi
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          111 months ago

          I brought up Hamilton because it’s particularly not a documentary

          • @PreachHard@lemmy.world
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            511 months ago

            Actually reading that article you linked it doesn’t seem that debated and there isn’t really any evidence of her being black.

            • @Shikadi
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              011 months ago

              You’re right, based on that article. It doesn’t matter, I’m just pointing out that it wasn’t just a random choice to make her black. I’d argue they should have made her Iranian to be more accurate, but the claim is that people are randomly just changing skin colors in documentaries all willy nilly and so far the only example is a weak one.

              • @PreachHard@lemmy.world
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                211 months ago

                Yeah you’re right, it’s one of those small complaints that’s gonna always come from a small group of people. It’s just media; people get so nuts about this site like everything should always cater to them…

                Gets weaponised too I’ve seen people try to link this bullshit to “wokeism.” As if that’s the fucking problem with Hollywood.

      • Tb0n3
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        -311 months ago

        Queen Cleopatra is a very recent example.

          • @maynarkh@feddit.nl
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            11 months ago

            From the article you linked it seems that historians by and large agree she was of Greek descent with a bit of Persian ancestry, and a bunch of laypeople are heavily debating them on it.

            • @Shikadi
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              111 months ago

              I didn’t say they were right, just that it was a bad example because they didn’t just do it out of the blue for no reason

    • Square Singer
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      211 months ago

      Well, it’s not the biography of whoever is going to play him either, hence the only authentic choice would be him being played by himself.

    • fiat_lux
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      111 months ago

      Nobody seemed to mind when the History Channel docuseries FDR came out with a British actor without a mobility disability as FDR.

      Why is it that the series produced by an black female actor starring a black female actor needs such stringent accuracy controls?

      • Tb0n3
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        -111 months ago

        Never heard of it. How many alien conspiracies does it contain?