What Do Recent Blockbuster Films Starring Asians Mean for Arab Americans?
By: Maddie Rule/Arab America Contributing Writer
This summer, there were several movies that took pop culture by storm. But nothing got people talking quite like the debuts of Crazy Rich Asians and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. While both were late-summer Rom Coms based on popular books, their main point of overlap was in their casting. Both films cast Asian-Americans in leading roles, and Crazy Rich Asians starred the first all Asian-American cast since The Joy Luck Club hit theaters 25 years ago.
The films got generally positive reviews as far as movies went, but the true conversation revolved around the diversity of the cast. Many Asian-Americans weighed in after seeing the films, talking about what it was like to see themselves represented on-screen, sometimes for the first time.
“When I watch these films, I get extra emotional,” said lifestyle Youtuber and blogger Aileen Xu. “Not just because the films are actually good…but just to see someone Asian on screen in a lead role, someone who’s a love interest…I cried so much because it was the first time I’d seen the Asian girl be the girl that the boys like, and be that main character that I’ve always wanted to be.”
Asian-American model Chrissy Teigan took to Instagram to talk about the moment her young daughter Luna recognized someone who looked like her grandmother on screen. “[Luna] looked up at @constancewu’s mother and yelled “yāy!” (“Grandma” in thai) because she saw someone who looked like her yāy. Someone beautiful and aspirational. It was something that simple that made my heart just…warm.”
These films and the discussions that followed their release highlight the importance of diversity and representation in popular media. But they also raise the question of what this breakthrough for Asian Americans means for other American minorities, including Arab Americans.
The statistics are sobering. Despite the increased focus on diversity in Hollywood in recent years, UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report found that as of 2017, minorities are still outnumbered nearly 3 to 1 among film leads, 3 to 1 among film directors, and nearly 5 to 1 among film writers. For Arab American, the story is particularly frustrating. They are rarely even considered in diversity statistics, getting roped in under the “White” category and forgotten about. Arab American characters and stories are often overshadowed by stereotypes and American politics.
However, not everything is as bleak as it sounds for Arab Americans in the media. Jenny Han, the author of the book To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, says that the key to increased diversity in a film is encouraging minority creators. “[This recent] shift happened because there are more creators of color who are telling their stories,” Han says. “When you have that, you have someone who is really invested in seeing the story told the way that they imagined it.”
So how do you go about encouraging those minority creators? Enter the Hani Farsi Graduate Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund was founded by Hani Farsi, a Saudi-Egyptian entrepreneur, in partnership with the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television (UCLA TFT) in 2015. It provides four-year, fully-funded graduate scholarships for UCLA TFT’s Master of Fine Arts in Directing in order “to give voice to the unique perspective of Arab women.” The fund is part of a larger program called Arab Women Filmmakers, the goal of which is to increase the representation of Arab women in the world of film.
“We want these scholarships to be a catalyst, to capture the imaginations of future filmmakers, and to inspire them to reach their goals,” said Farsi. “This partnership with the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television represents the first step in a call to action, which we hope will lead to a positive change for women in the film industry and in my part of the world.”
Lebanese film director Nadine Labaki highlighted the truly life-changing effects of this scholarship. “This scholarship will allow women…from a certain milieu who before that couldn’t even dream of learning [film], who couldn’t dream of this opportunity.” If anyone knows what it takes to make it as an Arab woman in a film, it’s Labaki. She made history at Cannes this past May as the first female Arab director to win a major prize in the competition. Her film Capharnaum received the Jury Prize for its emotional depiction of the lives of Lebanon’s street kids.
The first three recipients of the scholarship were announced by Farsi himself at Cannes in May 2015. While he declined to reveal their names, the three women include a Palestinian living in the UAE, a Syrian who lives in Qatar, and a Lebanese woman from Beirut. The women began their studies in September 2015, and are scheduled to complete them this fall.