Pictures from a Rebellious Premiere
Friday, October 9, 2015 at 8:00PM Here's Murtada on the opening night of the BFI London Film Festival.
The BFI London Film Festival opened Wednesday night with a gala premiere of Suffragette. Alongside stars Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter, protesters made their voices heard. The group Sisters Uncut chose this movie about suffragettes to protest the UK government’s recent cut of funds supporting victims of domestic abuse.
It was an apt choice and led to some interesting pictures. On the same red carpet the latest couture gowns mixing with color bombs and protest signs. Glamour and activism after the jump...
Romola Garai, Bonham Carter, Anne Marie Duff and Mulligan
The protesters got so loud that the movie’s star, Mulligan, acknowledged them while giving an interview on the red carpet saying “It’s so awesome”.
Of course that moment of empathy doesn’t erase the bitter taste that the very dumb marketing campaign for the film has left in the mouths of many. The cast - including liberal beacon Streep - posed in white T-shirts bearing the slogan, “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave,” for Time Out London.
The words are a quotation from a speech given British suffragist leader Emmeline Pankhurst, who is portrayed by Streep in the film. Unfortunately these words have different connotations to a modern audience, especially when you display them across a field of white women. How could everybody behind the movie and at the magazine miss that? Especially when their movie does not portray any women of color despite historical evidence they were part of the movement. It's again a case of those in power not even thinking of people of color. Rebecca Carroll in The Guardian had one of the smart responses.
Time Out London released an official statement that said in part :
The original quote was intended to rouse women to stand up against oppression - it is a rallying cry, and absolutely not intended to criticise those who have no choice but to submit to oppression, or to reference the Confederacy, as some people who saw the quote and photo out of context have surmised.
Hey we know the context and understand the intention. It's still dumb and tone-deaf. People of color are still invisible to many in the movie industry. I, for one, am glad these women made themselves visible and audible.
Do you think Suffragette's bumpy rollout will affect its Oscar chances? We're still eager to see it. You?
Reader Comments (20)
I agree, Murtada ...
"Hey we know the context and understand the intention. It's still dumb and tone-deaf."
If you know the context and the intention, then why is it dumb? I honestly don't get it. To me, the people who are outraged over this come across as ignorant .. and just over anxious to jump on the outrage bandwagon. People who are upset: Learn history. Educate yourself.
The word "slave" is not limited to the black American experience. This sort of ignorance and hypersensitivity is the antithesis of what the suffrage movement is trying to do.
I'm excited for the movie.
I think that the T-Shirt controversy is complete nonsense. Yeah, Rebel/Slave is unfortunate wording for U.S. audiences, and it makes for a funny gaffe, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. Obviously they had good intentions.
Here is the full Pankhurst quote -
I know that women, once convinced that they are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a woman alive to hold up the flag of rebellion. I would rather be a rebel than a slave.
The lack of representation of people of color in the film is a completely different issue though. It definitely happens in too many films. Can't be mentioned enough!
JEM -- i agree that some of the response has been oversized. people are easily outraged nowadays and willing to throw out important messages if it's not their cause that's being messaged. that said. lining up an all white cast in t-shirts with the word "slave" on them in a film without POC was surely something someone somewhere should have been like "this is maybe a terrible idea?"
I can't see this doing much Oscar wise.
Huh? The T-shirt nonsense was a mostly ignorant US-centric response and the protestors were a completely different group focused on British government cuts as I understand it. I have to agree with the poster above on this one, the outrage out of US-oriented ignorance is actually kind of embarrassing more than anything else. Not everything is about America all the time.
Much ado about nothing. The word 'SLAVE' can refer to ANYONE who is forced to do whatever another person orders them to. An African can be a slave to a White man, a Phillipino maid can be a slave to an Indian woman, an abused woman can be a slave to her abuser etc etc etc.
If the film omits black suffragettes then the director, producers and writers should be asked why that is so. The wonderful actresses posing in these t-shirts do not deserve criticism.
Seriously how could ANYONE criticise Meryl Streep for being a bigot or a misogynist?
Free the word Slave. It's for everyone, black or white.
I think the outrage is entirely overblown and frankly reeks of US-Centrism. We do not hold a monopoly (as Americans) over the English language, hence our offense over the word "slave", nor is our history everyone's history. I just really hope this faux outrage doesn't hurt the film when it opens, as it's an important story that needs to be told and it's one of the very few female-focused films to open this year with a female cast, director, producer, and writer (maybe the only one?)
I agree with all the others, it seems quite over blown, and very US centric.
I live in Canada and when I read the quote I didn't see the problem, does that make me a bigot?
Not everyone in the world immediately sees the words rebel/slave and reacts the way Americans do. I wish Americans would get over themselves.
The American reaction seems to be that they would rather ignore the whole point of the film.
That's real ignorance or denial, that and an American media trying to whip this up into something it's not.
I still believe this long awaited film on a subject that has virtually been ignored by Hollywood will find an audience. Oscar chances for Mulligan in particular will be unaffected.
US-centric? The US isn't the only country in the world where white people enslaved people of other ethnicities.
I had a very interesting debate with a friend over the t-shirt issue. The friend being American, I'm not.
May I point out the fault with the article is exactly the same my friend made
"Unfortunately these words have different connotations to a modern audience..."
No, this is not correct, these words have different connotations to a modern AMERICAN audience. As a non-American, (and a non-Brit, too) I can tell you that connotation was far from my first thought.
and then again, just above: "US-centric? The US isn't the only country in the world where white people enslaved people of other ethnicities."
Yes, that is true, but the US is the only country where this enslavement was done by the "Rebels".
Lets be honest - if you say Civil War to a Brit, they will probably think Oliver Cromwell not Abraham Lincoln
I don't think anyone is doubting that from an American Point of View, the t-shirts are shocking. But this was a BRITISH shoot, for a BRITISH magazine about a BRITISH film on a BRITISH subject.
It could be argued that it is not the Brits who are showing cultural insensitivity here, but those Americans who are insisting that the American Point of View is more important and supercedes any and everyone else's.
And it just goes to show you: it wasn't until Paul from Perth's comment above that I got the offending association of "rebels" with supporters of the Confederacy in the US Civil War. I was thinking about the "rebels" of the US Revolutionary War. D'oh. (And I'm an African American who thinks a great deal about the Victorian era in the US.)
What I found tone-deaf about the t-shirts was the implication that white Suffragettes were somehow "superior" to slaves. (I thought ...not intended...to reference the Confederacy was referring to the institution and defense of slavery, not the Civil War itself.)
"Lets be honest - if you say Civil War to a Brit, they will probably think Oliver Cromwell not Abraham Lincoln" - I'm guessing if you say Civil War to most "modern" Americans, they will probably think Captain America not Abraham Lincoln...
ouch. But given the state of education in this country, probably.
people who are enslaved have no choice in the matter, another reason why this t-shirt slogan was not a good idea. I don't think there was lots of outrage it was merely people pointing out it was dumb and that the film gained nothing by these T-shirts.
I understand why some say this is an American only issue. But it's not. I'm not American, still found this dumb.
As for Oscar chances, the movie was recieved warmly in UK so it's still in the running for at least BAFTA.
Didn't actually think of the Confederacy connotation at first--just thought immediately how dumb it is whenever white people describe themselves as "slaves." Yeahhhhh, no. Britain had slavery. Britain had legal racial discrimination, and apartheid in its former colonies. This response was not US-centric.
@bettestreep - clearly, no one is accusing her of that. That being said, no one, not even Meryl, is exempt from criticism of poor taste/choices.
What's quite undeniable is that the film somehow has now more attention than before. Hmmm...
I'm not sure if I have any right commenting on the issue, coming from a country that caused two world wars....
Everyone makes mistakes, even great actresses and if it's really that upsetting, I think she'll apologize.
When I first heard of the slave controversy I thought people considered it offensive because it was victim blaming those who do not have courage to be rebels (like victims of domestic abuse) Or that is how one site described the controversy I believe. So I did not understand this article at all first. So the controversy is about black people because... in America black people used to be slaves...unlike anyone else in the wold apparently...and so UK promotion of UK film that uses an old famous quote by an UK woman is offensive...?
This seems to be a big culture difference. I am from Europe and nobody thinks of black US slaves when referencing slavery. Even slavery in Roman Empire is more talked about subject and people often are referenced as slaves if they are oppressed. Of course this is outdated speech but this quote is old and old books that are famous and read still use this rhetoric and it is just considered hyperbolic. For example the song that should be the national anthem of my country Finlandia has lyrics (that are not as good as the song itself and were made later) that speaks of Finland of getting rid of slavery (meaning getting rid of oppression of Russia by gaining independence).
I did know that US people usually think slavery in US perspective but I did not know even the world salve can not be used without invoking it. Slavery has been going on around the word for thousands of years after all, it is not uniquely US or black experience. European people obviously were enslaved in Roman times, African and Middle-Eastern slave trade was thriving for until pretty recently in human history etc.
And obviously all films should have more poc, but this is a separate issue in my opinion. And I must say I do not know how people in the UK feel, I might be wrong that they are coming from the same place I am.
Anyway now I wonder if that thing I red about people being offended because word slavery was offensive to abuse victims was accurate or not...
chinosiserie -- i appreciate this. it is always important to remember that people things from different perspectives. I do think the US's US-centricism of all things is a huge problem in their perspectives and even in their outrage culture (which is a whole other issue because we rarely seem to get outraged by actual problems in the here and now that we could do something -- with some exceptions (like police brutality) -- and mostly about language or inferences or past scars)
I do think the idea that slavery only existed in the US and only affected blacks is a *really* ignorant strange idea and one that I fear a lot of US citizens actually believe -- unfortunately our education levels compared to other countries are sometimes dire.