
Where are all the films about poor Americans? - pmoriarty
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/05/film-poverty-america-policy-oscars
======
allthenews
When did people lose sight of the fact that the primary purpose of film on the
silver screen is entertainment?

Where do authors like OP get the idea that I want to go to the movies to have
politics shoved down my throat? And that there is some kind of obligation for
those in charge to forgo their primary motivations of artistic expression
and/or profit in the interest of some totally arbitrary target of
"representation" of every combination of color, gender, and socioeconomic
status?

Not to mention, this kind of thinly veiled political grandstanding in the
context of film review is almost always cherry picking. There have been plenty
of films examining poverty from numerous perspectives. The fact that they are
not en vogue now does not speak of some kind of crisis-just like people
clamoured over Black Panther as the first positive representation of blacks on
screen, while conveniently ignoring decades of black cinema.

Outrage is the kind of thing, in my opinion, that is trivial to find, if you
look hard enough.

~~~
madenine
The last paragraph of the piece kinda struck me:

"And perhaps if others saw more realistic portrayals of poverty in the movies,
they might be more receptive to programs that would help them instead of
demeaning and punishing them."

I would love an example where 'realistic portrayals' of a given subject in
movies led to changes in public policy / public perception.

If anything, I would argue that popular films, just like other art forms, are
more likely to serve as a barometer of society's perception/reception of a
given subject than as something that ignites the change.

Take the war in Vietnam in the 60's and 70's - I'm not sure you could make
'The Deer Hunter' in '68, or 'The Green Berets' in '78.

Or the war on drugs - movies like Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream, or
Traffic certainly showed a realistic side of drugs and addiction... and yet
the war on drugs has only intensified since their popular releases.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" I would love an example where 'realistic portrayals' of a given subject in
movies led to changes in public policy / public perception."_

I'm not sure if it's really fair to expect such movies, which are a tiny
minority of all movies made, to have such a disproportionate impact on policy,
especially considering that they're usually ignored or even actively despised
by the media and the powers that be.

I don't know of specific examples in film, but some books have had such
impact. _The Jungle_ [1] and _Silent Spring_ [2] come to mind.

Film is a relatively young media, and its full potential is unlikely to be
realized for decades if not centuries. Give it some time. I'm optimistic that
truly moving and motivating films will arrive.

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_jungle#Federal_response](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_jungle#Federal_response)

[2] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_spring#Impact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_spring#Impact)

------
SoylentOrange
Some recent examples:

\- Florida project

\- 3 billboards outside Ebbing Missouri

\- La La Land (to a degree)

\- Manchester by the Sea

\- Straight Outta Compton

\- Creed

2015 and more recent, set in the USA, nominated for awards at Oscars,
protagonist is poor

~~~
mdpye
"Protagonist is poor" doesn't come close to what they are advocating. From the
article:

 _Take The Same Kind of Different As Me, a movie that presents itself as being
about a homeless black man, but is most interested in a rich white couple and
the way their volunteerism at a soup kitchen saves their marriage, and their
souls._

The protagonist being a caricature of a poor person doesn't make the film an
insightful or interesting examination of poverty. Or even about poverty. That
takes much more. It's more or a challenge, more of a risk, and when done well
(see Florida Project) a much greater potential reward.

------
leg100
For me, an entertaining film says something about reality, life, something
meaningful, and done so in such a way it makes the most of what you can do
with that medium. I wouldn't expect anything other from an entertaining novel,
say.

Of course the crap coming out of Hollywood does say something about reality,
that there is no hope left other than wish fulfilment, to hope that a saviour
will come and save us all in the form of a superhero; or that the only hope
for yourself is to get rich or for fortune to be bestowed upon you; or
something else utterly implausible. But I've heard that story a million times,
it's dull.

------
olivermarks
Hollywood has always been all about escapism. In the 1930's - the golden era
of film - most of the offerings were aspirational and inspiring, not Grapes of
Wrath gloom and doom, which was a lot of people's actual daily experience.

There's a reason the mainstream entertainment doesn't make non fantasy films -
it's because they are a for profit business and there's no money in it.

The recent Churchill film, which was very loosely based on reality and flat
out wrong in many areas was all about triumph over adversity etc. There's a
good argument to made about fantasy films supposedly depicting actual
historical events and people distorting mass reality. That's where my beef is
with hollywood...

~~~
stevenwoo
Enforcement of the Hays Code was responsible for weird trends in the movie
industry for a long time, starting in the 1930's - American movie makers
actually made successful movies about darker subjects and had more women in
leading roles until that point.
[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=933011...](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93301189)

~~~
olivermarks
I'm cynical enough to think any publicity is good publicity, whether it was
the 'moral quagmires' of the 30's that resulted in the Hays Code or the
current hysteria about predatory sex monsters, which is very reminiscent of
the 30's IMO.

All about rear ends on seats, whatever it takes to keep the punters buying
tickets, popcorn and drinks (the latter two being immensely profitable...)

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dluan
Last year's Palme dOr at Cannes was the British film _I, Daniel Blake_. It was
a fantastic gut punch for how even well-intentioned technology is leaving
behind parts of society. My partner and I had a very heated 2 hour discussion
after watching it.

~~~
DanBC
_I, Daniel Blake_ has absolutely nothing to do with technology and people
being left behind.

It's entirely about the fucking awful mess caused by the Conservative
government introducing Universal Credit and a punitive benefits regime.

Being fully tech proficient won't prevent a Universal Credit claimant from
being sanctioned.

Daniel Blake has heart problems and is advised by his doctor not to work. But
he fails his independent medical.

Here's a real life example: A man with heart problems was told not to work. He
has the medical. He has a heart attack _during the medical_ , and the
independent assessor has to call an ambo.

To you or me this is proof he's not faking and he really is ill.

To the government he didn't complete the medical, which is a sanctionable
failing.

[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm13...](https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130319/debtext/130319-0002.htm#column_839)

> Again, I support the principle of a sanctions regime. If somebody
> consistently fails to turn up for work experience or a Work programme
> scheme, sanctions should be applied. However, I believe that sanctions are
> being applied indiscriminately. For example, one of my constituents was a
> beneficiary of employment and support allowance after they had retired on
> grounds of ill health as a result of a heart problem. He was required to
> attend a work capability assessment with Atos. During

> 19 Mar 2013 : Column 840

> the assessment, he was told that he was having a heart attack and the nurse
> said that she had to stop the assessment. He got a letter a couple of weeks
> later saying that he had withdrawn from the assessment and, as such, was
> being sanctioned. That beggars belief. I have other examples, as I am sure
> do colleagues.

~~~
dluan
I mean, in a way the benefit system is a well-intentioned technology. And the
austerity measures that led up to brexit were constraints on the design, that
more or less broke the benefit system for edge case users.

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nafizh
'The Wire', though not a movie, was implicitly about American poverty in a
drug ecosystem, and predominantly black.

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meri_dian
The premise of this article is wrong. There are many movies about people who
aren't rich. The stories may not revolve around their poverty, the poverty may
not be an integral part of the story, but the characters are still clearly
working class.

That said, people don't go to the movies to be lectured about poverty. They go
for an escape. Poverty is sad, so there isn't a huge appetite for movies
"about poverty".

~~~
unexpected
I agree with you. Three Billboards was exactly this type of film. Not sure why
it was not mentioned in the article.

~~~
dluan
Three Billboards was not about poverty. It took place in a rural area.

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wand3r
This article demands that an entire industry conform to the author's own
personal opinions on how society is and that educating people about this
author's belief is the most important thing in the industry. The character's
in a host of movies aren't poor enough, stereotypical enough, don't escape
poverty the right way or poverty isn't the single most thematic event in the
storyline.

I even agree with the author that conceptually government assistance & social
services is important; it just isn't going to make for an exciting core piece
of entertainment. While the author nitpicks that no movie goes far enough I
would look at it like making progress. The analogy for me is giving a child
vegetables. You don't try and force feed raw vegetables to a child as the
primary meal because nutrients are important. Instead, you cook it into a
balanced (and hopefully better tasting) meal so it can be easily digested.

Yes this analogy has flaws; but I am contrasting the author's craving for
essentially a social services documentary with actual reality & entertainment.

------
dragonwriter
The author seems, I have to say, deeply confused; about politics, art in
general, and film in particular—he seems he mostly wants realistic,
descriptive, non-documentary films without a traditional story arc depicting
life in American poverty; even _without the poverty part_ this just isn't
something that anybody, really, is interested in from film—but most critically
_about his own thesis_.

It's clear he is unhappy with something about portrayal of poverty in film,
but he starts off complaining that there is not _enough_ of such portrayal,
making what seems to be a quantitative complaint, but then spins out of
control with contradictory criticisms of _qualitative_ features of the
portrayal. This is most stark in his complaints about _I am Another You_ where
he initially blames it for being _too focused on explanation rather than
description_ and then blames it for _failing to dig deep enough to explain why
mental illness leads more easily to homelessness in the US compared to the
rest of the West_.

> If policymakers in DC (and in cities and state capitals around the country)
> had the Raineys in mind when making poverty policy, rather than the
> stubborn, racist myth of the “welfare queen”, they might produce smarter
> proposals that are more attuned to what poor Americans actually want and
> need.

Policy makers don't generally base policy on what they see in movies, and
don't generally have the racist myth of the “welfare queen” in mind when
making policy that effects the poor, they instead have a very clear picture of
the expressed interests of the people they are interested in serving (who are
often chosen, much as the story goes with the choice to rob banks, “becsuse
that's where the money is”), which very often don't include the poor
regardless of their lifestyle.

The “welfare queen” is an image policy makers (and policy entrepreneurs)
invented to _sell_ the policy, not a real concern at which it is directed.

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tdees40
Wendy and Lucy! Also, TV is better: Atlanta and the Wire are great about
poverty.

~~~
mrec
I second the _Wendy and Lucy_ rec. I saw it not long after first reading
Scalzi's _Being Poor_ [1] and it really made everything concrete.

It's a tough sell in some ways - "girl loses dog, girl finds dog, the end" \-
but oh-so-worth-it.

[1] [https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-
poor/](https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/)

------
jellicle
Mudbound - [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/16/mudbound-
review...](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/16/mudbound-review-
powerful-tale-from-jim-crow-america-has-real-sinew) \- is a very good film
about poverty, among other things. It doesn't smack you in the face and say
"I'M A FILM ABOUT POVERTY", which seems to be the Guardian writer's
requirement for inclusion on his list, but it is.

------
rusk
Though not a film, Breaking Bad has I think been exemplary in its treatment of
this subject.

By and large now it’s a topic that sees much more treatment in TV than in
movies.

“Boyhood” comes to mind.

~~~
bdavisx
I don't think any of the main characters in Breaking Bad lived in poverty;
even the secondary ones didn't for the most part. If WW had died w/o becoming
a drug kingpin, he would have left his family in poverty, but they didn't live
in poverty before.

~~~
rusk
Yes but that's the sad tale of middle america. What should be a "comfortable"
existence is perpetually under threat.

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geodel
Well poverty is dispersed and does not compete well with identity politics
which gives opportunities of political grandstanding to actors/directors and
generate profits for studios.

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stevenwoo
Slightly off topic but there was a documentary about a lower middle class
woman in the Bay Area who chose to adopt children that would otherwise never
been adopted called My Flesh and Blood (2003). I would never have thought this
could have been an interesting story but it really pulled me in even back then
as a younger person.
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342804](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342804)

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Antimachides
I really liked The Florida Project. I spent time in motels as a child because
my mom was an addict. The film is very genuine.

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WheelsAtLarge
If you're poor and even if you are not, the last thing you want to see in a
film is more poor people. I for one like to go to movies to escape my reality.
That's what happened to movies about poor people.

No, I did not read the article. Sometimes, the title hits me the wrong way and
I have to make my point.

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polotics
Yes! Personally I'm waiting for Winter's bone 2, where Jennifer Lawrence does
sign up for 'stan.

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jetcata
Requiem for a Dream is one I can think of. Very dark though.

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throwawaylyfty
Ladybird won at the oscars. That’s about poor people.

~~~
nereye
Lady Bird was nominated for several awards but did not actually win any
Oscars, FWIW. See, e.g.,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90th_Academy_Awards#Notable_no...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90th_Academy_Awards#Notable_nominations_and_winners).

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smashingfiasco
Try Flint Town.

