Faber Faber Screen Deep How film and TV can solve racism and save the world.

by Ellen E. Jones

Screen Deep: How film and TV can solve racism and save the world is a book about the immense potential of screen storytelling to defeat an evil both historic and urgently topical. Everyone watches TV and movies. Everyone has an interest in building a more just and equitable world. Screen Deep goes beyond the many film books and anti-racist manualsalready published, by demonstrating the connection between these two aspects of modern life. In Screen Deep I combine my personal experience as a mixed-race woman who cares about racism with my professional expertise as a film and TV journalist of twenty years standing, to ask - and answer - several questions. Is there such a thing as an Indigenous western? Is race comedy 'cancelled'? Where are all the films for white people? And most Can you still fight the good fight with a mouthful of popcorn?

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

384 pages, Hardcover

Published February 1, 2024

Reviews

[Paul]

Ellen E. Jones offers a hugely readable overview of how cinema has depicted Black people and people of colour across its history, drawing out the racist and white supremacist principles that have provided a foundation for so much of western cinema's output - and working practices. Jones covers a huge swathe of material, and the one drawback is that there are sections where I wished she'd gone a bit deeper, rather than moving on to the next genre/area of film. But it's an excellent primer on this whole subject - and I found the latter sections critiquing 'whiteness' in cinema particularly welcome and thought-provoking.

[Eury10]

I learned SO MUCH about the history of film and TV and racism in this book, it was a very formative read. This will probably become a staple in my gift guides for years to come, especially for my fellow white people.

[Kelvin Mason]

“Screen Deep: How film and TV can solve racism and save the world” by Ellen E. Jones is a daunting prospect to review. And I must preface this review by saying that I am white and western. The book reads much like a doctoral thesis and does not lend itself to the same consideration as a novel. Screen Deep is lengthy trawl through the history of race and racism in film and TV, featuring Hollywood cinema, period drama, Afrofuturism in the Black Panther, crime thrillers, Islamophobia (and countering it – with an extended shout-out to the efforts of Riz Ahmed), romance and buddy movies, Westerns, horror, sci-fi, sit-coms… The issue in focus is how race is represented and racism is perpetuated or challenged. The focus is squarely (sic) on English-speaking cinema and TV, mainly from the UK and US. A wider World Cinema is largely ignored.

A problem for this reader is that the trawl is so deep and so extensive that the average movie buff and TV viewer is left floundering in a wealth of material that it would take a dedicated lifetime to view and be familiar with. Jones herself gives up on trying to watch everything is our age of the promiscuous screen. So, whether Jones thesis is valid or not could perhaps only be judged by a very select audience of film and TV academics. This is an educational but exhausting read for the screen layman. It will surely have the reader seeking new films and pro grammes to view. Ultimately, Jones contends that to “solve racism” – an odd framing? – and save the world, film and TV must:

1. Expand our empathies. Being reasonably familiar with and a fan of much of the work cited here, I get this point: The Woman King, Ms Marvel, and We Are Lady Parts very evidently do the work of expanding the white viewers empathies, and doing so while being very pleasurable viewing: thought-provoking while being at the same time thrilling, humorous, accommodating…

2. Emphasising structural racism. In essence, Jones wants to shift the focus away from the pantomime villain racist and challenge deep-set societal attitudes. While this is a noble aim, it is perhaps much less easy to make. Less familiar with the works cited here, I can say that while I tried to appreciate Small Axe, for instance, it was not easy to understand or interpret. But I guess that’s the thing with structural racism? In my opinion film and TV present themselves with a huge challenge in this regard. Perhaps Spike Lee’s work is the best example of how this challenge can be met as entertainment?

3. Disseminating an understanding of race as a construct. As Jones admits, such understanding will come mainly from audiences seeking out film and TV that challenges them. This is a big ask of what, throughout the book, was presented as essentially the entertainment wings of film and TV. Surely, this is more usually the work of documentaries?

For all its extensive excavations of race and racism in film and TV history, I’m not sure Screen Deep proves its thesis. Indeed Jones herself seems to flounder in her final sentence, putting the emphasis back onto society – the audience – to change film and TV. Ultimately, I would recommend this book to real movie buffs and TV addicts and, more so, students of racism and white supremacy.

[Albert]

A great exploration of film and tv and its power to engage with the world and possibly move it forward.
I came away not only with a long list of movies and shows to catch up, but a greater understanding of how they are made and tools for analysing them.

[John Bleasdale]

Excellent

[Ryan Crane]

A very fascinating read that made me rethink about a lot of tv and cinema I’ve digested without thinking deeply about. Very detailed and the arguments are well made - would recommend!

[gaverne Bennett]

Such a powerful read. I always see film and TV as causing so much trouble so nice to see other possibilities...