There
‘s a bill proposing that New York City forms add an option for multiracial folks to check all that apply like you can on the Census. Currently there are five options on New York City forms: “white, not of Hispanic origin”; “black, not of Hispanic origin”; “Hispanic”; “Asian or Pacific Islander”; and “American Indian or Alaskan Native.” Councilwoman Margaret Chin is spearheading this effort. She is quoted as saying: “This will allow New Yorkers to identify their heritage and be proud of it. They shouldn’t have to only check one box.” What do you think?–Heidi Durrow
Is this a roar?
Or a yawn? Let’s just get to Friday! –Heidi Durrow
Little White Lie Film Receives Rave Reviews!
The Mixed Remixed Festival is very excited to co-host in collaboration with Be’chol Lashon a special Q&A with filmmaker Lacey Schwartz following the 11/30 2:20pm screening of Little White Lie at the Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills, CA. Tickets are available for purchase on-line and at the box office.
Learn more about this amazing film that has received rave reviews across the board! Do we hear Oscar?–Heidi Durrow
“‘A lot of personal documentaries cover secrets,’ said Jay Rosenblatt, program director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. ‘Self-indulgence is a big problem with personal documentaries, but I think the secret in ‘Little White Lie’ kept it from going in that direction — the narrative thrust keeps you engaged.'” – Felicia R. Lee / The New York Times
“Holmes’ criterion for festival submissions is great black films, against the grain. Certainly that describes Brooklyn filmmaker Lacey Schwartz’s ‘Little White Lie’, a personal documentary about family secrets and the power of truth-telling.”
– A.D Amorosi / The Inquirer
“It goes without saying that Jewish identity, in all its forms, is one of SFJFF’s overriding themes. The world premiere of Lacey Schwartz’s first-person documentary ‘Little White Lie’, closes the festival with an utterly unique angle on the topic.” – Michael Fox / KQED Arts
“Filmmaker Lacey Schwartz explores how race, culture and family shape a person’s sense of identity in this documentary and personal detective story.” – Anita Katz / The Examiner
Los Angeles: Little White Lie Screening & Mixed Remixed Festival 11/30
We are super-excited to announce our collaboration with Be’chol Lashon, a non-profit organization that works around
racial ethnic and cultural diversity in the Jewish community, for the amazing documentary film, Little White Lie.
Little White Lie, tells filmmaker Lacey Schwartz’s story of growing up in a typical upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, NY, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity — despite the open questions from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. It’s an incredibly moving film that has received rave reviews and will be screening for a limited run in Los Angeles.
Please join us Nov. 30, 2014 for the 2:20pm show. The Mixed Remixed Festival is proud to co-host a Q&A with filmmaker Lacey Schwartz moderated by Festival fave Aaron Samuels. Tickets can be purchased on-line or at the box office. Don’t miss this!–Heidi Durrow
[youtube]http://youtu.be/qeLEgPJGIrQ[/youtube]
On being a biracial actress: Gugu Mbatha Raw
“For me it’s very exciting to see myself in history. As a bi-racial women you get to be socially dextrous. You get to experience both cultures And that’s only enriching and to be celebrated….. What Amma always talks about as well is who are we really or how we see ourselves. Or how society chooses to see us. And I think for me personally as an actress you go out for all kinds of roles. You know you try not to get typecast, but you want to do things that you see yourself doing. You don’t want other people to endow you with labels. For me it was refreshing to put that in my work.”–Gugu Mbatha Raw
Princess Jazz and the Angels
Having a Sikh father, Irish mother and living in Scotland, Jazz wonders where she belongs. Her father has been killed and when her mother can’t cope Jazz is sent to stay with her father’s relatives in the Punjab. It’s a hard adjustment to accept and it takes the ‘Haggis-Indian’ doctor, Elspeth, to help her understand the richness of belonging to more than one place. Their exchanges, in exuberant Scottish dialect, set in a Punjabi hospital, are the start of a wonderful bridging between cultures and people. This book is short, powerful and moving. (Info from booksforkeeps.co.uk)
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/95/childrens-books/reviews/princess-jazz-and-the-angels
“Other – Please specify” – poem
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbAUOARFoR0[/youtube]
I was very proud and impressed to see this performance by Akashi Alam of her own poem: ‘Other – please specify’. It looks at the experience of growing up mixed-race in London and the reactions of her schoolmates. I knew her before she was famous!
Meet Our Board of Directors
We are very excited to introduce our Board of Directors! We couldn’t do this without them–our personal superheroes!
Everybody Loves Hapa
We caused a little firestorm over on Facebook when we asked this question: “Words you’re cool with using for mixed people: 1) mixed; 2) hapa; 3) mutt; 4) biracial; 5) potato; 6) Heinz 57; 7) zebra; 8) mulatto. Have I missed any?”
Below are some of the many and varied responses. But it was pretty clear that everybody seemed to be okay with Hapa. How about you?
- A mulatto is a mule – a cross breed between donkeys and horses. Mules are sterile. Only 1 in 144,000 can reproduce.
It’s a livestock term used for slaves of African descent that also had European ancestry.
It’s a slavery term and it’s just as bad as saying nigger.
I wrote the word nigger in this post, without quotes, and intentionally repeated it because the word mulatto makes me just as angry to hear and see in print, flippantly.
“Mulatto” is “Nigger” for Mixed folks like us. It serves the same purpose of branding us as chattel slave property, just with a “twist.” - Not cool with derogatory ones like ‘mutt’.
- 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 should go…the is only 1 race…the human race, and we are proof that this divisive cramp is a waste of time. I have never of heard “potato”.LOL Anywho, there are so many mixtures, and some of these terms only refer to black and white mixes.
- I can’t like this
- I really appreciate all the voices and comments on this. I think the consensus is lose “mutt” for sure. And BTW I adopted “potato” via writer @Lori Tharps who also has called her Spanish/Black kids “spa-negroes” — love her! More on that story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heidi-w-durrow/interracial-relationships_b_1514896.html
- How about human beings
- My brother loves Halfrican. I can do Afro-Semite or Hegro.
- And hell no to mulatto!!!
- Zebra??? No way!!!
- I think anything that is commonly used in the animal world (zebra, mutt, mulatto) is probably better left there. Even “mixed” sometimes sounds wrong–I usually associate that word with “breeds” of animals. And cocktails. But I understand that word is more acceptable.
- I don’t mind mutt, but I mind when people say bitch. I also like to call myself American and human.
- Best is: ‘Neither Both’
- Looks like hapa is the one term everyone agrees with. True?
- Understand 🙂
- I tell people I”m a BLEND of Black, White & Native American. I also use the word MULTICULTURAL. I detest the word Mulatto.
- multiracial
- What an awesome question. Keeping dialogue open is the most important part of all. Personally, when I was confronted with the inevitable curiosity of my peers (“What are you?”), and was questioned about my ethnic identity, my mom told me to tell them my name. If pressed, I would give them facts. Because I was proud. But as people started placing their own perspective on whatever those facts were, I made them regard me the same way as I viewed them: as a human. I love my family and my heritage, but it doesn’t define everything about me. It’s not expected of any other person. So I claim my name as an individual first, and only.
- Callaloo
- I think it is more about the intention of the word, if I don’t give it power, it can’t control me. People are going to say hurtful things but I’m not going to let their ignorant comment ruin silly words I ENJOY using to explain my unique upbringing.
- Don’t get or like these. Personally love Multi- culti. But long long ago used oreo.
- My son likes, ‘blend
- I use the term mullato/a academically but not socially. And I use mutt in jest but would never allow someone else to refer to me that way.
- Someone would knock my ass out if I went outside and said mulatto.
- My daughter uses Halfrican.
- hapa <3
- A potato what on earth haha
- A potato flew around my room. Lol I never heard that term before potato.
- lol @ mulatto being socially acceptable.
- Lose the mutt.
- I can’t stand mulatto when it is used in America. Or mutt. Ugh. I usually stick with mixed or biracial.
- There are some derogatory slurs, but they do not deserve to join this listing.
- Hapa or mixed are probably my top choices. My nephew and niece use “Chrislim” to describe themselves, but this is more religious than “racial” as they have one parent who was brought up Christian and another who was brought up Muslim, hence Chrislim…
- I prefer High Yellow… 😉
2014 Festival Recap: Short Film Program
The short film program was a huge hit at the 2014 Mixed Remixed Festival. We screened films by emerging filmmakers who are extremely talented. The program was followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and actors (Max Faugno, Jeffrey Moline, Aaron Samuels) involved and was led by the ever-awesome Festival Producer and Planner, Jennifer Frappier. The complete film line-up included:
The United Colors of Amani, dir. Amani Starnes (Running time 15 minutes)
Ozzy & Harry dir. Jeffrey Moline (Running time 6:25 minutes)
Tender Love dir. Joseph Hernandez-Kolski (Running time 5:17 minutes)
Covered in Grass dir. Celso White & Matt Malis (Running time 4:45 minutes)
The United Colors of Amani
In the tradition of Robert 
Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle, the web series “The United Colors of Amani,” explores Amani’s uncomfortable racial adventures in Hollywood. Amani, an ethnically ambiguous performer, has dealt with the “What are you question” her whole life. But what does it mean to be black, white, and everything in between as she navigates the entertainment industry and life in LA? “The United Colors of Amani,” a with sociological undertones, sheds light on the uncomfortable, awkward, and outrageous constructions of race permeating showbiz. It will evoke laughter, discomfort, and outrage. Despite the specific circumstances of the protagonist’s journey through the big bad world of Hollywood, viewers will be surprised to find that they, too, can relate on some level to the identity politics and interpersonal catastrophes highlighted in “The United Colors of Amani.”
Amani Starnes is a multiracial actress, writer, producer, and singer. She graduated from Yale, where she studied Theater and African American Studies. Amani is the face of several national television commercials and a member of Tim Robbins’ Actors’ Gang. She also sings, choreographs, and stars in independent films, plays, concerts, music videos, and rock operas.
Ozzy & Harry
A biting satire on Conservative American Family Values “Ozzy and Harry” (a play on “Ozzy and Harriet”). Features Ozzy, a closeted, conservative Mixed race business executive and Harry his Nordic spouse and homemaker are trying to raise Pumpkin, their Latino son in a world that only existed on their television sets. Pumpkin tries to pull the wool from over his parents eyes by confronting the family dynamic of two fathers. Shot in 2003 in glorious black and white “Ozzy and Harry” reflects rotten core at buying into the American Dream, through apathy, consumerism and simply the need to be right. It illustrates how we lose our uniqueness in chasing it.
JGM is a singer/songwriter, musician and filmmaker. He uses his art and life to promote a solidarity of enlightened common people. JGM was farm raised in MN and lives in West Hollywood. JGM hopes you enjoy his film Ozzy and Harry.
Tender Love
As a writer who comes from a mixed background, I think my perspective is slightly different. I think my comedy tends to reflect that. This comedy short is a commentary on technology and relationships, not specifically about the mixed experience, but I think it’s a universal topic. My goal is to continue to speak about our experience in ways that demonstrate a positive direction in which I think we need to move as a society, where we are not on the outskirts of the mainstream. We need to redefine what that mainstream looks like.
Joe Hernandez-Kolski is a spoken word poet and comedian. His first short film, “Afterschool’d” was an NBC Comedy Short Cuts finalist. He has written several hip-theater shows, both in the solo format and with his partner Joshua Silverstein under the comedy moniker “So Fresh & So Clean.” His first solo show, “You Wanna Piece of Me?” was recently published by the University of Michigan press as part of an anthology entitled, “Say Word: Voices of Hip-Hop Theater.”
Covered in Grass
The film is a video adaptation of a poem that examines a shared history of oppression between the narrator’s Black heritage and Jewish heritage.
Aaron Samuels, raised in Providence, Rhode Island by a Jewish mother and a Black father, is a Cave Canem Fellow and a nationally acclaimed performer. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart, featured on TV One’s Verses & Flow, and has appeared in many journals including Tidal Basin Review and Muzzle Magazine.
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