Earlier this week, two prominent Black filmmakers took a stand against Georgia’s new, restrictive voting laws by pulling their upcoming project out of the state. Emancipation , a slave drama starring Will Smith and directed by Antoine Fuqua for Apple TV, will no longer be shooting in the Peach State. “At this moment in time, the Nation is coming to terms with its history and is attempting to eliminate vestiges of institutional racism to achieve true racial justice,” Fuqua and Smith said in a joint statement . “We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access.” The laws , signed by Republican governor Brian Kemp in the wake of Georgia’s Democratic victories in the presidential and Senate elections, disproportionately restrict voting access for Black and poor voters through things such as limiting the number of ballot drop boxes and narrowing the window to request an absentee ballot. The backlash from Democrats has been fast and furious. President Biden called the new laws “un-American” and “sick,” equating them to “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” Fuqua and Smith aren’t the only ones in Hollywood who have taken a stand against the laws, but they are an overwhelming minority. With the exception of a few other voices, including Ford vs. Ferrari director James Mangold and actor Mark Hamill, who have vowed not to film in Georgia—one of the biggest production hubs in the country due to generous tax incentives and an abundance of sound stages—for the most part Hollywood has remained mum on the subject. A few conglomerates, such as Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal), AT&T (owner of WarnerMedia), and Viacom have expressed their unhappiness over the legislation but have stopped short of saying they would not film in the state. AT&T said that it was working with members of the Atlanta and Georgia chambers of commerce to support “policies that promote accessible and secure voting while also upholding election integrity and transparency.” (In Atlanta, local business behemoths Coca-Cola and Delta were faster to take strong stands against the laws, though under public pressure and with predictable backlash.) Other broad-ish efforts have included an open letter published in the New York Times and Washington Post on Wednesday that called out efforts to restrict voting access but did not name Georgia specifically. The letter was signed by companies including Amazon, Netflix and Apple, and individuals such as J.J. Abrams, Shonda Rhimes and Samuel L. Jackson. But several weeks into the controversy, neither Disney nor its Marvel division, which are reportedly ramping up to start shooting one of the most high-profile projects of the year in Georgia in July, have made a public statement—and that silence is increasingly deafening. That project would be Black Panther 2 , the follow-up to the 2018 blockbuster. Buzz about the film’s shoot increased with the news of Emancipation ‘s relocation on Monday. Here is yet another high-profile Hollywood production steeped in racial justice themes and with a virtually all-Black cast, and one with significantly more global awareness. If any single project could serve as a platform for Hollywood’s condemnation about what’s going on in Georgia, it’s the Marvel tentpole Read More …
