‘American Fiction’ Director Sees Parallel with Film and Real-Life Comfort with Black Clichés | WATCH

*“American Fiction” may be the newest black film coming to theaters, but its director will be the first to tell you that his feature puts the spotlight on a longstanding issue.

Speaking with the BBC, writer-director Cord Jefferson, described “American Fiction” as satire, with a serious message. The film, based on the book “Erasure” by Percival Everett, stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk, an author who becomes disillusioned with the way the publishers he wants to work with only seem interested in stereotypical black storytelling.

Frustrated, Monk writes a book with black clichés, hoping it will be a complete failure. Despite the effort to deliver such a work, Monk’s book became an instant hit in the literary market.

“I just wanted to find a way to invite people in,” Jefferson told the BBC. “Allowing them to laugh, and enjoy themselves, and not feel like they’re lectured, not feel like they’re being scolded, not feel like they’re being told how to believe.

“And to maybe laugh at themselves, maybe feel a little bit uncomfortable, maybe cringe a little bit.”

Although “American Fiction” is a work of fiction, Jefferson stated that many of the themes raised in the feature mirror what’s happened to him in real life. The filmmaker’s view was reinforced after reading “Erasure.”

Jefferson remembered having an experience like Monk during his time as a journalist, with people coming to him and suggesting he write about negative racial incidents.

“When I got into film and TV, I thought I was going to escape that,” Jefferson recalled. “And then I realized that people would ask me, ‘Do you want to write about this slave, do you want to write about this drug dealer, do you want to write about this gang member?’

“And I realized that these kind of rigid restrictions as to what black life looked like were being placed on me even in the world of fiction, which blew my mind.

“When I read Erasure by Percival Everett, I immediately recognized that the things he was talking about in the book were the things that I had been thinking about for decades of my life,” he continued.

Black authors are not the only ones dealing with the demand for stereotypical black portrayals in their works. Diving deeper into the topic, Jefferson believes the world of cinema is just as, if not more, guilty of catering to the same mind state of audiences only wanting to read stories from black writers that conform to negative stereotypes.

“What Hollywood is really comfortable with is rehashing past successes. It’s not just slavery movies or inner-city poverty movies. We see the way they rehash and reboot, and there are sequels and prequels,” said Jefferson.

“That said, when you tell these kinds of binary stories of blackness when you tell these stories about slavery, and the civil rights era, what it allows white audience members to do is to say, this depiction of race does not harm my self-image because I’m not burning a cross on anybody’s lawn, I don’t own slaves, I’m not a racist.”

Harking on the support of films that highlight past racial injustices, Jefferson feels these features offer a sort of way out for white filmgoers who see the efforts of their white protagonists to help their victimized black brothers and sisters.

“Those kind of stories continue to put white characters at the center of the film,” he expressed. “You can’t have most slavery movies without the white slave owners, and the slavers themselves.

“I have no idea exactly why, but I think that those are a couple of reasons why those stories might continue to be retold over and over and over again,” Jefferson added. “It’s just more comfortable storytelling for people.”

The buzz surrounding “American Fiction” has it gaining momentum with awards season being around the corner. The film has already won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, the BBC reports

The honor heightens talk about “American Fiction.” So much so that it is among the possible contenders to receive recognition from the Academy with an Oscar nomination for best picture. Whether that becomes a reality remains to be seen.

In the meanwhile, movie watchers can see for themselves whether “American Fiction” is worthy of all the chatter. It’s in select theaters (in LA and New York) now.  It opens nationally and in Canada on Dec 22.

MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: Cord Jefferson Receives Visionary Award at Urbanworld Film Festival Opening Night Screening for AMERICAN FICTION | Video

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