Daniel Cardenas as photographed by Rich Hackman
In America, our television commercial industry dedicates an enormous amount of resources to create a world that reflects consumer desires. But what goes on behind the camera can sometimes be just as detached from reality. “She sucked a n***a soul”, a line from Roddy Rich’s “The Box”, was recently recited by a white director in front of me, on a set where Black culture and bodies were being used to portray a world for commercial gain. At a time when Black people are fighting for our lives, white people have somehow found a way to make it profitable. This was a moment that made me question why I ever joined this industry.
“Hollywood’s black film community has always had a one-for-all-and-all-for-one attitude, openly cheering the success of any black-driven movie in the hope its box-office success will translate into more jobs and stories about people of color. But, at the same time, the success of black-themed movies like The Help and this year’s 42 points to a troubling trend: the hiring of white filmmakers to tell black stories with few African-Americans involved in the creative process.”
— John Singleton
Tv and movies have always been a source of solace for me. A medium that has transcended my reality at times and not so much at others. As a Black child in the 90s, I was fully aware of my position in society from shows like Cops, that fed off the decimation caused by crack era policing and policy. I saw that another life was possible for others when watching Full House, where race was never an issue, and their problems digestible. Although the people on the screen often did not look like me, it was an opportunity to be someone else; to see another life. Sometimes, these shows revealed truths that I was afraid to speak. In films like Do the Right Thing, or on “a very special episode” of Family Matters I was able to hear myself amplified through the diode. What I saw as “seeing the light” was when they would address the issues of racism that so often went unspoken all around me. I decided that I would find the others, those who felt like me, by telling my story through the medium of moving images. Fast forward, 4 years of a useless film degree, 1 year as an underpaid overworked PA, 2 years as a underpaid camera rental house worker, and I had “made it”.
Finally, as a camera assistant I got to be involved in the storytelling process I so often glorified as the ultimate medium of truth; only to find out it was not the truth we were peddling, but propaganda for the police to appear as the good guys, and for corporations to tell us that our desires would be fulfilled; just one purchase away.
Hit that fast forward button x2 and I’m not seeing an art form, just a paycheck. Many racist incidents and microaggressions later, being one of the only Black people on set in order for production to meet a diversity quota, I understood my position in this industry; keep your mouth shut and smile.
In ad production out of 1204 directors on 60 prominent U.S. production company rosters, only 4% are Black directors a recent Free the Work study shows.
Sydni Chustz, founder of Bid Black, a database that showcases Black production talent, aimed at normalizing representation in the ad industry says “At the time, the brand I was working on had never, in 30-plus years of advertising, awarded a Black director to a job,” she says. “I found that deeply problematic and sought to provide an answer. Months prior I was entranced by the work of Melina Matsoukas in Beyonce’s visual album, ‘Lemonade,’ and by Donald Glover in his surreal universe, ‘Atlanta.’ I couldn’t grasp why Black directors were not being awarded these million-dollar creative jobs.”
This white dominated industry wants to see us negros smile like we are in a minstrel, acting too happy to dance for them, to show that we are grateful to have the privilege of working in this industry. Their guilt is so great from the images they perpetuate about Black people and the purposeful exclusion of Black people from decision making, that our visible pain is an affront to their well-to-do opinion of themselves.
That is until the Floyd Rebellion. No movie could have prepared me for the reality we stepped into. It wasn’t quite “World War Z” or “V for Vendetta”. It was an unscripted horror show of the heightening contradictions of racial capitalism; Black bodies being murdered in the hospitals and in the streets. Institutions serving the function of white supremacy, all coming into clear view. This time has changed me, made my focus clear; showed me who my true allies and enemies are. I was ready to take on the fight; silence was no longer an option.
Now I have this resolve in myself to speak out loudly and boldly, like so many others; but bills are due, job offers received, the call back into the propaganda machine had to be answered if food was going to be on the table. Time for work, where there is to be “quiet on set” not only sonically, but also morally; head down, shoulders rounded.
My first job back since quarantine began, working with the production company Sibling Films on a car commercial. It’s early, so my eyes are alert. We are in a Black and Brown neighborhood, so I can tell who is the crew because they are 95% white and chumming it up with the police that have been hired to “escort” us. Being a 2nd Camera Assistant on a commercial means a lot of the time, I don’t know exactly what we are shooting until the day of.
We rig the camera on a car crane and hop inside the follow-van to whip around the neighborhood, getting shots of the picture car. It’s who gets in the follow-van that tells me who’s making the decisions. That’s when I met the director, Sandra Winther, a white woman from Denmark. The police blare their sirens and coordinate with production to make sure the police are in front and behind us and the car we are shooting for the commercial. That image alone of a white crew, police force, and production company, using their money and authority to push Black and Brown community members around for the benefit of a car manufacturer is a lot to handle in “normal times” but in this “new-normal” context gave this action a heavier weight on my soul and mind. I can see Sandra looking out the window like we are on a safari, and although that could have just been a feeling, the events to follow later, solidified my feeling. We drive around trying to get the sun to glint on the car just right and being sure to exclude any community members from the shot as there is no desire to connect working class Black people with a luxury vehicle. We happen to drive over a Black Lives Matter mural and you can hear the excitement from Sandra about getting that in the shot. This was another red flag for me, the further exploitation of not only our space, but our ideas, our struggles; again, for a car commercial. If only it stopped there.
After following the car around we had a new set up; on a sidewalk outside of some houses we began to film a Black man dancing. This dynamic of subject in front of the lens, being manipulated to achieve the perspective of the director behind the lens is a power dynamic that demands trust. The perspective of the director will be directly fed to the viewer, where they will consume the subject partly as the director perceives the subject. This is a powerful medium that can influence and manipulate the viewer into affirming their beliefs/ideas or make new ones.
Reality started to sink in; all this time I was looking for the truth by what the camera captured and presented, but the truth was behind the camera all along. An industry dominated by white supremacy, a reflection of the world. Black culture and existence being exploited for the gain of a multivariate venn-diagram of white companies and interests. Nothing but the residue of profit; only enough to keep us alive long enough to further exploit us, going to Black and Brown people. I was snapped out of this painful realization, by more pain. The police who remained on set as “security” began to, upon the request of production, push Black and Brown people back into their homes, made some of them clean up their own sidewalk so that this company could get the shot that Sandra wanted; her vision. Sibling Films, a colonizing force using the monopoly of violence ordained to the police, to film a Black person dancing for a car commercial. The layers wouldn’t stop and I felt as though I would suffocate under them.
So all this is floating in my head, the plausible deniability of it all, just some people making some content, for some other people, nothing to see here. (The way to see through that is simple; follow the money.) It was stuff that I felt that if I tried to explain, would maybe be hard to understand. But then, as we began shooting the next set-up, of the Black talent dancing in an empty room, things that felt impossible to explain, became imperative to pronounce. As we filmed the talent dancing, the director, Sandra Winther, put on The Box by Roddy Ricch. As the talent is dancing and the crew is tucked in a corner off camera, Sandra singing along to the song recites “She sucked a n***a soul” and everyone except for her looked around in shock. One of the only other Black people on set said “what the fuck?” out loud and again everyone heard except for Sandra. Now here is where some people begin to say “she’s just singing along to the song”, but I need to remind those of you, that the power dynamic in play, the content and narrative being painted, the beneficiaries of this content, need to be central when viewing this incident and all the others that proceed it, and all the ones that will continue as long as white people are left to tell our stories and profit off of them.
Now she said the n-word before lunch so we still had a lot of the day left to shoot. The rest of the crew made attempts at times to walk up to me and in whispered tones say “man that was crazy, I’m sorry”. Moments later they’d be chopping it up and laughing with Sandra as if nothing happened. As I’m running around picking up equipment I hear Sandra talking to the one other Black person on set and the most I heard from Sandra was “I don’t want to be that person”. Production gave a hushed apology to the other Black person, again not to me. They wanted to continue the shoot and their relationship with Sandra as if this never happened, again only focusing on Black people in front of the lens that they can direct, and ignoring those few behind the camera.
Sibling Films has ignored demands to be held accountable despite massive amounts of pressure. They hired a PR person to write a trite damage control Instagram post about their “commitments to promoting racial equity”. The post made no mention of the incident and amounted to empty promises. They believe that if they ignore the call for accountability that it will go away. This strategy has worked in the past – remaining silent and allowing an exploitative racist culture to continue after all “the buzz” blows over. They know that the status quo is white supremacy and their silence will be tolerated by most. But I think that Sibling Films and the industry at large underestimates the current conditions and evolving consciousness of the people.
As the resistance to oppression swings open before us, never to be closed again, we need to ask ourselves what the power of moving images is being used for and to what ends. Television ad revenue wouldn’t exceed 70 billion dollars each year if these images did not hold tremendous power. With mass mobilizations, protests, strikes happening all over the world like never before; does the world need another car commercial? Shouldn’t the power of moving images be marching with the rest of us; bringing light and education to our struggle and the world beyond it? In the era of Black Lives Matter, there is no regularly scheduled programming to go back to. We won’t settle for anything less than liberation.
Daniel Cardenas is a community organizer/filmmaker/podcaster in NYC working on liberation in all these mediums.
He co-hosts the Pineapple Podcast where a Black-Dominican mother and son explore current events, history and culture through completely different lenses.
Click here to follow him on Instagram