Two films at the 2010 Politics on Film festival dealt with racial issues, though they each approach the subject from their own unique vantage point.
Melanie Jeffcoat’s “Open Secret,” which was screened for the first time in DC on May 8, painstakingly recreates scenes from Alabama’s 1901 Constitutional Convention, where delegates rewrote the state’s constitution in a way that disenfranchised black, female and poor white voters. Repercussions from that summer reverberate to the present, as the constitution continues to form the basis for the state’s laws.
“It’s longer than the Bible and it’s longer than Moby Dick,” Jeffcoat told the audience following the screening. The constitution, which has been amended 800 times and is currently the longest in the world, also served as powerful catalyst for the 1960s civil rights movement in Alabama, Jeffcoat said.
In addition to including language making it hard for blacks to vote and not allowing women to vote, Jeffcoat said the constitution gives undue power to politicians in the state capital of Montgomery because it requires county-level issues to be decided by state-wide ballot initiatives.
But entrenched interests, including elected politicians, out-of-state landowners and lobbyists, have largely shunned the idea of writing a new constitution, Jeffcoat said. In fact, the legislature must vote to even put the question of a new constitutional convention on the state ballot, something that has yet to happen. In the meantime, certain county issues – such as a tax increase to fund better schools or changing the liquor laws – are oftentimes defeated by a state-wide vote.
But while the esoteric issue has yet to resonate with voters in the state, though Jeffcoat is showing “Open Secret” to ever-expanding audiences around Alabama, including tea partiers, high school kids and church groups. “We need to work people up . . . and insist we create a new legacy for the state of Alabama,” she said. The effort will need to include “huge” educational efforts, Jeffcoat said after the panel, but also pointed out Artur Davis, current Democratic candidate for governor, has cited constitutional reform as an issue deserving of attention.
Fixing Alabama’s constitution could have an impact beyond the state, Jeffcoat said. Writing “equitable and fair [constitutional language] devoid of racism . . . would be such a healing balm for the state and the nation.”
While “Open Secret” looks at race- and gender-based inequality in the past, Brian Chinhema’s “Multiracial Identity,” which had its world premiere May 8 at the festival, focuses on the more contemporary issue of how people self-identify their race, particularly people with mixed-race backgrounds.
The feature-length film takes on questions on all sides of the issue, including whether the U.S. Census form should include a “multiracial” category. (When they addressed the issue in the 1990s, government officials decided to allow people to choose more than one race, rather than have a multiracial choice.)
The film also looks at the history of the multiracial issue in America, and how it has often been most connected with people of black and white ancestry, Chinhema said after the screening. But “it’s not simply about black and white, it goes deeper than that,” he added, saying more Asians in the United
States identify as multiracial than other groups.
The film moves beyond the “multiracial” question and looks at how race is really just social construct – albeit one that still occupies a key role in society. “Consciously or unconsciously, we are married to race,” Chinhema said. “It’s there whether you agree with it or not . . . At the end of the day, it’s about self identification.”
Much like the efforts to reform Alabama’s state constitution, Chinhema says in order to move forward it is important to educate people about the nonexistence of biological race. “Each individual is our own race,” he said.
By Aaron Lovell