Jeffrey Wright in Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction (2023)
Why this story? Why you? Why now?
It’s frustrating to think that the answer cannot be - purely for the fun of the story.
I think if you’re a filmmaker of color, these questions are triggering at best and soul crushing at worst. Impostor syndrome already puts many of us on the back-heel. So, imagine trying to justify the necessity of a joyful communal experience that isn’t told from a caucasian perspective. We’re simply not allowed to.
The fact is that these questions begin to appear as soon as a filmmaker or screenwriter begins their journey. Almost every fellowship application asks some form of it. I remember being in a writing group where a guest speaker shared their essay that got them into a highly competitive TV writing program. It wasn’t the first essay from a writer of color that I read at the time as we share them in these communities, on the theory that rising tides are supposed to lift all ships after all. Aside from solid essay writing and unique life experiences, there was a common thread:
Almost all of them were anchored in cultural or racial trauma.
Essentially, if you are a person of color and you’re not telling stories about immigration, suffering, poverty, then somehow there is a misalignment. How dare you tell nuanced stories? Take your diverse, happy middle-class narrative elsewhere, are you even a person of color?
When I watched Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, I felt seen. And then nothing changed. Here is a film that answers those questions and even holds a mirror up to it. Good job Cord, they said, here’s an award, they said. Now move along back to TV land, we’ve got white films to make they said (not so quietly).
Perhaps I am wrong though. After all, there were only three Hangover films. In a 2025 interview, Zach Galifianakis said about a possible fourth film: "I don't think people care". Did they in June 2009, when the first film came out? In the midst of the Great Recession? Did they, when part 2 was released in May 2011, during the rise of Tea Party politics? Or May 2013, when the third installment was released before the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of an unarmed Black teenager?
back at the start of Obama’s historic first term in ‘09, or during the rise of Tea Party politics in ‘11 or perhaps during the July acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of an unarmed Black teenager in 2013?
I’m not arguing that screenwriters and filmmakers of color should unleash a never-ending fountain of Harold and Kumar films. I’m suggesting, instead, to consider letting us make films we actually want to make without the need to justify our joy the way we’re never asked to justify our suffering.
Joy is the answer too.