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Documentary explores black representation in Italian film

Actress Iris Peynado appears in Fred Kuwornu’s “Blaxploitalian.” PHOTO COURTESY FRED KUWORNU

“Blaxploitation” is the assignment of people of color to stereotyped roles, most specifically in cinema. Although it’s a term coined in the early 1970s United States, the issue isn’t exclusive to American film and television.

“Blaxploitalian: 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema,” a documentary exploring the issue of blaxploitation in Italy, screened on Thursday at the “National Identity, Multiculturalism in Contemporary Italy” event at the Boston University Photonics Center.

Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, an Italian-Ghanaian activist and the director of the film, was also in attendance, and he conducted a Q&A session about his work.

“Many people, especially when they’re kids, can’t imagine their full identity because the images that society gives are negatively stereotyped,” Kuwornu said to the audience.

Kuwornu himself is an Italian person of color and grew up with poor representation of his race. His first exposure to black people on television was through foreign sports players and characters on American shows like 1970s “Diff’rent Strokes,” and he found himself wondering why there were no black Italian actors.

The answer to his question, which he explores in “Blaxploitalian,” dates back to Italian colonialism in Africa. The documentary explains that native African women were seen as exotic sex objects and African men were seen as unintelligent and uncivilized, he said.

The casting of black people in Italian films followed these stereotypes and, to some extent, Italian actors of color have never escaped these narrow typecasts, he said.

“The media needs a change of mindset,” Kuwornu said to the crowd. “Having more diversity in media means more harmony in society between social groups.”

In “Blaxploitalian,” contemporary black Italian actors such as Salvatore Marino and Bobby Rhodes describe the difficulties they face in finding representative, non-stereotyped roles in Italian movies and TV shows.

“Something that I found super interesting is how [an actor] didn’t want to be victimized and he didn’t want to play the victim,” said Angelica Benaim, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. “I think that is actually a very interesting point of view because that’s not the point of view that minorities are taking in America and I consider myself one of those minorities.”

Benaim grew up in Italy and said that “Blaxploitalian” illustrated an aspect of international race issues often ignored in the Americas: the differences between American and European racism.

She explained that race-related issues in Europe are often more related to ideas of nationalism rather than subjugation based on race itself, as countries like Italy didn’t enslave black people in the same manner as was done in the United States.

“[Italians’] take on things that maybe Trump said about the Islamic community or different races in America or even the disabled community are completely different,” said Giuseppe Leonelli, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Benaim and Leonelli attended the “Blaxploitalian” screening together and said they agreed with Kuwornu’s message of the importance of increasing diversity in film, both in front and behind the camera.

“A lot of the things we do habitually and don’t realize we’re doing,” Leonelli said. “You’re born into a system where you’re not a minority, you don’t realize unless it’s shown to you. Having movies like this make you see those things.”

Films like “Blaxploitalian” are steps toward this increased representation in the media worldwide, said Cathie Jo Martin, a BU political science professor who helped to present the event on Thursday.

“We have these white nationalists now saying things that they never would’ve been allowed to say in the past and these strongmen rising all over the world,” Martin said. “It’s really demoralizing.”

Despite this, Kuwornu said that steps toward greater minority representation are being taken. He referenced “Moonlight,” the Oscar-winning film that starred a black male lead and explored that character’s sexuality.

Access to technology and social media also helps representation, especially when it comes to young people who can easily share their creative ventures, he said.

“I hope that this moment of instability, of fear, will produce a new way for a better humanity,” Kuwornu said. “The solution is not in Trump or other politicians because this generation of people have the good will to try to fix the [issues] of the time.”

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