Indians, other immigrants caught in Hollywood’s climate of hats

BY RADHIKA CHAUDHARI

Los Angeles, May 23 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), primarily known to the world as the organisation that gives out the Golden Globes every year, is a small, privileged group. Started in 1943 by a small group of foreigners in Hollywood, who loved films and wanted to write about them to form a bridge between Hollywood and the respected countries, it was always intended to be a boutique association.

Today, the Association has around 90 members, all of them senior journalists aged 50 to 96, with a 50-per cent representation for women. From the Indian perspective, HFPA has three Indian members, all of them identifying as immigrants, in the US to make a living, as most Indians in the country do. There are other foreign origin members from nations such as Bangladesh, Denmark, China and France among others.

Unfortunately, Indians in Hollywood at large, along with other immigrants have been wrongly dragged into the current controversy that surrounds HFPA -- one that started when Time's Up demanded reform in the Association a few days ahead of the Golden Globe Awards over the lack of diversity among deciding members. It set off a movement that saw, among other things, Tom Cruise return the three Globes he won in his lifetime and NBC announce it would not air the Golden Globes next year. The hashtag #TIMESUPGlobes that was launched had this slogan: "Hollywood Foreign Press Association: Not a Single Black Member Out of 87". Worse, while the omission of Blacks has rightly been noted, it turned out there has been no Black member in decades.

A climate of hate seeped into Hollywood culture. A group of public relations people headed by Kelly Bush of IDPR wants HFPA to reform or disappear altogether. In this, Indians and other immigrants have ended up at the wrong end of the firing line.

The whole problem started when a Norwegian journalist, Kjersti Flaa sued HFPA for not getting accepted as a member. Using her closeness with a member of the Association, she leaked information pertaining to HFPA to Los Angeles Times. The newspaper published a long article.

It was at this time that Time's Up found an opportunity to attack HFPA. The Time's Up image was faltering because they had their own set of scandals. The charitable money that was coming into Time's Up was diverted to fattening the salaries of their CEOs, and 18 of their staff walked out because their pleadings to be heard about in-house harassment were not answered by the CEOs.

At this point IDPR, the publicists for Time's Up, corralled around 100 publicists and they went on a frenzied "hate immigrant" rant to see that these diverse groups of immigrants -- Indians included -- bow to their almost ridiculous demands.

Anyone with integrity who suggests reforms would meet in person with any organisation and discuss. The PR people till date have not sent even one representative to discuss the issues they have with HFPA.

The situation is damaging for Indians, as all other immigrants, because they have totally shut down the opportunities for this little group of immigrants to earn a living. The industry is under the impression that the inclusion of one Black member in this diverse group would better the image of HFPA. Funnily, the PR firms hardly employ any Black people.

Time's Up stands for defending women at workplaces. The HFPA's female members outnumber their male counterparts. Yet, they want all the members to resign and rejoin the Association after a year. Suddenly, the movement that defends women has no guilt about putting women members out of work.

Don't they realise that their jobs are at stake? Not to mention the majority of HFPA are senior citizens. Those journalists who freelance with certain papers will be let go. It is simply a question of demand and supply. Time's Up demanding this proposal gives their memorandum no credibility.

With pressure from Time's Up, the studios have joined the chorus of immigrant bashing, depriving hard working journalists from earning their livelihood. Time's Up has in its movement Shonda Rhimes (American television producer and screenwriter, best known as the showrunner-creator of the popular show "Grey's Anatomy"), who has a deal with Netflix. She probably pressured the head of Netflix to step in and boycott HFPA. He, too, when invited, did not want to meet face to face with HFPA to discuss the problems.

Once the floodgates were opened by Netflix, other studios were sucked into the flow, demanding reforms at HFPA. This is a strange phenomenon as through the years they courted HFPA to gain the coveted Golden Globe and thus put their winners on a pathway to the Oscars. In contemplating this whole scenario something does not smell right.

Changes for the better were being made by HFPA, but when they were announced, as was expected, the collective group shouted in chorus that the changes were not enough, even before they were implemented, also stating they were not being implemented in a quicker fashion. It's like a film producer, whose schedule to shoot a film is four weeks, being asked to complete it in a week.

From the Indian perspective, here is a moot question. The demands from Time's Up are organisational. Since when did they become a movement of bullying a small group of diverse journalists who are immigrants?

If you look at the history of the nominations by HFPA, you will find many Black people and some first-time nominations. For example, Ava DuVernay was put on the road to success by being nominated for her film "Selma" as Best Director at the Golden Globes. At which time she was overjoyed but today she has joined the Time's Up movement and snickers and bashes the very people that set her on the path to success.

When she was not nominated, DuVernay also started bashing minority, immigrant journalists. So where are her true sentiments? She used to be a PR person and knows how to use those skills.

There were some PR people who have claimed that HFPA does not see all Black films presented to them. Talking to an HFPA member I learnt that if they miss watching a film of any ethnicity or genre, they watch it via a link or a DVD. In making this accusation, the PR person said that they miss an opportunity to publicise some of the minor talents who have potential to climb up the ladder in their profession. What would make more sense is for the publicist to take these actors under their wings without payment and promote them, as they certainly have the power to make these actors known to the public.

Anyone who knows the media, knows that a journalist writes what is demanded and considered sellable by the editor of their outlet. So why don't the PR people follow the footsteps of HFPA instead of insisting on tokenism, and do something for the communities at large.

For Indians, as a part of the minority Immigrant group involved in HFPA, it would seem that there is more to play here than just reform and inclusion of Blacks. It appears that they would prefer this small group of immigrants, who have carved a niche for themselves to carry a certain clout in the industry, to disappear.

This is an American issue at its core. The big question is, why are immigrants like Indians being dragged into the controversy?

(The writer is an independent producer who lives and works in Los Angeles. The views expressed are personal)

Source: IANS