Resource Round-Up

A selection of books that are not without various critiques.

Books and Resources.

This post was previously sent out as a newsletter. If you sign up, you can receive posts early too, every now and then.

I wrote my editorial calendar for 2020 long before either the Covid-19 pandemic, or the economic downturn, or the Black Lives Matter movement for social justice took off. Last month – July – was set to be a resource round-up post about new books about film and working in film. At the time, I figured people might want some light summer reading. Ha!

Many people around the country and the world are focusing on anti-racism self-education and readings. Rather than reiterate those lists of recommended books, I’m going to post a couple of links below to comprehensive resources, and mindful critiques of those resources. I’m currently listening to “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X. Kendi, a deeply researched history of scholarly thinking and writing about concepts of race, and how this wrongheaded, unscientific nonsense has informed racist discourse and actions in the USA and the world. It’s full of jaw-droppingly infuriating stuff we didn’t learn about in school, but should have. Even this writer is not free from controversy within the BLM movement.

One of the easiest ways to educate yourself is this series of free courses on becoming a better ally from LinkedIn – easy because they are relatively short videos that you can listen to as easily as watch. Available for free until August.

Marie Forleo posted this excellent round up of a plethora of resources and actionables.

The White Nonsense Roundup Facebook group is an excellent place for critical and action-focused education about being anti-racist for white people.

Here is a daily action newsletter – Anti-Racism Daily. Financial support welcomed.

Edited to Add:
Here is a resource about mental health issues affecting the Black community.

This education is like peeling an infinite onion. There is always the next thing to discover. First it was understanding concepts of white privilege, and by extension other aspects of privilege, then the ideas of Racism as systemic rather than personal, then the concept of becoming antiracist because non-racist isn’t enough, and now the notion of the white gaze. But whenever I start to feel tired, I stop myself and imagine how much more exhausted black people must feel. I’m going to keep trying to learn more and do better. I get to feel glad that most of my stupid mistakes happen in the privacy of my home.

Let’s talk Entertainment industry.

Yes, we are reeling from the Covid-19 situation, especially live event producers who are likely to be some of the last to recover. Film production is making plans. Here is FilmLA’s Covid-19 resource site.

Tyler Perry has a well-publicized plan for restarting production post-Covid.

Here’s some history about Black-owned film production in the US.

This article contains some more historical details about race movies and some of the production companies mentioned in the prior article.

Here is a list of movies titles and where to watch them for free. (It’s not links to the films, but does contain some other links to further information.)

Stay safe out there. I’m still open for business, and I hope soon we will all be safely making films and living in a new, more equitable world.