MacArthur ‘Genius’ Jacqueline Stewart on collecting evidence of Hollywood’s racism

“I came to the [Academy] museum because it has a mission that aligns with the goals that I had as a film scholar, which is to make film history as inclusive as possible,” says Jacqueline Stewart.

“I came to the [Academy] museum because it has a mission that aligns with the goals that I had as a film scholar, which is to make film history as inclusive as possible,” says Jacqueline Stewart. Photo by MacArthur Foundation (CC BY 4.0).

One of the newest MacArthur “Geniuses” is Jacqueline Stewart, who uncovers and preserves the lost contributions of Black filmmakers, and aims to make history more inclusive. She’s now the head of programming at LA’s new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

On films that negatively portray African Americans, she says, “If we suppress them because they're painful or problematic, then we also can't call Hollywood to task for these histories. … I think that it's really important to have the evidence of Hollywood's mistreatment of Black people both on screen and off screen.”

Also, following Frances Haugen’s testimony before U.S. senators, the nation is again discussing how the government could regulate tech companies like Facebook. The feds are meanwhile reassessing how it helps people insure their homes, factoring climate risk into the cost of government-backed plans.

Finally, Press Play talks to actress Noomi Rapace and director Valdimar Jóhannsson about their new thriller film “Lamb.

From this Episode:

Credits

Host:

Madeleine Brand

Producers:

Sarah Sweeney, Angie Perrin, Michell Eloy, Amy Ta, Brian Hardzinski, Bennett Purser, Nihar Patel