Raina McKinley and Donavin Whisler are two Black freshman graduate students at the Columbia College school of Cinema Arts and Sciences. They also serve as president and vice president of the Black Film Society at the school. The society has created a documentary called Black Sheep. The film's director, McKinley—who identifies as genderqueer—said it is a film with a purpose.
"I've been hearing from other Black students [in the film program] that their work isn't being recognized," she said. "They are getting pushed aside in their classes." McKinley said she is the only Black student in one of her film classes. The curriculum has yet to cover the work of any Black directors and, according to McKinley, she had to give up an idea for a documentary about queer women of color and social media in favor of a film about hockey.
Whisler said that, in her class, the percentage of Black students is extremely low. She said that she wanted to film a documentary about either hip-hop culture or gender norms in the Black community. "We were supposed to partner up with people who had similar ideas," she said. "No one volunteered to work with me so now I have to drop both of my ideas to work with two other people on something else. I can't do something relevant to the Black experience."
McKinley said that she doesn't believe the department's curriculum contains any diversity at all. "Your professors get to choose a lot of what we screen in class," she said. "The only film with a person of color that I know of that's been screened is Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which everyone has already seen. In fact any other kind of project that's not a white male director is not brought up in class."
Vaun Monroe is the assistant professor in the Arts and Sciences Department and teaches screenwriting, directing and film studies. He said that there is only one other Black instructor in a faculty that includes 20 tenured members. "It's difficult to be a professor of color," Monroe said. "There's a bias in the tenure track that eliminates worthy professors of color and women from being able to take their rightful place in the faculty."
Monroe said that, while the students of the film program are an increasingly multicultural group, the curriculum has stayed the same. "It doesn't reflect these demographics in the content of the curriculum," he said.
By way of example, Monroe talked about filmmaking classes where students are paired up to work in teams. "What has been found is that good ideas put forth by Black students are routinely relegated to the scrap heap," he said.
The Black Film Society hosted a roundtable event to discuss the issues that African-American students face in Columbia's film program. "We talked about a lot of experiences people have had with discrimination, being overlooked, pushed aside, not having help with their projects." McKinley noted. Black Sheep documented that discussion. "We are giving our peers a voice through this film," she added.
"These are not isolated incidents," Whisler insisted. "It's widespread."
The society invited Kwang-Wu Kim, D.M.A, president and CEO of Columbia College, to a screening of the Black Sheep documentary on Feb. 26 along with of the film department chair Bruce Sheridan and Vice President of Student Affairs Mark Kelly. This is the second time the society has attempted to screen the film for faculty members.
Monroe said that he wants to see that each of the demands for department equality set forth in the student's documentary are met. "I think they are reasonable in what they have asked for," he stated. "Columbia says that they want their filmmakers to be the authors of their time and to make change. I think it's brilliant that our film students use their filmmaking abilities to ask for something that they feel is missing from the program. They pay the same tuition that everyone else does."
"I came to Columbia because their huge thing was diversity," said McKinley. "I believe I found it in the overall college atmosphere but not at all in the film department."
Monroe—who has been with the school for six years—said that both he and the students love Columbia. "I think it's a fantastic film program, but they have a blind spot that needs to be addressed," he said. "If Columbia wants to be inclusive then they should welcome getting this information to help facilitate making the changes that they say they're about."
McKinley agreed. "The program doesn't represent the students that it has. I think the school is great and when you love something that much you don't leave it. You try to make it better."
While Sheridan could not be reached for comment, a representative from Columbia confirmed that Kim would be attending the screening.
