PARIS: Where are the French Denzel Washingtons, Forest Whitakers, Wesley Snipes or Halle Berrys?
France s silver screen is still overwhelmingly and despairingly white, say advocates of diversity in French film who are at a loss to explain the industry s resistance to offer star roles to black actors.
American blockbusters with stars like Will Smith are a smash success in France, said Amirouche Laidi, president of Averroes, an association that seeks to raise the profile of minorities in the media.
The public has no problem with blacks on screen so why are French productions so white?
Since its creation last year, a special commission of France s national film board has injected ?4.6 million ($7.3 million) to support 175 productions that show diversity in French society.
None of these documentaries, films and shows starring black and Arab faces, however, will be shown on private television networks that draw the biggest audiences.
Where is the French Cosby show ? said the president of the commission Alexandre Michelin.
The big media businesses have to start asking themselves questions. Why are they supporting so few of these projects? said Michelin.
When black actors do land a part in a French film, they are often confined to a stereotype of a down-and-out character or worse, a thug, said Patrick Lozes, head of a black rights group.
When do you see a scene of a black manager having breakfast with his wife and children before heading off to work? asked Lozes, president of the Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN).
Such scenes of happiness are just off-limits to blacks and other minorities in France today, he said.
Filmmaker Eliane de Latour, a French woman who has produced several films on Africa, laments that financing, production and distribution problems arise in France as soon as the leading roles are held by blacks.
It s not racism but rather nervousness: producers and distributors are convinced that these films just won t work.
While theatre and television have made some room for more black actors, cinema has remained closed off to them, said Latour.
Former acting school director Anne Jacqueline said aspiring black and Arab actors all wonder whether they will be able to thrive in the business.
In the early 90s, there was no work for an actor who was not white, regardless of their skills or talent, said Jacqueline.
They were just too dark. Many gave up. It s hard to be constantly rejected.
No one was investing in films with North African actors until comic Djamel Debbouze starting pushing the barriers, starring in the successful television series H in the late 1990s, said Latour.
Debbouze later went on to star in the box-office hit Amelie and won acclaim at the Cannes film festival for Indigenes (Days of Glory).
Two other films have been rewarded for shining a spotlight on north African immigrants and France s multiculturalism.
The Class , a film shot in a rough Parisian classroom picked up the Palme d Or prize at this year s Cannes film festival, the first homegrown French movie in two decades to claim the coveted top prize.
La Graine et le Mulet (The Secret of the Grain) by Tunisian-born filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche stole the show at the Cesar awards, taking the awards for best film, director and original screenplay.
Hafsi Herzi, a 21-year-old French actress born to Tunisian parents, won the Cesar award for breakthrough actress. -AFP
