Filmmakers who create films that seek social change or political reform havehistorically been told to worry about being perceived by the public as elitist,impractical, too negative, or too utopian.
New forms of digital media have createdrenewed opportunities for activists, social critics and other commentators to spreadtheir messages. Are audiences more receptive to films that demand urgent systemicchange today? Are audiences less inclined to dismiss such messages as dogmatic,pedantic or agenda-driven? Amazon Studios and Netflix have had a key role inpopularizing critically challenging, progressive material. Has digital streamingexpanded the limits of the public’s political imagination or are contemporary politicaldocumentaries just part of Netflix and Amazon’s niche marketing? Consider this in relationship to 13th and I Am Not Your Negro, films that attempt todisturb and disrupt what Robin DiAngelo’s calls “white fragility,” or ways ofresponding to race and racism that are actually implicit attempts to avoid engagingwith the impacts of structural racism. Reflect on the unique challenges andopportunities faced by filmmakers who create films that seek social change orpolitical reform today, and especially the visual techniques used by 13th and I Am NotYour Negro to rethink and reshape the documentary genre for the streaming age.