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ABOUT THE ARTWORK Transición 1/3 is one of three murals by street artist DOURONE, installed in Gare du Nord Paris. Fabio Lopez, aka Dourone, born in Madrid and self-taught, describes his works as inspired by sentipensante, a style invented by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. His murals offer beautiful portraits that draw on sometimes highly charged building blocks from the past. In the context of this conference, this artwork poses questions about whether we can transform entertainment through changing who constructs the stories and images, and what it will mean to work through the legacies of exoticism that still shape the conventions of popular entertainment. For sponsorship of the 2017 Transforming Hollywood conference, please email Fred Bush at [email protected]. Visit us online at: www.transforminghollywood.tft.ucla.edu 7 D TRANSFORMING HOLLYWOOD 7 TH7_Program_1i.indd 4 10/10/16 6:58 PM DIVERSIFYING ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTED JOINTLY BY THE ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM AT OCTOBER 21, 2016 7THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND UCLA SCHOOL OF THEATER, FILM AND TELEVISION TH7_Program_1i.indd 1 10/10/16 6:58 PM SUSTAINING SPONSOR EVENT SPONSORS 7 TRANSFORMING HOLLYWOOD 7 TH7_Program_1i.indd 2 10/10/16 6:58 PM OCTOBER 21, 2016 ANNENBERG AUDITORIUM (ASC G26) ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM (ASC) SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 3502 WATT WAY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, CA REGISTRATION PANEL 1 PANEL 4 8:30 a.m.–9:00 a.m. WHY DOES INCLUSION MATTER? HOW DO WE MOVE WELCOME 10:15 a.m.–11:25 a.m. FROM STEREOTYPES TO Moderator: ROBESON TAJ FRAZIER, USC MORE COMPLEX CHARACTERS? 9:00 a.m.–9:20 a.m. 4:05 p.m.–6:20 p.m. ERNEST WILSON, Dean, Annenberg School PANEL 2 Moderator: MAUREEN RYAN, Variety of Communication and Journalism DENISE MANN, Head of the Producers WHAT ALTERNATIVES SPECIAL GUEST Program, UCLA School of Theater, Film DOES SOCIAL MEDIA OFFER? and Television 11:35 a.m.–1:00 p.m. A CONVERSATION WITH HENRY JENKINS, Provost Professor Moderator: DENISE MANN, UCLA TFT MELISSA ROSENBERG of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic 6:35 p.m.–7:15 p.m. Arts and Education, University of Southern LUNCH MELISSA ROSENBERG, Series Creator/ California 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Showrunner, Marvel’s Jessica Jones Dining options available on campus Moderators: HENRY JENKINS, USC and STATE OF THE FIELD STACY L. SMITH, USC 9:35 a.m.–10:05 a.m. PANEL 3 STACY L. SMITH, Director, Media, Diversity, HOW DO WE CHANGE THE SCRIPT? RECEPTION & Social Change Initiative, Associate 7:15 p.m.–8:30 p.m. 2:00 p.m.–3:50 p.m. Professor of Communication, University of Wallis Annenberg Hall Moderator: HENRY JENKINS, USC Southern California 1 TH7_Program_1i.indd 1 10/10/16 6:58 PM A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTORS THE PAST FEW YEARS IN AMERICA have been marked by heated debates around issues of diversity — from the politics surrounding radicalized police violence and the struggles around immigration reform to the battle for marriage equality — that have placed renewed emphasis on who is being represented through popular media — and how. Social media has created a space where minorities of all kinds are organizing online to advocate for new forms of entertainment content that more fully reflects their lived experiences. The debate around diversity in cinema has come to be short-handed by the hashtag #oscarssowhite, which points to the failure of the film industry to expand the range of stories told and the people employed. It also calls out the industry’s unwillingness to respect and acknowledge the accomplishments of filmmakers who do tell the stories of people of color. The hashtag #whitewashedOUT has similarly called attention to decisions that were made in Hollywood in 2015 to cast Caucasian actors in a number of high-profile Asian roles. One production even went so far as to consider using visual effects to make a white lead actress appear more Asian. (The idea was ultimately scrapped.) The response from the entertainment industry has been mixed: 2 TRANSFORMING HOLLYWOOD 7 TH7_Program_1i.indd 2 10/10/16 6:58 PM On the one hand, industry numbers measur ing diversity in front of and Rightfully, the quality of new representations is being hotly behind the camera have remained surprisingly static over time. On the debated, again taking advantage of the affordances of new media other hand, there have been many high-profile efforts to feature mixed- such as podcasts, blogs and social media. The struggles over diversity race and minority-centered casts on primetime television. are often brutal, whether it is the response of some white fans to the Kerry Washington, the star of ABC’s Scandal, was the first black news that last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens would feature a actress to be the lead in a dramatic TV series in three decades; her black stormtrooper or the thuggish #GamerGate backlash against success has led to the creation of more lead and supporting roles for feminist critics and programmers who were seeking to alter gender other black actresses in primetime serials. We are also seeing minority representations within computer and video games. experiences coming to the fore on sitcoms, including ABC’s Blackish and When more diverse representations do enter the mainstream Fresh Off the Boat, the CW’s Jane the Virgin and Netflix’s Master of None. of the entertainment industry, older models of “narrowcasting” or We are watching major comics publishers DC and Marvel embrace more “window dressing” (in the case of LGBT representations) seem to no female protagonists, including, most dramatically, an American Muslim longer describe the choices being made or their impact. So, Fox’s youth of Pakistani descent becoming Ms. Marvel. At the same time, some Empire has been one of the most successful primetime programs in the are beginning to look toward social media performers and entrepreneurs past five years, showing that minority-focused content can have wide who are modeling an alternative pathway for minority voices to gain crossover appeal to majority audiences. greater visibility within the culture. While these steps suggest that gender Rather than simply celebrate those still-rare instances where and race may be on the minds of casting directors and showrunners, they diverse representations breakthrough into mainstream visibility, we often do not address people with disabilities or the LGBT community. need to continue to question the persistence of genre conventions and — continued on following page “ CHANGING THE SCRIPT MEANS TELLING NEW STORIES.” OCTOBER 21, 2016 3 TH7_Program_1i.indd 3 10/10/16 6:58 PM “ MANY OF TODAY’S GENRE CONVENTIONS STILL — continued from previous page CARRY TRACES OF THEIR stereotypes that were shaped by decades of straight, white, able-bodied male dominance PREHISTORY IN 19TH AND over the entertainment industry. Changing EARLY 20TH CENTURY the script means telling new stories, but it also means rethinking the tropes and conceits that FORMS OF POPULAR shape entertainment across the board. Many AMUSEMENT” of today’s genre conventions still carry traces of their prehistory in 19th and early 20th century forms of popular amusement — from freak shows to minstrel performances, from pulp novels to exotic nightclub performances — that reflect the colonialist and racist thinking of their era. Challenging stereotypes means not just getting rid of toxic representations but also creating characters that embody a range of different perspectives and life experiences. As with our previous Transforming Hollywood conferences, we want to focus our attention on where change is taking place, bringing together key thinkers from industry, academia and the public sphere who have something to say in helping us to make sense of those changes. We also wanted to bring together multiple struggles over representation and inclusion around issues of race, sexuality, gender, disabilities and religion. Diversifying Entertainment will be a daylong public conversation about diversity, inclusion and entertainment, one which spans developments in television, film, comics and other popular media, and one which pays particular attention to the relationship between social and mass media as spaces where these debates are being staged. — Denise Mann, Henry Jenkins, Stacy L. Smith and Sangita Shresthova 4 TRANSFORMING HOLLYWOOD 7 TH7_Program_1i.indd 4 10/10/16 6:58 PM In February 2016, the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg released the Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity THE (CARD). The CARD report examined films, television and digital offerings of 10 major media companies from 2014-2015. Looking across gender, race/ethnicity and LGBT status, the study provides a look at what its author, STATE OF Dr. Stacy L. Smith, calls an “epidemic of invisibility” in media. Dr. Smith will present findings from the CARD report and her most recent studies to give attendees a glimpse of the current state of entertainment media and the THE FIELD progress still needed. SPEAKER STACY L. SMITH Director, Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Southern California OCTOBER 21, 2016 5 TH7_Program_1i.indd 5 10/10/16 6:58 PM STACY L. SMITH (Speaker) Dr. Stacy L. Smith is the founder and director of the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California where she is also an associate professor of commu- nication. Dr. Smith’s work examines gender, race, LGBT status and disability on screen and gender and race/ethnicity behind the camera in cinematic content as well as barriers and oppor- tunities facing women and people of color in the entertainment industry. She also conducts economic analyses related to diversity and the finan- cial performance of films. Dr. Smith has written more than 100 journal articles, book chapters and reports on content patterns and effects of the media.