Now that the Covid-19 outbreak is nearly over, Hollywood has gone into overdrive producing movies and television projects.
One upcoming project about racial identity is sure to have tongues wagging.
For three years, Rebecca Hall had been struggling to find financing for her racial identity movie, Passing.
The movie’s premise — about minority women passing as white — was considered too controversial.
In 2018, Hall approached producing partners Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker, who had financially backed other films. They were blown away by Hall’s script and decided to back her directorial debut.
The film — starring Tessa Thompson (right) and Ruth Negga — is shot in black-and-white. It will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 30.
Thompson and Negga, who are both mixed race, explained why now is the perfect time for a film about women embracing their mixed-race heritage.
“As a British woman of Welsh and Nigerian parentage, I was struck by how resonant and contemporary the theme of Passing still is,” Thompson said. “Even in this moment as some of the old binaries break down or become more fluid, others remain stubbornly resistant.”
Negga added: “Being a mixed-race person, I think that it naturally informed Clare. Feelings of perhaps alienation, of being different, about trying to find your place. But it’s very hard for me to find distinct experiences. And even if I did, I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable articulating them because I think sometimes that’s one’s personal journey to a character, really.”
In a 2018 interview with Deadline, director Hall, who is also mixed race, said, “I came across the novel at a time when I was trying to reckon creatively with some of my personal family history, and the mystery surrounding my bi-racial grandfather on my American mother’s side. In part, making this film is an exploration of that history, to which I’ve never really had access.”
