I had the pleasure of reading through this article on Variety about a new Netflix animated show, "Spirit Rangers", and I was so encouraged to see the showrunner pursuing an all-Native writer's room! Particularly because there was still diversity within the solidarity - some had been raised on a reservation, others had not, some had been adopted out - all providing depth to an otherwise marginalized people. I love it, but what do you think?
So, my question for you, my dear Stage32 Producers, is - when hiring writers, what aspect of solidarity vs. diversity is a priority to you? How does this play into what Chris Mack alluded to in the Netflix Pitch Workshop, that Netflix is looking for more "local" stories?
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/netflix-spirit-rangers-karissa-valencia...
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Chris Greenaway I tend to agree with you, after nearly 3 decades in the industry. We are almost never treated to diversity, we are almost always treated to white shows black shows, Asian shows and sometimes an ensemble cast - apartheid in the media. And in some ways, this falls within that. However, the question of "voice" is very important. And reading the article, it does seem to be a real effort to present a new voice to the audience, and that is both valuable and laudable.
The cultural voices Karissa Valencia is bringing to the show are some that America has never been permitted to see. But will they be permitted to write their stories in their way, or will it be shoehorned into a mainstream structure. Because "voice" is much more than hiring one ethnicity to write the story as dictated by another ethnicity. Culture is contained and articulated in modes of communication. How will this go into a standard episode time slot? The real question in my mind is, how will it be marketed by NetFlix? And for that, we have to wait til 2022. But if marketed as these usually are, it'll be something that is somehow flagged as of interest only to certain people, rather than something the whole audience should see.
With respect specifically to Native American voices - there is a clear tendency by all media including Netflix to think of it as a monolith. This is a fundamental error - the term Native Americans composes dozens, even hundreds, of different cultural groups - some very different. Karissa Valencia is trying to share some of her culture. But does Netflix or anyone else know or care? Will this be an opening to more actual inclusion? Or is it a momentary diverse-flavor-of-the-season where the industry says "see, we're diverse" and then goes on with business as usual? (I note that Rutherford Falls deals with Native American voices as well).
That brings me to Karen "Kay" Ross 's question on Chris Mack. I attended his recent seminar and to be brutally honest I got no impression that Netflix cares about any "local" voice other than as it may relate to their marketing efforts. Which are focused these days out of the USA and within the USA are focused away from mainstream or established market (as Netflix seems to feel it already has enough of that kind of content). I think that's pretty obvious.
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In an ideal world, every situation would look like a perfect melting pot of diverse individuals. However, it's not an ideal social world. We're still living in the shadow of white supremacy culture, which means there's still a need for oppressed folks to feel safe creating - one way to accomplish this is is with a writers room made up of predominantly (or completely) in-group members. I mean, there's been writers rooms full of white men since the dawn of time - there's still plenty of these. While I agree that exclusionary practices are not ideal, I don't mind seeing writers rooms made up of the voice of the characters of that show. I think we're still figuring out diversity in a wounded society, and it's likely we'll see lots of changes in best practices over the coming years.