Since the controversy surrounding the creation of the SLĀV and Kanata shows five years ago, visible minority artists are taking the stage in Quebec theaters more than ever. In cinemas, however, her presence is sawtooth-changing, reveals unreleased data compiled by Le Devoir.
“We feel that theaters have taken this issue more radically. Unfortunately, things are progressing less quickly in cinema, where few projects raise the average,” remarks the President of the Artists’ Union, Tania Kontoyanni, looking at our numbers. According to her, in the cultural milieu we can still speak of a “before and after” of SLĀV and Kanata.
Five years ago, these two plays by director Robert Lepage sparked a heated debate about cultural appropriation and the place of visible minorities in local cultural productions. The first, SLĀV, was inspired by the songs of African American slaves but had only two black actresses out of six. The second, Kanata, was intended to be a reinterpretation of “the history of Canada through the prism of white-Aboriginal relations” but did not feature a single Aboriginal actor.
In 2020, Le Devoir had measured the impact of the controversy and found that the proportion of visible minority actors, directors, directors and writers in cinema and theater almost doubled between 2017 and 2019. But what about today? Are the efforts in these circles continuing?
Our team repeated the exercise for 2022, using the same methodology, examining the programming of seven theaters and the credits of the 10 most popular feature films of the year. Despite the limitations of this type of exercise, the numbers compiled are nonetheless revealing.
In the theater sector, 21% of the directors, authors and actors of the ensembles surveyed belonged to visible minorities in the 2022-2023 season. This proportion was 14% in 2018-2019 and 9% in 2017-2018.
In cinema, according to the analysis of the 10 most-watched films in 2022, 11.5% of screenwriters, directors and actors belong to visible minorities. A proportion that has more than doubled from the pre-SLĀV and Kanata days when there were only 4% visible minority artists. But that’s significantly less than 2019, when we ended up with a share of 18.7%.
Interesting Fact: The Canadian government defines “visible minority” as all “persons other than Aboriginal people who are not of white race or colour”. For our exercise we have included the Aborigines in this definition.
According to Statistics Canada’s 2021 census, 16.1% of Quebec’s population identify with one of the visible minorities, and the province is home to 2.5% of the Indigenous population.
We feel that theaters have taken this issue more radically. Unfortunately, things don’t go so fast in the cinema.
Theater on the right track
“We’ve really gone elsewhere, which I find very encouraging,” comments Aboriginal actor Charles Bender.
According to him, since the Quebec Theater Council (CQT) convention in 2015, there has already been a movement for more diversity in theatre. The SLĀV and Kanata affair made it possible to bring these issues to the attention of the entire population and to accelerate change.
“Community members are more sensitive to everyone’s realities, we ask ourselves questions about our way of doing things at every stage of creation.” We’re going in the right direction,” adds CQT Co-President Rachel Morse. However, she believes there is still much work to be done to make the environment even more inclusive.
She points to the imbalance between one theater institution and another. “Some people need time. We have launched a cultural appropriation toolkit [la semaine dernière]it’s something that can help them initiate that change,” she hopes.
If the proportion of visible minorities among the authors or directors in the theater has been increasing steadily since 2017, it is progressing much more slowly than among the performers. However, according to Charles Bender, we still need to look beyond on-stage distribution. “There is still a lot to be done to give the creations of visible minorities more space,” he pleads.
“The rooms to accommodate them are there, the broadcasters are there, and so are the viewers. Now we have to give them the time and the means to create something. We need to encourage the next generation and increase the pool of native or diverse creators,” he emphasizes, recalling that the pandemic has prevented more than one from continuing in this area.
The cinema behind
As for cinema, the portrait is a little less brilliant considering that according to our study, in 2022 the percentage of visible minorities on screen has decreased. “It shows that the projects really matter and that this desire to create space for diversity is not generalized,” comments Tania Kontoyanni. Among the films analyzed are “White Dog” and “23. December” actually upwards on average.
The President of the UDA still sees an improvement since the SLĀV and Kanata affair. “Today, there are greater concerns about this issue. We see it for the roles, and we should now see it on the writing and directing side as well,” she adds, responding to our numbers showing that in 2022 – in the list of films analyzed – no production a screenwriter or director had visible minorities.
Singer-songwriter Ricardo Lamour invites us to look beyond the numbers: “Yes, there is greater representation.” [des minorités] on stage and on screen, but what is the quality of their experience? Black people — and the same goes for other visible minorities — rarely get lead roles, he notes. According to him, they still find themselves in many stereotypical roles or are offered small roles just to show that a production is inclusive.
“The place of black people in the culture industry remains very fragile. […] Even when they have found a place, many first think about what they can really say about a production. […] I expect more from our midfield, we can really do better. »
With Sandrine Vieira, Alex Fontaine, Janie Dussault and Charles-Olivier L’Homme