The decision of the US distributor to change the cover art to feature Chris O'Dowd, who is a supporting character in the movie and move the four main Aboriginal characters to the back is doing the movie a huge injustice. Changing cover arts across different regions is not something new. It has been done for years. The issue here is how it was handled. I understand that it might be a commercial decision to put Chris O'Dowd as the featured character because he might have better market pulling power than the four Aboriginal Australian actresses. However the question here is whether the move is respecting the movie itself and whether this change is compromising the integrity of the movie, and to an extent false advertising?
The fact is
"The Sapphires" is not completely unknown to the American audience.
Ellen Degeneres has been featuring and promoting this movie in her show in many
occasions. Both Chris O'Dowd and Jessica Mauboy had made appearances on the
Ellen show to talk about the movie and Ellen was very outspoken about her love
for the movie. Under such circumstance it is strange the US distributor decided
to make such changes. What even further baffles me was that "The
Sapphires" has a strong theme of battling racism and sexism in the 60s and
70s but the cover art change is exactly exhibiting the same in 2013.
At the time of
writing the original Sapphires has written a public letter protesting this and trying to lobby
a boycott of the DVD. They were proud of the movie, proud of the four
aboriginal actors who portrayed them but are disgusted about the cover change.
They stated that the movie represents everything they fought against in their
lives. Chris O'Dowd has also publicly criticised the move and claimed that this
is not something he would like to see happening. The other actors have not made
a public stand yet but most Australians know that both Deborah Mailman and
Jessica Mauboy are very proud of their Aboriginality. They were involved in
different important projects such as "Radiance", "Bran Nue
Dae", "Rabbit Proof Fence", "Mabo" etc. Deborah
Mailman also co-wrote the important theatrical piece "The 7 Stages of
Grieving", which was Shari Sebbens' agent's day's piece when she
graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) because she wanted
to tell people who she is. I am sure none of the four actresses would be impressed
by this DVD cover.
I do not know what
were the true intentions behind this change. Is it just commercially driven? Is
it out of ignorance? Or is it a combination of both? No matter what were the
motives behind these changes, from different angles this is still a huge disrespect
to the movie. I don't know whether any consultations were made but huge
insensitivity was with no doubt on display. The fact is if this didn't happen
with "The Dreamgirls" why should it happen with "The
Sapphires"? This is not about the marketability between Beyonce and
Jessica Mauboy but about the essence of the movies - what they are trying to
tell us.
I hope the debate would
trigger people to think better and deeper about these issues. I do not like to
cry foul on racism and sexism every time something happened but I am a strong believer
of respect and sensitivity for this is a way to achieve "world
peace". By this I am not saying we need to tip toe around these issues but
to take proactive steps to understand them so we are more informed and aware of
our behaviours. I wish the US distributor would eventually back in but
otherwise I am sure the Australian online retailers would be more than happy to
step in to provide a better and more respectful service.
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