It seems only in academia can one find a “privilege” about virtually anything, and a University of Rochester professor is proving it.
The Art & Art History Department’s Sharon Willis was featured on the university’s Newscenter site earlier this month to discuss so-called “visual privilege” in the film industry.
Willis said she likes to pay attention to the point of view “that the camera invites [her] to occupy” — that is, who is “visually privileged”:
“I also pay attention to the ways editing moves us from one scene to another, or breaks up a given scene. I think about what kinds of space it gives characters to occupy, how it frames them in relation to each other, and how it adjusts focus to privilege some figures over others.”
The professor’s book, “The Poitier Effect: Racial Melodrama and Fantasies of Reconciliation,” details how film star Sidney Poitier “represented racial reconciliation and reciprocal respect,” but his roles actually served to be
[…] a function of white wishful thinking about race relations. [The effect] represents a dream of achieving racial reconciliation and equality without any substantive change to the white world. This notion of change without change conforms smoothly with a fantasy of colorblindness, a culture in which difference makes no difference.
Willis was queried about this “Poitier Effect” in current films, i.e. where stories are told from a “white narrator’s point of view.”
It’s the genius of Get Out that it grabs its viewer right from the beginning. It recruits us into alignment with Chris [the protagonist, a young African American played by Daniel Kaluuya] as he anxiously navigates a white, suburban neighborhood. We’re quickly recruited into a position of high anxiety about white people and their property. And that does not abate. We endure psychic torment along with Chris, and I think that’s eye opening.
The prof noted she got her wish with her preferred Oscar winners; she was pulling for Jordan Peele and Frances McDormand.
According to her bio page, Willis has taught courses such as “Race and Gender in Popular Film,” “Intro to Visual and Cultural Studies,” and “Classical Film Theory.” Her areas of specialization include feminist theory, and comparative literature and critical theory.
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