A few days after the Superbowl, Paramount released the extended trailer of The Last Airbender movie.

Interspersed between the action-filled scenes previously seen in the Superbowl spot, audiences get their first chance to hear the Water Tribe siblings, Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) speak:



 
We also got our first glimpse of Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) from the Northern Water Tribe. Gabriel is thought to be the “actress of Italian, French, and Mexican heritage” described in Paramount’s letter to MANAA. On her personal site, Gabriel self-identifies as “White/Caucasian.”

Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) with Sokka (Jackson Rathbone)

The original Princess Yue and Sokka

Noah Ringer’s Tattoo in The Last Airbender (enhanced contrast)

I loved the characters in the story and I felt like I could be me inside this larger canvas of this very long-form movie [...] Cultural differences at the center. It has Buddhism, Hinduism, things I’m interested in.”
-M. Night Shyamalan, June 2008

I love martial arts and the Japanese culture. This particular piece has an intensely spiritual Buddhist substory that I really dug.”
-M. Night Shyamalan, April 2008

Despite such statements, could these alterations mean that he has chosen to incorporate more Christian imagery into the story?

We will see if these changes are part of new analogies between the role of the Avatar and that of more Western religious figures.

I’ve had enough movies now that I know that it’s really about the consistency and the integrity of the work. There will be some that have huge successes box-office wise and some lesser, but the consistency of being honest to myself as an artist, the integrity is felt by the audience.

You can feel it when somebody is chasing the audience or sold out in some way when they did something they didn’t 100-percent believe in.”
-M. Night Shyamalan, June 2008

Check out this video by special contributor Gracie! She takes examples of yellowface throughout history and follows it all the way to its modern incarnations. The imagery here is worth a thousand words.

• Racebending in 60 seconds
• How to Talk about Racebending (in 5 minutes)
• Professionals and Fans React
• Yellowface: A Documentary (trailer)

UGO has released the first look at The Last Airbender movie’s Super Bowl ad.



The Super Bowl spot reminds us of what the movie could have meant. A large budget film portraying heroes of color in a positive light.

Instead, it shows the continuing Hollywood tradition of whitewashing – which is itself a direct descendant of practices of blackface and yellowface. The bottom-line is that this production, from the very first casting call, worked to marginalize and exclude performers of color.

There is a persistent myth and belief that actors of color cannot carry films. This bias has been apparent for decades, since the era of Charlie Chan – the most popular film character of the 1930s, based on an actual Asian American police officer… played by a Caucasian actor in yellowface:

A new video series on how to talk about Racebending.

Having trouble explaining to people why you feel so passionately about The Last Airbender film?

Frustrated by the people you meet who mean well but don’t understand?

Watch this series – it’s less than five minutes altogether. We hope it helps!

(Now with subtitle/transcripts provided by Racebending.com volunteer Maddy!)

Introduction: What We’re Talking About

Talking about the Last Airbender Casting can be tough. Folks are passionate on both sides. Fans excited for the film can’t wait to see their beloved series on the big screen. For these fans, race doesn’t seem like a big deal. It’s… just a movie!

So how do you talk about to people about Airbender?

First: Stay Calm. If you can’t be reasonable, the discussion is pointless. Don’t attack people. Implying someone is racist, isn’t going to help anybody.

Second: Know When to Walk Away. You run into a guy like this–

[live action video clip of a man outside] “Let me throw that back on you guys then, why are you in the United States?”

–and reasonable discussion is impossible. Drop it and focus on reaching out to open minds. The real goal is to find common ground.

The Racebending.com stance can be summed up in three parts:

1) The original characters are people of color.
2) The film production favored Caucasian actors, and
3) Paramount shouldn’t profit.

Hey, isn’t Aang white?!

So let’s start with the first one: Ethnicity of the original characters. Everyone agrees that the original series was heavily based on Asian and Inuit culture. The creators have repeatedly stated such, and even mandated that all writing on the show be accurately rendered in Chinese.

It’s agreed that Sokka and Katara are people of color. Parents in the Racebending movement have repeatedly told us what a rare and wonderful chance it was for their kids to see heroes of color on television.

Some are confused about Aang. The animé influenced art-style would imply Japanese ethnicity to Japanese viewers, but for many in the US, the style implies white, unless the skin-tone is darkened. It would be totally freaky to see an actual person rendered in animé proportions, so we feel it’s better to look at culture context.

As debate continued, series co-creator Bryan Konietzko, published this official Nickelodeon poster, which helped clarify Aang’s ethnic appearance. Even so, folks don’t have to agree on the race of Aang to agree that Paramount has some messed up casting practices.

Didn’t they choose the most talented actors?

The published cast calls for the main roles, Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko, requested applicants who were “caucasian or any other ethnicity.” This is a matter of public record, and Paramount admits to the language used.

The initial four actors chosen were all white, until the actor playing the antagonist was replaced by Dev Patel. From then on, cast calls for all villainous Fire Nation extras were asked to be Near Eastern, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean, and Latino. Effectively, non-white with a dark complexion. Further, every significant Fire Nation role has been given to an actor of colour, except for a previous incarnation of the heroic Avatar, who was cast white.

If race really doesn’t matter, why is it showing up in every major cast call for the film? And who made the decision that heroes, originally steeped in Asian and Inuit culture, should receive predominantly Caucasian applicants, while the villains should be cast with dark complexions?

It’s all business

Paramount doesn’t deserve to profit from these casting practices. Opportunities for Asian American actors are extremely rare, even when a role is based on real-life Asian Americans, such as in 21, Hollywood selects white actors. Even for Dragon Ball’s Goku, the Japanese equivalent of Superman, the American film cast white leads. Hollywood believes Americans can relate to giant transforming robots, kung-fu pandas, and blue aliens, but executives have trouble believing people of colour can carry films.

Fifteen years ago, Samuel L. Jackson remarked that casting black actors was still strange for Hollywood. Today, Will Smith is the number one box office star in the United States. At the same time, actors like Bruce Lee and John Cho are seen as rare anomalies, the exceptions to the rule that Asian faces don’t sell in America.

Hollywood takes a while to figure it out, but they can learn, especially when consumers speak up. In a perfect world, roles would go to the most talented people. But as it stands, Hollywood writes casting calls favouring white actors. From The Last of the Mohicans, to the Prince of Persia, whites are deemed the most capable of portraying stories about people of colour.

Paramount hasn’t faired well in the recession. They’ve invested heavily in The Last Airbender’s profits, especially for the opening weekend. This it the perfect chance to help Hollywood see that Americans care about fair and equal casting.

If you’re having trouble viewing the videos, try the Facebook version:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=580343969004

Can’t get enough? Check out our five-minute video series that summarizes the Racebending.com stance in greater detail.

If you want to learn even more, be sure to check out:

• Racebending in Five Minutes, a video series that reviews the Racebending.com stance.
• The Last Airbender Primer, an in-depth look at the casting decisions and the Racebending movement.
• How children perceive race (5 min video), which reveals how children feel about skin color.
• Get our OFFICIAL SHIRTS at BlackLava.
• “Yellow Face” Trailer, a powerful two minutes.
• Professionals & Fans React (5 minutes), a look at how professionals such as Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins, The Guild’s Sandeep Parikh, and others view the casting.

Everyone at Racebending is looking forward to this upcoming documentary. It follows a lot of The Last Airbender controversy and is a telling look at how people feel about the casting.

Watch the trailer and share it with your friends. It’s a powerful two minutes.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2009, we asked various artists to contribute to a Racebending-themed sketchbook. We’re so grateful for the talent and generosity of the artists who contributed:

Signed Secret Identities pages (and art):

• Jeff Yang
• Gene Yang
• Jerry Ma
• Parry Shen
• Benton Jew
• Sonny Liew
• Keith Chow

Original sketches by:

• Anson Jew
• Sam Brown (exploding dog)
• Gabe and Tycho (Penny Arcade)
• Derek Kirk Kim (The Eternal Smile)
• Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese)
• Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content)
• Stephen Notley (Bob the Angry Flower)
• Ryan Claytor (Elephant Eater Comics)
• Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo Dojo)
• Bobby Rubio (Alcatraz High, artist for ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’)
• Debbie Huey (Bumperboy)
• Anthony Hon (Barry the Benevolent Ninja)

Fans and professionals attending the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con discuss the casting of The Last Airbender.

Featuring:

• Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade
• Sandeep Parikh of The Legend of Neil and The Guild
• Gene Yang, writer of National Book Award finalist American Born Chinese
• Keith Chow, editor of comics anthology Secret Identities

Racebending was fortunate enough to get some free publicity at Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend.

Stephen Granade, a protester independent of the Racebending movement, made the following video for Dragon*ConTV. Dragon*ConTV is played throughout the convention before panels and at participating hotels. The video was played multiple times throughout the weekend.

The following images and quote courtesy of user green_scarf from IMDB’s The Last Airbender message board.

Photos from the con:

While we applaud and support Mr. Granade’s efforts, Racebending was not involved in the creation of this video.

From Balitang America, appropriately labeled on the hard copy “Racist Movie Controversy”. This was a report on the Racebending movement and controversy on April 28th of 2009. A lot has changed since then both for better and for worse.

BALITANG AMERICA is a 30-minute weekly news program that covers events and issues that concern Filipinos and Filipino-Americans in the United States. The program also tackles international issues involving Philippine-American relations, national and local issues affecting the Filipino-American community. Aired via DTH and cable on The Filipino Channel (TFC) and our affiliate station in the San Francisco Bay Area, KTSF, Balitang America is the first-ever locally produced Filipino news program to be broadcast all over the United States.

Balitang America has correspondents all over the United States and Canada and is backed by the resources of ABS-CBN Internationals North America News Bureau and ABS-CBN News, Philippines.

http://www.abs-cbni.com/programming/b…
http://www.myspace.com/balitangamerica
http://www.youtube.com/user/TFCBalita…