Political Economy and the Global-Local Nexus of Hollywood

Applying a political economy lens to image production suggests that the US film industry, namely, Hollywood, prioritizes financial considerations over racial justice and equity. Decisions made in the production and marketing processes aim to minimize financial risks, but they often limit the participation of filmmakers and actors of color. At the same time, Hollywood incorporates foreign-born directors and actors to entice international audiences. This chapter assesses how Hollywood “going global” impacts local racial-ethnic politics in the US film industry. The authors closely examine films from the past two decades in which people of color constitute the majority of the cast or films in which nonwhites are the lead actors. The authors argue that the incorporation of foreign-born directors and actors inadvertently undermines the efforts of US filmmakers of color to tell cinematic narratives from a critical perspective. Concurrently, Hollywood fails to promote Black films and Black actors on the basis of the assumption that they cannot appeal to international audiences, even though Black films directed by Black directors perform well domestically and show great potential for international success with proper support from Hollywood.