Have you ever been disgruntled over a particular movie not representing race, gender or sexuality in an accurate way? If you have, Drunk Feminist Films (DFF), a YouTube show, has an alcohol infused remedy for your heartache.
DFF creates a safe space in various online platforms for women to come together, and discuss how some of their favorite films flopped in telling a truthful story. Through drunken tweets, and inebriated live shrieks, these women spew out everything that is culturally wrong about mainstream films. For instance, take Stonewall by Roland Emmerich, who depicted a white man as the hero for the LGBT liberation movement in NYC; when in actuality, the ones who deserve the credit were transgender women of color—Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson.
“We aim jokes at the oppressor and the system (and sometimes the fashion), not those experiencing oppression,” the women state on their website.
In addition to speaking about diversity in movies, DFF creators feel its pivotal for their cast to be diverse as well. “Expanding from the original four founders into a cast was so important to us,” Gillian Goerz, one of DFF’S co-founders told The Huffington Post. “It was initially four white women, and we didn’t think that was OK. We wanted to reach out as soon as people were interested in the idea. We didn’t want it to be us front and center.”
Currently, DFF has 13 rotating cast members who star in pre-recorded YouTube videos, and host live events predominantly in Toronto’s arthouse Royal Cinema. Reportedly, DFF encourages movie-goers to yell out their frustrations over the film’s injustice during their live events.
And while things might have been getting better, there is still work to be done. Cast member Resh Brown echoes these sentiments. “I don’t want to see Dev Patel playing every role. True representation isn’t just the one super hot South Asian actor over and over again.”
Brown continued: “Maybe we have more general diversity, but do we have true intersectional feminist film? ‘Star Wars’ had a white woman leading it, but very few other women in the entire movie. There has certainly been some progress, but I think we’re a long way away from true representation and a genuinely diverse set of stories.”
When it comes to choosing films to criticize there are many. In the past, the DFF team has chosen movies like: Save The Last Dance, Spice World, Gone Girl, Fifty Shades Of Grey and Twilight.