Hollywood, The Sequel

We don’t know yet how the entertainment industry will adapt and respond to the traumas of 2020 when production resumes full time. But from an Oscar winning director to gig workers behind the scenes, there’s broad agreement that not everything in Hollywood should return to the “good old days.”

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and Casting Director David Rubin predict how the crises of 2020 will be represented by Hollywood’s storytellers, from scripting to casting. And Indie filmmaker Ana Lydia Monaco tells how she was able to shoot a short film in July, despite the challenges of Covid-19 safety protocols.

Glenn Close is hoping for a new “golden age of storytelling;” costume designer Ruth Carter is hoping for a new Hollywood with a much wider world view. But if there’s one thing they have in common, it’s that they can’t wait to get back to work.

Full Frontal’s” Samantha Bee and Ramy Youssef, of Hulu’s “Ramy,” are making us laugh despite the times we’re living in. But in their different ways, each is also trying to be an agent for change in how, and by whom, stories are told on television.

When Netflix began its streaming service in 2008, the movie studios were happy to sell the company their old films and shows. In doing so, they ended up inadvertently creating their biggest rival. As Co-CEO and Chief Content officer Ted Sarandos says, being fast and nimble, and not fearing their bigger competitors, turned out to be Netflix's superpower.

With the FX series "Pose," writer/director Janet Mock became the first trans woman of color to write and direct a TV episode. The show features more transgender actors in regular roles than any other scripted series. That kind of representation, Mock says, has real power to change attitudes and behavior toward trans people. She also believes that the industry gatekeepers are beginning to realize that she’s able to tell more than one kind of story.

While the pandemic rages on, “Homeland” director Lesli Linka Glatter is part of a select group crafting safety protocols designed to allow production to resume. But she’s worried about another danger--that some of the gains made in racial and gender equity will slip away. She’s calling on her peers and the studios to make a firm commitment to hire outside their comfort zones.

For Hollywood executives trying to fix the industry’s diversity problem, producer and actor Gloria Calderon Kellett has a simple piece of advice: just do it--even if it means you have to work through your own discomfort. The showrunner of “One Day at a Time” points to her own writers’ room and cast as proof that it’s not a “favor” to hire a diverse team--it makes everybody’s storytelling richer and more honest.

When work resumes in Hollywood, the business of show business will be very different, from how films are made, to where they’re shown, to what defines a box office hit. “Mulan” Producer Jason Reed is dealing with those challenges now, as he waits for the much-delayed release of his film. But he’s hopeful that some of the changes will lead to lasting solutions to Hollywood’s problems. He’s advocating for better financial support for the freelancers who are the backbone of Hollywood’s gig economy. He’s also calling for changes in the executive suites, so that more diverse voices can “shift the dominant paradigm.”

With his comedy series “Black-ish” and “#blackAF,” Kenya Barris has never avoided difficult conversations about race. Entertainment, especially comedy, he says, will push those conversations forward, but there need to be many more versions of what Black lives and other underrepresented experiences look like.

Just as advocates for meaningful police reform say you can't simply reassemble broken pieces, Ava DuVernay argues that reform won’t be enough to fix Hollywood. The director of “Selma” and “When They See Us” believes it’ll take drastic change in the executive suites of the networks and studios if Hollywood wants to rid itself of bias.

The ACLU lawyers in “The Fight,” Kerry Washington’s new documentary, want justice for all. And so, too, does Washington. The actor and producer says when work begins again, it won't be enough for Hollywood to be not racist. It has to be actively anti-racist if the industry wants to be an agent of change.