Opening this weekend at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center is Dear White People, a college satire that hits home for all ages as accurately as a stealth missile. Also opening this weekend is Awake: The Life of Yogananda, a documentary about Paramahansa Yogananda, who introduced yoga and meditation to the West.
The setting for Dear White People is Winchester, an Ivy League college where Sam White (Tessa Thompson) blogs her thoughts about race relations. Forget about her last name for the time being or the double entendre of her blog’s and the movie’s title — Sam is a black activist. The pleasures of first-time writer/director/producer Justin Simien’s film come in the contradictions its characters are busy exploring.
For starters, Sam’s black ex-boyfriend is Troy (Brandon Bell) who yearns to improve his position as BMOC (Big Man on Campus). Troy’s dad is Dean Fairbanks (Dennis Haysbert), whose long-time rivalry with Winchester’s white President Fletcher (Peter Syvertsen) echoes his son’s ambitions. Sam’s latest squeeze is Gabe (Justin Dobies), the white teaching assistant in her film class. It’s a relationship that contradicts her activist black politics as well as acceptable teacher-student relations. Just to complicate matters further, Sam also has a semi-romantic relationship with the more acceptably black activist Reggie (Marque Richardson).
Is your head spinning yet? Add to the confusion that Troy’s current girlfriend is Sofia Fletcher (Brittany Curran), the President’s very white daughter. This rich conundrum of relationships fits perfectly into the world of Winchester’s college campus. Plot, however, takes a bit of a back seat in Dear White People. A clueless President Fletcher insists that racism doesn’t exist at Winchester and decides to randomize housing assignments, eliminating the all-black enclave of Parker/Armstrong. An angry Sam runs against Troy for house president, and to everyone’s surprise, wins.
When Kurt Fletcher, the President’s snarky son, and his honchos try to stake out territory in Parker/Armstrong’s dining hall, Sam ousts them. Meanwhile Lionel (Tyler James Williams) a friendless black gay with an over-sized Afro, bounces around a number of dorm settings, puzzling blacks and whites alike because he doesn’t fit any of the usual stereotypes. The same can be said for Coco (Teyonah Parris), the black wannabe who straightens her hair and eagerly seeks to do whatever is necessary to star in a reality TV show. This cast of college kids slips in and out of traditional stereotypes, raising questions about the way we all categorize each other.
Once Kurt and his fraternity brothers decide to hold a black-face Halloween party — much like a real-life party that took place at UC/San Diego in 2010 — campus unrest reaches a boiling point. Viewers will find themselves challenged to think about how American culture deals with racial issues on both sides of the color line, as well as with issues of media, capitalism, and class. Dear White People, which premiered at Sundance, won a Special Jury Prize for Mr. Simien and was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize there. Like life itself, the film is messy and complex, an invitation to think seriously.
Awake: The Life of Yogananda
Directors Paola Di Florio and Lisa Leeman sketch out the life of the man responsible for introducing the spiritual teachings of the East to the West, the U.S. in particular. Archival footage, reenactments, and interviews with a variety of Yogananda advocates ranging from the Beatles’ George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to Deepak Chopra and Harvard scientist Dr. Anita Goel. That Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi was handed out at the memorial service for Apple founder Steve Jobs suggests the kind of influence he has had.
Living in the U.S. from 1920 to 1952, Yogananda founded the Self-Realization Fellowship at Mt. Washington in Los Angeles and in India a school for boys that combined education with yoga training. He died in 1952 after giving a speech at a dinner in Los Angeles for the Ambassador of India.
It’s a challenge to try and cover all the bases in Yogananda’s life, and at times Awake feels as if it glosses over too much. But viewers who are interested the spiritual aspects of yoga and meditation will still find it informative and can move on to Autobiography of a Yogi.
“Awake: The Life of Yogananda,” Friday, December 5, 4 pm; Sunday, December 7, 7:30 pm. “Dear White People,” Friday, December 5, and Saturday, December 6, 7:30 pm. All films screened at M.V. Film Center, Tisbury Marketplace, Vineyard Haven. For information and tickets, see mvfilmsociety.com.