Philadelphia’s own Lee Daniels, producer of such controversial and dark films as The Woodsman starring Kevin Bacon playing a convicted sex offender, and Monsters Ball which starred Halle Berry, has made a new film which has been garnering huge praise as well as awards at the Sundance, Cannes, New York and Toronto Film Festivals, to name drop a few. Precious tells the disturbing yet hopeful story of a 350-pound illiterate teenager who is horrifically abused by both her parents, but eventually finds her voice through the help of her teacher. By casting Hollywood figures such as Mo’Nique and Mariah Carey in uncharacteristically unglamorous and challenging roles, Daniels has created a haunting image of the darkest corners of inner-city life.

With this film, Daniels is not only confronting the audience’s stereotypes, but has been forced to confront his own. Precious challenges not only viewers’ racial prejudices, but also our culture’s eternal struggle with body image. In the recent NY Times Magazine piece about Precious, Daniels discusses the difficulty he had casting an extremely overweight actress to play the lead role: “I couldn’t call Hollywood and say, ‘Send over all your 300-pound black girls.’ They’d laugh.” He eventually found his leading lady in Gabourey Sidibe, who found out about the open auditions from her mother, a street performer who had been approached to play Precious’ monstrous mother. The film has not only garnered praise from film festival juries, but has been picked up by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry – arguably the two most succesful African American entertainers in the United States – and has been purchased by Lionsgate Films for $5.5 Million. Both Winfrey and Perry, who have spoken out in the past about their experiences growing up with abuse, have thrown their support behind the film, and Daniels as well as cast member Mo’Nique have discussed the role that abuse has played in their personal lives as well.

The film makes room for a lot of questions in a larger debate about racism and stereotypes in what has often been hailed as the post-racist era of Barack Obama. The main thread running through the Times’ article is whether or not this film, by highlighting themes such as sexual abuse and self-hatred, is a damaging, overly harsh portrayal of the African American community. Are American main-stream moviegoers ready to confront their own prejudices by being faced with such a blunt portrayal of reality? Daniels has said that he hopes to inspire anyone, black or white, who has felt repressed and undervalued, but what remains to be seen is if, in the end, the controversial subject matter will overshadow the deeper message, or serve to enhance it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 3:33 pm.