Deutsche Welle (English edition)
Afrofuturism in Hollywood: Ruth E. Carter's iconic costumes
She is Hollywood's queen of Afrofuturist costumes: For 40 years, designer Ruth E. Carter has been developing fashion for major motion pictures, including "Black Panther."
It is the most commercially successful Afrofuturistic US work to date: the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther was nominated for an Oscar in seven categories in 2019, ultimately winning three of the awards including for best picture and best costume design.
The Oscar-winning designer of the film's groundbreaking costumes was Ruth E. Carter.
Carter, who was born on April 10, 1960 in Springfield, Massachusetts, had originally planned to pursue a completely different career path: She wanted to become an actress.
But it was when she started helping out in the costume department of her student theater group at Hampton University that she found a new calling. So after graduating from university, she trained as a costume designer at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico, subsequently moving to Los Angeles.
For more than 40 years now, Ruth E. Carter has been designing costumes for independent films and Hollywood blockbusters alike, working with Stephen Spielberg, Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, among many others.
Using fashion to communicate African heritage
The outfits of the
Black
Pantherprotagonists are currently on show at the SCAD FASH Museum Fashion + Film in Atlanta, which runs until September 2021.
The 61-year-old Carter says she purposefully designs Afrofuturist costumes to convey messages on Black identities. For her, Afrofuturism means "to unite technology with imagination and self-expression to advance a philosophy for Black Americans, Africans, and Indigenous People that allows them to believe and create entirely without the barriers of slavery and colonialism.”
This approach to Afrofuturism is still relatively young and somewhat utopian, explains Natalie Zacek, a lecturer in US history and culture at the University of Manchester.
With Afrofuturism existing for over 25 years now, there are many different definitions of what image of African identities it is designed to convey: "Afrofuturism is often about im
agining a world where the transatlantic slave trade has never taken place, without the European colonization of the African continent. What would have become of African cultures and societies then, artists wonder?" Zacek explains.
Afrofuturism between Hollywood and Nollywood
These visions of African identities, however, often differ between artists from the United States and those on the African continent: For decades, African authors have been writing science fiction stories, most of which are classically set in outer space or in a futuristic city. In recent years, the theme of the climate crisis has also been added into that fold.
But American and British storytellers often still focus on the past: "For artists in the US and the UK, the experience of the slave trade is always in the foreground of the diaspora experience," Natalie Zacek told DW.
The continent of Africa, she says, as a place of ancestors, is an almost mythically charged place from the past for many People of Color who live in the West. This is different, she says, for African artists, who live in Ghana or Nigeria, for example.
While African filmmakers are confidently venturing into genres like science fiction, they can often only dream of having the kinds of budgets that Hollywood productions do.
"The only film funding an African filmmaker can get usually comes from Europe, and European producers usually choose the kind of material that they think will do well at film festivals. That is content that deals with supposedly African issues like AIDS, genocide, the climate crisis and famine," author and filmmaker Dilman Dila wrote in the international science fiction and fantasy magazine Mithila Review
in 2017.
At that time, his science fiction film Her Broken Shadow hit the silver screens of Africa, but was aesthetically more reminiscent of Blade Runner than of Black Panther.
C h a n gi n g pe rc e pt i o n s through art and design
In contrast to the films produced by African directors such as Dilman Dila or Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Black Panther grew into a global success, proving to Hollywood that a film in which hardly any white actors appear can make it big at the box office.
Carter was among the art
ists who contributed to the global success of the blockbuster. Throughout her career as a costume designer, she has primarily focused on the AfricanAmerican experience, as the Atlanta exhibition makes clear, featuring 60 designs of her costumes over the decades.
Film director Stephen Spielberg hired her to design costumes for American slaves and slaveholders in the 19th century, for his blockbuster movie Amistad.
Spike Lee had her dress an African-American action hero, and in Selma, she designed the look of civil rights icon Martin Luther King.
For Black Panther, Carter says she set out to introduce a radical change of perspective to the American public: "I think people will be able to contextualize and appreciate African art very differently now. That's what we've done: We've appreciated it, we've reimagined it, we've evolved it and taken it to a different place."
embarks on a new path in life living out of her van.
To some, the sheer success of Nomadlandcame as somewhat of a surprise, as during the first day of the two-day ceremony, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom had become a frontrunner, winning the categories of costume design and make-up and hair. The film, which tells the biography of blues singer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey at the height of her career in the 1920s, had also won multiple awards one week earlier at the Stage Actors' Guild awards in Los Angeles.
That movie's lead actor, Chadwick Boseman, who died last year, was also nominated for the leading actor category; however, that award went to Sir Anthony Hopkins for his performance in The Father, in which he portrays a man who refuses to accept any assistance from his daughter as he ages and develops signs of dementia. That movie also won the award for best adapted screenplay.
Meanwhile, the British-American co-production Promising Young Woman not only took home the award for outstanding British film but also the BAFTA for original screenplay. The movie follows the story of a young woman who seeks to avenge the death of her best friend, who had brutally been raped.
With both awards going to British filmmaker Emerald Fennell, the BAFTAs thus also recognized the importance of women at the heart of the film industry — and not just in the limelight positions.
The rising star award, meanwhile, went to Bukky Bakray for her debut in the lowbudget drama Rocks. In her acceptance speech, the 19-yearold acknowledged the countless people whose lives were lost to COVID-19, showing genuine gratitude and wisdom beyond her years.
The film had also won the BAFTA for best casting on the first day of the two-day ceremony, with most actors in Rocks
having successfully been cast off the streets of east London.
Touching lives and moving hearts
The BAFTA for best film not in the English language meanwhile went to Another Round — a Swedish-Danish movie about drinking that has been gaining accolades at film festivals the world over. The film follows a group of middle-aged men, who try to avoid their midlife-crises by micro-dosing alcohol throughout their days. The comedy descends into tragic territory without belaboring cliches or becoming overly predictable.
But a foreign film also scored accolades in another category: Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn won the BAFTA for best supporting actress in Minari. Though a US production, the film offers a rare glimpse into the Korean diaspora around the world in a way that is still relatable to people of all backgrounds.
My Octopus Teacher received the BAFTA award for best documentary. The touching film follows the relationship between an amateur scuba diver in South Africa, who is reevaluating his life while diving in the ocean daily, where he makes friends with an octopus for the duration of a year. The encounter changes the man's outlook on life and allows viewers to reevaluate how they view animals.
The production team thanked, above all, "that special little octopus" that made the film possible in the first place.
Two music-inspired films also took home multiple awards during the night. Disney's jazzinspired Soul won the BAFTAs for best animated film and best original score while the drama Sound of Metal received awards for best editing and best sound.
Digitally yours
Next year, when hopefully a good part of the planet will have had their COVID-19 vaccinations, the BAFTAs should possibly even be more inventive, as the academy will then celebrate the 75th anniversary of the award. That birthday will not go unnoticed in the British capital, which likes to mark such occasions with a lot of pomp and circumstance.
As a virtual awards season nears its end this year, all eyes are now on the 2021 Academy Awards, which is scheduled for April 25, albeit taking place only digitally.