‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ Filmmaker Kobi Libii Isn’t Surprised About Sparking Internet Controversy: ‘I Understand Being Deeply Suspicious’
variety.comAngelique Jackson Kobi Libii knew “The American Society of Magical Negroes” would be controversial. After all, the film is a critique of the “magical negro,” the cinematic trope where Black characters are constructed to support white protagonists without internal lives of their own.
Libii grew up in Gary, Ind. in the ’90s, during a run of those movies. “Some of them were seared in my brain,” he tells Variety, remembering a time when “The Legend of Bagger Vance” and “The Green Mile” were lauded by critics and audiences alike, even though they reinforce those tropes. (Both movies are not-so-indirectly referenced in the film.) “It really agitated me at the time but I didn’t have a language for that.
I was just told that this was a great movie even though Black people are doing this.” Now that he’s got a foothold in Hollywood, Libii is taking that type of representation to task, asking audiences to take a deeper look at the way racism impacts our minds and the insidious qualities of racism which are more difficult to make tangible and visible. “The subject matter I’m playing with is really sensitive and raw, and people have such strong, visceral feelings about it,” he explains. “I think means that we’re pointed in the right direction in terms of what we should be talking about.
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