By Claire.

Awards season has arrived, and with it, the most exciting time of the year for me. It is my Super Bowl. I get heavily invested in all the nominees and constantly debate with friends while trying to guess who and which films will win. While some would argue awards are arbitrary and do not mean anything, the season is a celebration of film, and gosh darn, I love film so much. However, with celebration comes the equal frustration and exhaustive anger over lack of diversity and representation in the industry.

The 75^th Golden Globes was last week, the first major awards show since Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse allegations, and the many others which followed, came out. Actors are getting fired or replaced and projects are being cancelled. But awards ceremonies have disregarded known abusers and people who have committed assault in the past, as they continued to award them with no consequence for their actions. Due to the fervour that is sweeping Hollywood to act against assault and inequality, eyes are on organisations like the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globes) and The Academy (The Oscars), to see how they respond.

The Golden Globes this year were electrifying, but this is largely due to the large group of female solidarity. The unofficial dress code for the Globes was to wear black, in support of sexual abuse survivors and all the brave men and women who have spoken up about their experience. Seeing the sea of black dresses on the Red Carpet was beautiful to see. During the broadcast, my friends and I sat in complete awe while Oprah made her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. When Natalie Portman uttered the words “and here are the all-male nominees” we screamed in equal part shock and delight. Saoirse Ronan’s win of Best Leading Actress (Comedy or Musical) for Lady Bird, and the film’s win of Best Feature (Comedy or Musical) had me literally sobbing. Seeing women speak up passionately, and being awarded for female-led work, means honestly so much to me. Especially as I am someone who wants to enter the film industry. This gives me hope.

Oprah Winfrey accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award.

While the spotlight has been on Hollywood these past few months, the women of Times Up spent that time meeting, planning, learning and creating an organisation which highlights the universality of sexual assault in the workplace. The organisation raises money for a legal defence fund, to help aid legal resources.

The most vocal of these women is a diverse group of female filmmakers: Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Rashida Jones, Reese Witherspoon, Tracee Ellis Ross, Shailene Woodley, Kerry Washington, Laura Dern, Eva Longoria, Ava DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey, Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Michelle Williams, and more.

At the Golden Globes, these women brought each other as their dates and used their platforms across social media and in red carpet interviews to raise awareness for Times Up and the issue of sexual assault across all workplaces.

Additionally, nine actresses brought women activists as their dates:

·         Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement

·         Monica Ramirez, who organises against sexual violence in rural areas and for Latina empowerment

·         Saru Jayaraman, a workplace justice advocate

·         Rosa Clemente, a community organiser with a focus on Puerto Rican independence

·         Billie Jean King, whom Emma stone portrayed in her recent film Battle of the Sexes, who founded the Women’s Tennis Association

·         Ai-jen Poo, the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

·         Marai Larasi, executive director of Imkaan, a British organisation which works to end violence against women

·         and Calina Lawrence, a Suquamish Tribe member who fights for Native Americans’ water rights. 

Seeing these amazing women on the red carpet, along with the sea of black and Times Up lapel pins was breathtaking to witness on screen. As each actress introduced their dates and let these activists talk about their work during interviews (when they weren’t being cut off or minimised on screen—the work of the media on the red-carpet left a lot to be desired) was a bold act of solidarity. In addition, Debra Messing calling out E!’s gender pay gap while on air to E!, and Connie Britton’s shirt embroidered with “poverty is sexist” contributed to the fierce, no-holds-barred attitude of the evening.

Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd on the red carpet.

This is not to say the movement was not flawed: actors who were expected to dress up for the black-tie event in the first place were able to just slap on a Times Up pin and be counted towards the movement. By wearing black, wearing a pin, and posting on Instagram with the hashtag #WhyWeWearBlack and #TIMESUPNOW, it was too easy to make it seem like you were a supporter of the movement, by doing the bare minimum. This is especially relevant for actors and actresses who have worked with Woody Allen in the past (or in Justin Timberlake’s case, currently stars in his film Wonder Wheel). Allen, who allegedly sexually molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow as a child, has yet to be held accountable for his own actions, as his films continue to be made, with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, and was awarded a Life-Time Achievement Award at the Golden Globes in 2014.

A Times Up pin worn at the Globes

As we move forward towards a future of accountability and consequences for those who do wrong, we need to allow those who have worked with Allen in the past to learn and grow, yet also acknowledge the consequences of their actions.

In a statement made to Buzzfeed News, Dylan Farrow applauded the signs of female solidarity, but pointed out these loopholes.

“I fully support women taking a stand, linking arms with other women (and men), advocating on behalf of one another to effect change not only in the entertainment industry but in the world at large. That is an admirable and worthwhile objective, I hope these women change the world. That said, the people who join this movement without taking any kind of personal accountability for the ways in which their own words and decisions have helped to perpetuate the culture they are fighting against, that’s hard for me to reconcile.”

As staff writer for Grown-ish Kara Brown pointed out in inaugural episode of culture critic Ira Madison III’s podcast Keep It, no one’s career has suffered for working with Woody Allen, so it has been confusing as to why no one will just admit they regret working with him. As the question continues to be asked, Why Are We Sparing Allen? people need to prepare a response and be held accountable.

Greta Gerwig accepts the Golden Globe for Best Feature (Comedy or Musical) for Lady Bird.

In the press conference after her debut feature film, Lady Bird, which she wrote and directed, won Best Feature (Musical or Comedy) on Sunday, Greta Gerwig was asked to address her previous work with Woody Allen in 2012’s To Rome With Love. At the time, her response left a lot to be desired, claiming she was still thinking about how to respond. It was only a couple of days later in an article written for the New York Times did she make an official statement:

“I can only speak for myself and what I’ve come to is this: If I had known then what I know now, I would not have acted in the film. I have not worked for him again, and I will not work for him again. Dylan Farrow’s two different pieces made me realize that I increased another woman’s pain, and I was heartbroken by that realization. I grew up on his movies, and they have informed me as an artist, and I cannot change that fact now, but I can make different decisions moving forward.”

Gerwig has since received a wave of support in response, calling for others to follow her lead and for the eloquence of the apology. She not only states she regrets working with Allen and will never do it again, but acknowledges the pain her actions had caused. Hopefully, this allows more actors and actresses to follow suit, especially in order for this movement against sexual assault is to continue.

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Aside from Seth Myers, who did an excellent job as host, not one male actor mentioned the cause or spoke up for it in any acceptance speech, nor on the red carpet. While the women of Big Little Lies, a show about sexual abuse, used all three of their acceptance speeches to emotionally speak up against assault, and the importance of Times Up, when Alexander Skarsgard accepted his award for portraying a sexual abuser on the show, he made no such connection, nor uttered a word about the brevity of the themes. Essentially, he did not read the room.

While female solidarity is breathtaking, the onus needs to be placed more on men.  So far, no men are being held accountable to actually know anything, nor say anything, about their complicit role in the perpetuation of sexual assault, and the effects of their silence. On the red carpet, while the actresses tried their best to talk about Times Up and activism during their interviews, actors were asked about their work, not the pins on their lapels.

As a result, James Franco wins a Golden Globe (for his portrayal of Tommy Wisseau in The Disaster Artist), while wearing a Times Up pin, but the only woman he mentions is his mother (for giving birth to his brother). Meanwhile, he is simultaneously called out for sexual misconduct he has perpetuated against young women and teenage girls, on Twitter. In the days following the award show, as these allegations resurface, Franco’s Time Talks event has been cancelled, and he was grilled by both Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers while he was a guest on their talk shows. While I appreciate the men holding him accountable, this needs to happen more often, especially in a space such as a live interview, where they are forced to answer for their actions. However, Colbert was vague about what this “misconduct” was and thus it made it too easy for Franco to deny the allegations.

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With the next major awards ceremony, the Screen Actors Guild awards next week, it will be interesting to see if this fervor sticks, and as Awards Season and the year progresses, if the Times Up movement will fizzle away. 

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Cause a Cine do not own any of the images used in this post.

By Claire. 

2018 is a new year, and with it, I have decided to take on the 52 Films By Women pledge. Started by Women in Film Los Angeles in 2015, the pledge aims to increase awareness of female made film by asking its pledges to watch one film directed by a woman each week for a year. This is something we have loved the idea of, but have never had the time to fully commit to. However, there is no time like the present!

Here at Cause a Cine, I am going to alter the rules a bit and include films written or directed by women. As I continue my journey into screenwriting, I found it fit to include female screenwriters as well, and increase visibility of female filmmakers across all fronts. 

As we are well aware, women in film are severely underrepresented. In Women and Hollywood's yearly round of up statistics for 2017, it was found out of the top-grossing films from 2007 to 2017, 95.7% of directors were male, and 4.3% were female. This equates to twenty two male directors hired for every one female director. Of these women, out of 1,100 films, four were directed by Black women, three by Asian women, and only one Latina director. Despite being a record year for female directors in 2017 (Of course, by "record year" we mean eight films out of the top 100 films of the year were directed by women, but this is an increase from the year previous), there are zero women nominated for Best Director of a Motion Picture at tomorrow's Golden Globes. While Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird is nominated for Best Film Musical or Comedy, there is no nomination for Gerwig herself as director. 

By making a pledge like this, we can help increase the number of films created by women which are made visible, and in turn, help encourage more female writers and directors to be hired in future. 

I will be cataloging my pledge on Twitter (@causeacine), and updating weekly here on the blog. 

You can sign up to the pledge on the Women In Film website here, or check out an amazing list of female directed films on GoWatchIt here. You might have seen more films directed by women than you realise. 

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52 FILMS BY WOMEN - 2018 

Week 1: Everything Everything (2017), directed by Stella Meghie.

Week 2: Dirty Dancing (1987), written by Eleanor Bergstein.

Week 3: The Kids Are Alright (2010), directed by Lisa Cholodenko

Week 4: Lady Bird (2017), written and directed by Greta Gerwig

Week 5: Obvious Child (2014), written and directed by Gillian Robespierre

By Claire.

Full disclosure: I am writing this piece while wearing my Notting Hill movie t-shirt, drinking out of my Legally Blonde mug, surrounded by books on Nora Ephron and When Harry Met Sally, Clueless, and writing romantic comedy screenplays, next to my Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster.

Imagine this:

All your life, you have loved helping people. At your actual job, you live and breathe for your boss, whom you are an assistant for and happen to be desperately in love with. Just when you work up the courage to admit your feelings, your wild and younger sister swoops in, stealing the man of your dreams. After a whirlwind romance, the new couple are to be married in three weeks. To top it all off, your idol turns out to be a real asshole. A few fights, a drunk and passionate rendition of “Benny and the Jets,” a one-night stand, miscommunication, and a teary admission of love at a random wedding reception on a boat in the Hudson River later, and it’s happily ever after.

So goes the plot of 2008’s 27 Dresses (dir. Anne Fletcher), one of my favourite romantic comedies (and movies) ever.

To say I love romantic comedies is an understatement. 

The Romantic Comedy is a genre of film where two characters meet (often boy meets girl or girl meets boy), and after a series of trials and tribulations, the two falls in love and live happily ever after. This usually takes place in a metropolitan setting, with a kooky ensemble of friends involved, and features an adult-contemporary soundtrack.

Katherine Heigl as Jane, the perfect bridesmaid, in 27 Dresses

In 27 Dresses, Katherine Heigl is Jane, an executive assistant at an outdoor magazine and freelance wedding planner, who has been a bridesmaid twenty-seven times. It never gets more “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” than Jane, but she can’t say no and loves to help make people’s dreams happen. Enter the devastatingly handsome James Marsden as Kevin, a journalist who writes for the Commitments section of a newspaper under a pseudonym, and Jane’s favourite writer. Jane loves weddings and Kevin, despite his job, hates them. 

Naturally, they clash. 

Naturally, they fall in love, but isn’t that always the way?

I know what you’re all thinking: another romcom about weddings, another hetero-normative movie that teaches women that marital bliss is the only way she will become complete! And yes, you are correct in this. I will be the first to point out all the feminist faults in this plot line, having literally written about the limits of post-feminism in contemporary romantic comedies. However, I won’t, because even though I’m a feminist, I love weddings. The feminist agenda isn’t against weddings, or marriage or love (although for some facets of radical feminism, it is, and I do acknowledge this agenda is not the same for everyone). If anything, despite a few choice words from Kevin about Jane needing to be “taken care of”, something he is more than willing to do (yikes, my man), Jane doesn’t need to change a thing about her other than gaining the confidence to say no and put herself first occasionally. With that, I am content in this film.

James Marsden and Heigl in 27 Dresses, post-Benny and the Jets

As a genre, romcoms are often dismissed and looked over, the result of high critique and cynicism: The plot lines and happy endings are just too unrealistic; real life isn’t like that; this isn’t the movies, kid, get your head out of the clouds!

To that I say: so what? Movies being unrealistic? Oh, I’m sorry, I was just waiting around for the zombie apocalypse to arrive while I ride with my alien friend in my bike—which can fly—back to its home on another planet...

Movies don’t have to be realistic, they are fiction! You can create an entirely new world, where you control the story, so why not give the characters a happy ending?

Secondly, romantic comedies are viewed as a predominantly female genre, or rather, as a “woman’s film”. At my old local video store, the shelves included a “chick flick” and “dick flick” section. While I stood in front of these shelves looking for my next Friday night movie, in the former I found an abundance of romantic comedies, musicals and Nicholas Sparks movies; the latter housed action, fantasy adventures, gross-out comedies and more guns than you can count.

Despite many of the greatest romantic comedies having been directed by the likes of Gary Marshall (Pretty Woman), P.J Hogan (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Muriel’s Wedding), Rob Reiner (Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally) and Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), Hollywood tends to discount women almost entirely. 

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in Nora Ephron's and Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally

As outlined in his article '7 Reasons Hollywood doesn’t make romantic comedies anymore', (and you have to disregard the kind of gross critique of Katherine Heigl here, as if she is the sole woman/person to blame) Todd VanDerWerff regards the double standard of a movie like Casablanca, a romantic melodrama centred around a male, can receive Best Picture and be herald as one of the greatest movies of all time, whereas the same cannot be afforded to a romantic melodrama about a woman. These films are woman’s films and do not stand in the same league as the male-centric narratives in the craft.

This, of course, is ridiculous. Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers are titans of the genre, and according to the MPAA report in 2016, women make up 52% of the cinema-going audience.  Women are powerful at the box office. Passing off romantic comedies and other romantic melodrama’s as a “woman’s film” with a sneer and off-handed gesture negates women the space to fully participate and exist within film culture, just for liking romantic comedies.

Thirdly, most rom-coms feature a white male and female, ending in marriage/monogamy. The ultimate lesson is we need a partner of the opposite sex to complete us. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea (heck, as a feminist it’s hardly my cup of tea), but if we look at what has been happening on screen these past five years, this is not to say that things aren’t changing within the genre.

At the start of the year, Jen Chaney wrote for Vulture’s The Romcom Lives! Week an article called 'The Romantic Comedy Is Not Dead – It’s Just Not the Same As You Remember'. Chaney argues that the romantic comedy is not dead, it has been subverted to address the old critiques and to suit today’s viewing climate. Romantic comedy genre is thriving on television and streaming platforms, with diverse casts and featuring well-rounded female characters (HBO’s Insecure, the CW’s Jane the Virgn), or even those which actively work within the romantic comedy ideals—and flips them on their head (Hulu’s The Mindy Project, the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend).

For movies, romcoms are exploring new kinds of love stories: one-night stand leads to an unwanted pregnancy and an abortion on Valentine’s Day in a really sweet way in Obvious Child; the biggest romantic comedy release of 2017, The Big Sick, features a Pakistani-American as the lead and an interracial couple; and even How To Be Single, for all its faults was actually a film I really enjoy, ends with Dakota Johnson falling in love with herself and relishing in being alone. In 2015, Katherine Heigl herself starred in yet another romcom about weddings—this time as a lesbian, who works to convince her parents to come to her wedding to The Handmaid’s Tale Alexis Bledel in Jenny’s Wedding.

Zoe Kazan and Kumail Nanjiani in 2017's The Big Sick

Things are changing. Films, plot lines, and characters, are adapting to the needs of the shifting cultural focus.

It seems too easy to discount an entire genre, perhaps because one is cynical and chose not to not believe in happy endings.

But life is too short to not believe in happy endings. Life is too short to watch serious and sad movies all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my fair share of dramas, but at the end of the day, when I’m feeling sad, am sick in bed, or need a mental break, I’d rather escape for a few hours into a world where love prevails, preferably starring Katherine Heigl.

A LIST OF SOME OF MY FAVOURITE ROMCOMS:

27 Dresses
When Harry Met Sally
You’ve Got Mail
About TimeObvious Child
Legally Blonde
The Bridget Jones Trilogy
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Love Actually
Suddenly 30
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
His Girl Friday
Bringing Up Baby

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Cause a Cine do not own any of the images used

By Sophie.

1.      Carol (2015, dir. Todd Haynes)

   
    Based on the 1952 novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, this dreamy vintage lesbian masterpiece is a must-see. Set in 1950s New York, it follows aspiring photographer Therese Belivet (played by Rooney Mara) as she is swept off her feet by the endlessly alluring Carol Aird (played by Cate Blanchett). The first time I saw Carol, I was snuggled up at Cinema Nova here in Melbourne with my girlfriend, and it was so infinitely reassuring to see a healthy representation of a lesbian couple who (spoiler alert) eventually get their happily ever after. Cara and I are two movie-loving lesbians in a happy and healthy long term relationship, so this movie was a particularly meaningful one for us to see.

2.      Pride (2014, dir. Matthew Warchus)

This one is such a gem that I saw it twice in theatres. During the conservative reign of Margaret Thatcher, a feisty group of lesbians and gays from London lend one hell of a helping hand to striking Welsh coal miners. This somewhat unlikely pairing is founded on each group’s shared experience of oppression and violence from the police, conservatives, and Ms Thatcher. Inspired by a true story, this film is sure to leave your spirit soaring, despite a few tears shed. Additionally, the message of inter-community solidarity strikes me as particularly apt in this current political climate.

3.      But I’m a Cheerleader (1999, dir. Jamie Babbit)

If all you want is a cheesy lesbian rom-com with a happy ending, look no further. The beautiful Natasha Lyonne (who now stars as Nicky on Orange is the New Black) plays Megan, a seemingly stereotypical American high-schooler, as she comes to terms with her lesbianism. It’s cute and colourful, though I’d avoid it if you find any mention of conversion therapy particularly difficult. This was the first lesbian movie I ever sought out as a questioning baby-gay, and I watched it in secret on my little red iPod touch in my bedroom. I’m very sentimental about this one.

4.      Holding the Man (2015, dir. Neil Armfield)

Based on Timothy Conigrave’s memoir of the same name, this romantic drama follows two teenage boys in late 1970s-1980s Australian suburbia as they fall in love, grow up, and build a life together. I don’t want to spoil anything so that’s all I’ll say, but this movie will break your heart. I sobbed so loudly that I’m grateful I didn’t see it in theatres, to be honest. But it’s that profoundly pure kind of movie-grief, and I hope it doesn’t drive you away from witnessing this truly beautiful story.

5.      My Summer of Love (2004, dir. Pawel Pawlikowski and Paul Pavlikovsky)

This was another one of my early iPod touch indulgences, and it cemented a big ol’ crush on Emily Blunt. Two girls from different socioeconomic backgrounds bond over their dysfunctional family lives, and fall kind-of in love in the process. It’s one of those LGBT movies where they never explicitly name their desires, but worth a watch if only for the Edith Piaf- heavy soundtrack.

6.      The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994, dir. Stephan Elliott)

     What kind of Aussie-gay would I even be if this wasn’t on the list? Two drag queens and a transgender woman hit the road to bring their drag act to the Australian outback. It’s got all the glitter and camp humour you could want. If you love Rupaul’s Drag Race this is an essential movie for you, honey.

7.      The Celluloid Closet (1995, dir. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman)

The Celluloid Closet is a seminal documentary in LGBT cinema history, based on Vito Russo’s book of the same name. It intersperses clips of gay film moments throughout Hollywood history with insightful commentary from a range of industry and LGBT perspectives. As a gay film nerd, this tickles my fancy, and I’m sure you’ll love it too.

Collectively, these films have allowed me to see myself, or who I could grow to be, reflected up on the silver screen. They have taught me important aspects of my cultural history as a member of the LGBT community, allowing me to contextualise my own experience as a young Australian lesbian in a wider historical lens. Most importantly, these movies have made me feel less alone. It is comforting to see narratives of people you can directly empathise with onscreen, and that simple fact is what makes media/cinematic representation so important for myself and members of other diverse groups.

Addendum: Movies on my to-see list that should be on yours too:

1.       Moonlight (2016, dir. Barry Jenkins)
2.       Milk (2008, dir. Gus Van Sant)
3.       The Kids Are Alright (2010, dir. Lisa Cholodenko)
4.       Pariah (2011, Dee Rees)
5.       Brokeback Mountain (2005, dir. Ang Lee)
6.       Freeheld (2015, dir. Peter Sollett)
7.       The Watermelon Woman (1997, Cheryl Dunye)

And that’s it, folks! Happy Pride Month and a big thank-you to the lovely Claire for inviting me to contribute to Cause a Cine!

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Cause a Cine do not own any of the images used in this post. 

By Claire.

This morning, my sister woke me up to tell me there was bad news overnight: after two seasons, Netflix has decided to cancel Sense8.

This announcement comes a week after the cancellation of Baz Luhrmann’s 1970s hip-hop and disco musical extravaganza The Get Down, another artistic and diverse master piece. Netflix may like to come off as a platform which champions diversity, but at the moment, is failing to keep that image up.

Created by Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski, Sense8 follows the lives of eight people from across the globe, who are interconnected in their minds, called “sensates”, allowing for these people to visit each other, feel their thoughts and emotions, and share skills to kick ass.

All 8 sensates together comforting Sun in Korea - So many different types of people supporting one another.

Filmed in sixteen cities and thirteen countries, what sets this show apart is not only the immense diversity of its characters, but also its production value, filming on location in each country the character is from and with local actors and film crew. From Seoul, Nairobi, Mumbai and Bombay, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, Chicago, Berlin, Reykjavik, London and Amsterdam, the show is literally the most global production seen on television.

Which is what makes the cancellation so disappointing.

In a review of the first season for Variety, Brian Lowry argued “‘Sense8’ becomes a pretty mundane, chaotic soap opera, following the lives of its various characters without doing much to advance what binds them.” I fail to see how this is a bad thing. 

Not only are we living in one of the most exciting time for television, where production values are bigger, the stories are more inclusive, and it is television shows which have more of an effect on society than film, but we also live in a time of intense international turmoil. So Sense8 may be turning more into a “soap opera”, about the characters lives rather than advancing what connects them, I don’t see this as a bad thing. (sidebar: was I the only one seeing all the action, fight scenes, and the whole cluster—what the group of sensates are called—banding together to defeat the enemy aka BPO?) Having a show where eight people around the word, from different cultures and ways of life, all banding together and helping each other in any way possible, is so important and life affirming to see. What connects us is our humanity, that we all live on this earth, and nothing demonstrates that more than Sense8.

Miguel Ángel Silvestre as Lito and Alfonso Herrera as Hernando at the Sao Paulo Pride Parade.

Actress Tina Desai, who plays Kala from Mumbai, told The Hollywood Reporter, "We might be culturally different, but we all think and feel the same way. If we can just respect that difference and then get over it and be more accepting, there really isn't any problem. The problem comes around when you resist change. That's what the show is doing: We all get past our differences and create something really amazing." 

The show teaches empathy, teaches tolerance. Wolfgang Bogdanow (Max Riemelt), a grumpy tough guy from an East Berlin crime family can blow up his uncle with a rocket launcher one scene, and help kick a homophobe’s ass in the next. Kala Dandekar (Desai), a devout Indian chemist can find out her husband’s company sends expired medicine to countries like Kenya, and feel the most intense betrayal. Sun Bak (Doona Bae), a Korean business woman who is an insanely skilled fighter is the one to help Capheus Onyango (Aml Ameen in season 1, Toby Onwumere in season 2), a tall and solid, Kenyan man fight his battles with her martial arts. A joke around the Sense8 fandom is that Will Gorski (Brian J. Smith), the All-American Chicago cop is the Cluster Dad, and Riley Blue (Tuppance Middleton), the Icelandic DJ is Cluster Mum. Although they come from different worlds, Nomi Marks (Jamie Clayton), a transgender woman in San Francisco offers advice and support to Lito Rodriguez (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), a Mexican actor who must deal with being publicly outed while in the spotlight.

Berliner Wolfgang Bogdanow (Max Riemelt, right) experiences Kala Dendakar's (Tina Desai, left) Mumbai through their connection. 

There is no accounting for how much this show means for a global audience as well. In a featurette uploaded by Netflix, actress Jamie Clayton says “I don’t think there’s one person in any part of the world who could watch the show and not feel connected to someone.” The show isn’t even just about people of diverse races, but also of sexuality, gender identity, religion, and subverting gender norms. In season one, Lito experiences Sun’s period pain; as mentioned above, the same woman helps a man fight; one of the most intelligent people in the cluster, Kala, is a woman; and in the final episode of season two, it is a white man who needs to be saved.  

Left to right: Freema Ageyman as Nomi's girlfriend Amanita Caplan and sensates Doona Bae as Sun Bak and Jamie Clayton as Nomi Marks. 

Fans have taken to Twitter to voice their disappointment, with Vine star Thomas Sanders writing:

A petition to renew the series has already be created.

In addition to the shows immense diversity, it is also a stunning and artistic production. Filming on location, instead of in a studio, provides an authenticity to the show and the character’s stories. The scenes are like pure art forms, and the editing is flawless. In a show where people are connected mentally, the ability to effectively show how the characters visit each other, but are unseen by those around them, is incredibly detailed and tricky to orchestrate, yet the editors pull it off seamlessly.

Some of the incredible editing. Source.

Not only do platforms such as Netflix need to champion stories of diversity, but they should also celebrate project which extend the boundaries of what a TV show is. To move forward in an already constantly changing industry, with the development of technology and a plethora of content already out in the world, isn’t it time to be bold and take risks in new formats? No other show does what Sense8 does. It is purely unique in its scope. Why doesn’t Netflix see the merits in that?

Netflix CEO and founder Reed Hastings told CNBC the platform has too many hits and not a high enough cancellation rate. If Netflix needs to cancel shows, why did they renew the teen drama Thirteen Reasons Why, which glorifies suicide? What will connect the characters now that the tapes are over? I will admit, I enjoyed the show and I think it demonstrates what it’s like to be a teenager in an adult way, but I don’t think it needs a second season. It’s lost on me. Sense8 comes together to fight a common evil both literally with the corporation BPO, and figurately in fighting bigots with lack of understanding. Love, empathy, sex and courage: This is what Sense8 is about, and I want to see more of that.

Bring Sense8 back.  

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Both season's of Sense8 are available to stream on Netflix.

Trailer 1 | Trailer 2 |  Featurette 

Cause a Cine do not own any of the images used in this post.