Iyin Landre Calls Out Hollywood's Racial Stereotypes in ME + YOU Kickstarter Video
In three comedic yet painfully truthful skits, Iyin Landre reveals the racial stereotyping she has faced as an actress in Hollywood. From auditioning for nail salon ladies, to being asked by casting directors to put on fake "Asian" accents, Landre discloses the limited opportunities for Asian-American actors.
Like Julie Chen recently noted, the glass or bamboo ceiling for Asian-Americans is still very real today. Therefore, Landre has set out to defy these odds in her passionate and gritty film, Me + You, in which she stars, writes and produces. The story is about an American girl who travels to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and falls in love with a drug dealer from the favelas, the notoriously violent slums. Last year, Landre traveled to Brazil by herself to shoot a trailer, so as to come back and raise the funding for the feature.
One reason Landre created this project was because she grew tired of waiting for mainstream media to represent Asian-Americans as complex characters. She says, "In order to change stereotypes, we can't just complain about it, we have to create new images and tell new stories to replace them with. We have to define ourselves, instead of letting others define us."
Landre and her team are in the last week of their Kickstarter campaign for Me + You, to crowdfund $75,000 by 8:21 AM PDT on Saturday, September 21st.
As an Asian-American woman in Hollywood, Landre is forging a career path few have walked, since Asian-Americans are still grossly underrepresented in the entertainment business. The first and only Asian actress ever nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress was Merle Oberon in 1935. And while Asian-Americans attend opening weekend movies 6% more than the average American, and spend 35% more on entertainment in general, they comprise only 0.4% of the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Landre expects Me + You to be completed sometime in early 2015, after Brazil hosts the World Cup in 2014 and before the Olympics in 2016.
To view the Kickstarter campaign of Me + You, go to: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2063940185/me-you-feature-film-set-in-brazil.
Watch the video!
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