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‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ Filmmaker Kobi Libii Isn’t Surprised About Sparking Internet Controversy: ‘I Understand Being Deeply Suspicious’
As 'The American Society of Magical Negroes' debuts at Sundance, filmmaker Kobi Libii talks tackling racist tropes and sparking internet controversy.
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. “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. “I came up for air a couple of hours into working on it realized that really what I was writing about was a very particular defense mechanism that I was taught as a Black man growing up in America, about how to keep myself safe, and how to navigate systemic racism.
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