Top

We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

Hollywood Blackout

On sale

13th February 2025

Price: £22

Select a format

Selected: Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781788405676

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

Are the Oscars (still) so white? Is it even possible to decolonise the film industry? Why is Hollywood’s race problem everyone’s problem?

Ignoring the systemic racial inequalities in film is losing the industry $10 billion a year. Yet, parity, diversity, and inclusion are fundamental issues that the Oscar Awards are only just beginning to address.

In this book, award-winning writer, broadcaster, model, and fashion designer, Ben Arogundade, provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about Hollywood – documenting the stories and struggles of black artists within the movie industry that have so far been left out of the canon.

The chapters are structured chronologically around different Oscar winners, from Hattie McDaniel to Halle Berry. Each section is rich with exhaustive research from critics, activists, and academics, as well as interviews with stars and those within the film industry, to demonstrate sociological and historical influences on black artists, highlight positive progress, and make you realise that certain attitudes still remain.

Hollywood Blackout is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the accepted narratives within film, and examine how the industry both reflects and influences societal views on race.