Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing & Racism in Hollywood

Until today, the whitewashing is a racist tradition in Hollywood, and as the “blackface”, the “yellowface” was used in Hollywood as a propaganda tool and manifestation of the racism.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941 changed the world forever. The United States entered WW2. More than 110,000 citizens of Japanese origin were rounded up and dispatched to camps until the end of the war. Hollywood was quick to react with films from Know Your Enemy to Bugs Bunny Nip the Nip. With the arrival of the Cold War the enemy image had to change quickly and Hollywood obliged.

Selected at the Festival Lumière 2019

Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Production : Wichita Films
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Coproducer : Martine Melloul / Kali Pictures
Network : OCS & Histoire
Year : 2018
Running time : 53 minutes

Casting

Nancy Wang Yuen
Author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism

Tamlyn Tomita
Actress Come See the Paradise

Joseph McBride
Film Historian

Dan Akira
Film Historian