The Projector #19: Endorsed! (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

If you enjoy The Next Picture Show there’s an excellent chance you’re already listening to You Must Remember This. This week’s newsletter is for the rest of you. Since it launched in 2014, Karina Longworth’s podcast has specialized in deeply researched long form stories about Hollywood history. Some of the show’s best stretches have involved miniseries around various themes, be it the Black List or the rivalry between Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. There’s no bad place to jump on board, but the show’s current season is among the best Longworth has produced.

Titled “Six Degrees of Song of the South,” it’s dedicated to the stories behind Disney’s 1946 animation/live action hybrid Song of the South, a retelling of Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus stories set in a happy Reconstruction-era plantation that’s become #problematic with a capital “P.” But, as the episodes reveal, it was problematic from the start. While it’s become an accepted take that Song of the South is just one of those products of another time that didn’t used to bother anyone but now does, You Must Remember This helps blow the dust off the controversies that have swirled around the film since its inception.

The miniseries is timely, too. Though a major Disney release in its day (and for years after, thanks to theatrical re-releases over the years), it’s conspicuously absent from the extensive Disney archives found on the new streaming service Disney+. While other examples of stereotypical depictions made it to the service (accompanied by an easy-to-miss warning on their landing pages), Song of the South is nowhere to be found. In the U.S. at least, it’s been absent since its last re-release in 1986. But, as Longworth’s show proves, being confined to the shadows hasn’t made it go away, nor made talking about it any less essential.

Speaking of Disney+, don’t miss our bonus episode on our first impressions of the service. You’ll find that in the Patreon feed, where you’ll soon also find a discussion of the service’s new Star Wars show, The Mandalorian. As for the show proper, this week we’ll be talking about The Producers and next week we’ll be bringing in Jojo Rabbit. (Well, the others will. I couldn’t make the taping because I was at a screening I couldn’t miss). We hope you enjoy them and, as always, thanks for supporting the Patreon.

Want stuff to read? Soon you can read Scott Tobias on Song of the South in a Guardian article set to publish this week. As for other stuff, check out, here’s a few items we liked:

• At Vulture, Alison Willmore shared some concerns about the state of Edward Norton’s career.

• Also at Vulture (and Disney+-related), Jen Chaney considered what it means for Disney to own The Simpsons (and more general problems about corporate consolidation). 

• The concerns don’t stop there, however. In The Washington Post, Josh Spiegel considers the downside of Disney+’s nostalgic appeal.

• In the New York Times, Taffy Brodesser-Akner dropped a moving profile of Tom Hanks, nice guy, great actor, and general inspiration.

• At Vox, Constance Grady makes a case for Kristen Stewart as a needed addition to Hollywood’s club of Chrises.

And in Texas Monthly, our old co-worker Sean O’Neal pays a visit to the last Suncoast Motion Picture Company in Texas.