Work Text:
A year ago January, resolute won a vid from me as part of the FandomTrumpsHate charity auction. Her most intriguing request:
a multi-fandom vid set to Sia's "The Greatest" reveling in the bad-ass wonderfulness of characters of color in SF/F/horror TV and movies of the last 3-5 years.
I don't watch a lot of TV shows, but the music and concept called to me, and I couldn't resist the challenge. Fifteen months, a ton of help and approximately 75 new or new-to-me sources later, I'm proud to present:
Dreamwidth | Tumblr | Twitter | Vimeo | YouTube | download at Mediafire (60 MB .rar) + subtitles (.srt) + character/source IDs (.srt)
THANK YOU
To resolute for donating, originating the concept and song, and working with me to shape the final product.
To the FandomTrumpsHate auction team for providing the opportunity to vid for charity.
To WisCon Vid Party for granting an extension that allowed this to be finished in time for the con.
To the army of fan friends who honed the character list, advised on key episodes for dozens of the shows I hadn't seen, provided source, helped me think things through (and sometimes helped me stop thinking so much), recommended software, reviewed drafts, and more: anoel, arduinna, bonibaru, cathexys, cherry, cinco & R., deelaundry, disgruntled_owl, dolorosa_12, DrGlam, elipie, eruthros, ghost_lingering, happydork, kiki_miserychic, laurashapiro, llincathryn, longwhitecoats, lurrel, merisunshine36, metatxt, mific, monanotlisa, NicasioSilang, no_detective, par_avion, purple_fringe, rionaleonhart, sanguinity, scribe, sdwolfpup, seekingferret, SerenadeStrong, sholio, sisabet, sol_se, stultiloquentia, synn, thedeadparrot, thingswithwings, topaz_eyes, trelkez and violace. Other people I've inadvertently left out. Half of Twitter for support and encouragement. I couldn't have made this vid without all of you.
Who's that at [time]?
Good news! If you click the (CC) button on the Vimeo player and select "Interlingua," you'll get a subtitle file that identifies every clip in the vid. On YouTube, enable captions and then click the Settings gear icon to choose Interlingua.
Regular subtitles are also available in English. Lyrics can be found here, although the vid has extra verses because it's a combination of two versions of the song.
How did you decide who & what to include?
The inclusion criteria went something like:
- Characters of races and ethnicities that are underrepresented in the countries that produced the movie or show
- Countries = mostly U.S., also Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, a few scattered others
- Characters got struck from the list if they were played by someone the U.S. would generally consider white
- Live-action sources
- I wanted to see the performer's face. No green-face makeup or whatever (e.g. Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy), full-face masks (e.g. Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery) or CGI/motion capture characters (e.g. Maz Kanata in Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
- "Badass" does not mean "pointing and shooting guns"
Also, FWIW, inclusion in the vid does not always imply endorsement of the original source or how a character was treated in it, *cough* Slipknot *cough*.