Illusions (1982) User Reviews

race in Hollywood

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 28 July 2022]

It's 1942 Hollywood. Mignon Dupree (Lonette McKee) is a pale-skinned negro trying to make her way in the studio system and passing in most situations.

This is a low budget black and white indie short. This is the 80's trying to do the 40's. I start off with some hope. It seems like an interesting behind-the-scenes takedown of the studio system. Then it ends with an undeserved overwrought performance waving the race card. It's too big. For most of this, it seems to get the tone right. Any subtlety goes out the window at a certain point. I don't mind the others making it about race. She should take the high road and make it about the work.

Rarely seen view of race and Hollywood

[monteros · 10/10 · 2 December 2000]

I was lucky to view this film in class with decent sound. From what I understand, most the sound is barely audible on most prints. Sad, because Illusions is an example of race that is not often seen in the media. One of the few other examples I can think of is Alex Haley's Queen, but that took place over a hundred years ago, whereas Illusions is slightly more modern (and therefore hits closer to home), having taken place during WW2. But the issue of "passing" for the majority is not something the majority often thinks about, and I feel that many of my classmates were quite surprised by this film. That's a good thing though.

African American women as individuals and symbols...

[[e-mail] · 10/10 · 11 January 2007]

Julie Dash's film Illusions was recognized as the best film of the 1980s by the Black Filmmakers Foundation. In it, Dash exposes and challenges the traditional structures of white Hollywood. She depicts how the contributions of African Americans to the heritage of film have been censored, destroyed, hidden, and otherwise erased from both public memory and tangible record. In the story, a female movie studio executive, Mignon Dupree, is assigned the arduous task of uniting the picture and sound portions of a musical motion picture that is slipping into disrepair. Unbeknownst to the other members of the studio, Dupree is black. However, when a black singer is hired to provide the vocals for the image of the white woman who is to be the starlet of the film, Dupree's heritage risks being unveiled. Nonetheless, the two black women bond together and support each other towards mutual gain.

by Jennifer Rachelburns Arntzen, Derek Eby, Michelle Lee, and Maxim Rivkin.