In this episode of The Politics of Race in American Film, Dr. Clive James Nwonka hosts a conversation with Melanie Hoyes (British Film Institute), Dr. Luisa Heredia (Sarah Lawrence College), and Dr. Shelley Cobb (University of Southampton) about the films American Honey and The Florida Project.

Each film examines the experiences of people on the fringes of American society: for Star, American Honey’s protagonist, joining a traveling group of magazine-selling teenagers offers her the freedom of the road. For Mooney and her mother Halley, freedom is harder to come by as they live in the shadow of one of America’s most potent cultural icons, Walt Disney World. This conversation explores the films’ themes of economic precarity, the absence and ineptitude of the state as a site of assistance, and the communities that form outside of that system. The discussion also explores depictions of Latinidad, biracial identity, gender and white femininity.

The Politics of Race in American Film is available on Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, the LSE Player, and more. We hope you’ll listen and subscribe to our new podcast and promote it to your networks. We’d love to hear your feedback on the podcast too – you can respond to this email with your comments or join the conversation about the podcast on Twitter with the hashtag, #LSEUSRaceFilm.

Listen to Episode 3 on Soundcloud

We’d love to hear what you think – you can send us a message on Twitter @LSE_US, or email us at uscentre@lse.ac.uk._

The Politics of Race in American Film is hosted by Dr Clive James Nwonka and produced by Michaela Herrmann and Chris Gilson (LSE Phelan US Centre). This podcast series was supported by the LSE HEIF fund.  Featured image: “Welcome To Florida Sign” by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Note:  This podcast gives the views of the interviews and co-hosts, and is not the position of USAPP – American Politics and Policy, the LSE Phelan US Centre, nor the London School of Economics.

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