Face values

So You Think You Can Dance is a dance competition, originally on Fox, now a worldwide franchise. It spawned many similar series, as well as the inevitable cheap imitations.

What do looks have to do with how well you can walk on stilts, or your stamina, or your ability to survive 24-hour filming days?- Tanja Cilia

Like shows we’ve seen in Malta – whether they fall under the category ‘rip-off’, ‘cheap imitation’, or ‘part of the franchise’ is anyone’s guess – the show involves a tiered format with dance-offs between contestants.

The phrase, however, was recently given a totally different nuance when it became a part of a promotional bumph for a forthcoming television drama series, where the call for applications for auditions included the aforementioned question.

This being Malta, where everyone is expected to know everything (that’s why winners of beauty contests and song festivals end up presenting TV programmes or hosting fashion shows), requisites include knowing how to act and dance. Note, not ‘or’.

But what made the whole shebang go the local version of viral was the inclusion of the words ‘għandek il-looks’ (you’ve got the looks).

This means those who have not been blessed with good looks, despite being able to sing, dance and act celebrities under the table, would have no chance of being selected in this call – unless, of course, it is as baddies or fatties or comic relief.

I noted with pleasure that people involved in several drama series protest­ed vociferously about this, both online as well as in e-mails. And some of them are included in ‘beautiful people’ lists, and included actors, producers and scriptwriters.

It was interesting to see the reactions of people who have no connection whatsoever with the drama scene – these ranged from the ‘modern’, ‘facepalm’, tal-qtugħ ta’ nifs and xi ħsara, to more vitriolic statements.

This reminded me of how certain people are given top jobs because of quota systems, where others, who in a meritocracy would have left them standing, are shooed away.

Looksism is just another type of prejudice, and as Etienne St John puts it succinctly: “These days actors are not being given the rigorous training we went through ourselves. Drama schools are mushrooming. Learning is an on-going pro­cess; these people are doing a disservice to Maltese theatre and drama.”

This comment brings to mind the sniggers that followed after Woody Allen tried to have Carla Bruni shoot a simple scene in a film.

All in all, apart from the inherent message in the aforesaid call for applications, it was the fact that it was posted by someone with a big following that irked those who were not reluctant to make their views known.

There are actually dramas that are popular exactly because the actors and actresses are not conventionally good-looking. Sometimes, even those who look good ordinarily, are made up to look weird.

What do looks have to do with how well you can walk on stilts (when most people would not be able to see your face anyway); or your stamina, or your ability to survive 24-hour filming days?

It is interesting to note that to announce his Anchorman sequel, Will Ferrell’s role as San Diego news anchor ‘Ronald Joseph Aaron Burgundy’ – Ron Burgundy to the rest of us – this was done via a jazz flute performance on Conan O’Brien’s show. This has nothing to do with whether he is ‘handsome’ – or not. Talent has nothing to do with looks.

Incidentally, people should consider all the possible meanings of a pun when they name their company.

• Most people, even those who do not follow the Eurovision Song Contest, would know that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has had to face a barrage of criticism about going ahead with preparations for the finals of the contest in Baku, despite the status quo in Azerbaijan.

Most condemnation revolves around human rights and media freedom of information issues. The EBU itself vaunts itself as being apolitical, insisting it is an international event and a cultural celebration dating back nearly 60 years.

French President Nicolas Sarko­zy recently went on record saying footage of the shootings Mohamed Merah carried out with a camera attached to his body, that had been sent to Al-Jazeera, must not be screen­ed on any TV station out of respect to victims, and France.

The video footage included the cries of the victims and the voice of the perpetrator, and was on a USB key sent with a letter to the Paris office of the company.

This brings us to the question of what ought to be screened on TV, as well as what, and from where. Should the ‘postcards’ of Baku include scenes that have made the rounds in e-mails? Does anyone bother to check when the ‘beautification’ of the place began – actually before the Eurovision Song Contest was a twinkle in anyone’s eyes in Azerbaijan?

Just as it is PBS, and not the Maltese government, that is responsible for the Maltese leg of Eurovision, it is Ictimai TV, and not the Azeri government, which has the right to host the finals.

I am informed that in July 2010, the EBU organised a two-day workshop for journalists and Azeri officials on media freedom and related matters, adopting a declaration on freedom of expression, media independence and democracy.

What defies explanation is how, when the Eurovision Song Contest has at times been held in countries with questionable international statues and economic conditions, there was no hoopla at the time; think Spain in 1969, under the Franco dictatorship, and Yugoslavia in 1990, where the war of the year following was already brewing; Israel in 1999, rife with political upheaval; Turkey in 2004, weeks after the Al Qaeda bomb killed 57 people; Ukraine in 2005, the time of the Orange Revolution, and Moscow in 2009, amid accusations of social injustices.

television@timesofmalta.com