Oscars 2016: It's time for Hollywood to stop defining great drama as white men battling adversity

[1939]

55. One of the problems

Robert Claiborne in his history of the evolution of the English language points out that while England had few notable painters or composers, it had an overwhelming share of the worlds great authors. If you go to a book store in Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, or Switzerland, there will be a out-sized share of the books that will be in English or that will be translations of English (and American) authors. The functioning language of Hollywood is English. There are a trove of histories in English for script ideas. A large majority of script ideas will involve English or other European protagonists as that is where the written history comes from. There is far more source material about the battle of Agincourt than there is about any battle (which may have involved larger armies) in the Congo during the same time frame. Are there any maritime disasters with black protagonists to match Titantic?