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JULY/AUGUST 2004
“Ethnic Coalition
Challenges
DreamWorks”
April 8, 2004
The Italian Tribune
Submitted by: Felicia A. Kopelman
My former boss called me recently to tell
me that Italian American groups were
protesting outside my former company’s
office building in Universal City,
California. This also happens to be the
same building that houses Steven
Spielberg’s company, DreamWorks. She
said that many of the signs said
“disgraziato” on them and she wondered
if I knew why this was the case. Shortly
afterward, I saw this article in the Italian
Tribune. It explains it all.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A national
coalition of ethnic organizations has
written to Steven Spielberg expressing
serious concerns about reported
stereotyping and gangster elements in
DreamWorks’ forthcoming children’s
movie Shark Tale, scheduled for release
in October.
The National Coalition Against Racial,
Religious, and Ethnic Stereotyping
(CARRES) was founded in January by
four of the nation’s leading Italian
American organizations: the Columbus
Citizens Foundation, the National Italian
American Foundation (NIAF), the Orders
Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) and
UNICO National.
To date more than 20 Italian American
organizations as well as the American
Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the
National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs,
and the Polish American Congress have
joined CARRES.
Shark Tale is being produced by
Spielberg’s company DreamWorks SKG,
under the direction of one of his partners,
Jeffrey Katzenberg. According to the
DreamWorks website, Shark Tale is a
“gangster comedy” that features sharks as
mafia characters, who belong to the Five
Families, a large syndication, which
includes killer whales, hammerheads, and
Frankie, a white shark who is a “natural
born killer.” Nearly all have Italian last
names. (See www.sharktale.com).
In its January 21 letter to Spielberg, the
CARRES coalition asked DreamWorks to
change the gangsters’ last name in Shark
Tale to ones that do not call to mind a
specific ethnic group and to remove all
script elements that identify them as
Italian, including dialogue using such
terms as “fuhgettaboutit,” “capeesh,” and
the like.
With its letter, CARRES sent the results
of two recent studies. The first revealed
that from 1928 to 2000, Hollywood
produced nearly 1,100 films featuring
Italians or Italian American characters.
Of these, 73% portrayed them as
criminals or buffoons.
The other Zogby International Poll of
1300 teens, aged 13 to 18, of different
racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds
revealed that 78% of the teenagers
thought the most appropriate roles for
Italian American characters on television
or in the movies was as gang bosses or
waiters.
“Clearly, movie and TV stereotypes
shape perception,” said CARRES
spokesperson Dona De Sanctis. “Shark
Tale’s plot sounds like ‘Nemo meets Don
Corleone.’ That kind of movie would
cause a tidal wave of unwholesome
stereotypes to hit yet another generation
of impressionable children. Once on
DVD and video, these stereotypes will
have a multigenerational shelf life.”
“Italian Americans are tired of seeing
themselves relentlessly portrayed as
violent people who live outside the law,”
De Sanctis said. “We plan to use every
tool available to us to make sure that the
American public knows our concerns
about movies like Shark Tale that
perpetuate this unfair and untrue
stereotype,” she continued.
For more information on the work and
the missions of CARRES, contact
CARRES spokesperson Dona De Sanctis
in Washington, D.C. at (202) 547-2900,
or access her email: ddesanctis@osia.org.
Artists Wanted
On behalf of The Italian Club and Maria Capitano (Club Member/Artist), we are proud to
announce our 3rd annual Fine Arts Concert in the Club’s very own “Connie Spoto Walter
Theatre” on November 18th - 21st, 2004.
In addition, we would like to extend an invitation for club members whom are also artists to
audition for the concert.
If you are an artist including a poet, singer, actor, musician, painter, photographer or dancer
and would like to be considered to present your art or perform in the concert, please contact
Maria Capitano at 813-267-7551 for more details by August 31st.
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