Master and the Horror Hidden in 'Safe Spaces'

“I think that was one of the things that attracted me to the script in the first place,” Renee says. “I think it was the first time that I read experiences that I’ve had. And while it was painful and hard to read, it was the first time I felt seen in that way. I thought diving into those hard to reach experiences was going to be a really interesting process for me and my healing, and also for friends and family, and people that look like me.”

The elusively sinister quality of Master is that few if any of the main characters (at least living) are going out of their way to undermine or harm Jasmine and Gail. Gail’s almost all-white colleagues on the Ancastor faculty are delighted to have a Black master on the campus—their own Obama, they joke. Meanwhile Jasmine has friends from visibly moneyed backgrounds in her dorm who want to be her support system. But as Fisher, who plays fellow freshman Katie, tells us, that only goes so far.

“I think slowly through the support they’re giving her, or lack thereof, you see they’re kind of part of the problem,” Fisher says. “This unintentional racism that’s just as bad if not worse in those instances, because these are the people that are supposed to comfort Jasmine in this movie. And also they represent an institution that’s supposed to be a comforting, safe place. Higher education is supposed to teach you that these things are wrong, but it’s really adding to the problem, contributing.”

Fisher’s director is quick to note that some of the classmates, particularly Katie, attempt to understand things from Jasmine’s perspective. But none of them are really thinking about how Jasmine is experiencing their world.

“And when you’re a Black woman and you’re combating microaggressions that are coming at you a mile a minute,” says Diallo, “a lot of them are so subtle and so small that if you’re an outsider, somebody outside that experience, you might not notice it.”

The filmmaker sees that obliviousness a lot in the way we perceive ourselves and our history. Throughout Master, students and professors alike speak glowingly about Ancastor’s history going back to the 18th century. And yet, few pause to think that for those who had few or any rights in the 18th century–or those who might have been in bondage–that is not necessarily such a romantic notion.