Documentary filmmaker Vishal P. Singh has worked on a few different Netflix shows over the years, including Cheer and Last Chance U. The non-binary filmmaker joined the many voices of protest against Netflix over the Dave Chappelle comedy special The Closer.
“I am here at the #NetflixWalkout. As a non-binary filmmaker who has helped create over 30 hours of Emmy winning original documentaries for @netflix,”
Singh tweeted his message along with a short video of the protest showing a group of people outside the Netflix building.
Netflix employees staged a walkout to protest Chappelle’s allegedly transphobic content and Netflix’s response to it. Other famous figures, like Eliot Page, have also shared support for the movement.
The walkout reportedly attracted hundreds of people to the Netflix building. The walkout is the culmination of a growing amount of discontent for Netflix for standing by the special, temporarily suspending three employees (one is trans), and for firing a black trans Netflix employee for sharing info about Netflix’s whopping price tag of $24.1 million for the special.
Intersex comedian Seven Graham attended the protest and said the special would fuel violence in the trans community.
“I actually found myself crying watching this special, because it says some very difficult, very painful, very untrue things about who trans people are,” Graham said. “This special will be used by people to fuel that transphobia and that has a very real-world effect for trans people. As soon as I heard that trans employees were speaking out and amazing activists like Ashlee [Marie Preston] were stepping up and organizing this demonstration, I knew that I had to go.”
Earlier this month, Chappelle took the stage to a standing ovation at the screening of a new movie about his life and said “If this is what being canceled is like, I love it.”
As of writing, Netflix has not yet agreed to the protestors’ demands.
