Dona DeSanctis [in addition to being Deputy Director of OSIA (Sons of Italy)], is Executive Director of CARRES (Coalition Against Racial, Religious, and Ethnic Stereotyping).

Ms.DeSanctis is appealing on behalf of CARRES to ALL to contact MPAA regarding "Shark's Tale", repeating her concerns found in the Letter to MPAA, also following.

I urge ALL to support CARRES efforts!!! PLEASE Don't leave CARRES out there "hanging"! They are making a GREAT effort, CARRES deserves our Support!

Ms. Joan Graves, can be reached at:

Motion Picture Association of America
15503 Ventura Boulevard
Encino, CA 91436-3103

Tele: (818) 995-6600
Fax: 818-382-1798
Email: joan_graves@mpaa.org

I implore you to be your most charming selves.
She is a potential ally, She is NOT the enemy!

AND if you have a few extra moments, you will find FAX numbers at the end, of prominent and influential people, that it would be helpful to send copies of your Message to.

On August 6, 2004, CARRES sent the attached letter below to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) about "Shark Tale".

MPAA's Joan Graves called yesterday, August 11, 2004, to thank us for our "very thoughtful letter" .  She said the MPAA is aware of our concerns, and will be reviewing the film the first week in September.

She said that while ethnic stereotyping is not yet one of the MPAA's criteria, it has been influential in rating or re-rating films such as Shirley Temple's movies, which the MPAA has given a PG rather than a G rating to because of their racial thematic elements.

Ms. Graves also said that the MPAA will be guided in its rating decision by its Board of Parents and often rates a film based on how this board thinks the film will be perceived by the average American parent.

Ms. Graves was very understanding and sympathetic to our point of view.    She has promised to call me after the MPAA sees the film.

We encourage all of you to write to her as well, using our letter as your model.  Please ask your local and congressional political representatives to write to the MPAA as well.

Dona De Sanctis, Ph.D. , Deputy Executive Director
Order Sons of Italy in America , 219 E Street, NE , Washington, DC 20002
 

NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST RACIAL, RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC STEREOTYPING
 

August 6, 2004
 

Joan Graves, Chair BY FEDERAL EXPRESS
Motion Picture Association of America
15503 Ventura Boulevard
Encino, CA 91436-3103
Tele: (818) 995-6600
Email: joan_graves@mpaa.org

Dear Ms. Graves:

The Coalition Against Racial, Religious and Ethnic Stereotyping (CARRES) is a national alliance of ethnic organizations representing Americans of many faiths, races and ethnic heritages.

We write to support concerns expressed by the National Italian American Foundation and the Italic Institute of America in their letters to you about the children's film, Shark Tale scheduled for national release in October, 2004 by DreamWorks SKG.

Shark Tale is a gangster comedy that features sharks as mafia characters with Italian names and has the gangsters use Italian expressions in their scenes.  From our conversations with DreamWorks and from what we have seen to date from the studio's own Web site, promotional material and trailer, this movie will perpetuate the image of Italian Americans as Mafia gangsters.  The film also portrays African Americans, Jamaicans, Rastafarians, Jewish Americans and women in negative stereotypical ways.

We are especially concerned since this movie is directed at children who are particularly susceptible to absorbing negative stereotyping as studies from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and Steven Spielberg's own research have proven.

In fact, Mr. Spielberg gave an interview to the New York Times earlier this year in which he warned that young people need to learn "the dangers of stereotyping, the dangers of discrimination, the dangers of racial and religious hatred and vengeful rage."  ["For Spielberg, an Anniversary Full of Urgency" By Bernard Weinraub, Mar. 9, 2004.]

We therefore request that the MPAA give the most serious consideration to giving this gangster movie an R rating, thereby ensuring that impressionable children will not see this film.

Italian Americans constitute the nation's fifth largest ethnic group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Two-thirds of Italian Americans in the work force are in white collar professional positions.

Italian Americans have outstanding records in law enforcement, government, science, medicine, the arts, business and philanthropy.  It seems hardly fair to present them as gangsters to children too young to distinguish fact from fiction.

We strongly urge the MPAA to take all these facts into consideration when making its recommendations for rating Shark Tale.

Yours truly,

Dona De Sanctis
Executive Director

cc:  Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks SKG,
331 North Maple Drive (#200), Beverly Hills, CA 902104
Steven Aiello, Hill & Knowlton Public Relations - Fax: 212 885 0570
Congressman John Mica, co-chair,
Italian American Delegation, U.S. Congress - Fax: 202 226 0821
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton - Fax:  202 228 0121
Senator Charles Schumer - Fax: 202 228 3028
Jack Valenti - Fax: 202 452 9823
Joan Graves [in MPAA's DC office]  Fax: 202 452 9823