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Volunteer run organisation organising events and sharing resources throughout Brighton and beyond!
Facebook group can be accessed here.

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It's Nice That - list of resources for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement

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It's Nice That - list of resources for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement

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It has now been over three weeks since the brutal killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, and a week since vast crowds gathered to pay tribute to him in Houston at his funeral. The events of three weeks ago have sparked a reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice, not just in the US but around the world.

It's almost impossible for many of us to even comprehend the pain and anger that many in the Black community are feeling right now, and there's nothing we can say that hasn't already been said far more poignantly by countless others. So instead of rehearsing those thoughts and sentiments, we want to use our small corner of the internet to share resources; to amplify Black voices; and to support the demonstrations currently going on in any other ways we can. Below you'll find a list of links, divided up into charities, funds and initiatives to donate to; people and organisations to follow; books and articles to read; and petitions to sign.

For those of us in privileged positions, this is a time for two things. In the short term: action, including everything from signing petitions and joining demonstrations to donating to bail-out funds and following Black community organisations. And then in the longer term: education, learning how we can support, become better allies or just generally further the cause. We hope the list below provides a useful starting point for both of these, but it is just a starting point; we will be updating it, so please get in touch with any new suggestions or if you feel we've missed something.

For those of us doubly privileged enough to work in the creative industries, we need to recognise that our predominantly white sector (and our own company is no exception) benefits from Black culture every day. We all need to redouble our efforts to support Black voices and artists, starting now. And finally, for those of us based in the UK, it's important we don't pretend this is an American issue alone. Our record in this country on institutionalised racism and systemic injustice makes for grim reading.

As always, if you have any thoughts on how we can improve what we do, please send an email to our editor Matt at ma@itsnicethat.com, whether with new suggestions for the list below or with stories and initiatives we should be supporting.

Charities and funds
Black Lives Matter The Bail Project The Liberty Fund A list of organisations to fund, put together by Reclaim the Block Campaign Zero Unicorn Riot American Civil Liberties Union Stand Up To Racism UK
Petitions to sign
Justice for George Floyd Justice for Ahmaud Arbery Justice for Belly Mujinga #DefundThePolice Justice for Breonna Taylor
Articles and resources to read

Anti-racism resources for white people (via Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein)

75 things white people can do for racial injustice (via Medium)

Ways to help (via Black Lives Matter)

"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates (from The Atlantic, 2014)

IG: George Floyd: How can I help from the UK? (via Das Penman)

IG: 10 steps to non-optical allyship (via Mireille Harper)

IG: Transform Allyship into Action: A Toolkit for Non-Black People (via Social Justice in Medicine Coalition at USC)

Twitter Thread: UK-based charities, organisations and platforms whose work aims to eradicate racial injustice (via Black Ballad)

IG: Brilliant Black-owned businesses to buy from in the UK (via Emily Ames)

Twitter Thread: Advice for companies from Sheree Atcheson, Monzo's Head of Diversity and Inclusion (via Sheree Atcheson)

Books

Why I'm No longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge⁣⁣⁣

I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown

Natives by Akala

Dark Days by James Baldwin

Diversify by June Sarpong

How To Be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri

White Supremacy and Me by Layla F. Saad

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis

They Can't Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery

Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde

White Girls by Hilton Als

Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch

Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga

The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla

Watch and listen

Angela Davis on intersectional anti-racism (via Roshni Goyate)

The Color of Fear, directed by Lee Mun Wah (1994)

1619 by The New York Times

Code Switch by NPR

People and organisations to follow
Entry Level Activist Color Of Change Equal Justice Initiative We the Urban Munroe Bergdorf Mona Chalabi Asai Takeaway Inquest Org BlackVisions Lee Merrit (Civil Rights Lawyer) NO WHITE SAVIORS Layla F. Saad Rachel Elizabeth Cargle Check Your Privilege Rachel Ricketts The Great Unlearn Reni Eddo-Lodge Ibram X. Kendi
Guides and tools

How to protest safely during a pandemic (via VICE)

Five points to consider before going to a Black Lives Matter protest in London or the UK (via @VARAIDZO)

Know your rights (via @initialola on Twitter)

Tool for quickly scrubbing metadata from images and selectively blurring faces and identifiable features (via @everestpipkin Twitter)

Free flyer printing (via The Photocopy Club also here)

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A list of resources for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement

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Below you'll find a list of petitions to sign, funds and charities to donate to, and resources for educating yourself and those around you. (Last update: 16 June)

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race extract

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Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race extract

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Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race

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The long read: For years, racism has been defined by the violence of far-right extremists, but a more insidious kind of prejudice can be found where many least expect it – at the heart of respectable society

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Sussex based community organisation with a programme of events across the year.

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Welcome to Brighton and Hove Black History

Brighton and Hove Black History Project seeks to reveal Brighton and Hove's hidden past and helps local people get involved in mapping their own history of Brighton and Hove.

We aim to, show how everyone (both black and white) can learn from each other and become more aware of Brighton and Hove's cultural heritage and enable Black and minority people to represent their experiences.
History is a living thing which we can all contribute to!

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Brighton and Hove's Black History Project

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Brighton and Hove Black History Project seeks to reveal Brighton and Hove's hidden past and helps local people get involved in mapping their own history of Brighton and Hove. We aim to, show how everyone (both black and white) can learn from each other and become more aware of Brighton and Hove's cultural heritage and enable Black and minority people to represent their experiences.

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Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

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Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

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Girl, Woman, Other is the eighth novel written by Bernardine Evaristo, published in 2019 by Hamish Hamilton. It follows the lives of 12 characters in the United Kingdom over the course of several decades. The book was the co-winner of the 2019 Booker Prize alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, and has since received twenty-five Book of the Year and Decade honours, alongside recognition as one of Barack Obama's Top 19 Books for 2019 and Roxane Gay's Favourite Book of 2019. It currently features on many prize lists, including winning best fiction book at the 2020 the British Book Awards and on the shortlist for The Women's Prize.

The book follows the lives of each of 12 principal characters (mostly black women) as they navigate the world. The book is divided into four chapters, each containing episodes about three women who are connected directly to one another in some way, the majority as relatives (such as mother and daughter). Although each character has their own chapter set across a particular time, their lives intertwine in numerous ways - from friends and relatives to chance acquaintances. The book opens with a playwright, Amma, anticipating the opening of her new production, The Last Amazon of Dahomey, at a theatre in London. The play is based around the fictional life of a Dahomey Amazon. The last chapter of the book takes place at the party that follows the play's opening night, in which many of the characters are present and interact, though not necessarily knowing one another. The epilogue contains a plot twist in which two of the book's twelve principal characters discover they are mother and daughter and meet for the first time in old age. As they meet, the story concludes:

this is not about feeling something or about speaking words

this is about being

together

Some of the themes explored in the characters lives are feminism, politics, patriarchy, success, relationships and sexuality. Asked about her motivations in writing the work, Evaristo said:

I wanted to put presence into absence. I was very frustrated that black British women weren't visible in literature. I whittled it down to 12 characters - I wanted them to span from a teenager to someone in their 90s, and see their trajectory from birth, though not linear. There are many ways in which otherness can be interpreted in the novel - the women are othered in so many ways and sometimes by each other. I wanted it to be identified as a novel about women as well.

Intersectionality

The novel explores how race, sexuality, gender, history and economic stratification intersect to define the experiences of the women in the novel. At university Yazz establishes a group of friends who share the commonality of being people of colour. She becomes hostile to Courtney, a caucasian Cornish girl, joining their group, arguing she would not be able to relate to the experience of being 'one of the few brown girls on a white campus'. On a trip to London to visit her friend Nenet, the daughter of an Egyptian diplomat, she discovers that her friend is profoundly wealthy, and has had her university papers written for her by a retired professor. Yazz is alienated by the experience, and recognises that even as a woman of colour, her life is more similar to that of her lower middle class caucasian friend. Courtney, herself born into a farming background, addresses the intersectional flaws of only considering the racial element of social privilege. Citing Roxane Gay she states:

"Roxane Gay warned against the idea of playing 'privilege Olympics' and wrote in Bad Feminist that privilege is relative and contextual, and I agree, Yazz, I mean, where does it all end? is Obama less privileged than a white hillbilly growing up in a trailer park with a junkie single mother and a jailbird father? is a severely disabled person more privileged than a Syrian asylum-seeker whose been tortured? Roxane argues that we have to find a new discourse for discussing inequality."

This idea is sustained throughout the book. Despite the 12 women in the book experiencing various forms of oppression, many of them contribute to intersectional forms of exclusionism because of their life experiences, class and social standing. Many of the characters other each other. Dominique's reductive view of Shirley as a 'dry heterosexual schoolteacher' closes her off from discovering how similar their life experiences have been. Penelope, who through most of her life is in fact unaware of her light-skinned black parentage, others Bummi, simply describing as her 'African cleaner' (the former having been raised by her adoptive parents to believe that whites were the master race). When Penelope discovers her true African heritage (Hattie), she abandons her racist sentiments, realising Hattie's story is undeniably intertwined with her own.

Suggesting a solution for Gay's new discourse for discussing inequality, Evaristo provides the narratives of these 12 black women so that readers can sincerely relate to their experiences on a humanistic level rather than reducing them to a stereotype.

Critical response

The review aggregator website Book Marks reported that 57% of critics gave the book a "rave" review, while the remaining 43% expressed "positive" impressions.

Emily Rhodes of the Financial Times said that "Evaristo writes sensitively about how we raise children, how we pursue careers, how we grieve and how we love", while Johanna Thomas-Corr of the Sunday Times describes Girl, Woman, Other as "...a triumphantly wide-ranging novel, told in a hybrid of prose and poetry, about the struggles, longings, conflicts and betrayals of 12 (mostly) black women and one non-binary character." According to Sarah Ladipo Manyika, writing for the New Statesman, Evaristo "continues to expand and enhance our literary canon. If you want to understand modern day Britain, this is the writer to read."

Girl, Woman, Other was joint winner (with Margaret Atwood's The Testaments) of the 2019 Booker Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Gordon Burn Prize. The Booker Judges described the work as "a must-read about modern Britain and womanhood" and named one of the top ten books of 2019 by the Washington Post.

At present, Girl, Woman, Other is one of Barack Obama's 19 Favourite Books of 2019 and Roxane Gay's Favourite Book of 2019, and is the 12th bestselling hardback fiction book in the UK. It stands as a Sunday Times Bestseller and Book of the Decade for The Guardian, and identified as Book of the Year twenty-five times including Oprah Magazine's Best LGBT book, TIME's 100 Must Read Books, CBC's 28 Best International Fiction, Elle's 13 Best Feminist Books, Amazon Editors' Pick of the Year and Apple Books Best of the Year, as well as Best Audio Book of 2019.

Evaristo received recognition as one of the Financial Times's Women in 2019:the game changers and is currently shortlisted for The Women's Prize, British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year and Publishing Triangle Awards (USA). Featured in OkayAfrica's 100 Women 2020 she is also longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction,Glass Bell Awards, Australian Book Industry Awards and Visionary Honours Awards.

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Girl, Woman, Other is the eighth novel written by Bernardine Evaristo, published in 2019 by Hamish Hamilton. It follows the lives of 12 characters in the United Kingdom over the course of several decades.

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Blog from Students' Union trustee Aishnine Benjamin

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In light of the police murder of George Floyd in the USA and the resulting protests, upset and anger in the UK, some people have expressed confusion to me about why black people here in the UK are protesting. The simple answer is that the issues in the USA are happening here, a disproportionate number of black people have died in police custody in the UK and structural racism continues to affect black people. If you don't know what to do here is some information to address your knowledge gaps.

For white people
First step. Read the short essay White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible knapsack by Peggy McIntosh, that visualises a physical representation of privilege. Robin Diangelo's White Fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism, written by a white woman in the USA captures a discussion that is often missing, about what is 'whiteness'? For white people who often don't see themselves in racial terms.
Tips:

1. Don't be defensive. This isn't personal and it's not really about you. Everybody is at a disadvantage when our formal institutions perpetuate inequalities.

2. Don't say 'I'm not political' to excuse yourself from this conversation. Right now, ignorance isn't an excuse. You can't unsee what you have seen.

3. You don't have to be vocal but do 'listen'. Listening means being open to hearing what black and minority ethnic people are saying. Be open to their lived experiences (if they choose to talk about them). You would be hard pushed to find a black or Asian person that doesn't have a personal story of racism.

4. Work on your empathy. Visualise yourself in the other person's shoes. Discrimination is dehumanisation and the only way to see a person as human is to empathise with them.

5. Be uncomfortable.

6. If you can read one book, watch one video, visit one place in this list that is a step towards change.

For everyone
There are some quick reads that summarise for a UK audience, how a poor understanding of the history of race and what racism really is, has created our current structurally racist systems. Afua Hirsch's Brit(ish), Akala's Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, Renni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (with accompanying podcast) and White Privilege: The Myth of a Post-Racial Society by Kalwant Bhopal, exploring the subtleties of modern-day racism, in the UK and USA.
In the UK we have black intellectual powerhouses who have written on these topics for decades. Paul Gilroy's There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation, will teach you about often forgotten moments in recent history - with examples of how racist ideology has shaped our social understanding. Stuart Hall was a sociologist and pioneer in the field of cultural studies whose work explored the concept of Britishness. The Stuart Hall Project film by John Akofrah captures his life and theories. For the wider colonial perspective; Franz fanon's Black Skin White Masks and Walter Rodney's How Europe Under-Developed Africa. Peter Fryer (a white man) wrote Black People in the British Empire, a fantastic introduction to empire and racism, connecting British history across the continents of Africa, Asia and the white settlements e.g. Australia and New Zealand.

If you like real life stories, the book Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain presents interviews of people's first-hand experiences in the UK from the 1940s to the end of the twentieth century. And Sam Selvon's novel The Lonely Londoners captures the voice of post-war Caribbean migrants in London.

David Olusoga's book Black and British a Forgotten History and the tv series Black and British a Forgotten History is due to be rebroadcast on the BBC in June 2020.

And where would you buy all these books? Support Black book shops and publishers such as the iconic Beacon Books in Finsbury Park, London and many more that are listed here.

If you aren't a fan of reading books. Watch some videos. A Class Divided, where Jane Elliot, a teacher in the USA in the 1960s divided the children in her all white class into blue eyes and brown eyes, the experiment teaching the children about the absurdity of racial divide led to Jane becoming a ground-breaking activist and repeating the experiment across the world where with communities and organisations with racial divides.

Go a on a black history walk or tour (after lockdown!). See the black British history on the streets you walk every day. Black History Walks on London streets, Nadia Denton gives tours of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London with an African focus, the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool and Bristol museums information on the black history of Bristol. Support the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, preserving the national black British cultural heritage.

Explore the British Black List, an online platform which celebrates African & Caribbean creative professionals. The website Black History Month 365 is a good source of information across all areas; history, news, events etc and #BHM365 because black history is 365 days a year not just one month.

Research
In the UK we have some established race equality think tanks. The Institute of Race Relations, publishes the excellent Race and Class journal, and a newsletter on anti-racism and social justice activities in the UK and Europe that you can sign-up to - sobering reading on racist attacks that continue daily. The Runnymede Trust and the Race Equality Foundation publish research on racial inequality in the UK. If you just want stats and data the UK government website Ethnicity Facts and Figures is comprehensive.

Educating our children
Black British history is British history. If it isn't in the curriculum the next generation are at a disadvantage and risk repeating the ignorance that has led to our current situation. A book that summarises the situation in the UK is Tell it Like it is: How our Schools Fail Black Children, edited by Brian Richardson and a video that captures the impact of a white mainstream media and narrative that perpetuates stereotypes is the White Doll Black Doll experiment by Kenneth B Clark and Maime P Clark. This experiment has been recreated globally with similar outcomes, including in the UK.

The Black Curriculum organisation, founded by Lavinya Stennett, have resources and run workshops for children to learn about black British history. The book The History of the African and Caribbean Communities in Britian by Hakim Adi is a simple book that primary school age children can revisit.

Buy books and toys that show the true diversity of the world we live in. This is book love sells multicultural books for children.

Call to action

1. Become informed and do what you can to change the one story narrative so that the future generations don't remain in the dark.

2. Be conscious and have intention in your actions. What will YOU do differently?

3. Understand the REASONS behind the current disparities that exist in society.

4. Use your power and your privilege for the benefit of humanity (everyone has some level of power or privilege at home, socially or at work). Break the foundations of structural racism.

5. Vote. Use that little bit of power that you do have. No matter what your political leaning. See the work of Operation Black Vote.

Finally - if you are a leader of people in any capacity and you are yet to be convinced about the positive benefits of working with, or engaging with diverse people read Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed. Diversity isn't a fun to have it's a must have.
About me
I am the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead at the Nursing and Midwifery Council so I have to give a nod to the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minorities here in the UK and our healthcare workers summarised by my colleague Emma Lawrence. The review by Public Health England solidified what we already knew and experts in race discrimination in healthcare already expressed some thinking about the causes. Roger Kline's blog noted the lack of risk assessments for ethnic minority healthcare workers with underlying health conditions. Yvonne Coghill's blog suggests that the disproportionate impact of the Coronavirus on ethnic minorities is linked to them being more likely to be in frontline roles.
Please suggest more resources, links and learning.
Aishnine Benjamin
Website: www.aishnine.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/aishnine
Twitter: @aishnine

The stories behind the 'Windrush scandal' came to light in the mainstream media in 2018. The Home Office have identified 164 people who had been deported or put in detention since 2002, but the full numbers affected could be thousands. The actions taken by the Home Office that led to several individuals losing their jobs, homes and sense of British nationality, were essentially illegal and have recently been labelled as institutionally racist.

The Windrush Lessons Learned Review, published on the 19 March 2020, into the Windrush scandal suggests that in the Home Office there was an "institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation"[1].

The 'mother country'
The reason why this group of individuals should never have been treated in this way has been explained by the fact that they had a right to be in the UK. The Immigration Act 1971 gave them the right to live in the UK, but they were not given them any documents to confirm this.

In the corporate world, there is term, 'corporate knowledge'. A person who has worked for a company for so long that they remember the major projects, restructures, change initiatives, the good leaders and the bad decisions of the past, is said to have corporate knowledge. This person can be the difficult 'nay-sayer' when new ideas are floated, but at the same time, they can be a great asset to an organisation, preventing the repetition of ineffective change. Corporate knowledge can also be held in good filing systems and documentation.

For a nation, corporate knowledge is held in its history books, history curricula in education and it is asserted in the way that the media and government communicate what has gone before and what is important now. Which brings me to my point, does anyone remember the 'mother-country'?

It seems that some people in the UK can reflect on the British empire with nostalgia for a time when the British dominated the world. Often forgetting that domination of the world and the 'great British Empire' were built on the enslavement of Africans, and the colonisation of many countries. The Caribbean today is considered by most to be a collection of exotic paradise islands; palm trees, sun, sea and sand - with smiley natives. The only reason that there are black people in the Caribbean at all is due to the European navies enslaving Africans and transporting them there. In the Caribbean now, the languages spoken and the names of towns will tell you which European countries controlled that island at some point. For example, Barbados is the only island that remained in English control for the entire colonial time and therefore has no Spanish or French language or references.

And so, what of the 'mother country'. The Windrush story starts with the boat that arrives at Tilbury docks in 1948 with the media, government and public response to this. But what about the story from the Caribbean perspective.

"We didn't see England as a separate entity. For example, in my convent school we spent a lot of time knitting little bits of wool for people during the war, you know, the poor. We didn't see there was any difference between Grenada and England. "There'll always be and England and England shall be free" used to be one of our school songs. Empire Day was a big day in Grenada. So it was all part and parcel of what we were about, being part of England."[2]

This is one story of many. The people in the British colonies in the Caribbean knew nothing other than being part of the empire and looking up to the 'mother country'. Independence from the UK happened relatively recently from 1962-1983. And this group of immigrants have a particularly unique relationship to Britain. One that almost everyone seems uncomfortable to really address. The complexities of the situation were explained expertly by David Lammy in the speech he made in the House of Commons on the 23 April 2018:

'The Windrush ​story does not begin in 1948; the Windrush story begins in the 17th century, when British slave traders stole 12 million Africans from their homes, took them to the Caribbean and sold them into slavery to work on plantations. The wealth of this country was built on the backs of the ancestors of the Windrush generation. We are here today because you were there.

My ancestors were British subjects, but they were not British subjects because they came to Britain. They were British subjects because Britain came to them, took them across the Atlantic, colonised them, sold them into slavery, profited from their labour and made them British subjects. That is why I am here, and it is why the Windrush generation are here.

There is no British history without the history of the empire. As the late, great Stuart Hall put it: "I am the sugar at the bottom of the English cup of tea."'

This is a unique relationship that has never been formally acknowledged, neither has there been an apology, either for what has been taken from Africa, or for the ongoing repercussions on the people who were enslaved and their descendants. Yet, many of their descendants are now in the mother country, and several have been subjected to a hostile and racist environment. Racism defined as less favourable treatment on the basis of race. Race defined legally as colour, nationality, national or ethnic origin.

Tackling inequality at an organisational level
So, what is the answer to this conundrum? What would have stopped this from happening? Quite simple really. People should be competent to do their jobs, and if you work in the Home Office and make decisions about policy then your job competence should include some knowledge of the nationalities that you make decisions about and their relationship to the UK now as you know it and in the past. If structured diversity and inclusion practices were in place in the Home Office this scandal would not have happened.

Diversity and inclusion should not only be seen as a fun and inclusive thing to do, it is fun and inclusive but there is a lot more to it. Instead, see discrimination in an organisation as a disease that has no cure but can be controlled with multiple interventions. In this situation the aims are simply legal compliance and fairness, which has to go beyond a tick box exercise to really shake the core of an organisation, to dismantle the structures that have racism sewn into them.

The fact is that there is incompatibility between the rhetoric of 'hostile environment' and the law, which gave this group the right to live in the UK as citizens, and this incompatibility must be confronted. The first step to do this is to agree a definition of what is actually wrong. Bring the history into the board room, let the policy and decision makers discuss British Empire and its impact on current UK societal structures, give them the space to question if those policy decisions are actually legally compliant with the law, or are they based on the politics of today.

Three of the tools in the diversity and inclusion box that would have led to different outcomes:

1. Recruitment. If the person specification for policy decision makers stated that they must be knowledgeable in, or able to learn about the relationship of different nationalities to the UK.

2. Training. Policy decision-makers in the Home Office should be trained in equalities and human rights legislation. Not just what they are but their complexities with some historical context and discussion of the impact on current society.

3. Equality impact assessments. Sometimes called organisational empathy. An organisation takes time to look at the evidence and do effective engagement to analyse if their proposals will have a disproportionately negative impact on diverse groups of people.

But the ground work has to be done. If we aren't all agreed on what is the issue is then there will be no change. If the leaders don't fundamentally agree to the report finding that the problem was "institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation"[3] there can be no effective interventions. For example, if there is generic equality and diversity training without some focus on teaching people about what race is i.e. critical race theory, then the policy makers will not be able to interrogate their actions with some understanding of if their decisions are based on legitimate aims or dangerous rhetoric. The future of dynamic diversity and inclusion intervention is tackling the issues with a complex awareness of the history of and irrationality of discrimination.

[1] Windrush Lessons Learned Review: Independent review by Wendy Williams; Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 19 March 2020

[2] Phillips, M & Phillips, T; Windrush: The irresistible rise of multi-racial Britain; (Harper Collins, London, 1998) P13.

[3] Windrush Lessons Learned Review: Independent review by Wendy Williams; Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 19 March 2020

There is a wealth of information online, many organisations working hard to raise awareness of the lived experiences of those that aren't counted as part of the mainstream. It is important that we use the resources that they produce to support our diversity and inclusion work. Evidence forms the bedrock for diversity and inclusion business cases and generally just helps us understand difference better.

Below are some key reports, websites and blogs that can inform you.

1. Human rights and how they interact with the current affairs of the UK can be followed in the very accessible website and newsletter from Equally yours. To understand the articles of the Human Rights Act and how they affect people in the UK go to the human rights campaign organisation Liberty.

2. For global perspective on gender in the workplace, Catalyst produce research and reports about how to make the workplace, work for women. Covering topics such as sexual harassment, gender inclusive leadership and intersectionality in the workplace.

3. The case for changing the gender bias in leadership in the workplace is given in the UK in the report and Mckinsey company provide data and reports across different industries and with a global perspective.

4. The BITC Race in the workplace campaign provides a road map for improving the conversation about race in the workplace in the UK. The report to back this up is the McGregor Smith review, with case studies, data and a literature review.

5. Best place for ethnicity stats in the UK is the Ethnicity stats and figures UK government website. The website also gives good best practice advice in monitoring race and ethnicity e.g. using the terminology 'ethnic minority' not BME/BAME.

6. Intersectionality theory and practice; a research paper that explains the history and theory of intersectionality, by Delta Alpha PSI an organisation that specialises in the psychology of diversity, inclusion and discrimination.

7. Is Britain fairer? The Equality and Human Rights Commission produce this all-encompassing report with statistics on disproportionate outcomes on health, housing, education and life in general in the UK - across all diversity strands.

8. Stonewall are an organisation that campaigns for LGBT equality in the UK. They are the best website for guidance and reports about the lesbian, gay and bisexual experience in the workplace and different sectors (e.g. schools, sports, health) in the UK on (note that before 2016 Stonewall did not represent trans people, therefore you can't find a depth of information about the experience of trans people on their webpages).

9. Best practice on disability in the workplace Business Disability Forum and for up to date facts and figures on disability in the UK, Scope are a good source for information.

10. The Centre for aging better, has information about the different experiences, and considerations by age in health, housing, employment and communities. Even how to plan for aging in younger years.

If you have more recommendations for useful or interesting sources of data and information about diverse groups, please suggest them below.
Aishnine Benjamin

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In light of the police murder of George Floyd in the USA and the resulting protests, upset and anger in the UK, some people have expressed confusion to me about why black people here in the UK are protesting.

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Ongoing Journey with White Allyship - Ella Asheri

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Ongoing Journey with White Allyship - Ella Asheri

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Blog post by former UG Education Officer Ella Asheri

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By Ella Asheri

My journey with white allyship began at university where I was part of a student society that held open and honest conversations about race. As one of the few white people in that space, I felt disturbed hearing so many experiences of racism in a university that I chose for its 'critical' and 'inclusive' reputation.

Distressingly, I began to see myself as complicit in the racism that my friends experienced. Although I wasn't usually causing it directly (unfortunately I sometimes was), I was benefiting from the racist system of white supremacy - I felt comfortable in the white/Eurocentric discussions in my classes and felt at home talking to my all-white tutors.

Being privy to these painful and difficult conversations about race forced me to re-evaluate my assumptions about the 'liberal' and 'progressive' university and society I thought I was part of, as I could not unhear these racist experiences. As a privileged white person with second-hand knowledge of what it's like to be on the receiving end of racism, I decided to try to put my position to good use and ran to be a Students' Union Officer.

Once elected, I made it my mission to prioritise anti-racism and platform the experiences of students of colour to those with power in the university. However, I had to be careful not to talk foror over people of colour, become too comfortable in white spaces of power, or see myself as one of the (only) 'good' white people.

One year later and I'm still learning how to be a better white ally. Anti-racism is a life-long practice - there is no 'end point' or medal you receive - it requires commitment, vigilance and stamina. We will continue to mess up, say or do the wrong thing, but try to learn from these mistakes. Staying silent is simply not an option - for it is to be complicit in a violent, racist system.

As white allies, we must continue to educate ourselves on anti-racism (rather than asking people of colour to do the work for us), call out racism wherever we see it ( especially when it makes us uncomfortable or compromises our positions of power), and can seek the support of other white allies and organise collectively (for instance forming a 'White Affinity Group' to hold constructive conversations around our whiteness).

We must stay open to learning and criticism, try to take our egos out of the equation (which is not always easy), and we must keep on listening.

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By Ella Asheri My journey with white allyship began at university where I was part of a student society that held open and honest conversations about race. As one of the few white people in that space, I felt disturbed hearing so many experiences of racism in a university that I chose for its 'critical'...

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Online Resources: Learn to be Anti-Racist by  @arthirangaraj 

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Online Resources: Learn to be Anti-Racist by  @arthirangaraj 

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Sussex University Library Anti-Racism Reading List

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Sussex University Library Anti-Racism Reading List

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List curated by Library staff at Sussex

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Recommending Black Trauma Films Isn't the Anti-Racist Move You Think It Is

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Recommending Black Trauma Films Isn't the Anti-Racist Move You Think It Is

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Recommending Black Trauma Films Isn't the Anti-Racist Move You Think It Is

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There is a clear disconnect between the media white audiences uses to educate themselves, and the media Black people tend to support wholeheartedly.

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FAQ

(Frequently Asked Questions)

Can I link this on my Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Website, etc?

Yes, you absolutely can!

Who are you?

My name is Nico and I am 19 years old!

Can I make a carrd inspired by this one?

I did not come up with the idea of compiling resources on BLM at all but please be respectful with how you discuss it. These are important issues and the discussion of black lives being lost.

Can I pay you for the work you're doing?

Thank you for the offer but kindly no! I am financially stable and there are much better places your money can go, such as to anything on the donate page!

Is this carrd updated?

I've been updating it for the past year as often as I can! However, running this carrd can be very mentally taxing considering the subject matter so I do often take long breaks for personal mental health. Please refer to the date on the bottom of the first page to see when the last update was and consider many other compilation sources meanwhile!

One last PSA:

Carrd's and infographics are the absolute tip of the iceberg when it comes to activism. This carrd can be very useful in aiding education or act as a starting point for you but please understand there is so much more to being an, "ally." Speaking up against racism in your real life, furthering your education on the subject and boosting black people and their voices are a few of the many important actions that further this movement. As times change and this movement furthers this carrd will not he relevant to every situation concerning black lives nor is any other carrd in a case by case basis. Do the work yourself as well to continue supporting black lives.

Text Or Call

-Daunte Wright was shot near Brooklyn Center by officer Kim Potters on April 11th, 2021. He was a loving father only regarded positively by his peers, and his death is being excused as a mistake.

-You can use the resources below to demand every cop involved in the murder of George Floyd be charged without bail.

-Text "JUSTICE" To 668366

"JUSTICE" to 668366

-Text "FLOYD" To 55156

"FLOYD" to 55156

-Get in contact with the District Attorney and Minneapolis Mayor. Leave a message for them DEMANDING that 4 officers including Derek Chauvin (Badge #1087) and Tou Thao (Badge #7162) be charged without bail for the Murder of George Floyd. (Info Below)

Minneapolis Mayor's Office, Jacob Frey.Minneapolis District Attorney, Mike Freeman.Minneapolis PD E-Mails:
- (612) 673-2100
- (612) 348-5550 or email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Internal Affairs Number:
- 612-673-3074 [email protected] Four Officers, Including Officers Derek Chauvin (Badge #1087) and Tou Thao (Badge #7162)

-Breonna Taylor was murdered in her house by police who raided the wrong house and was shot 8 times while she was sleeping. Call or E-mail the Louisville Mayor's office and demand that the officers involved be charged! (Info Below)

Louisville Mayor, Greg Fischer
- (502) 574-2003

-Text "ENOUGH" To 55156

"ENOUGH" to 55156

-Julius Jones is on death row in Oklahoma despite compelling evidence that he was wrongfully convicted and that racial bias infected his case. Just fill out this template that will send an e-letter to the Pardon & Parole Board. (Info Below)

-Johns Hopkins University is trying to put a Private police force throughout the city of Baltimore. The city is 62% black, students have created a letter campaign to call them to cancel their plans. You can send a pre-written letter below!

-Template for U.S. residents to inquire into how the police are trained in your city! Has info for texas but pls research who your city rep is!

-E-mail templates to reform and defund the police!

-E-mail Protest for Victims of Police Violence!

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(Frequently Asked Questions) Can I link this on my Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Website, etc? Yes, you absolutely can! Who are you? My name is Nico and I am 19 years old! Can I make a carrd inspired by this one?

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If Beale street could talk (2018) dir Barry Jenkins

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If Beale street could talk (2018) dir Barry Jenkins

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After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.

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If Beale Street Could Talk More I wish I had more to say about Beale Street, but all I can call it is heartbreaking. It filled me with a tension that so many black films fill me with, where I'm waiting for an ultimate, inevitable cruelness to set in, and so paralyzed by that waiting that I watch it more like a horror film.

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Angela Davis Portrait of a revolutionary (1972) dir Yolande DuLuart  

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Angela Davis Portrait of a revolutionary (1972) dir Yolande DuLuart  

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Angela Davis: Portrait of a Revolutionary

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a real time thriller where we witness several key events of a revolution in progress with angela davis as our brilliant powerful guide which never falls into the usual faults of activist docs (or docs in general)

two quick notes:
1- early on in the film there's a shot of angela davis in her study, beautifully framed w/ her massive afro occupying most of it, as she reads existential ethics taking notes, smoking and listening to music and the camera slowly zooms in on her face, a quick poetic note that brings us back down to earth in the center of all this chaos while at the same time helping to humanize&idolize the subject
2- a sequence that begins at a...

you could literally just put excerpts from davis' writings on a blank screen with no soundtrack and it would get 4/5 stars for me. it makes me so insanely happy to know that someone made a film about davis and everything she stood for - the abolition of prisons, intersectional feminism, radical left economic policies, the list goes on. but beyond the mere fact that angela davis is the subject of this, portrait of a revolutionary is a genuinely beautiful insight into the machinations of one of the most important political commentators of the american left.

outside of the scenes that depict davis in her element - giving speeches to her comrades, calling for action to be taken against the...

No point in writing a review when Angela speaks for herself.

One of the most important and valuable voices in recent history who has sadly not been praised about as much as it should. Her revolutionary spirit continues to lives on now more than ever, let her name be known rather than being forgotten by the history books. Educating yourself is the only way to move forward in the right decision, to prevent history from repeating itself. What a miracle of a human being.

" Ive given my life to the struggle."

On this Fourth of July I decided to honor a true American hero rather than slave owners and colonizers most other Americans spent the day worshipping. Davis is an open and avowed Marxist, and her writing on black liberation and prison abolition was some of my earliest readings in my own radicalization to leftism. She is truly an absolutely essential piece to modern radical leftist theory and a must-read for any budding communist.

As a documentary this collection of footage works extremely well. There's no real overarching "narrative" but it all flows together wonderfully.
"One of the things you have to realize, when talking about communism, that has to be an international movement and international phenomena. We can never really have communism as long as there is one capitalist country left."

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On this Fourth of July I decided to honor a true American hero rather than slave owners and colonizers most other Americans spent the day worshipping. Davis is an open and avowed Marxist, and her writing on black liberation and prison abolition was some of my earliest readings in my own radicalization to leftism. She is truly an absolutely essential piece to modern radical leftist theory and a must-read for any budding communist.

As a documentary this collection of footage works extremely well. There's no real overarching "narrative" but it all flows together wonderfully.
"One of the things you have to realize, when talking about communism, that has to be an international movement and international phenomena. We can never really have communism as long as there is one capitalist country left."

One of the most important and valuable voices in recent history who has sadly not been praised about as much as it should. Her revolutionary spirit continues to lives on now more than ever, let her name be known rather than being forgotten by the history books. Educating yourself is the only way to move forward in the right decision, to prevent history from repeating itself. What a miracle of a human being.

" Ive given my life to the struggle."

the pinnacle of political ferocity

you could literally just put excerpts from davis' writings on a blank screen with no soundtrack and it would get 4/5 stars for me. it makes me so insanely happy to know that someone made a film about davis and everything she stood for - the abolition of prisons, intersectional feminism, radical left economic policies, the list goes on. but beyond the mere fact that angela davis is the subject of this, portrait of a revolutionary is a genuinely beautiful insight into the machinations of one of the most important political commentators of the american left.

outside of the scenes that depict davis in her element - giving speeches to her comrades, calling for action to be taken against the...

No point in writing a review when Angela speaks for herself.

Nº8 // berlinale '20

Angela Davis is an icon. Period.

(The musicality and rhythm of her speeches! My oh my. Also - being a badass lady that she is, obv smoking in the classroom is no big deal. Well, the times they are a-changin').

As I was watching the short, the nagging thought of 'revolution will come first thing tomorrow morning' kept coming back to me. Ah, the zeitgeist! How strange it is to realise that it never really did.

I missed more insights into her personal life, yet perhaps if one is fully devoted to the struggle, the traditional concepts of 'personal life' become quite obsolete.

The second vérité dispatch from within the Black Panther Party to screen as part of Berlinale's Forum 50 archival programme, Angela is a lot more of a hodge-podge than The Murder of Fred Hampton. Where that film's elegant form complemented it's subject, and ultimately made for a compelling document, this film offers the joy of seeing Davis speak, the privilege of seeing her work during her brief tenure in UCLA's philosophy department, but the filmmaking itself is a bit too rough.

a real time thriller where we witness several key events of a revolution in progress with angela davis as our brilliant powerful guide which never falls into the usual faults of activist docs (or docs in general)

two quick notes:
1- early on in the film there's a shot of angela davis in her study, beautifully framed w/ her massive afro occupying most of it, as she reads existential ethics taking notes, smoking and listening to music and the camera slowly zooms in on her face, a quick poetic note that brings us back down to earth in the center of all this chaos while at the same time helping to humanize&idolize the subject
2- a sequence that begins at a...

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Angela Davis: Portrait of a Revolutionary (1972)

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"Director Yolande du Luart had been involved in Lettrist circles in France before decamping for California to study film at UCLA, where her classmates included Charles Burnett and Haile Gerima. During this time, UCLA professor Angela Davis was a subject of increasing scrutiny after coming out as a Communist, provoking the ire of administrators and governor Ronald Reagan.

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Eager to find a better life abroad, a Senegalese woman becomes a mere governess to a family in southern France, suffering from discrimination and marginalization.

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Black Girl

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La noire de...
The black girl of...
what?
whom?
where?
Nowhere.
No one.
Nothing.

Or is "of" the most
important word in the title?
Is she the property of?
Existing
only to be exploited;
only to be manipulated,
abused, and destroyed?

Something,
but only in the
form of nothing,
only in the form
of an object,
a possession.
La noire de...
Nulle part;
Personne;
Rien.
Postcolonial rage at its finest.

"France is the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom and my bedroom." In another movie it might seem hyperbolic to equate displacement to imprisonment and menial servitude to slavery, but with the point-of-view of the main character who has so brutally been stripped of her identity and her humanity by indifferent colonials, it seems a fair assessment. The case against the injustices of colonialism is so calmly laid out through several tiny moments and the subjective voice over that I found it effectively shocking when the simmer turns to a boil in the final moments.

the anger and oppression in here is mostly quiet. it simmers before it explodes. white supremacy manifests itself in subconscious gestures and daily cruelties just as much as in colonial rule. i felt just as constrained by that apartment as the protagonist.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

51/100
Incredibly powerful ending (by which I mean the epilogue-husband bringing the mask to Dakar) achieves a haunting poetry that the body of the film lacks. Or perhaps it's more accurate to note that most of Black Girl falls into my personal blindspot regarding straightforward depictions of abuse/oppression/subjugation/etc. With few exceptions, there's just insufficient complexity in these scenarios for my taste, and while I can appreciate what a radical political statement this film was (and, sadly, to some extent still is), there's neither enjoyment nor illumination in watching someone get gradually beaten down to the point where she decides to cut her own throat. Sembène makes Diouana angrier and more openly defiant than a typical victim-even her suicide is essentially...

the fear you feel is quiet.

don't move too much. don't talk too much. don't be too much of a person. they need you to be subservient and you need them to survive.

the rage you feel is quiet.

they gave you freedom in a new city. then they locked you in a cage. they tricked you with their promise of a new life. it is new, but it's not yours. you struggle to feel like a person still. you want to leave but you need this to survive.

the pain you feel is quiet.

you miss your home and your family. you miss your identity. you miss respect. you miss yourself. maybe you don't need them to survive. maybe you don't need to survive.

A portrait of domestic slavery, of African fetishism, of class and race disparity. Diouana is treated in a subhuman manner, shown off at dinner parties as this token African prize, and then berated for not working hard enough at a job she never accepted to do in the first place. Her "mistress" complains about Diouana's mood and appearance, equally but conflicting in wanting her to be "appreciative" of her position but to also dress appropriately according to her class status. What it boils down to is living in poverty and living in this form of domestic slavery are one in the same. The only difference is when one works to survive in poverty, it is only for their sake and...

Diouana is a young senegalese who leaves her poor neighbourhood in Dakar to move to the french city of Antibes to work as a babysitter. The great illusion she had of discovering France, buying beautiful dresses, and enjoying a different life fade away shortly after her arrival. Diouana feels trapped within the walls of the apartment, despite the beautiful view of the Cote d'Azur she feels subjected to the imposition of a series of domestic duties and the lack of respect she is treated by the mistress. A couple of photographs, a mask and a suitcase containing her few belongings are all she has left along with the nostalgic memories of the days when she looked for work and walked...

It's almost as if the best movies about race focus on how racism and prejudice aren't a thing of the past and instead have warped over time into something more passive and more harmful.

Just a thought Farrelly bros...

10/10

Shoutout to @theendmyfriend for the recommendation.

Black Girl is the first feature length film that's directed by a black person from Africa (Ousmane Sembene). Using elements of Italian Neorealism and French New Wave, this film is a metaphorical tale about colonialism. Keep your eye on the mask because that's a major motif in this film.

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J'ai enfin décidé de découvrir le cinéma africain ! Je commence avec quelques films du réalisateur sénégalais Ousmane Sembene, avec son film le plus réputé : "La Noire de..."
Et c'est assez génial ! Sous ses airs et sa forme décontractée dans l'abondance de musiques joyeuses, la noire et un constat terrible sur l'exploitation des noirs encore dans les années 60. Le film est vraiment dérangeant par moments par les remarques de certains personnages, je pense aux scènes de repas avec des invités, portant tous un regard et des réflexions assez répugnantes sur la bonne. Le film choisit une focalisation interne très proche de la jeune femme, où on entend ses réflexions et pensées par une utilisation maîtrisée d'une voix...

" i spend my life between the kitchen and my bedroom. is that living in france? "

god i'm angry

I'd known about Black Girl as a classic of African cinema, but somehow never gotten around to watching it. It's much more than a historical document, though it certainly tells a compelling story of the position of Senegal in the French Republic, and resonates all too clearly with the way white supremacy plays out today. Sembene's clearly influenced by the Negritude movement centered around Senegal's poet and president Leopold Senghor; the mask image is haunting and complicated. A bit of a New Wave feel. I'm going to be viewing my way through Cinema Escapist's list of best African films (link below). This was an excellent start.
www.cinemaescapist.com/2019/02/best-african-movies-list/

Today's my first day of classes and this was the first film assigned for one of my film classes.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Black Girl is part of the Political Independence Movement that protest (through the medium of film) "Négriture", speaking against the Eurocentric imperialism and colonialism ideology, essentially through its narrative. Indeed, through the behavior of the film's main female African character "Gomis Diouana", the viewer is left as witnesses (unable to change the narrative) - through the main character's perspective, her cultural ways of life, identity and discoveries of the unknown, confronting and opposing racism with strength and independency against the higher corrupted policy.
For example, Gomis Diouana refuses to get up from the bed as well as out of the washroom when she is asked to do. When she accepts to take off Madame's high heel shoes, she let them drag on...

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Black Girl More La noire de... The black girl of...what?whom?where?Nowhere.No one.Nothing. Or is "of" the most important word in the title?Is she the property of? Existing only to be exploited;only to be manipulated, abused, and destroyed? Something, but only in the form of nothing,only in the formof an object, a possession.

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Touki Bouki (1973) dir Djibril Diop Mambéty 

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Touki Bouki (1973) dir Djibril Diop Mambéty 

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Synopsis

THE JOURNEY OF THE HYENA

A cowherd with a skull-mounted motorcycle and a university student meet in Dakar; put off by life in Senegal, they plan to make money in Paris.

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Touki Bouki

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Been meaning to watch this ever since the Criterion released the Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project. Vancouver's Cinematheque was screening this so why not check it out on the big screen.

I went home and checked out the extras on the Criterion Channel. Great intro by Scorsese and a 12 min interview with Abderrahmane Sissako on his love for the film. Sissako calls Djibril Diop Mambéty the greatest African filmmaker.

The main plot is essentially the "two young lovers wanting to break out of their one-horse town" plot however because this is Senegal and the young protagonists are attempting to leave Africa for Europe (specifically Paris), this becomes about something greater... a poetic study colonialism and migration. Really powerful editing...

Film #1 in the 30 Countries Challenge: Senegal

This may be the first African film that I have seen, and I now feel immensely upset for having overlooked the films of this continent. Touki Bouki, also known as Journey of the Hyena, is a very static filma about post-colonial feelings in Senegal. The films two main protagonists, Mory and Anta, are university students that have become disillusioned by life in Senegal and seek change. They feel that it would be a great adventure to go to France, and the majority of the film consists of their exploits as they attempt to find enough money to leave Senegal.

The film is shot with unflinching realism, and the camera never shies away...

"Paris, Paris, Paris," the record loops but never advances suggesting he'll probably never get there. Conflicts over resources and debts, an utterance of "Shit!" as a tilt-up reveals European style high rise buildings over the more humble African abodes, Senegal has a strange appeal. Playful visual rhymes link a slaughtered steer and the protagonist's motorcycle, then blood draining from a goat's throat to the waves in a crevice to his girlfriend's sexual arousal. An abstract, surreal lovers on the run road movie explodes and implodes under the force of Mambety's stylized editing, the timeline of events vague and open ended. Maybe it's my cultural distance, but I felt nearly baffled by the final moments of the movie, though ultimately I found it mysterious in a pleasing way. It seems to be simultaneously a love letter and a eulogy for Senegal. Looking forward to seeing more Mambety and watching this again some day.

Paris, Paris, Paris...
the search for an identity, home, and purpose with the excruciatingly unforgiving process that goes with it. a film so beautiful that it felt like every cell in my body was being pulled and pushed in every direction possible; if i had to look at one more beautiful shot or intimate moment, my body threatens either explosion or implosion. even the smallest details contain a vast love and knowledge for what is being filmed. rides an insane and seemingly impossible line between being entertaining, enlightening, visceral, deliriously punk, fantastical and realistic. goes without saying Touki Bouki and its director Djibril Diop Mambéty rightfully and justly deserve a spot in the realm of cinematic visibility of their french new wave influences and its directors (see: godard, truffaut, varda, resnais etc.). you've never seen the collision course for the past, present and future like this before.

I am put in mind of Hoop Dreams here, simply because it was that film that made me think of the false hopes of leaving behind you the travails of your past. In this film, disaffected youths seek escape, but unlike the implications I rejected while considering Hoop Dreams, their dreams involve returning in glory. Again, despite not having anything in common with Mory or Anta, I find I sympathize greatly. The only ways I can imagine being back among the middle class subrural sanitized Americans of Cullman, Alabama, is as some sort of conquering hero returned from afar, apotheosed.

This film is clearly intended as a comedy. There's even an offensive homosexual stereotype thrown in for good measure. But...

One of the more thoughtful third world movies from this era in the ways iy manage to connects its own European film influences with the characters colonial aflictions. Very abrasive, yet playful and rich imagined.

An avant-garde and groundbreaking Senegal masterpiece about ambition and alienation. The breathtaking landscapes and the perfect role of nature contrast the savage dreams of an nonconformist low class seeking for the unreachable. How ironic that modern urban civilization usually represents the neoliberal troubles of humanity and here, in Touki Bouki, morally incorrect actions seem to be the easiest path to a "paradise" that is strongly longed for.

98/100

74/100
A.V. Club review. On the one hand, I'm happy to have finally found an African film I love; on the other hand, I feel like I'm responding primarily to its pronounced Godardian vibe. Oh well.

Also the title of this film is hyphenated: Touki-Bouki. ( Proof.) Why the hyphen doesn't apparently exist anywhere but onscreen-even IMDb has it wrong-is a mystery.

Part of March Around the World 2016. Today: Senegal!

Between this, Jauja, Independence and Trances, this year's 30 Countries is becoming a bit of a postcolonial crit primer. I'm not sure, though, that I'll ever see the malaise of a newly independent nation expressed as wickedly as Djibril Diop Mambéty does in his first feature, where a self-serious voiceover about the "longstanding ties [that] bond France and Senegal" is played over footage of two men wrestling.

Everything in Touki Bouki is unexpected and impish in this way. It hybridises elements of the emerging African cinema of its day - its semi-documentary style, its long, charming shots out of moving vehicles - with postmodern tricks borrowed from the French New Wave....

A narrative film told in a non-narrative style. Touki-Bouki a.k.a "Journey of the Hyena" (a much better title I think) is purported by some to be Africa's first avant garde film. Along with this claim there are many whom also derive a heavy Godard influence over the film in which I personally can also agree (on both accounts really). This piece of Senegal cinema features some jolting experimental editing with a kind of surreal playfulness and daydream quality that you could find in a Godard comedy.

Visually, you could not ask for a better film. It is shot with an utmost realism yet this authenticity in content reacts strangely when the content itself is not so realistic. This ethereal aura...

simultaneously dark and brooding, airy and poetic. gruesome, graphic shots of the local slaughterhouses intercut quickly with the more whimsical tale of two lovers criss-crossing the gorgeous Senegalese countryside on a cow-skull-mounted motorcycle (extremely cool), as they contrive to raise the money to flee to France.

who is being led to slaughter? the rural cowherds who the main characters see trapped in a dead end? or the naiive dreamers eager to venture out into a world which looks down on them? a rough watch at times, but a unique, arresting vision.

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Greater in multiple ways than most contemporary empirial films, not least in cinematography. Intensely disturbing, romantic and funny at various points. Not an extremely vegan production I'd wager. Brevity is the soul of wit, but probably they wanted it to feel this way. The scene with the skull is cut exactly perfectly though.

jauh lebih kritis melihat persoalan subsahara (dibandingkan sembene) yg dijajah prancis. Gampang melihatnya dari pakaian, cara bertutur, dan pohon baobab. Masyarakat senegal itu islami banget. Ini dibenturkan dengan prancis--kulturnya gak nyambung tp disambungkan. Kita tidak dirujuk pada urutan cerita yg baku. Kita diajak mengimajinasikan tentang mory: apakah mory anak kecil yg naek sapi, apakah mory terlepas dari sapi2 itu? Persoalan kapal, bisa jadi klise, bisa jadi gak penting. Krn imajinasi ke paris itu udah selesai ketika sudah mendapatkan tepuk tangan dari keluarganya. Gimmick di belakangnya ya, dia gak jadi berangkat. Itu filem, lah.

Great even though it is low budget.
Experimental,multiple references of African life with a message too.
You hear that it is made in Africa and you think it will be a low quality movie but it is suprising good.

Se tu presta atenção na aula de literatura, com certeza você ligou esse filme ao Simbolismo.

Quando a gente pensa em filmes de Jornada, uma romantização clara vêem em nossas mentes. Pessoas corajosas, cheias de esperança que enfrentam o que der e vier!

Touki Bouki não é assim... Ele é seco, explícito, cansado (não cansativo) e utiliza todos essas noções, pra mostrar uma realidade senegalesa.

Mesmo o filme, em si, optando por uma estética mais de miragem, sonho. Ele ainda consegue ser cru.

Que delícia conhecer as cores do Senegal!

A sugestividade da cena de sexo na costa (a maré enchendo, as ondas explodindo) foi uma das melhores coisas que eu já vi no cinema.

"In spite of all the heavy subject matter, Touki Bouki is unquestionably a very entertaining film, an inventive piece of satire that looks at a very grim subject without taking itself too seriously. A West African underclass odyssey with an unconventionally upbeat disposition, finding a resonant rhythm in its exploration of postcolonial Africa. Almost a spiritual successor to Easy Rider, both in the narrative sense and in terms of the themes of recklessness, defiance and the search for meaning, there's a lot that can be discussed about this film. Beneath the exuberance, there is a melancholy sense of nostalgia and despair, as we follow a pair of young people yearning for a better life, yet being unable to let go...

Even after having heard many praises about the movie and Mambéty in general, I never could've predicted how blown away I would be while watching the movie. So many references to different film movements yet wholly original in its presentation, and a wonderful ride throughout.

PS - this might be a longshot but can anybody hook me up with Hyenas (1992)? It's the only one of Mambéty I couldn't find.

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Touki Bouki More Been meaning to watch this ever since the Criterion released the Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project. Vancouver's Cinematheque was screening this so why not check it out on the big screen. I went home and checked out the extras on the Criterion Channel.

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Sussex BAME Society are a relatively new group who have made a huge impact - their aim is to create a safe social space and provide support for BAME students at Sussex

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The little girl who sold the sun (1999) dir Djibril Diop Mambéty 

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The little girl who sold the sun (1999) dir Djibril Diop Mambéty 

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In Dakar, selling newspapers on the street is an occupation always occupied by boys.; one morning, Sili, a young beggar, challenges that exclusive rule.

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The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun

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'This story is a hymn to the courage of street children'

Lissa Balera's performance here should be much more well-known than it is--one of those stories that's exactly as long as it needs to be, a love letter to the director's native Senegal and a potent tribute to the refusal to give up.

→ Part of the March Around the World Challenge | #7: Switzerland

In sync with its marvelous title, La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil is a charming and hopeful film that portrays its charismatic, vigorous protagonist fairly and richly, without undermining nor giving too much attention to her underprivileged social and physical shortcomings. Sili, a young beggar, faces the uncompromising truth with wisdom and strength by challenging her society's rule that only boys can sell newspapers on the streets of Dakar, so she can support her family. We follow her mission with an adventurous spirit, highlighted by the vibrantly urban photography, as she overcomes her difficulties and makes friends along the way. We witness Sili's kindness as she helps her grandmother...

Sili is so relentlessly optimistic and hopeful. It's infectious. And there are so many adorable life affirming shots amid pretty trying circumstances in 20th century Senegal.

I also really dug the percussive high-energy score. Everything feels like it's moving so much faster than it is, and I think in a way that was my easiest entry into the mood of this movie. It captured really well that lightning-under-the-skin energy of being young, trying something new, and picking it up really naturally. Sili seems to find real purpose and pride in her job. It's great to watch a story like that when there are so many sadder (but lazier) stories you go into this expecting to see.

A hopeful creation of humanity which seems to turn W.B.Yeat's quotation from The Second Coming on its head: "The worst lack all conviction, while the best are full of passionate intensity." In Djibril Diop Mambéty's testament to the indefatigable nature of one endearing little street girl in the stalls and roadways of Dakar, we are offered a perspective rarely posterized (outside of children's literature) upon which to view a subject whose boundaries can be limited or vast: children in poverty? Women in great distress? African post-colonial fallout which continues in an ever-degrading economic caste system? One crippled daughter who not only embodies complex character and strength, but gives it away in magnanimity ? A time to ponder who owns the...

This tale is thrown to the sea. The first to breathe it will go to heaven
I want this film looping at my funeral.

Mambéty the motherfucking GOAT. Such unbelievable grace, fluidity. Balances a thousand ideas countless people have dedicated their lives to comprehending without feeling labored in the slightest.

Mambéty: the people's paper.

Will re-up what my colleague Yasmina Price said about this masterpiece and LE FRANC before its Metrograph livestream premiere: "Thematically, the two medium-length films LE FRANC and LA PETITE VENDEUSE DE SOLEIL are closest to the miasma of finance and money that permeates and creates the central concerns of HYENAS. These films directly confront the economic vulnerabilities created and aggravated by neocolonial financial stringpulling and complicit local elites in Mambéty's contemporary Senegal. Mambéty does not traffic in false nostalgia or a restrictive morality; he invites us to be with characters who are complex and imaginative in carving out ways to live despite the cruel hypocrisies dictating their material circumstances...

"Although it never came to be, the...

She did: that!

Very uplifting and wholesome story of a little disabled girl who has her shit together in an environment where people boys are expected to do better.

Love the directing and damn, that dancing scene was GREAT!

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niepełnosprawna Sili z Dakaru, chce sprzedawać gazety a tym zajęciem w Dakarze parają się tylko chłopcy, odważnie mierzy się z wyzwaniem i mimo gróźb chłopaków, udaje jej się sprzedać cały nakład (13 sztuk) jednemu, bogatemu klientowi (który mówi jej że, dzięki niej odzyskał wiarę w ludzi w tym kraju), poznaje chłopaka z konkurencji - on sprzedaje "Sud" - gazetę ludową, ona "Soleil" - gazetę rządową, bo wierzy, że dzięki temu rząd będzie bliżej ludzi; załatwia sprawę z policjantem, który bezpodstawnie podejrzewa ją o żebractwo/kradzież i pomaga wydostać się z aresztu kobiecie aresztowanej również za rzekomą kradzież, jest jeszcze chłopak na wózku inwalidzkim, który puszcza muzykę za parę groszy, afirmacja ekonomicznej wspólnoty opartej na uczciwości i postępowaniu fair, kontekst dewaluacji franka...

Gotta love this kid, telling off that shithead police officer.

It's really sad that so few of the classic African films have ever been made available in high-quality editions. Scorsese and the World Cinema Foundation did fantastic work with their restoration and release of Touki Bouki, and I only hope that Mambéty's other films can some day get the same treatment. The same goes for the work of Sembène, Cissé, and many other great filmmakers.

(español abajo)

It's great how Diop Mambéty handles these characters, topic and context. It definitely is a very difficult situation but instead of relying on easy sentimentality it shows the characters as humans struggling and thriving under these circumstances.

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Es increible cómo Diop Mambéty maneja estos personajes, tema y contexto. Definitivamente es una situación muy difícil, pero en lugar de quedarse con un sentimentalismo fácil, muestra a los personajes como humanos que luchan y prosperan en estas circunstancias.

so full of joy and warmth and life. how can you not love those yellow sunglasses?

Mambéty: the people's paper.

Will re-up what my colleague Yasmina Price said about this masterpiece and LE FRANC before its Metrograph livestream premiere: "Thematically, the two medium-length films LE FRANC and LA PETITE VENDEUSE DE SOLEIL are closest to the miasma of finance and money that permeates and creates the central concerns of HYENAS. These films directly confront the economic vulnerabilities created and aggravated by neocolonial financial stringpulling and complicit local elites in Mambéty's contemporary Senegal. Mambéty does not traffic in false nostalgia or a restrictive morality; he invites us to be with characters who are complex and imaginative in carving out ways to live despite the cruel hypocrisies dictating their material circumstances...

"Although it never came to be, the...

Enjoyable movie and a beautiful charcter..

30 Movies,30 Countries
#25 Senegal

"Really, the most fitting adjective for Djibril Diop Mambéty's THE LITTLE GIRL WHO SOLD THE SUN is 'happy.' It is about the remarkable will of a bright, unsinkable preteen girl named Sili (Lissa Balera), who lives in a shantytown on the outskirts of Dakar, propelling herself around on crutches."

To peep the rest of my writeup, please go to www.cinefile.info/cine-list/2018/6/15/62118

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The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun More 'This story is a hymn to the courage of street children' Lissa Balera's performance here should be much more well-known than it is--one of those stories that's exactly as long as it needs to be, a love letter to the director's native Senegal and a potent tribute to the refusal to give up.

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City of God (2002) dir Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund

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City of God (2002) dir Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund

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IF YOU RUN YOU’RE DEAD… IF YOU STAY, YOU’RE DEAD AGAIN. PERIOD.

Cidade de Deus is a shantytown that started during the 1960s and became one of Rio de Janeiro’s most dangerous places in the beginning of the 1980s. To tell the story of this place, the movie describes the life of various characters, all seen by the point of view of the narrator, Buscapé. Buscapé was raised in a very violent environment. Despite the feeling that all odds were against him, he finds out that life can be seen with other eyes…

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City of God

If you run you're dead... if you stay, you're dead again. Period.

Cidade de Deus is a shantytown that started during the 1960s and became one of Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous places in the beginning of the 1980s. To tell the story of this place, the movie describes the life of various characters, all seen by the point of view of the narrator, Buscapé. Buscapé was raised in a very violent environment. Despite the feeling that all odds were against him, he finds out that life can be seen with other eyes...

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One of the best films of its or any other time, City of God (also called Cidade de Deus) is a highly disturbing portrait of life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and covers the birth & flourishing world of gangsters, gang-wars & drug deals spanning over 3 decades, from 1960s to 1980s, all meticulously captured through the eyes of a young photographer named Rocket who continuously finds himself in the middle of this milieu despite wanting no part of it.

There are several main characters introduced throughout the story and yet, it ingeniously follows the evolution of every single one of them. The direction is as honest as it is ruthless, the script is uncompromising with its content, cinematography is...

PTAbro's World Tour Stop 27: Brazil

Drama. Romance. Comedy. Coming-of-age. Period Piece. Social Commentary. Crime Thriller. Biopic. The fact that City of God can squeeze all those different genres into one film and have it remain internally consistent and consistently entertaining is a downright miracle. Another incredible aspect of the production is the fact that nearly all of the actors had little to no filming experience at the time of shooting. I learned this afterwards, and still have trouble believing it, especially when I think back to Li'l Zé: easily one of the top villains on film of the '00s.

While I might have had issues with the dependence on stylistic flourishes early on, they were either scaled back later...

Tell me what to watch for a week: Day 2

Every now and then I come across these movies where, at a simple technical level, every single element is working in harmony and consistency of vision. The last movie I watched where I found this to be the case was Chinatown and now it's happened again with City of God. The only thing I knew about this movie going in was that it was directed by Fernando Meirelles (whose Constant Gardener is a personal favorite of mine) and that it was some of my best friends' favorite movie in high school. I was expecting it to be good, but not this good. City of God is a masterpiece.

Maybe the...

it felt weird seeing a lot of non-brazilians saying this is one of their favorite movies when i first started browsing through IMDb and Letterboxd. not that Cidade de Deus doesn't earn its enormous praise, but it's such a deeply brazilian movie! but i should have known: violence speaks all languages. shout out to Leandro Firmino for his flawless performance of one of the best villains of all-time, Zé Pequeno.
"quem falou que a boca é tua, rapá?"

"Why not stick up a bank or Supermarket?" - Child one.
"Peanuts, drugs are where it's at" - Child two.

- Film Club Ranked: boxd.it/3M2sq

When a guy shot a soccer ball I knew things were on.

City of God shows why cinematography, acting, storytelling, editing, directing and sound are all important to making an epic and groundbreaking film. It's great. I can't speak to the film's authenticity but I can say that City of God made me feel and made me think... a lot. I don't know, it's hard to just keep saying a movie is great over and over but that's what this movie is... great.

See it!

P.S. Scorcese, this is how you do narration! I'm sure he'll read that.

One of the most popular foreign language films ever made City of God is indeed an impressive work.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Paulo Lins this is an undeniably gritty feature. Writer Bráulio Mantovani and Director Fernando Meirelles do terrific work here. What I find most impressive is that unlike many American made films about gangsters City of God goes to great lengths to portray this lifestyle as the farthest possible thing from glamorous. Indeed much of the time it looks pretty grim. What City of God presents to us is the shocking reality of gangland life as we see regular brutal murders and even the phenomenon of child murderers and children murdering other children which...

''Honesty doesn't pay, sucker.''
Oh, the camera work! What style! What fluidity! Especially the opening scene where they show rocket stuck in the middle of the conflict between the gangsters and the police. I'm shedding tears of joy, it's as if my eyes have been baptized. Daniel Rezende's editing was full of energy, absolutely wonderful!

Took me way too long to watch this masterpiece!

Fantastic use of handheld camera work and rapid fire editing makes this Brazilian gangland story come to life.

With all the dynamic visual story telling in this movie, I already feel the urge to re watch it and not read the subtitles in order to soak it all in. The film has the feel of 'Goodfellas', with how it tells this crime story. This includes starting the movie by teasing the conflict toward the end, and focusing on mini stories throughout in order to provide context on the large amount of characters that come into play.

The story is told from the perspective of our main character Rocket, who from a young age wants nothing to do with the violence...

The first foreign word I learned during the World Cup in Brazil was favela: the shanties with corrugated tin roofs that extended out for acres and acres, surrounding enormous, glittering stadiums that were fated to remain empty as soon as the World Cup was over. But the favelas would live on, of course, as they always have.

City of God is about one such favela, about a bloody gang war and a pair of best friends and a boy photographer named Rocket. The camera swings restlessly around faces and places, eager to show us everything, to put it all down for eternity. These things really happened, the end credits tell us, but I cannot imagine how anyone can survive in...

"City of God" tells the story of two completely different people who grow up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, called "City of God". As a young boy, Locke dreams of a career as a gangster and gradually rises to become the undisputed boss of the drug scene. Buscapé really wants to be a photographer. Although both pursue their own goals, their paths cross more than once in the midst of bloody gang wars and corruption.
With "City of God" director Fernando Meirelles created an incredibly intense portrait of the hard life in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. His staging is very immediate and close to the action. You can literally feel the "city of...

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Rialto Theatre
South Pasadena, CA
9:15 PM
$8.75

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

It's the closest I'll ever get to understanding what life is like in a favela. It's so intimate and close to the characters. You really root for these poor kids who never really had a chance in life to begin with. Such a brilliant, heartbreaking,best coming of age film ever.

One of the remarkable things I've noticed about Brazilian cinema is a seeming lack of horror as an emotion. Sadness, despair, and tragedy are recognized, but not the kind of stark existential outrage that we see in true-to-life American films about horrific crimes.

Which is not to say it isn't there, but it would seem culture sharpens the perception of some things while smoothing others. The jaggedness of horror as...

Let me say that this movie is a fucking league of its own. I have not been this blown away by a film since I watched Apocalypse Now. This is an absolute masterpiece. As a Scorsese fanboy, this was better than Goodfellas. Incredible- genuinely. Also, let me say that I have never been so impressed with any style of filmmaking as much as I am with Meirelles's. What a monumental achievement in film-making; to anyone who doesn't like this movie because it's 'Brazilian Goodfellas', grow the fuck up.

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Cidade de Deus is a shantytown that started during the 1960s and became one of Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous places in the beginning of the 1980s. To tell the story of this place, the movie describes the life of various characters, all seen by the point of view of the narrator, Buscapé.

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THE FILM THAT INTRODUCED BOSSA NOVA TO THE WORLD…

Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu’s vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

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Black Orpheus

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Filmed on location in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus, Black Orpheus played a crucial part in popularising bossa nova and samba music in America. It is loosely founded on the Vinicius de Moraes play Orfeu da Conceição, and persists as a contentious romantic portrayal of Brazilian life while similarly continuing as a wistful musical.

The movie encompasses a sensual mixture of mythology and travelogue, and the pulsating rhythms assisted it winning the Palme d'Or at the 12th Cannes Film Festival as well as Best Foreign Film Oscar at the 32nd Academy Awards. Black Orpheus is a morality anecdote that is beautifully shot and wonderfully played, together with spotlighting a spectacular soundtrack composed by Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

It's Carnival season now in New Orleans. Our version of it is a little different from Brazil's, but I don't know enough about Brazil's to detail how. One amazing thing about Carnival is that it's different everywhere. Every little town has its own traditions, and hell, there's neighborhoods in New Orleans that do something a little different than the rest. It's a community celebration that is also a worldwide celebration. If you've never been to Carnival anywhere, I hereby insist you go. You can crash on my couch, if you don't mind sharing it with the four or five other people crashing on it. Also, if you don't mind that I actively dislike houseguests. It will be awkward, but we'll...

Criterion Collection Spine #48
(Foreign language film)
The sights and sounds of Carnaval come alive through this Brazilian twist on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.

"Obviously, the bride's name must be Eurydice ... My name is not Eurydice. Why do you say that? ... Because everybody knows that Orpheus loves Eurydice ... Do you love some woman called Eurydice?

While journeying through the Criterion Collection it can be tough sometimes to decide what to watch next, and Black Orpheus climbed up on my radar when I saw it featured on a really cool world cinema movie poster wall at the Century 12 theater in Evanston Illinois
( Check out the link for a picture of the wall: images.app.goo.gl/ZE2dSgEMaudPbrE67 ...

Palme d'Or Winners Project, 1959

In 1959 a Frenchman who had travelled to the capital of Brazil to tell the story of the mythical Greek legends Orpheus and Eurydice, using an almost entirely black cast, bought us the beautiful Black Orpheus. It walked away with both the Palme d'Or and Foreign Language Oscar and although now it looks more a naive product of its time, the central love story is still wonderfully endearing.

None of the actors involved are professionals which can be clearly seen in the delivery of their characters. And yet somehow that doesn't seem to matter at all, in fact it almost feels beneficial to the daydream like quality of the film. From the opening scene until...

Play a song for me.
Damnit, my ass is destined to write an Orpheus script at this point, isn't it? Another take on the story that I enjoyed a lot. Visually, this is incredible. So lively, so colorful, so loud and bombastic in all of the right ways. Carnaval in a way feels like such a great setting for a retelling of the story of Orpheus, a celebration of life, art, and music. Black Orpheus contextualizes the story to black lives and an alternate culture in a manner that never feels exploitative, more just celebratory and honest. It's in a way uniquely beautiful, not too hard to see why this won the Palme d'Or the year it was released. When...

In anticipation of Hadestown hopefully winning Tony awards tonight, I thought it was finally time to see this classic. It is certainly vibrantly filmed on location in Rio during Carnival, and there is non-stop amazing music. I enjoyed the treat to the senses.

I want to believe this was a well-meaning homage to this culture by the white French filmmaker, but I admit to feeling uneasy. I've enjoyed many films with non-actors, but I could really feel that was the case here. That said, my favorite was Benedito, one of the boys. Every scene he was in I felt his urgency.

I recommend Jean Cocteau's Orpheus for a surreal version of the myth.

A retelling of the classic Greek myth tale set in the backdrop of Brazil's famous carnival season.

Look, when you try to explain why celluloid makes picture look much better and immersive, you damn better use this one as a great example. The vibrant colors are STUNNING. And they are so, so fitting with the nature of both the film's themes but also what people picture when they think about the joyful Brazil.

I'm not sure if this film actually introduced Bossa Nova to the world, but it certainly plays a major role in the whole movie and sets lot of the vibe. Thanks to this and the cinematography this movie really plays like a Brazilian version of a Fellini film.

All in all, while many of the joy and uplifting spirit might seem as too much, thanks to a greatly crafted movie, this is one you have to see with your own eyes.

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Sheer, unbridled energy oozes off the screen every second of this Orpheus adaptation that quite literally busts open (the greek statue explosion!) preconceived notions of this usually dour tale. The carnival, the costumes, the dancing, the sweating bodies! Most everything in this turns me into a joy machine especially Breno Mello's emotionally naked and supremely physical performance that drives this tragic story. I was a puddle every time he smiled. In general, I found the decision to focus on the more evocative elements of lust, passion, and joy to be completely refreshing here in contrast to the existential dread of other versions I've seen.

If I had to dilute my taste into just one movie, this vibrantly colorful, rhythmically lush retelling of classic Greek mythology would pretty much sum it up. Death literally lurks around every corner at a hypnotic street masquerade. Tragedy is followed by children dancing the bosssa nova on the edge of a cliff because they believe it will "make the sun rise". Full-hearted optimism and existential despair are intertwined as seamlessly as the colorful ribbons thrown across the screen during Carnival.

Pair this with Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the most perfect double feature I can imagine. If this isn't a nearly flawless movie, I don't know what is.

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Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality.

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Miss Juneteenth (2020) dir Channing Godfrey Peoples 

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Miss Juneteenth (2020) dir Channing Godfrey Peoples 

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Turquoise, a former beauty queen turned hardworking single mother, prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the “Miss Juneteenth” pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she did.

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Miss Juneteenth

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"Mama, stop worrying about them. You look good."

I definitely wanted to check Miss Juneteenth out on Juneteenth!

The movie did a good job of showing the differences between a mother (Nicole Beharie) and daughter's (Alexis Chikaeze) goals.

I love checking out films directed by women. Channing Godfrey Peoples has a voice and I can't wait to see what she does next.

Vegan alert:
BBQ place

2020 Films Ranked | The 2020 Adventure
Sometimes we woman take it all by ourself.
When this film started off with Lift Every Voice and Sing by Shirley Pace, I knew this films going to be out of the ordinary. Gentle, beautiful, mother-daughter concrete storyline just gives that enough refreshing feeling after watching much generic films all this while. Nevertheless, Nicole Beharie should be in more films to be honest. She has the range and skills!

"I just want something for myself."
A lovely, vibrant film that so beautifully meditates on the what it means to have good options and be truly free. The pageant isn't about beauty. The girls wear beautiful gowns and style themselves to be glamorous, but what it's really about is what comes after and the power in being able to call yourself a winner. It's nothing silly nor insignificant to want to win something, particularly something that comes with a very clear path to future success. We want options for ourselves that can set us up for success, and we want the same for our children, who are both extensions of ourselves and very, very different people. Turquoise is like her...

The film does a good job conveying a feeling of specificity and lived in community, but it meanders way too much and is too muted in its character arcs and drama. It almost feels like a hang out movie, but without the spark needed to keep things interesting scene to scene. But if there's anything to watch this for, it's for the mother daughter relationship and the tenderness that Nicole Beharie brings to her character. I've been a fan since her underrated performance in Sleepy Hollow (remember when that was a show that existed?), so always glad to see her get lead roles.
GRADE: B-

Nicole Beharie is EVERYTHING
A beautiful, quiet drama that captures working class beautifully. Excited to see Channing Godfrey People's career onwards and Alexis Chikaeze is a breakout star to come

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Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie) is a single mother who is well known within her community for winning Miss Juneteeth when she was a teenager. Turquoise has her own daughter named Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) who is now old enough to enter the Miss Juneteenth beauty pageant like Turquoise once did. If Kai wins, she will receive a scholarship allowing her to more than likely be successful career-wise in the future. For Turquoise, her future and career has not worked out the way she hoped. We are not told why at the beginning of the film. But one thing is certain- Turquoise is determined to do whatever it takes and whatever it costs to make sure Kai is prepared and ready to...

Nicole Beharie is an amazing actress. Its a shame the whole situation with Sleepy Hollow resulted in her essentially getting blackballed in the industry, causing her to get less work. She gives a strong performance in Miss Juneteeth (along with Kendrick Sampson and newcomer Alexis Chikaeze), and I hope to see more.

- The acting is OK here. Nicole Beharie's lead performance is fairly layered, giving us a pretty lived-in character. She lacks much charisma or depth beyond the obvious aspects of those layers, making her performance completely adequate but unmemorable.
- Alexis Chikaeze plays the daughter character well. She balances the rebelliousness of a teenager with a truly loving and mature daughter. Kendrick Sampson makes his complicated father someone who can both appeal and disgust Turquoise in a realistic way.
- Channing Godfrey Peoples and Daniel Patterson photograph this film sensitively and lovingly. The color palette emphasizes the warm, slow summer days the film is set in. It's affection yet realistic.
- Peoples as screenwriter makes bigger miscues. This film's pace...

Can't recall the last time I watched a film where the stakes were this glaringly low for absolutely everyone involved.
The problem isn't the dramatic value of a beauty pageant in itself, which of course is supposed to be purely emblematic, especially in correlation with much more pressing issues arising throughout the movie; it's the fact that this vicariously lived fixation feels like a task arbitrarily assigned to Nicole Beharie's character, a faint goal based on a stand-alone memory that consists, literally, in one single five seconds long flashback of Beharie as a teenager beauty queen. If only Peoples had focused on the all-encompassing nature of Turquoise's obsession by showing her blatantly ignoring the decadence and freakiness of beauty pageants,...

A story that has been told so many times before, but this one is is really wholesome because it doesn't portray the determined parent as a villain. There is empathy for both Turquoise and Kai, which means that the narrative doesn't get in the way of us loving what I thought was the most important part of the film, their relationship. Miss Juneteenth brilliantly shows the struggle of being a single mother and the power of letting washed up dreams go to let new ones begin.

2020: Ranked

Reviewed for intoscreens.com

Films that center a former beauty queen who tries to get her offspring to step into her footsteps isn't anything new. 'Miss Juneteenth' takes two different routes. The first one is the rather obvious one I just mentioned, the other one is a much more evocative one, that tackles the struggles of motherhood and living up to certain expectations.

Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie - 'Black Mirror') is a single mom juggling several jobs to provide for her rebellious daughter. Spending most of her time at Wayman's BBQ & Lounge, Turquoise desperately tries to get her daughter Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) ready for the annual Miss Juneteenth (referring to the day slavery was abolished in Texas) pageant. Even though Turquoise's...

There are certain things that happen in this film which are familiar: the mother (Nicole Beharie), who has had trouble achieving the dreams she had as a young woman, largely because of falling pregnant as a teenager, who transfers those dreams to her daughter. However, part of what makes it so delightful is partly the spirit of her daughter in balancing keeping her mother happy with pursuing her own interests, but also the way the filmmaking itself evokes a place (Texas) in such detail, but focusing on the lives of a large community who aren't usually seen on-screen. The titular pageant is to commemorate the (belated) end of slavery in the state, but it becomes about an aspirational idea of...

Hoping that a bit of confessed plagiarism won't do too much harm, but Channing Godfrey Peoples' directorial debut (featuring winning turns from Nicole Beharie and Alexis Chikaeze) is perfectly encapsulated by the Rotten Tomatoes summary:
"Like a pageant winner walking across the stage, Miss Juneteenth follows a familiar path - but does so with charm and grace..."

Miss Juneteenth is an impressive first stride for Texan writer and director Channing Godfrey Peoples. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and Best Texan Film at SXSW, Peoples turned her childhood trips to Miss Juneteenth, a pageant held to mark the emancipation of the enslaved on 19 June 1865, into this sumptuous, tender family drama.

The film gently etches the co-dependent mother-daughter relationship between Turquoise (Nicole Beharie) and Kai (newcomer Alexis Chikaeze). 'Turq' wants the world for her little girl, who's blossoming into a headstrong woman under her watchful eye. Seeking affirmation from the world which her beauty crown failed to provide, she scrapes up tips from her bar job and hustles extra shifts at the morgue to...

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Miss Juneteenth More "Mama, stop worrying about them. You look good." I definitely wanted to check Miss Juneteenth out on Juneteenth! The movie did a good job of showing the differences between a mother (Nicole Beharie) and daughter's (Alexis Chikaeze) goals. I love checking out films directed by women.

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JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE INVITED, DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE WELCOME.

Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

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Get Out

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This movie is funny. This movie is political. This movie is intelligent and wicked and very, very calculated. This movie is sometimes visually stunning, and impeccably acted.

But mostly, it's scary as hell.

For the love of cinema, do not watch the spoilery-ass trailers. Do not read any reviews unless you trust the reviewers to be circumspect about giving away the plot. Go in as blind as possible and just let the story's surprises unfold. Assuming you're okay with scary movies - and that you aren't one of those Breitbarter comment-board types howling that Trayvon Martin was a murderous thug who deserved death - this is absolutely the best way to experience this film.

Full review for The Verge here. A little initial plot summary, but consciously super light on spoilers.

It's never a good sign when Catherine Keener is the scariest thing in your horror movie, but if "Get Out" isn't half as scary as the ideas that inspired it, Jordan Peele's directorial debut is almost certain to be the boldest - and most important - studio genre release of the year. What it lacks in fear, it nearly makes up for in fearlessness.

When Hollywood wants to talk about race, it's usually an inspirational film, set at some point in the past, that sparks discussion. It doesn't matter if that setting is the 19th century, the civil rights movement, or even sometime last week; it's any time that isn't right this moment. Stories of injustice are always more comfortable...

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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Or: What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Racism?

The only way to really begin a dialogue regarding Jordan Peele's Get Out - a surrealistic and searing Buñuel horror show - is to observe its final image and ponder the implications. Composed of flashing police lights dissipating into a tunnel of darkness while a woman is bleeding fast towards the finality of death, its basic informational grammar, taken without context, visualizes defiant (or oblivious) law enforcement in the face of a serious, life-or-death situation. If you were to take this image and present it to various individuals, the reaction would be a uniform one: "why is the police car driving away from an active crime scene? Isn't...

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

i'm never gonna think about jeffrey dahmer the same way again

While I'm not quite ready to label Jordan Peele's Get Out the greatest directorial debut since the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, I do believe it's one of the most original, enjoyable and entertaining movies I've seen in a very long time.

It starts with Jordan Peele's eye for the camera. Is he Stanley Kubrick reincarnated? Wow! What attention to detail. From the opening shot, I couldn't believe this was his first rodeo. I hope he's not a one hit wonder.

The question is: How will Get Out hold up 20 years from now? You couldn't have timed a movie's release any better. (Racial tensions, Election tensions, etc etc etc) I hope it does last the test of time.

It's tough...

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

aggressively straight white boy into sports? killed in wrestling match. white dad who said he loves when deer die? impaled by antlers. evil psychiatrist mom? killed in her office. psycho girlfriend who earlier pretended to care that chris felt responsible for his moms hit and run? left to die by the side of the road. THATS called poetry motherfuckers

best picture showcase: film #9
"don't waste your strength, don't try to fight it. you can't stop the inevitable"
completely phenomenal, and only getting better with age. a year ago i thought this was going to be an average horror movie, and now look at it go

I hope Jordan Peele's in-laws have a good sense of humor.

Full review at ScreenCrush.

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De ésta película he leído innumerables cosas, desde que era excelente, o muy buena, una obra genial que venía a renovar el género del terror (todos los años se anuncia una nueva obra maestra que al siguiente se olvida), y por el otro lado que era una mierda infumable, a la que nadie debería prestarle atención alguna.
Considero que está sobrevalorada, pero tampoco para decir que es una mierda, es una película de terror con muchos clichés, entretenida, y cuya única "novedad" es el tema racial, pero creo que ya no tiene nada de provocador, o sea el terror viene haciendo alegorías raciales desde siempre, y mucho más vanguardista, novedosa, provocativa e innovadora fue La noche de los muertos vivos,...

Scavenger Hunt #67 | 17. Horror film with a Black director

"you gotta get the f*ck out of there man, you're in an 'eyes wide shut' situation, leave motherf*cker."

i finally watch a movie i should've watched long time ago. this comedy horror film definitely has everything a movie should have. it was extremely funny, it was political... and it was weird as hell.

and i'm also so in love with allison williams, why is she so pretty? i really can't get over her. she can shoot me with that rifle and i'll happily ask her to marry me.

31 Nights of Halloween: Night 4 My past review still stands strong with this film. I've been wanting to revisit it for so long, I'm glad I've finally done it! Drunk Moms | Get Out Review

At some point, I run out of things to say about Get Out. It just gets better, every time I watch it. It makes me sad that Daniel Kaluuya isn't getting more work, because he is excellent in this and Black Panther.

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Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

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Spider-Man into the Spider- Verse (2018) dir Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti

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Spider-Man into the Spider- Verse (2018) dir Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti

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MORE THAN ONE WEARS THE MASK

Miles Morales is juggling his life between being a high school student and being a spider-man. When Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk uses a super collider, others from across the Spider-Verse are transported to this dimension.

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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Tragic news for anyone who's sick of superhero movies: "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" completely reinvigorates the genre, reaffirms why it's resonating with a diverse modern audience that's desperate to fight the power, and reiterates to us how these hyper-popular spandex myths are able to reinvent themselves on the fly whenever things get stale. Just when it seemed like "Infinity War" might be the culmination of a cultural phenomenon, that Stan Lee's death could symbolize the end of an era, and that "Turn Off the Dark" was always going to be the silliest possible subtitle for a Spider-Man adaptation, along comes a delirious postmodern spectacle to remind us that these movies will exist for as long as people need to see...

yes the rumors are true .... i genuinely enjoyed a superhero movie for the very first time and- *cameras flash* please, no pictures. this is a very vulnerable time in my life. i will be taking 3 questions and then i must return to my home planet. yes, you in the 40s style fedora with the press pass sticking out of the rim.

reporter: nyehh can you give us the scoop on why you think you enjoyed this one?

great question! i've been pondering that myself. i think the message that anyone can be spider-man (or doc ock!) really hit home for me after growing up watching almost exclusively white dude superheroes and villains. the whole premise is basically a...

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不合身的蜘蛛服終有一日會合身
終有一日我們要獨自面對這個世界

Great characters, great plot and a great message throughout the movie.

But what really makes this a fantastic movie are the visuals. I did not expect that. It's just an overall beautiful movie best enjoyed on a big vibrant TV.

"it's a leap of faith"

never gets old. miles is still my favorite spider-man this movie will hold up forever it's universal.

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse More Tragic news for anyone who's sick of superhero movies: "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" completely reinvigorates the genre, reaffirms why it's resonating with a diverse modern audience that's desperate to fight the power, and reiterates to us how these hyper-popular spandex myths are able to reinvent themselves on the fly whenever things get stale.

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THE SECRETS THAT HOLD US TOGETHER CAN ALSO TEAR US APART.

Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.

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Eve's Bayou

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Eve's Bayou is a forgotten gem of American cinema. It is a character study that doesn't give away too much, too soon. It rewards the patient viewer, and it also lets the audience decide what memories they choose to take away from the film.

Eve's Bayou has a Southern Fried feel mixed with a jazzy New Orleans groove. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the landscape truly is a central character in the film. Kasi Lemmons' directing is near-flawless, and Amy Vincent's cinematography deserved an Oscar nomination.

The star has to be Jurnee Smollett's Eve. As she acts way above her years. Also, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan and Meagan Good all bring awesomeness to the acting table. This might be the...

This gave me Atonement vibes mixed with the best of Sirk melodramas, but of course, from a different and much needed perspective. I wish Jurnee Smollett got to have the kind of career that all the white child actors do.

" Memory is the selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. Each image is like a thread, each thread woven together to make a tapestry of intricate texture. And the tapestry tells a story, and the story is our past. "

What an emotional banger this masterfully crafted high drama excursion into southern gothic is. Filled with swampy atmos and terrific performances, I'm Amazed that this got made in 1997... and even more amazed/saddened that this would barely be able to get made in 2020 because we live in such a shitty society. There's something otherworldly about this film and I love it.

What an important movie.

tired: American Beauty starting a movie with "in less than a year I'll be dead"

wired: Eve's Bayou starting a movie with "the summer I killed my father I was 10 years old."

"The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old." - Eve

Here is one that plays even better today, a rare African-American family ensemble drama set in the Southern Gothic 1960's. Eve's Bayou plunges into the Louisiana backwaters so vividly that immediately we feel like we are seeing something fresh. Samuel L. Jackson is the popular community doctor who lives with his wife and children in an attractive home by the bayou. He's too popular with the ladies, which causes friction with his wife and her kinfolk, and spurs jealousy between his daughters because one is more favored than the other. The narration over the first scene of the movie promises, of course, that Eve will commit a...

As a piece of melodrama, this film is severely damaged by its egregiously overblown score. It's smooth, loud, and wells up right at the wrong moments, as if hamming up the soundtrack somehow makes hammed up acting more palatable. Between this slap in the face and the occasional awkward moments from Jurnee Smollett (who would grow up to be on Friday Night Lights, one of the best television show sever made) and her character's sister, the performances suffered a bit. On the other hand, Smollett also delivers the funniest, most impressive moment in the film as she takes her mother to task, so it evens out.

I don't know what a realistic, intelligent portrayal of voodoo would look like, probably...

HOOPTOBER 7.0 - Film #16/31
Task: Black directed + predominantly black cast

Well...I thought this was a horror movie, hence me adding it to my Hooptober list. I wasn't sure why I thought it was horror at first but then I remembered why. It was one of the movies talked about in the Shudder documentary Horror Noire, and since it was a documentary about black representation in horror I just assumed that this was a horror film.

Either way, I'm glad I watched it because I actually loved it. Southern dramas really aren't my thing, but this felt special throughout. I'm also not usually a fan of dramas where children are the main characters because children actors annoy me, but...

Tribute to Ebert/U. of Chicago Graham School Class #5
Exhibit #517 proving the limitations of the Bechdel test. There are lots of (named) women who talk to each other in this movie... almost always about a man, in this case, Samuel L. Jackson's philandering father/husband/doctor. And yet, after class, a sharp female student rightfully noted: "That was some strong feminist shit."

On rewatch, Kasi Lemmons' debut was occasionally more overwrought and melodramatic than I remembered it (certainly the score could have been more judiciously employed), but also more assured and tightly constructed. The female characters and their relationships - to each other, to Jackson's anti-Atticus Finch - are carefully and complexly drawn. As Eve, young Jurnee Smollette is much more...

Yesterday, a coworker showed me pictures of her family on her phone for what seemed like an hour. She'd just gotten back from a family reunion and evidently has more relations that she's on selfie-basis with than I can even name. I smiled politely through it, complimented a cute baby, marvelled at how much she looks like her mother, but I couldn't relate. It's so alien to me, these sitcom families who smile when they see each other and whose every dysfunction can be solved in thity minutes with commercials. I wonder if they even exist, if the way they look is ever the way they really are, if some people are just better at stuffing away their shit, if...

I've been watching Lovecraft Country and I wanted to check out some of Jurnee Smollet's earlier work. Even as a young kid, she absolutely kills it!

I found this incredibly engaging. At times, it reminded me of a soap opera but honestly, I didn't mind it. The backdrop of Louisiana added so much to the film and made it a better watching experience.

The ending was a littleee iffy for me, not sure if I'm totally on board. Otherwise, definitely worth a watch.

#52FilmsByPOC 2020 pt. 12.
#52FilmsByWomen 2020 pt. 18.
The past changes color depending on the light.
It is so refreshing to see a film centered around black people in the deep south in the 1960s that has nothing to do with racism, simply due to the total absence of white people. While racism is an undeniably huge part of the African American experience, it does not encompass it, yet there seems to be an unspoken rule that "black movies" about this time and place need to center on racism, which forecloses on a lot of stories that could otherwise be told, like this one.

Notice I said that it has nothing to do with racism--though it has plenty to do...

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I've long wanted to watch this, ever since it was #1 on Ebert's best movies of 1997 list. So it's a little disappointing in that, no, I don't also think it's the best movie of 1997 (which we all know is Face/Off), but it is still quite good. The performances are all strong and the whole thing is dripping in a dream-like atmosphere, but the story just never clicked for me the way I was hoping it would.

Immaculate ensemble cast performing a Southern familial tragedy as epic, as local, as melancholic as any in Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha.

DVD (Swem Library)

Now that's a family drama! The Southern gothic, the family tensions, the emotional stakes, the supernatural touch, and the women in this story!! I love it. Oh my god, the goosebumps i got from this were intense

A relic from the times when I would pick any film off the shelf with a two sentence review and an inkling of a worthy Sundance sweepstakes. Like the sweet whispers of children, when capturing the whispers of seafoam on the beach and passing them down a line was a game we could play. I would sit in a tree in the backyard, perched on a two-by-four nailed to a tree limb, and read Truman Capote, or The Ice Storm by Rick Moody, and anything that was a story lit by illustrations and dazzled with magic was a threshold open to me. Another time.

I don't know if I read symbolism then as well as I do now, I don't...

I absolutely loved Jurnee Smollet's performance in Lovecraft Country so I just had to check out some of her earlier work!

Eve's Bayou is a Gothic, sombre meditation on the fallacious nature of memory and experience and the dark personal secrets and sacrifices that underlie the lives of the affluent. It also exposes the structural misogyny that conditions us - both the audience and the characters in the film - into disbelieving victims of rape. It is a powerful but subtle tale of betrayal, magic and abuse - one which makes masterful use of its swampy, Louisianian Black American Deep South setting. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and the gothic vibes that it oozed effortlessly throughout. Eve's Bayou is an impressive, artful gem of Black American cinema and I would strongly recommend it to fans of dark, gothic melodrama and anyone interested in Black film history.

A Southern Gothic Elektra complex psychodrama led by a 10-year-old girl has to be up there as one of the boldest American debuts of all time. Truly a consummate example of its subgenre, handled with deep sensitivity toward (almost) all of its characters while unafraid to put them through the moody throbbing ringer that makes every good Gothic story tick. Splashy, tawdry, emotionally eagle-eyed, morally ambiguous, mysterious, and as a bonus, pretty fucking funny too.

There are several awkward musical cuts that wouldn't be an issue on their own, but eventually they call attention to how overscored the movie is. The "more music = more drama" school of filmmaking is so unfortunate. Such a rich atmosphere and setting would be more than able to speak for themselves.

Watched this for Hooptober but the handful of "horror" designations I saw attached to it were unduly generous, so I'm not counting it. Still extremely glad that it motivated me to watch it.

Hooptober 7.0: 12/31
The 1990s: 9/100
1997 Ranked
There are some films that just feel "alive" and Eve's Bayou is filled with that vitality. From the onset as an older version of Eve Batiste narrates the history of her family and their land in the bayou of Louisiana, one can feel the energy. The land and the home are all filled with history, authenticity, and lived experience. One feels how it feels to live on this land and, in turn, in the Batiste household. The energetic and upbeat party as Eve's father Louis (Samuel L. Jackson) dances with her sister Cisely (Meagan Good), the prank Eve plays on her brother Poe (Jake Smollett), and the family camaraderie as her mom...

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Eve's Bayou More Eve's Bayou is a forgotten gem of American cinema. It is a character study that doesn't give away too much, too soon. It rewards the patient viewer, and it also lets the audience decide what memories they choose to take away from the film.

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Set in Louisiana, the film is a romantic drama that examines the social and financial inequality faced by Black people in the region.

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Cane River

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Peter Metoyer (Richard Romain) is a star college athlete who returns to his Louisiana hometown in Natchitoches Parish after turning down a professional football contract in New York. He desires to work on his father's farm and become a poet. He soon meets a young woman named Maria (Tommye Myrick), who is from a more disenfranchised black community than Peter and his lighter-skinned Creole heritage. She plans to attend college in New Orleans and leave behind her small town roots. When she and Peter are spotted together, word reaches Maria's mother who warns her against Peter, for his ancestors were not just wealthy black land owners, but a family of ex-slaves who owned slaves and supported the Confederacy.

'Cane River'...

I'm probably rating this too high. This features many common pitfalls of independent filmmaking; poor acting, awkward blocking, could use some tighter editing. But for me it adds to the film's overall charm. Like a handmade present, its a labor of love. The film's soundtrack can best be described as peak black dad mixtape music. So take that as my highest reccomendation.

When Todd Haynes spoke of the New Queer Cinema movement he cynically admitted that its impact resulted in Hollywood discovering a new demographic to market to: white gay men. A demographic with enough spending power to warrant investing in (which might explain why so much queer cinema is still overwhelmingly white). I mention this cause I've noticed that...

It's a great shame that this film was thought to have been lost for a while, especially given the fact that its director died before the film could be released outside of his home. But from watching Cane River, you can already tell that Horace B. Jenkins had potential to be something legendary, for this film is just outstanding as it stands.

There's a lot about this movie that is still clearly very rough - it's admittedly very stilted, and certain moments feel incredibly awkward to watch, but Jenkins is nonetheless an incredibly earnest filmmaker and that's also what kept me hooked the whole time, as if we were watching a slice of life unfold in front of our eyes. But that's also the spirit of great independent filmmaking too, it's a shame we never got to see more from Jenkins either.

Rough clay to say the least, with stilted staging and original songs that underscore the action early and often. But fascinating in its regional particulars, staked on a Romeo & Juliet relationship between a light-skinned Creole man and a younger, poorer black woman. The legacy of his descendants, who include both slaves and slave-owners, isn't wiped away generations later. It's a serious obstacle the couple has to resolve. Vivid location work, too.

i watched the ending twice because it RULES! the mid-shot zooms remind me so much of robert altman and the use of music is very hal ashby while tonally it's a lush, contemplative, joyous love story that examines the relevance of history among black families in louisiana. this was made by an all-black production team, was basically lost for 30 years, and is now absolutely required viewing if you have criterion channel.

again, the ending, i love it so much.

It plays now like an oasis, during one of the driest periods of African-American filmmaking; part of the reason Spike Lee's 'She's Gotta Have It' (a film with some of the same flaws) was received so enthusiastically four years later was because independent black film was all but non-existent, and portrayals of black romance and sensuality were even rarer. 'Cane River' has both, within a vivid portrait of small-town, working-class African-American life - something we still, sadly, rarely see in the cinema.

READ MORE: crookedmarquee.com/review-cane-river/

The Forgotten People.
Both as timeless and as frozen in time as lovers' initials etched into trees, church pews, and the spines of history books. I loved this. Pure movie romance.

I started crying midway through; there is something so bittersweet and special about this film being resurrected from oblivion. I wish Jenkins could know that his work would someday be seen and adored.

There is a shot that is the sort of shot that I want from any film - the kind that is so tactile and transportive and so distinct to film that you just want to point at it and yell "this! this is why I love movies!" In this case it's a gorgeous moment tracking Maria and Peter driving to New Orleans with their hood down. "Freedom!" she rejoices. Suddenly it was a summer and I was in love and I felt it, too.

Props to any film that gets me googling history.

The best love scenes since pointillism died. There was a sliver of time between 1929 and 1930 when movie stars were this relaxed, unremarkable, and open to time's unfurling flux. In eternal love with the sunbleached greens. A.S. Hamrah: "The film has the faded-color look of a country and western album cover from a musical tradition lost in thrift store bins." The same beautiful thing that happened with Jonas Mekas's Walden happened to me with this one; I gauged we had half an hour to go, and just when I thought that. . . .

"YAH!"

Imagine a world where Horace Jenkins lived to distribute this game-changer with Richard Pryor.

Black Love and Black People Riding on Horses! Two of my favorite genres! 🥰

Such a delight, and this original soundtrack is AMAZE! Would have been cool to see what Horace Jenkins would have done next if he hadn't died before this was finished. 😔

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Just a sweet nice little romance. Classic two sides of the tracks, different worlds & disapproving parents kinda tale, but in the specific context of Creole & Black families around Natchitoches Parish. Really made the sweet nice little romance that much more being so set in the history.

I can only imagine what a rarity this was at the time - because it is still somewhat a rarity now - a nuanced pleasant romance set among Black communities and issues with no forced deference of a white gaze on it all. Makes me really glad it's been restored. It's a treat.

Richard Romain's charming as hell.

A Black romance with so much on it's mind. The specter of the Transatlantic Slave Trade looms over the characters as they deal with issues of colorism and class, but ultimately the film blossoms into a surprisingly feminist story of a woman taking charge of her life. Director Horace B. Jenkins' documentarian roots are evident in the observational approach of the filmmaking, there's a real sense of place permeating the entire movie. Some may criticize the film's soundtrack of slightly cheesy 80s R&B, but I think the way music is used in the film serves an important thematic purpose, and while the acting is certainly uneven, it adds a sort of guileless charm.

With both this film and the astounding...

1. Horace B. Jenkins, we could've used you these last three decades. So sad he died at the time of this film's release.

2. Hey, at least it was rediscovered and brought into the cinema going consciousness as an excellent, unique picture.

3. Love Maria's mother's line to her daughter: "He cannot love you-you're something he uses."

4. And how appropriate that Peter takes a tour of a historical home owned by his family, given by an unwitting white woman who assumes he has no idea of his own history.

Full review:
www.sonomanews.com/article/entertainment/streaming-raising-cane/

Absolute most iconic freeze frame ending of all time. Five stars for PURE GUMPTION, this film!!!!!!!! I said GUMPTION, people!!!!!!

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The charm, beauty, and chemistry of Peter and Maria go a long way. The leads managed to listen and respond to each other, despite the cumbersome nature of the script. The way they challenged assumptions in each other, both in action and word, was smart and sexy. This vibe sustained the whole first half and even transcended the charmingly (mostly) dated soundtrack.

The "day-in-the-life of Brother" montage was fun, with the best soundtrack selection of the bunch.

The camera gets stuck with awkward proscenium-theatre staging. The music montages slowly begin to feel like padding. The conflict feels manufactured and artificially sustained through overwritten dialogue debates.

The hot tub choreography was a disaster, but also endearing.

Maria's final conflict with her...

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Cane River More Peter Metoyer (Richard Romain) is a star college athlete who returns to his Louisiana hometown in Natchitoches Parish after turning down a professional football contract in New York. He desires to work on his father's farm and become a poet.

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Sussex's Race Equity Advocates (formally BAME Ambassadors) are a group of students employed to challenge the BAME Awarding Gap at Sussex and to hold the University to account on its commitment to anti-racism

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WATCH YOURSELF

Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

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Us

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This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"but your people took it for granted"
this is such an interesting movie in the sense that you can go as deep as you'd like to go with it. at surface level is a very thrilling and accessible horror movie, but the possibilities are endless from there in all kinds of different directions. i've been thinking about it more and more, and during my rewatch tonight my mind was racing with bigger picture theories the entire time

the most fascinating theory that my thoughts were preoccupied with involves the switching of the two girls at the beginning and how it shapes the story: we learn at the end that they switched as children, but the way that this information affects...

I really, really, really enjoyed this film. But as I left the theatre, I had so many more questions than I entered with, and the more I talked about it with a friend the more I realized that it is a complete inverse of the structure in Get Out (which tightens to a conclusion, as opposed to unraveling as you get more answers) which set me up to be disappointed. My fault!

I'm confused by so much of what happened in this movie and what it means and how certain ideas seemingly conflict with the rules of the world, but I still think I loved it. The only review I saw before watching this movie was K. Austin Collins' Letterboxd...

US is an audacious & clever trip through the looking glass that asks how Americans are going to live with ourselves after being reminded of who we really are. a lot funnier than it is frightening - a horror movie for a world in which real life is scary enough on its own. Lupitas! that score!

definitely some bumps in the road, but i was sold on its big ideas. anything more will have to wait.

EDIT: bumping this up to ****. the more i read about it / sit with it, the more i like it. seems to be a pattern with Peele's movies.

from the very first image of the cassette tapes next to the TV, to the Japanese ghost-like way a doppelgänger stiltingly scurries across the ground, to the clinical and conspiratorial atmosphere reminiscent of Martyrs, it's clear that jordan peele LOVES horror. and he's damn good at it. he's not the next hitchcock or spielberg or whatever, he IS jordan peele.

with Us, he's proved that he can and will bring that extra layer of social/political commentary sorely missing from the majority of horror movies. the atrocities of america's history (and present!) are much, much scarier than anything you can see on screen, and peele knows that, and he uses that. merely by existing in america, we are complicit in the suffering of all...

"what do you want?"
its been over an hour and i can't think of anything else except whatever this was. simplistically sinister, maybe more comparable to something like the shining instead of get out. i first thought i was somewhat unaffected, but now my mind is clouded with a mild thudding anxiety that won't go away. this is ridiculously fine tuned to creep under your skin without you noticing. i have to go to sleep now but i doubt i'll have much success. wish me luck

1000th logged movie!

Some great setups and ideas here, but it's execution and payoff are pretty absurd at points. Was quite bored with most of the second act.

Best use of "Good Vibrations" maybe ever

Even better on a second watch. Pretty much every question I had falls away, the allegory he's working with is so much clearer, and the beautiful framing/camera movements really stand out when I'm not so focused on following a brand new story. And god, for it all to end with such a sinister use of "Les Fleurs"... a million chef's kisses. ONE MILLION KISSES, JORDAN!!!!!!!!!

both lupitas: We tethered 😂😂😂

Most of this is just a very good don't get out of the car, hey look behind you movie but Peele has such a well of imagination that he creates this additional tantalizing scenario that absolutely begs for both a more coherent idea to tether it to and also an explanation that would kill the whole movie if it was offered. Tough tightrope, fun movie.

Guys, when the dad is watching baseball, the game is the Giants vs......wait for it...the Minnesota TWINS!

Anyways, felt smart for that, don't really fully understand the rest of it and I'm really not sure how I feel about that. The minute people realize they can't stop thinking/talking about a movie and that it has a somewhat obscure ending that requires some thinking to figure it out, they'll automatically label it as a masterpiece. This is one of those movies, and while it's undeniably impressive how many ideas and clues Peele is able to juggle and put together in an original script, the execution was also undeniably pretty sloppy, in my opinion. It's a film we're all going to be talking...

- HANDSACROSSAMERICA
- The storyline was unexpected!
- That fuckin' ending!, I left the cinema with speechless conditions omfg
- Twisted. Damn!
- That smile tho!
- Creepy.
- a little bit funny and I laugh out loud in some scenes.
- Bunnies
- Lupita Nyong'o's appearance is insane!! Love it!
- The shooting is pretty cool.
- That scoring was really haunted me so much.
- Great Cinematography!
- 11:11
- Merlin's Forest find yourself.
- One soul two bodies.
- "We're Americans"
- Jordan Peele did it again!
2019 Ranked

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October of Horror 2020

A good follow-up to Get Out featuring lots of interesting symbolism and foreshadowing. I think the story was very intriguing but was ultimately told in the most convoluted way possible.

It seems that we have now reached the peak of creative drought in movie names. All we need is one pronoun and voila, problem solved! First there was Him, Them, Her, It, and now, Us.

Directed by the guy from Mad TV, Us stars the family of Nakia and M'Baku in their battle against a mysterious group of dopplegangers that appear in front of their house one night, eventually culminating in a warning against the Hands Across America charity and their secret plan to scissor the American population to death. Oh, and all of this happened because young Nakia took a wrong turn in a mirror funhouse one night.

Despite coming from the director of the highly excellent Get Out,...

Jeremiah 11:11

Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.'

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Us More This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth. "but your people took it for granted" this is such an interesting movie in the sense that you can go as deep as you'd like to go with it.

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THIS IS THE STORY OF A LIFETIME

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

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Moonlight

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boyhood: who are you?
moonlight: i'm you but stronger in every possible way

ashton sanders' career should have the same momentum as timothée or lucas hedges or that fucking guy from to all the boys i've loved before. he should be in a new movie every year he should be offered franchises he should be on magazine covers and red carpets he was incredible in this movie and he deserves a big and successful career in hollywood thank you and good night!

MOONLIGHT is *MAGNIFICENT.* a specific but utterly symphonic portrait of masculinity in the modern world. every shot is seared into my brain. it's also a devastatingly beautiful love story. to put it in the most reductive / tantalizing terms possible, think CAROL by way of Frank Ocean.

most likely the best film of 2016 so far.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

49/100
Okay, here we go: Why I think the year's most universally acclaimed film is sorta kinda not really very good. Took a second look to be sure, both because I'm always open to the possibility that I'm wrong and because I served on a festival jury with Jenkins a couple of years ago and liked him enormously, so take no pleasure in being a contrarian here. Had exactly the same reaction, alas. In descending order of importance:

* I'm generally allergic to stories about victims.

Hence my failure to appreciate many canonical masterpieces, including Sansho the Bailiff and Au hasard Balthazar. (You're in good company, Barry!) Characters who suffer as a result of some personal failure, however minor-the Greeks' "tragic...

i love how when the third act starts and you think "oh my god... he's so different now" then chiron gets a phone call from kevin and BOOM he's back to that boy from the first act. moonlight invented acting

The hype has never, ever, ever been so real. And the best birthday present that I ever could have asked for. A marvel -- a modern masterwork of unadulterated understanding. Understanding of isolation, of idiosyncrasies; understanding of care, of compassion; understanding of darkness & disparities, of spectrums, of sexuality; understanding of memories & maliciousness, of (forced) numbness, of nostalgia; understanding of catharsis. Catharsis. The third act of this film is nothing short of the purest shaping and structuring of cathartic cinema. One of, if not the finest sophomore feature of the last half-decade. A miracle of a film... an experience which we are blessed to have exist in our current, rapturously unsympathetic reality.

"You're the only man who's ever touched me... you're the only one."
I don't understand how anyone can make it through the ending of this film without literally having their heart ripped into a thousand tiny pieces. Just as good the second time, if not better.

Watched it for the 7th time on the plane. Yeah this is literally one of the most important movies ever to me. From a filmmaking and personal standpoint I feel safe saying it had a significant impact on my life. Probably tied with FMF for my all time favorite. That's cool!

I'm not sure we as a society deserve a movie as empathetic and open-hearted as Moonlight right now, but I'm grateful it exists.

It doesn't matter who you sleep with, look like, voted for, your age, what part of the world you live in, your hairstyle, who your favorite member of Nickelback is, what type of car you drive, what music you listen to, your sex; a good movie is a good movie. You don't have to be a certain "type" of person to appreciate quality cinema. A great film should bring people closer, not rip them apart. That's what I got out of Barry Jenkins' Moonlight.

Mahershala Ali is the motherfucker, ain't he? Fuck yes! What a screen presence. The orange juice scene will stay with me for a very long time. For such a short amount of time on screen, Mr...

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The little smile that Kevin does after Chiron tells him that he's the only man he's ever been with is the only thing in the world that matters. It's perfect.

visual poetry with the emotional depth of the fucking ocean itself. i'm fucked up

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i.little
ii.chiron
iii.black
the structure of this movie was so well done

llegué re tarde u.U
los primeros dos actos 👨🏻‍🍳 💋 el tercero no me gustó tanto pero el final sii ah daba muchas explicaciones

80
Bu filme karşı nedensiz bir şekilde ön yargılıydım. Gerçekten, bilmiyorum. Öncelikle filmi beğendim, beklentilerimin üzerinde bir film çıktığına çok mutlu oldum. Ama eksiklerinin var olduğu reddedilemez bir gerçek bana kalırsa.

Filmin senaryosuna bakalım. Moonlight, genç siyahi bir adam olan Chiron'ın çocukluğundan yetişkinliğe kadar Miami'nin zor bir mahallesinde, hayatta kendine yer edinme savaşını ve büyüme hikayesini anlatıyor. Ve bu yasam öyküsünü bizlere 3 farklı bölüm olarak anlatıyor. İlk kısım çocukluk, ikinci kısım ergenlik ve üçüncü kısım yetişkinlik dönemini kapsıyor. Fazla detaya girmeden sadede gelerek belirteyim, ilk iki kısım bütün olarak değerlendirdiğimde hem karakter işlenişi hem olay örgüsü hem duygular muhteşem bir şekilde işleniyor. Karakterleri gerçekten önemsedim. Oyuncular da harika ortak oluyorlar. Ama üçüncü kısma geldiğimizde - ki bu filmin yarısını...

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Moonlight More boyhood: who are you?moonlight: i'm you but stronger in every possible way ashton sanders' career should have the same momentum as timothée or lucas hedges or that fucking guy from to all the boys i've loved before.

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Decolonise Sussex are a student-led campaign which aims to tackle institutional racism and coloniality inside and outside the classroom - at Sussex and beyond!

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Synopsis

A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the ’50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

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Malcolm X

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When the white girl at the college asks Malcolm X what she can do to help his people, he responds with a blunt "Nothing." Though Malcolm X would later come around on this idea, the context of that girl's question stands out. She precedes it by asserting that she's not a bad person despite what her ancestors did, and... it's not that simple. If your parents killed someone and stole their wealth, I would not argue that you stand trial for their crimes, but I would argue that the wealth they stole should be returned. That girl (and myself) have both benefited from the white supremacist world we live in, and though we are not guilty of enslaving people or...

The cinematic epic of American Blackness. I'd say it belongs in the fucking Smithsonian, but that's a white man's museum for a white man's history.

If the montage at the end of this film doesn't make you well up, you may just be dead inside.

Yes, it's manipulative. Yes, it's largely working with the traditional conceits of a biopic. Yes, it has an agenda.

I could not give less of a shit.

This is transcendent cinema. This is one of our greatest directors, and one of our greatest actors, telling a truly epic tale. It's grandiose. It's full of emotion and heart. It's utterly captivating throughout. It feels like eight movies in one, and yet never feels disjointed.

I honestly am lacking some of the words. It's just great. Watch it. I know it's over 200 minutes long, but it shoots by, trust me. It's worth it. Lord knows it's worth it.

202-minute punch to the diaphragm. Spike Lee used his creative and cultural capital at an early height of his powers to make this, an enduring and lasting monument not only to Malcolm X himself, but to Black Power, Black Creativity, Black Independence. Malcolm X is a hero to me because he is someone who truly inhabited the truth of who they were and where they were at each moment in their lives as fully as possible and when information and wisdom came to them which threatened their understanding of the world, they did not pull away and retreat into dogma, but allow that new understanding to revolutionize their oonsciousness completely not once but over and over and over again and...

by the time malcolm x wearily stumbles to the speech he will give before his death, we understand in our bones both his anger and his exhaustion. the triumph of the film is that it's the story of one man's struggle and through digging deep into his psyche, it becomes the story of many people's struggle. the movie ends by showing us that malcolm x's legacy continues and his call for racial equality is still being answered. we know every step of the way what he is fighting for and who he is fighting because the film intertwines the personal with the monumental. grand with empathy-the birth to death approach here doesn't feel like a wikipedia article (unlike ahem bohemian rhapsody), it feels like a journey. it's spike's american epic. it's bringing both america and america's legacy of white supremacy to trial.

It is almost impossible to make a good biopic for the simple reason that a human life - any human life - is too complicated for the form. You can't actually fit the full scope of someone's life in a 120 minute movie. It's why the best films in the genre center on a singular event in an individual's life versus the full sweep of their experiences. And even then, it's tough.

Malcolm X is a traditional biopic in that it attempts to tell the story of the civil rights leader from start to finish. But rather than try to avoid or work around the fact that lives - to say nothing of the life of Malcolm X - are big and...

Most sequels struggle to get any major stars. Somehow the tenth Malcom movie managed to score Denzel Washington. Impressive.

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Malcolm X is bold, blunt, and beautiful. And surprisingly, this Spike Lee joint is so involved with Malcolm's journey that it doesn't steer in the direction of a parallel socio-political commentary, something that is very unlikely to come from a Lee film. Infact, the first third of the film is pictured in the gloss of American dream that rots gradually as Malcolm recalls his past and finds neglect in his present. Everything takes places without manipulation.

There's a strange feeling, however, that lingers throughout the film. I felt dissatisfied with the amount of Malcolm's life and conflict captured and somewhere I thought that there's something more which hasn't been told. I could totally be wrong but can't reject my feeling outrightly.

Denzel Washington performs without failure. He is always intriguing to look at when onscreen. Malcolm X is no different.

There's nothing that should stop you from watching this film because it is important.

Spike Lee delivers a fantastic film about one of America's most important personalities in this adaptation of the Autobiography of Malcolm X. I watched this movie literally days after I read Malcolm X's book, and while it was jarring to see the deviations from the source material creating a work that is maybe not true to the letter of what happened, this is a film that is true to the spirit of Malcolm X's life.

Denzel Washington gives what is maybe (probably) the performance of his lifetime as Malcolm X, in a story that needs to be seen and heard and read by as many people as possible. It's a story that as just as relevant -- if not more so -- in 2020 as it was when first published in 1965 and when this film debuted in 1992.

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A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

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YOU DON’T HAVE TO BELIEVE… JUST BEWARE.

The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster’s myth.

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Candyman

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Tony Todd's voice is the 8th Wonder of the World

90's neo-gothic saccharine. Loaded with subtext and oodles of everything that makes me love the first half of that decades horror way more than its second half. Everyone's great here and that score is to die for. Special shoutout to sleazeball all timer Xander Berkeley-never trust a man who calls you sweetie pie.

In a decade filled with some of my all time favorite genre jams, Candyman is easily My favorite 90's horror film... by a MILLION miles-nothing even comes close for me and it only gets better with each revisit. That final scene is aces... I love this thing.

"Be my victim!"

Candyman, which plays more like a '70s giallo, than a straight up slasher; takes its sweet time getting to the "fun" parts. The first half is dialogue driven with sprinkles of jump scares designed to tease the audience until the iconic Candyman appears to fuck a motherfucker up. Virginia Madsen gives the Marlboro Man Stage 4 Lung Cancer with the amount of cigarettes she puffs on as she works on her thesis on Urban Legends, and crosses paths with the wrong motherfucker with a hook for a hand.

Tony Todd is one scary fucker. He brings real fear and anxiety to his Candyman. He's vicious to the bone and badder than a junkyard dog. Plus, he dresses...

If Candyman was real I would simply just not say his name 5 times in the mirror 😌

Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Metacritic Metascore: 61
SYNOPSIS: The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth. IMDb: 6.6
85/100

Release Date: 16 October 1992
Distributor: TriStar Pictures
Budget: $6M
Worldwide Gross: $25.7M
Total Film Awards: 5

Candyman: "Beeee my victim..."

What a ride!

This underrated gem features a very rare and successful combination of both creepy atmosphere and visual ingeniousness. Whereas most movies (especially during the '90s) can hardly focus on any of these essential horror elements, Bernard Rose masterfully succeeds in stuffing his film with genuine tension as well as shocking gore-images.

TRIVIA: Tony Todd negotiated a bonus of $1,000 for every bee...

uses gentrification and academia in chicago as an access point to the trauma of slavery being painted over in reconstruction, before jumping off into a moody urban folklore dream where historical pain is mythologized and martyred in the form of tony todd's candyman whose incredible physical presence, reverberating voice and vicious acts of violence serve to draw (and heighten) his feelings of longing and rage into something tangible and fleshy. between the excellent location work and Don't Look Now's cinematographer anthony b. richmond there's a lot of grimey detail and texture to the images which amplifies clive barker's nasty writing (which shares a lot of Hellraiser's beautifully grotesque/perverse pain & pleasure elements) and phillip glass's dreamy score. not quite sure how...

Was a 66, now a 93

The new Scream Factory release is truly excellent, really enriching the indelible production design and giving life-force to Phillip Glass' astonishing score. The movie itself might have grown on me a little too, I guess. Just a masterclass in dissecting the invisible barriers between spaces, and the limits of white privilege. Every cut and scare is loaded in texture and meaning.

"You don't belong here."

Gentrified trauma.

okay, i dug it.

tony todd's voice reverberates through walls and seems to have existed before the dawn of time. he feels humongous- a man of legend, not reality. he shows up almost an hour into the movie and dominates it completely. virginia madsen can't quite keep up with him but her eyes are so large and she cries so well that i forgive her.

one of the most interesting interpretations of this film that i've seen is that the mr. candyman- son of a slave, a painter, a lover, a victim-isn't real. there's only "the candyman". he never existed as man, only as a figure. his backstory, so painstakingly repeated again and again throughout the movie, was hodge-podged through...

i'm pretty conflicted over this film. on the one hand, the way the themes were handled felt off to me. but on the other hand it had a brilliant mix between eerie and actually scary, which to me indicates that a horror movie is successful. i loved the gritty atmosphere and some of those jump scares... whew! but it's far from a perfect movie.

i'm just glad we're getting a sequel to this from nia decosta and jordan peele. i'm beyond excited to see where they're going to take it.

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, there wasn't a bogeyman, but a bogeyplace: Cabrini Green.
www.larsenonfilm.com/candyman

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When I was nine years old, this movie scared the crap out of me and I'm not going to say the title. I slept with the light on, used the bathroom with the doors open for all of my duties and I turned on the light when it was sunny outside in every room...for six years. The radio DJ, Delilah, had to put me to sleep for six years. Six years!

I watched this as an adult and I fell in love with it. I learned to love what I didn't understand, when I was nine years old.

candyman candyman candywoman candywoman

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

younger me was so wrong in thinking this was boring a quarter way through and then shutting it off!! but i'm glad i took time and watched it on the big tv and not my laptop because this was SO STUNNING!

I loved the lead actress; she had this beautiful blonde hair almost looked like they were going for Tippi Hedren in The Birds (and i'm a sucker for the Hitchcock blonde) with the bouncy curls, and there was the scene where she's overcome with Candyman's presence that a light shines in her eyes and her makeup is natural, but she also had flushed pinkish lips and THEN a tear rolls down her face as she kind of succumbs to...

"Come with me, and be immortal."

A true nightmare of perspective and myth, CANDYMAN is the first film in a long time to unsettle me to the point of genuine fear.

Poverty stands at the core of this film, an institutional decaying rot that seeps from every building and room we visit. Early in the film, Helen (played with a never-ending level of control by Virginia Madsen) compares her apartment to a housing project. She notes that her condo was once a housing project but was converted to its current form, where art hangs from corners and an entire wall is a full-length window. She notes the Otherness of her home, compared to that of the affordable housing building in...

i, too would be seduced by tony todd. i mean look how fucking cool he his ??

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I originally saw this when I was way too young, it truly frightened me, so I avoided revisiting it for the rest of my life. UNTIL NOW.

And I'm so glad I did! I finally gathered the courage to watch it again, fueled by my excitement to see the reimagining coming out next year produced by Jordan Peele and directed by Nia DaCosta.

Its social commentary on systemic racism is as timely as ever of course. The candyman is an empathetic and legitimately terrifying figure, performed with such finesse and gravitas by Tony Todd. The score by Philip Glass exquisitely haunts each scene.

I was kind of obsessed with Helen carrying the urban legend torch at the end, now some hungry grad student Boss Bitch can write a thesis about HER and BURY *their* pompous colleagues 🔥

DAY 4.
oh i loved this i really loved this. beyond excited to see what Nia DaCosta does with this

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Candyman More Tony Todd's voice is the 8th Wonder of the World 90's neo-gothic saccharine. Loaded with subtext and oodles of everything that makes me love the first half of that decades horror way more than its second half. Everyone's great here and that score is to die for.

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The Watermelon Woman (1996) dir Cheryl Dunye

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The Watermelon Woman (1996) dir Cheryl Dunye

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Cheryl, a young black lesbian, works a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical “mammy” roles relegated to black actresses during that period. This was the first feature film directed by an “out” black lesbian.

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The Watermelon Woman

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"it means hope, it means inspiration, it means possibility. it means history"
i could watch hours more of this. insightful and delightful

thank god for snow days! the quasi-documentary style really works for this as it balances dunye's fictionalized personal life with her quest to uncover the truth about a 1930s star known only as the "watermelon woman". obviously, this is a sweet, charming story about being a lesbian in the 90s (complete with iconique outfits!) but it's power is in the history it snatches away from the chokehold of white supremacy. structural oppression lurks in all facets of life. we tell the stories of those in power and disregard the rest. cheryl dunye sits near the camera and tells her own story.

(i'm a history major, if this matters.)

"i am a black lesbian filmmaker, who's just beginning, but i'm gonna say a lot more and have a lot more work to do."
cheryl dunye is a visionary! this was funny, smart, subversive, ambitious, and unapologetically lesbian. support black female directors!!

It's hard to write about a film so open in its ideas. This is a film about the gaps in history and how those affect the present day identities and relationships of the people who are left out. The lack of subtext isn't a flaw here; the ideas the film is working with are brought to the fore because of the documentary conceit. It accompanies its direct exploration of these ideas with the romantic subplot that illustrates the (then-)modern status of the same marginalized subculture that is being explored.

This film feels like an early cringe humor piece at times, though its bets moments mine the awkwardness for more than unspoken punchlines. There's real pathos in moments like Diana's dinner...

A more slickly produced production would seem too melodramatic. It would seem staged. Instead, Dunye uses video and a casual, diaristic tone to convey authenticity, and it works--the first time I watched this, I was desperate to know if the subject of the film was a real person. Rewatching, what stands out are the quiet parallels and contradictions. The ways in which race and sexuality intersect change only slightly in the decades between Cheryl's era and Fae's. Relationships come and go, but hope lingers. The drama in between the history is a reflection of what we will never know of Fae's life; what we do get are the high points, notes about her career and hints about her loves. What...

C.L.I.T.
Center for Lesbian Information and Technology

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Somehow or another, despite a much more than casual interest in African American culture, I managed to miss this one. Absolutely love it.
You absolutely have to pay attention to the closing credits to understand what you've just seen.

we need more films that incorporate archives. i rlly <3 thinking of cheryl's mom's basement as an archive. + lee edwards collection. also woodermelon!

For me, it was hard to decide on whether the amateurish quality in 'The Watermelon Woman' was a pro or a con. On the odd occasion when the actors fluffed their lines - and it is rather detectable - I had a split reaction between thinking it was an artistic decision to try and make the film more realistic, since people say the wrong thing all the time in real life, and thinking that perhaps they didn't have the funds to reshoot the scene and so just had to roll with it. Likewise, the camera quality of certain sequences, particularly when Cheryl (Cheryl Dunye (why do actors name their characters after themselves?)) interviews other people for her project, is rather...

precious and lovely. i really screamed CHERYL at several points.

how come the only other Black lesbian director i can think of is young m.a.?

"first feature film directed by an "out" black lesbian" and it's giving great insight into what that meant in the 90s while maintaining light heartedness. still can't believe that this exists and i've never heard about it before. i feel like it is important and relevant to so many people in so many ways even today (maybe more than ever with the current events) and makes me wonder how many excellent films like this have been overshadowed throughout the history of cinema. i consider myself a big movie fan and i've watched hundreds of films, yet most of them, particularly the ones i have seen during my teenage years, have been delivered from a similar perspective - that of a...

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Cheryl, a young black lesbian, works a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during that period. This was the first feature film directed by an "out" black lesbian.

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Daughters of the dust (1991) dir Julie Dash 

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Daughters of the dust (1991) dir Julie Dash 

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Languid look at the Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where African folk-ways were maintained well into the 20th Century and was one of the last bastion of these mores in America.

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Daughters of the Dust

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If Daughters of the Dust seems otherworldly, that's only because American cinema, independent and otherwise, has paid too little attention to others' worlds. // Bumped this up half a star after sitting with it longer and then writing about it: www.larsenonfilm.com/daughters-of-the-dust

This film might have one of the worst soundtracks I have ever heard. It not only features bad, cheezy, overloud synthesizers, it features them at moments that would otherwise be just fine moments of quiet contemplation. These synths interject with such unpleasant randomness that it jars you out of the film entirely. I am curious how they play without the film; would they still just be cheezy holdovers from a bad 80s prog band's worst practice session, or would they come across as some sort of deconstructive art noise? Either way, as the soundtrack to this or any film, they are agony. Had this subtitles, I might have been tempted to try it on mute, but that would have forced...

This December, a pillar of American cinema is being re-released. "Daughters of the Dust," the 1991 debut of independent director Julie Dash, has been restored and will be distributed by the Cohen Film Collection in theaters across America. In this era of Black Lives Matter, Beyonce's "Lemonade", Kendrick and the return of D'Angelo, the re-release of Dash's film deserves to be greeted with cheers and trumpet blasts. "Daughters" is a seminal, visionary, challenging work of art - a masterpiece that every American should see.

The film traces the intergenerational trials and tribulations of the Peazants, a Gullah family who are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans. The Gullahs live along the coast of South Carolina in 1902, at the dawn...

A spell cast from golden light, incredible costumes, euphoric Gullah Creole, and pure dream structure storytelling.

The poem of a family living on St. Simons Island, Georgia, where in 1803 a large group of captive Igbo people took control of the ship that was transporting them and committed mass suicide rather than live as slaves.

Now, nearly 100 years later, the islanders are in transition. Entering into a new migration phase, heading to the mainland, struggling with the changing times and the fading of old faiths.

The generational idea that a person is larger than the self - that a person is all of their people that came before them - must be maintained, even as the family scatters, seeds to the wind.

Told by an unborn child.

Movie bliss.

"We are two people in one body. The last of the old and the first of the new." - Nana Peazant

An emotional and philosophical journey into a complex history and how it could carry into a potential future. The Peazant family, about to leave for the mainland in 1902 after staying isolated on their island for generations, faces the dilemmas of memory and hope for more, tradition and progress, individual desires and family ties. Arthur Jaffa's cinematography helps make these spiritual and very real questions as ungraspable yet vivid as one of these dreams that is filled with half-memories and old stories we've only heard but that come to become our own.

Coogler's BLACK PANTHER feels like an heir to this film in the way it too grapples with the difficulty of moving on with old scars; some of his...

Visionary art, pure and simple. To call it "bourgeois", "pretentious," "self-centered"-(looking at you, Armond White, who presumes Spielbergian clarity or Lee punchiness is the only valid form of art available to artists-of-color wanting to make a difference in the world)-is to assume that art should be completely accessible, linear, easily fileable and rateable and gut-punchy the first time around for it to be deemed "good". Such a narrow definition leaves no room for shimmering mystery, not of an actually self-serving PTA/ Master kind, but of an artistic mystery and a lack of knowledge of self that is an organic choice for a film whose content is directly tied with its form. Daughters is one such work: splintered into little prismastic shards...

Beautiful film. Does anyone know if there is a database or website that houses actual film screenplays? I find myself trying to pin down dialogue from certain scenes and I sometimes spend so much time searching.

I wonder why this is considered part of the LA Rebellion movement. It makes me wonder about the criteria for classifying a film under a particular movement in general. With this film and The Glass Shield (1994) you will see them as two notable films critcs or reviewers remark on when mentioning the LA Rebellion. Both films were written and directed by two key directors who propelled the movement decades prior to the release of these films.

The underlining messages in the films are...

Black Women Filmmakers Screening #3.2:

A beautiful brushstroke of family binds, imbedded naturalism, and cultural continuum. In Illusions, Dash makes a promise as a black feminist filmmaker, and Daughters of the Dust fulfills it to the highest degree.

At a pivotal moment for the Peazants, a multigenerational African family inhabiting an island previously used for illegal slave trading, conflict arises between the promise of new opportunities on the mainland and ancestral ties to tradition and culture, all framed in softly shifting sand and sea and painterly, naturalistic cinematography. If these praises all sound vague, that's because I had a hard time following the actual narrative.

But Dash's intelligent (and difficult) multi-vocality, steeped in oral tradition, doesn't weaken the film; Daughters...

it is crazy how good and beautiful this movie is and so fucked up how long it took me to watch it!!!

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tożsamość pamięcią przeszłości, mistyka Gullah z wyspy St. Simons, na granicy czasów, independent film, 1-szy film w reżyserii afroamerykańskiej kobiety w szerokiej dystrybucji teatralnej, zdjęcia, muzyka, L.A Rebellion, NFR...

Akcja filmu rozgrywa się na wyspie u wybrzeży Karoliny Południowej wśród potomków plemienia Gullah, którzy spotykają się podczas długo wyczekiwanego rodzinnego zjazdu. Osią fabuły jest historia rodu przewiezionego do Ameryki jednym z ostatnich transportów niewolników. Pozostawieni na odizolowanej wyspie, stworzyli oryginalną kulturę. Narratorką Córek pyłu jest nienarodzona córka, owoc gwałtu na jednej z mieszkanek wyspy - koncept ten przywołuje na myśl zapoczątkowaną w kobiecej literaturze próbę utkania opowieści z urwanych, zapomnianych głosów i strzępów historii. Reżyserka konstruuje narrację historyczną zanurzoną w tradycji, a jednocześnie zadaje pytanie o afroamerykańską nowoczesność i jej...

A powerful narrative of the complex dynamics of generational differences, race, and heritage.

I did pick up on a minor anachronism, though it certainly takes nothing away from this film: the movie is set in August 1902, but the wish book advertises teddy bears. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt's hunting trip that spurred the toy's name did not occur until November 1902. Just an interesting trivia point.

I, for one, actually dug the early '90s synths, but I might just have trash taste. Pretty sure the shots of the sky in the top half of the frame reflected in the wet beach on the bottom are objectively beautiful, though.

What a revelation! If someone told me that actual magic went into the crafting of Daughters of the Dust, I'd believe them. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that this is both the director's and the cinematographer's first feature. It is so breathtaking that it seems impossible that it even exists.

This movie has only the smallest of plot. It's more of an event on which to hang two hours of visual poetry. Of all the wondrous imagery, the think that struck me the most was the characters' skin. Never have I seen black skin filmed so beautifully without being hyper-stylized. There's a real showcase of the beauty and diversity of skin tones on display.

This was a powerhouse cinema experience for me. I'll be rewatching this sometime very soon and cannot wait to see what subsequent viewings reveal.

Conceptually, this film is fascinating. It manages to coalesce the perspectives of the grounded past, ambitious present, and reflective future by exploring the metamorphoses of cultural and individual identity that takes place across generations.

It's dialogue is filled with allegory, and it's characters are wholly reflective of these conceptual conflicts in a way that bombarded me with more answers than questions. I found the lack of conflict within the Christian characters and their beliefs to be the most disheartening. The most recurring realization of their faith on screen is found through the reprimanding of their roots, and not out of the complex understanding of those roots that these particular characters, from this island, with their knowledge, should have. And because...

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Languid look at the Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where African folk-ways were maintained well into the 20th Century and was one of the last bastion of these mores in America.

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Before I Step Outside (You Love Me) - Travis Alabanza

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Before I Step Outside (You Love Me) - Travis Alabanza

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Debut chapbook and collection of work from Travis Alabanza, with a mixture of images, poetry, diary entries and essays relating to their experience as a black, trans person navigating public space, being outside, and on public transport.

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Before I Step Outside [You Love Me] book. Read 17 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. 'Before I Step Outside [You Love me]' is Travis...

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The Black Power Mixtape 1967- 1975 (2011) dir Göran Olsson 

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The Black Power Mixtape 1967- 1975 (2011) dir Göran Olsson 

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A DOCUMENTARY IN 9 CHAPTERS

Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.

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The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

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55
Archival footage is a must-see, and it's streamlined and well-documented, but overall, this takes a strange distance from the images that should be the central focus.

Please, donate if you can. blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#donate

A document that fills in holes in the historical record in a direct way, uncovering news footage long neglected and contextualizing it through a modern lens. The clip of Angela Davis talking about violence is making the rounds on social media, and it is by far the best part of this film, an invaluable and direct assault on white assumptions. She's been one of my heroes for a long time, and seeing her in incandescent defiance gives me life.

I studied the US Civil Rights and Black Power movement at University and my dissertation was about Malcolm X. I still find it incredibly important to learn more especially now. It's heartbreaking that generations of people of who have experienced violence inflicted upon them are still fighting for the basic right to be treated fairly.

Angela Davis describing her childhood and what happened in Mississippi, Alabama made feel so emotional. It immediately brought me back to this song by Nina Simone. That rage and indignation still exists. We should never forget. We should always strive to fight against racism.

at times i wanted this to dig deeper and give more analysis, but it is still a phenomenal documentary on an obviously very important topic, with incredibly powerful words from intelligent and influential activists.
"we don't believe in violence. we don't believe in killing. we don't believe in harming or hurting. we weren't the ones who inflicted pain and harm on people. we weren't the ones who kidnapped a whole culture of people and brought them to do service for us. and because we stand, and fight back, and want peace; we want to work with pride, love, and live, and grow with pride. that's all we want." - Erykah Badu

All of the archival footage would be enough to convince one that this is a must-watch, as it documents an important turning point in America's own history of dealing with systemic racism.

But on the whole, I can't help but feel as if there still should be a whole lot more being covered beyond the raw footage. Whenever all of this is at the center, it's highly engaging - but the Swedish commentary proves itself to be a distraction rather than a voice of an outsider trying to make sense out of America's long history of racism against African-Americans.

While we're still on the subject, here are some more resources that I encourage you to donate to, if you can.
Black Visions Collective
Black Lives Matter
Reclaim the Block
NAACP Legal and Defense Fund
Now's the perfect time to keep fighting the good fight.

The fight to be treated equal is still continuing today. Fills in some gaps in history while also being empowering and unapologetic about what was going on during the rise of black power.

Yesterday, there was an update about the Breonna Taylor case. Recommend looking into if you do not already know. Anyway, the update on the case pissed me off. Let me ask everyone an honest question. How can we have so many movies and documentaries that talk about real issues going but we still making the same mistakes and not addressing these problems? We can write about how all these movies and documentaries have great stories that apply to the real world, but yet, we still ain't doing...

the film is worth seeing simply for the archival footage alone - interviews with people like carmichael, cleaver, and, of course, angela davis - her too-brief interview from jail is the film's highlight.

the film itself, however, does a true disservice to the footage. it should stand back and let the words speak for themselves - instead, it's awkwardly edited and focuses too much on the swedish journalists themselves (that tv guide detour?). and instead of featuring commentary from lots of current and former activists or historians, about half of the interviews are with (admittedly interesting) celebrities who don't add anything to our understanding of the subject.

amazing subject, bad movie - i would've rather just watched the raw footage on youtube tbh.

Göran Olsson's documentary begins with an apology, that this is not the story of black civil rights in America, but a compilation of newsreel shot for Swedish television. Even the title qualifies what it is: not a history but a mixtape, a selection, and outlining exactly what years of this apparently endless struggle it covers. It's an honourable thing to do, but I'm not sure it's necessary. Every history is partial, every history smooths away edges and leaves things out, every history reflects the priorities of the people who put it together. Ava Duvernay's 13th - which I'll review soon - makes the point that America has never remembered Martin Luther King correctly, commemorating his opposition to the most blatant...

☆"This film consists of footage shot by Swedish reporters 1967-1975." ☆

Figures. Only Scandinavian people can really capture the history of the Black Power Movement. How could we have missed that one?

Documentarian Göran Olsson uses archival footage of reporters from his home country -- combined with an untouchable soundtrack, and contemporary commentary by preeminent Black figures, scholars, and activists -- to show the important steps in the eponymous movement in his film The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975. With brilliant editing and a succinct and intelligent composition of footage and storytelling, this fantastic documentary is a must-watch during this time of reckoning of America's racist past, and present.

Whereas many white Americans simply see the Black Power Movement as one of...

A capitalist media-widget designed to make money on the historical hipness of Black revolt. This information has long been public, with little to no serious change in the community. Celebrities, fashion and music may dress it up for 2011, but the disease of evolutionary amnesia will always win out. This is about as pertinent today as another re-issue of Woodstock, or better yet Wattstax (a more impressive film). To be lulled to complacency by history as mere data and myth is to spit on the graves of its martyrs.

Racism, sexism, economic caste divisions, meaningless education, the largest prison industry in the world with the largest inmate population. Fairy tale media song and dance routines, crack, meth, fentanyl, Cisco and...

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In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience.

The United States has none.

Absolutely fantastic collection of archival footage from the period along with biting contemporary reflections. As a reader and admirer of these great black revolutionaries such as Huey Newton, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, and others, seeing them in film being alive and speaking powerfully to an audience provides an understanding that books cannot.

The fight to be treated equal is still continuing today. Fills in some gaps in history while also being empowering and unapologetic about what was going on during the rise of black power.

Yesterday, there was an update about the Breonna Taylor case. Recommend looking into if you do not already know. Anyway, the update on the case pissed me off. Let me ask everyone an honest question. How can we have so many movies and documentaries that talk about real issues going but we still making the same mistakes and not addressing these problems? We can write about how all these movies and documentaries have great stories that apply to the real world, but yet, we still ain't doing...

I HATE AMERICA, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!!!

I love Angela Davis, I could just watch interviews with her all day, she just oozes intellect and badassery, she is so iconic. Also, that leather jacket and black beret Black Panther fit is just so cool.

If anything, I would say this film never reaches a meaningful conclusion, but as it simply set out to documented 9 years with influential figures and events in the 60s/70s Black political movement, it's okay that it doesn't. Very interesting, and as important as it was when they filmed it, and when it was released, 9 years ago. It begs the question; when will America, and the whole world, change to be a fairer place, and what will it take?

This starts off with an interesting concept: America inspected through the lens of Swedish journalists and filmmakers. And, for most of the start of the film, that's what we get. An archive of previously unseen clips focusing on some of the most important and powerful black men and women, portrayed from an "outsider" European viewpoint. At times there's an unsettling hypocrisy at work: geographical distance (US vs the world) and a somewhat fallacious innocence that puts Europe morally above America. But in this light, the archive of speeches and interviews document the Civil Rights Era with a renewed perspective, highlighting the social, racial, and economic problems faced by Black Americans. The film does slowly drift away from the curiosity of...

I don't know much about the details of the Black Power Movement. Its heyday was during my childhood: when I was nine I remember the scandal of Tommie Smith and John Carlos doing the Black Power salutes at the Olympics - I didn't know what it was about but going by the reaction it created I knew it must be a good thing; a little later I heard about Angela Davis from the John Lennon song. As a white boy living in white North Wales it wasn't directly part of my world, but as an anti-racist trouble making thing I was for it. Hopefully my politics are a bit more subtle now, but essentially I still have the same feelings....

"The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" é um dos títulos mais frequentemente recomendados como texto educativo sobre o racismo nos E.U.A.. É um documentário acessível sobre um tema importante, acompanhado por palavras marcantes proferidas por figuras marcantes. Um filme que está no seu melhor quando os seus autores dão a palavra aos ativistas e historiadores negros que lançaram os alicerces para a luta atual.
Ler mais aqui.

Didático e importantíssimo.
PS.: Legenda impecável.

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Examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in US society from 1967 to 1975. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States during that period and includes the appearances of Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.

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Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.

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Babylon

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"This place used to be nice before your kind showed up. Go home!"
"This is my home! And it was never nice!"

I love movies set in a major city that we've seen on film a billion times that never point the camera at any of the places/types of places we usually see. The London of BABYLON is misty streets strewn with litter, industrial warehouses filled with massive speaker cabinets, shabby tenement housing pocked with National Front graffiti, and literal garbage fires. There are no iconic shots of the Tower Bridge or Big Ben or anything like that. An exception would be a single scene set in Piccadilly Circus, but it's pointedly a very "other" location which the characters visit...

"We can't take no more of that."
What a fascinating look at a world I know practically nothing about, and yet, it's themes and issues are completely universal. As a film It takes a bit to settle into, but once you do this slice of life story is well worth the effort. Sold flick all around and one I'm looking forward to revisiting.

BONUS POINTS for the wonderfully world building soundtrack. Spot on.
"All of them roads man take,
all of them journeys that man make,
is but deceptions and vanities."
Cinematic Time Capsule - 1980 Ranked

Caribbean immigrant life under white supremacy. Babylon is just outside the club, pressing in.

A representational anomaly of a historically significant time and place elevated into the stratosphere by a lethal soundtrack. Funky as fuck. Gorgeously photographed. Great location work. Plenty of mutton and rice. Fantastic.

Scene that plays in The Great Movie Theater in the Sky: Blue goes to Rastafar-I church. Love it.

One of the most well rounded films I've ever seen. That this was barred from America for having the potential to 'spark race riots' is such a red herring-this shit was barred because it's such a sympathetic and full portrait of Afro-Jamacian life in '80s Brixton. With some really nuanced and fantastic character writing and acting, this really puts you in the shoes of its main character. It flips the script by showing the full and diverse world of the black community-from work, music, different churches, family life, and even some of the ugly side with a scene about gay bullying or implied violence towards women-while the outsiders (white people) are shown strictly as the unpredictable spikes of fringe violence....

Martin Stellman and Franco Rosso had originally written Babylon for the BBC's Play For Today strand but, when it wasn't picked up for it, they decided to turn it into a feature film instead. Five years after the initial draft, Babylon made it to the big screen and captured, as if in aspic, a specific moment both in Britain society and within British cinema itself.

Renowned cinematographer Chris Menges (Kes) uses natural lighting that firmly puts us on the streets of multicultural London in the dying days of the dour 1970s and the birth of the even harder '80s, and you can really feel the wintry chill in the air among its derelict houses, corrugated, graffiti'd fencing and the oppressive...

Deliver Me From My Enemies

Where the f**k has this been hiding?1?!

I'd never heard of this before it started getting mentioned on Criterion Channel and all of a sudden it was on there today.
So I popped it on and WHAM!
This is easily one of the best British films of its time, at least.

It's like watching Mean Streets or Quadrophenia as directed by Ken Loach but set among the Jamaican sound-system culture of 1980s Brixton.
Turns out that writer/director Franco Rosso worked with Loach on Kes, while co-writer Martin Stellman also wrote Quadrophenia.
Stunning, gorgeous photography by Chris Menges and some raw powerful performances by Brinsley Forde, Trevor Laird and Karl Howman..
Honestly, how this has gone 'unnoticed' in the past 39 years is a mystery and quite frankly a total robbery.

An absolute must see.

(White Lady): "Look at you all, good for nothing, noisy, stinking filth, lazy, you're everywhere, junglebunnies. This was a lovely area before you came here, lovely... Fuck off back to your own country, junglebunnies".
(Beefy): "This is my fucking country lady and it's never been fucking lovely, it's always been a tip for as long as I can remember..."

The resurrection of the 80s in modern popular culture over the past 5-10 years has been felt not just through music and fashion but also a twisted romanticism about a British nation that was stronger and more decisive when it was whiter. What it has revealed is a nasty undercurrent of suppressed prejudice that has always existed but has largely been...

Shout-out to cinematographer Chris Menges, of Kes and The Mission fame, who can somehow make an overcast day in London look amazing on film.

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Black history month film #3 Babylon.
This film is not a question of liking or not liking. Too many people need to this movie. After recently seeing black joy i was wondering whether a drama rather than comedy Take could be made.

After the first 30 mins of this film the stakes increase. And, soon after only a couple attacks from white supremacy are made and- the narrative of this movie changes. This movie doesn't need to be personal to leave a private and special message.

All i can say (without spoiling anything) is please listen carefully to the lyrics at the end and put your personal feelings aside- well not all of them...

No no no no we can't take no more of that no no no no we can't take no more of that we say lion lion we say lion lion lion lion lion lion

☹️

Film #131 from the list of recommendations, third of four picked from a list of fairly obscure films suggested by Peter.

Set in London's Brixton of the 80's, as the Windrush generation had settled, established a considerable community, and developed into a second generation with strong connections to their roots but still living in a vastly different reality where alienation and racism actively abounds, Babylon is made in the spirit of the social realism that I for some reason always tend to associate with the 70s. What seems to set this film apart, is that it represents an essential part of the societal and cultural curriculum told with an atunement and enthusiasm for the culture it depicts, an ethos not...

I watched Babylon out of curiosity after hearing dialogue from it sampled countless times by musicians I enjoy. Captivating and still relevant, yet simultaneously a well-preserved depiction of the reality of 80s Britain and sound system culture. The soundtrack, as expected, also whips.

It's a shame that Babylon is so underwatched, but since it finally received a proper US release last year, I suspect that this will pull in a fresh cult audience over time.
PLAY THAT BLOODY JUNGLE MUSIC ALL NIGHT!

Might be the best reggae film of them all. Idk....

Takes place in 80's London. Tight to see cold Rastafaris. All bundled up, style is killer! Was banned in the U.K. for being controversial. Prolly cos every Brit looks like rabid idiot or well intentioned dolt. Well all but one... Seemed real. Whole style of this film is more realistic. Not sensational. Natural overlap of events and conversation. Witness wide scope of scenes and music playing in different settings. Helps you place the context of many genres which you thought were familiar before, but now you've witnessed a new intimacy attached to each of them. Nuanced focus on race relations in the U.K. tragic and not moralistic

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Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.

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Kinshasa Makambo (2018) dir Dieudo Hamadi

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Kinshasa Makambo (2018) dir Dieudo Hamadi

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Christian, Ben and Jean-Marie are fighting for political change of power and free elections in their country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the incumbent President refuses to relinquish power. How can the course of events be changed? Must they join forces with the historical opposition leader and his powerful party? Is dialogue still possible or must they resign themselves to a popular uprising and the risk of a blood bath?

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Kinshasa Makambo

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There are intrinsic similarities to the events of electoral misconduct represented in Kinsasha Makambo and those occurring now in the United States. It's just that the United States is much more slick about it. Here, we close polling stations en masse and limit acceptable forms of identification to suppress voters. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, they just cancel elections for years due to a lack "prerequisites." Here, we protest injustice, people get killed, and there is some hope that justice will be served because of transparency, proactive representatives, public forums, and the demanding quantity of outraged citizens who reach a volume that cannot be ignored. In Congo, people get killed, are given time to collect their dead, and it...

the next uprising must be decisive.
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

T/F 2018 #5 at The Blue Note

Successfully captures things about politics I feel get left out of most political films, the confusion, the constant frustrations, the helplessness of tying your actions to certain politicians that you can't completely trust or rely on, the strain it puts on your loved ones, etc.

I felt like like of the scenes ended suddenly and pointedly.

The chaotic handheld footage out in the streets was incredible.

Images of violence and death are hard for me to deal with in documentaries. There's an inherent voyeuristic feeling to the image, this fact that I am sitting on a couch looking at a person I did not know who is now dead. Breath and life gone. Just meat and bones.

I'm not sure how you tell the story of antifascist revolution, especially a failed one, without showing the bodies fascism has claimed. I think there is a responsibility to acknowledge the pain and the violent nature fascist regimes, to be direct about the human cost. But once again, I don't know this person who I'm seeing on the ground in a pool of blood. Should I even be seeing...

This film, in looking back through some of the pre-2020 reviews of it, seemed to be relatively tepidly received upon release. Some reviews criticize it for being too perfunctory, too simple, etc. One review that called it "straightforward" sticks in my mind. Just another run of the mill documentary about political revolution in a country that has a history of unrest it seemed to imply. Yawn.

This is a documentary about marginalized peoples living in a country that gets very little international attention and press. It's about a country struck with poverty, but with a fierce sense of patriotism among its people. It's about a system that promises democracy, but denies it in practice. It's about the willingness to mobilize...

Movie #2787: Kinshasa Makambo

With the civil unrest across the globe, it makes sense that Mubi promoted Kinshasa Makambo as a film of how revolutionaries handle things like this. Not only does it give an insightful look into theAfrican nation of Congo, but into its people and their constant struggle for freedom and fair elections. Shot with iPhones and standard handheld cameras, the director puts the audience on the ground through immersing the viewer in the violent and nonviolent struggles versus police. The documentary acts as a fly on the wall type feature and works immensely well, aiming to follow those around who seek to make positive change, but really have failed to for decades now. It's a solid choice for anyone looking on how to rebel and looking for inspiration in dark times such as these. Solid stuff.

super interesting and intimate documentary. unsettling similarities to the protests going on rn so that hit home.
been trying to watch more african cinema so i was super glad that mubi added this.

Month on MUBI: 10/30 "Eternal God of armies, where people expected death, you brought life"
"Kinshasa Makambo" is a documentary about revolution in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It tells the story of three activists in their struggles, unions, and disagreements. The film's biggest weakness is that I had trouble following the three individually and keeping their stories straight. But as a depiction of revolution and unrest, "Kinshasa Makambo" is a must-watch. Everything is disorganized. Some are armed and some are not. Clusters of people gather disparately. Clusters of police gather disparately. Internal disagreements over methods threaten to shatter the whole movement.
"I'll tell you something: a man's life is in God's hands"
66/100. Watched on MUBI (Desktop and Phone; HD).

Also, this is my first movie from the DRC!

"A small group can play a decisive role."

A timely watch as the George Floyd protests against police brutality enter their third week across the United States. The power of collective action. The passion of young activists. The difficulty of coalescing around clear political messages. The fatigue that so often self-sabotages such movements. Ideology, anger, and determination.

Film #38 of my 2020 - Mubi Viewings
*****

Third world country of the Congo dealing with political corruption as the "people" strive for change and for a "voice"... and are ultimately oppressed and denied that opportunity.

Thank goodness, I live in the USA... uh... hm... wait a minute...

Heh.

Do I want to live in the Congo? Never in a million years.
Do I see the correlation between them and the first world? Absolutely.

It's a pretty poorly made doc, but the themes are strong enough to give you enough food for thought for a lifetime.

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Film #38 of my 2020 - Mubi Viewings
*****

Third world country of the Congo dealing with political corruption as the "people" strive for change and for a "voice"... and are ultimately oppressed and denied that opportunity.

Thank goodness, I live in the USA... uh... hm... wait a minute...

Heh.

Do I want to live in the Congo? Never in a million years.
Do I see the correlation between them and the first world? Absolutely.

It's a pretty poorly made doc, but the themes are strong enough to give you enough food for thought for a lifetime.

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Christian, Ben and Jean-Marie are fighting for political change of power and free elections in their country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the incumbent President refuses to relinquish power. How can the course of events be changed? Must they join forces with the historical opposition leader and his powerful party?

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This list of many of Brighton's Black-owned businesses was generated by the users of Hanover Community Noticeboard.

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George Washington (2000) dir David Gordon Green

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George Washington (2000) dir David Gordon Green

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DOWN THIS TWISTED ROAD, PLEASE WATCH OVER MY SOUL AND LIFT ME UP SO GENTLY SO AS NOT TO TOUCH THE GROUND.

Set in the landscape of a rural southern town, “George Washington” is a stunning portrait of how a group of young kids come to grips with a hard world of choices and consequences. During an innocent game in an abandoned amusement park, a member of the group dies. Narrated by one of the children, the film follows the kids as they struggle to balance their own ambitions and relationships against a tragic lie.

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George Washington

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75/100
Third viewing, but the first since Green evolved into a very different sort of filmmaker than he appeared to be here, and the first since a slew of indies taking this film as their primary inspiration succeeded in retroactively making it seem less like an impressive Malick homage. Wasn't transformative, though-I liked its Peanuts-eloquent kids and its mix of artlessness and dreaminess a lot then, and I still do. Would love to go back in time and show me-in-2000 The Sitter, though.

A beautiful, poetic and emotional coming-of-age film that portraits kids and adults in a rural, harsh southern city landscape dealing with tragedy, boredom, loneliness and dreams, and a film more concerned about its tone, emotions and characters than a plot. The narration, the music, and the cinematography compliment each other so so well, and it's just a damn joy to lean back and watch this film. It has a Malick-esque feel to it, but it's still its very own little beautiful thing. I loved the "I wish.." monologue by Vernon. I loved this film. Hard to believe the director of Pineapple Express could direct such a brilliant, bittersweet film with such a strong sense of life.

This movie reminds me why I love movies in the first place. Utter magic.

I don't know about you, but David Gordon Green's film George Washington is one of the most beautiful films I've seen in my life. A legit masterwork and a classic that I'll be revisiting time and time again in the future. Green paints a spectacular and vivid vison of the urban south, as if it were a vast expanse of green and brush and cracked concrete, like a forgotten suburban wasteland. The characters that roam it, and subsequently house there, have ambient poetic authenticity that played like hearing your old favorite song on a broken down radio. Rather than having a strict plot, it focuses on a story with a lovely stream of consciousness quality, a mystical, airy feeling that...

''I'm a hero because I like to save people's lives. Stuff like that.''

A Malickian-tinged tone poem set amongst rural American decay. Often profound, but at times marred by forced and improvised dialogue from its fledgling actors. An inspired debut from David Gordon Green.

Everybody wants to lead their own life, to be in total control and not have anyone else looming over them. But what happens when you get that freedom from such an early age? And you're living in the smallest of towns, completely devoid of life? The kids in David Gordon Green's George Washington have to grow up all by themselves, discover the world alone. To them, the world is just their town in the heart of North Carolina. They can't fathom the sheer vastness of life, the responsibilities that'll one day burden their shoulders and the fact that any of their actions have consequences. Which is what leads them into trouble. With no parental figures around, and nothing to do,...

"When I look at my friends I know there's goodness."
David Gordon Green's debut is a fascinating piece of Malick inspired art. It's a place and time like no other, with some great cinematography, some interesting editing and a group of child actors who don't even seem to realize that the camera is there. It's mostly a poetic and somber film, and yet throughout there's these odd slice of life humor moments that seem to fit right in.
"All I know is that I want to be the strongest man in the world sometimes."
Cinematic Time Capsule - 2000 Ranked

Stand By Us.

Beautiful. There is a huge brick wall separating this experimental sample of genuine filmmaking from modern melodrama offerings. Honest, accurate and emotional to the bone, George Washington displays the reality invading cotidianity in places ravaged by harshness and loneliness in all of its layers without using extreme means to cause thought and a knot in the throat. The haunting score illuminates the pure soul of this feature. It's like a big inhalation of fresh air.

96/100

David Gordon Green's George Washington doesn't feel like a first film - but it has a very mystifying quality that only makes for a wholly transfixing work. Within only 90 minutes, he creates a sprawling narrative that encapsulates what life is like to be growing up in a community with these people, and the desires for better lives when circumstances only lead to tragedy.

It's very somber, but incredibly beautiful (comparisons to the visual style of Terrence Malick have been echoed by many), Green hasn't quite come close to making anything nearly as wonderful as this one again.

Sometimes I smile and laugh when I think of all the great things you're gonna do. I hope you live forever.

Reminiscent of Terrance Malick and Harmony Korine's Gummo, or Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep, George Washington feels like a bittersweet lucid dream with its hypnotising soundtrack and surreal landscape.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVE5B2dWZJw

I watched this twice back to back, once just the film, and the other one had the commentary track (which is great I add, I've learned so many things from David Gordon Green and this is one of his best commentaries. Watch any interview with him, he's so down to earth and fascinating) And yet, I'm still just.. Speechless. I don't know how movies can be this eternally perfect. George Washington gives me faith in humanity and faith in living.

Oh, and uh, Merry Christmas.

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If Sean Baker had a lil bit of Terrence Malick in him and directed Gummo.

a very poetic piece about little America.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

George Washington (2000)

7/10

It has that blueprint of independent USA cinema that would later become a cliche and tired of its own thing. At least here the tale it spins resonates through time and becomes relevant once and again, specially when it's about guilt and what are the true problems in society. Still, a bit stiff at some points, but who can blame it on a first time director, no?

While I still love this movie the way children to explore themes typically explored with adult characters are used doesn't sit right with me. Compared to the Kanoon child-focused movies of Iran, which do the same thing, this seemed a bit more cynical. Which is kinda odd because this is far more lyrical. This difference between the Iranian films and American ones like this and Gummo could be attributed to the style of filmmaking and/or the culture presented but I'm not 100% sure so I'll have to think about it.

Nonetheless, this is criminally underseen and more people should see it.

Intrigued by the trailers and reviews of the movie Snow Angels, I decided now was a good time to give David Gordon Green another chance. I got off on the wrong foot with this independent auteur, as the first time I saw George Washington it didn't interest me at all. The film makes a lot more sense to me now that I've had a lot more exposure to non-narrative cinema. The film's true strength is its ability to capture a certain place and tone in a fairly profound way. The cinematography is really beautiful.

Many compare the filmmaking here to Terrence Malick, which makes sense, but a movie it really reminds me of is Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show....

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Set in the landscape of a rural southern town, "George Washington" is a stunning portrait of how a group of young kids come to grips with a hard world of choices and consequences. During an innocent game in an abandoned amusement park, a member of the group dies.

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Melé is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple is on the verge of breaking up… In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial court has been set up. African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the IMF whom they blame for Africa’s woes… Amidst the pleas and the testimonies, life goes on in the courtyard. Chaka does not seem to be concerned by this novel Africa’s desire to fight for its rights.

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Bamako

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CW: white supremacy, imperialism/capitalism

In service to outrage, Sissako and his crew construct a work of beauty. Centering people in the midst of descriptions of systemic corruption, violence, neglect, and callous manipulation, this film dares you to deny the human cost of Western imperialism; it washes you in the images of people interacting (sitting together, walking together, crowded together), of simple daily tasks (laundry, for instance) and more complex and rare moments (testifying, for instance, or marriage). The film recognizes that our humanity is most prominently found in our emotions, and it brings those out not in melodramatic flourishes but in quiet spells and works of art and traditional ceremonies and modern stories. In between these, it unleashes a litany of crimes perpetrated by the IMF and World Bank, detailing their detrimental effects not just on Mali but on many nations in Africa.

"Africa's key characterization is not her poverty, she is a victim of her riches"

This might become my favourite court drama, first for the subject matter; African society vs international financial institutions. There's argument that we still come off as slaves to the west especially when it comes to financial gain today. The topic hit so hard, and the way it is argued by the different witnesses was fascinating, they had the people represent themselves. My favourite being the former school teacher who was simply speechless.

The setting of this courtroom; in the back yard of a couple whose marriage is crumbling felt authentic. We also see other people just go about their lives as this case goes on and on. There's so many small details that were added which made this even more effective. Without forgetting the music, it worked so well with the film.

This film is phenomenal!

Part of 30 Countries in 30 Days. Today: Mali!

Fans of meritless people saying witless things had a treat recently when the blogger Debbie Schlussel tweeted her disappointment with the Oscars for awarding Paweł Pawlikowski's "Jew-hating" (no, me neither, but go with it) Ida over Abderrahmane Sissako's "anti-Jihadist" Timbuktu. Timbuktu is out here in a month or two - it does, indeed, look like a brave broadside against Boko Haram from someone living within their crosshairs (rather than someone who writes as if she deserves a Congressional Medal of Honour for blogging several thousand miles away). But if Republican bloggers are looking to enlist Sissako as a comrade, they ought to watch Bamako first.

Bamako takes place in the titular...

Juxtaposing scenes of ordinary life in Mali with an outdoor courtroom which puts the World Bank and the IMF on trial is an interesting conceit but it doesn't work entirely. There are powerful speeches made during the courtroom scenes but sometimes it becomes overwhelming and like the men sitting outside the wall of the courtroom, you feel like switching off. And perhaps this is the problem, as Western societies, we're so used to hearing about the problems of Africa that it can become "white noise" and we only take notice when it suits us (if a Hollywood star makes a movie there perhaps).
I applaud what Sissako has tried to achieve with this film and particularly with the haunting vocalisations...

The main criticisms which seem to be labeled towards this film are that it is overly didactic in nature, which is a shame because I think such an impression fails to consider some of the more fascinating nuances and details on display here. Abderrahmane Sissako takes a considerable gamble with this premise, which focuses on a mock trial of the nations of Africa against the World Bank and the IMF. There's a lot of speechifying going on, and it's intercut with the mundanities of daily life in the titular city that is Mali's capital. I certainly admired the polemic nature of such speeches, which refreshingly take direct aim at the neocolonialist practices of the West, but there's definitely a risk...

Part of my African Safari/Nollywood Challenge
In this drama from Mauritania-born director Abderrahmane Sissako, the IMF and the World Bank are put on trial by the persons who were supposed to have benefited from lending to Third World countries under development policies adopted during the Cold War Era. Filmed in Mali, the story takes place in the capital city, Bamako, where a singer called Melé (Aïssa Maïga) and her unemployed husband Chaka (Tiécoura Traoré) have been forced to the brink of divorce by economic hardship.

In the courtyard of the compound where the couple reside with their daughter Ina, a judicial public hearing is being conducted and broadcast via loudspeakers outside. People have gathered from all around to give witness...

"It's hard... but I'm more optimistic than hell."

Recently found out that Sissako is Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's Cultural Advisor! Which actually just makes a lot of sense. His movies feel like the work of a very gifted Cultural Advisor. Bamako is always worth watching again though, for its blade-like clarity of thought and emotion

Master's Movie Challenge
A movie filmed in Africa
A courtroom drama set in a courtyard that tackles African politics like health care and poverty. The cinematography and acting felt so natural and realistic that it could be taken as a documentary. By the end, I felt emotionally drained but was kept engaged the entire time even if the side-plots (like that missing gun) didn't add up to much. Very powerful and inspirational experience. There's also a fake western film within the film called Death in Timbuktu starring Danny Glover which was a nice change of pace.

Forgive the debt. It's been repaid.

I went into this vaguely expecting it to be about a singer bc of the poster and instead I got some like Thomas Sankara level polemics against the evils of imperialism. The best kind of surprise.

I love that there's no juicy b-story. This whole film just gestures right back to it's fundamental political critique and dares you to dismiss it. Brilliant.

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"We have reached the last threshold of the human heartbeat."
The IMF and the World Bank are vampires, working in concert with the multinational corporations to bleed dry the Third World. The "structural adjustments" they demand of their victims amount to brutal privatization and the total decimation of healthcare, education, and all other social services.

The witnesses in this film make their case very convincingly, and it's electrifying to hear them speak with such passion and moral clarity. Also kudos to the guy who took a shot at that fucking neocon ghoul Paul Wolfowitz: "We can't throw Wolfowitz into the Niger, because the caimans wouldn't want him" lmao

Um manifesto político, um desabafo humanitário, vozes e histórias africanas que precisam ser ouvidas, e o diretor mauritano Abderrahmane Sissako mostra isso ao mundo através de seu cinema. Uma narrativa diferente e lenta, a pobreza se contrapõe a beleza das cores, da trilha e do cotidiano do povo de Mali, um dos países mais pobres do mundo. Essa cena de Melé cantando e chorando representa bem o filme, uma Africa cheia de beleza e cultura mas que hoje chora.

A political manifesto, a humanitarian outburst, African voices and stories that need to be heard, and the Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako shows that to the world through his cinema. A different and slow narrative, poverty contrasts with the beauty of the colors, soundtrack and daily life of the people of Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world. This scene of Melé singing and crying represents the film well, an Africa full of beauty and culture but that cries.

Forgive the debt. It's been repaid.

I went into this vaguely expecting it to be about a singer bc of the poster and instead I got some like Thomas Sankara level polemics against the evils of imperialism. The best kind of surprise.

I love that there's no juicy b-story. This whole film just gestures right back to it's fundamental political critique and dares you to dismiss it. Brilliant.

Food Bank Fundraiser Request from Zach B.
Extremely conflicted here, as I think a dogmatic devotion to screenwriting tips like "show don't tell" is reductive, shallow and naive, and this movie actually does prove that. The approach of having a C-Span style debate over the effects of the neo-colonialist tactics of The World Bank (a topic which I knew basically nothing about going in, and am accepting the film's presentation of at face value) while real life is forced to operate around it is occasionally very compelling. Film is much better at drama and emotion than facts and complex ideas, but this is a dramatization of sorts, the weight on your chest of having to deal with crisis and injustice...

There's something really special about Bamako. It's simple, yet complex and most of all, important.

Aïssa Maïga as Melé is unforgettable.

There is some uber aggressive didactics on display as Mauritanian-born Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako drags totems of neoliberalism; the World Bank and the IMF before a tribunal that is still going on till this day. The surrealism and idealism of the trial at the centre of 2006's 'Bamako' waver between tedious and electric. But blink and you will miss the oceans of depth on the periphery producing violent waves that crash us back into our depressing existence.

The tribunal is being held in a compound house (significant for being the director's childhood home) and the plaintiff is Africa. There is a panel of black and white judges hearing the case like the fate of the world depended on it. Teams...

"[africa] is the victim of her riches."

a phenomenal film.

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Melé is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple is on the verge of breaking up... In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial court has been set up. African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the IMF whom they blame for Africa's woes...

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The last Blackman in San Francisco (2019) dir Joe Talbot 

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The last Blackman in San Francisco (2019) dir Joe Talbot 

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FIGHT FOR YOUR LAND. FIGHT FOR YOUR HOME.

Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

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The Last Black Man in San Francisco

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Took me a bit to warm up to this and just how different it is. Truly a breath of fresh air both in it's story and filmmaking. It's very dense and there's a lot that happened so I might have to revisit this the next time I get the chance but man. Great performances, great ending, and the music.....god DAMN.

Beautiful, funny and very different... has a real signature. Can't wait to see what Joe Talbot does next. Not sure I love the script but I enjoyed the ride. Perhaps I felt the SF love was poured on a bit thick but it is a love letter to the city so it's appropriate.

Beautiful score by Emile Mosseri

and props to casting director Julia Kim (Starlet) for a very dynamic cast.

Watched at Arclight Hollywood

"you don't get to hate it unless you love it"
stylistically new but also so familiar, like a long forgotten classic lost in the pages of history. every shot is a breath of fresh air, it almost feels like the first real film i've seen all year. i'm stunned

San Francisco has always been a city with a short memory. The fog rolls over the hills during the late afternoon, wiping the slate clean as it sweeps over the bay. The Earth shakes every so often, dislodging anything that got too comfortable where it was. The Japanese used to be the most visible immigrant population until the U.S. government decided to forcibly relocate them to internment camps that were scattered across the western seaboard. "Vertigo" is set there, because no American city is more attuned to the fear of rotational moment. So is Philip Kaufman's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," a horror movie about a health inspector who slowly discovers that he's being surrounded by alien duplicates. Today, the...

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A film with a staggering first half and a deflating, jumbled coda. So many ideas and so little exploration or nuance to unpacking them. Much of what makes the film great - a play in progress, the physical and spatial reconfiguration brought on by gentrification - doesn't allow for the other details and subplots to flourish. What remains, then, is an involving and gentle story of friendship and memory's affect, lingering along the shoreline. Solid film.

"People aren't one thing."
There's a film that comes along every once in a great long while that just makes you rethink everything, not the least of which being your perspective on life and your perspective on film. After I finished watching the credits, I just sat with my mouth agape, tears streaming down my face. As soon as I went to bed, I put on the soundtrack and cried some more as soon as the opening notes were heard. Joe Talbot, Jimmie Fails, and Jonathan Majors, along with everyone else who worked on this masterpiece, have crafted what is easily the greatest film of the year, and quite simply one of the best I've ever seen.

This was my...

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PLOT TWIST

For every kind of room this protagonist of a house had, it lacked the one it needed its script to grow.

Imaginative and thought-provoking filmmaking, telling a unique story about the stories we tell. It's as poignant and beautiful as it is weird and uncomfortable. If I had one complaint it's that it perhaps goes from innovative early on to a bit more staid as the story unfurls, and perhaps could have done with some shaved segments.
Still, in 30 years time when independent cinemas (and yes, they will still exist) have retrospectives on ground-breaking Black new wave cinema of the 2010s, showing this alongside Moonlight and Sorry To Bother You and Get Out and many others, I'll be happy to have been around to experience and appreciate this one at the time.

Wonderful cinematography, empathetic characters and thoughtful commentary are featured in this eccentric but unique film. In saying that, there is something alienating about the film, mainly the repetitive structure and occasionally incomprehensible dialogue. In dissecting the film afterwards I also believe the film accidentally promotes conservative concepts despite seriously discussing class based struggles. The ideas of ownership as inherent, black legacies being deceitful, disenfranchised people being portrayed as 'entitled' and that trying to climb out of poverty is disruptive, unhelpful and useless. Yes, Depiction is not always endorsement, but it really felt the themes they were wrestling with were decided with a defeatist 'this sucks, but that's the way it is' which is a classic capitalist response when asked to...

i know everyone says this but this was so beautiful and i am emotional
every single frame, the soundtrack, jonathan majors MWAH MWAH MWAH

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The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

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Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

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Dolemite is my name (2019) dir Craig Brewer 

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Dolemite is my name (2019) dir Craig Brewer 

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MAKE YOUR OWN LEGEND.

The story of Rudy Ray Moore, who created the iconic big screen pimp character Dolemite in the 1970s.

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Dolemite Is My Name

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One of the most enjoyable films of the year. Dolemite is my Name fills it's runtime with as much energy as it can, even moments that need a minute to catch their breath feel like they have something exciting to offer. I don't think I'm the one that needs to tell you this but Eddie Murphy delivers a performance that never loses your interest. The cameos, the music, the energy of it all, sure it might not be saying a whole lot but it's hard not to have a great time watching this.

Easily the silliest movie that has almost brought me to tears. A fun, easygoing movie about what even the most ridiculous films can mean to people. The Disaster Artist found dead in a ditch.

I missed Eddie Murphy so much

Murphy and Snipes are great. Lots of LOL moments and the premiere scene was moving for me. I'm a big fan of the original films so this was especially fun for me as a genre film geek. But being close to the originals also made it harder for me to accept the many artistic liberties taken. Although the film is about the making of Dolemite (1975), most of the iconic scenes that we see being shot in the film are from the two sequels... The Human Tornado (1976) and Disco Godfather (1979). But I don't think writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski ever intended for this to be a 100% accurate bio pic... like their other works Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, etc.... these films are more about the passion and triumphs of their subjects than historical accuracy.

Watched on Netflix.

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"I'm so grateful for what you did for me, cause I'd never seen nobody that looks like me up there on that big screen."

A film about visibility and creativity, about being up on the silver screen for the sake of being known and understood. One of the funniest movies in a long time, and oh so joyous.

It's safe to assume that Eddie Murphy has always worshipped at the altar of "Dolemite" mastermind Rudy Ray Moore, as the lewd, brash, and infectiously self-possessed blaxploitation icon blazed the trail that Murphy later followed to his own fame. At the very least, Moore's foul-mouthed comedy records (e.g. "Eat Out More Often") and his total disregard for white audiences helped light the way forward. But Murphy, who was a Hollywood-minted star by the time he was 25, probably never thought he would relate to Moore's hardscrabble career quite as much as he has in recent years. Once you get paid $15 million to star in "Beverly Hills Cop III," you can only have so much in common with a pioneer...

EDDIE MURPHY IS BACK, WATCH HIM FUCK Y'ALL'S MOTHERFUCKIN' ASS!

The writers of the wonderful Ed Wood make a welcome return to their winning formula of a director using his infinite ambition and limited talent to convince everyone around him to help make his dream of making a movie a reality. Dolemite Is My Name isn't as poignant as Ed Wood - Rudy Ray Moore's story was a lot happier than Ed Wood's, and he didn't work with a dying Bela Lugosi on top of that - but it's got way more big laughs, with a terrific Eddie Murphy performance at its center, and a hilarious Wesley Snipes in a key supporting role. While I'm sure this is better in a theater, DIMN a perfect Netflix movie: Not too taxing, endearingly sweet, consistently funny, and extremely rewatchable.

"shoot for the moon, and if you miss it hang on to a motherfucking star."

"I want the world to know I exist!"

Black dynamite.

(The Average Joe's Movie Club Cast)
Eddie Murphy is back at the top of his game introducing a whole new generation to the super fun and fly genre of Blaxploitation.

"I'm going to bet on myself. Ain't nobody going to put me on the screen except for me, and everybody I talk to say they want to see a 'Dolemite' movie."

I have always had a soft spot for movies about making movies and this biopic about the one and only Rudy Ray Moore, who brought the hilarious persona of Dolemite to life was easily one of the best feel-good movies of 2019 IMO. With as much as Hollywood loves these kinds of stories, it is an absolute shame Murphy's...

"The truth is, ain't nobody been on a movie set before, so we don't know all that technical stuff like lights and sound and camera."

For whatever reason, I think this film will end up being more popular than Mr. Church. Eddie Murphy and pals star in Dolemite Is My Name, the true story of Rudy Ray Moore, a man who was going nowhere fast until he pursued his dream of making a movie. Da'Vine Joy Randolph is outstanding in her performance as singer/actress Lady Reed.

Don't miss it, but also don't watch it with your grandma.

Vegan alert:
Chicken grease and bestiality referenced in song lyrics

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Noel-emite is my name.

Eddie Murphy's best movie of this century. Not that that's saying much.

A kind of blaxploitation "Ed Wood". In direct comparison with Burton's best film, however, it is far less emotional and heartwarming. Nevertheless the movie is fun all around. The 70s setting is good and believable and it was fun to see Eddie Murphy a little bit different! Here he is much cooler and less annoying than I remember him from 80s/90s nonsense.
For fans of bio-pics about outsider filmmakers and fellows with the heart just at the right spot definitely worth a look.

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Dolemite Is My Name More One of the most enjoyable films of the year. Dolemite is my Name fills it's runtime with as much energy as it can, even moments that need a minute to catch their breath feel like they have something exciting to offer.

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LOVE IS PATIENT

A controlling father’s attempts to ensure that his two children succeed in high school backfire after his son experiences a career-ending sports injury. Their familial bonds are eventually placed under severe strain by an unexpected tragedy.

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Waves

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Ambitious, bold and beautiful. Easily one of my faves of the year. Mind boggling that the Spirits and Gothams didn't give this film more love. A big screen experience for sure. Trey Edward Shults is the real deal.

Drew Daniels's cinematography is gorgeous. Shot on Alexa Mini with Panavision C, D and E lenses. Fluid and inventive Steadicam work by my friend Osvaldo Silvera Jr. (The Florida Project).

Watched at Cineplex Odeon Park Theater - Vancouver

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As if a r/hhh playlist tried to mimic the aesthetic of Moonlight - truly an embarrassment. Second half plays better as it settles down, but Trey Edward Shults has no consideration for the interiority of human beings, and even less so for the functions of drama, so the whole tapestry collapses. The moods and energies of his work are completely unfounded - all anxiety and pain but no basis in concrete characterizations. Everyone in this is a type, an object to be painted all pretty and backed by music expected to do the heavy lifting, and it leads to a disingenuous visceral assault on the senses. This is a shallow kiddie pool playacting as an ocean of feeling, with...

The most arrogant type of film - one that presumes to understand the lives and experiences of people of color, yet refuses to acknowledge its own shortcomings while gleefully inserting itself into every facet of their cultures. It's a film created by a filmmaker who thinks calling his project "autobiographical" or "color blind" will somehow absolve him of all accountability in the portrayals we see on screen. It's a film that completes a trifecta of being morally, structurally, and tonally inept, wholly incapable of cobbling together any semblance of a good script because it's too distracted by pretty colors. I realize this film means a lot to a lot of you, so allow me to explain.

I thought Krisha was great -...

Easier to see through the bullshit on a second viewing. Excited to talk about this on my PODCAST.
(Karstcast Moviecast available wherever you get your podcasts)

This won't be a traditional review for the film, rather, it's a thank you letter to the incredibly inspiring filmmaker behind it, Trey Edward Shults. I know he'll never see this and I know Letterboxd isn't the best place for this, but I have to get everything off my chest. Sometimes a film just absolutely hits you on a personal note and that's the case with Waves.

Thank You, Trey

Thank you for making this beautiful work of art that will stick with me forever. It'll be the film I show my children, the film I hope will inspire them to better themselves like it's done with me. The catharsis I felt while watching this is unparalleled to anything I've...

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Yo! What in the fuck did I just watch?!

This is one of the more controversial films I have seen and the marketing, trailers, and posters for it was either extremely misleading or poorly represented. I will give it some credit because I am sure it was a difficult task to hide what the story was going to be about. All I have to say next is to go in blind if you're planning to see it and have no expectations.

A beautiful experience. This movie had me on a rollercoaster of emotions. It's incredible cinematography, it's colors, the performances these actors delivered were simply outstanding. One of my favorites from A24. It gave me hope and it warmed my heart after breaking it into millions of pieces.
A magnificent piece of art.

Eh. I appreciate what the film was trying to do but it felt like it bit off a lot more than it could chew. I think the diptych structure doesn't really accommodate the spectrum of themes and emotions that the story required. This should've been longer.

Additionally, the soundtrack took me out of the whole thing. The scenes and editing felt too self-reliant on the specific, emotional cues that the entire film felt like a sensory overload (which Shults is pretty good at doing, admittedly i.e Krisha ) but not in a good way.

The rampant, ceaseless movement works in the first half and there were times when Shults knew when to slow it down but whenever an ostentatious camera...

kinda hit abit of that spot that mid90s did
but wasn't too sure if the first half and second half are the same film orrrr

Tyler is Rue, Nate and McKay morphed into one character. Yikes. 2019 really was the year Alexa Demie got into screaming matches with her jock boyfriend. Yikes again.

This is also the alternate timeline in which Randall Pearson doesn't wear glasses.

I didn't need to see that much vomit.

felt like a series of music videos pieced together - the plot was all over the place, the directing felt over the top and it was generally very chaotic like they had way too many ideas...
I did like the soundtrack and the cinematography tho

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Waves More Ambitious, bold and beautiful. Easily one of my faves of the year. Mind boggling that the Spirits and Gothams didn't give this film more love. A big screen experience for sure. Trey Edward Shults is the real deal. Drew Daniels's cinematography is gorgeous.

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Selah and the Spades (2019) dir Tayarisha Poe 

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Selah and the Spades (2019) dir Tayarisha Poe 

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PRIVATE SCHOOL. HARD KNOCKS

Paloma, the new girl at an esteemed prep school, is drawn into the daily aggressions of warring senior class factions. She joins the Spades and becomes friends with the Spades’ leader, an enigmatic and scheming cheerleader named Selah.

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Selah and the Spades

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selah and the spades is the film that i've seen so many people tirelessly ask for. it's so refreshing to be able to see such a complex, rich, and nuanced portrayal of black youth in such a well-crafted and promising universe. imagine liquefying the feeling of teen invulnerability into an intoxicating fusion of colours, then pouring it through a screen. that's what this film feels like, in the best way possible.

i love the way that the film is shot: it so clearly exists through the lens of power and idolisation, making everything raw and bold and beautiful. the fact that it's disorientating plays into its themes rather than against it; you, as the audience, never know where you stand....

This was REFRESHING!

Absolutely adored this and this concept of a high school The Godfather-esque setting. This rough handheld cinematography was captivating considering the plot and tone.
The third act shot my rating up and the run in the woods had my heart thumping, I truly feared for the characters' lives.
I do think outside of Selah, some of the characters were weak and needed some fleshing out. I just wanted more, more of the factions, more of the shady dealings, more of them trying to evade the administration. So glad we're getting a tv show
Lovie Simone was a force!

This movie felt like it was made by someone who you start talking to at the party and then you think like ok we have some common interests and then you talk to them more and start to realize that this person has no real substance to them and they're an empty shell of a human being but you're too far in and you can't leave because all your friends are here

this movie felt like if a cw tv show took itself seriously and also thought of itself as the revolutionary voice of a generation

I can't stop thinking about this movie
It was made
So many people worked on this

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

When Selah talks about her asexuality I felt it in my bones

2020 Films Ranked | The 2020 Adventure
They will push you past your limits so that you know what your limits is.
Beautiful crossover between The Godfather and Gossip Girl. Brilliant and refreshing!

"Why not just do things that keep you from crying in bathrooms?"
Thrilled to hear that this is being adapted into a series! The world Tayarisha Poe has built here is so rich and densely populated with colorful characters, and it needs more space to reveal itself fully. As a film, the exposition ends up being rushed and confusing, and initially compelling aspects of the plot don't end up blossoming as they should. Still, its ideas hold nevertheless, and the confident direction and lively performances make it worth the watch. It's a fun time, even as the darker sides of the factions begin to dominate.

Poe has such a clear voice and confident hand, and debuts as ambitious as her's should always be celebrated.

a refreshing, promising debut with an awesome aesthetic and beautiful, strong direction!!! so thrilled that it's being developed into a tv show as i feel like it will give the world, characters and plot more room to develop and really shine!

me the entire movie waiting for selah and paloma to fall in love 👁👄👁

Lovie Simone's rendition of the complacent and devious main protagonist in Selah and the Spades demonstrates her representing a strong-mindedness which betrays her seventeen years of age. It's her despairing hunger to be an individual of leverage together with her stubbornness in relinquishing any semblance of control which help to make the film stand beyond the rest of the pack of comparable teenage ridden dramas. Fortunately, Simone is surrounded with a strong supporting cast with Celeste O'Connor being prevailingly wonderful as her thoughtful protegee, Paloma.

It's a sufficiently reasonable debut for writer and directer by Tayarisha Poe, and the script ably delivers conversations between its characters with competitive and energetic prosperity, and in spite of the fact that there is...

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Selah and Maxxie whispering to each other that Paloma doesn't know about the real world yet is exactly what people during their high school days think about when judging others that don't fit in. They don't know that they themselves are the ones who don't know a damn thing. It's a theme that permeates well throughout the film. Too bad it takes itself too seriously that it invites apathy more than empathy.

im too recently removed from high school for stories set there to move me cause i'm still dead inside u know? but at least this diversity of cast was delicious and nutritious, ms simone im speaking to YOU

Film #654 of the 13% challenge
Director Tayarisha Poe

The premise and tone are very alluring, but the writing and acting cant carry the weight of the melodrama, making the film feel a little cheap and weird. The film also ends extremely abruptly, to the point that it feels unfinished.

I'm sure with more experience and maturity this filmmaker will be excellent, as again the overall tone is unique and very interesting and the film is very good looking.

(i'm just trying to finishing up watching jharrel's filmography) yep this would have been better developed as a series bc the idea was pretty cool and i really enjoy the end

this gives off the vibe of a modern adaptation of a shakespearean tragedy. like, think the madness in macbeth + the jealousy in othello + the betrayal in king lear.

i think this is very good. definitely worth at least one viewing. sadly, i didn't connect with it as strongly as i hoped i would despite all the things i loved about it. that's the only reason why my rating isn't higher because if i set my personal feelings aside, i really do believe this film is unique. there are many wonderfully staged scenes in this, but my favourite by far is the sequence set on the stage where selah and paloma have their conversation amidst all the red strings...

There's a lot that I want to like about Selah and the Spades, but this high school version of the Godfather leaves me with probably the most offensive reaction one can have to a film: I just...feel nothing. It's sleek, it's stylish, it looks okay (although the reliance on shaky cam near the end gets to be too much) but I simply don't have any feelings about this movie one way or another. Selah and the Spades isn't a horror movie, but a large part of its runtime plays out like one. It's unsettling and offputting, but it just feels off and uncomfortable. I kept waiting for the tension to reach its breaking point, and in a way it did,...

Lovie Simone is that motherfucker.

Lovie. Simone. Is. That. Motherfucker.

This is easily one of the better teen movies, as it contains excellent cinematography, stupendous performances and a juicy, spicy plot.

LOVIE SIMONE IS THAT MOTHERFUCKER!

vibey teen power trip
boarding school as mafia microcosm
surprisingly quiet and beautiful

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Selah and the Spades More selah and the spades is the film that i've seen so many people tirelessly ask for. it's so refreshing to be able to see such a complex, rich, and nuanced portrayal of black youth in such a well-crafted and promising universe.

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I lost my body (2019) dir Jérémy Clapin 

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I lost my body (2019) dir Jérémy Clapin 

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AN EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY IN SELF-DISCOVERY.

A story of Naoufel, a young man who is in love with Gabrielle. In another part of town, a severed hand escapes from a dissection lab, determined to find its body again.

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I Lost My Body dan alasan mengapa privilege adalah faktor utama manusia tidak memiliki pilihan yang sama dalam pencarian jati diri.

Setelah kita lihat adegan Naoufel kehilangan orang tuanya, ia seketika kehilangan segala yang ia punya termasuk kemerdekaan atas raganya sendiri.

Cita - cita menjadi astronot dan pianis seketika sirna, pekerjaan menjadi pizza boy adalah satu dari sedikit pilihan yang ia punya. Kamar yang sempit dan teman kost yang aneh, cara berinteraksi sosial dengan orang lain, cara ia memandang cita - citanya, cara ia memandang sikap orang lain seketika blur.

Dan didalam hidup ketika kita tidak punya pilihan, menurut choice theory oleh William Glasser semua perilaku manusia didorong oleh keinginan untuk memenuhi lima kebutuhan dasar manusia kebutuhan untuk dicintai dan...

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I Lost My Body dan alasan mengapa privilege adalah faktor utama manusia tidak memiliki pilihan yang sama dalam pencarian jati diri. Setelah kita lihat adegan Naoufel kehilangan orang tuanya, ia seketika kehilangan segala yang ia punya termasuk kemerdekaan atas raganya sendiri.

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Paris is burning (1990) dir Jennie Livingston

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Paris is burning (1990) dir Jennie Livingston

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HAVING A BALL… WISH YOU WERE HERE

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion “houses,” from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza — PARIS IS BURNING brings it, celebrating the joy of movement, the force of eloquence, and the draw of community.

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Paris Is Burning

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Watching the new 4K restoration of this classic was like watching the film for the first time. So many details in that ball that I had not noticed before. Also this is the first time I'm truly appreciating Paul Gibson's 16mm cinematography. That last shot of Venus Xtravaganza having a smoke on the pier, next to a classic boom box and against the last moments of dusk is heartbreakingly beautiful.

One of the most important films ever made in my opinion. According to IMDB, Jennie Livingston is in post-production on her follow-up feature. She's done shorts and TV in the years since Paris. Hope she graces us with this new feature soon.

Check out how good this restoration looks:
vimeo.com/336164299

Digitally remastered by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in conjunction with Sundance Institute and Outfest UCLA Legacy Project. Preservation funded by Sundance Institute, Outfest and the Andrew J. Kuehn Jr. Foundation.

Watched at the Rio Theater, Vancouver.

As a trans-woman twirls around on a sandy beach, the wind seemingly on the verge of whisking her away, she sings "I am my oooown creation!" I couldn't help but smile as my heart swelled.

It is a damn shame that Jennie Livingston hasn't continued directing films. Paris is Burning is an incredible documentary which has served as a guide of sorts to drag queens for the past 24 years. You can not watch RuPaul's Drag Race without hearing the words: shade, reading, fierce or xtravaganza at least a dozen times... each episode. Drag mothers and houses are still very much a common practice, providing families and support to those who have been cast out of their homes for being gay....

Exactly two years ago I drank a lot of coconut rum and ended up lying on the floor of my apartment at 2 AM, watching Paris Is Burning on Netflix. (I threw up all the next day.) Last year I did it again, albeit drinking much less, and now tonight it's the third January 17 in a row I've observed this tradition. I hope I watch it again a year from now, too, because if any movie should be an annual experience it's Paris Is Burning, the documentary I hold most dear.

watched for class
Pretty much flawless filmmaking from start to finish. The way it gets so much across in such a short period of time without feeling so dense is amazing. Holds your attention with not only the camerawork but structure. As a film it's perfect but I'm not quite sure how to feel about the whole backstory behind it with the director not having experienced this side of life herself. From what I know.

"Some of them say that we're sick, we're crazy. And some of them think that we are the most gorgeous, special things on Earth."

One of the things that is lost when even productions "with their hearts in the right place" cast cisgender actors as trans characters is the notion, the very idea that trans people can be beautiful. By casting even an attractive, not altogether masculine actor like Andrew Garfield as a transwoman, even the sympathetic, ostensibly progressive voices out there reinforce that there is something "different" about trans people, and things like Arcade Fire's "We Exist" video or DALLAS BUYERS CLUB ultimately do not deserve credit for moving the discussion forward when it moves from "Ew, what freaks!" to, "Hey, it doesn't matter if they're freaks."

One of the things that PARIS IS BURNING makes abundantly clear is that all those queer...

i love this film so much i always feel close to my queer brothers and sisters and queer history when i see it and i also cry whenever i watch this.

side note if you're straight i literally don't give a fuck what you think about this movie lol. even if it's positive. you all wanna laugh and kiki with the queers like we're a petting zoo even if you're an "ally" but you really are never gonna be a part of this world and you don't get to pick and choose "fun gay stuff" to assimilate without experiencing queerness inherently, so *pepper labeija voice* ha! suffer.

God, please just let us celebrate while we're here. Let us dance and open up the world to one another. We want to live out our dreams and be the people who we always wanted to be. We'll reach for that safe place where we can exist and let everything else fall out of vision. This hyper awareness of appearance, actions and danger should rest long enough so we can move to song. An opening in a void where everything isn't pitch black so we can come out and shout who we are. We're Xtravaganza and we're proud. And we live hand in hand without the worry of a real world. Everything's a ball and we'd vogue for hours into the sunlight and walk home safely and rest like everyone else, and when dusk comes around again we'd do it once more with no fear of rejection, personhood or danger. We'd be home. If only for a moment.

I was re-watching this when I got the news that the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states and I cried for about an hour. Watching this didn't help.

I just can't help but think about all the queer kids that are going to be born today and in the future in the US who will never live in a world where their love is illegal and we as a community still have so much work to do but it's so nice to have this victory and I'm so emotional and so gay.

The movie is still great, by the way.

(It's my sister's birthday today, when I see her I'll probably be more excited about marriage equality. Sorry, sis.)

let's exchange the experience

happy international women's day, trans women are women and deserve love and respect!

Obviously I've never felt like I was all here; like I was detached from my own experience. Everything always felt like it was probably more visceral to everyone else than it was to me. For the longest time I would have to force myself to care about anything. I knew I was supposed to feel something about relationships, feelings, being hurt or loved, so I faked it. Conjured up the responses I saw other people do. Performed them, if you will. My mind kind of sat outside my body. I still feel this today, though I'm finally lowering down to earth a little more each day.

After this film ended I happened to click back to my Facebook where I...

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92%

"In real life, you can't get a job as an executive unless you have the educational background and the opportunity. Now, the fact that you are not an executive is merely because of the social standing of life. Black people have a hard time getting anywhere, and those that do are usually straight. In a ballroom, you can be anything you want. You're not really an executive, but you're looking like an executive. You're showing the straight world that I can be an executive if I had the opportunity because can look like one, and that is like a fulfillment."

I was surprised when the Starvengers gave me a challenging movie that isn't in the usual F Up categories....

Such an important piece of art in today's age. Everything about this documentary was flawless and the vibe that this creates is unreal. At just 77 minutes Paris is burning quite literally burns itself into your mind and should be a required viewing.

It annoys me to see masterpieces like this be thrown under the bus and mediocre garbage like 2017s 'progressive' and 'provocative' Get Out be called the best black issues movie ever

9.5/10
Free on youtube click --> HERE

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Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene.

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Black is King (2020) dir Beyoncé Knowles, Blitz Bazawule, Dikayl Rimmasch, Jenn Nkiru, Jake Nava,Pierre Debusschere, Ibra Ake, Emmanuel Adjei, Julian Klincewicz, Dafe Oboro, Kwasi Fordjour

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Black is King (2020) dir Beyoncé Knowles, Blitz Bazawule, Dikayl Rimmasch, Jenn Nkiru, Jake Nava,Pierre Debusschere, Ibra Ake, Emmanuel Adjei, Julian Klincewicz, Dafe Oboro, Kwasi Fordjour

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A FILM BY BEYONCÉ

This visual album from Beyoncé reimagines the lessons of “The Lion King” (2019) for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns.

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This was everything the visuals were so outstanding that I had chills the whole time I was watching.Its a incredible visual album that delved deep into African lore and introduced a refreshing new spin which I believe is better than the original lion king.

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This was everything the visuals were so outstanding that I had chills the whole time I was watching.Its a incredible visual album that delved deep into African lore and introduced a refreshing new spin which I believe is better than the original lion king.

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Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) dir Benh Zeitlin 

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Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) dir Benh Zeitlin 

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I GOTTA TAKE CARE OF MINE.

Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink in ‘the Bathtub’, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe—for a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack—temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.

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Beasts of the Southern Wild

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This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Hey girl. Sorry you're too young and too small to do anything about global warming, your poverty, your father's horrendous parenting style, your missing mom, your terrible schooling, your community's penchant for alcoholism and general unwindulaxing, and being inculcated with values that emphasize the masculine ("beast it") to the detriment of the feminine ("don't be a pussy"). Oh yeah, and your father dying.

But hey! You stood up to some imaginary monster pigs, so good for you.

"No crying."

Yes, crying.
Lots of crying.

Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.25

Beasts of the Southern Wild sucker punched me while I had my guard down. I knew next to nothing about it, but I wasn't really ready for this fable-like slice of magical realism.

The simplest stories are often the most interesting. This one's unique protagonist describes it best herself: 'Future scientists will know, there was a girl named Hushpuppy who lived with her father in the Bathtub.' That phrase will carry an emotional depth with it as well as a deeper meaning after you've watched this film.

This is a film about life, about being firmly rooted in the world and the place you live, about family and the self-evident strength of the...

Being the darling of the Sundance film festival can often be more of a curse than a blessing. Beasts of the Southern Wild arrives on a tidal wave of gushing critical praise, and the occasional criticism of its fetishization of the poor, but I was left a little nonplussed by the whole affair. It's a hard film to describe - it's part plaintive magical realism and part apocalyptic fable. A Cajun coming-of-age yarn about a six-year-old girl, Hushpuppy, living with her ill father in the flood threatened bayou surrounded by broad and colourful characters who have slipped through the cracks and formed their own ramshackle community ignored and forgotten by the rest of the world.

As a first feature, director...

Life is a bit like poetry, with beautiful stanzas, verses, clusters of events, and periods of progression, as well as regression. Each day in someone's life, each week, each month, each year, they experiences situations which change the path of their existence. Events which begin to define their spirit and mold their psyche into something magnificent and unique. Some paths are bumpy, some are smooth, some are winding, and some are graceful. Not graceful in the sense of elegance, charm, or admirability. Rather, a path of grace is a way through life determined by a flash of divine wisdom: one specific exposure to the soul, or core, of what it means to be human. There is darkness in every corner...

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" is an adventure that is, at once, grimy and colorful, celebratory and heartbreaking, and concrete and metaphorical. Filling similar cinematic space as 2011's "Tree of Life," the film is both a straight ahead tale of life and survival and a nearly poetic, theme-rich think-piece. Its cinematography is grainy and vibrant; its performances, especially the revelatory Quvenzhané Wallis, are authentic and bold.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" is a rich, layered experience. Although not for everyone, the memorable and moving film is worthy of praise and discussion.

Film #35 of Cinebro's "100 Reviews in 30 Days? Somewhere, Pauline Kael Weeps" Challenge

A beautiful, moving, wonderfully acted, but woefully misguided film, Beasts of the Southern Wild is damn near impossible for me to review.

But before I go off on a rant, let me cover the good stuff (and there's a lot). Benh Zeitlin has created a gorgeous film, the kind of movie that I think David Gordon Green would still be making if he had stepped away from the bong. It is elegiac, contemplative, and features one of the most fascinating child performances (from Quvenzhané Wallis) that I've ever seen. In its recreation of an isolated delta community, the set design is astounding. Its keen ear towards...

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Desde o começo Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) — a Indomável Sonhadora do título nacional — carrega a história nas costas. O que não é pouca coisa se considerarmos que ela mal aparenta dez anos de idade. Acompanhamos sua jornada precoce rumo à maturidade junto de uma inspirada orquestra que toca cada passagem da história como se fosse um momento único e solene rumo a sua emancipação. A fotografia árida, ajudada pelos grãos difusos e o foco oscilante, e a sempre tremendo câmera parecem sugerir um mundo instável prestes a acabar em um deserto.

I had seen this movie back in 2012. I couldn't remember much of this movie, but I remembered liking it. Rewatching I still do think that is a good movie, but I will probably forget about it again. That is because I think the movie is a feast for the eyes, but not a fuel for one's feelings.

The setting and worldbuilding in Beasts of the Southern Wild is nothing short of amazing. Colours just blow up and fill up the screen. The location of the Bathtub feels so real and lived in. Benh Zeitlin lets his imagination loose and has its audience embark on a fantastical journey.

Another thing I really like about this movie is the dialogue delivered by...

1. Powerful, beautiful, imaginative and poetic
2. Quvenzhane Wallis is incredible - this is a case where an untrained child actor works brilliantly with the material. My heart just broke the second she began speaking.
3. I was expecting the movie to be more of a depressing drama about the devastation of hurricane Katrina, but I was not expecting the creativity of the narrative or the oddly uplifting message that the movie presents. It's such a pleasant surprise and I highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates the film medium as an art form.

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Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink in 'the Bathtub', a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe-for a time when he's no longer there to protect her.

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Madeline’s Madeline (2018) dir Josephine Decker 

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Madeline’s Madeline (2018) dir Josephine Decker 

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Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop’s ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women’s lives.

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Madeline's Madeline

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do theater kids deserve rights? be honest

Missed this in theaters so glad that Kanopy has it streaming.

Definitely one of the most innovative and daring indies of the year. I just happen to be in the minority and connected more with Decker's previous efforts. But very happy this seems to be getting the love it deserves.

"The emotions you are having are not your own, they are someone else's. You are not the cat - you are inside the cat." So begins Josephine Decker's "Madeline's Madeline," an ecstatically disorienting experience that defines its terms right from the start and then obliterates any trace of traditional film language, achieving a cinematic aphasia that allows Decker to redraw the boundaries between the stories we tell and the people we tell them about. The result is an experimental movie with the emotional tug of a mainstream hit, a fragmented coming-of-age drama that explores the vast space between Hollis Frampton and Greta Gerwig in order to find something truly new and ineffably of its time. This is one of the boldest and most invigorating American films of the 21st century.
READ THE FULL REVIEW ON INDIEWIRE

(My review for Much Ado About Cinema)
Madeline's Madeline is unafraid to delve into the volatile psyche of a teenage artist. Art is so often used as a tool to sort through perplexing emotions, so it makes sense that struggling teens tend to lose themselves in this low-cost form of therapy. This semi-experimental fever dream poses the question: At what point in the creative process does art as personal self-expression begin to do more harm than good?

Madeline (newcomer Helena Howard) is a 16-year-old actress in a physical theater troupe, fresh out of a brief stay in a psychiatric ward. Her teacher Evangeline (Molly Parker) is at once forceful and understanding, as if Fletcher from Whiplash actually had a heart....

[so this is a long interview story i did with Josephine Decker & Helena Howard, not a review. i'm posting it cause 1. i can, and 2. i'm gonna take every chance i get to rave about this movie and convince people to go see it if and when they can. if you wanna read my * * * * * review, you can do that here. thx]

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The story behind one of the most vital and visionary independent films of the 21st century began four years ago, when Josephine Decker woke up feeling like her movies didn't matter, and fearing that they never would. It was the spring of 2014, and the filmmaker should have been on top of...

Mark my words, Helena Howard
is going to be an absolute legend.

I was really excited to see this once Bo Burnham and David Ehrlich both said it was amongst their favorite movies of the year, so I went into the movie without seeing so much as a trailer. I only even saw the poster when I first walked into the theatre, and boy does that poster sell a completely different movie than what you get.

From the very first scene, I was convinced this movie was gonna be too confusing for me to understand- but it really wasn't! Josephine Decker does a great job of letting you figure out what's going on without throwing in a bunch of expository dialogue to lay out relationships and conflicts, while also never compromising the...

jokey review:
.....what

actual review:
it took me a little bit to wrap my head around what I had just seen. this is a movie that takes so many risks and anyone who cares at all about movies should check it out. i honestly don't know how to talk about it because honestly i can't exactly say i've seen anything like it. i'm also just not sure i have a full grasp on everything that happened in the film. what i do know and can say is that i'm sure as hell not gonna forget about this one.

sometimes i'll think a word means something other than what it actually means, and sometimes i just want a word to mean otherwise. the way it sounds, the way it's spelled, the way it feels in the mouth. when i was watching Madeline's Madeline, i could only think of the word cerebral, but i didn't know if it meant what i thought it did, or worse, what i wanted it to say.

because what i meant was something nebulous, something almost ineffable, in a synesthetic sort of way. something interior, but in an impossible way, because we really can't be the cat anymore than we can be inside the cat.

it's one thing to express, then explain: how am i...

From the opening, hazy images, Decker establishes acting as a womb-like place of security for Madeline, a mentally ill teenager who finds a creative and emotional outlet in an experimental troupe, ironically by losing herself to the abstract exercises of her teacher, Evangeline (Molly Parker). Films about the identity dissociations of acting are certainly not rare, nor is the idea of using visual doubling to match the cognitive split between one's real self.

But this film's constant blurred vision goes deeper, probing Madeline's biracial identity and how the white people around her casually lay claim to her experience. Parker plays Evangeline a bit like Joshua Leonard played the stalker in Unsane: unnervingly calm even as she absorbs more and more...

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Pretty much front-to-back embarrassing, but that still doesn't exclude it from offering bravura moments and a propulsive, pretentious thrust of energy. Basically mother! for creatives yet exponentially more well-made and attuned to the motions of familial tensions. That ending is a force to be reckoned with.

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Truly, this is a rich, powerful exploration of mental illness and connection. I don't think I've ever seen a film that weaves the complexities of identity together so completely without losing its artistic edge or letting its artistic edge fly off the rails.

Here, the jumping colors and overlapping words lend to a crucial perspective of Madeline, which we can take both literally and not. In the literal sense, it allows us to exprience the world through the eyes of someone lost in the cacophony of mental illness. Figuratively, we see it as a visual and acoustic intersection of many things, a complicated but tightly knit fractal: this is about being mentally ill. About being mentally ill and a teenager....

Power to people who enjoyed this but to me it was painfully obvious this could've used a script, so many awkward, meandering scenes.

Explores emotion and psyche through blurring the lines between performer and performance. A lot of strong/unique directorial choices etc. Not sure I was all the way invested though sorry!

Feel like theater kids were something i came across a lot when I was younger but have never really crossed paths with one as an adult. They must still be out there!

Wonderful performances. An actors film with experimental direction make Madeleine's Madeleine hard for an audience to appreciate.
Glad I saw it and can now think about the craft it presented. A nice piece of art.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

as a person with mental illness who found catharsis and freedom in performing i identify with a lot here, but there is so much more. ideas of appropriating the biracial experience and also identity in general abound, and the push-pull triangle of daughter, mother, and surrogate mother (theater instructor) swings wildly between the cringy but familiar teen seeking her ultimate self and the adults wanting to control or even possess the talented but damaged young Madeline. All the acting like a cat really just reminded me of a much younger child and felt like SUCH a theater kid thing to do, so it took me out of it. i don't think it worked as a signal of her talent, you...

Ya tenía mis sospechas con Shirley, pero esta película me lo confirma: Josephine Decker resulta ser una voz fresca e interesante a tener en cuenta en estos años venideros. Tiene una manera muy particular de plantear su mundo, capaz de casar esa imagen metafísica de las películas de Malick con la ansiedad más perturbadora de las películas de los hermanos Safdie.

Decker sabe destilar magníficamente muchas de las emociones que quiere plantear en su película. Y, qué decir, los actores (en especial una Helena Howard enorme) lo interpretan de maravilla. Este último departamento es, quizá, mi parte favorita de toda la película. La escena de la imitación con el grupo de teatro, en la que Howard exorciza todos los demonios...

A downward fall into a troubled young woman's psyche. A magnificent metaphor about how a creative proccess can become a twisted vampiristic act.
Helena Howard's performance as a Madeline is disturbingly good, her character always walking on the fine line between insanity and empowerment. Through the mediums of both film and dance, Decker delivers a complex yet touching story of two controlling "mothers" and a teenager who craves to express herself outside of their boundaries.

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Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur.

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WHO DO YOU BECOME WHEN YOU CAN’T BE YOURSELF?

A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

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Pariah

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Nothing makes me happier than when I can see pieces of myself in fictional characters. It makes me feel like I'm not just an island floating about in the world by myself, but that I'm a part of the big picture. For all intents and purposes, Pariah is a fairly typical coming-of-age independent drama. However, I can't think of another film that explores what it's like to be a part of this demographic, so even if it isn't original in terms of the film-making, it fills an important gap. I also can't think of another film that so closely mirrored the tug-of-war I went through with my parents as we all tried to come to terms with the fact that...

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"I am not running; I am choosing... I am not broken; I am free. "
oh wow that's the best ending line since before sunset's "Baby, you are gonna miss that plane."

The camera shakes and weaves, awkwardly bobs around people, leaving their faces lost, leaving their bodies distorted and unfocused, leaving everything indistinct. The lights are tints of blue and red and orange, filters like the Internet, cold even in their warmest moments, shadows and neon, dating this in the now. New York looks like New York anyway; you recognize it anywhere. Adapero Oduye tells more of the story through the way she holds her body, through the way her face fills the frame, through the way she pulls off her girlclothes as if they were toxic, through the way she flinches nervously from tender touch, through how she performs than the quivering camera or the natural dialogue. Through her, we...

i can't believe they played my neck my back in the first two minutes bye

Wanted to revisit this film because the first time I watched was on an awards screener DVD in 2011... not an ideal viewing experience.

"it's not a phase! there's nothing wrong with me!"

ugh. so good. so good.

"Heartbreak opens onto the sunrise for even breaking is opening and I am broken, I am open. Broken into the new life without pushing in, open to the possibilities within, pushing out. See the love shine in through my cracks? See the light shine out through me? I am broken, I am open, I am broken open. See the love light shining through me, shining through my cracks, through the gaps. My spirit takes journey, my spirit takes flight, could not have risen otherwise and I am not running, I am choosing. Running is not a choice from the breaking. Breaking is freeing, broken is freedom. I am not broken, I am free."

when her sister told her that it doesn't matter to her......yeah...that's what my sister told me when i told her i was bi two days ago 🥺🥺

me, sobbing throughout the last 20 minutes of the film: i just want alike to be happy and successful

Beautifully acted, nicely shot and searing with genuine emotion.

I have been meaning to watch this one for a while and I'm so glad that I did. Adepero Oduye's performance is absolutely amazing, and there were times where I would catch myself clutching at my chest because of how realistic and heartbreaking certain moments felt. This is a truly understated piece of cinema that deserves to be seen.

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"I am not broken I am free" - how original of me to use this quote, but it works and it sums up the movie and it's message perfectly.

I want to give Lee a hug and apologies for how mean and hateful the world can be.

Pariah is a beautiful film. Everyone's performance was incredible. They felt natural and true, and you get brought right into their world.

I am not running
I am choosing

"El corazón roto se abre al amanecer
porque incluso al romperse, se abre
y estoy rota
estoy abierta
rota a la nueva luz
sin forzar la entrada
abierta a las posibilidades
sin forzar la salida
el amor que entra
brillando por mis grietas
la luz que sale
brillando a través de mí
estoy rota
estoy abierta
estoy rota y abierta
el amor que brilla a través de mí
brillando por mis grietas
por los huecos
mi espíritu viaja
mi espíritu vuela
y no estoy escapando
estoy eligiendo
la ruptura es liberadora
la ruptura es libertad
no estoy rota
soy libre"

"I need a strap"
Me: girl no guns are dangerous... ooohhhhh

Letterboxd Season Challenge 6, week 2:

godDAMN my HEART

Pariah is everything that we are asking and looking for.
Most of the times the roles and the stories that the minorities get are written and made for them. That isn't a bad thing but it's so refreshing to see narratives that their sexuality, race, gender, or whatever makes you unique are not the focus of the story. Even tho it's part of who they are, they're not minimized by that. Plus usually when that is that is the case, the other focal point are their suffering which it can't be all of their representation.
This piece is unlike anything I have ever seen. First of all it's extremely difficult to find a good representation of a black lesbian woman or...

" now where all my sexy Sagittarian ladies at?" me: *raises hand*

felt like I was being repeatedly punched in the gut. blends pathos with uplifting moments and it's beautiful

How does this film represent the LGBTQ community? How is it more complex with Alike being a person of color? Discuss in light of course concepts and materials.

That was a great movie, thank you.
I think Pariah has a pretty truthful and honest depiction of the LGBTQIA+ community. It felt like the love mostly moved past the need to identify people through stereotypical flags and just let the characters exist. If you swapped out the genders and sexualities of the characters, other than the 'coming out' arc, the film would mostly play the same. It's a fairly simple Coming of Age storyline that you see everywhere, but queer. And that's great because we don't really need Gay Movies very...

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Pariah More Nothing makes me happier than when I can see pieces of myself in fictional characters. It makes me feel like I'm not just an island floating about in the world by myself, but that I'm a part of the big picture. For all intents and purposes, Pariah is a fairly typical coming-of-age independent drama.

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Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967) dir Stanley Kramer 

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Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967) dir Stanley Kramer 

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A LOVE STORY OF TODAY

Matt and Christina Drayton are a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

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Yes, it plays like a Public Service Announcement for Middle America ca. 1967, but it is a beautifully acted Public Service Announcement.

No, it hasn't dated that well, but when Tracy gives the speech at the end, and there's Katherine Hepburn looking on, eyes overflowing with tears, knowing that this will be Tracy's last moment on screen ... well it's one of those moments where the weight of what was happening outside the movie was greater than what was going on in the movie.

And I'm not ashamed to admit, it kind of wrecked me.

- Holy fucking shit talk about exceeding my expectations!
- Damn, the 60s are really shaping up to be an excellent decade for movies.
- All 4 of them deserved an Oscar for this. Katharine Hepburn for Best Actress, Sydney Poitier for Best Actor, Katharine Houghton for Best Supporting Actress, Spencer Tracy for Best Supporting Actor.
- Movies with this smart of a screenplay can be fun.
- Check this one out immediately, that means YOU!

katharine hepburn queen of out of focus crying and firing racist employees

The reason I feel like this is going to be a hard one to review is because I'm wary of sounding like a stuck record.

I had a fairly good idea beforehand that this might be the case yet here I am, sat here, wondering how I'm going to do this review without saying the same things I've said in so many other reviews on Letterboxd. And beyond, for that matter. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to throw in the towel and just admit defeat because the acting in this was too wonderful for me to be able to talk about much else.

Because I love Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as much as I love Goldie Hawn...

We love a liberal and tolerant Katharine Hepburn QUEEN!!!

501 Must-See Movies *2004 Entry #125

I realize this addressed a major issue of the day but the fact is that this film hasn't aged that well, because in the 48 years after its release the prejudice against interracial couples except from a few very select circles is gone. Which is probably the best reason for a film not to have aged well if you ask me.

"And I say the color kids are better than the white kids," a phrase uttered by Mr. Drayton, Joanna's father, to John about children dancers on television in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is 1967's version of Get Out's "I would've voted for Obama for a third term if I could."

John Prentice is everything a parent could want for their daughter - he's a classic example of both a gentleman and a man helplessly in love. Prentice is holding every door he can open for his fiancee Joanna, grabbing her luggage off of the airport conveyor belt, opening car doors for her and helping her out of a taxi.

However, the Drayton's soon find their self-proclaimed liberal reputation dissolving...

"She's in love with the boy
She's in love with the boy
And even if they have to run away
She's gonna marry that boy someday"
- Trisha Yearwood (She's in Love With the Boy, NIF)

- Scavenger Hunt #46: boxd.it/2hKQA
CLUE 20. something for A SOCIETY IN NEED OF A SHAKEUP (insert controversial/progressive/ahead of it's time film here) (29/31 finished)

Sidney Poitier is the shit!

It feels wrong to call this film dated because the entirety of the script, performances and production are sincere and thoughtful for the time, appropriate language has changed. Even with this explained, the vast majority of this film feels vibrant and relevant today (better than Green Book). Sindey Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracey...

It would be completely understandable if anyone criticized this movie for playing it very safe after taking some severe risks at the beginning, and that in doing so the story not only became progressively formulaic; but the characters appeared to be stereotyped and, worst of all, self-contradictory and inconsistent.

That said, the acting here is undoubtedly more than enough to overcome these issues and redeem them, nay, to totally justify these seemingly nonsensical changes and alterations that happened to some of the characters, most noticeably Matt and Christina Drayton. I have seen a lot of great performances that are able to elevate the characters and even the entire movie in general. But, frankly, I have never seen any performance, no...

Had this on queue for a long time, but the review by Sam Meltzer had me running to watch this... and let's just say, whenever you watch a film like this, it might not be a good idea to watch the day before about the "lack of any real interpretation and the many mistakes committed by wannabe woke movies," cause it might ruin your viewing of the film.

In terms of performances, everyone does a great job. It was nice to see Katharine Hepburn in color, and at that age she still brought it. You know who got a huge surprise? Me, when I watched Spencer Tracy that old! For some reason I was expecting a much younger man. But...

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This film is a little bit off but it's got the right idea. It's probably one of the most 'of it's time' kind of movies I've seen but there are moments where the film might aswell have been made this decade.

At the start, I was READY. I did NOT have high expectations of the film. It has to be seen to be believed. You will WINCE at the dialogue but the acting honestly saves it so many times that it is still watchable today.
HEPBURN!!!!!!!
P.S This whole film is an alternate ending to Get Out

6th Annual Letterboxd Season Challenge
Week 3: September 21st-27th
Classic Performers: Sidney Poitier Week

Finally checked out this classic and it was fine, I don't really have much to say about this one other that it was great seeing this cast on screen together. The last scene was really heartbreaking, RIP Spencer Tracy.

Week 3 of the The 6th Annual Letterboxd Season Challenge: 2020-21.

Checked it out since it was cited by Jordan Peele as an influence on Get Out, at least as a high concept.

This happened to be the first Sidney Poitier I've seen that's he's acted and from judging from his performance I might check some more films with him. The performances throughout were great and the cast brought in was impressive.

Trying to watch the movie in context despite the subject matter, the movie ends up pulling it's punches a bit. Tying up everything into a bow end seemed a bit but the movie seems very progressive and optimistic in in dealing with race, gender roles and some other aspects...still a bit "of the time".

To be honest, this movie didnt do it for me. It feels dragging to begin with. And its sooooo slow, like i get it you both contemplated that your daughter dating black man in 60s.

And the ending? Honestly didnt justified anything, and it feels lazy. Not also to mention that this is so empty, and self-congratulary (no wonder this movie got so many Oscar nominations), reminds me to Green Book.

I understand that this movie mean something back there, but this really didnt age well.

Oh yeah, i also didnt like why Tillie's character written like that.

Has much changed in the US when it comes to views on interracial relationships. In some place yes. In some places know.

This must have been quite the seminal film back in 67 just after the civil rights act.

Great performances. The MVP of the film is John's mother.

Tackles mix couples in the late 60s
The couple joey (white ) and john (black) both suprise the womans family they are getting married and of course there's shock as this was taboo back then

Later on in movie joan invites johns family over and they are shocked aswell over this marriage and are agaisnt it

Both mothers accept the marriage but now it's both farthers stubbornness that must be altered

It's lovely story and is proper emotional roller coaster

Also odd scene with ice cream where he forgets the flavour and tries remember it completely random 😂 and throws the pace off a bit

An emotional film that deals with the racial tones remarkably well, even after 46 years. All four stars deliver an A-list performance, with supporting cast members including Roots star Beah Richards, Roy E. Glenn, and The Jeffersons star Isabel Sandford. While it is written around long monologues, hence making it more of a drama than a comedy, it uses the time it has to deliver a series of memorable lines in the movie. And Spencer Tracy's final scene with the two families and Tillie is one of the most memorable endings for a film that you have to see to believe.

Oscar's talk! Every nomination this film received is so much deserved. And Katherine Hepburn, well, she's honestly the most perfect actress I have always admired. She's always been my fav and she so deserved the win. Original Screenplay win was so so so deserved.

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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner More Yes, it plays like a Public Service Announcement for Middle America ca. 1967, but it is a beautifully acted Public Service Announcement. No, it hasn't dated that well, but when Tracy gives the speech at the end, and there's Katherine Hepburn looking on, eyes overflowing with tears, knowing that this will be Tracy's last moment on screen ...

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Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

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Rafiki

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AFI 2018: film #17
"something real"
super cute and the aesthetic really worked, it was vibrant and easy to get into with more serious storylines mixed in really organically. i think some people might be expecting too much from it, but for a sweet and simplistic movie this was really enjoyable

So much about this makes it a delight to watch - beautiful set design, rich and bright colors, engaging performances, and a moving story of first love.

Unfortunately, the plot is rather weak and poorly constructed, the editing is rough (I actually thought there was something wrong with the projection at one point), and the writing/characterizations of several characters and plot points feel rather scattered and inconsistent. Shows a lot of potential, but as a film, it's disappointing.

AFI Fest 2018: Movie #17
Who said this wasn't a geniunely good movie? Rafiki is sweet and serious from moment to moment, and it understands that the most political action can be to simply live your own life. The leads are adorable, together and apart, but their scenes as a couple are truly lovely. While this is a rather simplistic plot we've seen done before in LGBT cinema, the unique cultural context here made it feel so fresh. It's a film that's harsh at times, even if the warm pink color palette makes it go down easier. Kindness isn't always corny.

honestly i love queer cinema so much <333

Rafiki' s candy-colored haze is only a reflection of how sweet and bold the relationship between Kena and Ziki. Kena learns to lower her guard just enough to let herself feel love and fulfillment; Ziki yearns for freedom, but it's a freedom that demands pain in return.

It's a bit rough-well, soft-but despite that, it still feels like a more effective modern reinvetion of Romeo & Juliet than any actual modern adaptation/reinvention. (This isn't a spoiler, it's not really like R&J, it just develops similar ideas.) It insists that love is kind and powerful and important; it is an affirmation that women like Kena and Ziki-that homosexuals-exist, that they have a right to exist, and that their existence is beautiful.

this made me so proud to be a black african woman. wanuri kahiu DID THAT.

so inspiring. this will stay with me for a long time.

can someone just give me some money and a camera i want to make my own film now?

* will link my review when it comes out on Film Era but for now here's my introduction piece at the cape town film festival!

Wanuri Kahiu's Rafiki is a tale of love and loss that asks how we can be happy in a society that will not accept us for who we are. Following the story of Kena (Samantha Mugatsia) and Ziki (Sheila Munyeva), the daughters of two rival politicians who fall in love, this film is both a celebration of that love but also serves as a reminder of the deep hatred that very much still permeates the world we live in (as a result of this film being banned in Kenya, where the story is set and where homosexuality is still illegal, Kahiu is taking the Kenyan government to court). But it is also a celebration of African filmmaking, following an aesthetic...

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really nice... the romeo and juliet but both girls crowd should be flocking to this!!!!!

No Festival de Cannes em 2018, um filme queniano chamou muita atenção ao revelar que burlou as leis preconceituosas de seu próprio país ao lançar uma trama sobre duas jovens que se apaixonam em Nairóbi, capital do Quênia. Não só seus pais são rivais políticos como também o país criminaliza relações homossexuais pelo menos há mais de um século. Eis que o projeto foi proibido de ser exibido em sua terra natal, mas ainda assim acabou conseguindo muita fama por conta disso.

Enfim assisti a "Rafiki" e... Esse filme tem bastante problema! Mas não querendo pisar na obra ainda, vou apontar seus méritos. A direção, em termos de decupagem, é competente e evocativa. E, assim como fez o brilhante "Projeto...

Watched on criterion with Megan and Fatima at home.

Didn't love it, story was v basic and not emotionally invested

WOW HOW THE ENDING DO ME LIKE THAT THO?!

every single plot point of this film was triggering lol

streaming on Criterion

"Let's make a pact. That we will never be any of them down there. And instead.. we gonna be, something."
"something real."
"yes. something real"
Esse filme aborda tanta coisa que é impossível você não amar. Aborda a questão racial pois felizmente e um filme 100% de pessoas pretas e um filme com a cultura africana tão envolvida que é lindo de ver. As meninas principais são belíssimas e ver elas crescendo de completas desconhecidas ao final de apaixonadas e maravilhoso. eu tô sem palavras pelo tanto que eu amei esse filme.

p.s: se você der menos que três estrelas pra esse filme ou você é racista ou homofóbico ou então os dois e eu não faço as regras elas são assim e pronto!

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Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.

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SET YOUR POWER FREE

A woman is forced to go on the run when her superhuman abilities are discovered. Years after having abandoned her family, the only place she has left to hide is home.

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Fast Color

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give me the midnight special cinematic universe

This movie was highly emotional. Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as a superhero on the run. All the supporting actors were great: Lorraine Toussaint, David Strathairn, and Saniyya Sidney. I loved all the flashbacks and how the mystery unfolded. Others may choose to see another superhero this weekend, but Gugu is where it's at for me.

Q&A with Julia Hart (director) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (actress)

Vegan alert:
Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) orders eggs at a diner.

Very much in the same vein as Jeff Nichols' MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, which means it was essentially tailor-made to appeal to me. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is excellent, the character-writing and filmmaking are both strong, and I also loved how much of it was focused on family. A little too heavy on exposition at times, but it's overall great stuff.

Maybe I'll write more about it sometime in the future, but that said, definitely recommend this. (It's available for purchase on iTunes and VUDU in 4K for $9.99, and as someone who decided to take the gamble, I can say that it's very much worth it.)

maybe the real superheroes were the women we met alon the way

Codeblack Films did Julia Hart so dirty by just dumping this nationwide without any significant marketing. Movies don't always find their audience, but that doesn't make them any less good.

Hart is an excellent director. It was true in Miss Stevens, and it's even more apparent here. Every choice made with the camera is the right one. Indie films have tried with varying success to tap into genres generally reserved for higher-budget projects, and here, the budgetary constraints allow the intimacy of the story to magnified without anything being taken away for the spectacle of the superpower. The beautiful, mesmerizing sequences are exactly that, and nothing is cheaply implied off camera simply because the filmmakers couldn't find a way around...

I think, in some ways, part of the reason I've always enjoyed the supernatural, the superhero, or just the fantastic is that when you grow up just a little too fat and a little too afraid of taking up space, you're drawn to the things that show people also like you that have power that makes them different, that makes them better, and that gives them strength. I always wanted powers and Fast Color illustrates what it's like to have power, not just as a superhero but as a Black woman, but to have to constantly tamp it down. To hide your color, your power, for your safety and the safety of those around you.

It's so beautifully shot, and...

I actually really really am into the idea behind this film cause I think there's a lot of cool themes about motherhood. I love superhero movies and the idea of having a smaller budget, more grounded movie is really appealing to me.

I think that there is so much about this that's interesting that it kind of didn't work for me completely just because I don't think that a film was the way to properly tell this story. For a lot of the runtime it felt like the pilot to a TV show and I think a mini-series could have worked better for this story. It's really good and I just wanted more of it explored.

Gimmie more quiet, character-driven sci-fi movies please!!!

Really disappointed at the lack of significant marketing for one, because it also exemplifies Julia Hart's talents behind the camera - although the final result may not be nearly as fulfilling.

I think that there's a great movie that could be found in Fast Color but Hart nor Horowitz fully realize its potential on the spot. Yet the sort of story that they're setting out for already makes it admirable; a superhero origin story that builds itself off of generations of women with unique abilities and working through how to use them at a time of crisis. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is wonderful, as always - but I also think it's impressive that Julia Hart tells a story of such a large...

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Really liked it
Wish I could have seen in a theater - computer was not ideal
Gugu Mbatha-Raw was amazing
Wish it was a TV show so they could explain the intricacies of the powers in detail

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The concept behind Fast Colour -a world where it no longer rains and water is scarce in which a family pass supernatural powers through the generations- is without a doubt great. Unfortunately, this is squandered as, during the first three quarters of the film, virtually nothing happens. Our protagonist plays a bit of cat and mouse with her chaser and struggles with her uncontrollable powers. Only towards the end does she get control of her powers, giving her the agency to drive the story forward. I would really like to see a sequel where they actually do something with the strong concepts established in this movie. I'd love to see a Fast Colour movie that didn't make you feel as though...

I wanted to get into Ruth's head so much more! I feel like that would have made the end climax more impactful but it's still very engaging and emotional. I would have loved to have less of the beggining and more of the last 20 mins but I'll take a sequel as an apology, please and thank you. xx

If you're tired of superhero movies... or even if you aren't you should definitely give this one a chance.

A pretty obvious plot with quite simple writing including kinda first-thought, plug-and-play dialogue, but this does feel like something special for representation (very cool to have a story of a powerful matrilineal Black family!!), and the performances are great and I did really like the Colors.

"The world is a strange place these days. But I guess everyone always thinks they're living at the end of the world."

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Fast Color More give me the midnight special cinematic universe This movie was highly emotional. Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as a superhero on the run. All the supporting actors were great: Lorraine Toussaint, David Strathairn, and Saniyya Sidney. I loved all the flashbacks and how the mystery unfolded.

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A young girl overcomes her disadvantaged upbringing in the slums of Uganda to become a Chess master.

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Our 8-year old, commenting on the chess scenes:
"I have no idea what's happening, but it's just so exciting!"

Perfect family movie. We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and it strikes me that I haven't worked hard enough to show the kids movies that provide alternate perspectives and that immerse them in other cultures. They love all things Ghibli, and they'll watch any "old movie" (viz. anything before the 1970's), but where do I go next? Tricky to accommodate an 8 year old in the mix - subtitles are still a challenge for her, but we might be able to make it work.

Would love any suggestions! (A few I'm wondering about: Children of Heaven, Where Is the Friend's Home?, Wadja).

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Our 8-year old, commenting on the chess scenes:"I have no idea what's happening, but it's just so exciting!" Perfect family movie. We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and it strikes me that I haven't worked hard enough to show the kids movies that provide alternate perspectives and that immerse them in other cultures.

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I am not a Witch (2017) dir Rungano Nyoni 

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I am not a Witch (2017) dir Rungano Nyoni 

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Convicted of witchcraft, 8-year-old Shula is brought to live in a penal colony where witches do hard labour in service of the government.

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I Am Not a Witch

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First two acts are one of
my favorite dark comedies
of the year -- third act is one
of the most moving tragedies
of '17, and the final few scenes
are spectacularly surreal; the
social satire that 2017 needed.

I Am Not a Witch has an atypical portrayal of witches: here they're still hunted down, but instead of being put to the death they're "merely" put to work in labor camps.

The nameless child in here is accused of being a witch, but because she does not confirm nor deny that accusation no one's sure what to do with her. A government leader decides to have her join the other witches in his camp, and the child is given a name by those women.

"This girl... I've named her Shula." "Shula!" "It's a nice name." "It's a very nice name." "Listen, it means to be uprooted.
This girl has been uprooted." "It's a very nice name."

The rest of...

"We're soldiers for the government. We're used to it, and we don't get tired.
To be completely honest, I only watched this film because the title sounded interesting. I wish I'd heard of it before, it's criminally underrated and under-seen.

I really can't wait to see what Rungano Nyoni does in the future, if this is her debut. It's really brilliant, and I can't recommend it enough.
Criterion Channel, Ranked Top 100 Films of All Time

a beautiful and dark story depicting the dangerous ways in which the link between patriarchy & tradition in communities can effect those communitites and how those most effected are usually the marginalised or outcasted.

gorgeous cinematography; great writing; a flawless and arresting performance from Maggie Mulubwa as young Shula. I loved the final scenes which were so tragic and poignant.
I'm so happy this was written and directed by a young black woman and i cannot wait to see more from Rungano Nyoni.

"We're soldiers for the government, and we're used to it." A young homeless girl, Shula, accused of being a witch by a small Zambian village looking for a scapegoat for their troubles, is brought to a government-sponsored witch rehabilitation camp. Of course, the man running the camp, Mr. Banda, only believes in the power of witches when they can help make him rich, and Shula's strength of character is soon weaponized against her, used as a marketing ploy to sell eggs. Sometimes all power imbalances need to perpetuate themselves is some good old fashioned ignorance, but the venom of prejudice is not so easily controlled: Mr. Banda's wife, a former witch herself, is still regularly harassed, even as her marriage...

You are now becoming civil witches.
I Am Not a Witch's impeccable composition and brilliantly sparse soundtrack help the film maintain its delicate balance between tragedy and comedy, though it certainly opts for the former toward the end.

Definitely worth a watch.

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This is Rungano Nyoni's first feature film and what a debut it is. She is able to capture Shula's coming of age story, even when she is just a child. Shula is a victim of exploitation by the governement as she is paraded around in order to get money. The film does a fantastic job at giving us Shula's journey until she has a final realization of what it means to be captive and exploited. This coming from a child that is, maybe, 8 years old. Mulubwa's performance is immense here.

While I've read that this fear of witches is definitely still a thing in modern day Zambia, there were some touches that made this film seem fantastical in a...

"We're soldiers for the government, and we're used to it." A young homeless girl, Shula, accused of being a witch by a small Zambian village looking for a scapegoat for their troubles, is brought to a government-sponsored witch rehabilitation camp. Of course, the man running the camp, Mr. Banda, only believes in the power of witches when they can help make him rich, and Shula's strength of character is soon weaponized against her, used as a marketing ploy to sell eggs. Sometimes all power imbalances need to perpetuate themselves is some good old fashioned ignorance, but the venom of prejudice is not so easily controlled: Mr. Banda's wife, a former witch herself, is still regularly harassed, even as her marriage...

this is a sharp film with a great lead performance. and the cinematography is beautiful.

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I Am Not a Witch More First two acts are one of my favorite dark comedies of the year -- third act is one of the most moving tragedies of '17, and the final few scenes are spectacularly surreal; thesocial satire that 2017 needed.

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Synopsis

A CHICK WITH DRIVE WHO DON’T TAKE NO JIVE!

A voluptuous black woman takes a job as a high-class prostitute in order to get revenge on the mobsters who murdered her boyfriend.

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"We're in the process of abolishing what we call 'new slavery,' that's the slavery of hard dope man, you dig?" - vigilante dude.
AND
"That's my sister baby, and she's a whole lot of woman." - Huggy Bear,

- Complex's Top 50 Blaxploitation: boxd.it/1w5pa
- Scavenger Hunt #52: boxd.it/3kIS0 (21/30 completed)
Task 18. A spy film from the 60s or 70s that is NOT a James Bond film.

Pam Grier in the 1970s is simply more attractive than any other human being on earth at any other time. Those are facts and statistics.

In Foxy Brown, Foxy goes undercover as a prostitute (Yes, just like Coffy from 1973) to get the low down dirty suckers that murdered her boyfriend. What...

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"We're in the process of abolishing what we call 'new slavery,' that's the slavery of hard dope man, you dig?" - vigilante dude. AND"That's my sister baby, and she's a whole lot of woman." - Huggy Bear, - Complex's Top 50 Blaxploitation: boxd.it/1w5pa - Scavenger Hunt #52: boxd.it/3kIS0 (21/30 completed)Task 18.

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SOME MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEAVEN. OTHERS ARE MADE IN HELL.

After being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor’s assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.

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Ganja & Hess

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Watching the restored version of this film was like watching the film for the first time. Another film that I forgot was so experimental in style. Fantastic end credit sequence. So sad that Duane Jones passed away at such a young age.

Watched on the big screen at The Cinematheque - Vancouver

Vampirism as an ingeniously acid-angry rebuke to black assimilation, drinking a "savior's" blood as an act of self-preservation and of coercion. Visually rough but nevertheless a drone of disfigured reflections, body-obscuring superimpositions, and blurred focus. Even the slapdash ADR dialogue contributes to the derangement, as if Gunn himself felt (rightly, it would transpire) that his art was as out of his control as an entire people's selves were out of their own.

Underground experimental arthouse loaded with allegory and fractured storytelling. Evasive, passionate, and beautiful.

dracula sits high up on a hill, alone in his castle
somehow this manages to be one of the truest vampire stories i've ever watched. the secret to why we continue to be obsessed with them has nothing to do with the glamour or the danger. the truth is that vampires are the most human of all ghouls. they drink blood not to be cruel but because that is what they need to survive. they are ruled by the same two base instincts humans have, hunger and thirst. they couldn't stop even if they wanted to.

all the ingredients to a good vampire story are here... but skewed and twisted and re-arranged enough to feel fresh. instead of a gothic...

CW: blood/violence

Infected with a predator's disease, every kill comes with massive distortion (and even quiet moments scan be Dutch angled and dissonantly soundtracked). He does not seek salvation; he seeks first survival and then release. He embraces and rejects the poison at once; the cure is not a cure at all. He is infected with something ancient; something that serves as an infection on its own merits is the counter-balancing force. It is not a cure, but just a path to death. The cycle repeats, borne forward through love, so many possible metaphors alive within the fractured narrative (assimilation, erasure, actual disease). Unnerving orange blood and sweaty locales and crime-story grit make it not as much a Western vampire story as a reclaimed vampire story.
February count: 22/28

Vampirism as addiction and as a means of self-preservation, living off the veins of the lower class in a mansion filled with priceless African relics and Nina Simone records. I'm not the biggest fan of vampire stories, but I love just how malleable the lore is, allowing for both endless straight adaptations of Dracula, as well as singular works like Martin, Female Vampire, and, well, this. Bill Gunn's film looks and feels like an LA Rebellion take on those latter two, his socioeconomic and religious subtext as strong as the blown-out grain on the 16mm blow-up photography. This almost exists on the threshold between a dream and a nightmare, obfuscating the narrative by stripping it of its connective tissue and...

I am absolutely convinced that there are so many masterpieces out there that remain underseen and underrated due to a multitude of factors: either they never account a large following and only remain a niche film for specific audiences, they're genre films that don't get evaluated by all types of audiences, they're challenging and would be unappealing to most audiences, or they feature and are made for minority audiences and get ignored by white audiences.

Ganja & Hess has the unfortunate situation of fitting into all of the above categories, an arthouse genre-film centered around Black vampires but also one of the greatest masterpieces of American cinema I've ever seen. It's a work that tackles race, assimilation, religion, minority-on-minority violence, diaspora,...

Hooptober Se7en: 2020 Generations 14/35
Two films with a black director or predominantly black cast or lead (1/2).

I remember hearing about this movie growing up and I never saw it until now. Seeing that the movie is on Shudder at the moment (As of 9/30/020), I decided to give it a watch. After watching this movie for the first time, I enjoy it. I do admit that I didn't like this movie at first because the first 15-20 minutes was really slow. Once Part II of the movie begins, the movie starts to move at a faster pace. My favorite thing in this movie is the atmosphere because the movie has a very surreal feeling to it. The movie...

"What is there to know about Ganja" -Ganja,

- Complex Top 50 Blaxploitation: boxd.it/1w5pa
- Daily Horror Hunt 15: boxd.it/3JrCO
Clue 20: Watch a blaxploitation horror film.

Any servant that doesn't know what grits are needs to get the fuck out of my mansion I'll tell you that.

I wanted to like this but I don't understand it and I don't understand why people like it. I'm dumb. This movie makes me feel dumb. I don't think people are faking liking this movie and some parts are beautiful and interesting BUT, I also mostly found it boring and unapproachable and just wanted it to end so I could make some grits.

This movie reminded me I like grits so I'm forever grateful but otherwise I don't recommend.

Halloween Watchathon 2019 - Film #174
I've been coming down with a cold/feeling lethargic the past few days and this film really did a number on me. So much going on here, I don't know where to begin. Thematic richness from top to bottom with the likes of assimilation, addiction, and more. Technical elements such as the cuts/editing, use of sound or music, the colors. I'm well and truly overwhelmed right now.

Incredible.

❤️Daily Horror Hunt 20 - February Horror 2020❤️
25. A movie featuring any of the cast from 1968's Night of the Living Dead.
I'm always down for a vampire movie that treats the blood lust more as an uncontrollable habit and less like a wanted obsession. A real sickness that doesn't glorify the bloody lifestyle. Despite the big gothic mansion, butler service, the high society vibe, and attempts at romancing the main characters way of living, the realities of their addiction really grind them down. You see Duane Jones' Hess do some absolutely horrible things - murder, manipulation, robbing clinics, and what he does to that poor baby's mother while the cries echo in the background - anything to get...

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I wish there were more Duane Jones movies :(

Hooptober List 9
Film with a black director or predominantly black cast or lead 1/2

Not quite like anything I have seen. Go in with an open mind.

Hooptober #3
Black director & cast
The film is divided into three parts: victim, survival, and letting go. The middle section, survival, is noticeably the shortest. It is a struggle in "letting go" watching Ganja's assimilation and transformation alongside Hess's growing life frustration.

Gunn includes quite a bit of old European art including a big Virgin Mary painting under which a young prostitute mother is slain. The overhanging paintings and statues hide around the mansion and are cut into the film almost like jump scares.

Incredible to read they happened to film during a solar eclipse!

I was pretty surprised by this! I wasn't expecting it to be as loose and experimental as it turned out to be.

I found it difficult to track the progression of the plot, largely because so much of the dialogue is muffled and the pacing is all over the place. That being said, there are a lot of images in this film that will stick with me! The cross, the cross on the ambulence, Meda in the tree, etc. I also loved the connection between vampires and the Christian ritual of drinking the blood of Christ.

Overall, it didn't work for me in every way, but there's some really cool stuff going on!

" I want you to live forever "

Beautiful and enigmatic little film. Must look incredible on a big screen - I can only dream.

HOOP-TOBER WATCH #8
A FILM BY A BLACK DIRECTOR

If I'm being fully transparent, blaxploitation is a genre that I very much enjoy watching, but when films in that vein attempt to convey a message deeper than what is on the film's face, I sometimes have difficulty pulling some of those messages out. Most times that's not the film's fault, but rather my experience as a white person that maybe doesn't allow for the experiences that fueled the film to connect with my own experiences, which would help make those messages clearer and more understood on my part.

With that being said, while I know that there are clearly more things being conveyed in Ganja & Hess, the film is clearly...

This sure was... something. Quite unique in its style and execution. I can't say I loved it, but I have to admire how special it is. It has some sort of psychedelic feel to it. I don't know why, but I felt like I was listening to some psychedelic rock the whole time. I won't lie though: I didn't get everything. Had a hard time staying focusing. As much as I like the style I found it a bit aggressive and disorientating, making hard for me to stay invested during the whole runtime. Yet, I gotta give it credits for originality and unconventional narrative.
Hooptober VII

this is everything I want out of a cinematic experience!!!!

each shot SENDS me, the cultural depth is fantastic, and it's so EERIE.
the music and the production design creates such a gorgeous atmosphere. I would love to completely dissect this film shot by shot.
it's art, bro.

I was ecstatic to read that spike lee did a remake of this,,

also Uhhh VAMPIRES

sexy. psychadelic. spiritual. haunting. GANJA.

hooptober 7.0
1/2 films with a black director or predominantly black cast or lead
3/31

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Ganja & Hess More Watching the restored version of this film was like watching the film for the first time. Another film that I forgot was so experimental in style. Fantastic end credit sequence. So sad that Duane Jones passed away at such a young age.

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See you Yesterday (2019) dir Stefon Bristol

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See you Yesterday (2019) dir Stefon Bristol

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GOING BACK IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

As two teen prodigies try to master the art of time travel, a tragic police shooting sends them on a series of dangerous trips to the past.

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See You Yesterday

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PRODUCED BY SPIKE LEE, THE NEWEST NETFLIX FILM
"It's okay. I'll see you yesterday."
(Astro as Calvin)

Hi everybody, what if I tell you this movie is a mix of "Back to the Future" and "The Hate U Give" with a lot of "Black lives matter"? "Sounds promising" I thought and have finished this film just now. But even though there are quite a few great ideas and aspects about this movie, I don't really know what just happened. The genres of teen-, drama- and sci-fi movies were put into a sack and got shacking up properly. What comes out are 1 hour and 30 minutes of "I don't know what I actually am" and very strange and awkward moments...

"Bomboclaat"

The beginning was so geeky! I loved it. It quickly changed to a somber reflection of present day America where black men are being shot down at the drop of a hat. Using time travel as a device to propel the story forward, it works on so many levels. Unfortunately, since it's not a cheery Hallmark movie, some people are unable to handle it. I personally loved it and didn't mind how unconventional it was.

All this, and they used the subjunctive correctly too.

👌🏻63%
YouTube review - Click HERE
2019 list - Click HERE

See You Yesterday is a film that does so much right; yet flops on a few ideas that keeps it from becoming the next great time travel movie. What it lacks in Sci-Fi execution; it perfectly captures in character development. Our two leads rock, especially the character of CJ. And the fact that they got actual teens to play teens is icing on the cake. Police brutality is a concept that can be completely botched from a quality perspective. Writers/directors can either be too on-the-nose with this subject or not shine enough light on it. While this movie falls into many "childish" traps; one element that delivers is the fact that they...

With a script penned by Stefon Bristol and Fredrica Bailey, which earned the Best First Screenplay Award at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards, See You Yesterday illustrates the significances of time travel with a brisk perception. It's a small-scale narrative which resonates emotionally and does not squander any of its restrictive funding or packed runtime.

Its underlined by performances that are conveyed without any significant missteps, particularly from central protagonists Eden Duncan-Smith and Dante Crichlow. See You Yesterday bolsters a youthful curiosity for adventure while imaginatively and intriguingly combining several genre elements, as well as featuring an entertaining cameo from Michael J. Fox.

NETFLIX (ULTRA 4K)
84 FULL REVIEW AT NERDLY UK 2.00:1
Color
Codex
12A
Producer Spike Lee's DNA is clear and profound in Stefon Bristol's See You Yesterday. Bristol's film an amalgamation of Do The Right Thing and Back To The Future cements itself as of one of the greatest adult-oriented films targeted for younger audiences. A captivating feature with a stunning meld of optimistic prepubescent meets the tragedy of adolescence.

*guy throwing peace sign and fading meme*

This is really fucking bad....wow. If you thought Velvet Buzzsaw was a tonal mess, wait until you get a load of this. Is this a heavy handed political commentary drama? Is this a young adult buddy sci-fi comedy story? Hold on they just said fuck...they just said ni...what the actual fuck is this. This has the production quality and feel of a Disney channel movie but is so heavy handed. Clunky, preachy, soapboxing at the beginning gives way to lighthearted science jargon and montage...gives way to seeing a kid get shot. Shit acting all around save Astro and Wavyy Jonez, they had a nice relationship. The only redeeming factors are a nice rolling camera shot, a warm color pallette, and one nice scene of a local block party. Please don't watch

6/10
A Month of Black Cinema - Film #7

Not bad! Maybe it deserves a lower rating because it's kinda stupid and clichéd, but it was also surprisingly authentic and compelling. Definitely not essential but it explores some relevant ideas. Not sure if I liked the very end but whatever.

Added to:
Ranking: 2020, First Time Watches
Ranking: Coronavirus Quarantine

Basically every time travel movie ever
characters before time travelling: okay don't change any major things in the past, bad things will happen!!
characters after time travelling: *takes not even 0.2 seconds to think before they start messing with the past*

- added to 2019 - ranked.

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"Friends are like your chosen family. There's no 'I', there's just 'we'."

Heartbreaking and visually stunning, this movie has good laughs and absolute gut wrenching realities.
Full of charm but also pain, Absolutely worth the watch.

Loses half a star because that ending made me actually angry.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

this could've been a cute movie if it wasn't so bad. the beginning was cute. geeky shit and marty mcfly, like yeah cute. then they did the time travel shit. nice cute whatever. then black trauma😐. like y'all know you could've left that out omg i'm sick of racism being the main villain of the story. MARTY MCFLY HAD REGULAR PROBLEMS SO WHY COULDNT THEY????

Skewed a lot younger than I was expecting, but I still had heaps of fun with this sci-fi dramedy. The science behind the time travelling is very hand-wavey, but it takes a back seat to showcasing BLM and police-brutality themes very well.

Could've done more with the lo-tech sci-fi (always a big fan) but hey, it packs heaps into the uner 90 minute run time. My biggest takeaway from this was the performance by Astro, I loved it, and looking forward to seeing more of his work going forward.

It wears its connection to producer Spike Lee on its sleeve, a fun teen film that I'm sure kids in the US would get a lot out of.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This is an excellent blend of science fiction and social commentary.

It was an interesting choice to leave the ending open for interpretation. We never know if the protagonist gets to save her older brother.

I suppose it's similar to that episode of Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone where a man and his mom are driving in a car, the man gets shot by a cop, but then the mom finds a magical video camera that can turn back time. They try doing things differently, but no matter what, he still dies. The reason he died is not by any fault of his own. The problem is the officer who kills him. I only know about this episode because I saw...

i really don't think i've ever balled my eyes out so hard

the conservatives found this movie and gave it bad reviews but it was stellar

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

odeio filme que deixa o final como um MiSTéRiO
eu sempre imagino o pior

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See You Yesterday More PRODUCED BY SPIKE LEE, THE NEWEST NETFLIX FILM "It's okay. I'll see you yesterday." (Astro as Calvin) Hi everybody, what if I tell you this movie is a mix of "Back to the Future" and "The Hate U Give" with a lot of "Black lives matter"?

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The burial of Kojo (2018) dir Blitz Bazawule

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The burial of Kojo (2018) dir Blitz Bazawule

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A man is trapped in a mine shaft by his vengeful brother while his daughter embarks on a magical journey to rescue him.

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The Burial of Kojo

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For a lot of its (admittedly succinct) running time, I was impressed by the craft that went into Burial of Kojo, by the complexities of the score and the sweeping aerial shots and the family history and unspoken secrets that made up the story-how it managed to tell a conflict that was mostly internal and crucially important at the same time, how it walked the line between dreams and reality and captured the feel of a waking dream-a dream that more than one person knows about, or that sense of a dream having weight and heft to it, but not understanding the purpose, the goal of the dream--I was impressed by all those things, but felt at a bit of...

This is going to sound really ridiculous, but The Burial of Kojo is one of the few films that I unironically think people should really try to see despite my low rating; this isn't some Troll 2 or Tall Girl recommendation where the pleasure lies in the pain, but rather a significant work in one country's cinematic history that happens to not exactly hit the things I like.

Which is weird because this film is lofty, allegorical, a social commentary, and has a heaping dose of magical realism. Essentially a girl's father is trapped in a mineshaft and only she can go and free him; simultaneously we are told how this happens as well as a story told to her...

I loved this not just because it's a brilliant arthouse movie in my local tongue but because it uses poetry in such a simple way. A travel through folk and social realism, both disparate things held together with a burning dread of magic. Tale upon tales to tell us what we need to know. I recommend to everyone.

An incomplete list of films that came to mind during The Burial of Kojo, a film with an unduly grim title that belies its playful imagination:
Beasts of The Southern Wild
The Fall
Alamar
Lost and Beautiful
Yeelen
Felicité
Uncle Boonmee
Weekend
Coz Of Moni
Saragossa Manuscript
The Sixth Sense
Jump Tomorrow
Pan's Labyrinth
Gemini Man
Atlantiques
Peanut Butter Falcon
Buried
Silence of the Lambs
Orpheus
Some of those are in there for esoteric reasons - Gemini Man for the colourful walls in Cuba, for instance - but the point of this list is not to suggest that this is a magpie work that's playing spot the influence, but rather a film that's on its own beam. And while it...

Gorgeous, just so gorgeous. One of the most visually captivating films of the year yet the budget is so tiny! Passion and talent has clearly gone into this because it shows...It's a refreshing poem that I personally think hasn't been seen before. It's on Netflix, go watch it.

2019 Ranked

I was lucky enough to see a Q&A with director Blitz Bazawule after the screening I caught and ended up crushing on him hard. He's super smart and charming and I love his music and movies, and he's beautiful, and GAH!

Anyway, he talked about trying to capture color and proximity in this film, because he rarely sees those represented in African cinema. In terms of color, he described the "National Geographic effect," which often leaves footage of Africa looking dusty and ashy, similar to nature documentaries from the savannah. He said this is at least partly because color correction is done by people who have never been stepped foot on the continent. Bazawule said he was proud to have...

Everything clicks when the credits roll and you learn that the director also composed and conducted the music. The storytelling itself is a bit shoddy, for sure, but the degree to which the unbelievably gorgeous visuals, the unpredictable rhythms plus a few core emotions the narrative beats intend to evoke help taking this to another level is almost hard to precise. Either you feel it or you don't and while the 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' comparisons are certainly apt, this reminded me more of Jenkins by the way of the video for Kendrick's 'ELEMENT' (which was an homage to Gordon Parks). Did I mention it is beautiful? I mean, look at it.

I'm kind of conflicted on what to think about this. On the one hand, I think its amateurish aspects hold it back from becoming something a lot more robust and impactful, but at the same time, I feel like the low production quality and guerrilla style of filmmaking are kind of what make the film for me. The Burial of Kojo possesses images of intangible beauty and moments of incredibly audacious experimentation but ultimately the substance of the film is what falls a little short for me. It's a well made film for the most part, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I think the film never really lands on being purely an experimental film or one with a...

Me: Oh boy, I can't wait to watch and rate this without any bias whatsoever

Characters: *start speaking twi*

Me: GHANA BABY !!! 🇬🇭⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🇬🇭

*********
Review: www.themoviebuff.net/2020/04/review-the-passion-and-originality-behind-the-burial-of-kojo-is-undeniable/

Alongside my previous review of basically just gushing over Michael Fernandez's cinematography, I'd like to elaborate a bit on the other aspects of the movie. For one, the plot is engaging but slow; the layered plots being tasteful and reserved, almost modest in approach-which, by the way, is quite refreshing after the predictably composite narrative ensembles of the 17 Robert Altman films I've now finished.

Speaking of Altman, though maintaining the contrast in cinematic storytelling between them, an easy similarity to find-though obviously very much not exclusive to THE BURIAL OF KOJO and the average Altman film-is the classic multiple-meaning, rather archaic method of pertaining to the theme; take the fairytale-like pertinence and sensible "learn from these mistakes" ending of...

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Truly cannot wait to see Bazawule's adaptation of The Color Purple musical. What an inspired choice for that material.

70 / 100

Incredibly, visually stunning

I love the way this film explores guilt, spirituality, family and their intersections. In merely 80 minutes, it accomplishes a holistic examination of a life lived.

The visuals were truly outstanding, elevating every element of the story.

I was so happy to read that Blitz got to work with Beyonce after this. I can't wait to see what he does next!

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The Burial of Kojo More For a lot of its (admittedly succinct) running time, I was impressed by the craft that went into Burial of Kojo, by the complexities of the score and the sweeping aerial shots and the family history and unspoken secrets that made up the story-how it

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Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area. Although from warring postcodes, the two quickly form a firm friendship until it is tested and they wind up on rival sides of a street war. Blue Story depicts elements of Rapman’s own personal experiences and aspects of his childhood.

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Blue Story

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This was probably the most unique cinema experience I've had.

I hate to sound like I'm generalising but when I got into the screening of this film and it was a full-house of youths wearing hoodies, puffer jackets, Nike trainers with all types of jewellery taking selfies as if London's top grime artist was about to come out and perform, needless to say I was feeling very much out of my element and a tad anxious.

But when the lights went down and the opening of the film started there wasn't a phone in sight, no talking, no bants, no trying to make each other laugh during the odd silent moments, just 400ish young adults tuned into the story.

And...

While this directorial debut from Andrew Onwubolu has the best of intentions, it never entirely comes together into a cohesive and satisfying whole. The main problem happens to be the use of rap in between it's more significant scenes in an attempt to propel the narrative, which while Greek chorus traditions may have inspired them, here they feel like they are summarising what has transpired just a few moments before in the worst condescending ways, resulting in a disconnect to the compelling edge it requires to tell the story it's attempting.

It caused quite a storm of controversy during its original theatrical run with some cinema chains refusing to exhibit the movie after violence erupted at some of the screenings,...

a little bit gcse drama final performance in places, especially regarding some of the framing techniques and cast performances, but an otherwise tragically vital watch i'd encourage people to seek out. anyone blaming this film for provoking violence obviously hasn't seen the film.

Would have been 5 stars but the white guy next to me wouldn't stop shouting "BLUDCLOT!!"

This film finds an incredible realism, grit and honesty about growing up surrounded by gangs and provides incredibly relatable characters to make sure every betrayal and death means something.

Rapman who is the writer, director and effectively the narrator of the film, narrating in Rap finds a great tone in his lyrics that hit deep and a very interesting creative choice to have him appear as a on screen narrator.

This film feels like a desperate plea from someone that has experienced the gang life to warn others of its threat to your friends, family, the real danger of fragile egos and pride and the never ending circle of revenge killings.

Paramount. Cinema
2.35:1
Color
Codex
15
Director Andrew Onwubolu aka Rapman details a gritty and captivatingly authentic underworld of real-life hoodlum and the tragedy that goes with it in his directorial debut Blue Story.
76 FULL REVIEW AT CLAPPERLTD.CO.UK

i finally got to see the movie after what happened on the news. i thought it was alright but the pace is very slow.The story is about two friends who are gangsters. but if you live in the UK and Ireland you would know what is happening in the cinemas with the riots and stuff.

Blue Story is the debut feature film from Andrew Onwubolu aka Rapman based on his 2014 YouTube series of the same name, as well as true events.

The film sparked controversy - or more correctly, moral panic - upon its release following an incident at a screening in Vue's Star City complex in Birmingham between youths in which the police were called and said to discover two machetes. This fracas subsequently led to Vue banning the film from its cinemas and the mainstream media perpetuating the myth that Blue Story somehow glamourised teenage gang culture and violent crime when, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Onwubolu's film is in fact a searing indictment on such culture, but...

So so so SO depressing

I had a little trying to hold back the tears time at the end

Like why they even fighting? Like for real? In the real actual world? Why.?.?

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Oppressed people in an endless cycle of ignorance and violence.
The director has moments where he appears to give a rap recap where he looks super uncomfortable and lifeless in front of the camera. It was unnecessary.
Honestly, it's another movie about gang violence without much needed nuance.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I put off watching this film for so long because we were gonna go see it in the cinema which was delayed and delayed because of the weird reception it got and then Miss Rona hit so nobody goes to the cinema anymore.

Anyway, finally watched it. And also importantly, liked it. I enjoyed the intermittent narration raps, probably mostly because it reminded me of the Greek choruses and made the whole film feel like a tragedy. I'm not sure if that was RM's intention, but I thought it worked incredibly well regardless.

Only 4/5 stars because a few scenes felt very, erm, GCSE drama class and a half star deducted because Timmy flinched when he was supposed to be dead

Idk what to say about this film like HOLY FUCK!
Rapman did a madders with this!
Especially with narration through his rap like holy fuck!
Big love for this banging project!

Blue Story caused quite the stir in the UK upon its release and I kind of appreciate why. I think it's intention was to condemn this lifestyle but it comes off kind of glorifying it.

However, there are some great performances and I loved the intermittent rapping being used as a narrative tool.

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Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area.

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A HEART AND SOUL COMEDY. CAN YOU DIG IT?

Claudine is a single mother in New York City who endures an exhausting commute to the suburbs where she works as a maid for wealthy families. In one carefully tended white community, she meets Roop, a charismatic but irresponsible garbage collector. Romance quickly ensues, but Claudine doubts that their relationship is good for her six children, and Rupert, despite his good nature, is reluctant to take on fatherhood.

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Claudine

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John Berry updates his wonderful 1946 Joan Fontaine marriage vehicle to 1974 Black USA. James Earl Jones is the garbage man pursuing a relationship with single mother of six Diahann Carroll while the Welfare state mostly plays the Ralph Bellamy role. It is written in a grim deterministic manner while Berry directs with warm gaze fully attuned to its great actors vitality. The final result is a portrait of hopeful resilience under tougher version of everyday troubles.

This film feels conflicted. From its depiction of the welfare policies as unjust and parsimonious to the weight of capitalism on the family and on Roop, the film has a beating heart of social critique that at once suggests injustice at the heart of welfare's policies but also feels like it puts too much weight on welfare's role in de-powering African Americans. The duelling suggestions that it is the misapplication of welfare that is the problem and that being dependent on welfare is a negative situation does not serve to make the film feel more complex, but rather, muddled.

The idea, ultimately, seems to equate work with power, and while I am not entirely opposed to that, it seems to...

One of the few rare narrative films (outside of Fred Wiseman's literal Welfare-which, hey, was probably being filmed at the exact same time!) that depicts the struggles of those on welfare without any hint of liberal piety, condescension, or finger-wagging - and with all the strength it takes to survive such a hellishly anti-Black system. "You'll just call it fraud if I spend seven dollars on a bottle of whisky." At a certain point, John Berry (the once-blacklisted director, mind you) follows two of Claudine's children through the streets of Harlem, and you feel a surge of such indescribably pure joy course through his camera right to your veins - almost as if we were skating the city supreme. It's...

"Listen, when women fought for equal opportunity, they didn't mean votin'. When you got needs, you got needs."

Equal parts heartwarmingly hopeful and comically defeated, John Berry's 'Claudine' is a beautifully thematic film that tackles the harshest, most personal topics in ways that are both serious and affable, driven wonderfully by the charismatic lead performances of Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones, whose chemistry is present and powerful from the beginning. It's got that unmistakable, grainy 1970s feel and it's a wonderful time capsule into Harlem and New York City as an idea during the decade - dust, grime, protests and all. It's an absolute rollercoaster of emotions; on the surface, there's nothing overtly funny or amusing about their situation,...

At Home - Cinephobe.tv

Really enjoyable "Black American life" story. Characters that have personalities, lived in apartment sets and a lot of very real language used throughout. I saw this once on cable years ago but don't remember it being so fleshed out with such depth. Very good.

Em honra de Diahann Carroll (1935-2019) filme #2.
Dramédia bem realizada que se sustenta sobretudo pelos ótimos atores, desde os icônicos protagonistas até as crianças, a trilha sonora a cargo de Curtis Mayfield e Gladys Knight & The Pips.
Por esse filme Diahann Carroll conseguiu uma merecida indicação ao Oscar de melhor atriz, mas perdeu para a Ellen Burstyn de Alice não Mora Mais Aqui.
HDTVRip REGRET.

Viewed on TCM

Birth Year Challenge-1974 #43 - April 22, 1974.

I honestly didn't think I would enjoy this film as much as I did.

Diahann Carroll plays Claudine Price, a mother of six living in Harlem, New York, who is on welfare and works part time as a maid.
She starts a romance with Rupert "Roop", a garbageman with a great smile played by James Earl Jones.

Claudine (1974) doesn't seem like much but Carroll and Jones are wonderful in it and the six kids are great including Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs (Welcome Back, Kotter, Cooley High) in his film debut playing Charles, the eldest son.

Claudine was a groundbreaking film depicting the ordinary lives of black men and women in...

Gladys Knight (and the Pips) really went and gave 400%, holy shit.

This movie is really, really good. Touching, human, poignant, and with some goodasss acting, to boot.

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OMGGG this was the cutest movie ever. Diahann is one of the most attractive women that has ever roamed this earth I stg. She deserved best actress for this role she was SO good.

Super compelling plot. Wish this movie was more well known and accessible. Literally such an adorable movie and THE CLOTHES🤩🤩🤩 Watch it!

Also acab.

Completely taken aback by how wonderful Claudine is, a film that tells the story of a lovely romance between two older Black adults - the kind which still seems rare to see in films today - and deftly throws in issues of welfare and economic inequality that make such a relationship a constant uphill battle.

Written by married screenwriting duo Tina and Lester Pine, Claudine is about as even-handed as one could ask from a relationship story. Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones are both fantastic as Claudine and Roop, respectively, as Claudine tries to stay afloat while falling in love, and Roop struggles with his past in order to make a new future for himself. Both performances have an...

this movie is like a warm hug :)))))

I love that Claudine had a bath at Rupert's apartment to get ready for their first date. That takes some confidence.

Baby James Earl Jones is so adorable and he wears super snazzy pants! 😍

"Listen, when women fought for equal opportunity, they didn't mean votin'. When you got needs, you got needs."

Equal parts heartwarmingly hopeful and comically defeated, John Berry's 'Claudine' is a beautifully thematic film that tackles the harshest, most personal topics in ways that are both serious and affable, driven wonderfully by the charismatic lead performances of Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones, whose chemistry is present and powerful from the beginning. It's got that unmistakable, grainy 1970s feel and it's a wonderful time capsule into Harlem and New York City as an idea during the decade - dust, grime, protests and all. It's an absolute rollercoaster of emotions; on the surface, there's nothing overtly funny or amusing about their situation,...

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Claudine is a single mother in New York City who endures an exhausting commute to the suburbs where she works as a maid for wealthy families. In one carefully tended white community, she meets Roop, a charismatic but irresponsible garbage collector.

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WHAM! BAM! HERE COMES PAM!

Friday Foster, an ex-model magazine photographer, goes to Los Angeles International airport to photograph the arrival of Blake Tarr, the richest black man in America. Three men attempt to assassinate Tarr. Foster photographs the melee and is plunged into a web of conspiracy involving the murder of her childhood friend, a US senator, and a shadowy plan called “Black Widow”.

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Friday Foster

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[:: the 13 week esoteric/hidden knowledge & 8th-dimensional killuminati broadcasts challenge/ley lines/skeleton key/scavenger hunt ::

the 4th of july: amerikkka eats its young - watch a movie about an assassination (real or fictional)]

Admittedly I had a hard time finding a film about an assassination (real or fictional) to watch today, besides not being a fan of espionage/political thrillers I was looking through hundreds of movies with the keyword "assassination" on IMDb and they're all so fucking long! Why do they have to be 2-3 hours long?! No thank you! I lucked out when I found Friday Foster from Arthur Marks (the director of J.D.'s Revenge) because 1) it was readily available to watch for free online and 2) it was...

Friday Foster is a decent blaxploitation movie starring Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto and Carl Weathers. Grier plays a photographer who, while on assignment, witnesses an assassination attempt and gets involved in a web of conspiracy.

I really liked the idea of a mystery thriller disguised as a blaxploitation flick, set in 1975 Los Angeles. All the ingredients for a great movie are there, but sadly it is all decidedly lighthearted. There is hardly any tension or atmosphere.

Pam Grier's character is much more subdued here than the one in Coffy, but she still had some great moments. I especially enjoyed the scene of her chasing Carl Weathers in a stolen hearse.

A fun but ultimately forgettable movie.

One of the most attractive and gifted actresses of the '70s stars in this neglected piece of blaxploitation that, as I've just found out, is definitely better than its bad rep would ever let you know. Though sassier and ever-accessible, Pam Grier reminds me here a bit of Monica Vitti as Modesty Blaise; based on a comic strip as well, that effort was directed by Joseph Losey, someone much more recognised than the Arthur Marks of genre and television outings that, also writing and producing, makes Friday Foster a sober and straightforward directorial work --something you can't say about Losey's extravagant and loose, lesser spy spoof.

Friday is a photographer-turned-detective whose job at a variety magazine becomes threatened every time...

One could easily write volumes on how charming, radiant and glamorous Pam Grier is in this movie, and many have, so this viewing it was Yaphet Kotto I thought needed some more acclaim. As with classic Hollywood comedy stars such as Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, you get the distinct feeling that he was having F-U-N fun playing his role. Kotto in Friday Foster is a joy bomb, lighting up the screen in every scene he shares with Pam Grier (gosh, if only they were in twenty more movies together...) and even the ones in which he isn't ("What am I doing here?"). My happiness while watching this performance is only diminished by the regret that Hollywood didn't trust black actors or white audiences enough to give he and Grier more leading roles...what could have been!?!

Based on a comic strip of the same name, Friday Foster is packed to the brim with 70s goodness!
Pam Grier is a whole lot of woman who doesn't mind showing off her talents as the titular Friday, a photographer for Glance magazine who finds herself embroiled in a "Black Widow" conspiracy after capturing an assassination attempt on the richest brother in America.
Yahpet Kotto is great as the tough private detective who's Friday's 'main man' (he even does his Alien death face during a rooftop fight), while Carl Weathers does his brooding Apollo Creed thing as the assassin who goes after her.
This is one of those "Hey, that's..." movies where familiar faces just keep popping up - "Hey, that's Isaac from Loveboat!", "Hey, that's Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island!", "Hey, that's Apollo's wife from Rocky!", you get the idea.
... And that 70's funk/disco soundtrack is da bomb!

"Who is Friday Foster? Where is she going?"

Plucky, mostly PG13 mystery-adventure (based on a comic strip, naturally) with top-notch blaxplo trappings, and a cast loaded with ringers from Pam Grier on down - Yaphet Kotto, Jim Backus, Scatman Crothers, Eartha Kitt, Carl Weathers!! - and a great funky score by Luchi De Jesus. I love tougher, grimier fare like Coffy or Black Caesar but in a just world there would be 1000 more of these for me to watch.

"This is serious, Friday!"

A near perfect hybrid of plucky mystery-adventure and blaxploitation goods. Perhaps in a nod to its source material, it's plotted like a comic strip, with a story that seems to crystallize from raw materials in real time. I'm probably plagiarizing my earlier Letterboxd review but I really wish Pam Grier and Yaphet Kotto had gone on to become the black Nick and Nora.

Seemed like an extended episode of Starsky & Hutch, or some other 70's cop show, except with the occasional n-word getting dropped in there, casually.

Pam Grier is such a star and drop dead gorgeous.

Harmless blaxploitation fluff.

Another spin on the Coffy (1973) formula-although not as derivative as Foxy Brown (1974)- Friday Foster (1975) is a readjustment of Pam Grier's badassery to suit the national mood following Watergate. It doesn't inspire the cold sweats of the other great Nixon-inspired thrillers, but Grier and Yaphet Kotto drive this thing to a wacky kind of success.

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What this lacks in plot or logic it tries to compensate with boobs and amazing outfits, which is the kind of movie calculus I can get down with.

I had a longer review written out, but it got eaten. I'm just going to say this is a really watchable movie. Honestly, it holds up REALLY well. It's got a lot to say in a thematic level, and it's got some great characters with good actors that have been given some pretty solid dialogue. There's a big action scene at the end of the movie that doesn't work as well as I think it could, but then there's a really good action scene between Carl Weathers and Yaphet Kotto to kind of even it out.

I can understand that this movie doesn't necessarily fit into the classic framework of a Blaxploitation film, but I'm kind of surprised that it isn't better-known. Check it out.

The plot here is pretty convoluted and it takes awhile to settle into a groove but I still enjoyed this. It has Blaxploitation trappings but is really more of an adventure vehicle for Pam Grier, who basically does a black Brenda Star thing as a budding news photographer who gets embroiled in a plot to kill the richest black man in the world, or something like that. The cast alone is incredible with everyone from Godfrey Cambridge to Eartha Kitt stopping by to do some shtick. And if you ever wondered what it would be like to see Isaac from the Love Boat play a shit talking pimp, well wonder no more. It moves a little slower than Pam's other...

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Friday Foster, an ex-model magazine photographer, goes to Los Angeles International airport to photograph the arrival of Blake Tarr, the richest black man in America. Three men attempt to assassinate Tarr. Foster photographs the melee and is plunged into a web of conspiracy involving the murder of her childhood friend, a US senator, and a shadowy plan called "Black Widow".

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Close to paying off her debts, a Nigerian sex worker in Austria coaches a reluctant novice, and assesses the risks of taking a faster path to freedom.

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Joy

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Being a Nigerian Lady in Europe

A devastating portrait about a hopeless society, which eats itself each time a little more. The Warlords and Madames of the African Continent are truly horrible people, gaining on the misery of others, that really do not have any other possibility.

A strong Netflix exclusive that should be given a chance. Harrowing and depressing, with a very natural look and feel.

The makeshift sisterhood that binds the women in Joy, Sudabeh's Mortezai's human trafficking drama, is one of necessity and survival. The women in the film have chosen the hope of a better life in Europe. I use the word hope because this better life is not guaranteed. The opportunity comes at a major cost, their bodies used as payment for a chance at a fresh start. And they accept it because what Nigeria has to offer them isn't much better at the moment. This journey is captured through the eyes of Joy and Precious, two women at different points on their road to this new life. Joy is close to paying off her debts to her madam; Precious has just started. We...

A staggering work of compassionate realism, Sudabeh Mortezai's second fiction feature follows Joy (Joy Anwulika Alphonsus), a young Nigerian sex worker living in Vienna, struggling to simultaneously create a better life for her family and pay off her madame. Joy finds herself increasingly implicated in the vicious cycle of human trafficking, and when she is tasked by her madame with mentoring a teenage Nigerian girl, she begins to understand her role within this dehumanizing machine and consider the possibility of a life outside of it. Sensitive yet unsentimental, intelligent and viscerally affecting, Joy is a politically incisive work and a moral act.
Playing on March 28 & April 3 at New Directors/New Films.

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MOVIE VIEWING IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC (3)
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It has been more than a full week since I viewed my last film. This is certainly not "normal" behavior for me. In 2018, I watched eleven films during the first full week of April. Last year, the count was ten, and I never saw fewer than six films a week at any time in 2019. What has changed? Everything.

I have given this a lot of thought and concluded, quite simply, that movie viewing is my hobby. It is a pastime I greatly enjoy. There are many films I have wanted to see and many genres I have only barely encountered. Cinema is a rich, broad and deep pool of...

I looked up reviews for Joy and was depressed to find that the ones for major media outlets were all by white men and were all short and superficial. I am feminist to the degree that it's difficult to qualify all that I mean by the word - it's a part of everything about me much like my gender itself - but I do try to not succumb to identity politics just for its own sake. I mean, I supported Bernie for being a progressive rather than Hillary for being female. But this is different and calls out for review by women.

No, I've never been a sex worker, or an economic immigrant. Or Nigerian. But I've been in places...

This movie went from okay with lackluster performances to an ugly truth that's going to haunt me from sleep tonight

I'm not sure how to feel about this film, but it's certainly not always an easy watch -- there's no happy ending on offer, despite the title (the name of the central character, rather than a particularly defining emotion throughout the film). It's also not, I would hope, intended to be a film about how it is to be a sex worker but rather presents one particular experience, which is of non-European women (in this case, Nigerian) trafficked into sex work and trapped for a significant chunk of time through mounting debts in a form of slavery. The filmmaker bookends the film with scenes set back in Nigeria, though this is largely an Austrian film from an outsider's perspective --...

Original Title: Joy Story: 7
Directing: 7
Cinematography: 6.5
Acting: 7.5
Sound: 6.5
Visual Effects: 6
PARENTAL GUIDANCE
Violence & Gore: 5
Sex & Nudity: 6
Drugs & Profanity: 2
Intensity & Horror: 2 Follow me on YouTube, where I review movies and video games Year of Release: 2018
Genres: Drama
Director: Sudabeh Mortezai
Writer: Sudabeh Mortezai
Main Cast: Joy Alphonsus, Mariam Precious Sanusi, Angela Ekeleme
An Austrian drama about immigrants from Africa (mainly Nigeria) who have to repay the debt of their journey to their pimps by prostituting for a long time. Told with tender and care, it's a fairly interesting look at a side of underground life that isn't often talked about. The 'actresses' were particularly great!

ENJOYMENT: 6.5
BORINGNESS: 4

Such a painfully real and heartbreaking film, that gives the audience a look into the horrors of the harsh reality that these women go through. Very effective and necessary. Mortezai handles all of this with so much care. Also good acting (to think they're all first-time actors.. talent!), unique camerawork that features some beautiful shots.

Have now seen 4 Best International Film submissions and they're all so strong.

Now streaming on Netflix!

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#23 der #52FilmsByWomen in 2020.

JOY ist einer der Filme, der einem (ganz in nüchterner österreichischer Tradition) eine so unerträgliche Dosis Realität um die Ohren knallt, dass ich als der Abspann rollte einfach nur schreien, heulen und kotzen wollte.

Es geht um nigerianische Zwangsprostituierte in Europa, die durch einen auf Aberglauben basierenden Pakt, die daraus resultierende Angst, sowie den Frauen (bzw. Mädchen) aufgeladene immense Schulden in einer unterdrückerischen Organisation gefangen sind und auf den Strich gezwungen werden. Ein Großteil des verdienten Geldes wird an eine dubiose Big Mama (der sie für dieses "bessere Leben" auch noch dankbar sein sollen) abgedrückt, wer mit der neuen Situation nicht klar kommt, oder zu wenig verdient, wird von Mamas Schergen per Massenvergewaltigung auf Linie...

So much build up that I was a little disappointed in the ending.

I've seen people give this movie a similar rating because it was 'too sad'. Those people are the embodiment of selfishnes, arrogance and a lot of other words I can't even describe. The movie was - as far as I know from research on this topic - a pretty realistic rendition of the lives of some Nigerian women seeking their fortune in Europe. Somehow I couldn't bring it up to give this movie a good rating. It lacked any form of criticism and that really becomes apparent in the dialogue with the NGO who - after a whole speech - can only ask 'What is juju?' The two or three scenes with the woman from the NGO were really boring...

"... Os olhos de Joy já são apagados e vemos, aos poucos, os de Precious se apagaram também. O processo grosseiro que combina violência sexual, mental e ameaças religiosas faz dessas mulheres verdadeiros corpos sem vida. O pouco de esperança que resta é minado com o passar dos meses, anos, décadas..."
Leia a análise completa do filme por Roberta Mathias neste link

No fancy camera work, no exaggerated over the top acting, no peaks and valleys. But what Joy was, was gut wrenchingly painful. It brings you back to the harsh realities outside of our little boxes, the same black boxes everyone posted on their IG and forgot about.

Just as important of a watch as all of the Spike Lee joints and the polished Jordan Peele art house manifestos.

Stripped of dramatization and sensationalism, life itself presents vicissitudes of suffering and pain, and Sudabeh Mortezai admirably translates this directly to the screen, sans annotation.

Mortezai practices her camera on Joy's impenetrable expression, which, so resilient, belies the utter joyless imbalance of fucking circumstance, the maelstrom of oppression under cold systems that utterly fail our most disenfranchised at best, and exploit and enslave them at worst.

Goddamnit.

Before I start, I'm going to warn anyone who wants to watch, if you're triggered by rape, sex trafficking, physical assault, deportation, or smoking, watch with caution.

I honestly don't even know where to begin with this. Joy is quite the powerful watch. The movie follows a woman being sex trafficked away from her home country to pay off her debts. To say it's an important movie done on an extremely important topic isn't even doing it justice. It puts a spotlight on the sexual exploitation of women in poverty and deserves a lot more recognition. The lighter scenes are utilized well and serve as a reminder that the people who go through these horrific situations are no less human than the ones who don't. Overall I thought the movie was very well crafted and, assuming you can handle the dark topics, I would highly recommend it.

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Joy More Being a Nigerian Lady in Europe A devastating portrait about a hopeless society, which eats itself each time a little more. The Warlords and Madames of the African Continent are truly horrible people, gaining on the misery of others, that really do not have any other possibility.

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THESE PRETTY WOMEN… ARE CLUELESS!

Two clueless homegirls move to L.A. to become dancers, but instead find themselves scamming a dying millionaire to eventually become B*A*P*S (Black American Princesses).

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Os figurinos, o conceito e a estética de ghetto elegante, brega e chique e afro paty: as unhas gigantesca, grillz douradas nos dentes, penteados chiques e ostensivos nos cabelos, as roupas com estampas e tecidos extravagantes de animal print. Permanecem influentes até os dias de hoje. A atuação exagerada da Halle Berry é muito intencional.... (nas cenas finais Halle Berry prova que ainda sim consegue ser uma boa atriz.) É tudo bastante caricato exageradamente careta, brega e cafona de forma proposital pois esse é o cômico.

Em primeiro momento achei que as mulheres negras estavam sendo colocadas como burras em papéis de ridicularização mais do que glorificação, porém a trama consegue se desprende dessa gosma as humanizando colocando suas vontades, sonhos e desejos em tela.

Só segue a premissa conforme pede a proposta. Se parecendo levemente com um conto de fadas. Com compaixão, drama e uma comédia um tanto quanto tosca acaba funcionando como um besteirol e está um pouquinho a cima da média.

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Os figurinos, o conceito e a estética de ghetto elegante, brega e chique e afro paty: as unhas gigantesca, grillz douradas nos dentes, penteados chiques e ostensivos nos cabelos, as roupas com estampas e tecidos extravagantes de animal print. Permanecem influentes até os dias de hoje.

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QUEEN OF THE PRIVATE EYES

Sheba, a Chicago private detective returns back home to Louisville, Kentucky, to help her father fight mobsters.

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for now this concludes my Pam Grier marathon. all I can say is that I have endless respect for her.
for becoming pretty much the first notable female action star as well as consistently bringing sincerity and heart to roles that were sometimes degrading. her personality always greater than the writing she was handed, she tried her hardest to do the best she could with what she was given. after reading up on her I see that was the case in her personal life too. I wish she had remained a leading lady after the Blaxploitation era came to an end and moved out of B movies but what counts is that she kept working. she is 70 and works to this day. the ability to adapt to whatever life throws your way is an undervalued one.

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for now this concludes my Pam Grier marathon. all I can say is that I have endless respect for her. for becoming pretty much the first notable female action star as well as consistently bringing sincerity and heart to roles that were sometimes degrading.

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One way or another (1977) dir Sara Gómez 

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One way or another (1977) dir Sara Gómez 

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Quasi documentary about the creation of the Miraflores housing development after the Cuban revolution. In this first Cuban feature film made by an Afro-Cuban and by a woman, Sara Gómez uses innovative documentary and fictional techniques to focus on the marginales in the poorest, most underdeveloped areas of Cuba. Against a backdrop of dismantled slums and new housing construction, the relationship between a mulatta and a Black Cuban unfolds as a conflict between ingrown ideas of race, class and gender and a Revolution that is trying to dismantle the old, outmoded structures.

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One Way or Another

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Life-changing cinema. Ultra-reactive, revolutionary, cathartic. Deconstructs and criticises everything that has preceded it, in the same manner as something like Jeanne Dielman, while also forging its own sense of self and place to eternalise a state of mind. Brutally underexposed and probably maligned to within an inch of its existence, which is understandable, but a response which is referenced and prophecised in Espinosa's manifesto (essential to understanding the film's intentions).

This is as perfect, successful, and challenging a use of form and awareness of it to aid an agenda (and to critique the art form as a whole) that I've seen. Find it.

New growth cannot flourish without old growth being razed, or at least that's how it works with ideology. Sara Gómez understands this notion as she made De Cierta Manera (or One Way or Another), a quasi-documentary film that demonstrates how simple surface-level change cannot solve a country's crisis but rather that of large, deep-rooted transformations.

"They're a product of their environment. It isn't easy to work with them."

New homes and infrastructure may help a peoples living standards, but you cannot simply give commodities to communities and expect them to thrive. Ultimately it is not outsider intervention but internal revolution that nets long-term change; though that may sound obvious it really is not, as one only has to look at the United States's history of interference.

[Watch it on YouTube here!]

I can appreciate the innovation that this film and the third cinema film movement exhibit. I saw similarities between this movie and some of the films of Quentin Tarantino and Adam McKay. Regardless, this was Movie was pretty sloppy, but then again, this movie came out a while ago.
Well Done, Sara Gomez.

Plenty of documentary films now take a self-aware and critical perspective on their own praxis, and it may not have been new in 1974 either when Sara Gomez shot this film, but what distinguishes it is an energy undoubtedly harnessing Cuba's own revolutionary project. Mixing voiceover-led 'objective' documentary elements, with verite sequences shot on streets, but interleaving acted scenes, combining the actors (as fictional characters) with non-actors in unscripted sequences, as well as interpolating musical performance, this is a bold film. It's about a slum area rebuilt by the government to improve the lives of the marginalised and impoverished communities of colour living there, and expands on this by its staging of a relationship between teacher Yolanda and worker Mario,...

A moment shown in what seems like scratched, sepia reality is contextualized by vignettes of backstory, over and over, until a narrative forms.

Blends documentary and fiction really effectively to show life in a recent housing development that had replaced a slum.

I loved the dry humour of the narrator as she told us about the cultural history behind of the kind of sexist attitudes prevalent in this community (mainly that women are untrustworthy). This gives an interesting element as well to its examination of the individual within society and of men and machismo within revolution.

Wish I knew more about the historical context though, need to investigate further.

One Way or Another, my first feature-length encounter with the cinema of Cuba, is an energetic smattering of fiction-nonfiction hybridity. Fiction characters interact with real people in a way to bring out the truth in their actions, a form of manipulation of reality while studying reality quite close. This is a method that was probably not used first here and was surely not used last here ( White Out, Black In is an excellent recent example), but it works extremely well to capture the essence of the era. Cuba during the revolution was an interesting time, and the changes were not only political. The social impact of the revolution was perhaps even more important, and as this film shows, not even the confines of the bedroom were safe from their influence. This is an extremely rich film that I will return to soon.

Em De Cierta Manera, Sara Goméz, através da mistura do documentário e da narrativa de ficção, deseja revelar as mudanças que ocorriam em um bairro pobre de Cuba, em razão da Revolução. Os conflitos que florecem entre a mentalidade revolucionária e da população que vive ali, são o tema central do filme e da trama. Sara utiliza essas duas linguagens para criar uma obra que ofusca a linha que separa o real e o irreal.
Os personagens interpretados pelos atores existem apenas no filme, mas possuem problemas e conflitos que espelham os das pessoas reais que aparecem na obra, e essas pessoas, assim como as imagens históricas e as narrações, ajudam a fortalecer a conexão entre a trama ficcional e...

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mmmmmm liked a lot of the stuff happening here!

What an interesting piece of cinema this is. My experience of third cinema hasn't been the best in the past so I was reluctant to try this one but my friend managed to convince me because of the shorter run-time. For example, when I watched all 260 minutes of 'The Hour of the Furnaces' I was bored out of my mind and lost a great deal of interest in South American cinema from this period of time. I'm happy to say that 'De Cierta Manera' has partially revived my interest though, because this was certainly an intriguing, educational and compelling film.

One of the main elements of the film is how it blends together segments of documentary with the main...

I'm not sure where the line is between breaking down all the old barriers in people's heads, but I'm glad this movie is at least trying to break it down

what is a man?
what is a revolutionary?

Em De Cierta Manera, Sara Goméz, através da mistura do documentário e da narrativa de ficção, deseja revelar as mudanças que ocorriam em um bairro pobre de Cuba, em razão da Revolução. Os conflitos que florecem entre a mentalidade revolucionária e da população que vive ali, são o tema central do filme e da trama. Sara utiliza essas duas linguagens para criar uma obra que ofusca a linha que separa o real e o irreal.
Os personagens interpretados pelos atores existem apenas no filme, mas possuem problemas e conflitos que espelham os das pessoas reais que aparecem na obra, e essas pessoas, assim como as imagens históricas e as narrações, ajudam a fortalecer a conexão entre a trama ficcional e...

Third Cinema Films #4

71/100

this was really fucking good. the combination of documentary and narrative was genius.

tw: misogyny/machismo, graphic animal sacrifice, gendered violence

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Quasi documentary about the creation of the Miraflores housing development after the Cuban revolution. In this first Cuban feature film made by an Afro-Cuban and by a woman, Sara Gómez uses innovative documentary and fictional techniques to focus on the marginales in the poorest, most underdeveloped areas of Cuba.

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Night of the Kings (2020) dir Philippe Lacôte

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Night of the Kings (2020) dir Philippe Lacôte

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Set in Abidjan’s MACA prison, the aging Black Beard, in attempt to maintain control over his fellow inmates, resorts to a “story” ritual, wherein one prisoner is forced, Scheherazade-style, to tell stories for an entire night. The young pickpocket he chooses relays the haunting tale of the Zama King.

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Night of the Kings

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Gotta admit that I was a bit disappointed with this one. I love how we're just thrown into an unknown setting, and it really takes no time to set-up before the plot just kicks off. I commend the director for making this decision, but I was hoping that context clues would be filled in as the film progresses. The prison setting is well-realized, and the handheld adds a lot to the atmosphere, not to mention that this is just a really interesting premise, even if I don't think it's fully expanded in a way I would have liked.

There's also some not-so-great CGI that took me out of the film in the middle, but it wasn't totally distracting. Overall I expected more, but I'm glad I checked it out.

TIFF 2020: #2 (Contemporary World Cinema)
Completely baffling, but at least in a way that's always intriguing. Nonetheless, the world-building here is wholly impressive, but the surprise cameo from Denis Lavant was also quite nice. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this, but who knows what time will tell.

If God say yes, No one can say no.

this was good, intense, weird, felt kinda sundance-y though. would benefit from a second viewing maybe. visuals were sick as hell.

"Night of the Kings", which is available for streaming via the currently ongoing New York Film Festival, was an enthralling journey to a place far beyond anything I would be likely to experience in fare produced stateside. Ivory Coast submitted it for the Best International Feature category at the 2021 Oscars, which at this rate might not be held until 2023. It's a film that speaks well for the talent pool in the film industry of the country. Director Philippe Lacôte strikes a terrific balance between the dark, confined spaces of the MACA prison, in which the action mostly takes place in a single room, and the vibrantly lit shots of the countryside during the quasi-flashbacks. Our point of entry...

TIFF #1

very fascinating and surprisingly fresh. What a creative way to tell stories.
Laetitia Ky (the hair artist, you've probably seen her work on social media) being in this was a VERY pleasant surprise!!

Quick notes from Venice: really fascinating framing device and world-building in its first act, and wonderful use of performance art in telling this story about the value of storytelling itself. Shame that, maybe due to the time I watched it at (10.15pm), I was quite bored during its middle portion, and the ending left me a bit overwhelmed. But there is a cameo by Denis Lavant, so there's that!

you have a whole prison hyping you up and your story still sucks

At the Maca correctional facility in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan, the inmates run the prison, a place all but ruled by superstitions. Tonight, upon the rising of a red moon, a newly arrived prisoner (Koné Bakary), jailed for pickpocketing, has been selected by the autocratic Lord Black Beard to assume the position of "Roman" (storyteller): he must keep his fellow inmates entertained with wild tales or risk his own life. As this Scheherazade-like scenario unfolds, he tells the story of Zama, his childhood friend who became a legendary crime boss. Paying homage to the tradition of the griot in West African culture, Night of the Kings is a work of Shakespearean fabulism and gripping, energetic cinema, an altogether original vision from breakout Ivory Coast filmmaker Philippe Lacôte.
Get tickets for the Bronx Drive-in premiere or limited nationwide virtual screenings.

NYFF Film #5
As Joan Didion famously wrote, we tell ourselves stories in order not to be ritually impaled on a rusty iron hook. Loved the world-building, loved the City of God energy, I just wish Roman told a better story.

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Deep in a tropical rainforest in Côte d'Ivoire lies a prison known as La Maca, where escape seems pointless and survival is precarious. Behind high, sun-scorched walls, a chaotic community of men live in captivity and within a trembling hierarchy. There are guards, sure, but they are outnumbered and fearful, hiding in offices and jumping at the commands barked by the soldiers of Blackbeard (Steve Tientcheu). He is the king of this prison, ruling with an iron fist. However, this pillar of a man is crumbling, dragging an oxygen tank, an unforgiving symbol of his weakness. To step down from his throne, he must die, either by force or fate, and his minions are growing restless for power.
www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/review-night-of-the-kings-offers-a-radiant-tale-of-gangster-and-magic.php

NYFF Film #5
As Joan Didion famously wrote, we tell ourselves stories in order not to be ritually impaled on a rusty iron hook. Loved the world-building, loved the City of God energy, I just wish Roman told a better story.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

While it takes a moment for the excitement to start, with time devoted to building the political landscape of this prison and all the core characters, once the Night of the Roman starts, wow does it get good. Like real good. Every puzzle piece falls into place, as you are transfixed by the Roman's story while fearing its completion.

Bakary Koné has one of those faces that screams hundreds of emotions at once, without needing to utter a single word (though he does speak, he's not mute). Every close-up on him is an emotional delight.

Shot by Tobie Marier-Robitaille
- Hawk V-Lite Anamorphic Lenses

The last time I enjoyed a power of storytelling movie was when I watched Big Fish. This one has a similar theme with a way different approach and scenario. Storytelling as survival rather than storytelling as a love language. Can't say I enjoyed it but I'm always fascinated when I see a glimpse of an unfamiliar place. Sometimes movies are like travelling, we get to see not only the good side of the places we visit. Night of the Kings exposes some of Ivory Coast's unpleasant history. But while it is not the most pleasurable watch, it's still eyeopening and informative.

File this one under more interesting in theory than in practice.

It was visually striking to the point where I almost loved it despite my issues. Alas, the narrative here ended up hurting my enjoyment significantly, which is worsened by the fact that the film is about storytelling. It has so many ideas, but none are utilized to their fullest (or any) extent. The monarchy of this prison society, in particular, is fascinating but rarely touched on. Essentially, the film develops nothing due to its focus telling of a story while never actually telling its own story.

Worthwhile for its visuals nonetheless.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"The power of words in the face of violence." Best part of the movie is when Roman basks in the sunlight at the end. I felt that release - amazement at your own survival. Captivating sunlit moment in stark contrast to the predominantly nighttime photography prior.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

A great movie about transition and trace. What's left when we move into the new? What holds us back, what stays with us, how do we take from what is around us in the process of transindividuation to become what we must? I think the movie has pacing issues, particularly in the back 3rd, and some characters just king of happen through the movie that felt deserving of some more time. Would have loved some exploration of the dynamics of the prison before Roman's arrival in flashback, some other stories to contextualize his. But, that's not what the movie was so it's not totally worth being critical of it. In any case, there feels like something missing, but I'm kind of a sucker because I'm uncultured and haven't seen a lot of movies that present this kind of collective storytelling really beautifully.

Never underestimate the power of storytelling. The cinematography is beautiful.

If you have the whole prison hyping you up, you got to tell a good story.

And finally, the crazy old man with the chicken will be my final form.

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Set in Abidjan's MACA prison, the aging Black Beard, in attempt to maintain control over his fellow inmates, resorts to a "story" ritual, wherein one prisoner is forced, Scheherazade-style, to tell stories for an entire night. The young pickpocket he chooses relays the haunting tale of the Zama King.

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Dry Season (2006) dir Mahamat- Saleh Haroun

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Dry Season (2006) dir Mahamat- Saleh Haroun

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Chad, 2006. After a forty-year civil war, the radio announces the government has just amnestied the war criminals. Outraged by the news, Gumar Abatcha orders his grandson Atim, a sixteen-year-old youth, to trace the man who killed his father and to execute him. Atim obeys him and, armed with his father’s own gun, he goes in search of Nassara, the man who made him an orphan. It does not take long before he finds him. Nassara, who now goes straight, is married, goes to the mosque and owns a small bakery. After some hesitation Atim offers him his services as an apprentice. He is hired then it will be easy for him to gun down the murderer of his father. At least, that is what he thinks…

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Dry Season

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It's interesting how common revenge is as a plot line in films. The most popular plot line is almost certainly the exact opposite--love--just as it is in music. I don't think revenge is the second most popular plot line necessarily, but it has to be up there, possibly in the top ten. It's interesting in the context of popular film plots because of its stark contrast to the love story--a story so popular it gets wedged into films that do not need nor should conceivably have them in them--and because it suggests a universality to the revenge story, which seems absurd on the surface of things. But when you think about it, what a revenge story really is is the...

I think we all have a 'type', and when it comes to films, Daratt fits very well into mine. It was commissioned as part of a series of films commemorating Mozart's 250th anniversary (along with works by Tsai Ming-liang and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, not to mention Garin Nugroho's great Opera Jawa), and so at a plot level it uses some of the simplicity and big themes common to great opera: in this case it's a film about a young man taking revenge on the murderer of his father (killed during a prolonged civil war).

However, the resulting film has a very still, very studied visual style, allowed by this operatic framework. Indeed, one of the main characters has had his vocal...

إنه الموسم القاحل, المغبر, حيث الألم قاس وحيث لم يعد يولد اطفال, موسم فيه الاصوات المخنوقه ولا احد يتبادل الحديث مع احد, فالدهشة اخرست الجميع, ان كل شي يجري التعبير عنه بحركة الجسم والاشارة والنظرات,
هل الصفح ممكن؟ هل يوجد طريق وسط يمر بشيء اخر غير العنف؟

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I had a great time with the title of this film. I knew it only as "Daratt", you see, and the film begins with a considerably lengthy cold open. A quiet, simple set up that compels our hero to journey away. And as he walks away into the distance, we get the title cards. Actors, the director, and then... the title. "Daratt". But under that, the translation. "Dry Season". Oh shit, really? Fuuuuuuuuck yeah!

We've all seen this plot before. Silent angry young man out for revenge --> searches for target (in this case, the man who killed his father in a civil war years ago) --> finds target --> unable to kill target when he finally finds him, so...

Me before this: Oh, an Arabic revenge film. I wonder if this is going to be like every other action packed revenge movie?

Me after this: 😢😢😭

Definitely wasn't the typical revenge film.

I'm doing another challenge, so if you want to recommend a film for me to watch click on this link.

I don't think I had heard of this before, though I am somewhat familiar with Haroun's other films. It seems like it will be a simple revenge tale, but it evolves into a morally complex parable about justice and healing, both for an individual and for a nation. It's a quiet film, but the relationship between Ali Barkai and Youssouf Djaoro is fascinating. Their performances convey a lot without saying all that much.

A revenge story about someone who's doesn't go through with it not because he realises that he morally shouldn't but simply because he never overcomes his fear of it. I by no means think retribution is a productive way of doing things but having someone be too chicken to execute it doesn't completely invalidate it as a course of action and if this was meant to make any larger statement about its themes, it could have done so far more effectively.

Part of March Around The World 2016 Challenge
Country #25: Chad

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إنه الموسم القاحل, المغبر, حيث الألم قاس وحيث لم يعد يولد اطفال, موسم فيه الاصوات المخنوقه ولا احد يتبادل الحديث مع احد, فالدهشة اخرست الجميع, ان كل شي يجري التعبير عنه بحركة الجسم والاشارة والنظرات,
هل الصفح ممكن؟ هل يوجد طريق وسط يمر بشيء اخر غير العنف؟

Michael Novak, the scholar and theologian, points to a particular medieval story - best known to English speakers as Chaucer's Tale of Melibee from The Canterbury Tales - as the cornerstone of modern liberal society. In the story, a man seeking revenge for terrible wrongs finally has his enemies in his power, but he is prevailed upon by his wife not to take vengeance. If Professor Novak is right, we should take Daratt (or "Dry Season") by the Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun as being among the more hopeful artifacts to come out of the Islamic world in recent years.

As we have learned in Iraq, the sort of tribal society in which the vendetta and other sorts of "honor killing"...

Everything was great and the story is so tense
But why was the audio soooooo bad

Me before this: Oh, an Arabic revenge film. I wonder if this is going to be like every other action packed revenge movie?

Me after this: 😢😢😭

Definitely wasn't the typical revenge film.

The war-torn lands of Chad, which have suffered through decades of civil war and unrest, serve as the perfect backdrop for Mahamat Saleh Haroun's Dry Season, a film that wrestles with issues related to restorative justice through its intimate formal and narrative construction. Astutely recontextualizing retributive justice through a deeply empathetic lens, Dry Season examines how individual-based altruism can lead to collective progress, revealing in its denouement the positive-sum externalities placed on larger society as a whole when the anger subsides, and forgiveness takes root. The complexities and pain intrinsic to war and mass social conflict which reverberates for generations are displayed through a quiet yet deeply effective structure, stewing with tension and it deconstructs the aesthetics of violence. Violence...

"Did your hand tremble?"
"No."
"Then you are a man, my son."

Genuinely engaging, though very leisurely paced. An anti-revenge film. Almost like a silent movie, emphasizing gazes and gestures more than dialogue. Some brilliant compositions that reflect on the protagonist's own limited perspective. He is blinded by rage. Deep down these men want to connect with one another, but are unable to, inhibited by generational sins, by emotional dissonance. Quite good, but requires a lot of patience.

A story of family, of love, of hatred, ineptitude, silence, mercy. Whose revenge is it, anyway? Not Atim's. His grandfather uses him to carry out a personal vendetta against the man who killed his son -- Atim's grandfather who never even bothered to give Atim a name, simply calling him "Orphan Boy," all his life holding him under the shame and shadow of his dead father for this day, but simultaneously robbing him of the personal will or voice to A. Live a normal life besides AT ALL or--B. Carry out that very vengeance! This is why the ending pisses me off so badly. Walking away from the open expanses he might have had with with the repentant, loving man...

"Hello, My name is [unnamed street orphan]. You killed my father. Prepare to... take me in as your surrogate son? OK, great!"

Revenge! Revenge! Wait... revenge??! I kind of actually like this guy, Grampa.. Can we keep him? I don't mind that he killed Dad.

Still not sure whether his feelings towards for the guys wife though were brotherly, or...?

Please watch!

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Chad, 2006. After a forty-year civil war, the radio announces the government has just amnestied the war criminals. Outraged by the news, Gumar Abatcha orders his grandson Atim, a sixteen-year-old youth, to trace the man who killed his father and to execute him.

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The lost Okoroshi (2019) dir Abba Makama 

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The lost Okoroshi (2019) dir Abba Makama 

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Haunted by dreams of an ancestral Okoroshi masquerade, a disillusioned security guard wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a mute, purple spirit, in Abba Makama’s surrealist romp through the sprawling city of Lagos.

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Okay this film is actually fascinating. It really plays with pre-colonial Igbo spiritualism in a way that most Nigerian films won't touch except to call it demonic.

Narratively it's kinda messy but the performances and vibe pull you through

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A ★★★½ review of The Lost Okoroshi (2019)

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Okay this film is actually fascinating. It really plays with pre-colonial Igbo spiritualism in a way that most Nigerian films won't touch except to call it demonic. Narratively it's kinda messy but the performances and vibe pull you through

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Homecoming (2019) dir Beyoncé knowles, Ed Burke 

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Homecoming (2019) dir Beyoncé knowles, Ed Burke 

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This intimate, in-depth look at Beyoncé’s celebrated 2018 Coachella performance reveals the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement.

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A ★★★★★ review of Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (2019)

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the greatest performer of all time OF ALL TIME

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Hair love (2019) dir Bruce W.Smith, Matthew A.Cherry, Everett Downing Jr.

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Hair love (2019) dir Bruce W.Smith, Matthew A.Cherry, Everett Downing Jr.

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When dad has to unexpectedly step in for mom to do his daughter Zuri’s hair before a big event, what seems like a simple task is anything but as these locks have a mind of their own!

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Super cute short film before 'Angry Birds 2'.

As a Dad of three boys this little gem really made me wish I had a daughter, as the father and daughter worked together to style her hair. Typical Dad move to try and just have her wear a hat. It was neat how the girl had a huge series of videos on her tablet for how to do each hairstyle.

The animation had a scratchy hand-drawn look to it, which added a lot of character to the little girl's hair. Hopefully, this will be in the running for Best Animated Short come Oscar season.

Spoiler...

Was feeling some major Totoro vibes in this one.

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Super cute short film before 'Angry Birds 2'. As a Dad of three boys this little gem really made me wish I had a daughter, as the father and daughter worked together to style her hair. Typical Dad move to try and just have her wear a hat.

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LONG LIVE THE KING.

King T’Challa returns home from America to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country’s new leader. However, T’Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne by factions within his own country as well as without. Using powers reserved to Wakandan kings, T’Challa assumes the Black Panther mantel to join with girlfriend Nakia, the queen-mother, his princess-kid sister, members of the Dora Milaje (the Wakandan ‘special forces’) and an American secret agent, to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war.

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brain: erik killmonger is a villain

big brain: erik killmonger is a villain who had some good points

bigger brain: erik killmonger was left orphaned and like many people of low socioeconomic standing, not given the resources to grow up to be traditionally successful. he is right and speaks painful truths. he wants to liberate and protect black people all over the world, and provide a sense of belonging to people who have only known what it is to have things taken. he is a complex character and the opposite side of the same coin that is t'challa - as one wants to provide for his people through isolation and harmony, while the other wants to protect his people by fighting back

biggest brain: michael b jordan is hot

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King T'Challa returns home from America to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country's new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne by factions within his own country as well as without.

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The tale of a black samurai in futuristic, yet feudal Japan who is on a mission to avenge the wrongful death of his father.

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Afro Samurai

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Afro Samurai spends his life killing people to capture and maintain the no.2 headband, while seeking to avenge the death of his father. A lot of people want the no.1 headband since they believe that it grants them god-like powers. However, you must first capture the no.2 headband before you can challenge the person with the no.1 headband. This brings constant violence to whoever possesses the no.2 headband. There's not much time for peaceful living as Afro Samurai takes this long hyper violent journey to reach the guy who killed his father.

The story is smooth and straightforward. Raw storytelling with no fluff. The delivery is very creative from the character designs to the futuristic take on Japan's samurai era. I love the animation and Samuel L. Jackson stands out as usual. This is definitely a favorite among animated entertainment.

When I was like 14 years old I used to think manga was cool.

EDIT: just so we're clear I don't give a fuck if it's manga or anime, Afro Samurai is a shit movie.

Shout out to my boy SAMMY L
Shout out to my boy THE RZA
And shout out to whoever animated this fucking thing

Afro samurai has great voice actors, visuals and animation, Afro samurai is a dessert for the eyes, but it lacks everywhere else, if animation is what you mostly care about then give it a shot, but if you tend to like everything else that comes with a solid anime, then I wouldn't advise watching too much of this!

Techno & Samurai -- two genres I never would have imagined one could pare together, never the less that it would actually work so damn well!

Told well in a basic Amecian narrative of mixing current time with the occasional flashback to fill in the missing details, and animated purposefully to look modern-dayish-American/old-school-samurai wasteland. We're taken on a journey of a afro-hairded samurai (also named Afro, lol) as he, while relentlessly followed by an odd but cool in his ways old man (Voiced phenomally by the great Samuel L.Jackson), seeks revenge upon the "number one headband" for killing his father. Now if you more or less have the same taste and opinions as I, you probaly though "no, not yet another...

" It's nothing personal, just revenge."

Despite being based on a manga that predates both Samurai Jack and Samurai Champloo, I still found the latter two to be a lot funner and narratively fulfilling. Regardless, Afro Samurai is a damn good time, starring Sam Jackson and a slew of respectable voice actors including but not limited to: Phil LaMarr ( Samurai Jack, Justice League), Steve Blum ( Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, literally every anime), Liam O'Brien ( Critical Role), John DiMaggio ( Kim Possible, Gears of War, Samurai Jack, Disenchantment), Yuri Lowenthal ( Gurren Laggan, Naruto, every video game e.g. PS4's Spider-Man), and Tara Strong ( Powerpuff Girls, Fairly Odd Parents, Teen Titans, Xiaolin Showdown). Stacked for voice acting fans, to say the least. The animation is...

"you're ready to die like your papi?"

...solo me tomó 10 años ver esto. Hace unos días me vino esto a la mente y de casualidad vi que estaba completo en youtube así que me dije: Ahora o nunca, antes de que se me olvide.

¿Y bien? ...eso fue grandioso, quedé fascinado por la intensa y violenta animación, la historia algo gastada con el sufrimiento y sed de venganza de Afro, aunque me encantó la manera en que está contada, todo lo demás es bastante maravilloso con los sangrientos combates, los flashback a mitad de la acción, la sensualidad de Otsuru y lo más más genial: escuchar a Samuel L. Jackson y Ron Perlman en sus perspectivos personajes.

Algo que me sorprendió mucho fue el uso de elementos cibernéticos, no me esperaba ver ese tipo de personajes aquí combatiendo a Afro, sumamente estupendo.

"The never ending battles continues..."

It's a fairly simple story and one that's been told a million times: boy spends his entire life seeking revenge for his father's murder, but I've never seen it quite like this. Afro Samurai takes from early samurai films, of course, but also hip hop, and sci-fi with its cybernetic villains.

Samuel L. Jackson plays the character of Afro Samurai very low key. After all, Afro is a man of very few words and an eye focused on only one thing: Justice (Rob Perlman, whose voice work here almost oozes, he's so slimy), the man who killed his father. Pretty somber stuff. Fortunately Sam also plays Ninja Ninja, Afro's imaginary sidekick/inner child/voice of reason and here's where Jackson lets his...

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ultimately this is bad fucking ASS.

little choppy and kind of a diet Samurai Champloo at heart - but the fighting is sick and the focus of the story is very clear and well put together!

Samuel L Jackson as badass man and Samuel L Jackson as funny man

Do I have to say more??

"Does this Motherfucker have a motherfucking RPG in a motherfucking backpack?!"
Motherfucker With an RPG: " Yes"

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Afro Samurai More Afro Samurai spends his life killing people to capture and maintain the no.2 headband, while seeking to avenge the death of his father. A lot of people want the no.1 headband since they believe that it grants them god-like powers.

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The second “visual album” (a collection of short films) by Beyoncé, this time around she takes a piercing look at racial issues and feminist concepts through a sexualized, satirical, and solemn tone.

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Lemonade

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EDIT: CLICK ALL THE LINKS FOR INSIGHTS THAT ACTUALLY COUNT:
8 Black Canadian women | Jamilah Lemieux | bell hooks | Ijeoma Oluo | Clover Hope | Melissa Harris-Perry | Transcript | Jamilah King | Warsan Shire | Malcolm X | Syreeta McFadden | Angelica Jade Bastien | Jamelia | Gabby Beshadu | Akiba Solomon | Sounding Out!

I love hype.

You can say you hate it, but if you think about it, maybe there has been a time in your life when you were caught up in it--and you loved that experience. Maybe in the end you were disappointed, but in the moment, maybe the hype felt good, and in that moment, you felt connected to the thousands (millions?)...

"if we're gonna heal, let it be glorious"
absolutely staggering portrait of personal & national pain, history and identity

86/100
Not really sure what to classify Lemonade as, especially because it seems too ambitious to be labeled as a "visual album" but the music and images are so ceaselessly intertwined. All I know is that I collapsed into a euphoric state when it started - flowing like a river through bewildering, contemplative imagery - and I "woke up" with the most cathartic sense of Beyoncé's artistry. 11 chapters, 11 styles, 11 tones, one shimmering experience. Many have compared the art piece to Late-Godard and Malick, but it's all Knowles; an engrossing odyssey through history but rooted in the pains and passions of infidelity. Whatever Lemonade is, it's one of the most essential journeys you can take.

thank you momther for me life

A gigantic, postmodern explosion of unfiltered expressionism.

intuition -
it's that deep sinking feeling in your gut that you get when you know that something is wrong. when you know that someone is lying to you. when you know what they're hiding.

denial -
you try to change. make yourself more appealing, make yourself prettier or more available or quieter. change yourself to be better, punish yourself for not being enough.

anger -
but why should you? is this pain worth it? it's not. why should you have to suffer and change and try so hard for nothing - for no one? you're better than this.

apathy -
but whatever you don't care anyway. you're above this, you're above this person. you feel nothing. you are nothing....

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I'm not a huge fan of Beyoncé's music, and I probably would have no interest in seeing this if I didn't have to watch it for my studies, but I actually quite enjoyed this film. It's a very visually striking companion piece to the album of the same name, which I haven't actually heard on its own, but I would assume most of the music from that was in this. I think it succeeds in conveying Beyoncé's personal experiences with themes of intersectionality and womanhood laced through.

There were parts I felt dragged or were less engaging at points, but overall I think it was quite effective and was presented very artfully.

Music, and visuals go hand in hand. They have well before MTV, and they will continue to influence each other for the rest of time. There is no better combination, as both are spectacular by themselves, yet even greater together.

Music in movies can take things to an entirely different level. Try watching Pulp Fiction, or Inception, or Marie Antoinette without music. All have gorgeous visuals, yet without their soundtracks/scores, they lose a ton of impact.

Beyonce combines some of the best music, and some of the best visuals, to consistently create something spectacular. And Lemonade is no different.
Ranking Concert Films/Visual Albums

Beautiful, inventive, mesmerizing, challenging, inspiring, eloquent, tortured, terrifying , erotic, powerful.

Oh, I'm just describing beyonce. The movie was good too.

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Lemonade More EDIT: CLICK ALL THE LINKS FOR INSIGHTS THAT ACTUALLY COUNT: 8 Black Canadian women | Jamilah Lemieux | bell hooks | Ijeoma Oluo | Clover Hope | Melissa Harris-Perry | Transcript | Jamilah King | Warsan Shire | Malcolm X | Syreeta McFadden | Angelica Jade Bastien | Jamelia | Gabby Beshadu | Akiba Solomon | Sounding Out!

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The Sounds of Croydon: From Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to Stormzy

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The Sounds of Croydon: From Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to Stormzy

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Free online exhibition running from October 2020-December 2020

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It's been more than 120 years since composer Sir Arthur Sullivan described Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast as'fresh and original'.Since then a number of bright young local stars have made their mark on the international music industry and this exhibition showcases their journey.

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#SoundsofCroydon | An Online Art Exhibition

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It's been more than 120 years since composer Sir Arthur Sullivan described Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast as'fresh and original'.Since then a number of bright young local stars have made their mark on the international music industry and this exhibition showcases their journey.

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The death and life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017) dir David France

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The death and life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017) dir David France

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A LIFE THAT LAUNCHED A REVOLUTION, A DEATH THAT REMAINS A MYSTERY

Describing herself as a ‘street queen,’ Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.

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The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

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unfortunately watched this without knowing that the director stole the basis for this documentary from transgender activist/filmmaker Tourmaline. instead, check out her and Sasha Wortzel's 15-minute short Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2018), which is (ironically) streaming on prime.

you can also donate to the following organizations dedicated to protecting Black trans lives:
- Black Trans Protestors Emergency Fund - organized by the Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Collective, this fund specifically raises and posts bail for Black trans protestors.
- Emergency Release Fund - aims to raise and post bail for anyone who identifies as LGBTQ, trans folk in particular.
- Homeless Black Trans Women Fund - a GoFundMe aiming to provide resources for Black trans women in Atlanta who are sex workers or homeless.
- Tony McDade Memorial Fund - police shot and killed McDade, a Black trans man, in Tallahassee on May 27th of this year. this GoFundMe raises money for his family.

i did not watch this nor do i plan to, because this film was stolen from reina gossett, a black trans woman
( www.instagram.com/p/BZ7byULA9KA/?taken-by=reinaxgossett)

please do not watch this film and go support reina's fund ( www.happybirthdaymarsha.com/donate/). it makes me so sick that marsha's story has been ripped out of the hands of trans woc just like her, and exploited for cash. this shit needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW.

DON'T SUPPORT THIS MOVIE
From Reina Gossett's Instagram:
reinaxgossett: #deepshare #realtruth this week while I'm borrowing money to pay rent, david france is releasing his multimillion dollar netflix deal on marsha p johnson. i'm still lost in the music trying to #pay_it_no_mind and reeling on how this movie came to be and make so much $ off of our lives and ideas. david got inspired to make this film from a grant application video that sasha & I made and sent to Kalamazoo/Arcus Foundation social justice center while he was visiting. He told the people who worked there -i shit you not- that he should be the one to do this film, got a grant from Sundance/Arcus using my language and...

the irony that a documentary investigating the injustice against a black trans woman was stolen by a cis white man FROM A BLACK TRANS WOMAN is so insidious and disgusting that this documentary both proves and undermines the justice it seeks to achieve. if u want to support black trans women, support Reina Gosset, the woman who this documentary was stolen from who can't pay rent this week. DO NOT WATCH HER STOLEN WORK!! i watched it before realising, save yourself the trouble.

There is nothing more devastating than seeing something like the controversy surrounding what might be the most important film for trans and the rest of the LGTBQ+, tear our community apart even farther. What about Victoria Cruz's voice? Her's is central to this film, it matters the most in fighting for the importance of trans lives to the very end. What about the 19 trans crew members who worked on this film? What about Sylvia Rivera? What about Marsha? What about Reina Gossett?

On both sides, the current situation is to discredit so many other voices in favor of others.

ALL TRANS VOICES NEED TO BE HEARD.

But we'd rather create a war of outrage and witch hunt of who...

I feel so bad for only hearing the controversy, after I watched this...
But I'm aware now.
Marsha's Story has been exploited for cash, and been ripped out of the hands of trans women like Reina Gossett.

In Reina's own words :
„David got inspired to make this film from a grant application video that sasha & I made and sent to Kalamazoo/Arcus Foundation social justice center while he was visiting. He told the people who worked there, that he should be the one to do this film, got a grant from Sundance/Arcus using my language and research about STAR, got Vimeo to remove my video of Sylvia's critical "y'all better quiet down" speech, ripped off decades of my archival research...

i haven't watched this, and don't plan to.

hear me out for a second, but this film was stolen by a white man (david france) from a black trans woman named reina gossett/tourmaline (which you can read about here.

** instead of supporting this version, watch the original; happy birthday, marsha! which is now available to stream on amazon prime!

Although it tells a very important truth that still needs to be recognized by the general public and also by the LGBTQ+ community itself, the director stole the whole movie from its original creator: Reina Gossett, a black transgender woman. (here's the whole truth: www.instagram.com/p/BZ7byULA9KA/?igshid=1vd9yrmdw5zin)
Unfortunately, I didn't know that otherwise, I wouldn't have watched it. So please don't watch this movie and support Reina Gossett instead: www.happybirthdaymarsha.com/ - www.reinagossett.com/contribute/.
Support black people: blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/.
And support black trans women: www.gofundme.com/f/homeless-black-trans-women-fund?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

ok no wonder i felt like this didn't pay homage to marsha p. as much as i thought it would... it was a film stolen by a white male from a black trans woman

If you watched this on Netflix and you didn't know the film was stolen from transgender activist/filmmaker Tourmaline, you should buy or rent her short. We owe her.

happy pride month everyone! let's not forget who helped give us the rights we have today.

marsha p. johnson was a black trans woman who was an outspoken and dedicated activist to the LGBTQ+ community. she did so much for the LGBTQ+ community and strived to make the community more inclusive to people of color, yet her work and dedication often times goes unnoticed. her death, which was ruled a suicide by the NYPD (assumedly because they most likely didn't care enough to investigate the death of an outspoken black trans woman), has been doubted for decades, due to a lack of evidence, eyewitness accounts, and the overwhelming joy and charisma that johnson had everyday. the NYPD has recently continued...

should have read the reviews before watching this. the death and life of marsha p. johnson was good, however i do not support david france nor this film and neither should you, seeing as he ripped it away from a trans woc's hands. do not watch this documentary. support reina gossett and fund her instead.
www.happybirthdaymarsha.com/donate/

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I love marsha, but
...written by a cis white man 😛
it's missing something

Fuck, I spent an hour and a half watching this, not realizing it was stolen by a cis white man. Stream Happy Birthday Marsha by Tourmaline

really disappointed to read about the controversy surrounding this movie. Marsha P. Johnson was such an important figure to so many that she deserves a thorough and loving depiction.

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The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)

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Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City's gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC's Greenwich Village.

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For years, Ollie has illicitly helped the struggling residents of her North Dakota oil boomtown access Canadian health care and medication. When the authorities catch on, she plans to abandon her crusade, only to be dragged in even deeper after a desperate plea for help from her sister.

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Little Woods

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I mean... is there anything more terrifying than having to rely on the US Healthcare system?

lily james and tessa thompson are like REALLY good at doing the whole acting thing!!!!!!!! they can do no wrong we stan

Tessa Thompson and Lily James play sisters. Lily James' character is in a huge slump and Tessa Thompson's character is a parolee trying to make good. Lily James dresses way down and goes for a non-glamorous look as does the makeup-less Tessa Thompson for the most part. It's definitely something I've wanted to see more of in the past: women directors don't have the male gaze, so they don't fetishize women and they don't always have to look beautiful or be in makeup (or rather they can still be beautiful without makeup). This doesn't always work in this case, but it's a nice change.

Hailing from New York, Nia DaCosta got accepted into several Sundance programs to help develop the...

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

when that dude was like "i can be better" and lily james's character said "you cant...." every women in the audience snickered

LAFF 2018: Movie #8 "Your choices are only as good as your options."
Beautifully, beautifully acted and told, Little Woods is a gorgeous little movie that manages to pack a rich plot into a character-driven drama. It's always so painful to watch people put themselves at risk while knowing it's what they think is right.

These sisters are far from greedy, craving nothing but stability in their lives, yet that goal couldn't be more difficult to achieve with such a rocky starting point. Tessa Thompson's Ollie, in particular, tries so hard to do things the right way, but it's just not enough to keep her afloat. I was fully invested in this story, even in the bits where it started to drag. Dark as it may sound, there was a rare optimism to this that was so refreshing to see. It always felt warm.

I really enjoyed this movie; I think it was such a great character study. I like seeing real problems that people face depicted in movies and this one did it very well. Struggling with money, with health care, with family - these are all such relatable issues and it felt so genuine in this story.

It did make me more anxious than I'd normally like though. Like, watching a superhero fist fight an alien or something can be nice because you can watch low stakes conflict and enjoy it. But watching a woman struggle to get enough money for an abortion is so real and upsetting to watch because the American healthcare system is worse than any villain someone could...

Tessa Thompson plays a North Dakota hard luck young woman on probation in Little Woods, only by necessity needing to get back into illegal pharmaceutical border drug trade to not only catch up on mortgage payments but now help out her sister Lily James who is pregnant with her second and living inside a trailer park. Just before the 25-minute mark, James has a tantrum scene when her ex-husband shows up in person to give a financial hand-out, but, he's drunk you see, and that means she has to throw money to the wind.

Call me a stickler for realism, but even when an ex is coarsely drunk a mother in need of support is never going to be not...

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This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

It's always very refreshing to see a film focused on female characters reacting within the neo-noir genre, Writer/director Nia DaCosta's debut examines the life of two sisters in rural North Dakota coming up against desperate, dangerous situations. Ollie & Deb are sisters, their difference in race explained away by Ollie's being adopted. Both struggle with poverty & desolation. Both are driven by circumstance to take dangerous steps to try to survive. Even though Ollie has just a few days left on her parole for dealing Oxycontin, she is roped back into dealing by two developments: the bank's foreclosure of their childhood home, and Deb's newly-discovered pregnancy. Soon her stash is depleted and she has to make a dangerous run across the border...

Ollie Hale is not a drug dealer, but there was a period of time in her life when she sold drugs. The distinction is subtle but powerful in Nia DaCosta's debut Little Woods, a small-time crime thriller about people like Ollie who are doing what they have to if they're going to survive. Played by Tessa Thompson, Ollie was busted crossing the Canadian border from North Dakota on pill runs, and as the film opens, her probation is nearly over but the forces that drove her towards illegality haven't let up. She's in the middle of a boom-town economy thanks to fossil fuels, but all the readily available work is barely enough to cover skyrocketing inflation or the amount she...

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For years, Ollie has illicitly helped the struggling residents of her North Dakota oil boomtown access Canadian health care and medication. When the authorities catch on, she plans to abandon her crusade, only to be dragged in even deeper after a desperate plea for help from her sister.

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Resources and Tools regarding Racism & AntiBlackness 

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Resources and Tools regarding Racism & AntiBlackness 

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Re: Sick and tired of hearing “source?” or having to explain white privilege and systemic racism? 

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Re: Sick and tired of hearing “source?” or having to explain white privilege and systemic racism? 

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Re: Sick and tired of hearing "source?" or having to explain white privilege and systemic racism? [reformatted]

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Re: Sick and tired of hearing "source?" or having to explain white privilege and systemic racism? [reformatted] Hello all! This is a reformatted version of this post originally compiled by...

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The Ballot or the Bullet
by Malcolm X
April 3, 1964
Cleveland, Ohio

Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can't believe everyone in here is a friend, and I don't want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is "The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?" or What Next?" In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.

Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. I'm still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. That's my personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr. Martin Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another organization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess you've heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.

Although I'm still a Muslim, I'm not here tonight to discuss my religion. I'm not here to try and change your religion. I'm not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you're a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you're educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch hell just like I am. We're all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a white man. All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man.

Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man. If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.

If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. It's one or the other in 1964. It isn't that time is running out -- time has run out!

1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? It's also a political year. It's the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they don't intend to keep. As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an explosion; and now we have the type of black man on the scene in America today -- I'm sorry, Brother Lomax -- who just doesn't intend to turn the other cheek any longer.

Don't let anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you. If they draft you, they send you to Korea and make you face 800 million Chinese. If you can be brave over there, you can be brave right here. These odds aren't as great as those odds. And if you fight here, you will at least know what you're fighting for.

I'm not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, I'm not a student of much of anything. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican, and I don't even consider myself an American. If you and I were Americans, there'd be no problem. Those Honkies that just got off the boat, they're already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we aren't Americans yet.

Well, I am one who doesn't believe in deluding myself. I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you wouldn't need any legislation; you wouldn't need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn't be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now. They don't have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a Polack an American.

No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver -- no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.

These 22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming open. They're beginning to see what they used to only look at. They're becoming politically mature. They are realizing that there are new political trends from coast to coast. As they see these new political trends, it's possible for them to see that every time there's an election the races are so close that they have to have a recount. They had to recount in Massachusetts to see who was going to be governor, it was so close. It was the same way in Rhode Island, in Minnesota, and in many other parts of the country. And the same with Kennedy and Nixon when they ran for president. It was so close they had to count all over again. Well, what does this mean? It means that when white people are evenly divided, and black people have a bloc of votes of their own, it is left up to them to determine who's going to sit in the White House and who's going to be in the dog house.

lt. was the black man's vote that put the present administration in Washington, D.C. Your vote, your dumb vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an administration in Washington, D.C., that has seen fit to pass every kind of legislation imaginable, saving you until last, then filibustering on top of that. And your and my leaders have the audacity to run around clapping their hands and talk about how much progress we're making. And what a good president we have. If he wasn't good in Texas, he sure can't be good in Washington, D.C. Because Texas is a lynch state. It is in the same breath as Mississippi, no different; only they lynch you in Texas with a Texas accent and lynch you in Mississippi with a Mississippi accent. And these Negro leaders have the audacity to go and have some coffee in the White House with a Texan, a Southern cracker -- that's all he is -- and then come out and tell you and me that he's going to be better for us because, since he's from the South, he knows how to deal with the Southerners. What kind of logic is that? Let Eastland be president, he's from the South too. He should be better able to deal with them than Johnson.

In this present administration they have in the House of Representatives 257 Democrats to only 177 Republicans. They control two-thirds of the House vote. Why can't they pass something that will help you and me? In the Senate, there are 67 senators who are of the Democratic Party. Only 33 of them are Republicans. Why, the Democrats have got the government sewed up, and you're the one who sewed it up for them. And what have they given you for it? Four years in office, and just now getting around to some civil-rights legislation. Just now, after everything else is gone, out of the way, they're going to sit down now and play with you all summer long -- the same old giant con game that they call filibuster. All those are in cahoots together. Don't you ever think they're not in cahoots together, for the man that is heading the civil-rights filibuster is a man from Georgia named Richard Russell. When Johnson became president, the first man he asked for when he got back to Washington, D.C., was "Dicky" -- that's how tight they are. That's his boy, that's his pal, that's his buddy. But they're playing that old con game. One of them makes believe he's for you, and he's got it fixed where the other one is so tight against you, he never has to keep his promise.

So it's time in 1964 to wake up. And when you see them coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open. And let them know you -- something else that's wide open too. It's got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet. If you're afraid to use an expression like that, you should get on out of the country; you should get back in the cotton patch; you should get back in the alley. They get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return. All they did when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes didn't need big jobs, they already had jobs. That's camouflage, that's trickery, that's treachery, window-dressing. I'm not trying to knock out the Democrats for the Republicans. We'll get to them in a minute. But it is true; you put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last.

Look at it the way it is. What alibis do they use, since they control Congress and the Senate? What alibi do they use when you and I ask, "Well, when are you going to keep your promise?" They blame the Dixiecrats. What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise. The titular head of the Democrats is also the head of the Dixiecrats, because the Dixiecrats are a part of the Democratic Party. The Democrats have never kicked the Dixiecrats out of the party. The Dixiecrats bolted themselves once, but the Democrats didn't put them out. Imagine, these lowdown Southern segregationists put the Northern Democrats down. But the Northern Democrats have never put the Dixiecrats down. No, look at that thing the way it is. They have got a con game going on, a political con game, and you and I are in the middle. It's time for you and me to wake up and start looking at it like it is, and trying to understand it like it is; and then we can deal with it like it is.

The Dixiecrats in Washington, D.C., control the key committees that run the government. The only reason the Dixiecrats control these committees is because they have seniority. The only reason they have seniority is because they come from states where Negroes can't vote. This is not even a government that's based on democracy. lt. is not a government that is made up of representatives of the people. Half of the people in the South can't even vote. Eastland is not even supposed to be in Washington. Half of the senators and congressmen who occupy these key positions in Washington, D.C., are there illegally, are there unconstitutionally.

I was in Washington, D.C., a week ago Thursday, when they were debating whether or not they should let the bill come onto the floor. And in the back of the room where the Senate meets, there's a huge map of the United States, and on that map it shows the location of Negroes throughout the country. And it shows that the Southern section of the country, the states that are most heavily concentrated with Negroes, are the ones that have senators and congressmen standing up filibustering and doing all other kinds of trickery to keep the Negro from being able to vote. This is pitiful. But it's not pitiful for us any longer; it's actually pitiful for the white man, because soon now, as the Negro awakens a little more and sees the vise that he's in, sees the bag that he's in, sees the real game that he's in, then the Negro's going to develop a new tactic.

These senators and congressmen actually violate the constitutional amendments that guarantee the people of that particular state or county the right to vote. And the Constitution itself has within it the machinery to expel any representative from a state where the voting rights of the people are violated. You don't even need new legislation. Any person in Congress right now, who is there from a state or a district where the voting rights of the people are violated, that particular person should be expelled from Congress. And when you expel him, you've removed one of the obstacles in the path of any real meaningful legislation in this country. In fact, when you expel them, you don't need new legislation, because they will be replaced by black representatives from counties and districts where the black man is in the majority, not in the minority.

If the black man in these Southern states had his full voting rights, the key Dixiecrats in Washington, D. C., which means the key Democrats in Washington, D.C., would lose their seats. The Democratic Party itself would lose its power. It would cease to be powerful as a party. When you see the amount of power that would be lost by the Democratic Party if it were to lose the Dixiecrat wing, or branch, or element, you can see where it's against the interests of the Democrats to give voting rights to Negroes in states where the Democrats have been in complete power and authority ever since the Civil War. You just can't belong to that Party without analyzing it.

I say again, I'm not anti-Democrat, I'm not anti-Republican, I'm not anti-anything. I'm just questioning their sincerity, and some of the strategy that they've been using on our people by promising them promises that they don't intend to keep. When you keep the Democrats in power, you're keeping the Dixiecrats in power. I doubt that my good Brother Lomax will deny that. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a Dixiecrat. That's why, in 1964, it's time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet. It's either a ballot or a bullet.

In the North, they do it a different way. They have a system that's known as gerrymandering, whatever that means. It means when Negroes become too heavily concentrated in a certain area, and begin to gain too much political power, the white man comes along and changes the district lines. You may say, "Why do you keep saying white man?" Because it's the white man who does it. I haven't ever seen any Negro changing any lines. They don't let him get near the line. It's the white man who does this. And usually, it's the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be friendly, but he's not your friend.

So, what I'm trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, we're faced with a government conspiracy. Everyone who's filibustering is a senator -- that's the government. Everyone who's finagling in Washington, D.C., is a congressman -- that's the government. You don't have anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a part of the government. The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent education. You don't need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of black people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap. This government has failed the Negro. This so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And all these white liberals have definitely failed the Negro.

So, where do we go from here? First, we need some friends. We need some new allies. The entire civil-rights struggle needs a new interpretation, a broader interpretation. We need to look at this civil-rights thing from another angle -- from the inside as well as from the outside. To those of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, the only way you can get involved in the civil-rights struggle is give it a new interpretation. That old interpretation excluded us. It kept us out. So, we're giving a new interpretation to the civil-rights struggle, an interpretation that will enable us to come into it, take part in it. And these handkerchief-heads who have been dillydallying and pussy footing and compromising -- we don't intend to let them pussyfoot and dillydally and compromise any longer.

How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what's already yours? You haven't even made progress, if what's being given to you, you should have had already. That's not progress. And I love my Brother Lomax, the way he pointed out we're right back where we were in 1954. We're not even as far up as we were in 1954. We're behind where we were in 1954. There's more segregation now than there was in 1954. There's more racial animosity, more racial hatred, more racial violence today in 1964, than there was in 1954. Where is the progress?

And now you're facing a situation where the young Negro's coming up. They don't want to hear that "turn the-other-cheek" stuff, no. In Jacksonville, those were teenagers, they were throwing Molotov cocktails. Negroes have never done that before. But it shows you there's a new deal coming in. There's new thinking coming in. There's new strategy coming in. It'll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and something else next month. It'll be ballots, or it'll be bullets. It'll be liberty, or it will be death. The only difference about this kind of death -- it'll be reciprocal. You know what is meant by "reciprocal"? That's one of Brother Lomax's words. I stole it from him. I don't usually deal with those big words because I don't usually deal with big people. I deal with small people. I find you can get a whole lot of small people and whip hell out of a whole lot of big people. They haven't got anything to lose, and they've got every thing to gain. And they'll let you know in a minute: "It takes two to tango; when I go, you go."

The black nationalists, those whose philosophy is black nationalism, in bringing about this new interpretation of the entire meaning of civil rights, look upon it as meaning, as Brother Lomax has pointed out, equality of opportunity. Well, we're justified in seeking civil rights, if it means equality of opportunity, because all we're doing there is trying to collect for our investment. Our mothers and fathers invested sweat and blood. Three hundred and ten years we worked in this country without a dime in return -- I mean without a dime in return. You let the white man walk around here talking about how rich this country is, but you never stop to think how it got rich so quick. It got rich because you made it rich.

You take the people who are in this audience right now. They're poor. We're all poor as individuals. Our weekly salary individually amounts to hardly anything. But if you take the salary of everyone in here collectively, it'll fill up a whole lot of baskets. It's a lot of wealth. If you can collect the wages of just these people right here for a year, you'll be rich -- richer than rich. When you look at it like that, think how rich Uncle Sam had to become, not with this handful, but millions of black people. Your and my mother and father, who didn't work an eight-hour shift, but worked from "can't see" in the morning until "can't see" at night, and worked for nothing, making the white man rich, making Uncle Sam rich. This is our investment. This is our contribution, our blood.

Not only did we give of our free labor, we gave of our blood. Every time he had a call to arms, we were the first ones in uniform. We died on every battlefield the white man had. We have made a greater sacrifice than anybody who's standing up in America today. We have made a greater contribution and have collected less. Civil rights, for those of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, means: "Give it to us now. Don't wait for next year. Give it to us yesterday, and that's not fast enough."

I might stop right here to point out one thing. Whenever you're going after something that belongs to you, anyone who's depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal. Understand that. Whenever you are going after something that is yours, you are within your legal rights to lay claim to it. And anyone who puts forth any effort to deprive you of that which is yours, is breaking the law, is a criminal. And this was pointed out by the Supreme Court decision. It outlawed segregation.

Which means segregation is against the law. Which means a segregationist is breaking the law. A segregationist is a criminal. You can't label him as anything other than that. And when you demonstrate against segregation, the law is on your side. The Supreme Court is on your side.

Now, who is it that opposes you in carrying out the law? The police department itself. With police dogs and clubs. Whenever you demonstrate against segregation, whether it is segregated education, segregated housing, or anything else, the law is on your side, and anyone who stands in the way is not the law any longer. They are breaking the law; they are not representatives of the law. Any time you demonstrate against segregation and a man has the audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog, kill him, I'm telling you, kill that dog. I say it, if they put me in jail tomorrow, kill that dog. Then you'll put a stop to it. Now, if these white people in here don't want to see that kind of action, get down and tell the mayor to tell the police department to pull the dogs in. That's all you have to do. If you don't do it, someone else will.

If you don't take this kind of stand, your little children will grow up and look at you and think "shame." If you don't take an uncompromising stand, I don't mean go out and get violent; but at the same time you should never be nonviolent unless you run into some nonviolence. I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go insane, and I'm not responsible for what I do. And that's the way every Negro should get. Any time you know you're within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in. But don't die alone. Let your dying be reciprocal. This is what is meant by equality. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

When we begin to get in this area, we need new friends, we need new allies. We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level -- to the level of human rights. Whenever you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or not, you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. No one from the outside world can speak out in your behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights struggle. Civil rights comes within the domestic affairs of this country. All of our African brothers and our Asian brothers and our Latin-American brothers cannot open their mouths and interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States. And as long as it's civil rights, this comes under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam.

But the United Nations has what's known as the charter of human rights; it has a committee that deals in human rights. You may wonder why all of the atrocities that have been committed in Africa and in Hungary and in Asia, and in Latin America are brought before the UN, and the Negro problem is never brought before the UN. This is part of the conspiracy. This old, tricky blue eyed liberal who is supposed to be your and my friend, supposed to be in our corner, supposed to be subsidizing our struggle, and supposed to be acting in the capacity of an adviser, never tells you anything about human rights. They keep you wrapped up in civil rights. And you spend so much time barking up the civil-rights tree, you don't even know there's a human-rights tree on the same floor.

When you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights, you can then take the case of the black man in this country before the nations in the UN. You can take it before the General Assembly. You can take Uncle Sam before a world court. But the only level you can do it on is the level of human rights. Civil rights keeps you under his restrictions, under his jurisdiction. Civil rights keeps you in his pocket. Civil rights means you're asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth. And any time any one violates your human rights, you can take them to the world court.

Uncle Sam's hands are dripping with blood, dripping with the blood of the black man in this country. He's the earth's number-one hypocrite. He has the audacity -- yes, he has -- imagine him posing as the leader of the free world. The free world! And you over here singing "We Shall Overcome." Expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights. Take it into the United Nations, where our African brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our Asian brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our Latin-American brothers can throw their weight on our side, and where 800 million Chinamen are sitting there waiting to throw their weight on our side.

Let the world know how bloody his hands are. Let the world know the hypocrisy that's practiced over here. Let it be the ballot or the bullet. Let him know that it must be the ballot or the bullet.

When you take your case to Washington, D.C., you're taking it to the criminal who's responsible; it's like running from the wolf to the fox. They're all in cahoots together. They all work political chicanery and make you look like a chump before the eyes of the world. Here you are walking around in America, getting ready to be drafted and sent abroad, like a tin soldier, and when you get over there, people ask you what are you fighting for, and you have to stick your tongue in your cheek. No, take Uncle Sam to court, take him before the world.

By ballot I only mean freedom. Don't you know -- I disagree with Lomax on this issue -- that the ballot is more important than the dollar? Can I prove it? Yes. Look in the UN. There are poor nations in the UN; yet those poor nations can get together with their voting power and keep the rich nations from making a move. They have one nation -- one vote, everyone has an equal vote. And when those brothers from Asia, and Africa and the darker parts of this earth get together, their voting power is sufficient to hold Sam in check. Or Russia in check. Or some other section of the earth in check. So, the ballot is most important.

Right now, in this country, if you and I, 22 million African-Americans -- that's what we are -- Africans who are in America. You're nothing but Africans. Nothing but Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans. An African can go anywhere he wants right now. All you've got to do is tie your head up. That's right, go anywhere you want. Just stop being a Negro. Change your name to Hoogagagooba. That'll show you how silly the white man is. You're dealing with a silly man. A friend of mine who's very dark put a turban on his head and went into a restaurant in Atlanta before they called themselves desegregated. He went into a white restaurant, he sat down, they served him, and he said, "What would happen if a Negro came in here? And there he's sitting, black as night, but because he had his head wrapped up the waitress looked back at him and says, "Why, there wouldn't no nigger dare come in here."

So, you're dealing with a man whose bias and prejudice are making him lose his mind, his intelligence, every day. He's frightened. He looks around and sees what's taking place on this earth, and he sees that the pendulum of time is swinging in your direction. The dark people are waking up. They're losing their fear of the white man. No place where he's fighting right now is he winning. Everywhere he's fighting, he's fighting someone your and my complexion. And they're beating him. He can't win any more. He's won his last battle. He failed to win the Korean War. He couldn't win it. He had to sign a truce. That's a loss.

Any time Uncle Sam, with all his machinery for warfare, is held to a draw by some rice eaters, he's lost the battle. He had to sign a truce. America's not supposed to sign a truce. She's supposed to be bad. But she's not bad any more. She's bad as long as she can use her hydrogen bomb, but she can't use hers for fear Russia might use hers. Russia can't use hers, for fear that Sam might use his. So, both of them are weapon-less. They can't use the weapon because each's weapon nullifies the other's. So the only place where action can take place is on the ground. And the white man can't win another war fighting on the ground. Those days are over The black man knows it, the brown man knows it, the red man knows it, and the yellow man knows it. So they engage him in guerrilla warfare. That's not his style. You've got to have heart to be a guerrilla warrior, and he hasn't got any heart. I'm telling you now.

I just want to give you a little briefing on guerrilla warfare because, before you know it, before you know it. It takes heart to be a guerrilla warrior because you're on your own. In conventional warfare you have tanks and a whole lot of other people with you to back you up -- planes over your head and all that kind of stuff. But a guerrilla is on his own. All you have is a rifle, some sneakers and a bowl of rice, and that's all you need -- and a lot of heart. The Japanese on some of those islands in the Pacific, when the American soldiers landed, one Japanese sometimes could hold the whole army off. He'd just wait until the sun went down, and when the sun went down they were all equal. He would take his little blade and slip from bush to bush, and from American to American. The white soldiers couldn't cope with that. Whenever you see a white soldier that fought in the Pacific, he has the shakes, he has a nervous condition, because they scared him to death.

The same thing happened to the French up in French Indochina. People who just a few years previously were rice farmers got together and ran the heavily-mechanized French army out of Indochina. You don't need it -- modern warfare today won't work. This is the day of the guerrilla. They did the same thing in Algeria. Algerians, who were nothing but Bedouins, took a rine and sneaked off to the hills, and de Gaulle and all of his highfalutin' war machinery couldn't defeat those guerrillas. Nowhere on this earth does the white man win in a guerrilla warfare. It's not his speed. Just as guerrilla warfare is prevailing in Asia and in parts of Africa and in parts of Latin America, you've got to be mighty naive, or you've got to play the black man cheap, if you don't think some day he's going to wake up and find that it's got to be the ballot or the bullet.

l would like to say, in closing, a few things concerning the Muslim Mosque, Inc., which we established recently in New York City. It's true we're Muslims and our religion is Islam, but we don't mix our religion with our politics and our economics and our social and civil activities -- not any more We keep our religion in our mosque. After our religious services are over, then as Muslims we become involved in political action, economic action and social and civic action. We become involved with anybody, any where, any time and in any manner that's designed to eliminate the evils, the political, economic and social evils that are afflicting the people of our community.

The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more. The black man in the black community has to be re-educated into the science of politics so he will know what politics is supposed to bring him in return. Don't be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.

The political philosophy of black nationalism is being taught in the Christian church. It's being taught in the NAACP. It's being taught in CORE meetings. It's being taught in SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee meetings. It's being taught in Muslim meetings. It's being taught where nothing but atheists and agnostics come together. It's being taught everywhere. Black people are fed up with the dillydallying, pussyfooting, compromising approach that we've been using toward getting our freedom. We want freedom now, but we're not going to get it saying "We Shall Overcome." We've got to fight until we overcome.

The economic philosophy of black nationalism is pure and simple. It only means that we should control the economy of our community. Why should white people be running all the stores in our community? Why should white people be running the banks of our community? Why should the economy of our community be in the hands of the white man? Why? If a black man can't move his store into a white community, you tell me why a white man should move his store into a black community. The philosophy of black nationalism involves a re-education program in the black community in regards to economics. Our people have to be made to see that any time you take your dollar out of your community and spend it in a community where you don't live, the community where you live will get poorer and poorer, and the community where you spend your money will get richer and richer.

Then you wonder why where you live is always a ghetto or a slum area. And where you and I are concerned, not only do we lose it when we spend it out of the community, but the white man has got all our stores in the community tied up; so that though we spend it in the community, at sundown the man who runs the store takes it over across town somewhere. He's got us in a vise. So the economic philosophy of black nationalism means in every church, in every civic organization, in every fraternal order, it's time now for our people to be come conscious of the importance of controlling the economy of our community. If we own the stores, if we operate the businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our own community, then we're developing to the position where we are creating employment for our own kind. Once you gain control of the economy of your own community, then you don't have to picket and boycott and beg some cracker downtown for a job in his business.

The social philosophy of black nationalism only means that we have to get together and remove the evils, the vices, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other evils that are destroying the moral fiber of our community. We our selves have to lift the level of our community, the standard of our community to a higher level, make our own society beautiful so that we will be satisfied in our own social circles and won't be running around here trying to knock our way into a social circle where we're not wanted. So I say, in spreading a gospel such as black nationalism, it is not designed to make the black man re-evaluate the white man -- you know him already -- but to make the black man re-evaluate himself. Don't change the white man's mind -- you can't change his mind, and that whole thing about appealing to the moral conscience of America -- America's conscience is bankrupt. She lost all conscience a long time ago. Uncle Sam has no conscience.

They don't know what morals are. They don't try and eliminate an evil because it's evil, or because it's illegal, or because it's immoral; they eliminate it only when it threatens their existence. So you're wasting your time appealing to the moral conscience of a bankrupt man like Uncle Sam. If he had a conscience, he'd straighten this thing out with no more pressure being put upon him. So it is not necessary to change the white man's mind. We have to change our own mind. You can't change his mind about us. We've got to change our own minds about each other. We have to see each other with new eyes. We have to see each other as brothers and sisters. We have to come together with warmth so we can develop unity and harmony that's necessary to get this problem solved ourselves. How can we do this? How can we avoid jealousy? How can we avoid the suspicion and the divisions that exist in the community? I'll tell you how.

I have watched how Billy Graham comes into a city, spreading what he calls the gospel of Christ, which is only white nationalism. That's what he is. Billy Graham is a white nationalist; I'm a black nationalist. But since it's the natural tendency for leaders to be jealous and look upon a powerful figure like Graham with suspicion and envy, how is it possible for him to come into a city and get all the cooperation of the church leaders? Don't think because they're church leaders that they don't have weaknesses that make them envious and jealous -- no, everybody's got it. It's not an accident that when they want to choose a cardinal, as Pope I over there in Rome, they get in a closet so you can't hear them cussing and fighting and carrying on.

Billy Graham comes in preaching the gospel of Christ. He evangelizes the gospel. He stirs everybody up, but he never tries to start a church. If he came in trying to start a church, all the churches would be against him. So, he just comes in talking about Christ and tells everybody who gets Christ to go to any church where Christ is; and in this way the church cooperates with him. So we're going to take a page from his book.

Our gospel is black nationalism. We're not trying to threaten the existence of any organization, but we're spreading the gospel of black nationalism. Anywhere there's a church that is also preaching and practicing the gospel of black nationalism, join that church. If the NAACP is preaching and practicing the gospel of black nationalism, join the NAACP. If CORE is spreading and practicing the gospel of black nationalism, join CORE. Join any organization that has a gospel that's for the uplift of the black man. And when you get into it and see them pussyfooting or compromising, pull out of it because that's not black nationalism. We'll find another one.

And in this manner, the organizations will increase in number and in quantity and in quality, and by August, it is then our intention to have a black nationalist convention which will consist of delegates from all over the country who are interested in the political, economic and social philosophy of black nationalism. After these delegates convene, we will hold a seminar; we will hold discussions; we will listen to everyone. We want to hear new ideas and new solutions and new answers. And at that time, if we see fit then to form a black nationalist party, we'll form a black nationalist party. If it's necessary to form a black nationalist army, we'll form a black nationalist army. It'll be the ballot or the bullet. It'll be liberty or it'll be death.

It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting some cracker senators, Northern crackers and Southern crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights. There's no white man going to tell me anything about my rights. Brothers and sisters, always remember, if it doesn't take senators and congressmen and presidential proclamations to give freedom to the white man, it is not necessary for legislation or proclamation or Supreme Court decisions to give freedom to the black man. You let that white man know, if this is a country of freedom, let it be a country of freedom; and if it's not a country of freedom, change it.

We will work with anybody, anywhere, at any time, who is genuinely interested in tackling the problem head-on, nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent when the enemy gets violent. We'll work with you on the voter-registration drive, we'll work with you on rent strikes, we'll work with you on school boycotts; I don't believe in any kind of integration; I'm not even worried about it, because I know you're not going to get it anyway; you're not going to get it because you're afraid to die; you've got to be ready to die if you try and force yourself on the white man, because he'll get just as violent as those crackers in Mississippi, right here in Cleveland. But we will still work with you on the school boycotts be cause we're against a segregated school system. A segregated school system produces children who, when they graduate, graduate with crippled minds. But this does not mean that a school is segregated because it's all black. A segregated school means a school that is controlled by people who have no real interest in it whatsoever.

Let me explain what I mean. A segregated district or community is a community in which people live, but outsiders control the politics and the economy of that community. They never refer to the white section as a segregated community. It's the all-Negro section that's a segregated community. Why? The white man controls his own school, his own bank, his own economy, his own politics, his own everything, his own community; but he also controls yours. When you're under someone else's control, you're segregated. They'll always give you the lowest or the worst that there is to offer, but it doesn't mean you're segregated just because you have your own. You've got to control your own. Just like the white man has control of his, you need to control yours.

You know the best way to get rid of segregation? The white man is more afraid of separation than he is of integration. Segregation means that he puts you away from him, but not far enough for you to be out of his jurisdiction; separation means you're gone. And the white man will integrate faster than he'll let you separate. So we will work with you against the segregated school system because it's criminal, because it is absolutely destructive, in every way imaginable, to the minds of the children who have to be exposed to that type of crippling education.

Last but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and shotguns. The only thing that I've ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it's time for Negroes to defend themselves. Article number two of the constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle. This doesn't mean you're going to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although you'd be within your rights -- I mean, you'd be justified; but that would be illegal and we don't do anything illegal. If the white man doesn't want the black man buying rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its job.

That's all. And don't let the white man come to you and ask you what you think about what Malcolm says -- why, you old Uncle Tom. He would never ask you if he thought you were going to say, "Amen!" No, he is making a Tom out of you." So, this doesn't mean forming rifle clubs and going out looking for people, but it is time, in 1964, if you are a man, to let that man know. If he's not going to do his job in running the government and providing you and me with the protection that our taxes are supposed to be for, since he spends all those billions for his defense budget, he certainly can't begrudge you and me spending $12 or $15 for a single-shot, or double-action. I hope you understand. Don't go out shooting people, but any time -- brothers and sisters, and especially the men in this audience; some of you wearing Congressional Medals of Honor, with shoulders this wide, chests this big, muscles that big -- any time you and I sit around and read where they bomb a church and murder in cold blood, not some grownups, but four little girls while they were praying to the same God the white man taught them to pray to, and you and I see the government go down and can't find who did it.

Why, this man -- he can find Eichmann hiding down in Argentina somewhere. Let two or three American soldiers, who are minding somebody else's business way over in South Vietnam, get killed, and he'll send battleships, sticking his nose in their business. He wanted to send troops down to Cuba and make them have what he calls free elections -- this old cracker who doesn't have free elections in his own country.

No, if you never see me another time in your life, if I die in the morning, I'll die saying one thing: the ballot or the bullet, the ballot or the bullet.

If a Negro in 1964 has to sit around and wait for some cracker senator to filibuster when it comes to the rights of black people, why, you and I should hang our heads in shame. You talk about a march on Washington in 1963, you haven't seen anything. There's some more going down in '64.

And this time they're not going like they went last year. They're not going singing ''We Shall Overcome." They're not going with white friends. They're not going with placards already painted for them. They're not going with round-trip tickets. They're going with one way tickets. And if they don't want that non-nonviolent army going down there, tell them to bring the filibuster to a halt.

The black nationalists aren't going to wait. Lyndon B. Johnson is the head of the Democratic Party. If he's for civil rights, let him go into the Senate next week and declare himself. Let him go in there right now and declare himself. Let him go in there and denounce the Southern branch of his party. Let him go in there right now and take a moral stand -- right now, not later. Tell him, don't wait until election time. If he waits too long, brothers and sisters, he will be responsible for letting a condition develop in this country which will create a climate that will bring seeds up out of the ground with vegetation on the end of them looking like something these people never dreamed of. In 1964, it's the ballot or the bullet.

Thank you.

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Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can’t believe everyone in here is a friend, and I don’t want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is “The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?” or What Next?” In my little humble way of…

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Since Martin's death, in Memphis, and that tremendous day in Atlanta, something has altered in me, something has gone away. Perhaps even more than the death itself, the manner of his death has forced me into a judgment concerning human life and human beings which I have always been reluctant to make-indeed, I can see that a great deal of what the knowledgeable would call my life-style is dictated by this reluctance. Incontestably, alas, most people are not, in action, worth very much; and yet every human being is an unprecedented miracle. One tries to treat them as the miracles they are, while trying to protect oneself against the disasters they've become. This is not very different from the act of faith demanded by all those marches and petitions while Martin was still alive. One could scarcely be deluded by Americans anymore, one scarcely dared expect anything from the great, vast, blank generality; and yet one was compelled to demand of Americans-and for their sakes, after all-a generosity, a clarity, and a nobility which they did not dream of demanding of themselves. Part of the error was irreducible, in that the marchers and petitioners were forced to suppose the existence of an entity which, when the chips were down, could not be located-i.e., there are no American people yet. Perhaps, however, the moral of the story (and the hope of the world) lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself. However that may be, the failure and the betrayal are in the record book forever, and sum up and condemn, forever, those descendants of a barbarous Europe who arbitrarily and arrogantly reserve the right to call themselves Americans.

The mind is a strange and terrible vehicle, moving according to rigorous rules of its own; and my own mind, after I had left Atlanta, began to move backward in time, to places, people, and events I thought I had forgotten. Sorrow drove it there, I think, sorrow, and a certain kind of bewilderment, triggered, perhaps, by something which happened to me in connection with Martin's funeral.

When Martin was murdered, I was based in Hollywood, working-working, in fact, on the screen version of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. This was a difficult assignment, since I had known Malcolm, after all, crossed swords with him, worked with him, and held him in that great esteem which is not easily distinguishable, if it is distinguishable at all, from love. (The Hollywood gig did not work out because I did not wish to be a party to a second assassination: but we will return to Hollywood, presently.)

Very shortly before his death, I had to appear with Martin at Carnegie Hall, in New York. Having been on the Coast so long, I had nothing suitable to wear for my Carnegie Hall gig, and so I rushed out, got a dark suit, got it fitted, and made my appearance. Something like two weeks later, I wore this same suit to Martin's funeral; returned to Hollywood; presently, had to come East again, on business. I ran into Leonard Lyons one night, and I told him that I would never be able to wear that suit again. Leonard put this in his column. I went back to Hollywood.

Weeks later, either because of a Civil Rights obligation, or because of Columbia Pictures, I was back in New York. On my desk in New York were various messages-and it must be said that my sister, Gloria, who worked for me then, is extremely selective, not to say brutal, about the messages she leaves on my desk. I don't see, simply, most of the messages I get. I couldn't conceivably live with them. No one could- as Gloria knows. However, my best friend, black, when I had been in junior high school, when I was twelve or thirteen, had been calling and calling and calling. The guilt of the survivor is a real guilt-as I was now to discover. In a way that I may never be able to make real for my countrymen, or myself, the fact that I had "made it"; that is, had been seen on television, and at Sardi's, could (presumably!) sign a check anywhere in the world, could, in short, for the length of an entrance, a dinner, or a drink, intimidate headwaiters by the use of a name which had not been mine when I was born and which love had compelled me to make my own, meant that I had betrayed the people who had produced me. Nothing could be more unutterably paradoxical: to have thrown in your lap what you never dreamed of getting, and, in sober, bitter truth, could never have dreamed of having, and that at the price of an assumed betrayal of your brothers and your sisters! One is always disproving the accusation in action as futile as it is inevitable.

I had not seen this friend-who could scarcely, any longer, be called a friend-in many years. I was brighter, or more driven than he-not my fault!-and, though neither of us knew it then, our friendship really ended during my ministry and was deader than my hope of heaven by the time I left the pulpit, the church, and home. Hindsight indicates, obviously, that this particular rupture, which was, of necessity, exceedingly brutal and which involved, after all, the deliberate repudiation of everything and everyone that had given me an identity until that moment, must have left some scars. The current of my life meant that I did not see this person very often, but I was always terribly guilty when I did. I was guilty because I had nothing to say to him, and at one time I had told him everything, or nearly everything. I was guilty because he was just another post-office worker, and we had dreamed such tremendous futures for ourselves. I was guilty because he and his family had been very nice to me during an awful time in my life and now none of that meant anything to me. I was guilty because I knew, at the bottom of my heart, that I judged this unremarkable colored man very harshly, far more harshly than I would have done if he were white, and I knew this to be unjust as well as sinister. I was furious because he thought my life was easy and I thought my life was hard, and I yet had to see that by his lights, certainly, and by any ordinary yardstick, my life was enviable compared to his. And if, as I kept saying, it was not my fault, it was not his fault, either.

You can certainly see why I tended to avoid my old school chum. But I called him, of course. I thought that he probably needed money, because that was the only thing, by now, that I could possibly hope to give him. But, no. He, or his wife, or a relative, had read the Leonard Lyons column and knew that I had a suit I wasn't wearing, and-as he remembered in one way and I in quite another-he was just my size.

Now, for me, that suit was drenched in the blood of all the crimes of my country. If I had said to Leonard, somewhat melodramatically, no doubt, that I could never wear it again, I was, just the same, being honest.

I simply could not put it on, or look at it, without thinking of Martin, and Martin's end, of what he had meant to me, and to so many. I could not put it on without a bleak, pale, cold wonder about the future. I could not, in short, live with it, it was too heavy a garment. Yet-it was only a suit, worn, at most, three times. It was not a very expensive suit, but it was still more expensive than any my friend could buy. He could not afford to have suits in his closet which he didn't wear, he couldn't afford to throw suits away-he couldn't, in short, afford my elegant despair. Martin was dead, but he was living, he needed a suit, and-I was just his size. He invited me for dinner that evening, and I said that I would bring him the suit.

The American situation being what it is, and American taxi drivers being what they mostly are, I have, in effect, been forbidden to expose myself to the quite tremendous hazards of getting a cab to stop for me in New York, and have been forced to hire cars. Naturally, the car which picked me up on that particular guilty evening was a Cadillac limousine about seventy-three blocks long, and, naturally, the chauffeur was white. Neither did he want to drive a black man through Harlem to the Bronx, but American democracy has always been at the mercy of the dollar: the chauffeur may not have liked the gig, but he certainly wasn't about to lose the bread. Here we were, then, this terrified white man and myself, trapped in this leviathan, eyed bitterly, as it passed, by a totally hostile population. But it was not the chauffeur which the population looked on with such wry contempt: I held the suit over my arm, and was tempted to wave it: I'm only taking a suit to a friend!

I knew how they felt about black men in limousines -unless they were popular idols-and I couldn't blame them, and I knew that I could never explain. We found the house, and, with the suit over my arm, I mounted the familiar stairs.

I was no longer the person my friend and his family had known and loved-I was a stranger now, and keenly aware of it, and trying hard to act, as it were, normally. But nothing can be normal in such a situation. They had known me, and they had loved me; but now they couldn't be blamed for feeling, He thinks he's too good for us now. I certainly didn't feel that, but I had no conceivable relationship to them anymore-that shy, popeyed thirteen-year-old my friend's mother had scolded and loved was no more. I was not the same, but they were, as though they had been trapped, preserved, in that moment in time. They seemed scarcely to have grown any older, my friend and his mother, and they greeted me as they had greeted me years ago, though I was now well past forty and felt every hour of it. My friend and I remained alike only in that neither of us had gained any weight. His face was as boyish as ever, and his voice; only a touch of grey in his hair proved that we were no longer at P.S. 139. And my life came with me into their small, dark, unspeakably respectable, incredibly hard-won rooms like the roar of champagne and the odor of brimstone. They still believed in the Lord, but I had quarreled with Him, and offended Him, and walked out of His house. They didn't smoke, but they knew (from seeing me on television) that I did, and they had placed about the room, in deference to me, those hideous little ashtrays which can hold exactly one cigarette butt. And there was a bottle of whiskey, too, and they asked me if I wanted steak or chicken; for, in my travels, I might have learned not to like fried chicken anymore. I said, much relieved to be able to tell the truth, that I preferred chicken. I gave my friend the suit.

My friend's stepdaughter is young, considers herself a militant, and we had a brief argument concerning Bill Styron's Nat Turner, which I suggested that she read before condemning. This rather shocked the child, whose militancy, like that of many, tends to be a matter of indigestible fury and slogans and quotations. It rather checked the company, which had not imagined that I and a black militant could possibly disagree about anything. But what was most striking about our brief exchange was that it obliquely revealed how little the girl respected her stepfather. She appeared not to respect him at all. This was not revealed by anything she said to him, but by the fact that she said nothing to him. She barely looked at him. He didn't count.

I always think that this is a terrible thing to happen to a man, especially in his own house, and I am always terribly humiliated for the man to whom it happens. Then, of course, you get angry at the man for allowing it to happen.

And how had it happened? He had never been the brightest boy in the world, nobody is, but he had been energetic, active, funny; wrestling, playing handball, cheerfully submitting to being tyrannized by me, even to the extent of kneeling before the altar and having his soul saved-my insistence had accomplished that. I looked at him and remembered his sweating and beautiful face that night as he wrestled on the church floor and we prayed him through. I remembered his older brother, who had died in Sicily, in battle for the free world-he had barely had time to see Sicily before he died and had assuredly never seen the free world. I remembered the day he came to see me to tell me that his sister, who had been very ill, had died. We sat on the steps of the tenement, he was looking down as he told me, one finger making a circle on the step, and his tears splashed on the wood. We were children then, his sister had not been much older, and he was the youngest and now the only boy. But this was not how it had happened, although I thought I could see, watching his widowed mother's still very handsome face watching him, how her human need might have held and trapped and frozen him. She had been sewing in the garment center all the years I knew them, rushing home to get supper on the table before her husband got home from his job; at night, and on Sundays, he was a deacon; and God knows, or should, where his energy came from. When I began working for the garment Center, I used to see her, from time to time, rushing to catch the bus, in a crowd of black and Puerto Rican ladies.

And, yes, we had all loved each other then, and I had had great respect for my friend, who was handsomer than I, and more athletic, and more popular, and who beat me in every game I was foolish enough to play with him. I had gone my way and life had accomplished its inexorable mathematic-and what in the world was I by now but an aging, lonely, sexually dubious, politically outrageous, unspeakably erratic freak? His old friend. And what was he now? He worked for the Post Office and was building a house next door to his mother, in, I think, Long Island. They too, then, had made it. But what I could not understand was how nothing seemed to have touched this man. We are living through what our church described as "these last and evil days," through wars and rumors of wars, to say the least. He could, for example, have known something about the anti-poverty program if only because his wife was more or less involved in it. He should have known something about the then raging school battle, if only because his stepdaughter was a student; and she, whether or not she had thought her position through, was certainly involved. She may have hoped, at one time anyway, for his clarity and his help. But, no. He seemed as little touched by the cataclysm in his house and all around him as he was by the mail he handled every day. I found this unbelievable, and, given my temperament and our old connection, maddening. We got into a battle about the war in Vietnam. I probably really should not have allowed this to happen, but it was partly the stepdaughter's prodding. And I was astounded that my friend would defend this particular racist folly. What for? For his job at the Post Office? And the answer came back at once, alas-yes. For his job at the Post Office. I told him that Americans had no business at all in Vietnam, and that black people certainly had no business there, aiding the slave master to enslave yet more millions of dark people, and also identifying themselves with the white American crimes: we, the blacks, are going to need our allies, for the Americans, odd as it may sound at the moment, will presently have none. It wasn't, I said, hard to understand why a black boy, standing, futureless, on the corner, would decide to join the Army, nor was it hard to decipher the slave master's reasons for hoping that he wouldn't live to come home, with a gun; but it wasn't necessary, after all, to defend it: to defend, that is, one's murder and one's murderers. "Wait a minute," he said, "let me stand up and tell you what I think we're trying to do there." " We?" I cried. "What motherf-ing we? You stand up, motherf-er, and I'll kick you in the ass!"

He looked at me. His mother conveyed-but the good Lord knows I had hurt her-that she didn't want that language in her house, and that I had never talked that way before. And I love the lady. I had meant no disrespect. I stared at my friend, my old friend, and felt millions of people staring at us both. I tried to make a kind of joke out of it all. But it was too late. The way they looked at me proved that I had tipped my hand. And this hurt me. They should have known me better, or at least enough to have known that I meant what I said. But the general reaction to famous people who hold difficult opinions is that they can't really mean it. It's considered, generally, to be merely an astute way of attracting public attention, a way of making oneself interesting: one marches in Montgomery, for example, merely (in my own case) to sell one's books. Well. There is nothing, then, to be said. There went the friendly fried chicken dinner. There went the loving past. I watched the mother watching me, wondering what had happened to her beloved Jimmy, and giving me up: her sourest suspicions confirmed. In great weariness I poured myself yet another stiff drink, by now definitively condemned, and lit another cigarette, they watching me all the while for symptoms of cancer, and with a precipice at my feet.

For that bloody suit was their suit, after all, it had been bought for them, it had even been bought by them: they had created Martin, he had not created them, and the blood in which the fabric of that suit was stiffening was theirs. The distance between us, and I had never thought of this before, was that they did not know this, and I now dared to realize that I loved them more than they loved me. And 1 do not mean that my love was greater: Who dares judge the inexpressible expense another pays for his life? Who knows how much one is loved, by whom, or what that love may be called on to do? No, the way the cards had fallen meant that I had to face more about them than they could know about me, knew their rent, whereas they did not know mine, and was condemned to make them uncomfortable. For, on the other hand, they certainly wanted that freedom which they thought was mine-that frightening limousine, for example, or the power to give away a suit, or my increasingly terrifying transatlantic journeys. How can one say that freedom is taken, not given, and that no one is free until all are free? and that the price is high.

My friend tried on the suit, a perfect fit, and they all admired him in it, and I went home.

Alex Haley edited The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Months before the foregoing, in New York, he and Elia Kazan and I had agreed to do it as a play-and I still wish we had. We were vaguely aware that Hollywood was nibbling for the book, but, as Hollywood is always nibbling, it occurred to no one, certainly not to me, to take these nibbles seriously. It simply was not a subject which Hollywood could manage, and I didn't see any point in talking to them about it. But the book was sold to an independent producer, who would produce it for Columbia Pictures. By this time, I was in London; and I was also on the spot. For, while I didn't believe Hollywood could do it, I didn't quite see, since they declared themselves sincerely and seriously willing to attempt it, how I could duck the challenge. What it came to, in fact, was an enormous question: to what extent was I prepared again to gamble on the good faith of my countrymen?

In that time, now so incredibly far behind us, when the Black Muslims meant to the American people exactly what the Black Panthers mean today, and when they were described in exactly the same terms by that High Priest, J. Edgar Hoover, and when many of us believed or made ourselves believe that the American state still contained within itself the power of self-confrontation, the power to change itself in the direction of honor and knowledge and freedom, or, as Malcolm put it, "to atone," I first met Malcolm X. Perhaps it says a great deal about the black American experience, both negatively and positively, that so many should have believed so hard, so long, and paid such a price for believing: but what this betrayed belief says about white Americans is very accurately and abjectly summed up by the present, so-called "Nixon Administration."

I knew Malcolm only by legend, and this legend, since I was a Harlem street boy, I was sufficiently astute to distrust. I distrusted the legend because we, in Harlem, have been betrayed so often.

I had heard a great deal about Malcolm, as had everyone else, and I was a little afraid of him, as was everyone else, and I was further handicapped by having been out of the country for so long. When I returned to America, I went South, and thus, imperceptibly, found myself mainly on the road. I saw Malcolm before I met him. I had just returned from someplace like Savannah, I was giving a lecture somewhere in New York, and Malcolm was sitting in the first or second row of the hall, bending forward at such an angle that his long arms nearly caressed the ankles of his long legs, staring up at me. I very nearly panicked. I knew Malcolm only by legend, and this legend, since I was a Harlem street boy, I was sufficiently astute to distrust. I distrusted the legend because we, in Harlem, have been betrayed so often. Malcolm might be the torch white people claimed he was-though, in general, white America's evaluations of these matters would be laughable and even pathetic did not these evaluations have such wicked results-or he might be the hustler I remembered from my pavements. On the other hand, Malcolm had no reason to trust me, either-and so I stumbled through my lecture, with Malcolm never taking his eyes from my face.

It must be remembered thait in those great days I was considered to be an "integrationist"-this was never quite my own idea of myself-and Malcolm was considered to be a "racist in reverse." This formulation, in terms of power-and power is the arena in which racism is acted out-means absolutely nothing: it may even be described as a cowardly formulation. The powerless, by definition, can never be "racists," for they can never make the world pay for what they feel or fear except by the suicidal endeavor which makes of them fanatics or revolutionaries, or both; whereas, those in power can be urbane and charming and invite you to those houses which they know you will never own. The powerless must do their own dirty work. The powerful have it done for them.

Anyway: somewhat later, I was the host, or moderator, for a radio program starring Malcolm X and a sit-in student from the Deep South. I was the moderator because both the radio station and I were afraid that Malcolm would simply eat the boy alive. I didn't want to be there, but there was no way out of it. I had come prepared to throw various campstools under the child, should he seem wobbly; to throw out the lifeline whenever Malcolm should seem to be carrying the child beyond his depth. Never has a moderator been less needed. Malcolm understood that child, and talked to him as though he were talking to a younger brother, and with that same watchful attention. What most struck me was that he was not at all trying to proselytize the child: he was trying to make him think. He was trying to do for the child what he supposed, for too long a time, that the Honorable Elijah had done for him. But I did not think of that until much later. I will never forget Malcolm and that child facing each other, and Malcolm's extraordinary gentleness. And that's the truth about Malcolm: he was one of the gentlest people l have ever met. And I am sure that the child remembers him that way. That boy, by the way, battling so valiantly for civil rights, might have been, for all I can swear to, Stokely Carmichael or Huey Newton or Bobby Seale or Rap Brown or one of my nephews. That's how long or how short- oh, pioneers! -the apprehension of betrayal takes: "If you are an American citizen," Malcolm asked the boy, "why have you got to fight for your rights as a citizen? To be a citizen means that you have the rights of a citizen. If you haven't got the rights of a citizen, then you're not a citizen." "It's not as simple as that," the boy said. "Why not?" asked Malcolm.

I was in some way in those years, without entirely realizing it, the Great Black Hope of the Great White Father. I was not a racist-so I thought; Malcolm was a racist, so he thought. In fact, we were simply trapped in the same situation, as poor Martin was later to discover (who, in those days, did not talk to Malcolm and was a little nervous with me). As the G.B.H. of the G.W.F., anyway, I appeared on a television program, along with Malcolm and several other hopes, including Mr. George S. Schuyler. It was pretty awful. If I had ever hoped to become a racist, Mr. Schuyler dashed my hopes forever, then and there. I can scarcely discuss this program except to say that Malcolm and I very quickly dismissed Mr. Schuyler and virtually everyone else and, as old street rats and the heirs of Baptist ministers, played the program off each other.

Nothing could have been more familiar to me than Malcolm's style in debate. I had heard it all my life. It was vehemently nonstop and Malcolm was young and looked younger; this caused his opponents to suppose that Malcolm was reckless. Nothing could have been less reckless, more calculated, even to those loopholes he so often left dangling. These were not loopholes at all, but hangman's knots, as whoever rushed for the loophole immediately discovered. Whenever this happened, the strangling interlocutor invariably looked to me, as being the more "reasonable," to say something which would loosen the knot. Mr. Schuyler often did say something, but it was always the wrong thing, giving Malcolm yet another opportunity. All I could do was elaborate on some of Malcolm's points, or modify, or emphasize, or seem to try to clarify, but there was no way I could disagree with him. The others were discussing the past or the future, or a country which may once have existed, or one which may yet be brought into existence-Malcolm was speaking of the bitter and unanswerable present. And it was too important that this be heard for anyone to attempt to soften it. It was important, of course, for white people to hear it, if they were still able to hear; but it was of the utmost importance for black people to hear it, for the sake of their morale. It was important for them to know that there was someone like them in public life, telling the truth about their condition. Malcolm considered himself to be the spiritual property of the people who produced him. He did not consider himself to be their savior, he was far too modest for that, and gave that role to another; but he considered himself to be their servant and, in order not to betray that trust, he was willing to die, and died. Malcolm was not a racist, not even when he thought he was. His intelligence was more complex than that; furthermore, if he had been a racist, not many in this racist country would have considered him dangerous. He would have sounded familiar and even comforting, his familiar rage confirming the reality of white power, and sensuously inflaming a bizarre species of guilty eroticism without which, I am beginning to believe, most white Americans of the more or less liberal persuasion cannot draw a single breath. What made him unfamiliar and dangerous was not his hatred for white people but his love for blacks, his apprehension of the horror of the black condition and the reasons for it, and his determination so to work on their hearts and minds that they would be enabled to see their condition and change it themselves.

For this, after all, not only were no white people needed; they posed, en bloc, the very greatest obstacle to black self-knowledge and had to be considered a menace. But white people have played so dominant a role in the world's history for so long that such an attitude toward them constitutes the most disagreeable of novelties; and it may be added that, though they have never learned how to live with the darker brother, they do not look forward to having to learn how to live without him. Malcolm, finally, was a genuine revolutionary, a virile impulse long since fled from the American way of life-in himself, indeed, he was a kind of revolution, both in the sense of a return to a former principle and in the sense of an upheaval. It is pointless to speculate on his probable fate had he been legally white. Given the white man's options, it is probably just as well for all of us that he was legally black. In some church someday, so far unimagined and unimaginable, he will be hailed as a saint. Of course this day waits on the workings of the temporal power which Malcolm understood, at last, so well. Rome, for example, has desanctified some saints and invented, if one dares to use so utilitarian a word in relation to so divine an activity, others, and the Pope has been to Africa, driven there no doubt, however belatedly, by his concern for the souls of black folk: who dares imagine the future of such a litany as black like me! Malcolm, anyway, had this much in common with all real saints and prophets, he had the power, if not to drive the money changers from the temple, to tell the world what they were doing there.

For reasons I will never understand, on the day I realized that a play based on The Autobiography was not going to be done, that sooner or later I would have to say yes or no to the idea of doing a movie, I flew to Geneva. I will never know why I flew to Geneva, which is far from being my favorite town. I will never know how it is that I arrived there with no toilet articles whatever, no toothbrush, no toothpaste, no razor, no hairbrush, no comb, and virtually no clothes. Furthermore, I have a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law living in Geneva of whom I'm very fond and it didn't even occur to me that they were there. All that I seem to have brought with me is The Autobiography. And I sat in the hotel bedroom all the weekend long, with the blinds drawn, reading and rereading-or, rather, endlessly traversing-the great jungle of Malcolm's book.

The problems involved in a cinematic translation were clearly going to be formidable, and wisdom very strongly urged that I have nothing to do with it. It could not possibly bring me anything but grief. I still would have much preferred to have done it as a play, but that possibility was gone. I had grave doubts and fears about Hollywood. I had been there before, and I had not liked it. The idea of Hollywood doing a truthful job on Malcolm could not but seem preposterous. And yet-I didn't want to spend the rest of my life thinking: It could have been done if you hadn't been chicken. I felt that Malcolm would never have forgiven me for that. He had trusted me in life and I believed he trusted me in death, and that trust, as far as I was concerned, was my obligation.

From Geneva I eventually went to London, to join my brother and sister. It was from London that I wired Kazan to say that the play was off, and I was doing the movie. This was only to take K. off the hook, for I wired no one else, had made no agreement to do the movie, and was very troubled and uncertain in my own mind.

Every new environment, particularly if one knows that one must make the effort to accustom oneself to working in it, risks being more than a little traumatic. One finds oneself nervously examining one's new surroundings, searching for the terms of the adjustment; therefore, in the beginning, I made a somewhat too conscious effort to be pleased by Hollywood. There was the sky, after all, which New Yorkers seldom see, and there was space, which New Yorkers have forgotten, there was the mighty and dramatic Pacific, there were the hills. Some very valuable and attractive people had lived and functioned here for years, I reminded myself, and there was really no reason why I could not-so I insisted to myself. I had a few friends and acquaintances here already, scattered from Watts to Baldwin Hills to Mulholland Drive, and J was sure they'd be happy if I decided to stay. If I were going to be in Hollywood for months, there was no point in raising the odds against me by hating it, or despising it; besides, such an attitude seemed too obvious a defense against my fear of it. As hotels go, the Beverly Hills is more congenial than most, and certainly everyone there was very nice to me. And so I tried-too hard-to look about me with wonder, and be pleased. But I was already in trouble, and the odds against the venture were very long odds indeed.

I was actually in the Beverly Hills until more permanent lodging could be found. This was not easy, since it involved finding someone to take care of me-to keep house, cook, and drive. I was no help, since I was still, at the beginning of 1958, committed to various fund-raising functions in the East. Part of the irreducible conflict which was to drive both Columbia Pictures and myself up the wall was already implicit during those early days at The Beverly Hills Hotel. The conflict was simply between my life as a writer and my life as-not spokesman exactly, but public witness to the situation of black people. I had to play both roles: there was nothing anyone, including myself, could do about it. This was an unprecedented situation for Columbia, which, after all, had me under exclusive contract and didn't really like my dashing off, making public appearances. It was an unprecedented situation for me, too, since I had never before been under exclusive contract, and had always juggled my conflicting schedules as best I could. I had lived with my two roles for a long time, and had even, insofar as this is ever true, beg'un to get used to them- I accepted, anyway, that the dichotomy wasn't likely to end soon. But it didn't make the Hollywood scene any easier. It wasn't a matter of wiping the slate clean of existing commitments and then vanishing behind the typewriter, nor was it even a matter of keeping outside commitments to a minimum, though I tried: events were moving much faster than that, creating perpetual '-rises and making ever new demands. Columbia couldn't but be concerned about the time and energy I expended on matters remote from the scenario. On the other hand, I couldn't really regret it, since it seemed to me that in this perpetual and bitter ferment I was learning something which kept me in touch with reality and would deepen the truth of the scenario.

But I anticipate. People have their environments: The Beverly Hills Hotel was not mine. For no reason that I could easily name, its space, its opulence, its shanelessness depressed and frightened me. The people in the bar, the lounge, the halls, the walks, the swimming pool, the shops, seemed as rootless as I, seemed unreal. In spite-perhaps because of-all my efforts to feel relaxed and free and at home (for America is my home!), I began to feel unreal-almost as though I were playing an unworthy part in a cheap, unworthy drama. I, who have spent half my life in hotels, sometimes woke up in the middle of the night, terrified, wondering where I was. But, though I scarcely realized it and might even have been ashamed to admit it to myself, I think that this had partly to do with the fact that I was the only dark person in the hotel. I must stress that in no way whatever did anyone in the hotel ever make me feel this, nor, indeed, did I ever consciously feel it-it's only now, in looking back, that I suspect that it liad to be partly that. My presence in the hotel was absolutely unquestioned, even by people who did not know who I was, or who thought I was Sammy Davis. It was simply taken for granted that I would not have been in the hotel if I had not belonged there. This, irrationally enough, got to me- did I belong there? In any case, thousands of black people, miles away, did not belong there, though some of them sometimes came to visit me there. (People had to come and get me or come to visit me, because I do not drive.) The drive from Beverly Hills to Watts and back again is a long and loaded drive-I sometimes felt as though my body were being stretched across those miles. I don't think I felt anything so trivial as guilt, guilt at what appeared to be my comparative good fortune, I knew more about comparative fortunes than that, but I felt a stunning helplessness. These two worlds would never meet, and that fact prefigured disaster for my countrymen and me. It caused me to look about me with an intensity of wonder which had no pleasure in it.

It began to be very clear that I was never really going to get any work done in the Beverly Hills--my suite was one of the busiest in that busy hotel-and so the producer found a cook-chauffeur, and bundled me south to Palm Springs. There, in that millionaire's graveyard, I actually began to work. Truman Capote was there one weekend, thank heaven, and we had a few drinks together, but he then, very sensibly, left. I took it as long as I could, the sunshine as bland as milk and honey, the eery streets paved with gold, the thunderous silence of wealth, and then I went north again, to a house in Benedict Canyon.

There is a day in Palm Springs, shortly before I left there, that I will remember forever, a bright day. Billy Dee Williams had come to town, and he was staying at the house; and a lot of the day had been spent with a very bright, young lady reporter, who was interviewing me about the film version of Malcolm. I felt very confident that day-I was never to feel so confident again-and I talked very freely to the reporter. (Too freely, the producer was to tell me later.) I had decided to lay my cards on the table and to state, as clearly as I could, what I felt the movie was about, and how I intended to handle it. I thought that this might make things simpler later on, but I was wrong about that. The studio and I were at loggerheads, really, from the moment I stepped off the plane. Anyway, I had opted for candor, or a reasonable facsimile of same, and sounded as though I were in charge of the film, as, indeed, by my lights, for that moment, certainly, I had to be. I was really in a difficult position because both by temperament and experience I tend to work alone, and I dread making announcements concerning my work. But I was in a very public position, and I thought that I had better make my own announcements, rather than have them made for me. The studio, on the other hand, did not want me making announcements of any kind at all. So there we were, and this particular tension, since it got to the bloody heart of the matter-the question of by whose vision, precisely, this film was to be controlled-was not to be resolved until I finally threw up my hands and walked away.

I very much wanted Billy Dee for Malcolm, and since no one else had any other ideas, I didn't see why this couldn't work out. In brutal Hollywood terms, Poitier is the only really big, black, box-office star, and this fact gave me, as I considered it, a free hand. To tell the bitter truth, from the very first days we discussed it, I had never had any intention of allowing the Columbia brass to cast this part: 1 was determined to take my name off the production if I were overruled. Call this boneheaded stupidity, or insufferable arrogance or what you will-I had made my decision, and once I had made it nothing could make me waver, and nothing could make me alter it. If there were errors in my concept of the film, and if I made errors on the way to and in the execution, well, then, I would have to pay for my errors. But one can learn from one's errors. What one cannot survive is allowing other people to make your errors for you, discarding your own vision, in which at least you believe, for someone else's vision, in which you do not believe.

Anyway, all that shit had yet to hit the fan. This day, the girl and Billy and I had a few drinks by the swimming pool. The man, Walter, was about to begin preparing supper. The girl got up to leave and we walked her to her car and came back to the swimming pool, jubilant.

The phone had been brought out to the pool, and now it rang. Billy was on the other side of the pool, doing what I took to be African improvisations to the sound of Aretha Franklin. And I picked up the phone.

It was David Moses. It took a while before the sound of his voice-I don't mean the sound of his voice, something in his voice-got through to me.

He said, "Jimmy? Martin's just been shot," and I don't think I said anything, or felt anything. I'm not sure I knew who Martin was. Yet, though I know-or I think-the record player was still playing, silence fell. David said, "He's not dead yet"- then I knew who Martin was-"but it's a head wound-so-"

I don't remember what I said; obviously I must have said something. Billy and Walter were watching me. I told them what David had said.

I hardly remember the rest of that evening at all, it's retired into some deep cavern in my mind. We must have turned on the television set if we had one, I don't remember. But we must have had one. I remember weeping, briefly, more in helpless rage than in sorrow, and Billy trying to comfort me. But I really don't remember that evening at all. Later, Walter told me that a car had prowled around the house all night.

I went to Atlanta alone, I do not remember why. I wore the suit I had bought for my Carnegie Hall appearance with Martin. I seem to have had the foresight to have reserved a hotel room, for I vaguely remember stopping in the hotel and talking to two or three preacher-type-looking men, and we started off in the direction of the church. We had not got far before it became very clear that we would never get anywhere near it. We went in this direction and then in that direction, but the press of people choked us off. I began to wish that I had not come incognito and alone, for now that I was in Atlanta I wanted to get inside the church. I lost my companions, and sort of squeezed my way, inch by inch, closer to the church. But directly between me and the church there was an impassable wall of people. Squeezing my way up to this point, I had considered myself lucky to be small ; but now my size worked against me for, though there were people on the church steps who knew me, whom I knew, they could not possibly see me, and I could not shout. I squeezed a few more inches, and asked a very big man ahead of me please to let me through. He moved and said, "Yeah. Let me see you get through this big Cadillac." It was true-there it was, smack in front of me, big as a house. I saw Jim Brown at a distance, but he didn't see me. I leaned up on the car, making frantic signals, and finally someone on the church steps did see me and came to the car and sort of lifted me over. I talked to Jim Brown for a minute, and then somebody led me into the church and I sat down.

The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable-as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack.

The church was packed, of course, incredibly so. Far in the front, I saw Harry Belafonte sitting next to Coretta King. Ralph David Abernathy sat in the pulpit. I remembered him from years ago, sitting in his shirt-sleeves in the house in Montgomery, big, black, and cheerful, pouring some cool, soft drink, and, later, getting me settled in a nearby hotel. In the pew directly before me sat Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Eartha Kitt-covered in black, looking like a lost, ten-year-old girl-and Sidney Poitier, in the same pew, or nearby. Marlon saw me, and nodded. The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable-as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack. Everyone sat very still.

The actual service sort of washed over me, in waves. It wasn't that it seemed unreal; it was the most real church service I've ever sat through in my life, or ever hope to sit through; but I have a childhood hangover thing about not weeping in public, and I was concentrating on holding myself together. I did not want to weep for Martin, tears seemed futile. But I may also have been afraid, and I could not have been the only one, that if I began to weep I would not be able to stop. There was more than enough to weep for, if one was to weep-so many of us, cut down, so soon. Medgar, Malcolm, Martin: and their widows, and their children. Reveirend Ralph David Abernathy asked a certain sister to sing a song which Martin had loved-"Once more," said Ralph David, "for Martin and for me," and he sat down.

The long, dark sister, whose name I do not remember, rose, very beautiful in her robes, and in her covered grief, and began to sing. It was a song I knew: My Father Watches Over Me. The song rang out as it might have over dark fields, long ago, she was singing of a covenant a people had made, long ago, with life, and with that larger life which ends in x-evelation and which moves in love.

He guides the eagle through the pathless air.

She stood there, and she sang it. How she box-e it, I do not know, I think I have never seen a face quite like that face that afternoon. She was singing it for Max-tin, and for us.

And surely He

Remembers me,

My heav'nly Father watches over me.

At last, we were standing, and filing out, to walk behind Martin home. I found myself between Marlon and Sammy.

I had not been aware of the people when I had been pressing past them to get to the church. But, now, as we came out, and I looked up the road, I saw them. They were all along the road, on either side, they wex-e on all the roofs, on either side. Every inch of ground, as far as the eye could see, was black with black people, and they stood in silence. It was the silence that undid ïxie. I started to cry, and I stumbled, and Sammy grabbed my arm. We started to walk.

I don't think that any black person can speak of Malcolm and Martin without wishing that they were here. It is not possible for me to speak of them without a sense of loss and grief and rage; and with the sense, furthermore, of having been forced to undergo an unforgivable indignity, both personal and vast. Our children need them, which is, indeed, the reason that they are not here: and now we, the blacks, must make certain that our children never forget them. For the American republic has always done everything in its power to destroy our children's heroes, with the clear (and sometimes clearly stated) intention of destroying our children's hope. This endeavor has doomed the American nation: mark my words.

Malcolm and Martin, beginning at what seemed to be very different points-for brevity's sake, we can say North and South, though, for Malcolm, South was south of the Canadian border-and espousing, or representing, very different philosophies, found that their common situation (south of the border!) so thoroughly devastated what had seenxed to be mutually exclusive points of view that, by the time each met his death there was practically no difference between them. Before either had had time to think their new positions through, or, indeed, to do more than articulate them, they were murdered. Of the two, Malcolm moved swiftest (and was dead soonest), but the fates of both men were radically altered (I would say, frankly, sealed) the moment they attempted to release the black American struggle from the domestic context and relate it to the struggles of the poor and the non white all over the world.

To hold this view, it is not necessary to see C.I.A. infiltrators in, or under, every black or dissenting bed: one need merely consider what the successful promulgation of this point of view would mean for American authority in the world. Slaveholders do not allow their slaves to compare notes: American slavery, until this hour, prevents any meaningful dialogue between the poor white and the black, in order to prevent the poor white from recognizing that he, too, is a slave. The contempt with which American leaders treat American blacks is very obvious; what is not so obvious is that they treat the bulk of the American people with the very same contempt. But it will be sub-zero weather in a very distant August when the American people find the guts to recognize this fact. They will recognize it only when they have exhausted every conceivable means of avoiding it.

In the meantime, in brutal fact, all of the institutions of this nation, froim the schools to the courts to the unions to the prisons, and not forgetting the police, are in the hands of that white majority which has been promising foxgenerations to ameliorate the black condition. And many white Americans would like to change the black condition, if they could see their way clear to do so, through the unutterable accumulation of neglect, sorrow, rage, despair, and continuing, overriding, totally unjustifiable death: the smoke over Attica recalls the bombs of Birmingham and the liberal Mr. Rockefeller reveals himself as being even more despicable than his openly illiberal confrex-es further down.

But it is not important, however irresistible, to accuse Mr. Rockefeller of anything. He is just another good American; one of the best. It is unlikely that any Western people, and certainly not the Americans, have the moral resources needed to accomplish the deep and mighty transformation which is all that can save them. Such a transformation involves unimaginable damage to the American ego; would reduce all the American religious ceremonies, including the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, to the hypocritically bloody observances many of us have always known them to be; and would shed too unsparing a light on the actual dimensions and objectives of the American character. White Americans do not want to know what many non whites know too well, e.g., that "foreign aid" in the "underdeveloped" countries and "anti-poverty" programs in the ghetto are simply a slightly more sophisticated version of the British policy of Divide and Rule, are, in short, simply another means of keeping a people in subjection.

Since the American people cannot, even if they wished to, bring about black liberation, and since black people want their children to live, it is very clear that we must take our children out of the hands of this so-called majority and find some way to expose this majority as the minority which it actually is in the world. For this we will need, and we well get, the help of the suffering world which is prevented only by the labyrinthine stratagems of power from adding its testimony to ours.

No one pretends that this will be easy, and I myself do not expect to live to see this day accomplished. What both Martin and Malcolm began to see was that the nature of the American hoax had to be revealed-not only to save black people but in order to change the world in which everyone, after all, has a right to live. One may say that the articulation of this necessity was the Word's first necessary step on its journey toward being made flesh.

And no doubt my proposition, at this hour, sounds exactly that mystical. If I were a white American, I would bear in mind that mysteries are called mysteries because we recognize in them a truth which we can barely face, or articulate. I would bear in mind that an army is no match for a ferment, and that power, however great that power may consider itself to be, gives way, and has always been forced to give way, before the onslaught of human necessity: human necessity being the fuel of history.

If my proposition sounds mystical, white people have only to consider the black people, my ancestors, whose strength and love have brought black people to this present, crucial place. If I still thought, as I did when Martin and Malcolm were still alive, that the generality of white Americans were able to hear and to learn and begin to change, I would counsel them, as vividly as I could, to attempt, now, to minimize the bill which is absolutely certain to be presented to their children. I would say: if those blacks, your slaves, my ancestors, could bring us out of nothing, from such a long way off, then, if I were you, I would pause a long while before deciding to use what you think of as your power. For we, the blacks, have not found possible what you found necessary: we have not denied our ancestors who trust us, now, to redeem their pain.

Well. Baby, that's it. I could say, and they would both understand me: Don't you think Bessie is proud of Aretha?

Or: Do you think that Americans can translate this sentence both out of and into the original? My soul is a witness for my Lord.

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Malcolm and Martin | Esquire | APRIL 1972

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Since Martin's death, in Memphis, and that tremendous day in Atlanta, something has altered in me, something has gone away. Perhaps even more than the death itself, the manner of his death has forced me into a judgment concerning human life and human beings which I have always been reluctant to make-indeed, I can see that a great deal of what the knowledgeable would call my life-style is dictated by this reluctance.

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No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear By Toni Morrison 

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No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear By Toni Morrison 

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This article is part of The Nation's 150th Anniversary Special Issue. Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Howard Zinn and many more, here. Ad Policy

Christmas, the day after, in 2004, following the presidential re-election of George W. Bush.

I am staring out of the window in an extremely dark mood, feeling helpless. Then a friend, a fellow artist, calls to wish me happy holidays. He asks, "How are you?" And instead of "Oh, fine-and you?", I blurt out the truth: "Not well. Not only am I depressed, I can't seem to work, to write; it's as though I am paralyzed, unable to write anything more in the novel I've begun. I've never felt this way before, but the election...." I am about to explain with further detail when he interrupts, shouting: "No! No, no, no! This is precisely the time when artists go to work-not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That's our job!"

I felt foolish the rest of the morning, especially when I recalled the artists who had done their work in gulags, prison cells, hospital beds; who did their work while hounded, exiled, reviled, pilloried. And those who were executed.

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The list-which covers centuries, not just the last one-is long. A short sample will include Paul Robeson, Primo Levi, Ai Weiwei, Oscar Wilde, Pablo Picasso, Dashiell Hammett, Wole Soyinka, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Lillian Hellman, Salman Rushdie, Herta Müller, Walter Benjamin. An exhaustive list would run into the hundreds.

Dictators and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists. This is the first step of a despot whose instinctive acts of malevolence are not simply mindless or evil; they are also perceptive. Such despots know very well that their strategy of repression will allow the real tools of oppressive power to flourish. Their plan is simple:

1. Select a useful enemy-an "Other"-to convert rage into conflict, even war.

2. Limit or erase the imagination that art provides, as well as the critical thinking of scholars and journalists.

3. Distract with toys, dreams of loot, and themes of superior religion or defiant national pride that enshrine past hurts and humiliations.

The Nation could never have existed or flourished in 1940s Spain, or 2014 Syria, or apartheid South Africa, or 1930s Germany. And the reason is clear. It was born in the United States in 1865, the year of Lincoln's assassination, when political division was stark and lethal-during, as my friend said, times of dread. But no prince or king or dictator could interfere successfully or forever in a country that seriously prized freedom of the press. This is not to say there weren't elements that tried censure, but they could not, over the long haul, win. The Nation, with its history of disruptive, probing, intelligent essays sharing wide space equally with art criticism, reviews, poetry and drama, is as crucial now as it has been for 150 years.

In this contemporary world of violent protests, internecine war, cries for food and peace, in which whole desert cities are thrown up to shelter the dispossessed, abandoned, terrified populations running for their lives and the breath of their children, what are we (the so-called civilized) to do?

The solutions gravitate toward military intervention and/or internment-killing or jailing. Any gesture other than those two in this debased political climate is understood to be a sign of weakness. One wonders why the label "weak" has become the ultimate and unforgivable sin. Is it because we have become a nation so frightened of others, itself and its citizens that it does not recognize true weakness: the cowardice in the insistence on guns everywhere, war anywhere? How adult, how manly is it to shoot abortion doctors, schoolchildren, pedestrians, fleeing black teenagers? How strong, how powerful is the feeling of having a murderous weapon in the pocket, on the hip, in the glove compartment of your car? How leaderly is it to threaten war in foreign affairs simply out of habit, manufactured fear or national ego? And how pitiful? Pitiful because we must know, at some level of consciousness, that the source of and reason for our instilled aggression is not only fear. It is also money: the profit motive of the weapons industry, the financial support of the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about.

Forcing a nation to use force is easy when the citizenry is rife with discontent, experiencing feelings of a powerlessness that can be easily soothed by violence. And when the political discourse is shredded by an unreason and hatred so deep that vulgar abuse seems normal, disaffection rules. Our debates, for the most part, are examples unworthy of a playground: name-calling, verbal slaps, gossip, giggles, all while the swings and slides of governance remain empty.

For most of the last five centuries, Africa has been understood to be poor, desperately poor, in spite of the fact that it is outrageously rich in oil, gold, diamonds, precious metals, etc. But since those riches do not, in large part, belong to the people who have lived there all their lives, it has remained in the mind of the West worthy of disdain, sorrow and, of course, pillage. We sometimes forget that colonialism was and is war, a war to control and own another country's resources-meaning money. We may also delude ourselves into thinking that our efforts to "civilize" or "pacify" other countries are not about money. Slavery was always about money: free labor producing money for owners and industries. The contemporary "working poor" and "jobless poor" are like the dormant riches of "darkest colonial Africa"-available for wage theft and property theft, and owned by metastasizing corporations stifling dissident voices.

None of this bodes well for the future. Still, I remember the shout of my friend that day after Christmas: No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge-even wisdom. Like art.

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No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear

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This article is part of The Nation's 150th Anniversary Special Issue . Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Howard Zinn and many more, here. Ad Policy Christmas, the day after, in 2004, following the presidential re-election of George W. Bush.

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Summaries for Essential readings

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Tweets by thefirststep__

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Humanizing Blackness: An Interview w/ Tommy J. Curry (Utley, 2016) 

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Humanizing Blackness: An Interview w/ Tommy J. Curry (Utley, 2016) 

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Sister Outsider under song by Audre Lorde 

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Sister Outsider under song by Audre Lorde 

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Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Audre Lorde)

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Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Audre Lorde)

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The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep

The revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those 'outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women'. Uncompromising, angry and yet full of hope, this collection of her essential prose - essays, speeches, letters, interviews - explores race, sexuality, poetry, friendship, the erotic and the need for female solidarity, and includes her landmark piece 'The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House'.

'The truth of her writing is as necessary today as it's ever been' Guardian

"Should be required reading!"

This book was beautiful and helped me learn so much!

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Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde | Waterstones

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The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep The revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those 'outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women'.

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YouTube playlist of speeches and interviews by black revolutionaries

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YouTube playlist of speeches and interviews by black revolutionaries

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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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the roots of resistance: selected highlights from the freedom archives

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The Roots of Resistance: Selected Highlights from the Freedom Archives, Vol. 1 by Various Artists

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Album · 2002 · 12 Songs. Available with an Apple Music subscription. Try it free.