The Film Jones blog has been on hiatus! Life was life-ing, and I needed to handle business! But I’m back…New Year, New Me, kinda! I just launched the Film Jones podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! Every Thursday, I will be covering the latest releases, revisiting some classics, and interviewing filmmakers, historians, and curators! Tune in and follow!
Recorded Q&A of Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival Founder, Nia Hampton, and participating filmmakers from the Taste Test Virtual Shorts screening.
The Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) is partnered with the Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival (BFSFF) to bring audiences Taste Test on May 17, 2020! Taste Test was a serving of animated, experimental, and horror short films that center the Black Femme as a global protagonist.
Photos courtesy of Sophia Allison
A Conversation with Director, Sophia Nahli Allison
The importance of archiving and reclaiming the narrative of African-Americans through documentary filmmaking has been a spiritual process for Sophia Nahli Allison, director of A Love Song for Latasha.
“We want this film to really challenge conventionality and really make people wake up and recognize, critique and question how our narratives have been documented,” said Allison. “Why has this young girl’s life - for the past almost 30 years not been documented in its fullness.”
Influenced by writer, anthropologist, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston - Allison and her crew set out to tell the story of the young life that was lived by Latasha Harlins. Often referenced as one of the catalysts for the 1992 L.A. riots, 15-year-old Harlins was fatally shot by South Central L.A. store owner, Soon Ja Du after being wrongfully accused of stealing an orange juice. Although a significant figure, not much was known about Harlins except her murder.
Until the release of A Love Song for Latasha, the only archival footage that existed of Harlins is the surveillance footage from that fateful afternoon which Allison chose not to include in this documentary. Challenged by the lack of footage and photos, Allison and her creative producer Janice Duncan used experimental forms of storytelling to collect and convey the memories of Harlins’ best friend, Ty, and cousin, Shinese. The documentary took about two years to complete.
“I wanted to tell a story of Latasha that allows her to exist in her fullness and I really allowed them both to have the time needed to decide if this is something that they wanted to do,” said Allison. “I didn’t want at all to retrigger anything or to make them feel like they had to tell the story. I wanted them to feel like they had a part in remembering and archiving Latasha.”
In addition to talking to Shinese and Ty, Allison and Duncan spent a lot of time in the South Central L.A. neighborhood where she lived, as they were developing the film.
“Janice and I did a lot of spiritual conjuring where we would go into the neighborhood, spend time there, and let things unravel as they naturally would. And just hearing stories from other people in the community, we would always have an idea of what we wanted to capture, but also letting things be organic,” said Allison.
Their spiritual conjuring in the form of documentary storytelling colored in the lines around the memory of Harlins allowing viewers to get a sense of who this young person was, the lives she touched and her bright future. Through voiceovers from Shinese and Ty as well as reenactments from neighborhood girls who were about the same age as Harlins - the audience is invited to be a part of oral history in a way that very few documentaries permit. In so many ways, you feel like you are a part of Latasha’s inner circle.
“We wanted to create a very non-linear and dream-like effect where we are personally excavating our own memories. When we have our own dreams, especially when they’re influenced by trauma, a lot of times they can shift or change,” said Allison. “And we wanted the film to feel like it was constantly going through this dream world and sometimes a little bit blurry and fuzzy - trying to recollect these memories and put together these little pieces of who Latasha was. We wanted people to feel like they were intimately involved with the memories of Ty and Shinese.”
Sharing their recollections of Harlins has also been healing for Shinese and Ty. “It’s been really amazing to see how these memories have bought back such a child-like quality to both of them. When they both talk about Latasha they completely light up and you see them revisit that time period,” said Allison.
Allison is encouraging the audience to be an active participant in the archiving of their own stories.
“We need to recontextualize this history in its fullness. Amid this trauma are also memories that they hold so close and so dear to them,” said Allison when talking about the process of remembering with Shinese and Ty. “And so that’s what I hope for other people - I want to see [this] in other communities - South Central and those alike. What does it mean for us to remember our memories - even if they appear from the outside to be so housed in trauma? If we really dig into that - what is the joy that we can find in it? What is the peace and love that we can find in it? And how can we feel by reclaiming our narrative that someone else has taken and exploited.”
A Love Song for Latasha is still making its rounds on the festival circuit, but a screening in South Central L.A. is in the works. For more information, click here.
Emmanuel Sanford-Durant in 17 Blocks
Photo courtesy of Davy Rothbart
A Conversation with Director, Davy Rothbart
A year or so go, there was a brutal stabbing of a woman jogging in a wealthy neighborhood of Washington, D.C. I recall the horror of the story, but I also remember discussing it at work where a colleague of mine stated, “I would never expect something like that to happen in that neighborhood.” She said it with an emphasis on “that neighborhood.” I thought to myself, where is a neighborhood that a heinous murder like that would be expected? This was one of the many moments that illustrates which citizens were allowed empathy.
Fast forward to the DC premiere of 17 Blocks at the 2019 AFI Documentary Festival - a 20-year profile of a family who lived 17 blocks from the U.S. Capitol in Southeast Washington, D.C. 17 Blocks centers on the story of the Sanford-Durant family - their matriarch, Cheryl and her three children, Smurf, Denice, and the youngest Emmanuel.
Emmanuel Sanford-Durant in 17 Blocks
Photo courtesy of Davy Rothbart
The Sanford-Durants live in Southeast D.C. - a world entirely different from the world of politicians, gentrifiers, and every other personality who comes to DC for change and opportunity. We had a conversation with 17 Blocks director, Davy Rothbart, about his inspiration and mission behind the documentary.
Rothbart, who has a unique bond with the Sanford-Durant family, met Cheryl’s two sons, 9-year-old Emmanuel and 15-year-old Smurf while playing basketball at a nearby court in 1999.
“It’s a special relationship, Cheryl likes to say that they adopted me. I think it’s pretty accurate the way it went down,” said Rothbart. “I was in my early twenties and was a little lost and far from my own family. And felt like I could use some family around me, then I met Smurf and Emmanuel.”
At the time, neither of them realized that an enduring friendship was forming or that they would be collaborating on a future documentary. Rothbart had just purchased a small hand-held camera that he was teaching himself how to use and Emmanuel was immediately interested in the camera. Jokingly, he admitted that he might have used the camera as a distraction, so the big kids could play ball interrupted.
“He really took to it. I could see that he had a poetic eye and the footage he would shoot was pretty - footage of leaves swirling in the wind,” said Rothbart. “He would sometimes walk around and interview people in the park.”
Seeing how much Emmanuel enjoyed it, Rothbart would leave the camera with him for days and weeks at a time. Even Emmanuel’s siblings, Smurf and Denice, shot footage and interviews of their family with the small camera. The home videos included goofy moments among the family and even intense times like Cheryl’s battle with drug addiction while we watched the kids grow up and move from one neighborhood to another.
Then, in 2009 tragedy hit the Sanford-Durant family in the form of gun violence. During that time, Rothbart moved back to his hometown of Anne Arbor, Michigan. He immediately returned to provide moral support for the family. Realizing that there was already nearly ten years of footage of her family, Cheryl insisted that Rothbart continue filming in the midst of the family’s grief.
“I could see Cheryl’s point that this was a tragedy in her neighborhood. And yet it was rare to have that kind of footage of their whole life,” said Rothbart. “We just kept filming and we didn’t really know where to stop. It wasn’t until Smurf and Denice had kids, and they got to be 8, 9, 10, and 11 years-old that we realized these kids are now the age that Emmanuel was when we first started filming.”
They completed the film 2 months prior to their Washington, D.C. premiere where we viewed the film in a packed auditorium. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience. In a time where #DontMuteDC is trending, the Sanford-Durant family is giving a voice to the many other families who reside in DC and cities like it, whose pain and struggle are often ignored because the world has grown to expect it without questioning why it’s acceptable for one group of people to suffer and not another.
Inspired by the Vietnam Memorial, Rothbart and the Sanford-Durant family, are using 17 Blocks as a vehicle of change for other families who have experienced gun violence. At the end of the film, the name of every person who has lost their life to gun violence in D.C. since 2009 is listed on the screen.
“I think the family’s goal is that they’ve experienced this first-hand and they don’t want other people to have to go through it,” said Rothbart. “So their feeling was if people could just wrap their heads around what it’s like to go through this that maybe they would be moved to action.”
They have teamed up with organizations like Every Child for Gun Violence and Black Lives Matter to continue addressing this issue. They’ve also formed Washington To Washington, an organization which brings groups of kids from their D.C. neighborhood on a week-long camping trip each summer to visit some of America’s most beautiful National Parks and Forests.
Click here to find a screening of 17 Blocks near you.
Photo courtesy of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
A Conversation with Director, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Following the AFI Docs Festival screening of Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, we sat down with the director, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders to discuss his 38-year friendship with Morrison, the making of the film, and his influences.
The friendship began in 1981 when Greenfield-Sanders photographed Morrison for the cover of Soho News. The two instantly became friends and Greenfield-Sanders went on to photograph Morrison’s portraits for her books and their press over the years. When Vanity Fair profiled her, she insisted that he was the only person who could photograph her. Afterward, he was soon placed on their masthead.
In 2014, when Greenfield-Sanders suggested doing a documentary about her life to the very private Morrison - she didn’t immediately say yes, she didn’t say no either. Morrison is so notably private that when Oprah Winfrey wanted to adapt Morrison’s award-winning novel, Beloved, into a movie, she called the fire and police departments where Morrison lived to get her phone number. And when Winfrey called Morrison - her initial response was, “How did you get my number?”
Eventually, Morrison agreed to sit for the documentary which took about two years to produce. “I’m just grateful to Toni that she allowed me to make the film. This is not someone who makes a decision like that lightly,” said Greenfield-Sanders.
More than a documentary about her career, it’s a two-hour masterclass on life that leaves you wanting more of Morrison’s witty, poignant observations about the world. But maybe next time with a slice of her legendary carrot cake that she boasts is the best carrot cake you will ever have in your life. She used that same carrot cake to persuade the secretarial staff at Random House to type the pages of what would become The Bluest Eye.
“The joys of having someone like Toni Morrison as the subject in a film is that she is herself - so remarkable and such a great storyteller and brings you in,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “I wanted to shoot her direct-to-camera because that was a way to make it feel like it’s Toni’s story.”
Photo courtesy of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Greenfield-Sanders pulled from his career as a portrait photographer when crafting The Pieces I Am. He interviewed 12 of Morrison’s colleagues, among them, included Angela Davis, Walter Mosley, and Sonia Sanchez. They were filmed in “over-the-camera” style shots and Morrison was placed in the center of the composition for her interviews, so it’s as if she is talking directly to you.
“There's not like there are 13 people here, there’s Toni and there's these other people who were augmenting it,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “So I thought that worked very well. I’ve never seen that in a documentary where you mixed the two angles like that where the main person is direct-to-camera.”
The film delves into the milestones of Morrison’s career such as her Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, but also her personal fight for equal pay, the challenges of single motherhood and her influence as an editor at Random House. During her time at Random House, she contributed to the civil rights movement through publishing the works of writers like Angela Davis, Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Henry Dumas, and many more.
“The biggest problem of making the film was that there was so much. You had to make decisions about what direction to go in and what to exclude aside from what to include,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “That was just so difficult because it's such a rich life and in terms of research. Johanna Giebelhaus, the editor, who was also the researcher - traveled to Lorain. And went to their little historical society and looked at boxes of stuff. She also went to Princeton and found the Beloved research material of Toni’s.”
They also spent time at Morrison’s home where she allowed them to access scrapbooks with family photos. In addition to archival footage and photography of Morrison, Greenfield-Sanders uses artwork from African-American artists to further illustrate pivotal moments in her life, like Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration - when Morrison talks about her grandparents’ move from down south to Lorain, Ohio.
“I studied art history which was fabulous preparation for all the things that I do, so I had the sense of the world of art, said Greenfield-Sanders. “In the film, there’s an enormous amount of art by African American painters that comes very much from my understanding of art and art history.”
Artist, Mickelene Thomas, created the collage at the beginning of the film which works wonderfully with the title, a quote borrowed from Beloved - “She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” It’s fair to say that Morrison’s telling of her life in her own words gathers viewers and gives them back in the right order.
When asked what he hopes audiences will take away, Greenfield-Sanders said, “I think she’s a great inspiration. I think she lived a life that should make all of us feel awed, it’s an awe-inspiring life. The issues that she’s dealt with in her life are still issues that are around today, in terms of race and misogyny. And all of the things that Toni fought against we’re fighting against now. Maybe a little more - it might be a little better, but I still see things that shock me every day and attitudes that shock me.”
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am opens in theaters on June 28.
Bryan Stevenson, Founder/Executive Director of Equal Justice Initiative
Photo courtesy of HBO
“Those who don’t learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”
What if the effects of said history have never gone away? And they have actually evolved into a different monstrosity. History is typically taught in classrooms as a series of singular events that are over, done, and behind us. Students are not taught about how it influences present-day government systems and public opinions. The subject is rarely brought into the context of our contemporary lives.
On the heels of a Congressional hearing for reparations, True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality opened up the AFI Docs Film Festival in Washington, DC. True Justice is an examination of America’s criminal justice system through the lens of Bryan Stevenson’s career as a public interest lawyer and founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. By following Stevenson’s long career of advocating for the wrongfully convicted, poor, and disadvantaged - the documentary draws a concise line between lynching, mass incarceration, and the death penalty.
During a Q & A following the film, Stevenson discussed the legacy of lynching and how there are so few places in the U.S. to talk about slavery, in order to get to the place of healing and liberation. He even called on institutions, such as the U.S. Supreme Court, to be accountable for their roles in the suppression the civil rights of African Americans.
“I actually think the U.S. Supreme Court should issue a special opinion where they apologize for their decision in 1876 that allowed lynching to take place for a 100 years,” said Stevenson.
Stevenson was referencing United States v. Cruikshank, where 150 African Americans were murdered in the Colfax Massacre of 1873. Several white men were arrested and convicted in the massacre under the Enforcement Act of 1870. The law was established to protect newly freed African Americans from violence during Reconstruction. The defendants appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Court ruled that the Enforcement Act of 1870 unconstitutional. This ruling caused a ripple effect and led to an epidemic proportion size of lynchings, leading African Americans to migrate away from southern violence to northern cities.
The film goes into even more detail, drawing connections from lynching to wrongfully convicted death row inmates - like formerly imprisoned, Anthony Ray Hinton. Hinton was wrongfully convicted of murder and was on death row for nearly 20 years before becoming a client of Stevenson’s. In spite of the blatant evidence exonerating Hinton, state prosecutors refuse to reopen the case. Stevenson would have to take his fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which eventually reversed the verdict - freeing Hinton in 2015.
As we enter into the upcoming election season and with people on either side of the argument for reparations, True Justice should be required viewing for everyone. It is impossible to fully grasp the current state of our country and our criminal justice system without a painfully honest, thorough investigation of race in America. Stevenson is leading that dialogue with the vision that conversation and accountability will lead to liberation for all. True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality debuts Wednesday, June 28 (8 p.m. ET) on HBO.
ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA/NETFLIX
I was a toddler when five Harlem teenagers Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise were wrongfully convicted of the brutal rape and assault of Central Park jogger, Trisha Meili in 1989. Dubbed the Central Park Five, all between the ages of 14-16, their faces were strewn all over the media with Donald Trump taking out $85,000 worth of ads advocating for the group’s death. Despite the lack of evidence and being coerced into confessions after being held for hours without food, bathroom breaks, and parents/guardians present - they were convicted and each served terms from six to thirteen years.
They were exonerated in 2002 after a chance encounter in Rikers Island between the actual rapist and the eldest of the five, Korey Wise, who was sentenced as an adult at the age of 16.
ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA/NETFLIX
I wanted to look away and avoid seeing this horrific saga of events when the release of When They See Us was announced. Then, I remembered that in 2010, a little over 20 years after the Central Park Five case, 16-year-old Kalief Browder was arrested after being accused of stealing a backpack. Although he was never convicted, he served 3 years in Rikers Island because his family could not afford his bail. He, like the Exonerated Five, maintained his innocence. Unable to pursue the case because the accuser left the country, his charges were dropped. Browder went on to raise awareness about his case but died by suicide at the age of 22.
Keenly aware of the ongoing injustices against Black and Brown people in this country and at times in fear of my own little brother being at the “wrong place at the wrong time” - I watched the limited series on Netflix over the course of two nights. It was difficult from the start of the first episode. For a moment we are able to see the excitement of being a teenager - hanging with friends and first loves, debating sports, preparing for band tryouts, and more. Duvernay painted the full lives of each one of these teens, guiding attention away from the dangerous stereotypes that caused the world to convict them of crimes they didn’t commit. Then, we watch as each one of their lives and the lives of their families are upturned by the relentless pursuit of Linda Fairstein who led the investigation and eventual conviction of these teenagers.
I understand why someone wouldn’t want to watch When They See Us - it ain’t easy. It’s a true American horror story. It makes you uncomfortable. It makes you sad. It frightens you to know that this could happen to you or someone that you love. Yet, that is why you must watch it. And you must watch it because these men although fully exonerated never got a real chance to appeal their case in the court of public opinion. They were were just supposed to walk away quietly as cases like theirs and like Browder’s continue to happen. When They See Us is currently streaming on Netflix.
Aretha Franklin in Amazing Grace
Two music documentaries were released within weeks of each other. Amazing Grace, never before seen footage of Aretha Franklin’s live recording session of the album of the same title and Homecoming, Beyoncé Knowles’ ode to the historically Black college and university (HBCU) experience. Homecoming broke the internet in typical Knowles fashion and one could surmise that had Amazing Grace been completed and released in 1972 as it was intended, Franklin would have done the same as the live album ended up being the highest selling gospel record in history. Both artists were at the pinnacle of their careers when they made the very bold decision to “go back home” to their musical and life influences - The African American church for Franklin and the historic African American Houston neighborhood, Third Ward, for Knowles.
Amazing Grace was recorded live at Rev. James Cleveland’s church in Watts, California. At the start of the film, the Southern California Community Choir slowly marches in, there are afro puffs, wide collars, and you can almost feel the sweat dripping from Franklin’s face as she sings songs like “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Precious Lord Take My Hand.”
Rev. C.L. Franklin wiping the sweat from his daughter, Aretha Franklin’s, head
Halfway through the film, Franklin’s father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, talks to the congregation about his daughter - not as the Queen of Soul, but as he knows her and knew her – a little girl singing in their living room and eventually in church. During his brief speech, he recalls the moment he found out that Franklin was doing the live recording session and he rushed to the cleaners with a couple of suits. While at the cleaners, a lady said that she wished Franklin would return to the church and he responded, “She’s never left.” Before Franklin made the album, Amazing Grace, she was known for her soul records like “Daydreaming” and Chain of Fools”. Singing secular music has been a tough decision for a lot of African American artists, especially those who got their start in the church. There was typically a lot of internal conflicts and social shunning because it was seen as making a choice between the world and God. However, Franklin never forgot where she came from.
The African American church has been a pillar in the Black community since slavery. I’m reminded of the time when I went to a reading by Nikki Giovanni and she said, “How you gone get from one day to the next and you don’t know spirituals?” The church wasn’t just about God. It gave African Americans hope when all we could do was pray. It was a place where movements were planned. It was a safe space when there was none. And it was a place where a lot of African American musical geniuses were birthed. So when people thought Franklin left the church, she surprised the world and brought them into her space - an African American sanctuary.
Every city has a side of town that primarily consists of African American residents and businesses. Third Ward is the African American epicenter of Houston, TX. Phylicia Rashad, when asked how realistic The Cosby Show was – referenced her hometown of Third Ward - where growing up around African American lawyers, doctors, and business owners was not out of the norm.
Beyoncé Knowles and Homecoming dancers
In the heart of Third Ward is HBCU, Texas Southern University (TSU). There was a time in American history when African Americans did not have a choice in where they went to college. HBCUs cultivated some of the greatest minds and like the Black church were safe havens for the Black community. African Americans from all over the United States attend HBCUs. They are a place where young minds are sowed into and Black culture abounds. In Homecoming, Knowles talks about rehearsing at TSU and visiting Prairie View A&M University as a child. She attended homecoming games and was captivated by the Battle of the Bands and steppers from sororities and fraternities. As she ascended the music charts and rose to superstardom, Knowles’ Blackness was questioned or completely overlooked. Although she’s a long way from Third Ward, much like Franklin, the experience never left her and heavily influenced her artistic choices. Knowles’ created her own homecoming experience - pulling out integral elements like the marching bands, dancers, and steppers.
Beyoncé Knowles Homecoming
Both of these women at the height of their careers chose to pay homage to African American culture, without the need to center the White gaze - they made music for us and by us. Franklin could have easily recorded the album in a studio, but she deliberately recorded and filmed in an African American church in Watts. Rev. Cleveland informed the audience that this was a worship service and a house of God, so they were free to do as they would on any Sunday of the month. Audience members caught the Holy Ghost and could even be heard screaming, “Sing, Girl!” In Homecoming, Knowles said she could have easily pulled out her flower crown for the Coachella performance, but she wanted every marginalized person to feel like they were with her on that stage. Knowles infused her top hits with HBCU marching band standards and her dance moves with steps from Black Greek life. She had the world swag surfin’ and brought us to our feet with the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.
After being violently separated and be displaced from family, religion, and culture - enslaved Africans in the United States were forced to synthesize the resources and knowledge they held and create something new. This cultural synthesis led to inventive ways of cooking and preparing food, new musical genres, livelier ways of worshipping God, dance moves, and more. Very rarely do we see our culture accurately portrayed in mainstream media or benefit from the commodification of African American culture. However, Franklin and Knowles created an unfiltered space where African American cultural contributions could be celebrated and honored. They gave us spaces where African American is a culture and not a trend.
Dr. Yaba Blay, Creator of Professional Black Girl
One of my favorite Instagram profiles to follow is Dr. Yaba Blay’s Professional Black Girl. However, it’s not just an Instagram profile, it’s a digital community that celebrates everything it means to be a Black woman and girl in a world where our bodies, minds, and behavior are heavily policed. Dr. Blay gives us credit and honors our creativity and innovation.
Additionally, Dr. Blay produces a web series by the same title. Season 2 is set in New Orleans and kicks off with a profile of Tank from the band Tank and the Bangas.
Check out the first episode of season 2 below.
The Burial of Kojo
I had the opportunity to view The Burial of Kojo with the director, Sam Blitz Bazawule also known as Blitz the Ambassador at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. During a Q&A that followed the film, Blitz mentioned that among his many influences was L.A. Rebellion filmmaker and Howard University professor, Haile Gerima.
Gerima has talked extensively about cinema as a language. Specifically, about how people of color should use their language and their accent to inform cinematic language in the films that they make as opposed to the traditional 3-act structure of most films. We can see this perspective on storytelling at play in The Burial of Kojo.
The film focuses on the conflict of two brothers, Kojo and Kwabena, which is told through the eyes of Kojo’s daughter, Esi, who is a young child when the conflict unfolds. Esi doesn’t realize it at the time, but she is tasked with protecting her father from his brother who mysteriously returns and convinces Kojo to participate in illegal gold mining. The story takes a turn when we find that what we thought was Kwabena was really the ghost of Kojo’s guilty conscious which ultimately led to his demise.
Filmed and set in Ghana, Blitz held himself to a very high standard of storytelling as he knew his fellow Ghanaians would be watching. Even though I’ve never stepped foot in Ghana, I don’t think this story could have been told any other way. Blitz uses Ghanaian culture and symbolism along with Kojo’s unreliable, guilty conscious - plus the fantastic imagination of a young girl who is very close to her father to shape the structure of what becomes The Burial of Kojo. Asserted by Gerima, filmmakers have a responsibility to use their language and their accent to weave the structure of the films that they make. Blitz proudly accepted this responsibility, taking us on a journey through familial struggle, romantic unrest, and the discord between the colonizer and the colonized.
The Burial of Kojo is currently streaming on Netflix.
Amazing Grace
After a string of top-charting soulful hits, Aretha Franklin returned to her roots by recording the most successful gospel album in history. Amazing Grace is crafted from never before seen footage of Franklin recording the album of the same title in a South L.A. church. This album went on to become the most successful album of Franklin’s career. Due to audio editing issues, the film didn’t see the light of day for 40 years.
The Public
The United States was founded on organized rebellion, its First Amendment celebrating "the right of the people peaceably to assemble." But what happens when the outcasts of American society assemble in the very home of free expression? As closing time draws near, Jackson (Michael K. Williams) sparks an act of civil disobedience among his fellow library patrons who have nowhere to sleep.
The Burial of Kojo
Through a magical realist lens, The Burial of Kojo follows the story of Esi, as she recounts her childhood and the tumultuous relationship between her father, Kojo and her uncle, Kwabena. Directed by TED fellow, music composer and musician Samuel “Blitz” Bazawule, the film chronicles the tale of two brothers through the gifted eyes of a young girl who transports the audience to the beautiful lands of Ghana and other worlds that exist between life and death. The Burial of Kojo is currently streaming on Netflix and playing select theaters.
The Best of Enemies
Based on a true story, The Best of Enemies centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Hensen), an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis (Sam Rockwell), a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
I am a 90s kid. My recollection when it comes to African Americans in horror movies was that we never made it to the end; we were always the first to die. This happened so often that it became a running gag. Shudder’s new documentary Horror Noire: a History of Black Horror, based off of Dr. Robin R. Means book Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to the Present, examines the relationship between African Americans and the horror genre. The documentary features directors, actors, scholars, and enthusiasts in conversation about classic horror films.
Horror Noire’s entry point into the relationship of African Americans and horror films starts with a not so obvious choice, The Birth of a Nation. The Birth of a Nation was the first film viewed in the White House, positioning the Ku Klux Klan as heroes saving the American South from newly emancipated African Americans. President Woodrow Wilson reportedly stated this about the film, “It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.” The Birth of a Nation set in motion many tropes about African Americans that were and still are perpetuated in films and in the public conscious.
What sometimes goes undetected in the horror genre, is it’s parallel with the political and African American survival, existence, and resistance has always been political - how we are perceived in the imagination of others who do not identify as Black has always been as frightening as life or death. The documentary goes from The Birth of a Nation to Night of the Living Dead to Blacula to Tales from the Hood with many other films in between, then finally rounds out at Get Out. African Americans move from being the villain to being the heroes in horror films which is still somewhat of a novelty.
Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films is currently streaming on Shudder.
One of my favorite Langston Hughes poems, The Final Curve, states:
When you turn the corner
And you run into yourself
Then you know that you have turned
All the corners that are left
What if you really are your own worst enemy? You can only run so far until you have to face yourself. And no one can save you from yourself. Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o), a loving mother who would do anything to protect her family, has run as far as she could from her childhood trauma. However, in the end - something very dark and sinister is revealed about her. We soon find out after investing so much into the idea of her - that she’s not who she portrays herself to be.
Adelaide has achieved what most Americans desire - a beautiful family and home - but at what cost? I along with plenty of others who viewed Us walked out of the theater not knowing how to feel about the movie or Adelaide. She wasn’t the hero that we had been cheering on which makes us uncomfortable because Adelaide and her doppelganger, Red, illustrate the good and evil that exists in all of us.
Most of the time what we’re taught to fear is outside of us or the “other.” But we find out at the end of the film that we are the “other” that we’ve been fearing all along.
This year will be 30 years since Will Smith became the prince of this town named Bel-Air. Despite reboots being the current trend in television and movies, there hasn’t been any talks of a reboot of the iconic 90s TV show. However, director/cinematographer and fan Morgan Cooper, took matters into his own hands. Cooper’s take on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is a complete departure from the sitcom known for Smith’s trademark antics. I’m curious to see what a full-length version of Cooper’s vision looks like.
The motion picture film, Green Book, based on the relationship of Doc Shirley and his bodyguard Tony Lip garnered a lot of controversy before and after it’s recent Best Picture win at the Oscars. Titled after the guide book created by Victor Green, critics of the film talked at length about its inaccuracies. Although the film was titled after the infamous guide, the role of the Green Book felt like more of an afterthought. It was mentioned occasionally and only used when Doc Shirley was in the Deep South. However, the guide got its start in Harlem, so the film inadvertently perpetuated the notion that segregation and racism only existed down south.
In a timely, possibly coincidental, manner - the Smithsonian Channel premiered the hour-long documentary, The Green Book: Guide to Freedom. The documentary discusses the role of the Green Book in helping Black Americans navigate the interstate highways of the United States - not just the Deep South. It takes you on a historical road trip through time focusing on the automobile’s impact on Black American independence and upward mobility as well as Black women entrepreneurs who are often overlooked. Thanks to the Green Book, there is record of their successful businesses. Although shorter than I expected, the film touches on a lot. The Green Book: Guide to Freedom will be airing several times throughout the March on the Smithsonian Channel and can be found On Demand.
Black Panther
This series will profile Black cinema representation at the 2019 Academy Awards.
This year, there are three Black films up for Best Picture at the Academy Awards: Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, and Green Book. I believe this is a first in the history of the Oscars. Each film stands at different ends of the spectrum of Black experience.
Black Panther takes place in a metropolis of Black Excellence, Wakanda, an African nation that has been untouched by colonization. A society where Black people can touch their fullest potential without the threat of racism, of any kind. We’ve seen instances of this throughout American history with Black Wall Streets scattered throughout the U.S. only to have their inhabitants murdered and attacked due to the “economic anxiety” and racism of surrounding White people. In addition to this, it illustrates the conflict between Africans and African Americans through the relationship between T’Challa and Eric Killmonger. Killmonger, an African American whose father is a Wakandan, has dreams of using vibranium to help Blacks across the world rise up against the dominant group who continue to oppress them. Through his desire to free Black people, Killmonger doesn’t always feel like a true villain. However, he let his spite for Wakanda take him over the edge.
BlacKkKlansman
BlacKkKlansman a story of how a Black man got the best of the Ku Klux Klan, an American terrorist group. It’s based on the true story of a Colorado detective, Ron Stallworth, who manages to infiltrate the Colorado Springs Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan has terrorized African Americans since Reconstruction through intimidation and murder. And they have been allowed to do so in plain sight, although they hide their faces with white hoods. At the conclusion of the film, the bad guys die and are arrested. However, in reality, no one dies or is arrested. Oh, in addition to Stallworth infiltrating the Klan - he also infiltrated a Black radical organization on behalf of the police department. We know this as Cointelpro which primarily existed to infiltrate Black organizations considered to be radical. There were several Cointelpro operations by the FBI taking place all over the U.S. that ended in the assassinations of Black leaders.
Green Book
And then there’s Green Book, named for the actual Negro Motorist Green-Book, a guide that helped Blacks navigate the very racist terrain of Jim Crow America safely while traveling. The film, however, centers the White bodyguard of pianist Dr. Don Shirley aka “Doc Shirley.” Shirley hires Tony Lip to drive and protect him on tour in the deep South. During the tour, Lip teaches Shirley about fried chicken, rock-n-roll, and saves his life from unruly and hostile racists at a bar. He even asserts that he is more Black than Shirley, a wealthy, classically-trained pianist. Through his relationship with Shirley, Lip changes and is able to see Black people or at least Shirley as human and the two become friends. Shirley’s family were never consulted during the making of Green Book and dispute about every significant element of this film.
At past Oscars, Black films like Green Book tend to take center stage. Green Book is a part of a film canon in which White people save Black people. And although they are incredibly problematic themselves, they’re not nearly as bad as overt racist White people. It’s a type of a film about racism that makes people feel comfortable with themselves because they’ve never burned a cross in someone’s yard. Meanwhile, movies by and about Black people that center us without the White gaze tend not to win or even get nominated - except Moonlight.
However, this Oscar Awards could be different. If Black Panther wins - an Afro-Futurist film in the midst of Black History Month - that would be notable film history.
This series will profile Black cinema representation at the 2019 Academy Awards.
Hale County This Morning, This Evening takes place in the Black belt of the South - a region of the United States that held the largest number of plantations. This is important context to consider while watching the documentary as it cuts back and forth between questions about remnants of the South’s history and clips from what appears to be the Birth of a Nation.
The Hale counties of the world sometimes feel like forgotten places - stuck in time. Hale County is the type of place I would visit during family reunions as a child. It had distant cousins, suffocating heat, red clay and not much in terms of things to do. I was thankful that I was able to go back home after a weekend, although my hometown of Jacksonville, FL wasn’t that much better.
The camera follows the documentary subjects, Quincy and Daniel, in such a way that it doesn’t feel like you’re peeking in on someone else’s life. It feels like you’re right there with them like when they’re standing outside joyfully waiting for a storm to come. However, the film isn’t naive enough to forget the South’s oppressive role in the lives of Black people and how it still impacts the socioeconomics of the Black people who remain in the rural south.
Hale County This Morning, This Evening is nominated for Best Documentary Feature. It is currently streaming on PBS.
This series will profile Black cinema representation at the 2019 Academy Awards.
Within the first ten minutes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, my initial thought was Spider-Man is moving into the 21st century. Adapted from the comic book series by Brian Michael Bendis, Into the Spider-Verse centers around the story of Afro-Latino teen, Miles Morales. Morales is adjusting to his new private school when a graffiti session leads to him getting bit by a radioactive spider. He returns to the area where he was bitten after waking up with mysterious spider-like powers, finding himself in the midst of a life or death fight. A portal opens allowing different Spider-Men from multiple dimensions to enter Morales’ world.
Although Into the Spider-Verse is animated, it feels like the real world. The new Spider-Man is an awkward, yet gifted Afro-Latino teen who rocks a hoodie and Nikes and it feels authentic. That aside, visually I’ve never seen a comic book film like this. The directors combine multiple animation styles such as film noir and anime as well as give an ode to classic comic book aesthetic.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is nominated for Best Animated Feature.
I remember the first time I put on a pair of skates. My Girl Scout troop leader thought an outing at the Rollerdrome, a nearby roller rink, would be fun night out for her Brownie troop. Dancing complicated routines, skaters zoomed by us as we struggled to keep our balance on all four wheels. I was determined to learn how to skate before the night ended. I bust my butt so many times that my troop leader told me to tell my mom to run a bath for me with some epsom salt. Needless to say, I was hooked and I returned to the Rollerdrome every Sunday night with my dad for most of my childhood until the rink eventually closed down. Eventually, Skate Station in a nearby suburb begin having “adult night” and I when I was home on holidays from college, my dad insisted that we go. With police holding guard in the parking lot and security checking ID’s at the door, we waited in line to get our roll on.
Without questioning, I instinctively knew that whenever there was an “adult night” at a roller rink that was code for “Black night” as in the night when African American skaters primarily attended. It wasn’t until I watched the upcoming HBO documentary United Skates, that I learned that adult nights derived from the era of segregation. Since African Americans were not allowed to enjoy even the slightest bit of recreation with their white counterparts, roller rinks came up with different nights during the week that were exclusively for Blacks.
United Skates tells the history of roller skating in the Black community while tracing the current state of roller rinks throughout the US through the lives of various skaters. Rinks are closing left and right, and the few that remain open still continue the tradition of “adult nights.” However, even with an avid skating community, it isn’t enough to sustain them. United Skates captures the history of African American skate culture while shining a light on the challenges current skaters are facing. Four wheels or no wheels, this documentary is worth the watch.
United Skates will air on HBO on February 18.