Imani visits the Blackstar film festival to see “Mr. Soul!,” a new documentary about late-1960s television broadcaster, Ellis Haizlip and his pioneering Black arts variety show Soul!. Here she speaks with the film’s cinematographer Hans Charles about his approach to documentary filmmaking and his new role as a producer.
Read MoreA.M. Weaver takes you through the darkened space of the gallery, where video projections, some accompanied by installations, buzz, coo, and talk with you about issues that have been with us forever, involving bodies of color in a world not of their control. It’s a good read and a great show, up through Sept. 8, 2017. Catch it soon!
Read MoreWith the country in state of high turmoil after recent neo-Nazi demonstrations in Charlottesville, VA, and the President’s apologia of the alt-right and attack on peaceful demonstrators, Michael Lieberman’s review of the documentary film, “Whose Streets?,” about Michael Brown’s murder by police in Ferguson, MO, adds relevance to the discussion about institutionalized racism.
Read MoreToday’s news brings you a roundup of links to some recent good reads around the Internet, in case you missed it. Read about the Lowline in NY and the Dupont Underground in Washington, D.C. Catch a review of the film, Whose Streets, about Ferguson, MO, (and look for Michael Lieberman’s review of the film coming soon on Artblog).
Read MoreJulie Dash’s The Great Migration observes the closing of one chapter of history for many African Americans–life in the unforgiving South–and the beginning of another–an arduous journey North towards an uncertain future. The opening scene of the film, a beach at first light shot in soft muted color, is a fitting metaphor for this transition. A solitary suitcase sits on the sand, a totem for countless histories both individual and communal. At this point of departure where land ends and sea begins, the memories of these emigrants bridge all physical borders, and as the sole remaining traveler, the suitcase is our window into a narrative whose roots run deep and whose branches continue to grow.
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