There’s ambition, then there’s execution. Ava DuVernay’s 2023 film, Origin, grapples with a subject that has been relevant since forever: casteism. And what DuVernay has attempted to do here is something that you wouldn’t see every day: capture a global issue while telling the deeply personal story of an individual. The film follows the journey of Isabell Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote her award-winning book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. But it is not just some book. It also tells the story of the writer herself, who suffers as many as three tragedies, which, in a way, lays the foundation of her book as a kind of coping mechanism. Sadly, it doesn’t quite translate on the 70 mm, as Origin fails to evoke the kind of emotion it was looking for. It does have some strong moments, but most of it feels rather gimmicky...
- 3/20/2024
- by Rohitavra Majumdar
- Film Fugitives
In an exclusive uInterview, director Ava Duvernay discusses the message behind her new film, Origin.
Origin is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film follows the author as she makes sense of her own grief while confronting current events in the United States.
“I’m proud of it,” Duvernay said about the film. “It was really organic. I was reading the book and trying to figure out the most emotional throughline, and that was the story of Isabel Wilkerson herself and what she overcame to write the book.”
“That was the way I approached it,” she continued, “which was a much softer and gentler way than saying ‘I’m going to write a movie about Caste.’ That becomes difficult to wrap your head around, so I just let her be my guide.”
The movie grapples with historical cases of racism and oppression around the world,...
Origin is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film follows the author as she makes sense of her own grief while confronting current events in the United States.
“I’m proud of it,” Duvernay said about the film. “It was really organic. I was reading the book and trying to figure out the most emotional throughline, and that was the story of Isabel Wilkerson herself and what she overcame to write the book.”
“That was the way I approached it,” she continued, “which was a much softer and gentler way than saying ‘I’m going to write a movie about Caste.’ That becomes difficult to wrap your head around, so I just let her be my guide.”
The movie grapples with historical cases of racism and oppression around the world,...
- 2/2/2024
- by Ava Lombardi
- Uinterview
For Ava DuVernay, whose projects like 13th, Selma, and When They See Us challenge viewers to contend with the gut-wrenching racism that’s colored American history, Origin provides a more global perspective on racial inequality and its foundation within social hierarchies.
“I try to make soul food with my movies, not junk food, not fast food,” DuVernay tells Rolling Stone. “Not stuff that goes in and goes straight up the next day, but stuff that sticks to your ribs.”
Origin, which DuVernay wrote and directed, draws inspiration from Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling book Caste,...
“I try to make soul food with my movies, not junk food, not fast food,” DuVernay tells Rolling Stone. “Not stuff that goes in and goes straight up the next day, but stuff that sticks to your ribs.”
Origin, which DuVernay wrote and directed, draws inspiration from Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling book Caste,...
- 1/23/2024
- by Kalia Richardson
- Rollingstone.com
There’s an aspect of filmmaking that Ava DuVernay thinks we don’t talk enough about and some of her fellow directors overlook to their own detriment.
“I spend a lot of time with background actors and feel like they are a beautiful brush stroke in the painting,” said DuVernay while a guest on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast. “They’re treated so poorly, they make nothing, they have to stand around all day, they don’t know what they’re doing, they’re getting the worst food, they’re the last to be thought of. So [I found] if you give them a little bit of time, I’ve just gotten extraordinary results.”
With her new film “Origin,” DuVernay was particularly dependent on her extras. The film tracks the journey of author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) researching and writing her best-selling nonfiction book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” in which she...
“I spend a lot of time with background actors and feel like they are a beautiful brush stroke in the painting,” said DuVernay while a guest on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast. “They’re treated so poorly, they make nothing, they have to stand around all day, they don’t know what they’re doing, they’re getting the worst food, they’re the last to be thought of. So [I found] if you give them a little bit of time, I’ve just gotten extraordinary results.”
With her new film “Origin,” DuVernay was particularly dependent on her extras. The film tracks the journey of author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) researching and writing her best-selling nonfiction book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” in which she...
- 1/19/2024
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
A young Black man (Myles Frost) leaves a convenience store just after making a purchase. He puts the hood on his sweatshirt up, and continues on his way, all the while talking to someone on the phone. He suddenly realizes that a truck has been following him as he walks, looping around the block to pass him several times. It takes a moment, but we realize what we are seeing is the moment just before the murder of Trayvon Martin, an incident that set off rallies and protests across the United States. And it’s a moment that becomes pivotal to Pulitzer Award-winning writer and journalist Isabel Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in the film). She’s asked to write an article about the case in light of the discovery of audio tapes shedding new light on the events of that evening. Wilkerson eventually turns down the request because, for her,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Katherine Matthews
- Bollyspice
It is a truth universally acknowledged (or at least it should be by now) that America is a country founded upon — as well as cursed, colonized, and fertilized by — a bedrock of racism that continues to this day. Should you be unable to wrap your head around that in 2024, we’re not sure what to say to you. But to chalk up modern social inequity and state-sanctioned violence against certain communities to being “merely” a racially-biased phenomenon and simply leave it at that is insufficient. There’s something deeper going...
- 1/17/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
"Soft & Quiet" is a unique Blumhouse production. It's not about paranormal activity or psychotic killers but the banality of evil. Beth de Araújo's intense film centers on a group of white supremacists who host the first meeting of the "Daughters for Aryan Unity," which escalates into a night of cruel violence. Araújo explores the malevolence that exists right under our noses, whether it be the average suburban mom, an elementary school teacher, or the local grocery store owner. Even these kinds of seemingly innocuous people can have insidious viewpoints that perpetuate the very worst of racial and gender stereotypes.
They are the types of conservative white women who helped Donald Trump ascend to the presidency. The ease with which they spit out some of the most horrible, stereotypical thoughts about people of color is chilling. They believe that they are inherently superior simply because they are white Christians.
They are the types of conservative white women who helped Donald Trump ascend to the presidency. The ease with which they spit out some of the most horrible, stereotypical thoughts about people of color is chilling. They believe that they are inherently superior simply because they are white Christians.
- 12/25/2023
- by Caroline Madden
- Slash Film
Jon Bernthal and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in OriginPhoto: Atsushi Nishijima (Neon)
There’s a scene nearly halfway through Origin where the protagonist is advised by her confidant to simplify her new book’s sharp-but-unwieldy premise or risk losing potential readers. It reads like similar feedback given to writer-director Ava DuVernay in...
There’s a scene nearly halfway through Origin where the protagonist is advised by her confidant to simplify her new book’s sharp-but-unwieldy premise or risk losing potential readers. It reads like similar feedback given to writer-director Ava DuVernay in...
- 12/8/2023
- by Courtney Howard
- avclub.com
"You'll sit through three hours of [Oppenheimer's] process," observed "Origin" director Ava DuVernay. "Will you sit through two hours of [subject Isabel Wilkerson's] process?" She suggested in a slightly playful provocation, but it's worth unpacking some of the similarities. Both "Oppenheimer" and "Origin" are films about great thinkers and scholars who formulate groundbreaking ideas. Each has the power to change the future by reconstructing how people formulate the past.
For author Isabel Wilkerson, brought to life in "Origin" by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, her ability to locate patterns of discrimination across time and borders leads to a new working theory of society. Her framework unites the plight of Dalits in India, Jews in Nazi Germany, and Blacks in the United States, though not without some pushback among her peers. A hierarchy of caste supersedes all other categories of identity, uniting all people in a global strife against unjust oppression.
DuVernay correctly recognizes that...
For author Isabel Wilkerson, brought to life in "Origin" by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, her ability to locate patterns of discrimination across time and borders leads to a new working theory of society. Her framework unites the plight of Dalits in India, Jews in Nazi Germany, and Blacks in the United States, though not without some pushback among her peers. A hierarchy of caste supersedes all other categories of identity, uniting all people in a global strife against unjust oppression.
DuVernay correctly recognizes that...
- 12/5/2023
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slash Film
The personal and the political are deeply intertwined in Ava DuVernay’s Origin. The writer-director and Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson, adapting the latter’s 2020 nonfiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, both dramatize the historical calamities that Wilkerson used to boost her central thesis and tell the story of the book’s genesis and the personal tragedies that challenged and inspired the author. In doing so, DuVernay attempts to combine the empirical approach of her damning documentary on the prison industrial complex, 13th, with the tender intimacy of her 2014 biopic Selma. In spanning continents and centuries, and taking on various modes of address, Origin is equal parts unwieldy and ambitious.
Origin starts off with a harrowing reenactment of the murder of Trayvon Martin (Myles Frost) at the hands of George Zimmerman. It’s a ubiquitous tragedy, making it seem a bit too obvious as a starting point for the film.
Origin starts off with a harrowing reenactment of the murder of Trayvon Martin (Myles Frost) at the hands of George Zimmerman. It’s a ubiquitous tragedy, making it seem a bit too obvious as a starting point for the film.
- 12/3/2023
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
In Ava DuVernay’s latest film, Origin, which held its U.S. premiere at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville on Friday, the filmmaker wrestles with a lot of big ideas. For the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker behind Selma, 13th and When They See Us, tackling big questions about race, class and history is nothing new — but for her latest feature, she admits she had to break a lot of established filmmaking rules to bring the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson to the screen.
Taking inspiration from Wilkerson’s acclaimed 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, DuVernay’s film is partly a portrait of Wilkerson — played in the film by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who recently earned a Gotham Award nom for her role in the film — as she embarks on an intellectual journey across time and place to connect how social hierarchies in distinctly different cultures across the globe are connected,...
Taking inspiration from Wilkerson’s acclaimed 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, DuVernay’s film is partly a portrait of Wilkerson — played in the film by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who recently earned a Gotham Award nom for her role in the film — as she embarks on an intellectual journey across time and place to connect how social hierarchies in distinctly different cultures across the globe are connected,...
- 10/30/2023
- by Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ava DuVernay’s latest film, Origin, followed its Sept. 6 world premiere at the Venice Film Festival — where DuVernay became the first African American filmmaker to have a film play in competition, and where Neon acquired its U.S. distribution rights — with its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Roy Thomson Hall on Monday.
As with much of DuVernay’s work, including but not limited to the narrative feature Selma (2014), the documentary feature 13th (2016) and the limited series When They See Us (2019), Origin is a project about race — or, as its protagonist Isabel Wilkerson (played by the gifted actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who was Oscar-nominated for 2021’s King Richard) sees it, caste.
The scale and ambition of Origin, though, is arguably greater than any of DuVernay’s earlier efforts: it explores the story behind — and the history/continent-hopping story recounted within — Wilkerson’s 2020 bestselling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.
As with much of DuVernay’s work, including but not limited to the narrative feature Selma (2014), the documentary feature 13th (2016) and the limited series When They See Us (2019), Origin is a project about race — or, as its protagonist Isabel Wilkerson (played by the gifted actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who was Oscar-nominated for 2021’s King Richard) sees it, caste.
The scale and ambition of Origin, though, is arguably greater than any of DuVernay’s earlier efforts: it explores the story behind — and the history/continent-hopping story recounted within — Wilkerson’s 2020 bestselling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.
- 9/12/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Every awards season, pundits leave themselves open to late-year breakers. This is where a film not necessarily on anyone’s radar comes in and walks away with the industry’s most coveted prize for best picture. Past examples include Clint Eastwood’s 2004 winner “Million Dollar Baby.” Now, and coming only days after I declared “American Fiction” from Cord Jefferson my favorite film of TIFF so far, DuVernay cinematically states, “Hold my beer” with her emotional drama “Origin.”
Within the awards punditry world, it’s increasingly been agreed upon that director Christopher Nolan is in the pole position to win his first statuette for directing “Oppenheimer.” However, DuVernay emerges after bowing at Venice, and now at TIFF, as a viable challenger for the crown. In addition, her leading lady Anjanue Ellis-Taylor is a sure-fire contender for best actress.
While I wiped tears and snot away during the film’s end credits,...
Within the awards punditry world, it’s increasingly been agreed upon that director Christopher Nolan is in the pole position to win his first statuette for directing “Oppenheimer.” However, DuVernay emerges after bowing at Venice, and now at TIFF, as a viable challenger for the crown. In addition, her leading lady Anjanue Ellis-Taylor is a sure-fire contender for best actress.
While I wiped tears and snot away during the film’s end credits,...
- 9/11/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Turning any popular book into a movie is a minefield. Being too faithful can result in an overstuffed mess. Too unfaithful, you risk alienating a built-in fandom. But even greater consideration has to be given when adapting a nonfiction book into a narrative film. In cases like “Nomadland,” “Capote,” and the upcoming “Killers of the Flower Moon,” filmmakers toed that line by showing us their books’ factual cores through the eyes of dramatic protagonists.
On the flip side of the equation is “Origin,” Ava DuVernay’s awkward and ungainly new adaptation of the 2020 bestseller “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson. The misguided film comes across as a twisted sibling of “Eat Pray Love,” in which the book’s author becomes the film’s protagonist leading us on a world tour of historical atrocities.
The best thing that can be said about “Origin” — beyond the undeniable fact that...
On the flip side of the equation is “Origin,” Ava DuVernay’s awkward and ungainly new adaptation of the 2020 bestseller “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson. The misguided film comes across as a twisted sibling of “Eat Pray Love,” in which the book’s author becomes the film’s protagonist leading us on a world tour of historical atrocities.
The best thing that can be said about “Origin” — beyond the undeniable fact that...
- 9/6/2023
- by Leila Latif
- Indiewire
Ava DuVernay’s return to feature filmmaking doubles as a thematic homecoming. Origin, loosely adapted from Isabel Wilkerson’s tome Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, is, at its core, a deeply sincere story of love and grief.
DuVernay’s interest in animating the inner lives of Black women stretches back to her feature debut, I Will Follow, in which she explored the contours of a young woman’s heartache after the death of her aunt. She built on it with Middle of Nowhere, a remarkable second feature about a nurse confronting her relationship with her incarcerated husband. And although Selma is about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the film complicates Coretta (Carmen Ejogo), positioning her as King’s strategic co-conspirator instead of just a dutiful wife. In all of these films, DuVernay centers the emotional landscape of Black women, reflecting on how interpersonal and structural constrictions shape their behaviors.
DuVernay’s interest in animating the inner lives of Black women stretches back to her feature debut, I Will Follow, in which she explored the contours of a young woman’s heartache after the death of her aunt. She built on it with Middle of Nowhere, a remarkable second feature about a nurse confronting her relationship with her incarcerated husband. And although Selma is about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the film complicates Coretta (Carmen Ejogo), positioning her as King’s strategic co-conspirator instead of just a dutiful wife. In all of these films, DuVernay centers the emotional landscape of Black women, reflecting on how interpersonal and structural constrictions shape their behaviors.
- 9/6/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘Origin’ Review: Ava DuVernay Crafts an Ambitious, Deeply Intellectual Exploration of Race and Class
Ambitious, intellectual and deeply humanistic, Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” opens with a soul-shattering prologue. A Black teen runs an evening errand at a white neighborhood in Florida. He is on the phone with his girlfriend, complaining about a suspicious guy following him in his car. Both are concerned and his girlfriend asks him to let her know when he’s back home. We don’t see the end of the episode, because we don’t have to. The Black teen’s name is Trayvon Martin, fatally shot on a February night in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a man of Hispanic descent, for no reason.
It’s a disquieting sequence of shadows, reflections and a sense of claustrophobia, shot with remarkable skill as well as a sense of duty and restraint. While complimenting the quality of filmmaking behind a devastating moment of recent American history might be a tad crass to some eyes and ears,...
It’s a disquieting sequence of shadows, reflections and a sense of claustrophobia, shot with remarkable skill as well as a sense of duty and restraint. While complimenting the quality of filmmaking behind a devastating moment of recent American history might be a tad crass to some eyes and ears,...
- 9/6/2023
- by Tomris Laffly
- The Wrap
In “Origin,” Ava DuVernay weaves a centuries- and continents-spanning narrative feature around the ideas of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson, who rejects the word “racism.” It’s not that she doesn’t believe that racism exists; rather, she doesn’t think that racism alone can explain the inequity in human society — the way America’s founders could have written “all men are created equal” and meant something so different.
As Isabel (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who is gearing up to tackle “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” having already written “The Warmth of Other Suns,” puts it to her editor (Blair Underwood), “Racism as the primary language to understand everything is insufficient.” And later, to her sister (Niecy Nash-Betts) over a plate of barbecue ribs: “We have to consider oppression in a way that does not centralize race.”
The book “Caste” was Wilkerson’s answer to that challenge, drawing connections between discrimination...
As Isabel (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who is gearing up to tackle “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” having already written “The Warmth of Other Suns,” puts it to her editor (Blair Underwood), “Racism as the primary language to understand everything is insufficient.” And later, to her sister (Niecy Nash-Betts) over a plate of barbecue ribs: “We have to consider oppression in a way that does not centralize race.”
The book “Caste” was Wilkerson’s answer to that challenge, drawing connections between discrimination...
- 9/6/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
In Ava DuVernay’s seventh feature, Origin, which premiered tonight at the Venice Film Festival, the exploration of caste systems as a mode of oppression takes center stage. With screenplay written by DuVernay, the film is adapted from the Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. The narrative delves into the deep-seeded intricacies of caste and how it underpins much of society’s discrimination, sometimes transcending even race. The film stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts and also includes Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood and Connie Nielsen.
The film starts with a young Black teenager buying snacks at a convenience store. He leaves, puts on his hoodie and begins walking through a suburban neighborhood while talking on his cell phone. He notices that a car is following him around and won’t leave him alone. Then it switches to the next day, where...
The film starts with a young Black teenager buying snacks at a convenience store. He leaves, puts on his hoodie and begins walking through a suburban neighborhood while talking on his cell phone. He notices that a car is following him around and won’t leave him alone. Then it switches to the next day, where...
- 9/6/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
DuVernay has become the first African American woman to play in Competition at Venice.
Ava DuVernay has highlighted the inequalities that continue across the film circuit saying that Black filmmakers are told “you cannot play international film festivals.”
Speaking at the press conference for her Venice title Origin – through which she becomes the first US Black female filmmaker to have a film in Competition at the festival – DuVernay said, “It’s very rare for two Black filmmakers [herself and producer Paul Garnes] to make a film that leaves the country [the US]. For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love films in other...
Ava DuVernay has highlighted the inequalities that continue across the film circuit saying that Black filmmakers are told “you cannot play international film festivals.”
Speaking at the press conference for her Venice title Origin – through which she becomes the first US Black female filmmaker to have a film in Competition at the festival – DuVernay said, “It’s very rare for two Black filmmakers [herself and producer Paul Garnes] to make a film that leaves the country [the US]. For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love films in other...
- 9/6/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
While much of the talk surrounding this year’s Venice Film Festival has been about three men who stand accused of heinous offenses, the 80th edition of the fest also made history: Ava DuVernay, whose film Origin is premiering at the fest, became the first African American woman to have a film performing in competition on the Lido.
Origin is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores how caste systems in different societies across the world have fostered racism. DuVernay...
Origin is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores how caste systems in different societies across the world have fostered racism. DuVernay...
- 9/6/2023
- by Marlow Stern
- Rollingstone.com
Ava DuVernay has made history at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the first female Black U.S. director in the event’s 80 years to have a film in the main competition. DuVernay addressed this milestone head-on at the press conference for Origin, which will have world premiere Wednesday night, explaining that Black U.S. filmmakers are led to believe that international film festivals are simply not places for their work.
“For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love films in other parts of the world don’t care about our stories and don’t care about our films,” she said. “This is something that we are often told — ‘You cannot play international film festivals, no one will come, people will not come to your press conference, people will not come to the P&i screenings, they will not be interested in selling tickets, you may not even get into this festival,...
“For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love films in other parts of the world don’t care about our stories and don’t care about our films,” she said. “This is something that we are often told — ‘You cannot play international film festivals, no one will come, people will not come to your press conference, people will not come to the P&i screenings, they will not be interested in selling tickets, you may not even get into this festival,...
- 9/6/2023
- by Alex Ritman and Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Twenty years ago, Arian Simone was a college student in Tallahassee, Florida, trying to scrape together money for a small mall-based boutique called Fabulous. “I started to notice that a lot of investors didn’t look like me,” Simone, a Black woman, tells Rolling Stone. “I made a promise to myself to not be concerned about the investor landscape, because one day I was going to be the business investor that I had been looking for.”
Two decades later, the disparity Simone recognized back then persists: According McKinsey and Company,...
Two decades later, the disparity Simone recognized back then persists: According McKinsey and Company,...
- 8/19/2023
- by Tessa Stuart
- Rollingstone.com
“Business is business,” Young Thug says at the tail end of “Parade on Cleveland,” the opening track to his third studio album. Over a particularly hard-hitting 808, the Atlanta rapper proceeds to parrot the phrase 19 more times in under 20 seconds, turning a potentially prosaic statement into a thrilling declaration of intent.
Despite Young Thug’s continuing legal issues, when it comes to spitting wackadoodle lyrics set to quirky trap beats, it’s still business as usual for the Mc. While Business Is Business’s foreboding black-and-white cover art acknowledges Young Thug’s current incarceration upfront, and “Parade on Cleveland” features a voice message from the rapper calling in from a Cobb County detention facility, nearly all of the material on the album was recorded before his 2022 imprisonment. This is made exceedingly clear on the jangly “Cars Bring Me Out,” which includes a dated reference to pandemic side hustles.
So perhaps it...
Despite Young Thug’s continuing legal issues, when it comes to spitting wackadoodle lyrics set to quirky trap beats, it’s still business as usual for the Mc. While Business Is Business’s foreboding black-and-white cover art acknowledges Young Thug’s current incarceration upfront, and “Parade on Cleveland” features a voice message from the rapper calling in from a Cobb County detention facility, nearly all of the material on the album was recorded before his 2022 imprisonment. This is made exceedingly clear on the jangly “Cars Bring Me Out,” which includes a dated reference to pandemic side hustles.
So perhaps it...
- 6/26/2023
- by Paul Attard
- Slant Magazine
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-fl), the first Gen-z Democratic Congressman, joined Paramore on stage at a show in Washington, D.C. on Friday night. After introducing him to the crowd, lead singer Hayley Williams asked the Florida lawmaker if he had a message he wanted to share, to which he promptly shouted: “Fuck Ron DeSantis! Fuck fascism!”
Williams then addressed the cheering crowd: “Do you see this? Do you see the future right here?” Last weekend, at the Adjacent Music Festival in Atlantic City, the lead singer declared: “If you vote for Ron DeSantis,...
Williams then addressed the cheering crowd: “Do you see this? Do you see the future right here?” Last weekend, at the Adjacent Music Festival in Atlantic City, the lead singer declared: “If you vote for Ron DeSantis,...
- 6/3/2023
- by Charisma Madarang
- Rollingstone.com
In the summer of 2014, America looked on in horror as high-profile killings of Black men made headlines - Eric Garner, Michael Brown, John Crawford III. And then, on Nov. 22, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a white police officer in Cleveland, Ohio. Tamir, the youngest of four siblings, had been playing with a toy gun across the street from his home.
Samaria Rice, Tamir's mother, will never be able to forget that day and all that came after - a justice system that didn't hold anyone to account for her son's killing, the post-traumatic stress disorder that she says she and her other three children deal with on a daily basis. Now the founder and CEO of the Tamir Rice Foundation, which serves children through arts and culture after-school programming, Samaria works to better her community. If there was anything to come from what she considers the sacrifice of her baby boy,...
Samaria Rice, Tamir's mother, will never be able to forget that day and all that came after - a justice system that didn't hold anyone to account for her son's killing, the post-traumatic stress disorder that she says she and her other three children deal with on a daily basis. Now the founder and CEO of the Tamir Rice Foundation, which serves children through arts and culture after-school programming, Samaria works to better her community. If there was anything to come from what she considers the sacrifice of her baby boy,...
- 5/11/2023
- by Samaria Rice
- Popsugar.com
As “Dear Mama” director Allen Hughes set out to celebrate the legacy of hip hop legend Tupac Shakur in FX’s new docuseries, Hughes resolved to “demystify” Tupac’s fatal shooting that has become a legend of its own for many.
“The number one thing I said was, ‘we can’t have made this movie, and these young people walk away and think that this is sexy, dying like this’,” Hughes told TheWrap. “It’s ugly, it’s brutal, not just what happened to him, but how it affects his family and friends and loved ones.”
Tupac’s death on Sept 13, 1996 from wounds sustained in a drive-by shooting 6 days earlier, has been the subject of conspiracy theories, including alleged connections to the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. 6 months later.
“When something is that larger than life, like Camelot, JFK, no one can believe that,” Hughes continued. “It’s just little...
“The number one thing I said was, ‘we can’t have made this movie, and these young people walk away and think that this is sexy, dying like this’,” Hughes told TheWrap. “It’s ugly, it’s brutal, not just what happened to him, but how it affects his family and friends and loved ones.”
Tupac’s death on Sept 13, 1996 from wounds sustained in a drive-by shooting 6 days earlier, has been the subject of conspiracy theories, including alleged connections to the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. 6 months later.
“When something is that larger than life, like Camelot, JFK, no one can believe that,” Hughes continued. “It’s just little...
- 4/21/2023
- by Loree Seitz
- The Wrap
John Boyega has recalled being “blown away” by the script for his social injustice bank heist film ‘Breaking’.The Star Wars actor, 31, played real-life depressed US Marine Corps veteran Brian Brown-Easley in the 2022 movie, who calmly walked into a Wells Fargo branch in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2017 and threatened to set off the bomb he claimed was in his backpack unless he was paid $892 he was owed in disability benefits that had been brutally cut off in a bureaucratic move which plunged him into poverty.Boyega told NME about loving the script, co-written by the film’s first-time feature director Abi Damaris Corbin with British dramatist Kwame Kwei-Armah: “I read it; I was blown away by it. I read it as if I was watching the movie.“I liked the complication and the duality of his character.“So much going on: the Ptsd he’s going through; not having access to his daughter…...
- 3/31/2023
- by Aaron Tinney
- Bang Showbiz
Exclusive: Principal photography has wrapped on Following Harry, a documentary that offers an inside view of 96-year-old civil rights icon Harry Belafonte’s continuing mission of social justice. The film directed and edited by Susanne Rostock is being readied for premiere at fall film festivals.
Belafonte, who celebrated his birthday on March 1, executive produces Following Harry. He, Rostock and producer Julius Nasso previously collaborated on the 2011 documentary Sing Your Song, a film that examined both Belafonte’s groundbreaking career in entertainment and his key role in the Civil Rights Movement. Following Harry is a present-tense account of Belafonte’s ongoing dedication to advance a more equitable and just society. It covers a span of time dating from the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida more than a decade ago until today.
“Following Harry is a feature documentary that shares the lived experience of Harry Belafonte, in the most public...
Belafonte, who celebrated his birthday on March 1, executive produces Following Harry. He, Rostock and producer Julius Nasso previously collaborated on the 2011 documentary Sing Your Song, a film that examined both Belafonte’s groundbreaking career in entertainment and his key role in the Civil Rights Movement. Following Harry is a present-tense account of Belafonte’s ongoing dedication to advance a more equitable and just society. It covers a span of time dating from the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida more than a decade ago until today.
“Following Harry is a feature documentary that shares the lived experience of Harry Belafonte, in the most public...
- 3/7/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
As Black History Month comes to a close, MSNBC has continued its streak as the No. 1 most-watched cable network among Black Americans in February, a title the network has maintained for 25 consecutive months and that “The Saturday Show” and “The Sunday Show” host Jonathan Capehart attributed to the network’s diverse on-air voices and inclusive reporting.
“Black viewers can see themselves reflected back at them not just in the anchor chair when it comes to, me, Joy Reid, Reverend Al [Sharpton], Symone [Sanders-Townsend] or any of the other African American anchors, but also other anchors of color at the network,” Capehart told TheWrap. “The network covers the stories that are important to the American people at large, but stories that are of particular interest to the African American community.”
While Capehart asserted “there’s no issue that’s in the news, or that is an import to the American people that doesn...
“Black viewers can see themselves reflected back at them not just in the anchor chair when it comes to, me, Joy Reid, Reverend Al [Sharpton], Symone [Sanders-Townsend] or any of the other African American anchors, but also other anchors of color at the network,” Capehart told TheWrap. “The network covers the stories that are important to the American people at large, but stories that are of particular interest to the African American community.”
While Capehart asserted “there’s no issue that’s in the news, or that is an import to the American people that doesn...
- 3/1/2023
- by Loree Seitz
- The Wrap
There is no lack of new movies to stream in February on the various major streamers, as blockbusters, dramas and underrated gems from 2022 all land on a combination of Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, HBO Max, Peacock, Prime Video and Hulu in February. Not only that, but newly added library titles include Oscar winners, ’90s favorites and movies guaranteed to bring a smile to you face. Quite literally whatever mood you’re in, we’ve got a curated pick just for you.
Below, we’ve assembled a list of some of the best new movies to stream in February 2023. So thumb through, make a selection, and bookmark this page to come back throughout the month on your movie nights!
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Marvel Studios
Disney+ — Feb. 1
The sequel to 2018’s zeitgeist-capturing “Black Panther” was always going to be difficult to pull off. After all, the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman in...
Below, we’ve assembled a list of some of the best new movies to stream in February 2023. So thumb through, make a selection, and bookmark this page to come back throughout the month on your movie nights!
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Marvel Studios
Disney+ — Feb. 1
The sequel to 2018’s zeitgeist-capturing “Black Panther” was always going to be difficult to pull off. After all, the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman in...
- 2/17/2023
- by Drew Taylor, Dessi Gomez and Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
Tucker Carlson consistently denies that he is racist, we should definitely mention that. But we should also mention that he has a well documented history of statements and invited guest that led the New York Times to report that he hosts “what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news.”
In unrelated news, on Tuesday Carlson delivered an astonishing diatribe that touched on the murder of Tyre Nichols. During his remarks, he repeatedly denied that racism against Black people by white people is still a problem, insisted that Nichols’ murder by Memphis police had nothing to do with racism, and all but accused Democrats of making the problem of racism up as part of a conspiracy to manipulate and control Americans. And the cherry on top is that he sarcastically invoked the murder of George Floyd as part of it.
You can watch the clip above...
In unrelated news, on Tuesday Carlson delivered an astonishing diatribe that touched on the murder of Tyre Nichols. During his remarks, he repeatedly denied that racism against Black people by white people is still a problem, insisted that Nichols’ murder by Memphis police had nothing to do with racism, and all but accused Democrats of making the problem of racism up as part of a conspiracy to manipulate and control Americans. And the cherry on top is that he sarcastically invoked the murder of George Floyd as part of it.
You can watch the clip above...
- 2/1/2023
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
At the outset of PBS’ docuseries Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World, Chuck D asserts, “[In 2020], the Black Lives Matter protests wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for hip-hop.” It’s a lofty statement, as anti-establishment organizing and revolt have existed since Black people were brought to America. Hip-hop has augmented social movements since its 1973 founding; as Lupe Fiasco notes in the finale of the four-part series, ”Hip-hop is gonna supply you the theme song for the moment.”
Fight the Power does a strong job of chronicling...
Fight the Power does a strong job of chronicling...
- 1/31/2023
- by Andre Gee
- Rollingstone.com
Stephen Colbert had some harsh words to say about Don Lemon’s outfit on CNN This Morning. The late-night show host took to The Late Show to air out his grievances over Lemon’s fit that he didn’t think was right for the news program.
Despite Colbert saying that Lemon was “a dear, dear friend” and that he enjoys watching him on “Ctm,” the Strangers with Candy alum said he “was taken aback” over Lemon wearing a jacket over a hooded gray top and pants.
“I believe a great man once said, ‘What the f*** is that?'” Colbert added. “I know they want to add some comedy to CNN and this is hilarious, but how do you report the news in that outfit? How do you actually talk about tragedy wearing that because what could be more tragic than that look he had this morning?”
Colbert continued to...
Despite Colbert saying that Lemon was “a dear, dear friend” and that he enjoys watching him on “Ctm,” the Strangers with Candy alum said he “was taken aback” over Lemon wearing a jacket over a hooded gray top and pants.
“I believe a great man once said, ‘What the f*** is that?'” Colbert added. “I know they want to add some comedy to CNN and this is hilarious, but how do you report the news in that outfit? How do you actually talk about tragedy wearing that because what could be more tragic than that look he had this morning?”
Colbert continued to...
- 1/21/2023
- by Armando Tinoco
- Deadline Film + TV
The Mayor of Kingstown boss has called the Paramount+ series “the most dangerous show on television,” but its marketing campaign is suddenly timid.
Before series star Jeremy Renner was critically injured in a Jan. 1 snowplow accident, his character appeared in season two key art with a severely scuffed-up face. But now that the actor’s face is in alarmingly similar shape, as he showcased in a photo posted from his hospital bed, the marketing has been adjusted. While the same image and language appear, out of respect for Renner and his recovery, Paramount+ removed the bloody wounds.
“It’s good of the network,” co-creator Hugh Dillon tells The Hollywood Reporter, adding of Renner, who stars in the exceedingly bleak crime drama as the unofficial mayor of a prison-filled town: “Everybody is sensitive to Jeremy.”
This is hardly the first marketing campaign to require adjusting. Pivots of all sorts have occurred,...
Before series star Jeremy Renner was critically injured in a Jan. 1 snowplow accident, his character appeared in season two key art with a severely scuffed-up face. But now that the actor’s face is in alarmingly similar shape, as he showcased in a photo posted from his hospital bed, the marketing has been adjusted. While the same image and language appear, out of respect for Renner and his recovery, Paramount+ removed the bloody wounds.
“It’s good of the network,” co-creator Hugh Dillon tells The Hollywood Reporter, adding of Renner, who stars in the exceedingly bleak crime drama as the unofficial mayor of a prison-filled town: “Everybody is sensitive to Jeremy.”
This is hardly the first marketing campaign to require adjusting. Pivots of all sorts have occurred,...
- 1/17/2023
- by Lacey Rose
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kerry Sanders has announced his retirement from NBC News after 32 years.
The 62-year-old news correspondent first joined the network in 1991, after working as a reporter for NBC’s affiliate Wtvj in Miami.
Appearing on the Today show on Tuesday morning (17 January), alongside fellow hosts Jenna Bush, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Carson Daly, Sanders was honoured for his 32 years of “fearlessly reporting stories around the planet”.
After broadcasting a highlight reel of Sander’s “illustrious career” – including on-air clips of him jumping out of a helicopter, ziplining across snowy mountains, and rock climbing – Sanders shared a few words about what he would “miss most”.
“Ultimately, it’s the camaraderie and the family, because this is a daily, high-energy experience,” he said.
Sanders praised his wife Deborah for being “an amazing supporter”, before explaining his decision to exit the network: “We kind of sat and said, ‘This might be the right time,...
The 62-year-old news correspondent first joined the network in 1991, after working as a reporter for NBC’s affiliate Wtvj in Miami.
Appearing on the Today show on Tuesday morning (17 January), alongside fellow hosts Jenna Bush, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Carson Daly, Sanders was honoured for his 32 years of “fearlessly reporting stories around the planet”.
After broadcasting a highlight reel of Sander’s “illustrious career” – including on-air clips of him jumping out of a helicopter, ziplining across snowy mountains, and rock climbing – Sanders shared a few words about what he would “miss most”.
“Ultimately, it’s the camaraderie and the family, because this is a daily, high-energy experience,” he said.
Sanders praised his wife Deborah for being “an amazing supporter”, before explaining his decision to exit the network: “We kind of sat and said, ‘This might be the right time,...
- 1/17/2023
- by Inga Parkel
- The Independent - TV
Kerry Sanders is retiring after 32 years at NBC News.
The correspondent appeared on Today on Tuesday during a segment that looked back at his career.
Sanders is based in Florida, but his work as a correspondent has taken him around the world. He said that he has traveled about 200 days out of the year. “What will I miss most? Ultimately, it’s the camaraderie and the family, because this is a daily, high-energy experience,” he said.
Sanders was a reporter at NBC affiliate Wtvj in Miami when he joined the network in 1991.
Sanders said on Today, “My wife, Deborah, has been an amazing supporter, but we kind of sat and said, ‘This might be the right time,’ because during the pandemic, we weren’t going anywhere as you all know, and we realized we do really good together all the time, so maybe that is what we should do now.
The correspondent appeared on Today on Tuesday during a segment that looked back at his career.
Sanders is based in Florida, but his work as a correspondent has taken him around the world. He said that he has traveled about 200 days out of the year. “What will I miss most? Ultimately, it’s the camaraderie and the family, because this is a daily, high-energy experience,” he said.
Sanders was a reporter at NBC affiliate Wtvj in Miami when he joined the network in 1991.
Sanders said on Today, “My wife, Deborah, has been an amazing supporter, but we kind of sat and said, ‘This might be the right time,’ because during the pandemic, we weren’t going anywhere as you all know, and we realized we do really good together all the time, so maybe that is what we should do now.
- 1/17/2023
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Maxwell Frost doesn’t know if he’d call himself a stan. As the first Gen-z Democratic Congressman, Frost made headlines on Tuesday night when in addition to winning an election, it was revealed that he was a long-time fan of Harry Styles, Kingdom Hearts, Arian Grande, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Basically, everyone found out that the Congressman-Elect was a human with preferences and lost their shit.
Frost tells Rolling Stone he doesn’t know if the current definition of a stan applies to him. Yes, he saw One Direction in concert...
Frost tells Rolling Stone he doesn’t know if the current definition of a stan applies to him. Yes, he saw One Direction in concert...
- 11/11/2022
- by CT Jones
- Rollingstone.com
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
A few weeks after debuting the looks at New York Fashion Week, Puma and Dapper Dan have launched their first collection. Billed as a tribute to hip-hop culture in the Eighties, instrumental to the rise of Dan in Harlem, the collection is a four-piece capsule that includes a bold take on the Puma Clyde to celebrate the sneaker’s 40th anniversary.
The collection is just the beginning for...
A few weeks after debuting the looks at New York Fashion Week, Puma and Dapper Dan have launched their first collection. Billed as a tribute to hip-hop culture in the Eighties, instrumental to the rise of Dan in Harlem, the collection is a four-piece capsule that includes a bold take on the Puma Clyde to celebrate the sneaker’s 40th anniversary.
The collection is just the beginning for...
- 11/2/2022
- by Waiss David Aramesh
- Rollingstone.com
Rapper Kanye West recently faced backlash for his latest fashion show look, after wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt at a surprise Yeezy show in Paris. The 45-year-old rapper took to the stage to showcase his Season 9 collection and gave a speech while sporting the top, which was emblazoned with the Pope’s face on the front. Kanye, who now goes by the name Ye, also wore a pair of bedazzled flip-flops, reports Mirror.co.uk.
“White Lives Matter” was written in bold white letters on the back of the shirt, a response to the “Black Lives Matter” movement which was started in 2013 following the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin and gained further momentum in 2020 with murder of African-American man, George Floyd due to excessive force by the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
According to Mirror.co.uk, the Anti-Defamation League has previously called the phrase “White Lives Matter” a hate slogan.
“White Lives Matter” was written in bold white letters on the back of the shirt, a response to the “Black Lives Matter” movement which was started in 2013 following the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin and gained further momentum in 2020 with murder of African-American man, George Floyd due to excessive force by the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
According to Mirror.co.uk, the Anti-Defamation League has previously called the phrase “White Lives Matter” a hate slogan.
- 10/4/2022
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
Click here to read the full article.
The New York Film Festival on Saturday night hosted the world premiere of Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, about the lynching of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s quest for justice.
After the screening, Whoopi Goldberg, who both produced and stars in the film that she’s said has taken more than a decade to come to fruition, spoke about the larger social issues that the film reflects and urged audiences to connect what they see to what’s happening now.
“Now you know what institutionalized racism looks like and you can connect it to your own life,” Goldberg told the crowd. “Maybe you’re a gay person. Maybe you’re a woman. Maybe you’re an Asian person. You all understand this hatred because it’s coming closer and closer. What we see on that screen is the culmination of what systematic racism looks like.
The New York Film Festival on Saturday night hosted the world premiere of Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, about the lynching of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s quest for justice.
After the screening, Whoopi Goldberg, who both produced and stars in the film that she’s said has taken more than a decade to come to fruition, spoke about the larger social issues that the film reflects and urged audiences to connect what they see to what’s happening now.
“Now you know what institutionalized racism looks like and you can connect it to your own life,” Goldberg told the crowd. “Maybe you’re a gay person. Maybe you’re a woman. Maybe you’re an Asian person. You all understand this hatred because it’s coming closer and closer. What we see on that screen is the culmination of what systematic racism looks like.
- 10/2/2022
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Chinonye Chukwu was certain of two things setting out to tell the story of a loving and lovely 14-year-old boy lynched in 1955 Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. First, the story had to be told from the perspective of Mamie, the mother of Emmett Till. “We had to follow closely her emotional journey. For without Mamie, the world, we, would not have known who Emmett Till was.”
“I also knew that I did not want to show any violence inflicted on black bodies,” Chukwu said during a Q&a after the film’s rapturous reception at its New York Film Festival world premiere. (Deadline review here._ “Narratively speaking, since we are following Mamie’s journey, it is not necessary to see that physical violence. We have to stay with Mamie.”
So Till’s violent murder is heard, but not seen. “Where the camera focuses is its own act of resistance.
“I also knew that I did not want to show any violence inflicted on black bodies,” Chukwu said during a Q&a after the film’s rapturous reception at its New York Film Festival world premiere. (Deadline review here._ “Narratively speaking, since we are following Mamie’s journey, it is not necessary to see that physical violence. We have to stay with Mamie.”
So Till’s violent murder is heard, but not seen. “Where the camera focuses is its own act of resistance.
- 10/2/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Echoes of Emmett Till’s murder in Jim Crow Mississippi in 1955 grew increasingly harder to ignore when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman was acquitted back in 2013. Since then, Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, has channeled her grief and disappointment into fighting social injustice. It’s a role Emmett’s mother Mamie Till Mobley also played until her death at age 81 in 2003. “Till,” premiering at the New York Film Festival, tells the story of how she got there.
While the ABC limited series “Women of the Movement” — starring Tony winner Adrienne Warren as Mamie Till Mobley — recently covered some of this ground, “Till” places unparalleled focus on Emmett’s mother. In the process, we learn so much about him, prompting us to feel his loss even more intensely.
Jalyn Hall (“All American”) strikes the right chord as Emmett; through his mother’s eyes, we see the boy, the human,...
While the ABC limited series “Women of the Movement” — starring Tony winner Adrienne Warren as Mamie Till Mobley — recently covered some of this ground, “Till” places unparalleled focus on Emmett’s mother. In the process, we learn so much about him, prompting us to feel his loss even more intensely.
Jalyn Hall (“All American”) strikes the right chord as Emmett; through his mother’s eyes, we see the boy, the human,...
- 10/2/2022
- by Ronda Racha Penrice
- The Wrap
Click here to read the full article.
Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney has addressed online backlash to a series of photos and videos from her mother’s 60th birthday party, which the actress posted to her Instagram on Saturday.
Among the photos the Emmy-nominated talent published is an image featuring an unidentified man wearing a shirt featuring a flag with a thin blue line, to some a symbol of the pro-police countermovement created in response to Black Lives Matter.
The photos, which were snapped at a hoedown-themed birthday party for Sweeney’s mother, were captioned, “No better way to celebrate my momma than a surprise hoedown.” The actress also shared photos of the event, featuring line dancing and a rodeo-themed cake, on her Instagram story.
After posting the photos and videos early on Saturday, social media users began to speculate about Sweeney and her family’s politics and Sweeney’s position...
Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney has addressed online backlash to a series of photos and videos from her mother’s 60th birthday party, which the actress posted to her Instagram on Saturday.
Among the photos the Emmy-nominated talent published is an image featuring an unidentified man wearing a shirt featuring a flag with a thin blue line, to some a symbol of the pro-police countermovement created in response to Black Lives Matter.
The photos, which were snapped at a hoedown-themed birthday party for Sweeney’s mother, were captioned, “No better way to celebrate my momma than a surprise hoedown.” The actress also shared photos of the event, featuring line dancing and a rodeo-themed cake, on her Instagram story.
After posting the photos and videos early on Saturday, social media users began to speculate about Sweeney and her family’s politics and Sweeney’s position...
- 8/28/2022
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
Anyone can be Spider-Man. At least, that was the idea when Miles Morales first hit the scene in 2011 as the successor to the Ultimate universe’s Peter Parker. An Afro-Latino teenager taking up the mantle of Marvel’s most beloved and well-known hero, even if it was in an alternate universe, was a game-changer. The possibilities for the character, the topics that could be tackled, and the creators who could put their stamp on the character seemed endless. We’ve seen some of those possibilities reflected through the Oscar-winning animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and a stellar PlayStation game, Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Anyone can be Spider-Man. But the recent blowback from the comic issue What If…Miles Morales Became Thor? begs another question: can anyone write Spider-Man?
If you’re Black, the answer to that has been a rather telling “no.
Anyone can be Spider-Man. At least, that was the idea when Miles Morales first hit the scene in 2011 as the successor to the Ultimate universe’s Peter Parker. An Afro-Latino teenager taking up the mantle of Marvel’s most beloved and well-known hero, even if it was in an alternate universe, was a game-changer. The possibilities for the character, the topics that could be tackled, and the creators who could put their stamp on the character seemed endless. We’ve seen some of those possibilities reflected through the Oscar-winning animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and a stellar PlayStation game, Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Anyone can be Spider-Man. But the recent blowback from the comic issue What If…Miles Morales Became Thor? begs another question: can anyone write Spider-Man?
If you’re Black, the answer to that has been a rather telling “no.
- 7/1/2022
- by Richard Newby
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
For a long time, if you said the name “the Reverend Al Sharpton,” you were guaranteed to get a response that seemed to erupt from the very gut fauna of mass-media outrage. “Loudmouth,” the fascinating new documentary about Sharpton, makes a convincing case that most of that moral high dudgeon was fatally overblown. In the ’80s and ’90s, Sharpton was at the molten center of every race-based news event in the greater New York area. Some would say, quite reasonably, that this made him a devoted activist. (No one ever pilloried the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for showing up too much.) At rallies, at protest marches, on the courthouse steps, Sharpton spoke with a prickly ferocity and power, giving voice to those who didn’t have it.
Was he a new version of King or Gandhi? Of course not. And he didn’t need to be. : the showboat...
Was he a new version of King or Gandhi? Of course not. And he didn’t need to be. : the showboat...
- 6/24/2022
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Father’s Day and Juneteenth overlap this year, and there is no shortage of programming on television for the latter holiday, which celebrates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, and delivered the news that all enslaved people were free. The Emancipation Proclamation arrived two years later on Jan. 1, 1863.
Juneteenth has gained more awareness in recent years, finally becoming recognized as a federal holiday in 2021.
Programming celebrating Black music, culture and more will run all weekend, culminating in the holiday itself on Sunday, June 19.
Below, check out our Juneteenth viewing guide to watch to watch on TV and streaming this weekend.
Getty Images ABC
Country singer Jimmie Allen will host an hourlong segment recognizing the influence of Black artists in music. The special will run on ABC on Friday, June 18 starting at 8pm Eastern and Pacific time. The “Sound of Freedom:...
Juneteenth has gained more awareness in recent years, finally becoming recognized as a federal holiday in 2021.
Programming celebrating Black music, culture and more will run all weekend, culminating in the holiday itself on Sunday, June 19.
Below, check out our Juneteenth viewing guide to watch to watch on TV and streaming this weekend.
Getty Images ABC
Country singer Jimmie Allen will host an hourlong segment recognizing the influence of Black artists in music. The special will run on ABC on Friday, June 18 starting at 8pm Eastern and Pacific time. The “Sound of Freedom:...
- 6/18/2022
- by Dessi Gomez
- The Wrap
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump commanded the attention of the audience inside the New World Center Performance Hall in Miami Beach for the kickoff to the 2022 American Black Film Festival on Wed. June 15, where he took the stage to introduce “Civil,” the upcoming Netflix documentary about his life and work.
“I keep getting asked, ‘Why did I do this?’ Crump recounted. “I said, I understand, we always have to fight in two courts when we’re fighting for the lives and the dignity and the humanity of Black people: the court of law and the court of public opinion.”
Speaking before crowd of filmmakers, film fans and some personal friends, Crump declared how the documentary wouldn’t be possible without Kenya Barris, who knows how to portray the Black experience on film.
“Kenya created ‘Black-ish’ and wrote ‘Girls Trip’ and [created] ‘America’s Next Top Model’ … We present those experiences in Black America,...
“I keep getting asked, ‘Why did I do this?’ Crump recounted. “I said, I understand, we always have to fight in two courts when we’re fighting for the lives and the dignity and the humanity of Black people: the court of law and the court of public opinion.”
Speaking before crowd of filmmakers, film fans and some personal friends, Crump declared how the documentary wouldn’t be possible without Kenya Barris, who knows how to portray the Black experience on film.
“Kenya created ‘Black-ish’ and wrote ‘Girls Trip’ and [created] ‘America’s Next Top Model’ … We present those experiences in Black America,...
- 6/17/2022
- by Clayton Gutzmore
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Benjamin Crump occupies a peculiar position in American society. The attorney has famously represented families whose loved ones have been killed by the police: Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are just a few of his highest-profile cases. But Crump is a civil lawyer, not a prosecutor. He can’t charge the officers involved in these cases, nor can he guarantee that they end up being held accountable for their actions. What he can, and does, do is help aggrieved families get some financial restitution.
But Crump is also an outsize public figure, known for his immediate presence at the sight of nearly every tragedy. He has been accused of peddling in the grief of Black families and of exploiting these incidents for personal gain. Nadia Hallgren’s Civil, a new Netflix documentary about the litigator, is an attempt to correct this...
Benjamin Crump occupies a peculiar position in American society. The attorney has famously represented families whose loved ones have been killed by the police: Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are just a few of his highest-profile cases. But Crump is a civil lawyer, not a prosecutor. He can’t charge the officers involved in these cases, nor can he guarantee that they end up being held accountable for their actions. What he can, and does, do is help aggrieved families get some financial restitution.
But Crump is also an outsize public figure, known for his immediate presence at the sight of nearly every tragedy. He has been accused of peddling in the grief of Black families and of exploiting these incidents for personal gain. Nadia Hallgren’s Civil, a new Netflix documentary about the litigator, is an attempt to correct this...
- 6/13/2022
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Moving through the lobby of a posh Santa Monica hotel one May afternoon, Jerrod Carmichael is not so much walking as strutting. Tall and slender, he’s wearing a black cashmere sweater, matching pants, loafers, an Afro pick, and an outsize smile. And then there’s the brooch: Stunning gold. Cursive font. The letter R. “I love it so much,” Carmichael says, gazing down to admire the pin. It was a gift from a friend a few weeks ago, for Carmichael’s 35th birthday. Ever since, he’s been “building outfits around it.
- 5/17/2022
- by Dan Hyman
- Rollingstone.com
“Darkness is my friend.” Those sober words by Black classical painter George Anthony Morton, the introspective subject of Rosa Ruth Boesten’s “Master of Light” — which won the Grand Jury Award for documentary feature at SXSW — refracts the film’s title from an aesthetic ethos to a way of life. It paints Morton’s present mental health struggles — the obvious and unconscious reverberations of his socio-economic environment on his past and current life — and the seemingly inescapable cycles that still crush his family.
Boesten, however, doesn’t reduce Morton’s painful history to degradation. Because you don’t measure light through its absence; you find it in the human eye. And Black folks are filled with light. Even when the world, from conception to death, distorts Black people’s worth — even during structural racism and anti-blackness — or against the ceaseless undertow of mental trauma, Black people still project radiance. Morton...
Boesten, however, doesn’t reduce Morton’s painful history to degradation. Because you don’t measure light through its absence; you find it in the human eye. And Black folks are filled with light. Even when the world, from conception to death, distorts Black people’s worth — even during structural racism and anti-blackness — or against the ceaseless undertow of mental trauma, Black people still project radiance. Morton...
- 3/16/2022
- by Robert Daniels
- Indiewire
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