DeVon Franklin On 'Jesus Revolution,' Honoring His Gifts And What To Learn From The Moment In History The Film Explores

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, America was changing. Black people were demanding equal rights, women were taking a stand against sexism and inequality, and young people — no longer content to exist in the status quo, were looking for something to believe in. In their new film, Jesus Revolution, co-directors Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle spotlight the true story of Pastor Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammar), and charismatic street-preacher Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie). These men, from varied walks of life, came together to launch a radical faith revolution. 

In the film, DeVon Franklin portrays Josiah, a TIME Magazine reporter initially reluctant to cover The Jesus Movement. Ahead of Jesus Revolution’s theatrical premiere, Shadow and Act spoke with the producer, author and motivational speaker about standing in front of the camera, why this story is so impactful today, and what we can all learn from this exceptional moment in history. 

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'Godfather Of Harlem' Season 3: Forest Whitaker On Embodying Bumpy's Code, Having A New Actor For Malcolm X And More

Harlem stood out like a glittering jewel when America was at war with itself. It became a Mecca for Black people who wanted to live, thrive, and love away from oppressive racism. Harlem was never perfect, but for many decades it was ours. Inspired by the real-life crime boss 

Godfather of Harlem, is an excellent gangster drama that centers on a rapidly changing nation, an expansive Black community, and a man that, for better or worse, held Harlem in his hand. 

Starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker as Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson,, Godfather of Harlem’s third season, will find Bumpy at a crossroads. With his massive shipment of heroin set ablaze amid the July 1964 Harlem riots, Bumpy is out of resources, and as always, the Italian mob is encroaching on his territory. With his reputation, family, and community hanging in the balance, Bumpy will be forced to seek new alliances.

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'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' Is A Truly Immersive Experience Through Dolby Cinema

When Chadwick Boseman’s shocking death reverberated worldwide in August 2020, as the earth sat frozen in time amidst a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, the pain was excruciating. A bonafide movie star who had given the world so much was gone almost as quickly as we’d begun to know him. Just two years after the debut of the history-making Black Panther, T’Challa was dead. 

While we were able to lean into one another in grief as we absorbed so many other unfairnesses swirling around us, continuing the Black Panther franchise without the Academy Award nominee at the center seemed implausible. For the cast and crew, especially director Ryan Coogler the thought of pressing forward without Boseman was too much to bear. “I was at a point when I was like, I’m walking away from this business,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I didn’t know if I could make another movie, period, [let alone] another Black Panther movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?”

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'Is That Black Enough For You?!?' Is A Powerful Examination of Black Film Representation That Will Leave You Wanting More [NYFF Review]

Black films have existed since the silent era. Filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux and later Spencer Williams worked tirelessly to write, direct and represent Black life on screen. However, amid unbridled anti-Blackness and the Jim Crow era, Hollywood studios, who owned the biggest movie houses at the time, locked Black films out of their cinemas. White writers, directors and producers of that era had their own ideas about Black life — ones that were riddled with demeaning stereotypes and degrading roles. 

Yet, as film scholar and historian Elvis Mitchell describes in his dense but riveting film essay, Is That Black Enough For You?!?, racism didn’t stop Black people from falling in love with movies. Nor did it stop the deep yearning within many of them, Mitchell included, from wanting to see themselves represented on the big screen. 

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Inside The Wacky, Wondrous World Of Netflix's 'Wendell & Wild,' The Reteaming Of Jordan Peele And Keegan-Michael Key

As technology has expanded, the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and other special effects to bring narratives to life has become commonplace in cinema. Stop-motion animation, which requires a film crew to work in absolute harmony and for a movie to be captured frame by frame, is, in some ways, a lost art. However, for The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick, it is still the most delectable way to tell a story. A master at his craft, the Academy Award nominee has teamed up with Academy Award winner Jordan Peele for his latest wickedly delightful project, Netflix‘s Wendell & Wild.

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'House Of The Dragon': Paddy Considine, Matt Smith And Fabien Frankel Talk Power And Chaos In The 'Game Of Thrones' Prequel

Meet King Viserys I Targaryen, Ser Criston Cole and Prince Daemon Targaryen from the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon.

Game of Thrones has returned, but not as fans of the aforementioned series may expect. When we land in Westeros for House of the Dragon, a different family sits on the Iron Throne. They are the most infamous family in George R.R. Martin’s Westeros history. 

Based on Fire & Blood, Martin’s sprawling account of the Targaryen kings, House of the Dragon opens just as King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) is chosen to take the throne. His predecessor, King Jaehaerys the Wise (Michael Carter), has found himself without an heir. His grandson, Viserys, is chosen over his granddaughter, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), though she has the direct blood claim to the throne.

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Tyler Perry Is Working On A Zombie Movie And A WWII Movie: 'Now Is The Time To Start Believing' [MVAAFF Exclusive]

A zombie film and a World War II-set film are upcoming projects that Tyler Perry says he has in the works.

A prolific director, Perry is no stranger to premiering multiple projects in a year. However, A Jazzman’s Blues, premiering on Netflix next month, allowed him to savor his role as filmmaker and producer.

"It's the happiest I've ever been making a film because it was a joy, a peacetime," he explained to Shadow and Act during a conversation before a panel on the film at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival.

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In Netflix's 'Descendant,' The Past Bubbles Up To The Surface [MVAAFF Review]

There were many horrors born out of the enslavement of Black bodies. Terror, sexual abuse, mental anguish, despair, and the separation of families are only the tip of the iceberg. Erasure— of history and personhood — are still things that echo through the Black community. However, as filmmaker Margaret Brown’s striking documentary Descendant suggests, our histories and the truth can never stay buried for long. 

Descendant begins the search for a slave ship that should have never existed. Just one year before the American Civil War began and 52 years after the International slave trade was outlawed in the United States, a ship named Clotilda arrived on the shores of Alabama. A white plantation owner named Timothy Meaher charted the illegal expedition in a bet that he could evade the law. Clotilda carried 110 African men, women, and children to the Alabama shores before Meaher set the vessel ablaze —determined to erase what he’d done. 

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Barack And Michelle Obama Surprise Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival To Introduce Higher Ground's Netflix Doc 'Descendant'

The 20th annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF), founded by Stephanie and Floyd Rance, opened Friday evening with a robust crowd at a screening of Descendant, a searing documentary helmed by filmmaker Margaret Brown. The film follows the residents of Africatown, Alabama, the descendants of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to hit American shores long after the transatlantic slave trade had been outlawed. The Netflix film is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, and the former POTUS and First Lady surprised the crowd when they stepped out to introduce the film.

“When we screened this, we immediately thought, this is why we’re doing Higher Ground,” Mrs. Obama said. “As Black people, we don’t talk about things, and there is a lot of psychology around that. But, what this film reminds us of is the power that our stories have, and we have to tell that truth.” 

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Simone Missick On The Meteoric Ascent Of 'All Rise': 'We Are Operating At Our Highest Selves'

All Rise has been a singular type of show since its inception. It is much more than a courtroom procedural drama. Led by Judge Lola Carmichael (Simone Missick), the series follows the cases that land in her courtroom and the personal and professional lives of the prosecutors, public defenders, bailiffs, cops, and defendants that orbit around her. 

After a two-season run, All Rise was canceled on CBS. It has since been revived on OWN as a more comprehensive series that expands beyond the courtroom. As we head into the second half of season 3, Shadow and Act spoke with Missick, who is also now an executive producer on the series, about this amplified version of Lola, multifaceted female characters, and all of the remaining secrets and surprises that this season will reveal. 

"I definitely wanted for Lola to make some missteps," Missick says of the expansion of her character this season.

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'The Wire' Cast, Creator Reflect On Show After 20 Years: Only Individuals, Not Institutions, Can Be Fundamentally Reformed

Twenty years after its debut, The Wire continues to speak to the present just as it commands us to look back at the past. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 2000s, The Wire was not a ratings hit or even an award-winner when it was on the air. However, David Simon and Ed Burns’ masterpiece is considered one of the most significant pieces of television ever conceived. 

Composed of five seasons tackling institutions and social issues, including The War on Drugs, Capitalism and Economics, Politics, Public Education and the Media, The Wire is a searing and compelling examination of our failing structures told through the lives of some truly remarkable characters. 

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'Dune' Has A Lot More To Do For A Truly Worthy Payoff (NYFF Review)

Thirty-five years after David Lynch's ill-fated adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune crashed and burned on the big screen, director Denis Villeneuve has tried his hand at bringing the stunning epic to life. The film is a coming-of-age tale of sorts. It follows Paul Atreides (a stoic Timothée Chalamet), heir to the noble House of Atreides. Paul's whole world shifts from under him when the emperor orders his father Leto Atreides, the Duke of Atreides (Oscar Issac), to invade the dangerous desert planet Arrakis and begin cultivating the highly coveted spice. Spice allows for interstellar space travel and acts as a fountain-of-youth-like substance as well as a psychoactive.

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Issa Rae Is Reflecting On 10 Years of 'Awkward Black Girl' And Envisioning What's Next

With a plethora of Black faces on TV and in films in everything from HBO's I May Destroy You to FX's Pose and OWN's Queen Sugar, it seems unimaginable that just a decade ago, there were almost no Black or brown faces on the big and small screens. Growing up watching a plethora of series like Living Single and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and seeing movies like Love & Basketball and Friday Issa Rae found herself baffled by the lack of representation in the 2010s, so she decided to do something about it. 

One year before Kerry Washington introduced us to Olivia Pope, Rae gave us a witty, refreshing, and unique depiction of Black women on-screen. The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl debuted on YouTube in 2011 and immediately swept across the internet like wildfire. The series garnered die-hard fans, critical acclaim, and a Shorty Award. 

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There Is Only Suffering Here: 'Queen Sugar' Season 4, Episode 8 [Recap]

As "All the Borders" opens, it's clear that Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) has faded into herself. She, along with Ralph Angel (Kofi Sirobie), Romero (Walter Perez) and Micah (Nicholas L. Ashe), sit helplessly as the fire department finally gets the fire at Queen Sugar mill under control. Keke (Tanyell Waivers) even comes running up desperate to see if Micha is OK. The fire has devastated the building. The structure is unstable, and to add insult to injury, it took the firemen 30 mins to get to the scene. The Fire Chief claims they never received the alarm. He also informs Charley that the fire was an arson--and that she should key herself up for a criminal investigation.

In the midst of this Nova (Rutina Wesley) runs up on her family out of nowhere asking about the mill and their wellbeing. Unfortunately, she can't help but make the moment about her. Amid the destruction, she begs her siblings to meet her halfway. Ralph Angel simply looks at her uninterested while Charley reads her for filth. Charley and RA leave Nova standing there with the burnt mill in the background as they get into RA's truck.

At Vi's Prized Pies & Diner, Vi (Tina Lifford) has much of her fire back. As she eats her breakfast, Sam Landry walks through the doors like he owns the place. The two trade a few barbs back and forth and Vi tells Sam that he's crossed the line with the mill fire. Sam insists that it wasn't him but Vi has had enough--these two have a history. She tells him that she's calling in the favor he owes her and that he must end this war with her family. Sam looks shook.

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Image: OWN.

'Queen Sugar' Won't Let The Bordelons Get A Break: Season 4 Episode 7 [Recap]

As is the theme with this season of Queen Sugar, "Of Several Centuries" opens with Nova (Rutina Wesley). This time the eldest Bordelon sibling is in Philadelphia to discuss her book and to be a guest on a Finding Your Roots-type television program called Legacies. Caught up in the whirlwind of pseudo-celebrity, a revelation completely jolts Nova. Legaciesproducers have uncovered something so shocking in the Bordelon family tree that Nova refuses to let it be publicly disclosed. However, she does discover rather happily, that her late mother has a living first cousin.

In St. Josephine, Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) is chatting with a St. Thomas councilwoman named Joyce. Joyce is the only woman on the city council and she 's not too keen on trusting or throwing her support behind Charley after reading Blessing & Blood. With plans for the highway still firmly in St.Josephine, Joyce knows that St. Thomas is bound to become a ghost town and tasks Charley with figuring out why the highway plans were moved from St. Thomas to St. Joesphine in the first place.

As for Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe), the Boudreauxes and Landrys are doing everything in their power to shutter RA's re-entry program. After planting drugs in RA's friend Benny's car, a police officer tampers with the cameras on the farm and threatens Ralph Angel's freedom. Later, RA calls his lawyer friend to try and help Benny.

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Legendary Filmmaker Robert Townsend Just Keeps Getting Better With Time [Interview]

Legendary filmmaker Robert Townsend's impact on defining Black cinema is undeniable.

Dubbed The Godfather of Independent Film, Townsend began his acting career in the 1980s, a time when Hollywood was only letting in one Black actress/actor at a time. Fed up with demeaning roles and bit parts, the Chicago native decided to tell his own story, taking the reins to write, produce and direct Hollywood Shuffle, a satire film that critically analyzed the plight of Black actors trapped in dangerously stereotypical roles that persists in the industry to this day.

By bringing his own seat and building his own table, Townsend wrote himself into history, going on to direct iconic films like The Five Heartbeats, and creating the hit sitcom The Parent 'Hood while building a legacy that has carried well into the 21st century. Now, the B*A*P*S director has teamed up with Gentleman Jack's Real to Reel, a Q&A tour that fosters the creativity and talent of up and coming Black filmmakers. Each year, Gentleman Jack and Code Black Entertainment give one African American filmmaker the chance to win $10,000 and a trip to the American Black Film Festival where their work is showcased.

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Skeletons Never Stay Buried: 'Queen Sugar' Season 4 Episode 5 [RECAP]

"Face Speckled" opens with Nova (Rutina Wesley) in New York for her book tour. As she has spilled everyone else's tea except her own, she is still being haunted by her past. She's been dreaming of her mama, her teenage self and the regal white outfit she wore to her father's funeral. Since her family has iced her out, Nova is going to be forced to deal with herself--one way or another.  Startled awake by her dreams--Nova makes a record of what she remembers on her bedside tape recorder. It appears that the eldest Bordelon sibling is also working on another project.

Back in St. Joseph parish--Darla (Bianca Lawson) is stricken by the horrors that Nova revealed in Blessing & Blood. She's barely functioning, ignoring her new bae, and allowing Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) to do the heavy lifting when it comes to parenting Blue (Ethan Hutchison). At the last hour, Darla begins to pray feverishly for a way forward.

At Vi's Prized Pies & Diner--Violet (Tina Lifford) seems to be getting a handle on things again. Though she's not quite back to her old self--her euphoric spirit is slowly seeping through. She's further delighted when Remy (Dondré T. Whitfield) comes sliding through her new place of business. (High-key we almost forgot he existed.) After his less than gentlemanly behavior with Nova and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) last season, Remy has had to do some real soul searching. He tells Vi and Hollywood (Omar J. Dorsey) that his time in St. Joesph has run its course. With a packed lunch from Vi Remy looks like he's ready to embark on a new path.

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Photo by Skip Bolen © 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. / Courtesy of OWN

Stanley Nelson's 'Boss: The Black Experience in Business' Rewrites the Narrative On Black Entrepreneurship [REVIEW]

Black businesses have been the cornerstone of Black communities in this country for more than a century. With his new PBS documentary, Boss: The Black Experience in Business, prolific director Stanley Nelson explores the history of Black business. Traveling back in time during the antebellum period and stretching forward into the 21st century, Nelson unpacks 150 years of Black business in America.

Opening with James Brown’s 1973 soul hit, “The Boss,” Nelson turns his lens on Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox. Burns' rise in corporate America wasn't assumed. Like many Black folks, she came from a working-class family and was encouraged to step into a “practical career" like nursing or education to make a living for herself. However, a summer internship at Xerox changed the path she would take. Burns joined the company after college, working her way up to the CEO’s Executive Assistant and eventually taking the top spot herself. As the first Black woman to head a Fortune 500 company, Burns' story seems improbable and in many ways it is. However, what Nelson unveils in Boss is that the roots of Black business in America are literally embedded in the country's soil and history.

rom the 19th century forward, Nelson chronicles the rise of Black business from apprenticeships that enslaved peoples held to the birth of barbershop franchises, Black banks, and insurance companies during the Reconstruction era and into the 20th century. Due to Jim Crow laws that forced Black people out of white spaces, Black businesses became a necessity and a source of pride. Black business owners were able to provide affordable and dignified services directly to their people. By elevating these little known narratives, like the hundreds of businesses on Black Wall Street in Tusla, Oklahoma, or the legacy of Madame C.J. Walker, the film reveals just how tenacious and ambitions these Black business owners were—especially when they had very little capital or knowledge about what it meant to run a successful company.

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'The Twilight Zone': Sanaa Lathan And Damson Idris On Their Time-Bending Episode, "Replay"

More than sixty years after the classic sci-fi series aired on television, horror mastermind Jordan Peele has reimagined The Twilight Zone for the 21st-century. As the series narrator and host, Peele takes his audience through ten episodes that explore the intricacies of the modern world through the Us director’s haunting lens. The third episode of the series, “Replay,” starring Sanaa Lathan and Damson Idris, is one of the most superb of the electric first season.

In the episode, Lathan stars as Nina, an acclaimed attorney who is driving her son Dorian (Idris) to get him settled into his first day at a fictional Historically Black University. Eager to capture the memories, Nina records their road trip on an old camcorder. When the mother/son duo find themselves in the crosshairs of a racist state trooper (Glenn Fleshler), Nina discovers that the camcorder can rewind time.

Ahead of the “Replay” premiere, Shadow And Act sat down to chat with Damson Idris and Sanaa Lathan about stepping into The Twilight Zone and why this particular episode will stick with the audience for a good long while.

"I used to watch the re-runs of the original, and I was always just so fascinated with them," Lathan explained. "To this day I remember images from some of the episodes. When I read the script I was like, 'Sign me up!' It's a whammy what this woman, Nina Harrison, goes through. She goes on this real emotional journey, and I just was super excited to play her."

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TIFF 2018: George Tillman Jr. On Adapting Book 'The Hate U Give' To The Big Screen

Since the mega success of 1997’s Soul Food, director George Tillman Jr. has been telling stories that enable people to deeply examine their own lives and their connections with others. He's directed Notorious and The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, and he’s also worked diligently as a producer films like Mudbound and the Barbershop franchise. Now the prolific filmmaker is bringing Angie Thomas’ stunning novel The Hate U Give to the big screen. The narrative centers around Black teenager Starr Carter, and her experiences participating in activism paralleling the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Following the film's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Shadow and Act sat down to chat with Tillman about why this was a story he felt compelled to tell, and what he’s uncovered over the course of his career. For Tillman, the entry point into Starr’s world was first sparked by Thomas’ novel. 

"When the book came to me it wasn't published," Tillman told Shadow and Act. "Angie was still in the process of editing the book. I got it really early — in January 2016. I was working with Cheo Hodari Coker, who I did Notorious with. He wanted me to do an episode . I went out to Brooklyn, and the book came to me in my second week of shooting." 

"I didn't have a lot of time, but I did read the first chapter," he said. "The first chapter starts off at the party where Starr's hanging out. She says, 'I don't know if I'm supposed to be at this party.' She was uncomfortable, and I thought, 'Wow, I’ve never seen a story about a young 16-year-old, African American dealing with identity issues.'" 

"As I kept reading it, the dialogue and the language reminded me of a party I went to years ago in my high school times, and a shooting happened," Tillman recalled. "The way (Angie) caught that, and the themes — I was just blown away. I had to get on the phone with her right away. We talked maybe two weeks after that. We went through how I saw the movie, the important characters, the voice, the theme. We completely connected. Then I was able to sell it to Fox at that point." 

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