'A Thousand And One' Review: Teyana Taylor In A.V. Rockwell's Stunningly Honest Portrait Of One Woman's Fight To Give Her Son A Better Life (Sundance)

Since times of enslavement, it’s been up to Black women to piece together homes for their children— homes often made out of nothing but full of love. A.V. Rockwell’s profound debut feature, A Thousand and One, centers on 22-year-old Inez (an outstanding Teyana Taylor). Set in the early ’90s, Inez has been recently released from prison and thrust back onto the streets of Brooklyn. Determined to stop the scheming that got her incarcerated, she tries to restore her relationship with her timid 6-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola). After being abandoned on the street corner and pushed into the foster care system, Terry is initially distrustful of his mother. However, after he has an accident in his group home and lands in the hospital, the aspiring hairstylist decides to kidnap her son out of the foster care system, determined to give him the home she never had growing up.

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'All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt' Review: Raven Jackson's Feature Debut Is A Visual Masterwork With Very Few Answers (Sundance)

Some films aren’t actually films. Instead, they are still portraits that come to life. A homage to Julie Dash’s 1991 film, Daughters of the Dust, Raven Jackson’s deeply textured film, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt follows Mack (Kaylee Nicole Johnson and later Charleen McClure), a Black woman growing up in the late 1960s in Mississippi across four decades in her life. Jackson chooses not to orient her film in time or place. Instead, the non-linear feature, with its very sparse dialogue, forces the viewer to piece together Mack’s life experiences for themselves. 

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In ‘Descendant,’ The Clotilda Slave Ship Wreckage Is Only The Beginning

In 1860 on the eve of the American Civil War and 52 years after the international slave trade was outlawed in the U.S., 110 African men, women, and children arrived on the shores of Alabama in a ship called Clotilda. The captives were sold to various plantations, and the vessel was set ablaze by Timothy Meaher, the man who had chartered the illegal expedition. 

One hundred sixty-two years later, filmmaker Margaret Brown has turned her lens toward the descendants of Clotilda’s survivors in her captivating documentary film Descendant. The story of the Clotilda has always been alive and well amongst the descendants of the ship’s survivors. Many of them still call Africatown, Alabama – founded in 1866 by the formally enslaved – home. When the ship’s wreckage was found in 2019, the world began to pay attention. But as Brown’s film suggests, many more questions still arise. 

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In ‘Alice’ A Historical Narrative Dissolves Into Melodrama

Alice begins with a blood-curdling scream. As the film comes into focus, the audience meets Alice (Keke Palmer), an enslaved woman on the run. Before her destination is revealed, the film pulls us back in time to a plantation in rural Georgia. Surrounded by her loved ones, Alice secretly weds a man named Joseph (Gaius Charles) in a darkened cabin. However, no sooner have the newlywed couple said their vows are they beckoned outside by the plantation owner, Paul (Jonny Lee Miller). The audience learns quickly that Paul luxuriates in endless acts of cruelty include sexual and physical violence. 

Alice’s world has been depicted in countless films, including Harriet, 12 Years A Slave and, the oddly similar Antebellum. In Alice, first-time filmmaker Krystin Ver Linden painstakingly takes the time to sit in this setting of horrors, depicting everything from iron muzzles to beatings and alarming talks of human breeding. Unfortunately, this adds nothing new to the narratives of this time period. 

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Thandiwe Newton Is Intoxicating In The Slow-Burning Film 'God's Country’

As God’s Country opens, a woman walks into a dimly lit crematorium. This initial scene snaps the eerie tone of Julian Higgins’s film into place. As the world of the film opens up, the viewers learn that the lone woman at the crematorium is Sandra (Thandiwe Newton). It’s just before Christmas, and she’s grieving the loss of her estranged mother. 

A humanities professor at the local university, Sandra is well-liked by her students and more than equipped to do her job. But the unnamed Montana town surrounding her, including its mountains and people, are stark white. Higgins didn’t need the aid of a desaturated color palette to zero in on Sandra’s otherness, but this Black woman’s solitary state in this environment only fuels the sinister nature of the film.

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In Nikyatu Jusu's ‘Nanny’ The American Dream Is A Horror Story

Amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, modern-day motherhood and the unequal burden of parenting that often sits with women has never been more apparent. However, many women, particularly women of color who come to this country, continue to raise the children of affluent white people. In Nikyatu Jusu’s feature film debut, Nanny, one caregiver grapples with the challenges of her position while striving for her version of the American dream. 

Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese immigrant finding her footing in New York City. Staying in Harlem with her aunt, Aisha, is thrilled to find work with a wealthy white couple as a nanny to their bright young daughter, Rose (Rose Decker). The opportunity will enable Aisha to send for her young son Lamine (Jahleel Kamara), who remains in Senegal in the care of her sister, Mariatou (Olamide Candide-Johnson).

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‘Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul’ Is A Sharp Examination Of The Black Megachurch

It’s fitting that Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul opens with Black Jesus. Christianity stands at the foundation of the lives of many Black people across the globe. The Black American church, in particular, has origins that begin amid the transatlantic slave trade. It is a pillar in the Black community that has remained prominent as a place of worship, service, fellowship, and so much more from the Reconstruction Era into the present. 

Writer/director Adamma Ebo’s dark comedy is a striking commentary on what Black church culture has become. Instead of places of refuge for Black people from all walks of life, many congregations now center on showmanship, greed, deep-seated misogynoir, hypocrisy, and bigotry. 

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‘jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’ Is Anchored By Fame and Friendship

Fame isn’t normal. It doesn’t even seem humane. Yet, from the beginning of his life, Kanye West was determined to be recognized and revered for his gifts. The rapper/producer/fashion designer was determined to earn his status as a musical legend even if he ran himself into the ground to see it through. 

Since his acclaimed debut album, College Dropout, some 18 years ago, so much has been said about the eccentric rapper from Chicago. Like many celebrities who reach global icon status, he’s been admired, lauded, critiqued, and condemned. Through his work, actions, and statements, Kanye has earned all of this. For a man who has become almost a caricature of how he was once perceived, it’s easy to question if we, the public —current fans and those still longing for the old Kanye — ever knew him at all. 

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Sundance's ‘Master’ Grapples With The Terror Of Othering

Belonging. We all have an emotional need to feel accepted and embraced by others. If we’re lucky, that sense of allyship begins in the comfort of our homes surrounded by loved ones. However, finding it outside of those spaces, particularly in predominantly white institutions (PWI), can be a daunting task often confounded with feelings of isolation and even terror. 

In her feature film debut Master, filmmaker Mariama Diallo grapples with the psychological effects of racial terror and the pitfalls of ignoring the lessons of history. Set at a New England-based Ivy League University, Master centers on Gail Bishop (Regina Hall). She is the sole tenured Black professor who has been newly elected as a “Master,” or a dean of students — the first Black person in the university’s history to hold such a role. 

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Tabitha Jackson And Gina Duncan Have A New Vision For The Sundance Film Festival

For nearly 40 years, the goal of the Sundance Film Festival has been to connect storytellers and audiences through the medium of cinema. As the film industry has shifted and transformed to become more expansive, diverse, and inclusive, Sundance has also evolved. In 2021, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the film festival was entirely virtual, pulling in people from the safety and comfort of their homes into an expansive and connected online festival. 

Using the experiences of last year, Festival Director Tabitha Jackson and Producing Director Gina Duncan are forging ahead. They had hoped to debut a new format for the 2022 festival, redesigned as a hybrid. Sundance wanted attendees to have the option to attend the festival in person on the mountain in Park City, Utah. For others who preferred the comfort of their own homes, screenings, talks, and events would be available online.

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'My Name Is Pauli Murray' Review: A Knockout Doc Immortalizing A Truly Trailblazing Pioneer

Many Black Americans' contributions to this country have been erased, buried, or stamped out of the history books. Influential figures like Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacies have outlived them, remain pillars — but they were not the only history makers. They often weren't even the first. Though their name is still not well known, Dr. Pauli Murray was an activist, lawyer, poet, and priest whose fight against racism and segregation in the 1930s and 1940s paved the way for the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, Murray's term paper at Howard Law became a blueprint for 1955's Brown V. Board of Education, and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg credited Murray's work in the 1960s for her landmark 1971 Supreme Court win for woman's rights.

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R#J' Review: A Bold 'Romeo And Juliet' Social Media Reimagining Doesn't Quite Come Together

From Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet to 2000's Romeo Must Die, there are dozens of interpretations of William Shakespeare's 16th-century tragedy in cinema. From animated features to loosely based interpretations like West Side Story, the narrative of the star-crossed lovers from warring families is not unfamiliar. However, in his modern retelling, Carey Williams' R#J is unlike anything seen before in cinema.

When the film first opens, the camera pans to what appears to be a picturesque beach in Verona. However, the audience soon realizes that instead of landscape, this is the background of a cell phone screen. R#J then introduces Romeo (Camaron Engels), a seemingly happy-go-lucky young man with bright brown skin. Though we see glimpses of his face through his Instagram feed, his personality is unveiled through his DMs, Spotify playlists, and likes. His world expands when we finally see him on-screen, this time through a FaceTime video between himself and his best friends Benvolio (RJ Cyler) and Mercutio (Siddiq Saunderson).

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'Judas and the Black Messiah' Review: An Outstanding, Absorbing Narrative That Gets To The Heart Of Fred Hampton

For many of us, our introduction to Black Panther Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton began with his bullet-riddled body, a blood-soaked mattress, and a frigid winter night in Chicago. The then- 21-year-old revolutionary was a pillar in one of America's most segregated cities and in the fight for Black justice overall. In Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah, Hampton's (Daniel Kalyuua) brilliance, strength, and charisma are realized. While the film highlights the forces that eventually snuffed out his life, his legacy burns eternal. 

Set in 1968, Judas does not open with Hampton, but instead, with William O'Neil (LaKeith Stanfield), a low-level criminal who, after finding himself in the clutches of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), infiltrates the Panthers and weasels his way into Hampton's inner circle. Previous films and documentaries have shown snippets of the Illinois Black Panther Party during this violate time in the country's history. However, this film is perhaps the most complete portrait of who Hampton was as a man, a revolutionary, and an expectant father. 

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'Ailey' Gives Audiences A Glimpse Of the Renowned Choreographer Who Infused Memory Into Movement

When Ailey opens, the late Cicely Tyson comes into focus, standing glorious and regal on stage at the Kennedy Center for the Arts honoring the famed dancer and choreographer. Even then, at the tail end of his life, Alvin Ailey’s legacy both in the dance world and in the Black community was thunderous. 

Though he was an honoree at the Kennedy Center Honors just 30 years after founding the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, not much was known about the reclusive dancer and choreographer’s personal life or past. Using his own words, never-before-seen interviews, archival footage, and accounts from those closest to him like Robert Battle, Carmen de Lavallade, and Judith Jamison, filmmaker Jamila Wignot unveils a figure for whom dancing and movement was like air and water. 

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Questlove's 'Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)' Unearths A Crowning Jewel In Black History

Amid our current civil rights movement and a tumultuous year that has brought forth a great deal of struggle and hardship, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has given us a gift. With his directorial debut Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), he has unearthed an aspect of Black history that won’t soon be forgotten. 

The year 1969 was pivotal for Black people. While much of the world was concerned with getting the first man on the moon, the Black community was focused inward, still reeling from a turbulent decade that stole the lives of Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., and countless others. It was the final year of a decade marked by chaos, violence, and determination. It was also the year we shed the word negro and became Black.

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Colorism Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg In 'Passing'

What we know of race, not ethnicity or culture, but race in and of itself is that it’s a manmade construct. Yet, it has defined so much of our lives, journeys, and experiences — especially in America. Bringing Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing to the big screen, Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut is a visceral drama centering on race relations, colorism, jealously, anguish, and desire. 

Set in Harlem amid the renaissance of the 1920’s, Passing follows Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Rutha Negga), childhood friends who meet again by happenstance one blazing hot summer day in the posh tearoom of New York City’s Drayton Hotel. It should have been a warm reunion, filled with talks of girlhood and current undertakings. However, from the moment Clare catches Irene’s eye across the grandly decorated room, something sinister begins brewing between the two women. 

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Sundance's Black Stories Are More Accessible Than Ever

Each year, filmmakers, cinephiles, and the creme-de-la-creme of the entertainment industry make their way to Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival to be the first to watch some of the most buzzed-about films of the year. 

People like Ava DuVernay, Ryan Coogler, and Radha Blank have had career-defining moments at Sundance. This year, just like every other major cultural event, the largest independent film festival in the United States will look very different. Instead of gathering in theaters, coffee shops, and parties, Sundance attendees will be convening around their screens from the comfort and safety of their homes.

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'The Last Shift' Never Gets To The Root Of The Issue

The 2016 Presidential election revealed just how divided America can be. Many people across the country seemingly voted against their best interests for a presidential nominee whose policies would do more harm than good for the average working-class American. The election showcased, yet again, how many people will cling on to hatred, bigotry and racism because the privileges of whiteness are the only things they have of value. 

In The Last Shift, filmmaker Andrew Cohn offers a birds-eye view of working-class, small-town America. The narrative showcases two lives that intersect, bringing about frustrating results.

Albion, Michigan is a town that the rest of America has forgotten. Stanley (Richard Jenkins) has lived there his entire life. He's worked the graveyard shift at Oscar's Chicken and Fish for the past 38-years, where he makes less than fifteen dollars an hour.

Stanley is exceptionally prideful about his life's choices. He's content in the grind of his daily work, his rented room in a flophouse and the evenings he spends playing darts and drinking Mountain Dew with his buddy Dale (Ed O'Neill). However, Stanley is ready for the next chapter of life. He's decided to retire from Oscar's, earn his driver's license and drive down to Sarasota, Florida to get his ailing mother out of her hellish nursing home. 

Before his final shift, Stanley's boss, Shazz (Dolemite Is My Name's Da'Vine Joy Randolph), has tasked him with training his replacement. Jevon (Shane Paul McGhie) is a young Black father who has recently been released from prison after defacing a public monument. He's full of lofty ideas about the world and has a passion for writing. However, his angst, aimlessness and the suffocating confines of Albion have left him feeling stuck with only the air mattress in his mom's house as a life raft.

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'Farewell Amor' Is A Character Study On Loss, Reconnection And Second Chances

Cinema has a history of examining the breaking, ripping and pulling apart of families. What is almost never seen on screen is the rejoining and the reconnection of what was once broken, or the aftermath of what occurs when lives are forced back together. Ekwa Msangi's feature directorial debut Farewell Amor is a quiet, elegant film about a family torn apart by the Angolan Civil War only to reconnect 17-years later in New York City's JFK airport. 

Walter (The Chi's Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) is an Angolan-born taxi-cab driver who fled from Angola to New York City, leaving his wife, Esther (Zainab Jah), and daughter, Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), behind. Now, nearly two decades later, having battled the United States' often chaotic and sometimes corrupt immigration system, the family is together once again. What should be a happy occasion is a tense meeting of virtual strangers. 

Accustomed to life as a single man, with a routine that involves driving during the day, dancing at night and a beautiful lover, Linda (Nana Mensah), Walter struggles to make room for Esther and Sylvia in his home and in his heart. Still, he's determined to do what he feels is honorable. Stuffing down his feelings over the loss of Linda and the life he's grown accustomed to, Walter carves out space for his wife and daughter in his cramped one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. Meanwhile, Esther isn't quite the woman he once knew. Now a devout Christian who prays fervently and offers more than the family can afford in tides, Esther feels that God has truly blessed her family with their reunion. However, she struggles with the cracks and imperfections of her new family dynamic. America is a terrifying new world for a woman who has experienced so much loss. Though Walter is present, she feels his emotional absence, which only heightens the deep-seated loneliness that she's carried with her for so long. 

It's also hard for Sylvia to adjust to life in a different place, but with more maturity than most teenagers in her position, she does her best to embrace her new life. In America, she's able to foster her secret love of dancing. The introverted teen also captures the eye of DJ (black-ish's Marcus Scribner), a boy at school who encourages her to try out for the step team. While she is used to living under the looming shadow of her beloved but Bible-bound mother, Sylvia recognizes that a relationship with a more lenient and understanding Walter may provide the kind of freedom that she's been craving, she's just uncertain if she can trust him.

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'Time' Shows The True Cost Of Our Broken Prison System

Time is precious. But it can also be haunting, especially when an outside force is holding the years, minutes and moments we use to clock our lives in the balance. For people who are incarcerated, the United States prison system is adamant about making sure time is something it owns. 

For over 20 years, Sibil Fox Richardson, aka Rich Fox, a businesswoman, and an advocate, has been doing all the groundwork to push for the release of her husband, Robert Richardson. On September 26, 1997, in an act of desperation, Rich and Robert robbed a credit union. Though Rich was able to get a plea deal, serving out three and a half years for her role in the crime, Robert was sentenced to 60-years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, one of the worst prisons in the United States. Time is their story. 

Told in black and white with director Garrett Bradley's modern-day footage interwoven with Rich's personal home videos of her and their sons, Time unveils a life of waiting and longing. From her own words, prior to and following her release from prison, the audience learns more about Rich. She welcomes us into the life she's carved out for herself. We watch their six boys transform from pamper-wearing babies into towering bearded men. Rich has found joyous moments in the past 20 years. Yet, the fight for her husband's release is the singular goal of her life.

Regal and fearsome, Rich more than takes responsibility for her part in the robbery. What she doesn't accept is the time that has been stolen away from her family. She's constantly irritated by the lackadaisical attitudes of judges and judicial secretaries who can't seem to make the correlation between their day-to-day work and the lives that dangle in the balance. 

As Time swivels between the past and the present, we sit with a self-assured Rich, who never cowers in the face of her past mistakes or what she perceives to be right. It's an interesting contrast to her mother, who suggests on more than one occasion that Rich should humble herself to make headway with Robert's case.

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