Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon on ‘that scene” from ‘Waiting To Exhale’

In the 25 years since Waiting to Exhale’s debut, the ground has shifted for Black female representation. The film, which was written by Terry McMillan and brought to life by Forest Whitaker, was the catalyst for that change.

Savannah (Whitney Houston), Robin (Lela Rochon), Bernadine (Angela Bassett), and Gloria (Loretta Devine) entranced audiences as they navigated life, love, and the bonds of sisterhood. It was a welcome and refreshing anomaly amid a slew of films that focused on narratives from the inner city — mostly centering Black men. The film changed the industry and catapulted the stars of nearly everyone who touched it. Now, on this pivotal anniversary, the key female players — plus the guys who portrayed their boyfriends, husbands and sons — talk to ZORA about making one of the most iconic films in history.

Continue reading at ZORA.

Janelle Monáe: ‘Antebellum’ Is a ‘Kick in the Stomach’ to White Supremacy

Making Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum was always going to be a challenge. Films set in the plantation South press against open wounds that are still present in the 21st century. The film follows Veronica Henley (Janelle Monáe), a race scholar who finds herself trapped in a horrific dream where she lives out her days as an enslaved woman named Eden living in the Civil War period.

Haunting and brutal scenes from the period are juxtaposed against the picturesque Southern landscapes in direct contrast to the late 19th century’s reality. Antebellum is a mind-bending narrative that presents the country’s racial horrors as they truly are and what Black women, in particular, have had to endure for survival.

Monáe’s spellbinding performance as a woman caught between two worlds has never been more timely at a moment when everything for Black people is at stake. It’s a searing reminder that our stories must be told in all of their vast nuances, no matter how painful they might be.

Continue reading at Zora.

The Director in the Middle of the #CancelNetflix Backlash Speaks Out

Aside from rare examples like Crooklyn, Eve’s Bayou, and Beasts of a Southern Wild, Hollywood has dismissed the young Black female experience. But with her feature film debut, Cuties, French Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré is putting the spotlight on Black girls while helping them reclaim their girlhood.

Doucouré won a distinguished directing award for Cuties when the film debuted at Sundance in January, but months later, she found herself in the middle of a media firestorm after Netflix released a shocking poster for its English-speaking audience. The poster showed a sexualized image of young girls that stood apart from the film’s religious versus secular context and nuance. Though Netflix has apologized for its failure, Doucouré has been the recipient of numerous death threats and personal attacks.

In recent days, the hashtag #CancelNetflix has trended in response. Some viewers find the film to sexualize young girls. Others point out that the film is the unfortunate victim of a poor marketing campaign and that critics took the poster out of context.

Set in present-day Paris, Cuties follows 11-year-old Amy (Fathia Youssouf), a recent transplant from Senegal who becomes increasingly enamored with her classmate Angelica (Médina El Aidi-Azouni), the queen bee of a group of schoolgirls who call themselves the Cuties. With her mother preoccupied by the devastating news that her husband has taken a second wife, Amy desperately throws herself into becoming a Cutie, even taking part in a dance competition with Angelica and her friends. Like most girls new to town, she just wants to belong.

Amid the film’s Netflix debut and the swirling social media scandal, Doucouré spoke with ZORA about Cuties, standing in her truth, and why this story is so important for her.

Continue reading at ZORA.

Amandla Stenberg Destroys Black Teen Stereotypes in Netflix Series, ‘The Eddy’

Typically when Paris is depicted on-screen, it is picturesque and flawless, centering the Eiffel Tower and all of the stereotypical themes that we’ve grown to associate with the City of Lights. Luckily, Amandla Stenberg has never had any interest in idealism and fluff. From the moment she stepped into our collective consciousness in 2012’s The Hunger Games, she caused ripples in Hollywood in both her personal and professional lives. From her 2015 school project on cultural appropriation, “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows” to one of her more recent roles in the film The Hate U Give, the intersectional feminist has always been wholly unapologetic.

In Stenberg’s latest role in the Netflix Limited Series The Eddy, Stenberg stars as Julie, a troubled and grieving teenager who leaves her hometown of New York City, in search of a connection with her expat father Elliot (André Holland). Dealing with his own inner turmoil, his struggling jazz club, some violent gangsters, and a tumultuous relationship with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Maja (Joanna Kulig), Elliot is ill-prepared to give Julie the relationship that she seeks from him.

The Damien Chazelle-helmed series recalls French Cinema of a past era and pays homage to jazz. More intriguing still, The Eddy centers a relationship between a Black father and Black daughter, a connection rarely seen on screen.

Last fall, ZORA sat with Stenberg in Paris on the set of The Eddy, learning more about the series and why she refused to allow Julie to become just another angst-filled teenager.

Continue reading at ZORA.