Lauren “Lolo" Spencer On ‘Give Me Liberty' and Sparking Real Conversations About Disability Representation

After two years of talks with director Kirill Mikhanovsky and screenwriter Alice Austen, Lauren “Lolo" Spencer never thought Give Me Liberty would see the light of day.

The hilarious comedy follows Vic (Chris Galust), a 25-year-old wheelchair-accessible transport vehicle driver. Spencer stars as Tracy, a social worker who gets caught up in the chaos as Vic tears through the streets of Milwaukee determined to help his family while adhering to his route

For Spencer, a disability lifestyle influencer who has lived with ALS for the past 17-years, the role has been a dream come true, especially after getting nominated alongside Octavia Spencer and Jennifer Lopez for a Best Supporting Female Actress award at the 35th annual Spirit Awards. Shadow And Act spoke with her to learn more about her experience making the film and her plans for the future. 

“I learned about the film through my agent," Spencer remembered. “She came to me and told me, ‘Hey, these indie filmmakers are trying to make this film, they're specifically looking for a young Black woman who's a wheelchair user. Do you want to audition?' Prior to then, I had never acted. Thankfully, Kirill, who was our director, and Alice, who's our producer, really liked what I had done, and the rest is history. We kept in contact for two years via Skype before even going into production."

The moment Tracy appears on the screen when Vic enters her home to pick her up, viewers are thrust into her hectic and outspoken family. Understanding who Tracy was in all of her nuances and humanity was something Spencer was adamant about from the beginning. “I was really drawn to my character of Tracy because of the way she was written," the Sitting Pretty Productions founder explained. “She just so happened to have a disability. It wasn't some inspiration porn gaze. It was about her humanity, her personality and how she shows up in the world, first and foremost. It was literally about the realness of who she was, and the whole team was open to any notes for authenticity. Once I knew they were cool with those kinds of things, I was 100% on board." Spencer also discussed the similarities she has with the character and how she brought that to the role. “A good chunk of Tracy's personality is me--or was me. When I was younger, in my early and mid-twenties, I was way more rambunctious. I was able to tap into that part of Tracy because I was once that young woman, subconsciously proving to the world that I can hold my own regardless of how I get around."

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'Nineteen Summers' Echos The Black City Cinema Of The '90s

In the '90s, films that launched the hood homeboy genre in cinema reinvigorated Black film and put a spotlight on what was happening in inner-cities across America. John Singleton's stunning debut Boyz n the Hood pave the way for films like Juice, Menace II Society, Jason's Lyric, and New Jack City. These were explosive and truthful portrayals of what was occurring in impoverished Black communities suffering under police brutality, the crack cocaine epidemic, devastating poverty, and the erosion of housing projects. 

Now nearly 30 years later, Rod S. Scott is turning his lens on South Los Angeles today. Unfortunately, not much has changed. Nineteen Summers opens in the early 2000s, young single mom, Porsha (Iyana Halley), has high aspirations for her newborn son, DeAndre. Though she knows the odds are against her as a young Black woman with little to no support system, she is determined to carve out a life for herself and a future for the Black man she brought into the world. It's a dream that all loving Black mothers cling to.

Sliding forward into the present day, we meet a grown-up DeAndre (Emonjay Brown). At 19 — South L.A. has hardened him. He's often tense, wearing a massive "EBK" face tattoo on his skin like a coat of armor. Though he has tender moments with her mother (now portrayed by Elise Neil), his girlfriend Diamond (Terri Abney), and his baby daughter Jenny, DeAndre is mostly stoic and calculating. He spends his days on edge -- looking over his shoulder as he and his boys, Cartoon (Seth Wright) and Willie (Norman Johnson Jr.) sell drugs to make a living for themselves and their families.

Unfortunately, living a life in the streets puts a target on your back, and though he wants a better life for himself and his future, DeAndre can sense that he's trapped — even when he tries his best to see a new direction for his life. 

There is much of Nineteen Summers the works well. DeAndre is charismatic and extremely smart. Though he has a disdain for the "real job" Porsha and Diamond beg him to get, and he's quick to complain, he often tries to do the right thing. He's willing to make an effort for the women that depend on him —even getting a life insurance policy in his name and making sure Diamond is set with rent money, two years into the future. The chemistry between the pair and the affection that they share is one of the highlights of the film.

The characters surrounding DeAndre, everyone from Porsha who is still trying to make a way for herself, his neighbor Leon who becomes addicted to drugs, and the wino who offers him advice, are fully fleshed out characters with their own dreams, desires, and aspirations. Diamond is particularly impressive. Though weary in her role as a young mom, she's determined to push forward in nursing school while soothing DeAndre's frustrations and angry outbursts. 

Still, Nineteen Summers isn't without its issues. The pacing in the various acts of the film doesn't always align with the narrative, and the dialogue doesn't feel as authentically poetic as it has in other films of the same subject. Likewise, a few plotholes and random scenes are strewn about here and there, throwing off the tone of the film at times. A shaper edit could have tightened the film and the narrative quite well. 

Yet, Scott's message rings loud and clear. The inner city can be a death trap, something you can't outrun no matter what you do. DeAndre does heinous things to survive, but his humanity never leaves him. In one particularly stellar sequence, he runs from there cops, dodging through alleys as the wings of an LAPD helicopter whirl in the sky — "Run, "N****r, Run," a 19th Century African-American slave song plays as a haunting echo to the Black experience in America. 

Nineteen Summer isn't perfect, but the intent behind the film and Emonjay Brown's outstanding breakout performance easily carries this examination of South Los Angeles in the 21st century as it comes to its rage-filled conclusion echoing a generation of films the came before it. 

Nineteen Summers is out now on Digital, and Blu-Ray

How OWN's 'Cherish The Day' Allows For Black Male Emotional Growth Without Harming Its Black Women

In a 1984 conversation between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde about the power dynamics between Black men and Black women, Lorde pushed Baldwin to examine the inherent privilege of being a man in a patriarchal society that privileges men over women, intersecting with white supremacy, which harms all Black people. Lorde said in part, “I do not blame Black men for what they are. I'm asking them to move beyond…we have to take a new look at…[how]…we fight our joint oppression…We have to begin to redefine the terms of what woman is, what man is, how we relate to each other."

Now, nearly 40 years later, the patriarchy still reigns, and sexism and misogynoir are as rampant as ever. However, in cinema and television, with more Black women at the helm of Black love stories, we are beginning to see a new soft Black intimacy take center stage and stories that do what Lorde has demanded: redefining gender roles and relationships within the Black community. These stories do not put Black women in a position to struggle or fight for a man's attention or place Black women in the line of fire on the road to Black men's emotional growth and maturity. Instead, they look at Black people in all of their complexity and splendor while requiring self-awareness and accountability, especially for Black men.

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The Queer Love Story In 'UNION' Gets Lost In Space & Time

A sweeping film that transports its viewers back in time over 150 years, UNION is set during the Civil War era. Yet, the movie's central focus is not the war. As Whitney Hamilton's film opens, we learn that at least 400 women fought as men during the Civil War, in both the Union and Confederate armies. UNION is the true story of just one of those women. 

Amid the absolute horror and chaos of the war that divided our country, Grace (Hamilton) takes on her dead brother Henry's identity — fighting in the Confederate Army undercover to preserve her life. However, Henry is haunted by the memories of a mysterious woman and her son. Desperate to keep his identity a secret under the watchful eye of his comrades, when Henry is wounded, Virginia (Virginia Newcomb), a grieving widow, helps to nurse him back to health. 

To repay Virginia's kindness, and because women had little to no recourse in the era, Henry agrees to marry Virginia so that she can avoid a disturbing arranged marriage and save her farm. However, what transpires next — an epic love story — is something neither Henry or Virginia ever expected. UNION seeks to elevate the LGBTQ+ community of a past era. Though they are often hidden in the fabric of our history, the antebellum and Civil War periods had many gender non-conforming people who engaged in same-sex love affairs. This was during a time when the world was even more hostile towards women and feminine-leaning people then it's now. It was lovely to see Virginia and Henry's love story unfold, and the chemistry between Hamilton and Newcomb carried a great deal of weight in the film. Unfortunately, despite these themes, the real heart of this story gets muddled underneath the many and various moving parts of UNION. 

The film opens sometime in the early 20th century with an older Indigenous man telling a young boy Henry's story. Our only indication of the time period is an old fashion automobile that is seen in the frame. As the man unpacks the story, we are swept back in time during Henry's participation in the Confederate Army and during his time with Virginia. However, the lack of title cards giving any indication of time and location leaves viewers disoriented and puzzled.

Additionally, while UNION was committed to showcasing the war itself, the lack of Black cast, as soldiers, enslaved people, or otherwise, was rather baffling considering the context of the Civil War and the sheer numbers of Black Americans who lived in the South during the period. Much of UNION was born out of Hamilton's short film, My Brother's War. However, since the film plays out as a second act to that story instead of an expansion, those who haven’t seen the first film will quickly get lost.

Still, Hamilton's commitment to showcasing the period correctly was aspirational. There is a vast battle sequence near the beginning of the film that really draws you in. However, with so many different characters and various locations, as well as the immense historical context of the film, it was often difficult to connect back with Henry and Virginia's story though it's supposed to stand at the core of the movie. 

Running at 135 minutes, and at an often slow pace, the queer love story that centers UNION often falls by the wayside. When it was remembered, it seems puzzling that so many people were causally OK with a same-sex relationship in the 19th century.  

It's evident that Hamilton took a great deal of time and care to bring this piece to life. Still, though UNION has some profound themes and excellent historical context, it lacks a much-needed sharpness that could truly center this remarkable LGBTQ story in space and time. 

UNION is now available on HBO PPV, Itunes, VUDU, Fandango, Flixfling, Frontier, Redbox, Direct TV, Youtube, Optimum, Google Play, Microsoft, Verizon, BRCT, and Amazon.

Images: Indican Pictures

'We Are The Dream' Reminds Us That Kids Have A Voice Too

Each year in Oakland, California, children from over 120 schools, ages ranging from preschool level through 12th grade are given the opportunity to compete in the Martin Luther King Oratorical Festival. More than a competition, the MLK Oratorical Festival becomes a learning moment for the youth and an opportunity for them to speak confidently in front of large crowds, sharing both the words of Dr. King and their own original content, while also mastering their posture and cadence in a way that may have never been available to them before.

Now, the history behind the competition, the organizers and the children who participate are being highlighted in the new HBO documentary We Are The Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest. Directed and produced by Amy Schatz and executive produced by Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali and Amatus Karim-Ali, the documentary is a warm reminder that if we continue to pour into our children, not all hope is lost. 

A moving, feel-good documentary, We Are The Dream chronicles the 2019 competition, which also aligns with the 40th anniversary of the MLK Fest. While presenting the Oakland community as a backdrop, Schatz makes it clear that the MLK Oratorical Fest is a tradition that is deeply embedded into the hearts of the city's long-term residents. Still, what stands out in the doc are the educators who have remained committed to the children, despite dwindling resources and an increasingly fast-paced digital world. These teachers and mentors take the time to foster relationships with young people so they can feel encouraged and supported, allowing the audience to learn from these fresh and unjaded minds

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'The Photograph' Is The Soft Romance Film That Black People Deserve

There has been such a void in Black Romance dramas that we didn't realize how much we were craving one until The Photograph hit us in the face.

Though we still cling to our favorites, such as 1997's Love Jones and 2000's Love & Basketball, Black romance on screen is nearly as old as cinema itself. The earliest surviving movie depicting Black intimacy is 1898's Something Good — Negro Kiss, a 29-second silent film. Since then, the romance drama category has taken off in Hollywood with timeless films like Casablanca and Titanic. Still, seeing Black people in these kinds of narratives is a rarity. 

In 1964, Nothing But a Man, though not widely seen, made a powerful impact on cinema. Set in Birmingham, Alabama, it follows the romance of a railroad worker and a preacher’s daughter, played by Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln. The film showcases a Black romantic drama in a way that isn’t packaged for the white masses, as has been implied of 1943's Stormy Weather or 1954's Carmen Jones. Following Nothing But a Man, films like Mahogany came to be in the 1970's. However, it wasn’t until the 1990's that a slew of romantic dramas, including The Best Man and Waiting to Exhale, or romantic comedy Boomerang began to take center stage. Yet, in the past 20 years, there have been only sprinklings of Black intimacy, sex and relationships on screen, heteronormative or otherwise, especially in mainstream cinema. 

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'Cicada Song' Is An Engrossing Assessment Of Greed, Homophobia & Racism in Middle America [Review]

Before the 2016 election, middle America wasn't spoken about much — and perhaps that is part of the problem. An entire population of people felt overlooked and neglected, which only furthered feelings of isolation and resentment. This left little room for a real reckoning about what is truly happening in these communities as a whole. It also further erased the marginalized people that live in these predominantly white spaces. 

In Cicada Song, writer/director Michael Starr dives into the core of the issue. Set in the picturesque rolling hills of Missouri — Starr centers two women and a community that has turned on itself. Karen (Lyndsey Lantz) is a non-nonsense farm manager, who has little patience for the people who once embraced her during her childhood, but turned their backs on her once she came out. However, she does have allies in her bosses — Judith (Kim Reed) and Kurt (Joseph Bottoms).

Though she's faced her share of adversity as a lesbian, Karen refuses to cower for anyone, especially after finding happiness with her live-in girlfriend, Annabelle (Jenny Mesa) -- a Cuban-born woman who works at the town's deli/gas station, Cowboys. Both women remain unyielding when they are bullied and harassed by a town resident who can't hide his disdain for them, and Richard (Rob Tepper), Annabelle's ex-boyfriend who continues to antagonize them. 

Though Karen and Annabelle deal with microaggressions daily, Cicada Song is about much more than that. When the migrant farmworkers on Karen's farm inform her that a child has gone missing, the life that she shares with Annabelle quickly unravels, revealing something more sinister than she ever could have imagined. 

Cicada's Song is striking because it intersects several things. Though the Midwest is often seen as an idyllic place, Starr uses the stunning backdrop to reveal some of the very serious issues that have long plagued the region. The farming crisis, along with xenophobia, racism, homophobia, and intolerance are all topics in this film. No matter how alarming or uncomfortable they are to watch, Starr refuses to shy away from these issues — forcing many Americans to see themselves in all of their nationalistic hatred. In addition to addressing these problems, Starr also puts a spotlight on immigrant communities who break their backs daily for our agricultural system with the fear of being discovered, deported or separated looming over them like a dark cloud. 

Though this is Karen and Annabelle's story, Starr doesn't shove the migrant workers in the background. Their stories and experiences are also focal points here. Though many Americans value the labor of immigrants over their humanity, those who have come to this country have still carved out close-knit communities, raised children, and pressed forward with their dreams. 

Cicada Song is much more than a commentary on things that need to be changed and adjusted — Starr also weaves in a mystery and a haunting thriller. As Karen digs, trying to retrace the steps of the missing child, she begins a race against time for her once calm and simple life. 

Though the film's ending is a tad too tidy for it to be a real gut-punch for the audience — Cicada Song is well-paced and wonderfully acted. Lantz is stirring to watch as she begins to piece this massive puzzle together. The interaction Karen has with her estranged father was beyond heartbreaking. Likewise, Mesa's quippy clapbacks and vibrancy also keep the audience rooting for her, especially as she combats rude people and her predatory ex. 

A film that centers the human cost of bigotry, greed, and racism, Cicada Song refuses to let rural America off the hook for its part in the issues ravaging our country. Instead, Starr asks his audience as a whole to look at ourselves and our own beliefs to consider just how far we're willing to go for our personal interest while stepping on the necks of others.  

Cicada Song is now available on Apple TV and Amazon.

'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.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

Continuing The Legacy of James Bond On The Set Of ‘No Time to Die’

London has a regal heir to it. Though it’s wholly modern, the 2000-year-old city’s architecture and cobblestone streets are a dazzling reminder of its history. They stand elegant and proud — relics of a past time, demanding that we exist without disturbing the archives of the biggest city in Western Europe. The timelessness of London also lives within one of its most beloved fictional characters— James Bond.

James Bond was brought to life by novelist Ian Fleming, who dreamed up the British secret agent on the beaches of Ocho Rios, Jamaica, back in 1953. Now, almost seventy years later, we’re still embracing the character, currently portrayed on film by the debonair and brilliant, Daniel Craig.

For the British actor’s fifth and final turn as the MI6 agent in No Time to Die, we’ll find Bond in a very different place than we’ve ever seen him before — physically and emotionally. Set some time after the capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Spectre, Bond has left the MI6. He’s restlessly settled into retirement when he’s approached by the CIA’s Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) to aid in the search and rescue of a missing scientist. What unfolds next is unlike anything Bond has ever encountered.

Continue reading at Blackfilm.

No Time To Die Set Visit Report: Lashana Lynch & Ana de Armas Are Taking ‘Bond Women’ To New Heights

Nearly 60 years after Sean Connery brought James Bond to the big screen — Daniel Craig is taking his final turn as the 007 agent, in his fifth and final film, No Time to Die. The BAFTA-Award nominee has brought an emotional depth to the beloved character that we haven’t seen before previously. Though his successor has not yet been revealed — No Time to Die hints at a new direction of the James Bond franchise through two of the film’s leading women.

The 25th Bond film opens with the retired 007 agent living in Jamaica. However, when his old friend, CIA’s Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), summons him to go on a quest for a missing scientist in Cuba, he encounters two women. Ana de Armas’ Paloma, a CIA agent, tasked with assisting Bond on his mission, and Lashana Lynch’s Nomi — a mysterious woman who turns out to be a 00 agent.

Late last year, on a rainy day at Pinewood Studios just outside of London, BlackFilm.com sat down to speak with de Armas and Lynch on the No Time to Die set. We talked about the secrecy surrounding their characters, continuing the Bond franchise, bringing their diverse backgrounds to the story, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s imprint on the narrative.

Continue reading at Black Film.

'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.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

Oscar-Nominated Director Matthew A. Cherry On 'Hair Love' And Our Dazzling Relationship With Afro-Textured Curls

Long before Black people knew about the differences between 4C and 3B hair textures, we knew our kinks and coils were to be brushed down, pressed, straightened, and tamed. Thankfully, times have changed. With the natural hair movement revving up in the past decade, Black people across the globe have become more in-tuned to the beauty of their tresses. In 2017, filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry, a former NFL wide receiver, became increasingly aware of this desire to connect with our roots. However, a lack of representation of natural hair continued to fester in popular culture and Hollywood.

Teaming up with masterful artist Vashti Harrison and Sony Pictures Animation executive, Karen Toliver, Cherry hit the ground running and launched his Kickstarter campaign for Hair Love. The warm and delightful Oscar-nominated film follows Zuri, a bright-eyed young girl who wants her gloriously voluminous afro to be styled perfectly for a special occasion. Zuri's father, Stephen, doesn't typically take on the task of doing his daughter's hair. Yet, with the help of a natural hair vlogger named Angela (voiced by Issa Rae), Stephen dives into Zuri's curls showcasing the love and patience it takes to care for Black hair.

Hair Love continues to be a vital part of our cultural conversation. Shortly after the Christmas holiday, Barbers Hill High School senior DeAndre Arnold was told he would not be allowed to return to school or walk at graduation unless he cuts his dreadlocks. Arnold is an A-student who has worn locks for years. Yet, despite the national outrage, Barbers Hill High School refuses to budge on their discriminatory policy, saying only, “the district would not be commenting further on the matter.” The teen would film himself in Hair Love's orbit as Cherry, along with producers Gabrielle Union-Wade and Dwyane Wade, invited Arnold and his mother to the Oscars as their special guests.

Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Toliver chatted with VIBE about the magic of Hair Love and their journey to the Academy Awards.

Continue reading at VIBE.

'Sylvie's Love' Has The Immense Beauty Of An Old-Fashioned Romance

Black people have very few opportunities to see ourselves in sweeping romantic dramas like the films that used to dominate Old Hollywood. We've certainly had movies like Love Jones and Stella Meghie's forthcoming romantic drama, The Photograph. However, outside of Diana Ross' Mahogany and Lady Sings the Blues, films in the same romantic vein as Casablanca, An Affair to Remember and It Happened One Night, or even contemporary period pieces like The Notebook, have largely been reserved for white actors and storytellers within the tight confines of American Cinema's studio system. Now, we have Sylvie's Love.

Set in the summer of 1957, writer and director Eugene Ashe's aesthetically stunning Sylvie's Love is a sweeping old-fashioned romantic drama about missed moments, extraordinary love and staying true to yourself. Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), a quiet but brilliant saxophonist, stumbles into Sylvie's (Tessa Thompson) world on a sweltering summer day in Harlem.

While Robert and his group, the "Dickie Brewster Quartet," are gaining traction in the music scene, Sylvie is stuck. With her fiancé Lacy (Alano Miller) overseas in Korea, the aspiring television producer spends her days watching I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best in her father's record shop. She entertains herself by lounging with her cousin Mona (Aja Naomi King) on the record shop's rooftop and dodging her bougie mother's lessons on being a lady.

From the moment Sylvie and Robert meet there is a spark. They experience that sizzle and connection that draws them to one another like magnets. The pair embark on a whirlwind summer romance, full of late-night dancing and stolen kisses. Yet, Sylvie's engagement ring is a constant reminder of their reality, especially when Robert and the quartet receive an opportunity to take their music to Paris. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

'The 40-Year-Old Version' Is An Ode To Black Womanhood And Putting Yourself On

Grief has a way of highlighting time and forcing us to face mortality. It directs us to examine our dreams, aspirations and life's journey. In Radha Blank's outstanding debut feature, The 40-Year-Old Version, the writer, director, producer and star grapples with defining success, fearlessness and the limits we put on ourselves. 

Shot in crisp 35mm black and white, reminiscent of classic 1970s New York films, The 40-Year-Old Version introduces us to Radha, a fictionalized version of the filmmaker. A once-acclaimed playwright who made it onto a prestigious "30 under 30" list, Radha is now struggling to find her voice and her power in the wake of her mother's death. With her 40th birthday approaching, Radha spends her days teaching a crew of rambunctious high school students dramatic writing and taking long sips of a disgusting diet drink in a futile effort to lose weight. 

Though she's written a promising new play, Harlem Ave, its only hope of being accepted into the very white New York City theater scene will be after extensive rewrites and thrusting a white woman at the center of the plot. These are changes that Radha isn't sure she can live with. Determined to shatter the struggling artist stereotype, Radha becomes reinvigorated by her long-forgotten passions; hip-hop and rapping. Embolden by the dazzling beats of a twenty-something Brownsville producer, D. Possible (a stoic and brilliant Oswin Benjamin), Radha begins channeling her pain and frustration through the rhymes and flows of her alter-ego, RadhaMUSprime.

Her raps like, "Poverty Porn" and "Black Woman Ass On a White Man," along with D's quiet encouragement, make Rhada feel alive. Yet she's increasingly aware of the absurdity of her new passion. Trying to keep what he believes is a mid-life-crisis at bay, Rhada's life-long best friend and agent, Archie (Peter Y. Kim), convinces her to rewrite Harlem Ave to regain her former glory as a darling of the New York theater scene. Under the direction of an absurd white producer, Josh (Reed Birney), whose latest claim to fame is a Harriet Tubman musical, Radha casts rapping aside for a white-washed Harlem Ave at a cost she never expected to pay. 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

Kenyan Documentary 'Softie' Unpacks The Hefty Personal Cost Of Revolution [REVIEW]

Softie opens with 1,000 liters of blood, and the carnage doesn't stop there. Kenyan filmmaker Sam Soko's bold and emotionally visceral documentary follows photojournalist and activist Boniface Mwangi, on his quest to change the corrupt political system in Kenya. It's a system that has choked the country since colonialism and continues into its near-60 years of independence. Despite the corruption and the high cost of human life, two political dynasties have clutched onto the most powerful political offices in Kenya. At the same time, the blood of Kenyans continue to pool at their feet. 

Though the film opens on the cusp of the 2017 elections (government elections in Kenya happen every five years), Soko takes the time to give his audience a history lesson. Using propaganda from the British occupation, Soko explains how Kenya was divided into tribes by the British. Today, those tribes that have been pitted against one another for power and greed. More than an assessment on the political state of Kenya,  Softie is a crash course on the man, who, though not yet 40, witnessed the corruption in his country first hand.

A young photojournalist during the violent aftermath of the 2007 elections which led to the country's leaders being tried in the International Criminal Court, Mwangi turned his camera lens on what was happening to his people. Men were being sliced apart by machetes, people were being dragged through the streets and beaten to death . with impunity. Fed up with the press and the government's apathy, when he had the literal evidence to back up his claims, Mwangi quit his job and took to the streets in protest. 

Now, a decade later, Mwangi is still working tirelessly to expose the country's corrupt political system. Soko's Softie unpacks what it costs Mwangi to speak up and force change. 

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Nicole Beharie's Magnetism Carries 'Miss Juneteenth'

The past haunts many of us. Roads we could've taken regularly play over in our minds, suggesting what might've been. From the outside looking in, this doesn't appear to be the case for Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie); She has moved on from the events of yesterday.

She's a waitress at Wayman's BBQ & Lounge, a fiercely protective mother to her precocious 15-year-old daughter, Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) and a beloved member of her Black Ft. Worth, Texas community. Turquoise puts all her energy into giving Kai the opportunities she never had. Yet, the heartbreaking thing about director Channing Godfrey Peoples' debut feature is that all of the ambitions Turquoise desperately has for Kai were once within her own grasp. 

As Miss Juneteenth opens, Turquoise stands in the mirror with a glistening crown atop her fluffy curls, with the Black national anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" booming in the background. Turq has a radiance and youthfulness about her, despite the weariness that comes with working yourself to the bone and raising a strong-willed teenage daughter. She is reminiscing on the beauty queen title she held fifteen years prior. Back in 2004, Turq won the Miss Juneteenth pageant, which commiserates the day slavery was abolished in Texas. Her title earned her a scholarship to a Historically Black College or University of her choosing.

Yet, life has a way of putting your mind at war with your heart. For Turquoise, it's a battle she's been fighting with Kai's father, her estranged husband Ronnie (Insecure's Kendrick Sampson), for over 15 years. Despite his past and present choices, Turquoise is still smitten by the immature but charismatic mechanic. All of these years later, she still desperately wants Ronnie to live up to all of his promises. 

Miss Juneteenth is a breathtaking canvas for Beharie's emotional range, deliberate choices and profound warmth as an actress. It begins slow, with Peoples meticulously fleshing out Turquoise's world. The chemistry between mother and daughter even elevates the sometimes choppy narrative. Beharie has a way of channeling both friendship and an authoritative tone in the same breath or with one look. Though Turquoise recognizes that Kai has different aspirations than she once did, she is incapable of fully accepting this. Kai's desires are mainly to join a dance team, attend the big state school and slay in Battle of the Bands. However, Turq's desperate desire for her daughter to achieve what she never did overwhelms her. 

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Maïmouna Doucouré's 'Cuties' Confronts Betrayal Of Young Black Girls

Throughout the world, the pain, suffering and voices of little girls are often ignored and silenced. French filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré's debut film Cuties (Mignonnes) is an arresting assessment of the hyper-sexualization of young girls and grapples with the juxtaposition of this issue in a society where women are becoming increasingly sexually liberated.

The bold and disquieting film follows Amy, an 11-year old girl who moves with her mother and young brothers from Senegal to a jam-packed Paris housing project. While her mother, Mariam (Maïmouna Gueye), has become preoccupied with the devastating news that her husband has taken a second wife, Amy is left to parent her younger siblings. This includes everything from watching them, feeding them and doing the grocery shopping for the household. Similar to films like Beasts of the Southern Wild, Crooklyn and Eve's Bayou, Doucouré shines a light on how quickly Black girls are expected to stand in and complete tasks typically ascribed to adults. In contrast, little Black boys often basque in the attentions of their mothers, free of such expectations.

Though her mother has raised her as a devout, conservative Muslim, Amy soon gets her hands on an iPhone and begins to emulate the more provocative images of women she sees online and in music videos. An outcast in her plain clothing and large Afro puff, Amy soon finds herself fascinated with her classmate, Angelica, a Latinx girl who wears her slick straight hair and quick temper as armor. Angelica is fearless and volatile--the queen bee of her friend group that's dubbed themselves the Cuties. Eager to garner Angelica's attention and earn her place on the Cuties crew, Amy begins wearing her brother's t-shirts as crop-tops while intensely studying the Cuties' mannerisms and behaviors. What starts as an innocent desire to fit in and have a place in her new environment becomes a cautionary tale for not just young girls, but for the rest of the world that has decided that young girls (especially young girls of color) aren't worthy of protection.

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'Bad Hair' Has A Lot To Say But Never Says It [REVIEW]

Justin Simien's Bad Hair begins with a trauma that many Black women can relate to across the globe--their first perm. Eager to look like her dazzling older cousin, Linda, pre-teen Anna Bludso looks longingly at a box of relaxer while the creamy crack sits in her coils and kinks. Unfortunately, the result is disastrous. Just minutes later, the chemicals penetrate her scalp and clumps of hair snap from the roots. Her shrill scream zips the audience forward in time to Los Angeles in 1989. 

Anna (Elle Lorraine), now a grown woman, lives with the painful memory and a scar from her first and only relaxer. Currently trusting only her own hands to care for her soft afro, she's become a more timid version of her younger, bolder self. Though she carefully styles her hair with bows and wraps, Anna is virtually invisible at Culture, the music video based TV show where she works. As an executive assistant desperate for her own chance to host a show, she's constantly passed over in an entertainment industry that only finds value in Black women who present like Janet Jackson in her Control era, with long-flowing curls and caramel-to-light skin and Eurocentric features.  

When the network's top executive (James Van Der Beek) shakes things up by placing ex-supermodel Zora (Vanessa Williams) at the helm of Culture, she sees promise in Anna, whose ideas have been stolen or ignored for years. However, Zora warns Anna that to seize her spot as host of the new Cult, she needs a new look. Desperate to be seen, Anna suppresses her fear and goes to Virgie (Laverne Cox) for her first sew-in. Though Anna's new look transforms her image and her career, it comes at a cost that she never expected. 

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J.J. Abrams & The Cast Of ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Talk Landing the Final Skywalker Saga Vehicle

After 40 years and nine films— J.J. Abrams is putting the final bookend on Star Wars’ Skywalker Saga with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Back in 1977— George Lucas gave the world, A New Hope. Astonished fans across generations watched Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) leave the Tatooine desert to fulfill his destiny of becoming a Jedi master.

Now, more than four decades later — the Resistance, Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Issac) will face the First Order for the final time as the conflict between the Jedi and the Sith collides.

Ahead of The Rise of Skywalker’s debut, blackfilm.com sat in on a press conference moderated by Ava DuVernay — where writer/director J.J. Abrams, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and the entire cast reflected on a franchise that has transcended generations and changed filmmaking forever.

“The difference between my first day on The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker was that the pressure shifted,” Abrams told DuVernay. “We didn’t know at the beginning of Force Awakens what it would look like to have Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Issac, and John Boyega. We had to figure it out. By the time we got to our first day on Rise of Skywalker, we knew those things were working; what we didn’t know what everything else. This is wrapping up not one film, not three films but nine. The responsibility was significant and the scale of this movie is pretty enormous. We knew that none of this would matter if you didn’t care deeply.”

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Image: Disney.