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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‘Emergency’ Is A Striking Commentary On Racial Dynamics, Humanity, and Brotherhood

For many people, there is never a more invigorating time in life than those final months of college before being thrust into the “real world.” The uncertainty ahead leads many of us to cling to those last joyous weeks with friends in a setting that has turned into something of a home. In Carey Williams’ outstanding Emergency, adapted from his short film of the same name, best friends and roommates Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and Sean (RJ Cyler) are about to embark on an epic night touring the school’s frat parties with hopes of making it into the Black Student Union’s Hall of Fame. However, what appears to be a comedy about Black men in their final weeks at their predominantly white college becomes a gripping commentary on racism and humanity.  

Kunle and Sean could not be more different. A science nerd who spends his days in a biology lab, Kunle is the son of African immigrants with plans to head to Princeton University to earn his Ph.D. In contrast, the care-free perpetually high Sean has no concerns or objectives for the future. Instead, he’s focused on partying and rekindling things with his crush. 

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John Boyega And The Late Michael K. Williams Bring Compassion To The Hostage Drama ‘892’

“They Didn’t Have to Kill Him.” That’s the name of Aaron Gell’s 2018 article on which Abi Damaris Corbin’s debut feature film 892 is based. The hauntingly dark film centers on the real-life story of Lance Corporal Brian Brown Easley, who on a July day in 2017 walked into a Wells Fargo bank based in the suburbs of Atlanta and held it up, taking several hostages. In a stunning performance actor John Boyega, steps into the shoes of the desperate former Marine who, having exhausted all of his resources, made a desperate choice to get the money owed to him.

The nightmarish red-tape that runs through the Department of Veterans Affairs is well known. Still, in focusing on Brian, Corbin puts a face to just one of numerous veterans who served this country and are now left to flounder with food and home insecurity, as well as mental illnesses. It is a situation continually brought to the forefront of society that has never been truly addressed. 

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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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Black Women's Stories Are Center Stage At Sundance 2022

For the second year in a row, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sundance Film Festival is offering its expansive slate online. Festival Director Tabitha Jackson and Producing Director Gina Duncan initially hoped to do a hybrid festival, offering in-person and virtual screenings. However, amid the Omicron surge, filmmakers and audiences are connecting in the comfort and safety of their own homes. Despite the shift in plans, this year’s films will reflect the ever-changing world that we know around us. 

Sundance 2022 will run from January 20–30. This year there are several Black directors at the helm of some of the most highly anticipated films of the festival. Moreover, fans of the late Michael K. Williams will have a chance to see him in one of his final roles.

From a 1970’s set drama Alice, starring KeKe Palmer to the Regina Hall-produced Master, here are a few of the highlights.

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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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Deconstructing the Sex Appeal of LaKeith Stanfield Across Four Roles

There are few actors as versatile and intensely arresting as LaKeith Stanfield. Since appearing in Destin Daniel Cretton's Short Term 12 upon graduating from high school, Stanfield has gone on to work with premier talents, including Ava DuVernay, Jordan Peele and Donald Glover. Most recently, he joined his contemporaries Jonathan Majors, Regina King and Idris Elba in Netflix’s thunderous Western The Harder They Fall.

Continue reading at Netflix’s Tudum.

Chanté Adams Doesn't Want To Be Labeled

“What is to give light must endure burning” is one of Chanté Adams’s favorite sayings. Reflecting on this quote from Austrian philosopher Viktor Frankl, the actress says, “It means that the struggle is worth it. I always have to remind myself that the light is there and it’s going to come. It’s not going to come on my time, but it’s going to come when it should.” 

In 2017, just one year out of drama school, Adams, 26, was cast as the lead in Netflix’s Roxanne Roxanne, portraying hip-hop pioneer Roxanne Shanté. From that moment forward, her career has blazed. Historically, Black women have worked for decades in Hollywood before they’re afforded the title “leading lady.” And love stories that center Black women are still a rarity. “We still have some ways to go, but I feel like we’re on the right path,” Adams says. “We’re not allowing ourselves to be put off to the side anymore. I’m not saying the generation before us did so, but I feel like we’re at a place now where we can start demanding what we want, and what we want to see.” 

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Photography | Joyanne Panton 

Stylist | Shameelah Hicks

Hair | Sean Fears

Manicurist | Alex Jachno

Nail Design | Aja Walton, Maho Tanaka

The Many Lives of Regina King

Treacherous Trudy Smith was a bold and brazen Black woman who thrived in the Wild West. Living on the edge, Trudy made a name for herself by pickpocketing. Though little else is known about her, director Jeymes Samuel knew he needed someone legendary to bring Trudy to the big screen in The Harder They Fall. Naturally, he turned to Academy Award-winning actor Regina King.

Continue reading at Netflix’s Tudum.

‘King Richard’: How Breakouts Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton Aced Venus and Serena Williams

No one else on this planet has accomplished what Venus and Serena Williams have. For the Williams sisters, their unmatched success in tennis is just the tip of the iceberg. And even that seems as if it should never have happened: for a pair of Black girls growing up in Compton, California, an elite sport that requires copious amounts of money, access, and time — in addition to plain old talent — shouldn’t have even been on their radar.

But as the crowd-pleasing new drama “King Richard” suggests, Venus and Serena’s parents were determined to give them (and their sisters) a better life and all the opportunities that comes with it. That drive and ambition, along with the family’s shared worth ethic, helped launch the pair into superstardom at a young age, ensuring that they will forever go down as two of the greatest athletes ever to live.

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Intense drama and new characters give Power Book II: Ghost a soap opera flair in season 2

Seven years ago, TV viewers were introduced to Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.), the 12-year-old son of drug kingpin James “Ghost” St. Patrick and his ride-or-die wife, Tasha St. Patrick, in Power. Throughout six seasons of the Courtney Kemp-created series, Tariq transformed from a precocious young tween into a grown man whose sinister and calculating demeanor is more like his father’s than he’d ever care to admit. Now in Power Book II: Ghost, which picks up directly after the events of the original series, Tariq is coming into his own.

The first season of the spin-off chronicled Tariq’s life in the days and weeks following his father’s murder. Determined to adhere to the conditions of his father’s will, Tariq enrolled in the prestigious Stansfield University to obtain his degree. However, with his mother on trial for his father’s murder, he found himself following in Ghost’s footsteps as a means of financial freedom.

Continue reading at The A.V. Club.

Essence Atkins & Golden Brooks Talk Black Love, Sisterhood And Redefining The Leading Lady

There is a certain striking elegance that Essence Atkins and Golden Brooks carry with them. For a pair of Black women who have been in Hollywood for three decades — it’s an earned grace and an assuredness that has in many ways allowed them to transcend that confining and often confounding label of leading lady. When speaking with them, just a couple of weeks away from the debut of their latest film, Coins Forever, Atkins and Brooks are stunning, vulnerable, and warm.

Continue reading at Hello Beautiful.

Photo Credit: Michael Rowe / for HelloBeautiful

LaToya Ruby Frazier, Devin Allen And Jamel Shabazz On Gordon Parks' Legacy And Black Photography Today

By the time Gordon Parks shot his first photograph for Life Magazine, his mother had died, racism had forced him out of his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas, and he’d worked in brothels, as a singer, and as a professional basketball player. He was not yet 30 when he captured the infamous image titled “American Gothic” and the follow-up sequence of photos of Ella Watson. Watson worked as a cleaner in the Farm Security Administration building where Parks had a fellowship. HBO’s documentary, A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks, doesn’t simply examine the photographer’s extensive body of work. It also explores his activism and what it meant to preserve the 20th-century Black experience through his camera lens.

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‘The Harder They Fall’: Inside the Very Real History of Jeymes Samuel’s All-Black Western

Before the opening credits of Jeymes Samuel’s “The Harder They Fall” splash across the screen, outlaw Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) has already murdered two people,  irrevocably changing a young boy’s life and setting the stage for an epic-scale shoot-em-up in the process. Set in the Old West, the Netflix feature has all the bells and whistles of a traditional Hollywood Western, but Samuel’s debut feature isn’t just a new spin on classics of the genre like “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” or “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” This narrative is grounded in actual history.

Samuel’s world is populated by characters named after real-life Black figures who lived (and sometimes caused chaos) in the Old West. For Samuel and his star Jonathan Majors, who plays the revenge-minded Nat Love, it was about unearthing the true history of the American West and getting into the hearts and minds of lives lived and lost without the narrative of slavery or oppression. Just as essential: finding a way of turning that history, one rarely explored on the big screen, into a brand-new cinematic adventure.

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Jeff and Nicole Friday Celebrate 25 Years Of The American Black Film Festival

More than 100 years after the birth of cinema, Hollywood is finally making an effort to create projects that center narratives from the African Diaspora. American Black Film Festival (ABFF) Founder and CEO Jeff Friday and his business partner and wife, Nicole Friday, President & General Manager of ABFF Ventures LLC, decided to carve out a space specifically for Black talent more than two decades ago. In doing so, they ensured a legacy for Black cinema and established longevity without waiting on Hollywood. This year, ABFF will celebrate 25 years of recognizing and honoring the stories made for and created by us.

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New Netflix Western 'The Harder They Fall' was long overdue

In the golden age of Hollywood, Westerns dominated the box office. From the 1930s to the 1960s, some of the biggest films in cinema were from the genre. Jeymes Samuel puts his own stamp on the Western in his directorial debut for Netflix, out in theaters Friday. With intense action sequences, violence and a love story at the center, “The Harder They Fall” has all the components that make the genre so iconic. However, it also offers something that many past Westerns have lacked — the truth. 

According to Smithsonian magazine, 1 in 4 cowboys in the 18th and 19th centuries were Black. But looking at iconic films like “Dances With Wolves,” “High Noon” and “Rio Bravo,” it would seem that Black people don’t even exist. “The Harder They Fall,” however, positions Black people in the center of its narrative. 

Continue reading at NBC Think.