Events
The Paramount+ Movie Nights series will return to New York this summer with over 25 free, outdoor screenings. Paramount+ will also be the official sponsor of Bryant Park Movie Nights, the longest running outdoor movie series in New York City, and Brooklyn Magazine’s Movie Nights, now at four parks across Brooklyn including Coney Island.
The showings are open to the public and boast free admissions. Locations and dates are as follows:
Bryant Park: Monday nights – June 10 through Aug. 12
McCarren Park: June 7, 14 and 28
Prospect Park: June 26; July 3, 10 and 17
Coney Island: July 11, 18 and 25; Aug. 1 and 8
Fort Greene Park: Aug. 15, 22 and 29; Sep. 5
Select screenings will also offer themed food and beverages for free and and for purchase. Onsite activations including interactive games and photo opportunities will also be available at select showings.
Dates
Gracemoon Arts, a new theatre company is set to open the first show at their theatre on July 11 in Bushwick,...
The Paramount+ Movie Nights series will return to New York this summer with over 25 free, outdoor screenings. Paramount+ will also be the official sponsor of Bryant Park Movie Nights, the longest running outdoor movie series in New York City, and Brooklyn Magazine’s Movie Nights, now at four parks across Brooklyn including Coney Island.
The showings are open to the public and boast free admissions. Locations and dates are as follows:
Bryant Park: Monday nights – June 10 through Aug. 12
McCarren Park: June 7, 14 and 28
Prospect Park: June 26; July 3, 10 and 17
Coney Island: July 11, 18 and 25; Aug. 1 and 8
Fort Greene Park: Aug. 15, 22 and 29; Sep. 5
Select screenings will also offer themed food and beverages for free and and for purchase. Onsite activations including interactive games and photo opportunities will also be available at select showings.
Dates
Gracemoon Arts, a new theatre company is set to open the first show at their theatre on July 11 in Bushwick,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Lexi Carson
- Variety Film + TV
This summer marks the centennial of James Baldwin, whose brilliance, boldness, and bravura have made him the rare Civil Rights icon who’s also endured as subject of cinematic interest. A restoration of portrait par excellence I Heard It Through the Grapevine will open (courtesy The Film Desk) on January 12 at Film Forum, which is also screening a series of titles concerning Baldwin. Ahead of this weekend’s engagement, we’re pleased to exclusively debut a new trailer.
Pat Hartley and Dick Fontaine’s film finds Baldwin recounting his travails through the Civil Rights Movement, from southern cities to Newark, all the while arguing progress in a post-Civil Rights era isn’t what it seems.
“[In I Heard It Through the Grapevine], James Baldwin [1924–1987] retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement with his trademark brilliance and insight on the passage of more than two decades,” notes Rich Blint, writer/Baldwin scholar and Jake Perlin,...
Pat Hartley and Dick Fontaine’s film finds Baldwin recounting his travails through the Civil Rights Movement, from southern cities to Newark, all the while arguing progress in a post-Civil Rights era isn’t what it seems.
“[In I Heard It Through the Grapevine], James Baldwin [1924–1987] retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement with his trademark brilliance and insight on the passage of more than two decades,” notes Rich Blint, writer/Baldwin scholar and Jake Perlin,...
- 1/9/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Megan Stalter (Hacks), Kanoa Goo (The Rookie), and Rainn Wilson (The Office) will topline Ily, Bye, a new short marking the narrative debut of veteran music video helmer Taylor James (Jason Mraz’s “I Feel Like Dancing”), which has wrapped production.
The short written and directed by James follows Siobhan (Stalter), a quirky, socially anxious mess who can’t seem to keep a job. Thanks to the help of her best friend Gary (Goo), she scores an interview with his boss, Mr. Litchfield (Wilson). But when her call to schedule the interview goes to voicemail, Siobhan panics and leaves a series of unhinged messages. Not wanting to lose the interview, she embarks on a chaotic mission to delete the voicemails herself. James jokes that he decided to start from scratch and pursue his dream of filmmaking “after being forced to retire” from his career as a professional backup dancer...
The short written and directed by James follows Siobhan (Stalter), a quirky, socially anxious mess who can’t seem to keep a job. Thanks to the help of her best friend Gary (Goo), she scores an interview with his boss, Mr. Litchfield (Wilson). But when her call to schedule the interview goes to voicemail, Siobhan panics and leaves a series of unhinged messages. Not wanting to lose the interview, she embarks on a chaotic mission to delete the voicemails herself. James jokes that he decided to start from scratch and pursue his dream of filmmaking “after being forced to retire” from his career as a professional backup dancer...
- 10/27/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Aldis Hodge (Black Adam) and Lauren E. Banks (City on a Hill) are the latest additions to the cast of The Dutchman, the psychological thriller based on the Obie Award-winning play by Amiri Baraka, which began filming under a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement in September.
The actors join an ensemble that includes André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz and Stephen McKinley Henderson, as we were first to tell you. Emmy nominee Andre Gaines (The One and Only Dick Gregory) is directing from his screenplay written with filmmaker Qasim Basir.
Set on a New York subway, The Dutchman centers on an encounter between a well-to-do Black man and an enchanting white woman who match wits in a sexualized game of cat and mouse that leads to a violent conclusion. The searing confrontation amplifies the dimensions of racial conflict in America in this adaptation of the stage show first presented at the...
The actors join an ensemble that includes André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz and Stephen McKinley Henderson, as we were first to tell you. Emmy nominee Andre Gaines (The One and Only Dick Gregory) is directing from his screenplay written with filmmaker Qasim Basir.
Set on a New York subway, The Dutchman centers on an encounter between a well-to-do Black man and an enchanting white woman who match wits in a sexualized game of cat and mouse that leads to a violent conclusion. The searing confrontation amplifies the dimensions of racial conflict in America in this adaptation of the stage show first presented at the...
- 10/17/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Though the SAG and WGA strikes are seemingly going strong without much of an end in sight, that doesn’t mean all of Hollywood has come to a halt. There are still films being produced thanks to interim agreements, which allow independent studios to continue to film as long as they agree to the demands made by SAG. This means Andre Gaines is set to begin production on his newest film, “The Dutchman.”
Read More: André Holland & Gemma Chan Star In ‘Anomalisa’ Helmer Duke Johnson’s Neon Film ‘The Actor,’ Which Has Completed Production
According to Deadline, Andre Gaines is set to direct “The Dutchman,” a film based on the acclaimed stage play from playwright Amiri Baraka.
Continue reading ‘The Dutchman’: André Holland, Kate Mara & Zazie Beetz To Star In Andre Gaines’ Adaptation Of Acclaimed Play at The Playlist.
Read More: André Holland & Gemma Chan Star In ‘Anomalisa’ Helmer Duke Johnson’s Neon Film ‘The Actor,’ Which Has Completed Production
According to Deadline, Andre Gaines is set to direct “The Dutchman,” a film based on the acclaimed stage play from playwright Amiri Baraka.
Continue reading ‘The Dutchman’: André Holland, Kate Mara & Zazie Beetz To Star In Andre Gaines’ Adaptation Of Acclaimed Play at The Playlist.
- 9/19/2023
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Exclusive: André Holland (Passing), Kate Mara (Black Mirror), Zazie Beetz (The Harder They Fall) and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Beau Is Afraid) are set to star in The Dutchman, a psychological thriller based on the Obie Award-winning play by Amiri Baraka that has landed a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement.
Directing from his script written with filmmaker Qasim Basir is Andre Gaines, the Emmy-nominated multi-hyphenate behind Showtime’s 2021 documentary The One and Only Dick Gregory. Production kicks off in New York City September 25th, putting a group of 150 or so back to work.
Set on a New York subway, The Dutchman centers on an encounter between a well-to-do Black man and an enchanting white woman who match wits in a sexualized game of cat and mouse that leads to a violent conclusion. The searing confrontation amplifies the dimensions of racial conflict in America in this adaptation of the stage show first presented...
Directing from his script written with filmmaker Qasim Basir is Andre Gaines, the Emmy-nominated multi-hyphenate behind Showtime’s 2021 documentary The One and Only Dick Gregory. Production kicks off in New York City September 25th, putting a group of 150 or so back to work.
Set on a New York subway, The Dutchman centers on an encounter between a well-to-do Black man and an enchanting white woman who match wits in a sexualized game of cat and mouse that leads to a violent conclusion. The searing confrontation amplifies the dimensions of racial conflict in America in this adaptation of the stage show first presented...
- 9/18/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
I’m a Virgo is a triumph of imagination and ideology.
A boomerang throwback to Amazon’s early streaming years when poignant oddballs like Transparent and Patriot dominated Jeff Bezos’ slate, the Boots Riley-created series that launches Friday on Prime Video is a revitalizing return to originality both for the platform and the franchise-heavy small screen itself.
Watch it, with both eyes open.
With dead-end basketball and branding deals, societal toxicity, fast food and a faster-moving love interest played in breakout fashion by Olivia Washington, the heart of the poetic show is 13-foot-tall Cootie, portrayed in towering fashion by Jharrel Jerome. Leading the 19-year-old Oakland native’s unsure steps to the outside world after years of being hidden, the When They See Us Emmy winner ups his already considerable game to unfurl a naturalism that grounds the magical realism all around him.
Too late for this year’s Emmys, regardless...
A boomerang throwback to Amazon’s early streaming years when poignant oddballs like Transparent and Patriot dominated Jeff Bezos’ slate, the Boots Riley-created series that launches Friday on Prime Video is a revitalizing return to originality both for the platform and the franchise-heavy small screen itself.
Watch it, with both eyes open.
With dead-end basketball and branding deals, societal toxicity, fast food and a faster-moving love interest played in breakout fashion by Olivia Washington, the heart of the poetic show is 13-foot-tall Cootie, portrayed in towering fashion by Jharrel Jerome. Leading the 19-year-old Oakland native’s unsure steps to the outside world after years of being hidden, the When They See Us Emmy winner ups his already considerable game to unfurl a naturalism that grounds the magical realism all around him.
Too late for this year’s Emmys, regardless...
- 6/23/2023
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Off Broadway’s historic, if long financially beleaguered, Cherry Lane Theatre has been purchased by The Whale and Everything Everywhere All at Once film studio A24.
The 179-seat mainstage venue, located on one of the most picturesque side streets of Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, is a central part of Off Broadway history, founded as a playhouse in 1923 and eventually providing a home space for such major theatrical figures as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Eugene Ionesco, LeRoi Jones, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Joe Orton and David Mamet.
Recent years have seen the small, tucked-away venue hitting one financial brick wall after another, most recently when executive director Angelina Fiordellisi agreed to sell the theater to the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation for $11 million in 2021. According to The New York Times, that deal fell through over the selling price.
A deed...
The 179-seat mainstage venue, located on one of the most picturesque side streets of Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, is a central part of Off Broadway history, founded as a playhouse in 1923 and eventually providing a home space for such major theatrical figures as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, Clifford Odets, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Eugene Ionesco, LeRoi Jones, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Joe Orton and David Mamet.
Recent years have seen the small, tucked-away venue hitting one financial brick wall after another, most recently when executive director Angelina Fiordellisi agreed to sell the theater to the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation for $11 million in 2021. According to The New York Times, that deal fell through over the selling price.
A deed...
- 3/3/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Would it be possible to make a comprehensive film about Louis Armstrong that ran under five hours? Ten? You could spend that long listening to serious people talk about him only in terms of American race relations, finally arriving at a stopping point only to realize you’d barely mentioned the music he made.
In Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, Sacha Jenkins is undaunted by the complexity of his subject, plunging ahead with swagger and not worrying if we have unanswered questions at the end. A delightful experience for jazz buffs and more than an eye-opener for any youngsters who barely know who Armstrong was, it’s worth applauding just for its belief that it can meaningfully touch on private life, public persona, musical legacy and everything else — even if, on each front, it leaves one wanting more.
Beyond its value to newbs,...
Would it be possible to make a comprehensive film about Louis Armstrong that ran under five hours? Ten? You could spend that long listening to serious people talk about him only in terms of American race relations, finally arriving at a stopping point only to realize you’d barely mentioned the music he made.
In Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, Sacha Jenkins is undaunted by the complexity of his subject, plunging ahead with swagger and not worrying if we have unanswered questions at the end. A delightful experience for jazz buffs and more than an eye-opener for any youngsters who barely know who Armstrong was, it’s worth applauding just for its belief that it can meaningfully touch on private life, public persona, musical legacy and everything else — even if, on each front, it leaves one wanting more.
Beyond its value to newbs,...
- 9/9/2022
- by John DeFore
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Toronto International Film Festival, running September 8 through 16, has announced its Docs lineup spanning 22 feature films. Opening the program is the Apple Original Films documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” from director Sacha Jenkins, followed by a lineup featuring new films from the likes of Patricio Guzmán and Werner Herzog. IndieWire spoke with TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers about highlights from the programming.
It wouldn’t be a true documentary season without a new entry from the quixotic mind of Herzog. The distinctive Bavarian director, who turns 80 a week ahead of this year’s TIFF, will visit the festival to screen “Theatre of Thought,” a study of the human brain that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of neurological inquiry.
“It’s a real science-meets-poetry kind of exploration,” Powers said. “He’s exploring the landscape inside our skulls. He also asks if fish have souls and how a tightrope walker conquers fear.
It wouldn’t be a true documentary season without a new entry from the quixotic mind of Herzog. The distinctive Bavarian director, who turns 80 a week ahead of this year’s TIFF, will visit the festival to screen “Theatre of Thought,” a study of the human brain that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of neurological inquiry.
“It’s a real science-meets-poetry kind of exploration,” Powers said. “He’s exploring the landscape inside our skulls. He also asks if fish have souls and how a tightrope walker conquers fear.
- 8/17/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Greg Tate, one of the most incisive, insightful, and influential cultural critics of the past 35 years, has died. His publisher Duke University Press confirmed the author’s death to Rolling Stone, though a cause of death was not confirmed.
“Hard to explain the impact that Flyboy in the Buttermilk had on a whole generation of young writers and critics who read every page of it like scripture,” The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb wrote on Twitter, aptly summing up the effect that Tate’s iconic 1992 essay collection had on the world.
“Hard to explain the impact that Flyboy in the Buttermilk had on a whole generation of young writers and critics who read every page of it like scripture,” The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb wrote on Twitter, aptly summing up the effect that Tate’s iconic 1992 essay collection had on the world.
- 12/7/2021
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Lauryn Hill, Oren Moverman serve as executive producers.
Corinth Films has acquired US rights to documentary Why Is We Americans? by Israeli director Udi Aloni of Berlina Panorama audience award and Tribeca international narrative feature competition winner Junction 48.
Lauryn Hill and Oren Moverman served as executive producers on the film which explores the Civil Rights activism of the Baraka family from Newark, New Jersey. Their tempestuous history stems from the Newark Rebellion of 1967 to present day and encompasses murder, activism, art and politics. Aloni and emerging director Ayana Stafford-Morris co-directed.
Why Is We Americans? will receive its festival screening at...
Corinth Films has acquired US rights to documentary Why Is We Americans? by Israeli director Udi Aloni of Berlina Panorama audience award and Tribeca international narrative feature competition winner Junction 48.
Lauryn Hill and Oren Moverman served as executive producers on the film which explores the Civil Rights activism of the Baraka family from Newark, New Jersey. Their tempestuous history stems from the Newark Rebellion of 1967 to present day and encompasses murder, activism, art and politics. Aloni and emerging director Ayana Stafford-Morris co-directed.
Why Is We Americans? will receive its festival screening at...
- 11/17/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
George Ferencz, a longtime mainstay of the Off Broadway scene who directed premieres and revivals of plays by Sam Shepard, Aishah Rahman and Amiri Baraka, died Sept. 14 following a long illness. He was 74.
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
His death was announced today by the three-time Emmy-winning costumer designer Sally Lesser, his wife of 35 years and collaborator on more than 65 theater productions.
Among the other then-new playwrights directed by Ferencz in significant stagings were Jean-Claude van Itallie, Mac Wellman and Yasmine Rana. Ferencz also directed established works by playwrights including Eugene O’Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Sean O’Casey and Agatha Christie.
“We would regularly run into his colleagues and former students on the street,” actor Jenne Vath, who worked in numerous Ferencz productions, said in a statement. “They would invariably say that George changed their life. George was a great spirit and a rock star...
Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery
His death was announced today by the three-time Emmy-winning costumer designer Sally Lesser, his wife of 35 years and collaborator on more than 65 theater productions.
Among the other then-new playwrights directed by Ferencz in significant stagings were Jean-Claude van Itallie, Mac Wellman and Yasmine Rana. Ferencz also directed established works by playwrights including Eugene O’Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Sean O’Casey and Agatha Christie.
“We would regularly run into his colleagues and former students on the street,” actor Jenne Vath, who worked in numerous Ferencz productions, said in a statement. “They would invariably say that George changed their life. George was a great spirit and a rock star...
- 9/23/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris (1970) can be streamed on Mubi for free June 18-19, 2021 at mubi.com/free.In Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris (1970) director Terence Dixon sets out to portray Baldwin as a writer rather than a political figure. To do so he devises what he termed “a system and scheme” to project Baldwin, focusing on his literary relationship with Paris, where Baldwin lived for the first nine years of his newly flourishing career. It’s a formula that lends itself to cinematic articulation, with elegant vignettes of the city—its symmetrical streets, the River Seine and the Bastille—poetic in their accompaniment to Baldwin’s lacerating prose. However, as cinematographer Jack Hazan recalls, “Things did not go to plan,” for Baldwin swiftly disabuses the filmmakers—Hazan and Dixon—of the fallacy that they are the most influential element in the documentary mix. From the...
- 6/17/2021
- MUBI
This week, we're turning to UCLA's Film and Television Archive's Youtube page, where you can find several selections from and related to the L.A. Rebellion, including early student shorts. (Additional resources regarding the L.A. Rebellion can be found at the Archive's website.) Aaron E. Hunt's Notebook Primer on the filmmakers and films of the L.A. Rebellion states that the the term, coined by Clyde Taylor, refers to the Black cinema movement led by Black filmmakers from UCLA between the 1960s and 80s. The grouping, however, remains contentious for some of the filmmakers for its conflations: "'Rebellion' suggests a collective response to the status quo, rather than a series of independent expressions with diverse influences and motivations. But the slogan stuck, and, for better or worse, remains the most common calling card for a vital Black cinema movement that hasn’t been replicated since.
Many L.A. Rebellion filmmakers resist such groupings.
Many L.A. Rebellion filmmakers resist such groupings.
- 3/2/2021
- MUBI
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died last month just 30 days shy of his 102nd birthday, lived a life of fascinating contradictions. From a Dickensian childhood — his father died before he was born, and his mother was institutionalized when he was only two years old — Ferlinghetti eventually landed with wealthy foster parents who nurtured his love of literature and art. He was a World War II naval officer who went to Normandy on D-Day and Nagasaki six weeks after the atomic blast, but was forever afterwards dedicated to anti-war writing, activism, and publishing.
- 3/1/2021
- by Brent Calderwood
- Rollingstone.com
In September of 2008, an unusual performance took place at downtown New York club Le Poisson Rouge. At stage right, opposite fellow six-string adventurer Marc Ribot, sat Lou Reed, conjuring clouds of free-rock energy from his guitar. Behind them, avant-garde mainstay John Zorn sent forth piercing, impassioned blasts of alto sax. And at the center of it all, churning with the fury of a whirlpool and dancing across his hand-painted drum kit with the control and flair of a flamenco master, was Milford Graves — the percussionist, healer, and interdisciplinary seeker who...
- 2/13/2021
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
With a Republican president running for re-election, leading Black activists and artists assemble to map out political challenges and to demand representation from the two major parties. The year in question, however, is 1972, as a new 4K restoration of William Greaves’ documentary “Nationtime” arrives in virtual theaters via Kino Marquee.
Filmed at the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana (and unseen at its complete length for decades), this documentary captures a specific moment in time and a political struggle that continues to this day. The war in Vietnam may be long finished, but the governmental clout of corporations that profit off the subjugation of poor communities of color remains as strong today as it ever was.
Assembled as a response to having Black issues overlooked by both parties in an election year, the convention sought to establish a national unity platform in advance of the 1972 Republican and Democratic conventions.
Filmed at the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana (and unseen at its complete length for decades), this documentary captures a specific moment in time and a political struggle that continues to this day. The war in Vietnam may be long finished, but the governmental clout of corporations that profit off the subjugation of poor communities of color remains as strong today as it ever was.
Assembled as a response to having Black issues overlooked by both parties in an election year, the convention sought to establish a national unity platform in advance of the 1972 Republican and Democratic conventions.
- 10/23/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
"We are a mighty nation!!" Kino Lorber has revealed a trailer for a long lost, finally-found-and-restored documentary film from 1972 titled Nationtime. The film, made by acclaimed Black filmmaker William Greaves, is a report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, In in 1972, a historic event that gathered a powerful selection of Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, and H. Carl McCall. A cut down 60-minute version aired on TV years ago. The original version was found in a Pittsburgh warehouse in 2018, restoring the film to its original 80-minute length and colorful visual quality 48 years after the convention took place. It's narrated by Sidney Poitier, combined with poems recited by Harry Belafonte. Bobby Seale said at the Convention, "Revolution is about the right for the humanity of Black people in this country here...
- 10/9/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Best known for his avant-garde meta-documentary “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm,” pioneering award-winning documentarian of Black history, culture, and politics, the late William Greaves directed over 100 films. However, his library of work still remains largely undiscovered in the mainstream, partly due to availability and access.
One such film is “Nationtime,” a documentary on the 1972 National Black Political Convention. The film was considered too radical for television broadcast at the time and has since only existed in an edited 60-minute version. But thanks to a new 4K restoration from IndieCollect, the film has been returned to its original 80-minute length, which Kino Lorber will release later this month. The film’s resurgence couldn’t be more timely, as the U.S. heads into a rather significant election against the backdrop of racial justice protests.
Unearthed in a Pittsburgh warehouse in 2018, and narrated by Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, “Nationtime” presents a dynamic and powerful look at the three-day Gary,...
One such film is “Nationtime,” a documentary on the 1972 National Black Political Convention. The film was considered too radical for television broadcast at the time and has since only existed in an edited 60-minute version. But thanks to a new 4K restoration from IndieCollect, the film has been returned to its original 80-minute length, which Kino Lorber will release later this month. The film’s resurgence couldn’t be more timely, as the U.S. heads into a rather significant election against the backdrop of racial justice protests.
Unearthed in a Pittsburgh warehouse in 2018, and narrated by Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, “Nationtime” presents a dynamic and powerful look at the three-day Gary,...
- 10/8/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to documentary Nationtime by William Greaves, about the historic National Black Political Convention of 1972 which brought together major Black leaders and activists of the time.
The distributor is planning an October 23 release in virtual cinemas through its Kino Marquee label.
Narrated by Sidney Poitier, the film was originally considered too radical for TV broadcast, and has only circulated in a heavily edited 60-minute version. But the original full-length version was found in a Pittsburgh warehouse in 2018 and restored in 4K by IndieCollect, supervised by Louise Greaves and funded by Jane Fonda and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Trust.
The documentary, which also includes poems recited by Harry Belafonte, focuses on the Gary Convention in Indiana, which gathered 10,000 Black politicians, activists, and artists from across the political spectrum, including more than 500 media representatives.
Delegates included Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale,...
The distributor is planning an October 23 release in virtual cinemas through its Kino Marquee label.
Narrated by Sidney Poitier, the film was originally considered too radical for TV broadcast, and has only circulated in a heavily edited 60-minute version. But the original full-length version was found in a Pittsburgh warehouse in 2018 and restored in 4K by IndieCollect, supervised by Louise Greaves and funded by Jane Fonda and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Trust.
The documentary, which also includes poems recited by Harry Belafonte, focuses on the Gary Convention in Indiana, which gathered 10,000 Black politicians, activists, and artists from across the political spectrum, including more than 500 media representatives.
Delegates included Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale,...
- 9/28/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, Lionsgate executive Corii Berg joins the USC Board of Trustees, Night Fox Entertainment unveils a trilogy and Newark-based documentary “Why Is We Americans” gets a premiere.
New Trustee
The University of Southern California Board of Trustees has elected Lionsgate executive vice president and general counsel Corii Berg as its newest member.
Berg, who was awarded two undergraduate degrees from USC in 1989, was recently president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors.
“Corii Berg is a passionate and inclusive leader whose strategic communication and management skills make him a valuable addition to our board,” USC President Carol L. Folt said. “He is also a first-generation college student and longtime USC supporter who understands the strength of education to lift up and empower people from all backgrounds.”
Berg, who grew up in Hawaii, said he plans to emphasize diversity and access throughout the university, adding,...
New Trustee
The University of Southern California Board of Trustees has elected Lionsgate executive vice president and general counsel Corii Berg as its newest member.
Berg, who was awarded two undergraduate degrees from USC in 1989, was recently president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors.
“Corii Berg is a passionate and inclusive leader whose strategic communication and management skills make him a valuable addition to our board,” USC President Carol L. Folt said. “He is also a first-generation college student and longtime USC supporter who understands the strength of education to lift up and empower people from all backgrounds.”
Berg, who grew up in Hawaii, said he plans to emphasize diversity and access throughout the university, adding,...
- 6/2/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
“The Eddy” with Damien Chazelle in the director’s chair certainly brings to mind “La La Land,” even if the face of the series “Moonlight” star André Holland. To think about the representatives from both Best Picture nominees sounds ironic on the surface — especially if you see it through the lens of “that moment” at the Academy Awards — but Holland casts that notion aside.
“I met him around that time and we really got on,” he said in an interview with IndieWire. “That’s the weird thing about the whole Oscar moment is the ‘Moonlight’ crew and the ‘La La Land’ crew, we all knew each other quite well because we spent so much time traveling around to the same festivals and doing press.”
If anything, that time together sparked a personal respect between actor and director, with the pair “hitting it off.” Holland knew he wanted to work with...
“I met him around that time and we really got on,” he said in an interview with IndieWire. “That’s the weird thing about the whole Oscar moment is the ‘Moonlight’ crew and the ‘La La Land’ crew, we all knew each other quite well because we spent so much time traveling around to the same festivals and doing press.”
If anything, that time together sparked a personal respect between actor and director, with the pair “hitting it off.” Holland knew he wanted to work with...
- 5/6/2020
- by Kristen Lopez
- Indiewire
This is the second installment of “Breaking Black,” a new weekly column focused on emerging black talent.
Award-winning multidisciplinary artist Rashid Johnson’s thoughtful adaptation of Richard Wright’s landmark 1939 novel “Native Son” isn’t exactly the start of a franchise, but Johnson’s first feature exists on a continuum: The film represents his latest effort to reimagine a respected artwork.
While his filmmaking career is young, Johnson has amassed a body of work that includes installations and theatrical productions that all reflect a similar impulse. But with the A24-produced “Native Son” now on HBO, that impulse is reaching its largest audience to date.
Prior to “Native Son,” Johnson only had experience directing for the stage in far more experimental terms. In 2013, he revised Amiri Baraka’s award-winning controversial 1964 play “Dutchman” for the saunas at the Russian & Turkish Baths on East 10th street in New York City. Anticipating the...
Award-winning multidisciplinary artist Rashid Johnson’s thoughtful adaptation of Richard Wright’s landmark 1939 novel “Native Son” isn’t exactly the start of a franchise, but Johnson’s first feature exists on a continuum: The film represents his latest effort to reimagine a respected artwork.
While his filmmaking career is young, Johnson has amassed a body of work that includes installations and theatrical productions that all reflect a similar impulse. But with the A24-produced “Native Son” now on HBO, that impulse is reaching its largest audience to date.
Prior to “Native Son,” Johnson only had experience directing for the stage in far more experimental terms. In 2013, he revised Amiri Baraka’s award-winning controversial 1964 play “Dutchman” for the saunas at the Russian & Turkish Baths on East 10th street in New York City. Anticipating the...
- 4/12/2019
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
As fly-on-the-wall rock-doc experiences go, there are few more thrilling than the first 10 minutes of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1968 film Sympathy for the Devil.
After the opening credits silently roll, we’re immediately transported to London’s Olympic Studios in the June of 1968, where the Rolling Stones are recording what will become Beggar’s Banquet. The band is in peak Byronic-dandy form, sporting an impressive array of colorful trousers and footwear (Bill Wyman’s hot pink boots take first prize), but it quickly becomes clear that these gentlemen aren’t merely flouncing around in their finery.
After the opening credits silently roll, we’re immediately transported to London’s Olympic Studios in the June of 1968, where the Rolling Stones are recording what will become Beggar’s Banquet. The band is in peak Byronic-dandy form, sporting an impressive array of colorful trousers and footwear (Bill Wyman’s hot pink boots take first prize), but it quickly becomes clear that these gentlemen aren’t merely flouncing around in their finery.
- 10/5/2018
- by Dan Epstein
- Rollingstone.com
Before he began his Hollywood career, Cheo Hodari Coker was a gifted music journalist, with work for Rolling Stone that included reviews of D'Angelo's Brown Sugar and Biggie's Ready to Die. But he originally dreamed of "making records" as an A&R rep, a goal he never quite reached – unless you count his role as showrunner on Netflix's Luke Cage, which has its second season out now. Well before Black Panther, the first season brought hip-hop into the Marvel universe, building key moments around '90s boom-bap classics and newer...
- 6/22/2018
- Rollingstone.com
{Flying} Dutchman Written by Amiri Baraka Directed by Christopher-Rashee Stevenson Presented by Theatre of War at The Tank, NYC February 9-25, 2018
The 1964 play Dutchman was born from the pen of the prolific, impassioned, and often controversial Amiri Baraka, who died in 2014 after a nearly 50-year career as a playwright, poet, essayist, and activist. When Baraka wrote the play, he was still known as LeRoi Jones, but he would later change his name, hardening his commitment to revolutionary black nationalism. The 1970s would see his politics shift again, this time to Marxism, and he made forays into academia beginning in the 1980s and continued to publish new work right up until his death. Dutchman won an Obie award the year that it premiered, at New York City's Cherry Lane Theatre, and Theatre of War has revived this militant classic at the relocated and expanded The Tank, which serves emerging artists. This...
The 1964 play Dutchman was born from the pen of the prolific, impassioned, and often controversial Amiri Baraka, who died in 2014 after a nearly 50-year career as a playwright, poet, essayist, and activist. When Baraka wrote the play, he was still known as LeRoi Jones, but he would later change his name, hardening his commitment to revolutionary black nationalism. The 1970s would see his politics shift again, this time to Marxism, and he made forays into academia beginning in the 1980s and continued to publish new work right up until his death. Dutchman won an Obie award the year that it premiered, at New York City's Cherry Lane Theatre, and Theatre of War has revived this militant classic at the relocated and expanded The Tank, which serves emerging artists. This...
- 2/13/2018
- by Leah Richards
- www.culturecatch.com
Sex GameWith so much gentility and desire for respect and accolades to be found in a random scan of any film festival program, the audacity of highlighting the films of someone with as checkered a history—to say the least—as Japanese director Masao Adachi might seem a provocation if this filmmaker was not in his venerable 70s, yet even so his home country wouldn't allow him to travel to Rotterdam for a spotlight on his career. Infamous first as a collaborator with prolific Japanese art-exploitation master Koji Wakamatsu—for whom he wrote a number of screenplays before then directing for Wakamatsu's production company—then for going with Wakamatsu to shoot 1971’s Red Army / Pflp: Declaration of World War in Lebanon, then for joining the Japanese Red Army and remaining in Lebanon for twenty years (an idea even more shameful in Japan than it might be considered elsewhere), Adachi was then arrested for passport violations,...
- 2/3/2016
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
In remembrance of Amiri Baraka's death, at 79 years old, almost exactly 2 years ago, January 9, 2014 (the anniversary of his death would've been over the weekend, on Saturday)... A a creative and political force, Baraka was 79 years old at the time of his death, which came after he was placed in intensive care at Beth Israel Medical Center for an unknown reason. Baraka had long struggled with diabetes, but it was not immediately clear if that was the cause of death. Later reports indicated that he died from complications after a recent surgery. You’ll be hard pressed to think of a controversial play or film that, even decades later, still remains just as controversial....
- 1/11/2016
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
+“Sometimes the class struggle is also the struggle of one image against another image, of one sound against another sound. In a film, this struggle is against images and sounds.”
- British Sounds
There was something in the air when Jean-Luc Godard took up the political banner of the late 1960s and shifted his filmmaking focus in terms of storytelling style and stories told, and in a general sense of formal reevaluation and reinvention. Always considered something of the enfant terrible of the French Nouvelle Vague, Godard was keen from the start to experiment with the conventional norms of cinematic aesthetics, from the jarring jump cuts of Breathless (1960), to the self-conscious playfulness of A Woman is a Woman (1961), to the genre deviations of Band of Outsiders (1964) and Made in USA (1966). But Godard was still, at a most basic level, operating along a fairly conventional plane of fictional cinema, one with...
- British Sounds
There was something in the air when Jean-Luc Godard took up the political banner of the late 1960s and shifted his filmmaking focus in terms of storytelling style and stories told, and in a general sense of formal reevaluation and reinvention. Always considered something of the enfant terrible of the French Nouvelle Vague, Godard was keen from the start to experiment with the conventional norms of cinematic aesthetics, from the jarring jump cuts of Breathless (1960), to the self-conscious playfulness of A Woman is a Woman (1961), to the genre deviations of Band of Outsiders (1964) and Made in USA (1966). But Godard was still, at a most basic level, operating along a fairly conventional plane of fictional cinema, one with...
- 10/17/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Review by Kathy Kaiser
What do you get when you combine a love for jazz from a very young age – a prolific journalistic talent – and a civil rights libertarian who will let you know exactly where he stands on any issue, including being pro-life – you get the story of the man – The Legend – whose life of work has touched both the cultural and political sides of our mere existence in this country for over 65 years – Nat Hentoff.
David L Lewis, a journalistic and broadcast media talent himself for over 30 years, brings the man himself along for this ride – exposing Hentoff’s life’s work – and mostly in his own words – with this new documentary – The Pleasures Of Being/ Out Of Step. Stepping into the limelight of his career, Hentoff emerged as the Jazz critic of all critics, being named The Jazz Master and gaining fame and recognition by the musicians...
What do you get when you combine a love for jazz from a very young age – a prolific journalistic talent – and a civil rights libertarian who will let you know exactly where he stands on any issue, including being pro-life – you get the story of the man – The Legend – whose life of work has touched both the cultural and political sides of our mere existence in this country for over 65 years – Nat Hentoff.
David L Lewis, a journalistic and broadcast media talent himself for over 30 years, brings the man himself along for this ride – exposing Hentoff’s life’s work – and mostly in his own words – with this new documentary – The Pleasures Of Being/ Out Of Step. Stepping into the limelight of his career, Hentoff emerged as the Jazz critic of all critics, being named The Jazz Master and gaining fame and recognition by the musicians...
- 7/21/2014
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Supporting Actress Smackdown of '64 is just 8 days away. So it's time to get your votes in on the nominees that year. Readers, collectively, are the sixth panelists, so grade the nominees (only the ones you've seen) from 1 to 5 hearts. Your votes count toward the smackdown win!
Lila Kedrova Zorba the Greek Gladys Cooper for My Fair Lady Dame Edith Evans The Chalk Garden
Agnes Moorhead Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte
Grayson Hall Night of the Iguana
But before we here at Tfe get to that particular metaphorical musical-horror mishmash of films with one of the most senior lineups the Academy ever offered up in this category, let's meet our panelists for this 50th anniversary retrospective competition.
The Panel
Special Guest
Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Lynskey is an actor from New Zealand. She made her film debut in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994) and is currently starring in Joe Swanberg's...
Lila Kedrova Zorba the Greek Gladys Cooper for My Fair Lady Dame Edith Evans The Chalk Garden
Agnes Moorhead Hush... Hush Sweet Charlotte
Grayson Hall Night of the Iguana
But before we here at Tfe get to that particular metaphorical musical-horror mishmash of films with one of the most senior lineups the Academy ever offered up in this category, let's meet our panelists for this 50th anniversary retrospective competition.
The Panel
Special Guest
Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Lynskey is an actor from New Zealand. She made her film debut in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994) and is currently starring in Joe Swanberg's...
- 6/22/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Actor Sharif Atkins 'White Collar,' 'Hawaii,' 'ER' will star as Clay in the co-production of 'Dutchman' by LeRoi Jones Amiri Baraka by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre Nbt and The Classical Theatre of Harlem Cth. The two theater companies are mounting the production 50 years after the March 1964 world premiere of the play at the Cherry Lane Theatre and in tribute to the late theater great Baraka, who died on January 9. Ambien Mitchell stars opposite Atkins as Lula and Lorenzo Scott joins the cast as the Conductor. Previews of the Carl Cofield-directed show begin on April 30 and run through May 2, and performances run from May 3 through May 23 at National Black Theatre in Harlem.
- 4/3/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
French President Francois Hollande is officially having his Bill Clinton moment. The weekly tabloid ‘Closer’ ran several photos of Francois allegedly spending the night with actress Julie Gayet — allegations that Francois has not denied.
Francois Hollande, 59, is threatening to sue the tabloid Closer for running seven pages of photos taken outside of Julie Gayet‘s apartment that supposedly prove that Francois — France’s president — and the 41-year-old actress are having an affair.
Francois Hollande & Julie Gayet Take Down ‘Closer’ Mag Take Our Poll
Yikes! While an affair has not been officially confirmed, Julie and Francois have definitely had interactions in the past — BBC News reports that the actress appeared in a promotional video for Francois’ presidential election campaign in 2012, in which she called him marvelous, humble, and “somebody who really listens.” However, Julie is married to Argentinian film director and script writer Santiago Amigorena and Francois has a long-time partner named Valerie Trierweiler,...
Francois Hollande, 59, is threatening to sue the tabloid Closer for running seven pages of photos taken outside of Julie Gayet‘s apartment that supposedly prove that Francois — France’s president — and the 41-year-old actress are having an affair.
Francois Hollande & Julie Gayet Take Down ‘Closer’ Mag Take Our Poll
Yikes! While an affair has not been officially confirmed, Julie and Francois have definitely had interactions in the past — BBC News reports that the actress appeared in a promotional video for Francois’ presidential election campaign in 2012, in which she called him marvelous, humble, and “somebody who really listens.” However, Julie is married to Argentinian film director and script writer Santiago Amigorena and Francois has a long-time partner named Valerie Trierweiler,...
- 1/10/2014
- by HL Intern
- HollywoodLife
So sad. Iconic poet, Amiri Baraka, passed away after a short illness on Jan. 9. He was known for his epic writing, his political voice, and his poem about 9/11 heard ’round the world.
The world has lost one of its most talented writers and poetic activists. Amiri Baraka, who was formerly New Jersey’s poet laureate, died on Jan. 9 at New Jersey’s Beth Israel Medical Center after a short illness, his agent confirmed to CNN. He was 79 years old.
Amiri Baraka: Activist Poet Dies At 79
Baraka, considered a founder of the 1960s Black Arts movement, made a name for himself by being unafraid to hold a mirror up to society with his writing. His own website said that he “adopted a confrontational style for his poetry, drama, fiction and essays. With intent to create awareness and about the concerns of African-Americans, his writings… on one hand have been praised as a voice against oppression,...
The world has lost one of its most talented writers and poetic activists. Amiri Baraka, who was formerly New Jersey’s poet laureate, died on Jan. 9 at New Jersey’s Beth Israel Medical Center after a short illness, his agent confirmed to CNN. He was 79 years old.
Amiri Baraka: Activist Poet Dies At 79
Baraka, considered a founder of the 1960s Black Arts movement, made a name for himself by being unafraid to hold a mirror up to society with his writing. His own website said that he “adopted a confrontational style for his poetry, drama, fiction and essays. With intent to create awareness and about the concerns of African-Americans, his writings… on one hand have been praised as a voice against oppression,...
- 1/10/2014
- by Emily Longeretta
- HollywoodLife
I repost this in light of Amiri Baraka's death, at 79 years old, made public this afternoon... Made in 1967, Dutchman is the filmed version of Amiri Baraka’s (he was LeRoi Jones when he wrote it) controversial one-act stage play. It won the Obie Award for best off-Broadway play, thrusting Baraka into the limelight. It stars Al Freeman Jr. and Shirley Knight. The story: A sinister, neurotic, lascivious white girl, Lula, lures to his doom, a young black man, Clay - a stranger she picks up in the subway. The man, who, at first, sees no reason to resist the girl's advances, realizes too late that he is being used by her. He then drops his so-called "white"...
- 1/9/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
You’ll be hard pressed to think of a controversial play or film that even decades later, still remains just as controversial. You could probably count them on one hand. But it’s maybe impossible you couldn’t make up such a list without putting Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman on it.The play first premiered in 1964 in New York when Baraka, then LeRoi Jones, was in the process of a divorce from his white first wife and going through the political and philosophical process of becoming a black nationalist.Not surprisingly, his play caused shock and outrage. It’s a work that could be interpreted in hundreds of ways. But Baraka makes it clear Dutchman is whatever you want it to be, and you...
- 7/11/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Jonas Mekas, 'the godfather of avant-garde cinema', talks to Sean O'Hagan about working with Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali and Jackie Kennedy
Jonas Mekas, who will be 90 on Christmas Eve, has an intense memory of sitting on his father's bed, aged six, singing a strange little song about daily life in the village in which he grew up in Lithuania.
"It was late in the evening and suddenly I was recounting everything I had seen on the farm that day. It was a very simple, very realistic recitation of small, everyday events. Nothing was invented. I remember the reception from my mother and father, which was very good. But I also remember the feeling of intensity I experienced just from describing the actual details of what my father did every day. I have been trying to find that intensity in my work ever since."
We are sitting at a table in...
Jonas Mekas, who will be 90 on Christmas Eve, has an intense memory of sitting on his father's bed, aged six, singing a strange little song about daily life in the village in which he grew up in Lithuania.
"It was late in the evening and suddenly I was recounting everything I had seen on the farm that day. It was a very simple, very realistic recitation of small, everyday events. Nothing was invented. I remember the reception from my mother and father, which was very good. But I also remember the feeling of intensity I experienced just from describing the actual details of what my father did every day. I have been trying to find that intensity in my work ever since."
We are sitting at a table in...
- 12/2/2012
- by Sean O'Hagan
- The Guardian - Film News
"Something in the way of things. Something that will quit and won't start. Something you know but can't stand... can't know... but get along with, like death riding on top of the car peering through the windshield for his cue. Something entirely fictitious and true. That creeps across your path hallowing your evil ways, like it was yourself passing yourself not smiling." -- Amiri Baraka from the Poem "Something in the Way of Things (the town)" Mostly when we* get together, we complain about the state of things: poverty, the shallow pockets of whomever's responsibility it is in our society to fund an artists' work, the last time we were...
- 9/12/2012
- by Terence Nance
- ShadowAndAct
In light of Al Freeman Jr.'s death (please see the post immediately underneath this one)... Made in 1967, Dutchman is the filmed version of Amiri Baraka’s (he was LeRoi Jones when he wrote it) controversial one-act stage play. It won the Obie Award for best off-Broadway play, thrusting Baraka into the limelight. It stars Al Freeman Jr. & Shirley Knight. The story: A sinister, neurotic, lascivious white girl, Lula, lures to his doom, a young black man, Clay - a stranger she picks up in the subway. The man, who, at first, sees no reason to resist the girl's advances, realizes too late that he is being used by her. He then drops his so-called...
- 8/10/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The son of African American stage actor Al Freeman (1884-1956), and star of stage, TV and film, Al Freeman Jr. (born Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr., on March 21, 1934, in San Antonio, Texas), has died at the age of 78 years old. His career, as an actor primarily, as well as a writer and director, spans several decades, dating back to the 1950s. He made his big screen debut in 1960's melodrama The Rebel Breed. Most notably, in 1967, Freeman Jr. co-starred with Shirley Knight in the film version of Leroi Jones' (Amiri Baraka's) off-Broadway play Dutchman, in a performance that earned him excellent reviews, and further attention for his...
- 8/10/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
New York -- Tenor sax legend Sonny Rollins was a triple winner Wednesday at the annual Jazz Awards, garnering musician of the year honors for the second straight year.
Rollins also repeated as the top tenor saxophonist. His latest CD, "Road Shows, Vol. 2," consisting of live recordings from concerts in Japan and his September 2010 80th birthday concert in New York highlighted by a first-ever public performance with free jazz visionary and alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, was chosen the year's best jazz recording.
"I was born with some talent for which I am grateful," Rollins said in a statement read from the stage at the Blue Note jazz club by emcee Josh Jackson, host of Wbgo's jazz music magazine "The Checkout."
"I copied and learned from my predecessors and I'm grateful to them, and I gratefully accept this award," said Rollins, who could not attend the ceremony because he was moving...
Rollins also repeated as the top tenor saxophonist. His latest CD, "Road Shows, Vol. 2," consisting of live recordings from concerts in Japan and his September 2010 80th birthday concert in New York highlighted by a first-ever public performance with free jazz visionary and alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, was chosen the year's best jazz recording.
"I was born with some talent for which I am grateful," Rollins said in a statement read from the stage at the Blue Note jazz club by emcee Josh Jackson, host of Wbgo's jazz music magazine "The Checkout."
"I copied and learned from my predecessors and I'm grateful to them, and I gratefully accept this award," said Rollins, who could not attend the ceremony because he was moving...
- 6/21/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
I had a wonderful conversation on this (and several other cinema-related topics) with Ms Terri Francis, the guest editor of this specific special issue of Black Camera (an academic film journal I strongly encourage you all to subscribe to Here) - a conversation I wish was recorded so that I could share here. Alas, it wasn't; but you can become a part of that conversation by considering this call for papers; no deadline date specified... yet. But if you're interested, do something. The special issue on Afrosurrealism in film/video will be published in the fall of 2013. In the conceptual space offered by Amiri Baraka's notion of Afrosurreal expressionism, this...
- 6/18/2012
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
From John Gall, art director for Vintage and Anchor Books, comes word that legendary publisher and film distributor Barney Rosset has passed away at the age of 89. Gall points us to a lively profile by Louisa Thomas that ran in Newsweek in late 2008: "Rosset's publishing house, Grove Press, was a tiny company operating out of the ground floor of Rosset's brownstone when it published an obscure play called Waiting for Godot in 1954. By the time Beckett had won the Nobel Prize in 1969, Grove had become a force that challenged and changed literature and American culture in deep and lasting ways. Its impact is still evident — from the Che Guevara posters adorning college dorms to the canonical status of the house's once controversial authors. Rosset is less well known — but late in his life he is achieving some wider recognition. Last month, a black-tie crowd gave Rosset a standing ovation...
- 2/24/2012
- MUBI
What makes for African-American theater? According to Kelley Nicole Girod, a playwright and lead producer of The Fire This Time Festival, there are major misconceptions. Now in its third year, the Off-Broadway event, produced by the Horse Trade Theater Group, provides a platform for emerging playwrights of color to present 10-minute plays. These may be snippets of larger works or completed pieces.As literary descendants of Lorraine Hansberry ("A Raisin in the Sun") and Amiri Baraka ("Dutchman"), black playwrights continue to be identified with such topics as the heritage of slavery, political struggle, and identity crises, Girod says. "That's been the standard, and it's come to be expected." "The Submission," "The Mountaintop," and "Stick Fly" are current examples on and Off-Broadway, she notes. "I'm not saying those plays shouldn't be written, but there's so much more that makes up the black experience," she continues. "In our first year, we had plays.
- 1/18/2012
- by help@backstage.com (Simi Horwitz)
- backstage.com
Readjusting to a Broadway stage after 11 years of performing in front of a TV camera is a bit of a challenge, says Dulé Hill, perhaps best known as Charlie Young, the personal aide to President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) on the long-running "The West Wing" and more recently as the straitlaced private detective Burton "Gus" Guster on "Psych.""The camera is so intimate, it can catch a twinkle in the eye," he notes. "But that twinkle won't read in the back of the theater. I had to learn how to magnify while keeping the moments intimate and real." The vocal challenges—specifically maintaining vocal strength—have been the most daunting.Hill is no stranger to the stage, but with the exception of co-starring in an Off-Broadway revival of Amiri Baraka's two-hander "Dutchman" four years ago, his roster of stage credits boasts only musicals. His current gig, Lydia R. Diamond's "Stick Fly,...
- 12/8/2011
- by help@backstage.com (Simi Horwitz)
- backstage.com
Fred Viebahn Rita Dove
Rita Dove is a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate, and she’s also a competitive ballroom dancer. A professor at the University of Virginia, Dove now has another credit to her name: editor of the new Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry.
The anthology, a sienna clothbound release, looks like something that would be kept in a walnut bookshelf in the library of some British manor house. But this is a distinctly American book,...
Rita Dove is a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate, and she’s also a competitive ballroom dancer. A professor at the University of Virginia, Dove now has another credit to her name: editor of the new Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry.
The anthology, a sienna clothbound release, looks like something that would be kept in a walnut bookshelf in the library of some British manor house. But this is a distinctly American book,...
- 10/26/2011
- by Barbara Chai
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 19th, 2011
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 brings together, for 90 fascinating minutes, a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the Us drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement – Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them, the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this collection of unedited film was found languishing in the basement of a Swedish Television station. Director Goran Olsson discovered this footage and assembled a documentary chronicling the evolution of one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Featuring music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from prominent African- American artists and activists who were influenced by the struggle — including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli,...
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 brings together, for 90 fascinating minutes, a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the Us drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement – Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them, the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this collection of unedited film was found languishing in the basement of a Swedish Television station. Director Goran Olsson discovered this footage and assembled a documentary chronicling the evolution of one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Featuring music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from prominent African- American artists and activists who were influenced by the struggle — including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli,...
- 10/25/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
In an exclusive interview with the man behind the popular fake Twitter feed @osamainhell, Fast Company finds out what it takes to do 24/7 Twitter satire, along with some tips for aspiring comedians.
Twitter is chock-full of humorous fake feeds with massive cult followings. The microblogging service's 140-character message limit has turned out to be the perfect forum for one-line zingers, as the individuals behind @fakeapstylebook, @bpglobalpr and @mayoremanuel all discovered for themselves. But running a popular fake Twitter feed requires careful juggling of real-life concerns with the need to constantly evaluate the shifting moods of social media users. We spoke with the man behind one popular fake Twitter feed, the 11,000-follower @osamainhell--who tweets exclusively in the voice of the dead terrorist--and got him to shed his secret identity and offer some tips on running a satirical Twitter feed.
So, @osamainhell, what is your secret identity?
I'm David Weiner. There are...
Twitter is chock-full of humorous fake feeds with massive cult followings. The microblogging service's 140-character message limit has turned out to be the perfect forum for one-line zingers, as the individuals behind @fakeapstylebook, @bpglobalpr and @mayoremanuel all discovered for themselves. But running a popular fake Twitter feed requires careful juggling of real-life concerns with the need to constantly evaluate the shifting moods of social media users. We spoke with the man behind one popular fake Twitter feed, the 11,000-follower @osamainhell--who tweets exclusively in the voice of the dead terrorist--and got him to shed his secret identity and offer some tips on running a satirical Twitter feed.
So, @osamainhell, what is your secret identity?
I'm David Weiner. There are...
- 7/26/2011
- by Neal Ungerleider
- Fast Company
Made in 1966, Dutchman is the filmed version of Amiri Baraka’s controversial one-act stage play. It won the Obie Award for best off-Broadway play, thrusting Baraka into the limelight. It stars Al Freeman Jr. & Shirley Knight.
The story, for those unfamiliar, goes… A sinister, neurotic, lascivious white girl, Lula, lures to his doom, a good-looking young black man, Clay – a stranger she picks up in the subway. She mocks him for wearing the clothes, and employing the voice and manners of what she deems the conventional white intellectual. The man, who, at first, sees no reason to resist the girl’s advances, perceives too late that he is being used by her. He then drops his so-called “white” disguise, and launches into a counterattack, against the girl, and at whites in general, leading to its haunting, shocking conclusion.
Dutchman initially played to primarily white audiences, until Baraka moved it to...
The story, for those unfamiliar, goes… A sinister, neurotic, lascivious white girl, Lula, lures to his doom, a good-looking young black man, Clay – a stranger she picks up in the subway. She mocks him for wearing the clothes, and employing the voice and manners of what she deems the conventional white intellectual. The man, who, at first, sees no reason to resist the girl’s advances, perceives too late that he is being used by her. He then drops his so-called “white” disguise, and launches into a counterattack, against the girl, and at whites in general, leading to its haunting, shocking conclusion.
Dutchman initially played to primarily white audiences, until Baraka moved it to...
- 3/4/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
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