The latest in our series of writers highlighting lesser-known films is a recommendation for a distinctive early 90s drama about slavery
I first saw Sankofa fifteen years ago, as part of a college course on the African diaspora. For years after, I would bring it up any chance I got, which wasn’t often, since in all that time, I never met anyone outside of that classroom who had even heard of it. Unlike any number of other forgotten masterpieces, the film was never that hard to track down – you could purchase a VHS or DVD copy with relative ease, and there were versions of it to stream if you knew where to look (the legality of said streams is another matter) – yet, until very recently, it remained largely unknown outside of Black academic/sociopolitical circles (who by no means should be discounted).
Although it earned unanimous acclaim, as well as several awards,...
I first saw Sankofa fifteen years ago, as part of a college course on the African diaspora. For years after, I would bring it up any chance I got, which wasn’t often, since in all that time, I never met anyone outside of that classroom who had even heard of it. Unlike any number of other forgotten masterpieces, the film was never that hard to track down – you could purchase a VHS or DVD copy with relative ease, and there were versions of it to stream if you knew where to look (the legality of said streams is another matter) – yet, until very recently, it remained largely unknown outside of Black academic/sociopolitical circles (who by no means should be discounted).
Although it earned unanimous acclaim, as well as several awards,...
- 3/1/2022
- by Zach Vasquez
- The Guardian - Film News
To celebrate Black history month, Ava DuVernay’s indie distribution, arts and advocacy collective Array has produced “28 Days of ‘Sankofa,'” an event series where select cinemas, universities and festival locations throughout the U.S. are screening Ethiopian director Haile Gerima’s “Sankofa” for free, one screening for each day of February. In addition, Array created a free learning companion designed to help viewers process the weight of what they’re watching.
Gerima is best known as one of the leading members of the L.A. Rebellion, which was a movement of artists who studied film at UCLA from the late 1960s to early 1980s. Along with figures like Julie Dash and Charles Burnett, Gerima made a name for himself with movies that provided a Black alternative to the style of classical Hollywood. “Sankofa,” which was nominated for the coveted Golden Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival in...
Gerima is best known as one of the leading members of the L.A. Rebellion, which was a movement of artists who studied film at UCLA from the late 1960s to early 1980s. Along with figures like Julie Dash and Charles Burnett, Gerima made a name for himself with movies that provided a Black alternative to the style of classical Hollywood. “Sankofa,” which was nominated for the coveted Golden Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival in...
- 2/18/2022
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
For me, Black History Month is best illustrated by my 92-year-old grandmother Ella Queen Johnson’s recall of our family stories. She shares these stories knowing that the wider world lacks a true and full recognition of the African American family legacy. For most of her long life, she has known that she should not look for depth and dimension in film and television as it relates to families like ours. This is the very reason why she told our history to us herself. My grandmother is a dynamic woman who is not formally trained as a teacher or a historian, but nonetheless, she is both. I am drawn to distributing films created by indie Black filmmakers through Array as a continuation of her calling. By supporting storytellers in the telling of their truths, I am celebrating a great legacy and making my grandmother proud.
I was a young girl...
I was a young girl...
- 2/10/2022
- by Tilane Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Dean Stockwell in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986)The actor Dean Stockwell, remembered for his performances in films like The Boy with the Green Hair (1948), Paris, Texas (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), and many more, has died at the age of 85. As Sheila O'Malley mentions in her tribute, Stockwell's career was marked by numerous disappearances. He didn't always love acting, but "he lived long enough to be able to not just appreciate but feel the love that people had for him, the way audiences fell in love with him for 70 years." A newly discovered memoir by Paul Newman will be published next year by Knopf. Based on Newman's conversations with screenwriter Stewart Stern, the book aims to tell the legendary actor's story in his own words. Following the exit of Robert Pattinson and Taron Egerton, Joe Alwyn...
- 11/10/2021
- MUBI
Haile Gerima (left) on the set of Harvest: 3,000 YearsWhen I first approached Haile Gerima to talk with me about his work two years ago, he declined. I had been eager to talk with him, the uncompromisingly independent artist behind narrative films like Harvest 3,000 Years (1975), Bush Mama (1979), and Sankofa (1993). But I told him I respected his decision, and we kept in touch over email. He appreciated that I persisted, and later mailed me copies of Wilmington 10 -- U.S.A. 10,000 (1979), After Winter: Sterling Brown (1985), and Imperfect Journey (1994), his virtually inaccessible documentaries. I’d sit with these films for years before the prospect of an interview with Gerima came up again. No stranger to the power of waiting or to the power of “no,” he had turned down numerous opportunities to restore or distribute his films with third parties, brooking no creative compromise. Finally, he yielded to an elaborate retrospective at the Academy Museum,...
- 11/5/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: M. Night Shyamalan on the set of Old (2021). Berlinale has announced that the one and only M. Night Shyamalan will serve as the Jury President for the festival's 2022 edition. In a statement, Shyamalan said: "I have always felt like an independent filmmaker within the system of Hollywood. It is exactly those things in us that are different and unorthodox that define our voice. I have tried to maintain these things in myself and cheer others on to protect those aspects in their art and in themselves. Being asked to be a part of Berlinale is deeply meaningful to me. It represents the highest imprimatur for a filmmaker. Being able to support and celebrate the world’s very best talent in storytelling is a gift I happily accepted.”David Fincher is partnering with Netflix...
- 10/20/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Fox Maxy's Maat Means Land (2020) MoMA has announced the lineup and schedule for “To The Lighthouse,” a thrilling carte blanche program by curator Mark McElhatten featuring new films by Nathaniel Dorsky, Ernie Gehr, Jodie Mack, Dani and Sheilah ReStack, and more, along with older films by Rivette, Joseph H. Lewis, Claire Denis, and Marguerite Duras.An essential annual list, Filmmaker Magazine's 25 new faces of film for 2021 includes Kate Gondwe (the founder of Dezda Films), filmmaker Fox Maxy, Omnes Films (the collective behind Tyler Taormina's Ham on Rye), and others. A24 and Emma Stone’s production company, Fruit Tree Banner, have come together to back Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw The TV Glow. The film, a follow-up to Schoenbrun's debut from this year, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, follows...
- 10/13/2021
- MUBI
The Haile Gerima story is one of personal and professional resistance. A warrior whose chosen weapon is cinema, Gerima has been at the forefront of the Black independent film movement for almost 50 years, leading a charge to counter the West’s history of gross misrepresentations of the Black experience with complete and complex stories about what it means to be Black, viewed through a global lens.
Most exemplary of this ethos is his epic 1993 slavery-era revolt drama, “Sankofa,” which has now been given new life in a partnership between Gerima’s Mypheduh Films and Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing. A brand-new 4K restoration of the film is available today on Netflix in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Gerima will also be honored by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with its inaugural Vantage Award as part of its opening gala on September 25.
For Gerima, the chance...
Most exemplary of this ethos is his epic 1993 slavery-era revolt drama, “Sankofa,” which has now been given new life in a partnership between Gerima’s Mypheduh Films and Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing. A brand-new 4K restoration of the film is available today on Netflix in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Gerima will also be honored by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with its inaugural Vantage Award as part of its opening gala on September 25.
For Gerima, the chance...
- 9/24/2021
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Kenneth Branagh's Belfast.The Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close, with Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical drama Belfast claiming the TIFF People’s Choice Award and Kamila Andini's coming-of-age film Yuni taking home the Platform Prize. Hot off of last year's Tenet, Christopher Nolan has made a deal with Universal to back his next film, which is centered on the theoretical physicist and one of the "fathers of the atomic bomb," J. Robert Oppenheimer. The deal marks the end of Nolan's lengthy working relationship with Warner Bros. and gives the auteur "total creative control, at least a 100-day theatrical window, around a $100 million budget, equal marketing spend, 20 percent of first-dollar gross, and a blackout period where the studio would not release another movie for three weeks before and after the feature.
- 9/22/2021
- MUBI
The Urbanworld Film Festival is set to mark its 25th anniversary with a star-studded hybrid event featuring Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay; “Wu-Tang: An American Saga’s” RZA and Shameik Moore; “King Richard” director Reinaldo Marcus Green and star Aunjanue Ellis; “Power Book III: Raising Kanan’s” Patina Miller; “Sankofa” filmmaker Haile Gerima and more.
The 2021 edition of the film festival will be presented virtually with on urbanworld.org, running from Sept. 29-Oct. 3, with select in-person events held at Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas, Chelsea at 260 West 23rd Street in New York. Presented by founding partner HBO and prestige partners WarnerMedia and Ally, the festival officially unveiled its slate of more than 88 official selections, panels and conversations.
A longtime supporter of and participant in the Urbanworld lineup, DuVernay will be on hand for multiple special events with the Netflix series “Colin in Black & White” featured among the virtual spotlight presentations at the fest.
The 2021 edition of the film festival will be presented virtually with on urbanworld.org, running from Sept. 29-Oct. 3, with select in-person events held at Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas, Chelsea at 260 West 23rd Street in New York. Presented by founding partner HBO and prestige partners WarnerMedia and Ally, the festival officially unveiled its slate of more than 88 official selections, panels and conversations.
A longtime supporter of and participant in the Urbanworld lineup, DuVernay will be on hand for multiple special events with the Netflix series “Colin in Black & White” featured among the virtual spotlight presentations at the fest.
- 9/21/2021
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Ava DuVernay and her Array Releasing company are putting out a brand-new 4K restoration of legendary Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima's "Sankofa," a groundbreaking 1993 film set around the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the powerful resistance of a group of enslaved Africans in the American South. The re-release is landing on Netflix this coming Friday, September 24, as the streamer has put out all of Array's releases since 2016. If the mise en scène rings familiar to you, it could be because the recent Janelle Monáe horror movie "Antebellum" took a page or 10 from "Sankofa," which along with...
The post Sankofa Trailer: Ava Duvernay Spearheads a 4K Restoration of a Lost Classic for Netflix appeared first on /Film.
The post Sankofa Trailer: Ava Duvernay Spearheads a 4K Restoration of a Lost Classic for Netflix appeared first on /Film.
- 9/21/2021
- by Max Evry
- Slash Film
Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing has launched the trailer for its 4K restoration of Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima’s landmark 1993 film Sankofa, which is set to release on Netflix across various territories on Sept. 24.
The feature — described by DuVernay as a “boundary-pushing and transformative film about the untold history of Black resistance” — was developed from 20 years of research into the transatlantic trade of enslaved African people. It follows Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), a Black American fashion model who undergoes a journey back in time to a plantation in North America. It originally bowed at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival ...
The feature — described by DuVernay as a “boundary-pushing and transformative film about the untold history of Black resistance” — was developed from 20 years of research into the transatlantic trade of enslaved African people. It follows Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), a Black American fashion model who undergoes a journey back in time to a plantation in North America. It originally bowed at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival ...
- 9/20/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing has launched the trailer for its 4K restoration of Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima’s landmark 1993 film Sankofa, which is set to release on Netflix across various territories on Sept. 24.
The feature — described by DuVernay as a “boundary-pushing and transformative film about the untold history of Black resistance” — was developed from 20 years of research into the transatlantic trade of enslaved African people. It follows Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), a Black American fashion model who undergoes a journey back in time to a plantation in North America. It originally bowed at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival ...
The feature — described by DuVernay as a “boundary-pushing and transformative film about the untold history of Black resistance” — was developed from 20 years of research into the transatlantic trade of enslaved African people. It follows Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), a Black American fashion model who undergoes a journey back in time to a plantation in North America. It originally bowed at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival ...
- 9/20/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The awards will be presented at the Los Angeles venue’s opening gala in September.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the long-awaited Los Angeles venue set to open this autumn, has named Sophia Loren and Haile Gerima as the winners of two new awards to be presented at the museum’s opening gala on September 25.
Ethiopian filmmaker Gerima will get the Vantage Award, honouring, said the museum, “an artist or scholar who has helped to contextualise and challenge dominant narratives around cinema.” Gerima is best known for such films as Harvest: 3000 Years, Sankofa and Teza.
Italian star Loren – the...
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the long-awaited Los Angeles venue set to open this autumn, has named Sophia Loren and Haile Gerima as the winners of two new awards to be presented at the museum’s opening gala on September 25.
Ethiopian filmmaker Gerima will get the Vantage Award, honouring, said the museum, “an artist or scholar who has helped to contextualise and challenge dominant narratives around cinema.” Gerima is best known for such films as Harvest: 3000 Years, Sankofa and Teza.
Italian star Loren – the...
- 3/8/2021
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
The awards will be presented at the Los Angeles venue’s opening gala in September.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the long-awaited Los Angeles venue set to open this autumn, has named Sophia Loren and Haile Gerima as the winners of two new awards to be presented at the museum’s opening gala on September 25.
Ethiopian filmmaker Gerima will get the Vantage Award, honouring, said the museum, “an artist or scholar who has helped to contextualise and challenge dominant narratives around cinema.” Gerima is best known for such films as Harvest: 3000 Years, Sankofa and Teza.
Italian star Loren – the...
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the long-awaited Los Angeles venue set to open this autumn, has named Sophia Loren and Haile Gerima as the winners of two new awards to be presented at the museum’s opening gala on September 25.
Ethiopian filmmaker Gerima will get the Vantage Award, honouring, said the museum, “an artist or scholar who has helped to contextualise and challenge dominant narratives around cinema.” Gerima is best known for such films as Harvest: 3000 Years, Sankofa and Teza.
Italian star Loren – the...
- 3/8/2021
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
The long-delayed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures looks like it is finally ready for its close-up.
Ava DuVernay, Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum will be spearheading plans for the gala opening on September 25, 2021 as part of a weeklong program of celebrations leading to its official unveiling for the public September 30. Murphy and Blum are both Museum Trustees, while DuVernay is an Academy governor who has also been lending her consultation on the upcoming 2022 exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971.
The museum has also announced the establishment of two new annual awards that will be presented for the first time at the gala. Film legend Sophia Loren will receive the inaugural Visionary Award, honoring an artist or scholar whose extensive body of work has advanced the art of cinema. Ethiopian independent filmmaker, professor and author Haile Gerima will receive the Vantage Award, honoring an artist or scholar who has helped to contextualize...
Ava DuVernay, Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum will be spearheading plans for the gala opening on September 25, 2021 as part of a weeklong program of celebrations leading to its official unveiling for the public September 30. Murphy and Blum are both Museum Trustees, while DuVernay is an Academy governor who has also been lending her consultation on the upcoming 2022 exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971.
The museum has also announced the establishment of two new annual awards that will be presented for the first time at the gala. Film legend Sophia Loren will receive the inaugural Visionary Award, honoring an artist or scholar whose extensive body of work has advanced the art of cinema. Ethiopian independent filmmaker, professor and author Haile Gerima will receive the Vantage Award, honoring an artist or scholar who has helped to contextualize...
- 3/8/2021
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
The Social Justice Now Film Festival, which is launching this year with the support of co-ambassadors Michael B. Jordan and Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi, has on Monday unveiled its inaugural lineup of film selections.
Headlining the festival will be the documentaries “40 Years a Prisoner” and “Freedia Got a Gun” and narrative features “Us Kids,” “Reefa” and “Sncc,” among others.
The films will all be available for free to stream virtually through a new platform at abffplay.com powered by Endeavor Streaming between October 21-25. And the festival will kick off with two films screened at the Paramount Drive-In Theater, “Just Mercy” and “Fruitvale Station,” both starring Jordan and sponsored by Amazon Studios.
The Social Justice Now Film Festival is organized by the Film Life Foundation, and some of the other films screened include the narrative features “The Obituary of Tunde Johnson,” “Even In Darkness, Cities of Dreams Are Born,...
Headlining the festival will be the documentaries “40 Years a Prisoner” and “Freedia Got a Gun” and narrative features “Us Kids,” “Reefa” and “Sncc,” among others.
The films will all be available for free to stream virtually through a new platform at abffplay.com powered by Endeavor Streaming between October 21-25. And the festival will kick off with two films screened at the Paramount Drive-In Theater, “Just Mercy” and “Fruitvale Station,” both starring Jordan and sponsored by Amazon Studios.
The Social Justice Now Film Festival is organized by the Film Life Foundation, and some of the other films screened include the narrative features “The Obituary of Tunde Johnson,” “Even In Darkness, Cities of Dreams Are Born,...
- 10/12/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
“Is all or a portion of your spouse's income deposited in a checking account, joint checking account, your spouse's separate checking savings account, your separate checking and savings account…?” The administrator's tedious voice continues in this fashion, stern and unforgiving. More questions concerning money, welfare checks, and the daily American grind, asked by faceless system operators on the other end of a telephone line build layers of sound on top of metallic instruments, bells, and the buzzing of Los Angeles and the advertisements of an American dream. The dissonance of this swirling sound design, the intro of Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama (1979), takes one specifically to a place, a class, and a people: The Black working class experience, the sounds of a restless city. The opening of this mixtape encapsulates the vitality and experimentation of sound design and music in the films of the L.A. Rebellion, a film movement...
- 9/27/2020
- MUBI
“I think canons end up being defined as much by what they leave out as by what they let in,” Criterion president Peter Becker tells The New York Times in an interview in which he admits the film collection has not done right by Black filmmakers. The Times reports that of the 1,034 films currently in the Criterion Collection, there are only 9 titles directed by Black filmmakers. Of the Black directors that have made the Criterion cut, four are from America and four are from outside the U.S..
“There’s nothing I can say about it that will make it Ok,” Becker said about the lack of Black directors in the Criterion Collection. “The fact that things are missing, and specifically that Black voices are missing, is harmful, and that’s clear. We have to fix that.”
“You always wanted as a filmmaker to be part of the Criterion Collection,...
“There’s nothing I can say about it that will make it Ok,” Becker said about the lack of Black directors in the Criterion Collection. “The fact that things are missing, and specifically that Black voices are missing, is harmful, and that’s clear. We have to fix that.”
“You always wanted as a filmmaker to be part of the Criterion Collection,...
- 8/20/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
“I think storytelling is really our hope because there is such divisiveness right now in the world. And, I think that stories enable us to hear each other and see different sides of an experience,” documentarian Rory Kennedy told Variety at the 2019 Student Academy Awards on Thursday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Kennedy was one of the five presenters for this year’s Student Academy Awards — along with Melina Matsoukas, Gregory Nava, Phil Lord and Chris Miller — which honored 16 student winners from colleges and universities around the world.
While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has existed since 1929, the student academy wasn’t founded until 1972 in an effort to encourage student filmmakers while acknowledging them for telling stories that do more than just entertain. Robert Zemeckis, Spike Lee and Patricia Riggen were past Student Academy Award recipients.
Kennedy praised this year’s “extraordinary winners,” saying,...
Kennedy was one of the five presenters for this year’s Student Academy Awards — along with Melina Matsoukas, Gregory Nava, Phil Lord and Chris Miller — which honored 16 student winners from colleges and universities around the world.
While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has existed since 1929, the student academy wasn’t founded until 1972 in an effort to encourage student filmmakers while acknowledging them for telling stories that do more than just entertain. Robert Zemeckis, Spike Lee and Patricia Riggen were past Student Academy Award recipients.
Kennedy praised this year’s “extraordinary winners,” saying,...
- 10/20/2019
- by Lorraine Wheat
- Variety Film + TV
Shirikiana Aina says premiere of her film in Rotterdam is ‘ironic’.
Source: Iffr
Shirikiana Aina
At International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) this week, filmmaker Shirikiana Aina has called on the Netherlands to acknowledge its colonialist past.
The director points out that one of the dungeons in Ghana spoken about in her film, Footsteps Of Pan Africanism, was called ”Fort Amsterdam.”
“It was the dungeon where Africans were held for months and months and months, sometimes for up to a year, along with other “goods” to be stored there for these ships from the Netherlands to take them off to slavery.”
Aina welcomes Iffr’s Pan-African Cinema Today (Pact) programme. “I think it is also very significant that it is in the middle of Holland which had such a huge and determining impact on the past and future of Africa. Their colonial presence was devastating. I don’t know if Holland has ever taken the time to look at...
Source: Iffr
Shirikiana Aina
At International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) this week, filmmaker Shirikiana Aina has called on the Netherlands to acknowledge its colonialist past.
The director points out that one of the dungeons in Ghana spoken about in her film, Footsteps Of Pan Africanism, was called ”Fort Amsterdam.”
“It was the dungeon where Africans were held for months and months and months, sometimes for up to a year, along with other “goods” to be stored there for these ships from the Netherlands to take them off to slavery.”
Aina welcomes Iffr’s Pan-African Cinema Today (Pact) programme. “I think it is also very significant that it is in the middle of Holland which had such a huge and determining impact on the past and future of Africa. Their colonial presence was devastating. I don’t know if Holland has ever taken the time to look at...
- 2/2/2018
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
At the Rotterdam’s Reality Check conference, global experts including veteran filmmaker Haile Gerima talk about how to reach diverse audiences.
Source: Tiff
‘Tuko Macho’
George Gachara of Kenya’s groundbreaking multidisciplinary arts group The Nest Collective said filmmakers and distributors need to think more about serving the audience and its desires rather than imposing films on them.
It should be easy for the audience to engage with content, he said: “Anyone who wants to see our films, whether that’s the basic audience or the industry screening that you dress up for, those are both important audiences, those people all have 1,000 things to otherwise see or do,” he said today at the Reality Check distribution conference at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
“Whether it’s the granny in the cinema or the Netflix crowd, they have a lot of things competing for your attention for their cash, for their entertainment time. I want to make...
Source: Tiff
‘Tuko Macho’
George Gachara of Kenya’s groundbreaking multidisciplinary arts group The Nest Collective said filmmakers and distributors need to think more about serving the audience and its desires rather than imposing films on them.
It should be easy for the audience to engage with content, he said: “Anyone who wants to see our films, whether that’s the basic audience or the industry screening that you dress up for, those are both important audiences, those people all have 1,000 things to otherwise see or do,” he said today at the Reality Check distribution conference at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
“Whether it’s the granny in the cinema or the Netflix crowd, they have a lot of things competing for your attention for their cash, for their entertainment time. I want to make...
- 1/29/2018
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Has 'slavery' finally arrived as a 'safe' subject for major motion picture production? If so, why now?
The ordeal of Solomon Northup, a literate, skilled free man of colour from New York who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and sold as a slave in the deep south state of Louisiana, is the focus of the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen and based on Northup’s 1853 published autobiographical account. The film, which actually is a remake of Gordon Park’s 1984 television movie, Solomon Northrop’s Odyssey, is a masterful depiction of antebellum southern slave life and, like Haile Gerima’s 1993 brilliant Sankofa, Stan Lathan’s 1982 A House Divided: Denmark Vesey’s Rebellion and his 1987 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, along with the indomitable classic TV miniseries Roots of 1977, and Jonathan Demme’s Beloved (1998), 12 Years a Slave represents a decided evolution of African American slave narration presented on celluloid.
The ordeal of Solomon Northup, a literate, skilled free man of colour from New York who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and sold as a slave in the deep south state of Louisiana, is the focus of the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen and based on Northup’s 1853 published autobiographical account. The film, which actually is a remake of Gordon Park’s 1984 television movie, Solomon Northrop’s Odyssey, is a masterful depiction of antebellum southern slave life and, like Haile Gerima’s 1993 brilliant Sankofa, Stan Lathan’s 1982 A House Divided: Denmark Vesey’s Rebellion and his 1987 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, along with the indomitable classic TV miniseries Roots of 1977, and Jonathan Demme’s Beloved (1998), 12 Years a Slave represents a decided evolution of African American slave narration presented on celluloid.
- 1/8/2014
- by Prof. Brenda Stevenson
- Pure Movies
Editor's note: This interview was originally done a year ago, and in reading it again today, I thought it was worthy of a revisit, full of nuggets of wisdom, especially given that the site has grown even more since last summer, meaning many of you haven't read it. Talking with filmmaker Haile Gerima inevitably brings to mind James Baldwin’s idea that “the price one pays for pursuing any calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” To be sure, the renowned Ethiopian-born filmmaker and pioneer of the La Rebellion film movement has been widely celebrated throughout his four-decade-long career, most notably for his 1993 film Sankofa. But his success has also meant an...
- 7/17/2013
- by Jai Tiggett
- ShadowAndAct
The fourth in the ongoing series of the Chicago screenings of the L.A. Rebellion touring film series will continue on Thursday May 9 with a screening of Haile Gerima’s powerful 1979 film Bush Mama. The film, which stars Barbara O. Jones, was made by Gerima (Sankofa, Teza, Adwa) as his thesis project when he was a graduate film student at UCLA; one of the cinematographers on the project was future film director Charles Burnett, whose film, My Brother’s Wedding, was screened last week. The film deals with a young wife who increasingly becomes radicalized by the obstacles she faces when her Army veteran husband is arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. The film...
- 5/6/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Editor's Note: The retro is being rebooted for runs in Philly, Toronto and New York through February. Over the next few weeks, we'll be revisiting our reviews/write-ups/interviews on the series (from Brandon Wilson and Nijla Mumin) when it begun in Los Angeles over a year ago... here's another. The overview and complete lineup speak for themselves, so click Here to head over to the home site for the series. Sankofa is an Akan word meaning roughly, “We must go back and reclaim our past in order to move forward.” Haile Gerima’s cinematic rendering of this is perhaps one of his greatest filmmaking achievements. Screened this weekend as part of...
- 1/14/2013
- by Nijla Mumin
- ShadowAndAct
Talking with filmmaker Haile Gerima inevitably brings to mind James Baldwin’s idea that “the price one pays for pursuing any calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” To be sure, the renowned Ethiopian-born filmmaker and pioneer of the La Rebellion film movement has been widely celebrated throughout his four-decade-long career, most notably for his 1993 film Sankofa. But his success has also meant an ever-increasing exposure to the challenges and flaws of the film industry, especially as he’s chosen to consistently work outside the studio system. Fortunately for us, he was willing to share his insights with S&A, from his past and current...
- 8/17/2012
- by Jasmin Tiggett
- ShadowAndAct
I likely wouldn’t have posted the below trailer, but in watching it, it got me thinking – not about the obvious, hackneyed fish-out-water, white-person-in-Africa (broadly speaking) storyline, as you might think. But rather, I realized that I couldn’t come up with many titles of fictional narrative feature films that centered on stories about African Americans going to Africa for whatever reason the story itself suggests, or who are already living there.
We’ve obviously had quite a number of films about white Americans or White Europeans either already living in Africa, or visiting some African country, in search of something or someone – whether it’s salvation, redemption, inspiration, vacation, themselves, their spouses, children, friends, their dogs, cats, apes, whatever; and it’s rare that they’re villains, nor in positions of inferiority. Also, those that are historically based usually involve white settlers, or remnants of colonialism, who come to...
We’ve obviously had quite a number of films about white Americans or White Europeans either already living in Africa, or visiting some African country, in search of something or someone – whether it’s salvation, redemption, inspiration, vacation, themselves, their spouses, children, friends, their dogs, cats, apes, whatever; and it’s rare that they’re villains, nor in positions of inferiority. Also, those that are historically based usually involve white settlers, or remnants of colonialism, who come to...
- 6/30/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Shavar Ross is 39 today. Those who’ve been reading this blog for awhile will know that Shavar is also a reader and posts comments occasionally. Most will probably remember him as Dudley from Different Strokes in the 80s. But he’s done a lot of other TV work since then – notably parts in Magnum Pi, Designing Women, Amen, Growing Pains, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, Chicago Hope, and a few others. He also played a young Booker T Washington in the 1984 made-for-tv movie Booker, which Curtis recently profiled on this blog (read that post Here). Shavar has his own website which you can check out Here.
Mykelti Williamson is 53 today. He was last seen in Black Dynamite and The Final Destination, both in 2009; he also has a recurring role on Fox’s 24. He can next be seen in a WWII drama titled, Algona, currently listed as being in pre-production.
Mykelti Williamson is 53 today. He was last seen in Black Dynamite and The Final Destination, both in 2009; he also has a recurring role on Fox’s 24. He can next be seen in a WWII drama titled, Algona, currently listed as being in pre-production.
- 3/4/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Complete Dubai fest coverage
Dubai -- Independent international filmmaker? Want to break into the U.S. market? Start small, find your "tribe" and learn to think outside the Hollywood box. Oh, and don't even think about a theatrical deal. Think digital instead.
This was the advice from veteran indie filmmakers and distributors gathered from around the world Monday at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Hal Sadoff, chief of the indie division at Hollywood's Icm talent agency, said that flexibility is key. When he produced "Hotel Rwanda," he had an Italian priest squeezed into the script about genocide in Africa just so that the U.K.-South Africa co-production could tap Italian money.
"We're focused on films of $8 million and above that are mixing art and commerce," Sadoff said. "When you're going that route you have to consider the finances up front."
For those unwilling to compromise, focusing your passions on...
Dubai -- Independent international filmmaker? Want to break into the U.S. market? Start small, find your "tribe" and learn to think outside the Hollywood box. Oh, and don't even think about a theatrical deal. Think digital instead.
This was the advice from veteran indie filmmakers and distributors gathered from around the world Monday at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Hal Sadoff, chief of the indie division at Hollywood's Icm talent agency, said that flexibility is key. When he produced "Hotel Rwanda," he had an Italian priest squeezed into the script about genocide in Africa just so that the U.K.-South Africa co-production could tap Italian money.
"We're focused on films of $8 million and above that are mixing art and commerce," Sadoff said. "When you're going that route you have to consider the finances up front."
For those unwilling to compromise, focusing your passions on...
- 12/15/2008
- by By Jonathan Landreth
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.