“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.”
So begins Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer,” which, when released in 2015, was hailed for its humorous, biting interrogation of American perspectives on the Vietnam War.
Integrating elements of the espionage thriller à lá John le Carré with a heavy sense of irony reminiscent of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” “The Sympathizer” is told from the viewpoint of an officer in the U.S.-supported South Vietnam army who secretly reports back to communists in North Vietnam. Framed as a confession to the people for whom he has ostensibly been spying, the narrator — who goes unnamed in the novel — chronicles the story of his journey to Southern California, where he joins the Vietnamese refugee community settling there and grapples with questions of loyalty and assimilation.
In a 2015 interview, Nguyen, who is a professor at the University of Southern California,...
So begins Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer,” which, when released in 2015, was hailed for its humorous, biting interrogation of American perspectives on the Vietnam War.
Integrating elements of the espionage thriller à lá John le Carré with a heavy sense of irony reminiscent of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” “The Sympathizer” is told from the viewpoint of an officer in the U.S.-supported South Vietnam army who secretly reports back to communists in North Vietnam. Framed as a confession to the people for whom he has ostensibly been spying, the narrator — who goes unnamed in the novel — chronicles the story of his journey to Southern California, where he joins the Vietnamese refugee community settling there and grapples with questions of loyalty and assimilation.
In a 2015 interview, Nguyen, who is a professor at the University of Southern California,...
- 4/14/2024
- by Rachel Seo
- Variety Film + TV
Before the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened its doors in 2021, even senior staffers were surprised by the depth of Black film history that dwelt in its archives. Looking through the film posters and memorabilia from race movies of the early 20th century, co-curator Doris Berger found herself amazed and chagrined. She had stumbled on a treasure trove and heritage she knew little about.
Berger is not alone and her experience isn’t surprising. The foundational titles most of us know and gravitate to first when we think of Black film tend to be the earnest classics of the 1960s, the blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, and the indie Black cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.
In those archives, Dr. Berger recognized a rich history screaming out for greater attention. The result was an exhibition, conceived and produced in partnership with National Museum of African American History and Culture film and photography curator Dr.
Berger is not alone and her experience isn’t surprising. The foundational titles most of us know and gravitate to first when we think of Black film tend to be the earnest classics of the 1960s, the blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, and the indie Black cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.
In those archives, Dr. Berger recognized a rich history screaming out for greater attention. The result was an exhibition, conceived and produced in partnership with National Museum of African American History and Culture film and photography curator Dr.
- 2/26/2024
- by Carole V. Bell
- Indiewire
For some of us, “American Fiction” has a satirical audacity that’s funny right out of the gate, gathers speed and force on the runway — and then, somehow, just when the comedy should be taking off, it turns muted and moralistic instead. I think the hitch is that after Jeffrey Wright’s Monk sells his fake memoir of Black street life, there’s a strong urge to see him — and the film — take a certain vengeful joy in how the book’s popularity skewers the racism of clueless white people. Instead, Monk is made so miserable by what happens that the movie never allows itself to discover that joy.
Had it done so, it might have been more like “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” a comedy of racial images that’s every bit as witty and scandalous as “American Fiction” (it almost feels like a kind of cousin to...
Had it done so, it might have been more like “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” a comedy of racial images that’s every bit as witty and scandalous as “American Fiction” (it almost feels like a kind of cousin to...
- 1/20/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
It’s often said that one of the greatest injustices of American movies is that Wendell B. Harris Jr. failed to become one of the legendary progenitors of the indie cinema renaissance of the late 1980s and early ’90s. Or, rather, that a craven industry failed him. While it’s certainly true that he and so many other Black filmmakers of his generation deserved more than they were given, Harris’s reputation needs nothing more than Chameleon Street to secure his place among the greats. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival, the film is a fleet, nimble, and knowingly slippery portrait of infamous con artist William Douglas Street Jr. (dazzlingly played by Harris), who at the height of his gamesmanship posed as a surgeon and, so legend has it, performed three dozen successful hysterectomies before being found out, and has spent large swaths of his...
- 10/26/2023
- by Eric Henderson
- Slant Magazine
Los Angeles, CA – Noir Caesar Entertainment an indie creative company that supports and nourishes art from marginalized communities across various media, announces a collaboration with Osamu Tezuka Productions to develop an updated graphic novel of Tezuka’s classic manga – Alabaster – and the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for its publication.
Alabaster will be written by the award-winning Bitter Root writer/co-creator Chuck Brown with artwork by renowned illustrator, Anna Weiszczyk.
About Alabaster
Reimagined for a new generation of readers as a contemporary graphic novel from Noir Caesar, Alabaster reinterprets Ralph Ellison’s novel “The Invisible Man,” and follows a former successful Black athlete, James Block, who is framed by his girlfriend and wrongfully imprisoned. While inside, James befriends a disgraced scientist that gives him the solution to his problems—a laser gun that either turns its subject invisible or kills them upon usage. After serving his prison sentence and locating the device,...
Alabaster will be written by the award-winning Bitter Root writer/co-creator Chuck Brown with artwork by renowned illustrator, Anna Weiszczyk.
About Alabaster
Reimagined for a new generation of readers as a contemporary graphic novel from Noir Caesar, Alabaster reinterprets Ralph Ellison’s novel “The Invisible Man,” and follows a former successful Black athlete, James Block, who is framed by his girlfriend and wrongfully imprisoned. While inside, James befriends a disgraced scientist that gives him the solution to his problems—a laser gun that either turns its subject invisible or kills them upon usage. After serving his prison sentence and locating the device,...
- 10/7/2023
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
When Bethann Hardison co-created the Black Girls Coalition in 1988 — a group formed with Iman to shine a spotlight on women of color in modeling — she didn’t know she was laying the foundation for a discussion about diversity in fashion that would continue for decades.
“I just wanted to celebrate Black models. I wanted them to see each other,” says Hardison, the subject of the new documentary Invisible Beauty. Co-directed by Frédéric Tcheng (Dior and I, Halston) and Hardison and in theaters Sept. 15, the film details the fashion industry’s history of racial exclusion and her unflagging efforts over decades to push for progress. One minute into the film, actress Tracee Ellis Ross calls Hardison the “godmother of fashion.”
Bethann Hardison
The title Invisible Beauty is a nod to Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man, in which an unnamed Black man narrates what life is like for African Americans in the South.
“I just wanted to celebrate Black models. I wanted them to see each other,” says Hardison, the subject of the new documentary Invisible Beauty. Co-directed by Frédéric Tcheng (Dior and I, Halston) and Hardison and in theaters Sept. 15, the film details the fashion industry’s history of racial exclusion and her unflagging efforts over decades to push for progress. One minute into the film, actress Tracee Ellis Ross calls Hardison the “godmother of fashion.”
Bethann Hardison
The title Invisible Beauty is a nod to Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man, in which an unnamed Black man narrates what life is like for African Americans in the South.
- 9/9/2023
- by Brande Victorian
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
While it was one of the most popular games in the UK during the 1970s and 80s, the cultural significance of bingo varies according to where you are on the globe. In some countries, it was used largely as a teaching tool, and in others, it’s very much associated with certain types of players.
It is these stereotypes and tropes that are often played on when bingo is shown on the silver screen or portrayed in television shows. This has led to some of the best scenes from some of the best-known movies, including:
Cocoon
As a classic of its time, Cocoon followed the story of a retirement community that has been infiltrated by aliens that are giving the residents a new lease on life. The protagonists, Joe, Ben, and Arthur, are swimming in the pool one day when they come across alien lifeforms that harbour the power to rejuvenate themselves.
It is these stereotypes and tropes that are often played on when bingo is shown on the silver screen or portrayed in television shows. This has led to some of the best scenes from some of the best-known movies, including:
Cocoon
As a classic of its time, Cocoon followed the story of a retirement community that has been infiltrated by aliens that are giving the residents a new lease on life. The protagonists, Joe, Ben, and Arthur, are swimming in the pool one day when they come across alien lifeforms that harbour the power to rejuvenate themselves.
- 7/24/2023
- by Movies Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
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
Magazine Dreams is a drama and second feature directed by Elijah Bynum, which stars Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett, Taylor Paige, and Harrison Page
The film opens with a beautiful shot of Killian Maddox (Majors) showing off his chiseled physique under an orange hue of lights as if he’s at a bodybuilding competition. This is overlaid with a voiceover of him having a discussion with his therapist about his erratic behavior after a stint in the hospital. Killian takes working out very seriously and takes steroids to achieve the perfect body. He seems to be on the Asd spectrum and writes letters to his favorite bodybuilder Brad Vanderhorne (Michael O’Hearn) in hopes of hearing from him. He has no friends, only his grandfather (Page) whom he takes care of. There is Jessica (Bennett), a woman at the local grocery store who he has a crush on. He asks her on a date,...
The film opens with a beautiful shot of Killian Maddox (Majors) showing off his chiseled physique under an orange hue of lights as if he’s at a bodybuilding competition. This is overlaid with a voiceover of him having a discussion with his therapist about his erratic behavior after a stint in the hospital. Killian takes working out very seriously and takes steroids to achieve the perfect body. He seems to be on the Asd spectrum and writes letters to his favorite bodybuilder Brad Vanderhorne (Michael O’Hearn) in hopes of hearing from him. He has no friends, only his grandfather (Page) whom he takes care of. There is Jessica (Bennett), a woman at the local grocery store who he has a crush on. He asks her on a date,...
- 1/21/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
A review of this week’s Winning Time, “Invisible Man,” coming up just as soon as I blame the dramatist in me…
“Invisible Man” takes its title from a conversation Magic and Kareem have prior to the Lakers’ season-defining road game against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. Magic has spent much of the hour seething at the pedestal upon which sports reporters and fans have placed Boston’s star rookie, Larry Bird (played by Sean Patrick Small). Everything Bird does is a credit to his brains, his work ethic, and his will to win,...
“Invisible Man” takes its title from a conversation Magic and Kareem have prior to the Lakers’ season-defining road game against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. Magic has spent much of the hour seething at the pedestal upon which sports reporters and fans have placed Boston’s star rookie, Larry Bird (played by Sean Patrick Small). Everything Bird does is a credit to his brains, his work ethic, and his will to win,...
- 4/18/2022
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
For The Underground Railroad creator and director Barry Jenkins, the WGA honorary Paul Selvin Award served as an “affirmation to to keep working the way I am.”
On Sunday during the 74th annual WGA Awards, which were virtual once again, the Moonlight helmer reflected on truth and reality of the human experience. The Underground Railroad, which was nominated for best Adapted Long Form at the WGA Awards, provides an unflinching look at slavery and brings Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name to a wider audience.
Upon receiving the award from Colman Domingo, Jenkins also recited a Ralph Ellison quote to celebrate the honorary award.
“Good fiction is made of what is real and reality is difficult to come by,” Jenkins said. “With us being told things real and not real, I think all of us as storytellers…I think we have to do the work to find what...
On Sunday during the 74th annual WGA Awards, which were virtual once again, the Moonlight helmer reflected on truth and reality of the human experience. The Underground Railroad, which was nominated for best Adapted Long Form at the WGA Awards, provides an unflinching look at slavery and brings Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name to a wider audience.
Upon receiving the award from Colman Domingo, Jenkins also recited a Ralph Ellison quote to celebrate the honorary award.
“Good fiction is made of what is real and reality is difficult to come by,” Jenkins said. “With us being told things real and not real, I think all of us as storytellers…I think we have to do the work to find what...
- 3/20/2022
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
“Sounds like Santa’s slave, but I respect the rebrand,” says Donald Glover’s Earn to his Dutch driver’s explain of the Sinterklaas tradition and the question of “What’s with all the blackface?” in the second episode of Atlanta’s third and penultimate season.
Yes, Atlanta is back, and if the first two episodes are an indication, it was truly well worth the four-year wait.
Having just previewed its March 24 Season 3 debut at SXSW, the celebrated Donald Glover-created FX series has created an idiosyncratic site in the culture that straddles Ralph Ellison’s classic Invisible Man novel, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, the tone of Sun Ra and the ethos of the Lost Generation. In short, based on what I’ve seen, it is a true American masterpiece.
To keep this short I’m not going to recite chapter and verse what goes down in the marvelous, Hiro Murai...
Yes, Atlanta is back, and if the first two episodes are an indication, it was truly well worth the four-year wait.
Having just previewed its March 24 Season 3 debut at SXSW, the celebrated Donald Glover-created FX series has created an idiosyncratic site in the culture that straddles Ralph Ellison’s classic Invisible Man novel, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, the tone of Sun Ra and the ethos of the Lost Generation. In short, based on what I’ve seen, it is a true American masterpiece.
To keep this short I’m not going to recite chapter and verse what goes down in the marvelous, Hiro Murai...
- 3/20/2022
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
The National Book Awards on Wednesday gave its fiction prize to author Jason Mott, whose novel Hell of a Book chronicled a black author’s book tour interspersed with a young Black boy in the rural South, to highlight the 2021 winners list.
The honors, held remotely for the second consecutive year, are one of the most prestigious awards in publishing. Past winners include William Faulkner, W.H. Auden, and Ralph Ellison, and winning in this age of adaptation instantly elevates the author.
Mott said his work was selected a decade ago out of the “slush pile,” a publishing industry term for books that are unsolicited. The poet and author had three previous novels.
“I would like to dedicate this award to all the other mad kids, to all the outsiders, the weirdos, the bullied,” Mott said in his acceptance speech. “The ones so strange they had no choice but to be...
The honors, held remotely for the second consecutive year, are one of the most prestigious awards in publishing. Past winners include William Faulkner, W.H. Auden, and Ralph Ellison, and winning in this age of adaptation instantly elevates the author.
Mott said his work was selected a decade ago out of the “slush pile,” a publishing industry term for books that are unsolicited. The poet and author had three previous novels.
“I would like to dedicate this award to all the other mad kids, to all the outsiders, the weirdos, the bullied,” Mott said in his acceptance speech. “The ones so strange they had no choice but to be...
- 11/18/2021
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
By any standard, Gordon Parks (1912-2006) led an extraordinary life as a photographer, filmmaker, composer, author, eyewitness to several major events of the 20th century, and above all a storyteller. As a Black man born into poverty in an America not-so-far removed from slavery, as Jim Crow laws swept the south, his life is even more remarkable. In “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired By Gordon Parks,” the HBO documentary premiering November 15, director John Maggio attempts to capture the essence of Parks, by celebrating his motivating ideology of the artist as activist, through the reflections of the generation of artists he inspired. A welcomed effort, the film doesn’t fully commit, resulting in a rather uninspired portrait of one of America’s greatest artistic trailblazers.
“A Choice of Weapons” blends Parks’ striking photographs (spanning more than 40 years) with footage of the artist in conversation, supported by reflections from a starry cast of interviewees,...
“A Choice of Weapons” blends Parks’ striking photographs (spanning more than 40 years) with footage of the artist in conversation, supported by reflections from a starry cast of interviewees,...
- 11/15/2021
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
“If you want to get a great production deal in Hollywood, all you have to do is be Black, male, and Not Wendell Harris.” This sentiment was used as a running joke throughout Hollywood in the early 1990s, a representation of the attitude the industry held for filmmaker Wendell B. Harris Jr. after the release of his debut film, Chameleon Street.
Unlike many who land in “director’s jail”, however, Chameleon Street wasn’t a big-budget flop or critical disaster. Winning the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival, it seemed like the sky was the limit for the film and Harris Jr.’s career. Instead, he struggled to find distribution, eventually getting a deal from Warner Bros. for a quarter-million dollars so that they could have the remake rights for a remake that never happened.
Chameleon Street is inspired by the real-life story of William Douglas Street Jr.
Unlike many who land in “director’s jail”, however, Chameleon Street wasn’t a big-budget flop or critical disaster. Winning the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival, it seemed like the sky was the limit for the film and Harris Jr.’s career. Instead, he struggled to find distribution, eventually getting a deal from Warner Bros. for a quarter-million dollars so that they could have the remake rights for a remake that never happened.
Chameleon Street is inspired by the real-life story of William Douglas Street Jr.
- 10/21/2021
- by Mitchell Beaupre
- The Film Stage
Sonia Manzano played Maria on “Sesame Street” for over 40 years, becoming a household name in the U.S. and a trailblazing Latina in the burgeoning public television landscape. Now, Manzano is trading Muppets for the mofongo-loving Alma Rivera, a six-year-old animated Puerto Rican girl of her own invention (and heavily based on her own experience), who lives in the Bronx with her parents, brother and a host of colorful neighbors.
“Alma’s Way” engages directly with viewers as its optimistic and confident protagonist works through challenges and spends time with her diverse friend group, showcasing various aspects of Latin culture, food and music along each episode’s 11-minute trajectory. Co-executive produced by Manzano and Ellen Doherty, chief creative officer of Fred Rogers Productions, and animated by Pipeline Studios, the series hopes to teach children social awareness through the characters’ modeling of empathetic decision-making processes and “Think-Through” moments.
Ahead of the series debut of “Almas Way,...
“Alma’s Way” engages directly with viewers as its optimistic and confident protagonist works through challenges and spends time with her diverse friend group, showcasing various aspects of Latin culture, food and music along each episode’s 11-minute trajectory. Co-executive produced by Manzano and Ellen Doherty, chief creative officer of Fred Rogers Productions, and animated by Pipeline Studios, the series hopes to teach children social awareness through the characters’ modeling of empathetic decision-making processes and “Think-Through” moments.
Ahead of the series debut of “Almas Way,...
- 10/4/2021
- by Mónica Marie Zorrilla
- Variety Film + TV
Faizon Love sued Universal Pictures today, accusing it of violating California’s fair employment and civil rights laws with the international poster for its 2009 comedy movie Couples Retreat, calling it an “act of racism.” It also claims the studio reneged on a promise to get Love future roles when they originally sought to placate him over the controversy.
Love co-starred in the movie with Vince Vaughn, Kristen Bell, Jason Bateman, Malin Ackerman, Jon Favreau, Kristen Davis and Kali Hawk as a quartet of couples who travel to a tropical island where marriage therapy classes are a requirement.
Filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the 45-page suit (read it here) from Love and his loan-out company The Burning House recounted that Universal’s marketing for the film in domestic markets during its original featured all four couples in the key art. Faizon and Hawk, the only Black couple in the ensemble,...
Love co-starred in the movie with Vince Vaughn, Kristen Bell, Jason Bateman, Malin Ackerman, Jon Favreau, Kristen Davis and Kali Hawk as a quartet of couples who travel to a tropical island where marriage therapy classes are a requirement.
Filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the 45-page suit (read it here) from Love and his loan-out company The Burning House recounted that Universal’s marketing for the film in domestic markets during its original featured all four couples in the key art. Faizon and Hawk, the only Black couple in the ensemble,...
- 11/25/2020
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s hard to watch Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — George C. Wolfe’s screen adaption of the seminal August Wilson play of the same name, from 1982 — without remembering that it’s Chadwick Boseman’s last movie. (The movie, which opens in limited theatrical release this week, will have a streaming release, on Netflix, on December 18th.) It’s hard in part because Boseman — playing the ambitious horn player Levee — gives a skillful, humbling turn in a role that is but one of the many classically flawed, tragically compelling black...
- 11/25/2020
- by K. Austin Collins
- Rollingstone.com
Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden was a fitting denouement to a presidency replete with hateful policy, deliberate neglect, and slothful governance. The vote count looked good for Trump on Election Day, in part because he’d discouraged his own supporters from using the postal service he’d sabotaged to mail in their ballots. As the count went on, Biden benefited, and Trump behaved as if math was magical.
Trump didn’t see the punch coming, or acted like he didn’t, because he was fighting an opponent he didn’t see.
Trump didn’t see the punch coming, or acted like he didn’t, because he was fighting an opponent he didn’t see.
- 11/10/2020
- by Jamil Smith
- Rollingstone.com
I write directly to you, Ms. Morrison, because I know no other way to do this. It is a selfish act, since I currently lack any faith that some divine deliverer or cosmic accident will get this message to you as easily as if I’d sent it to your Princeton mailbox. But I have tried a number of different methods of conjugating my emotions in this moment, and this is what keeps coming out: the letter of appreciation that I should have sent long before now, when you could have read it.
- 8/7/2019
- by Jamil Smith
- Rollingstone.com
Paul Benjamin, who appeared in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, has died. Lee announced on Instagram that the veteran actor died June 28. The cause of death was not immediately known. Benjamin was 81.
Benjamin, who played one of the three wise Brooklyn “cornermen” in Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing, began his career in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy. He went to play small roles in Sidney Lumet’s The Anderson Tapes and Born to Win, then segued into more extensive TV work later in the 1970s.
He appeared as a death row inmate in a 1988 episode of In The Heat of the Night and also in the 1994 pilot episode of ER, which led to his recurring role of homeless man Al Ervin during the next few seasons. Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison, which aired on PBS, as...
Benjamin, who played one of the three wise Brooklyn “cornermen” in Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing, began his career in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy. He went to play small roles in Sidney Lumet’s The Anderson Tapes and Born to Win, then segued into more extensive TV work later in the 1970s.
He appeared as a death row inmate in a 1988 episode of In The Heat of the Night and also in the 1994 pilot episode of ER, which led to his recurring role of homeless man Al Ervin during the next few seasons. Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison, which aired on PBS, as...
- 7/5/2019
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
If you thought David Dunn, Bruce Willis’ character from M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable,” was a melancholy superhero, he’s the life of the party compared to Dominick, a Parisian introvert whose power to turn invisible has made him profoundly unhappy in the French drama “Blind Spot.” The third feature from directing duo Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic (“The Other One”) is an absorbing, minor-key take on a superhero saga that stealthily works in plenty of ideas about identity and loss. If the French film industry wants to get into the superhero game, this slow-moving but rewarding character study, which premiered earlier this year at Cannes’ ultra-indie Acid sidebar, could help create a promising niche when it opens in France this October. It’s a risky pickup for North America, but the potentially provocative choice of a black actor to play an invisible man could lead to free think-piece...
- 6/27/2019
- by Mark Keizer
- Variety Film + TV
Leave it up to the great Toni Morrison to remind us of the very important lesson that black people should never look at themselves through the eyes of white people. Some might consider this obvious, but in today’s culture that lambasts the lack of diversity and representation in traditional media (i.e. white media), it bears repeating over and over. It is also the crux of the new documentary on the famed novelist, “Toni Morrison: The Pieces that I Am.”
It’s a funny thing too, because Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is a white director telling this story about a black icon. And throughout the entire film, he and editor Johanna Giebelhaus (“The Congressman”), who’s also white, piece together numerous archival interviews with Morrison by white journalists (Charlie Rose has apparently been a mainstay throughout the author’s career). So the optics surrounding Morrison’s message in the film are not great,...
It’s a funny thing too, because Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is a white director telling this story about a black icon. And throughout the entire film, he and editor Johanna Giebelhaus (“The Congressman”), who’s also white, piece together numerous archival interviews with Morrison by white journalists (Charlie Rose has apparently been a mainstay throughout the author’s career). So the optics surrounding Morrison’s message in the film are not great,...
- 6/17/2019
- by Candice Frederick
- The Wrap
The 71st Cannes Film Festival may have gotten off to a bumpy start, underwhelming audiences with Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Spanish-language “Everybody Knows” and taking several days to serve up anything that felt universally praised (eventual Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters”), but by the end, even those who had arrived skeptical seemed to agree that the overall quality of this auteur-thin, American-light edition was higher than usual. Looking back on 12 days of discovery, here are a dozen films that most impressed Variety chief critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge.
BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee has made three extraordinary films that toss incendiary racial firecrackers: the classic “Do the Right Thing” (1989), the majestic “Malcolm X” (1992), and the wild (and insanely underrated) black-face satire “Bamboozled” (2000). Here, for the first time since then, he creates a scalding zeitgeist spectacle of American bigotry laid bare. Set in Colorado Springs in the early ’70s,...
BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee has made three extraordinary films that toss incendiary racial firecrackers: the classic “Do the Right Thing” (1989), the majestic “Malcolm X” (1992), and the wild (and insanely underrated) black-face satire “Bamboozled” (2000). Here, for the first time since then, he creates a scalding zeitgeist spectacle of American bigotry laid bare. Set in Colorado Springs in the early ’70s,...
- 5/20/2018
- by Peter Debruge and Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Joseph Baxter Oct 27, 2017
Hulu will adapt Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man as a series, bringing the same spirit as its success with The Handmaid’s Tale...
Hulu is in early development stages of adapting Invisible Man as a series, reports Variety. The streaming outlet, which acquired the rights to the 1952 novel from the Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust, is moving forward with their small-screen serial adaptation, having appointed John Callahan as executive producer. Indeed, The Handmaid’s Tale proved to be a proverbial North Star for the streaming outlet, something that tends to occur after winning eight Emmy awards for a single season of television. As Hulu’s senior Vice President of content, Craig Erwich, told the trade shortly after those September wins:
See related Visceral's Star Wars game: new concept art and details Dead Space developer Visceral to close
“We’re looking to tell intimate character stories against...
Hulu will adapt Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man as a series, bringing the same spirit as its success with The Handmaid’s Tale...
Hulu is in early development stages of adapting Invisible Man as a series, reports Variety. The streaming outlet, which acquired the rights to the 1952 novel from the Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust, is moving forward with their small-screen serial adaptation, having appointed John Callahan as executive producer. Indeed, The Handmaid’s Tale proved to be a proverbial North Star for the streaming outlet, something that tends to occur after winning eight Emmy awards for a single season of television. As Hulu’s senior Vice President of content, Craig Erwich, told the trade shortly after those September wins:
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“We’re looking to tell intimate character stories against...
- 10/26/2017
- Den of Geek
Higher education is all about introducing young minds to classic works of art, right? How many of us wouldn't have read or seen Plato's "Republic," Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" or "The Seventh Seal" by Ingmar Bergman, if not for some awesome professor who managed to keep us awake all throughout class?
Add Michael Abbott to that class of awesome professors. Abbott writes the acclaimed Brainy Gamer video game blog and is also a professor at Wabash College. Thanks to his efforts, incoming students at Wabash College will have to play "Portal," Valve's beloved first-person shooter/puzzle hybrid. "Portal" runs a player-controlled character named Chell through a series of test chambers designed to put a new teleportation gun through its paces, not caring if she lives through the process. As you make your way through Portal's beguiling physics-based puzzles, the self-aware AI-in-charge named GLaDOS lies, taunts and tempts you (with cake!
Add Michael Abbott to that class of awesome professors. Abbott writes the acclaimed Brainy Gamer video game blog and is also a professor at Wabash College. Thanks to his efforts, incoming students at Wabash College will have to play "Portal," Valve's beloved first-person shooter/puzzle hybrid. "Portal" runs a player-controlled character named Chell through a series of test chambers designed to put a new teleportation gun through its paces, not caring if she lives through the process. As you make your way through Portal's beguiling physics-based puzzles, the self-aware AI-in-charge named GLaDOS lies, taunts and tempts you (with cake!
- 8/26/2010
- by Evan Narcisse
- ifc.com
Most summers, the biggest late-week concern among publishing honchos is Long Island Expressway traffic to the Hamptons. This week has proven different. Debate is raging about how vulnerable major publishing houses suddenly are after book agent Andrew Wylie formed an electronic publishing imprint for his authors and made an exclusive deal with Amazon. This means that instead of leaving it to a publisher and taking a low split, Wylie gave Amazon sole e-book rights to titles like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Vladimir Nabakov’s Lolita, Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, John Updike’s Rabbit Run series, Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. You can read all of them only on the Kindle for $9.99 each, under Wylie’s own Odyssey Editions imprint. Random House responded with sheer thuggery, blacklisting Wylie in...
- 7/23/2010
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
So you read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Congratulations, it's considered to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, said to have engendered a cultural tidal wave on this country upon its publication. (Two pieces of trivia: it was the only book Ellison saw published, the others were published after his death. It's also the novel that the College Board likes to ask questions about So much on the AP English Literature Exam that it's been used 16 years since 1970, more than any other work, including Shakespeare.)
So what'dja think? I'll comment a bit on it, then put forth some discussion issues for everyone to gnaw on.
From the beginning, the middle, and the end of the prologue, these quotes stand out:
You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and anguish,...
So what'dja think? I'll comment a bit on it, then put forth some discussion issues for everyone to gnaw on.
From the beginning, the middle, and the end of the prologue, these quotes stand out:
You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and anguish,...
- 7/1/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
His eminence Harry Belafonte is 83 today! Harry hasn’t been doing much acting nor singing in the last several years, nor does he have any projects in the works, opting to focus more of his time and energy on humanitarian efforts, and just plain old living. After all, he’s 83. He was last seen in 2006’s Bobby, the ensemble piece directed by Emilio Estevez. 50 years before Will Smith took on post-apocalyptic heroism in I Am Legend, or Denzel Washington did in this year’s Book of Eli, or even 10 years before Duane Jones earned zombie apocalyptic glory with a white woman in tow, Harry flirted with the end of the world in The World, The Flesh And The Devil.
And lastly, the man whose book of essays, titled Shadow And Act, inspired the name of this blog, Ralph Waldo Ellison, was born today in 1914 (he died in 1994). He would have been a virile 96 years old,...
And lastly, the man whose book of essays, titled Shadow And Act, inspired the name of this blog, Ralph Waldo Ellison, was born today in 1914 (he died in 1994). He would have been a virile 96 years old,...
- 3/1/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The Smithsonian Channel is honoring the legacy of African Americans throughout February with programming dedicated to Black History Month. Smithsonian Channel will shed light on some of the people who have helped shape our nation.
The documentary, "Soul of a People: Writing America's Story," will air on Tuesday, February 2 at 9 pm Et and will explore one of the most controversial public assistance programs of the Great Depression, The Federal Writers Project. The project was one of four arts programs created under the Works Progress Administration (Wpa) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and employed thousands of unemployed writers, including Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison.
"Smithsonian Spotlight: National Museum of African American History" will reveal the process for establishing the museum and will interview museum director, Dr. Lonnie Bunch. Bunch will discuss his efforts to design the museum and to fill the shelves with objects, documents and artifacts that...
The documentary, "Soul of a People: Writing America's Story," will air on Tuesday, February 2 at 9 pm Et and will explore one of the most controversial public assistance programs of the Great Depression, The Federal Writers Project. The project was one of four arts programs created under the Works Progress Administration (Wpa) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and employed thousands of unemployed writers, including Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison.
"Smithsonian Spotlight: National Museum of African American History" will reveal the process for establishing the museum and will interview museum director, Dr. Lonnie Bunch. Bunch will discuss his efforts to design the museum and to fill the shelves with objects, documents and artifacts that...
- 2/1/2010
- icelebz.com
Director: Tom Ford Writer(s): Christopher Isherwood(Book), Tom Ford, David Scearce (screenplay) Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult George (Colin Firth) may be emotionally repressed (though he certainly is not brash, outrageous or free) but he is remarkably dressed (thanks to Tom Ford Menswear, according to the credits). A college professor of English living in a swank Los Angeles bachelor pad, George is by all accounts a single man – a middle-aged British one at that. George’s lover Jim (Matthew Goode) died eight months ago in an automobile accident while visiting family in Colorado. In one of countless flashbacks, George receives a courtesy call from his lover’s cousin (voiced by Jon Hamm of Mad Men) informing him of Jim’s death – it is readily apparent that George is not welcome to fly to Colorado to attend the funeral service. The present takes place on...
- 1/16/2010
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
IndieWire, La Weekly & Village Voice have posted the full list of every single film that’s been released this year (in the USA) – specifically, every film that’s screened in theatres for at least 1 week; whether indie or mainstream; foreign or domestically-produced; limited release, or wide; whether in 1 theatre in New York, or 3500 screens nationwide. It’s all there!
The total? 589 films - including films that haven’t yet been released, but will be, before the end of the year, in the next 3 weeks.
That’s a lot of movies, right? How many of those did you see? And maybe more importantly, how many fall under the category of “black films?”
Well, to answer the latter question… I looked over the list – although, to be honest, I did it rather quickly, so there’s a chance I missed 1 or 2; but I don’t think I missed more than that. But...
The total? 589 films - including films that haven’t yet been released, but will be, before the end of the year, in the next 3 weeks.
That’s a lot of movies, right? How many of those did you see? And maybe more importantly, how many fall under the category of “black films?”
Well, to answer the latter question… I looked over the list – although, to be honest, I did it rather quickly, so there’s a chance I missed 1 or 2; but I don’t think I missed more than that. But...
- 12/9/2009
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The National Book Awards are giving the readers the vote. Organizers of the prestigious literary prize are asking the public to choose the best fiction winner in the awards’ 60-year history. The six finalists, announced Monday by the National Book Foundation, are: “The Stories of John Cheever” Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” William Faulkner’s “Collected Stories” “The Complete Stories” of [...]...
- 9/23/2009
- by James K
- JoyHog!
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