As famed Afro-Peruvian activist, choreographer, and poet Victoria Santa Cruz once said, "We need to recover our history, tell our own stories, and sing our own songs."
It is this sentiment that I live by when discussing Afrolatinidad. Afrolatinidad is not a new concept or idea. As a people and culture, Afro-Latinxs have been fighting for centuries to be seen, heard, acknowledged, and respected for their contributions to larger society. The term Afrolatinidad is used to describe the cultural identity and heritage of Black people from Latin America and Latin Americans of African descent, whose ancestors had undergone the experience of chattel slavery. Clarity is important here because there has been so much confusion about who is or isn't considered Afro-Latinx.
The confusion around Afro-Latinidad and who gets to claim it can be traced back to the complex history of mestizaje and racism in Latin America. Mestizaje refers to the mixing of Indigenous,...
It is this sentiment that I live by when discussing Afrolatinidad. Afrolatinidad is not a new concept or idea. As a people and culture, Afro-Latinxs have been fighting for centuries to be seen, heard, acknowledged, and respected for their contributions to larger society. The term Afrolatinidad is used to describe the cultural identity and heritage of Black people from Latin America and Latin Americans of African descent, whose ancestors had undergone the experience of chattel slavery. Clarity is important here because there has been so much confusion about who is or isn't considered Afro-Latinx.
The confusion around Afro-Latinidad and who gets to claim it can be traced back to the complex history of mestizaje and racism in Latin America. Mestizaje refers to the mixing of Indigenous,...
- 4/20/2023
- by Nydia Simone
- Popsugar.com
Black Americans saw very little representation of their lives and culture on TV during the 1950s. The only mainstay was Eddie Anderson, who played Jack Benny’s sardonic valet Rochester on CBS’ “The Jack Benny Program.” In 1937, he’d became the first Black performer to be a regular on the radio version of the beloved comedy series and played Rochester on television from 1950-65. Terry Carter played Pvt. Sugie Sugerman for 98 episodes of CBS’ Emmy Award-winning “The Phil Silvers Show.’ And Black singers and performers would occasionally appear on various musical-variety series.
Pianist Hazel Scott was given her own summer series “The Hazel Scott Show” on DuMont in 1950. But she was soon named as a Communist by “Red Channels”. Though she denied the charges, the series couldn’t attract a sponsor and was history after four episodes. Likewise, NBC’s 1957-58 “The Nat King Cole Show” couldn’t find a...
Pianist Hazel Scott was given her own summer series “The Hazel Scott Show” on DuMont in 1950. But she was soon named as a Communist by “Red Channels”. Though she denied the charges, the series couldn’t attract a sponsor and was history after four episodes. Likewise, NBC’s 1957-58 “The Nat King Cole Show” couldn’t find a...
- 6/25/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
From the beginning of Michael Curtiz’s 1950 film The Breaking Point, things are dire for Captain Harry Morgan (John Garfield). Since serving in the military, Harry’s ambition has been to start a fleet of boats to escort sport-fishermen through the waters around Southern California and the Baja Peninsula, but that venture has failed to take off. He has one boat, the Sea Queen, and he’s the only captain in his fleet. When the film begins, Harry has a new client but has to spend the last of his cash to fill up his boat with fuel for the pending excursion. This particular job is a matter of survival, not prosperity.
But his own survival is only a part of this transaction. Curtiz quickly takes us into Harry’s modest seaside home, which, at first, looks as charming as any in an old sitcom. After spending the last of...
But his own survival is only a part of this transaction. Curtiz quickly takes us into Harry’s modest seaside home, which, at first, looks as charming as any in an old sitcom. After spending the last of...
- 8/24/2017
- by Trevor Berrett
- CriterionCast
You can tell it’s film noir — even the cabin cruiser has Venetian blinds. Ernest Hemingway’s favorite film adaptation of his work is this uncompromised story of a good man taking a criminal course on the high seas. John Garfield is again ‘one man alone’ against the system, and the moral quicksand all but swallows up Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter and Wallace Ford.
The Breaking Point
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 889
1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford, Edmon Ryan, Ralph Dumke, Guy Thomajan, William Campbell, Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce, Victor Sen Yung, Peter Brocco, John Doucette.
Cinematography: Ted D. McCord
Film Editor: Alan Crosland Jr.
Original Music: Howard Jackson, Max Steiner
Written by Ranald MacDougall from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Michael Curtiz
After...
The Breaking Point
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 889
1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 8, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez, Wallace Ford, Edmon Ryan, Ralph Dumke, Guy Thomajan, William Campbell, Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce, Victor Sen Yung, Peter Brocco, John Doucette.
Cinematography: Ted D. McCord
Film Editor: Alan Crosland Jr.
Original Music: Howard Jackson, Max Steiner
Written by Ranald MacDougall from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by Jerry Wald
Directed by Michael Curtiz
After...
- 7/22/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Steve McQueen spent most of the 1960s avoiding lightweight movie roles -- only to do well with his winning comedy-drama performance in William Faulkner's most cheerful tale of old Mississippi. Get set for music by John Williams and an exciting climactic horse race. In storytelling terms this show would seem to have given Steven Spielberg a few ideas. The Reivers Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date August 25, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Steve McQueen, Rupert Crosse, Mitch Vogel, Sharon Farrell, Will Geer, Ruth White, Michael Constantine, Clifton James, Juano Hernandez, Lonny Chapman, Diane Ladd, Ellen Geer, Dub Taylor, Allyn Ann McLerie, Charles Tyner, Burgess Meredith. Cinematography Richard Moore Film Editor Thomas Stanford Original Music John Williams Written by Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank Jr. from the book by William Faulkner Produced by Irving Ravetch, Robert Relyea Directed by Mark Rydell
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
What? This...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
What? This...
- 9/15/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Patricia Neal ca. 1950. Patricia Neal movies: 'The Day the Earth Stood Still,' 'A Face in the Crowd' Back in 1949, few would have predicted that Gary Cooper's leading lady in King Vidor's The Fountainhead would go on to win a Best Actress Academy Award 15 years later. Patricia Neal was one of those performers – e.g., Jean Arthur, Anne Bancroft – whose film career didn't start out all that well, but who, by way of Broadway, managed to both revive and magnify their Hollywood stardom. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, Turner Classic Movies is dedicating Sunday, Aug. 16, '15, to Patricia Neal. This evening, TCM is showing three of her best-known films, in addition to one TCM premiere and an unusual latter-day entry. 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' Robert Wise was hardly a genre director. A former editor (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons...
- 8/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Point of No Return: A Curtiz Classic Resurrected
While history prizes a 1944 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s story To Have and Have Not, there does exist a little seen (and more faithful to its source text) 1950 film version of the same story, helmed by Michael Curtiz, titled The Breaking Point. In retrospect, the earlier Howard Hawks version is all glitz and glamor and no guts, its claim to everlasting fame the guttural growl from Lauren Bacall concerning how to put your lips together to do something. Due to the insistence of screenwriter Ranald MacDougall (who wrote the screenplay for Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce and would later direct Ms. Crawford himself for his own debut in Queen Bee), the studio agreed to go forward with another adaptation, though got cold feet upon release due to star John Garfield being named in McCarthy’s witch hunt, and the film, unmarketed and unappreciated,...
While history prizes a 1944 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s story To Have and Have Not, there does exist a little seen (and more faithful to its source text) 1950 film version of the same story, helmed by Michael Curtiz, titled The Breaking Point. In retrospect, the earlier Howard Hawks version is all glitz and glamor and no guts, its claim to everlasting fame the guttural growl from Lauren Bacall concerning how to put your lips together to do something. Due to the insistence of screenwriter Ranald MacDougall (who wrote the screenplay for Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce and would later direct Ms. Crawford himself for his own debut in Queen Bee), the studio agreed to go forward with another adaptation, though got cold feet upon release due to star John Garfield being named in McCarthy’s witch hunt, and the film, unmarketed and unappreciated,...
- 6/26/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Chicago – Very few movies are as wonderfully weird as “Kiss Me Deadly,” a film that clearly influenced decades of work that would follow from “Blue Velvet” to “The Adjustment Bureau.” Recently released in a beautiful Criterion edition, “Kiss Me Deadly” is a film that history almost forgot but that found its way to the right people who recognized this unique gem as something worth cherishing. It’s a perfect choice for the most important collection of films released on Blu-ray and DVD as it’s a classic less-heralded than some that will now be brought to a wider, adoring audience.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Based on the book by Mickey Spillane, “Kiss Me Deadly” probably seemed like just another noir when it was released but history has re-appraised the film as a fascinating funhouse mirror of the Cold War fears so prevalent at the time of its release in 1955. Directed by Robert Aldrich...
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Based on the book by Mickey Spillane, “Kiss Me Deadly” probably seemed like just another noir when it was released but history has re-appraised the film as a fascinating funhouse mirror of the Cold War fears so prevalent at the time of its release in 1955. Directed by Robert Aldrich...
- 7/5/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Back during the early days of S & A I wrote about legendary photographer, author, composer filmmaking pioneer and all around Renaissance Man Gordon Parks’ truly wonderful and beautiful 1969 film The Learning Tree. (Here)
The film based on Parks autobiographical novel about growing up in rural Kansas during the 1920′s starred Kyle Johnson (Lt. Uhura Nichelle Nichols’ real life son) and was the first film to be directed by a black director for a major Hollywood film studio, Warner Bros and I lamented that this wonderful film was not available on DVD. However that has been, at last, finally corrected. Today the film was released and is now available on DVD on the Warner Archive label (Here).
Unfortunately, as with all Warner Archive releases and other DVD-on demand from other companies, there are no special extras (a commentary by Johnson would have been great) but at least we finally now have...
The film based on Parks autobiographical novel about growing up in rural Kansas during the 1920′s starred Kyle Johnson (Lt. Uhura Nichelle Nichols’ real life son) and was the first film to be directed by a black director for a major Hollywood film studio, Warner Bros and I lamented that this wonderful film was not available on DVD. However that has been, at last, finally corrected. Today the film was released and is now available on DVD on the Warner Archive label (Here).
Unfortunately, as with all Warner Archive releases and other DVD-on demand from other companies, there are no special extras (a commentary by Johnson would have been great) but at least we finally now have...
- 2/2/2011
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Some might initially be disappointed by the lineup of the Sidney Poitier Collection. Most of Poitier's landmark films were released by United Artists or Columbia Pictures (In the Heat of the Night, A Raisin in the Sun, Lilies in the Field, The Defiant Ones, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, To Sir, With Love, etc.). And since this is a Warner Bros. package, one could feel inclined to pass it up and hope for a different set to be released in the future. But while two of the films included in this collection lack greatness, the other two belong in the library of any avid film lover, whether you like Poitier or not (but who doesn't?). And since all of these films were difficult (if not impossible) to find on DVD before now, it's worth the purchase. Reviews of the four films follow:
Something Of Value
A dramatization of the real...
Something Of Value
A dramatization of the real...
- 2/3/2009
- by Matt Medlock
- JustPressPlay.net
Some might initially be disappointed by the lineup of the Sidney Poitier Collection. Most of Poitier's landmark films were released by United Artists or Columbia Pictures (In the Heat of the Night, A Raisin in the Sun, Lilies in the Field, The Defiant Ones, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, To Sir, With Love, etc.). And since this is a Warner Bros. package, one could feel inclined to pass it up and hope for a different set to be released in the future. But while two of the films included in this collection lack greatness, the other two belong in the library of any avid film lover, whether you like Poitier or not (but who doesn't?). And since all of these films were difficult (if not impossible) to find on DVD before now, it's worth the purchase. Reviews of the four films follow:
Something Of Value
A dramatization of the real...
Something Of Value
A dramatization of the real...
- 2/3/2009
- by Matt Medlock
- JustPressPlay.net
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