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HALE COUNTY: THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING — RaMell Ross Interview

February 18, 2019 By Leave a Comment

HALE COUNTY: THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING — RaMell Ross Interview

Click here to listen to the interview. RaMell Ross’ extraordinary documentary, HALE COUNTY, THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING is both a deeply moving examination of seemingly ordinary African-American people living in a small town in Alabama, and an accessible example of experimental filmmaking at its most aesthetically assured. When I spoke with Ross on November 23,… Read More »

Tagged With: Academy Award nomination, African-American, Bert Williams, blackface, dreamscapes, Full-Frame Film Festival, Koyaanisqatsi, LIME KILN CLUB FIELD DAY, MoMA, Oscar, Rajendra Roy

DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST — Julie Dash Interview

December 4, 2016 By Leave a Comment

DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST — Julie Dash Interview

When Julie Dash decided to make DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST, she had more than just a business that didn’t welcome either African-American or women directors, she had to contend with Hurricane Hugo rearranging the locations she had chosen for her groundbreaking film.  Undeterred, she used one of those changes to her advantage. That was one… Read More »

Tagged With: African-American, Cohen Media Group, digital restoration, Geechee Girl, Gullah, Hurricane Hugo, Moon Goddess, Sea Islands, Sun Ra, Tim Lanzer, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, women director

HOLLYWOOD BEFORE THE CODE: SEX! CRIME! HORROR! with Elliot Lavine, Tourguide

February 23, 2016 By Leave a Comment

HOLLYWOOD BEFORE THE CODE: SEX! CRIME! HORROR! with Elliot Lavine, Tourguide

If you had to sum up what it’s like to talk with Elliot Lavine, cinema programmer extraordinaire, scholar of film history and engaging raconteur, it might be the moment when an emergency vehicle went by the room where I was interviewing him on February 17, 2106. While ruminating on studio policies about film restoration, he… Read More »

Tagged With: African-American, Al Capone, Barbara Stanwyck, Cecil B. DeMille, censorship, cinema history, cultural upheaval, DOWNSTAIRS, economic upheaval, Edward G. Robinson, film history, FREAKS, gambling addiction, GONE WITH THE WIND, Great Depression, Greta Garbo, Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes, Irving Pichel, Joan Blondell, John Gilbert, Lee Garmes, licentiousness, Louis B. Meyer, miscegenation, Paul Muni, pre-code Hollywood, race relations, SAFE IN HELL, SCARFACE, Sessue Hayakawa, sex addiction, Tallulah Bankhead, THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN, THE CHEAT, THREE ON A MATCH, Todd Browning, TWO SECONDS, WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD, WIlliam Wellman

LAST DAY OF FREEDOM — Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman Interview

January 11, 2016 By Leave a Comment

LAST DAY OF FREEDOM — Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman Interview

Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman are first-time filmmakers whose short film, LAST DAY OF FREEDOM, has been short-listed for the Oscars™.  The hand-drawn animation tells the story of Bill Babbitt and his beloved brother Manny, two men who were let down by the system in which they placed their trust. When Bill realizes that Manny… Read More »

Tagged With: African-American, Bryan Stevenson, cruel and unusual, death penalty, execution, hand-drawn animation, health care, homelessness, Just Mercy, justice, justice system, mental health, Oscar short list, PTSD, racism, safe streets, systemic failure

Why BLACKBIRD Soars

September 18, 2015 By 1 Comment

Why BLACKBIRD Soars

I have rarely been as moved by a film as I was by BLACKBIRD. A thoughtful, poetic, compassionate film that uses truth, humor, and tragedy into an elegiac story that transcends the specifics of its plot, transmuting them into a timeless story of love, acceptance, and moving on. When I spoke with director/co-writer Patrik-Ian Polk… Read More »

Tagged With: African-American, broken home, choir, church, LGBT, religion, teenage romance

Stephen Winter Re-discovers JASON AND SHIRLEY

June 27, 2015 By 1 Comment

Stephen Winter Re-discovers JASON AND SHIRLEY

Click here to listen to the interview. When Shirley Clarke made PORTRAIT OF JASON, she was doing more than exercising her creative impulse. The Oscar™-winning director had been all but shut out of Hollywood, and returned to New York to pursue a career as an indie filmmaker rather than deal with being marginalized by the… Read More »

Tagged With: 1960s, African-American, Alan Ginsberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Perkins, Canada Lee, Carl Lee, cinema, civil rights, director, film, gay, Gus Van Sant, homophobia, Howl, interview, Jack Waters, James Baldwin, James Tobak, Jason Holliday, LGBT, Marion Crane, Miles Davis, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, narrative, New York City, Orson Welles, PARIS IS BURNING, PORTRAIT OF JASON, PSYCHO, racism, River Phoenix, ruthlessness, Sarah Shulman, sexism, Shirley Clark, Stephen Winter, THE TRIAL

Lacey and Peggy Schwartz Talk Their LITTLE WHITE LIE

January 20, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Lacey and Peggy Schwartz Talk Their LITTLE WHITE LIE

Lacey Schwartz wasn’t going to direct the documentary about her life growing up in a Jewish family and discovering that her dark skin wasn’t the result of a Sicilian ancestory, and that the man who had raised her was not her biological father. Every director she approached told her that such a personal story about… Read More »

Tagged With: African-American, Angelina Jolie, biracial, cinema, DIFRET, documentary, Ethiopian film, families, Family, family secrets, film, georgetown university, Lacey Schwartz, Mehret Mandefro, Peggy Schwartz, Personal Narrative, Racial Identity, Religion & Faith, SF Jewish Film Festival, Visual anthropology

TALK TO ME

October 21, 2014 By Leave a Comment

TALK TO ME

“Wake up, God damn it!” is how TALK TO ME begins and that’s exactly what is going to happen to its lead characters, the people in their orbit, and the entire city of Washington D.C. The story may be formulaic, albeit based on actual events, but stars Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor take charge of… Read More »

Tagged With: 1960s, African-American, based on a true story, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Don Cheadle, drama, history, Kasi Lemmons, keeping it real, music budget, narrative, Petey Green, protest, race relations, revolution, talk radio, Washington D.C.

Kasi Lemmons Says TALK TO ME

September 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Kasi Lemmons Says TALK TO ME

There is a piquant contrast between the calm, almost nurturing personality of filmmaker Kasi Lemmons and that of radio pioneer, Petey Green, the bombastic subject of her film, TALK TO ME. But, as I discovered when I talked to her on June 5, 2007, there is the same drive, the same commitment, and the same passion for what she… Read More »

Tagged With: 1960s, African-American, based on a true story, Chiwitel Ejiofor, director, Don Cheadle, drama, history, Kasi Lemmons, keeping it real, music budget, narrative, Petey Green, protest, race relations, revolution, talk radio, Washington D.C.

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