Sheril Antonio

Otelo Burning

2012-12-03T14:42:51-05:00

Otelo Burning set my emotions ablaze! I watched a geographically distant past that became present that ended up as a timeless tale despite the specificity of race, place, and the specific historical backdrop.

This often-quiet film explodes with deep passion igniting memories of the South African apartheid and the perils of poverty while following two teenage friends through a dangerous and dramatic life-changing period. This look back at life in Lamontville township in 1989 brings us into very close proximity to the main character Otelo (Jafta Mamabolo), his best friend New Year (Thomas Gumede), his little brother Ntwe (Tshepang Mohlomi), and Otelo's love interest (New Year's sister) Dezi (Nolwazi Shange). The story oscillates between the stark and at times brutal realities of daily living while exploring the means available for them to fulfill the dream of a better life. As realized by director Sara Blecher (an alumna of NYU Film/TV), Otelo Burning allows us to witness our characters going about their emotional and physical routines, which then become the tapestry of this coming of age story. The dream of a better life (or means of escape) begins to take shape when Otelo discovers surfing, which immediately presents not only physical challenges but metaphorical ones as well.

Things of course get complicated when friendships (both old and new), competition, violence, love, and family obligations mix and begin to spark even larger conflicts. Our characters are thrown into life threatening experiences and must make decisions that either willfully or inadvertently led to tragic consequences. What impresses me most about this film is that as we begin watching, we are most conscious of how race, time, and place are central to the story. However, as we continue past these racial, historical, and geographical anchors, we eventually get beyond all of those things and are left with a story about growing up poor, human nature, and the daily life and death struggles that face many of the worlds neighborhoods.

"The film took seven years to complete." This fact and other important details are available on the site which goes on to note "This is partly due to the time needed to work through the script, but mostly due to the difficulty of finding funding. The SA film industry is booming, thanks largely to successful government support, and Otelo Burning is one of a new generation of South African films." The images are stunning, the acting understated, powerful and elegant, and the story compelling on many levels. I use the term "cultural artifact" often when describing important films and this film now ranks high on my list of such works. The truth is, however, that there are no words to properly describe this intensely authentic human experience. I will most certainly use it in my class Anatomy of Difference because, like I did, my students will learn a great deal from its story, directing style and its mise en scene. It is decidedly South African, Pan-African, but more importantly of global significance. I am impressed and of course proud.

The film opens November 30, 2012 for only two weeks. See it! My congratulations to everyone that made this possible...

How I Would Teach The Film Precious

2012-10-21T11:47:27-04:00

When teaching the film Precious (2009) I would have to encourage students to grapple with issues of spectatorship with regard to representations of Blacks in American cinema. Although Black Americans or African Americans have been filmmakers since the early 1900s, it was not until the 1980s that mainstream producers and audiences would sustain support for works by and about Black Americans for more than a decade. Unfortunately, since that prolific period, African American cinema has again become scarce Discussing Precious in this cinematic landscape may unfairly burden the film, but as a contemporary representation of Black life in America, it requires our close examination. So - despite Black participation in the making of Precious - how will my students categorize the portrayal of Black characters?

In class (Anatomy of Difference) I teach how racial constructions -- one way of defining difference -- were depicted in early American cinema. I note that in film criticism more attention is given to the authorship of films than to the point of their reception - the individual spectator. Conversations about Precious then, must connect both the creation and reception of the images therein. To do so would require a dialogue between Precious and critiques of Black images that have preceded it. The film captivated audiences during a time of racial recalibration in our nation and since its images may recall regressive representations of blackness I would have to include clips that depict these early representations. The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939) are useful as they provide visual templates for Black American stereotypes. Because Precious is now a celebrated cultural artifact, it begs the question -- what does this film add to the conversation about race?

"There is no just way in which the past can be quarantined from the present. Past and present inform each other, each implies the other..."
Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, 1993

The existence and preponderance of Black stereotypes complicate any representation of Black characters, even by Black filmmakers. Nelson George in a Village Voice article turned book notes that "Group self-definition is always tricky," explaining that, "It's easy to turn people into caricatures or distort the complexity of individual experiences." As an educator, aware of how complicated it is to depict unappealing Black characters -- I would have to discuss how modern constructions of Blackness may well recall many of the negative images that came before. One powerful example of this would be the controversial Vogue cover photograph from April 2008 by Annie Liebovitz -- featuring LeBron James and the model Gisele Bündchen. The photograph for some, harkened back to stereotypical images of the Black male or "Black Buck" as well as to the metaphorical image of the savage man-beast depicted in the film King Kong (1933). This debate took place in the media with a USA Today article calling the cover image "racially insensitive." This reinforces the idea that images do dialog with each other -- whether intended or not.

Precious is an abused child, and I would ask students to analyze how her circumstances are defined in the shot where her father rapes her in her darkened room as her mother, Mary, watches in the lighted doorway in the background. I would compare it to a shot from Citizen Kane (1941) where Kane's parents argue over his fate with Mr. Thatcher while the boy plays -- center screen -- outside in the snow. I would then lead a discussion prompted by the question "in what way is each child depicted as the "center" of the story?"

I would then have to draw my students' attention to the depiction of father in Precious. The Black male is arguably one of the most stereotyped characters in American film and strikingly, Precious's father is recognizable in Bogle's description of the Black Buck in Birth of a Nation. Bogle describes the characters as "psychopaths... always panting and salivating," and notes that "Griffith played hard on the bestiality of his black villainous bucks and used it to arouse hatred." A great deal of narrative time in Precious was devoted to abuse, rape, and incest -- what Armond White referred to as "an orgy of prurience." I would also turn to other texts such as Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth to help students examine the father's character. "The colonized man" Fanon writes, "will first manifest this aggressiveness which has been deposited in his bones against his own people." I would as students if this what we were witnessing?

"Black films were also subject to critical interrogation. Since they came into being in part as a response to the failure of white-dominated cinema to represent blackness in a manner that did not reinforce white supremacy, they too were critiqued to see if images were seen as complicit with dominant cinematic practices."
bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation, 1992

What was dramatically different about African American cinema in the 1980s and 1990s was the time spent understanding individual characters as well as their circumstances. By using clips from Leslie Harris's Just Another Girl on the IRT (1992) or Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991), I would illustrate how films from this period humanized even their most unappealing characters. Then I would ask this question: are the images in Precious an indictment of Blackness? Barbara Bush offered one perspective, acknowledging that her one problem with the film: "I think it stereotyped Precious, as a black. . . . And I hate that, because it isn't just blacks, it's everybody. . . . It is an American problem."

There are many ways to interpret Precious. I acknowledge that Precious is about the darkest of human tragedies and, yes, depicts a horrible truth. The well-crafted art of film is always fiction presented as an artifact of truth. Pablo Picasso once said, "art is the lie that reveals the truth." I would encourage my students to question the film Precious particularly in regards to the film's representation of Blackness and Black life.

Leslye Headland's Bachelorette

2012-09-10T15:14:00-04:00

Leslye Headland's debut film Bachelorette (2012) is an intensely complex mix of totally inappropriate humor and very sad moments carefully nestled in a well drawn study of how past regrets became the noticeable roots of our characters' present habits. The four women at the center of this story are well-formed in the writer/director's heart and mind, which shows on the screen -- after all she has been living with them for at least the past five years. I always encourage my students to know more about their characters than the details that will end up in the film and in this case you can really feel it.

I had the pleasure of watching Bachelorette with about 200 of my students and then moderating the Q & A with Leslye. I was thoroughly impressed by the sincerity and depth of both the film and its writer/director. This female centered story (not a chick flick according to one student) began as a play in Los Angeles that eventually made it across the country to an off-Broadway production in New York.

Although I could not personally identify with any of these women (well except for the lady in the housekeeping department who was cranky but accommodating -- LOL), I was deeply moved by the story. The film creates a completely different emotional space than all the other films to which it is currently being compared. In many ways, it is about how people survive regrets and move on; how we all carry around our past in ways that are mostly visible to others; and when, how, and why we put that past down. There are rough women and tender men in this story that take us through this visceral pre-wedding gathering. The film is really about the complicated relationship we have with ourselves and our bodies and how that plays out in our relationship with those around us -- these are the things I identified with in the film when I wasn't laughing.

OK -- full disclosure -- I was oozing with pride. Leslye represents someone very special to me -- the embodiment of the kind of versatile, self-powered, and empowered artist we want all our students to be, particularly our female students. She is educated, self-educated, smart, funny and real, very real. She began her undergraduate training as a Drama student at Tisch, fell in love with directing theater, then became a playwright. She then went on to write for television and now has written a screenplay and directed her first feature. Impressive... The distribution of the film is also an interesting story. Bachelorette was made available on iTunes (where it would eventually occupy the #1 spot) before its September 7th weekend's theatrical release.

Each of us will walk away from this film with something completely different but what I hope most of us will agree on is its raw authenticity.

Red Hook Summer

2012-08-09T13:49:14-04:00

Partly paying homage to Red Hook, Brooklyn, partly a loss of innocence story on many, many levels, partly a commentary on churches across America, Red Hook Summer (2012) thrusts its main character Flick (Jules Brown) and the audience into a hot and confusing summer in the housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Overall, the film is as much an experience as it is a narrative and as such feels more "spacious" than what some of us would consider the "usual" Spike Lee film.

Images bathed in vivid colors lead us through Lee's Red Hook where he continues his focus on problems facing the Black community, such as asthma and the relentless drug problem. His updated themes are also noteworthy: gentrification, the economy, and technological shifts with each playing an important part in the story. Regarding the latter, for example, young Flick carries an iPad 2 throughout the film -- making movies instead of playing videogames like his predecessors Shorty (Peewee Love) in Clockers (1995) and the young Black male hostage in Inside Man (2006).

There are a couple of unanswered questions that linger, longer than some of us may appreciate: like why a middle-class boy has to leave Atlanta to spend his summer in a housing project in Brooklyn and why is he just now meeting his grandfather Bishop Enoch (Clarke Peters). But the relationship that unfolds between Flick and Da Good Bishop quickly takes center stage in the story. What radiates around each of them are other stories of loss and hope nestled in the red brick buildings that make up this world.

Lee is very deliberate when it comes to doling out information in this coming of age tale. Characters have much more underneath the surface of what they reveal to us initially and one leaves the film with questions as well as answers, which is not unusual for a Lee film. What resonates throughout is Clarke Peters' performance, which is exceptional. We spend much time navigating his character as we watch him traversing his complicated multilayered life as a Bishop, father, grandfather, and community figure. Going deeper into his character we see that he also assumes the role of a hope dealer, nutritionist, tradition keeper, and dreamer as he prepares the neighbors for "old timers day" at the church. Going even deeper, he begins to reveal himself to us...

I am already thinking about how I would teach this film. The first thing that comes to mind is from Bordwell and Thompson's Film Art -- "Principles of Film Form" The 5 General Principles: (1) Function; (2) Similarity and Repetition; (3) Difference and Variation; (4) Development; (5) Unity/Disunity. I will not give away too much here but the best reading of this film comes from paying very close attention to similarity and repetition (#2), making careful note of how things differ or vary (#3) with each cycle, and therein lies the best understanding of the development (#4) of the story.

Mike Tyson -- Undisputed Truth

2012-08-02T16:54:14-04:00

Mike Tyson -- Undisputed Truth
Directed by Spike Lee

Spike Lee has done it again but for the first time, it's on Broadway and the kind of LIVE! I have never before experienced.

As soon as we entered the Longacre on 48th street it was clear that Brooklyn was in the house. There were signs of it everywhere as I looked around at banners placed throughout the theater. The music from DJ Clark Kent (who was visibly perched in a box stage left) pounded us into submission and readied us for the hard-hitting documentary, comedy, drama, narrative, spontaneous at times, one-man show about the American dream gone bad -- really bad. We had heard most of the stories before, read about them in the papers or watched them on TV but tonight we were going to hear them strung together from the man himself and directed by one of America's greatest storytellers, historians, cultural critics, and teachers.

Mike Tyson was real, as real as he always is because that's who he is. Handsomely clad in a suit yet dripping with sweat as he re-told, rendered and reenacted some of his major life changing events. There he was alone on stage, yet really in the ring again fighting his past, his demons, his stereotype, and re writing his history. It was the fight of his life. He walked, pounced, jumped and spun us through moments that were previously delivered to us via news media and some that were not. Fortunately, it was what the media did not report about Mike Tyson, what they left out over the years that made the show, the man, real and whole. Moments like the deaths of his mother, his mentor, his sister and his 4 year-old daughter. We heard the story of how he was able to give his mother a proper burial and gravestone after he made some money, how he lost his anchor when his mentor died, how he felt about losing a child.

What was left after the laughter, after the shouts of love, affirmation, and encouragement from the audience, and some somber silences was the story of a child -- young man -- man who needed and wanted a family, friends, guidance, some respect, and of course love. What he encountered for most of his journey was anything but that. Except for his mentor in the early days and his sister, Tyson was commodified and lulled into "enjoying" the myth of the American dream while being drained of his finances and his identity. It was also a story of redemption for those of us open to that belief, or those of us who heard and saw the proud regret of owning one's past and trying to learn from it. I want to thank the producers -- namely James L. Nederlander -- for making this possible. I can imagine this was a difficult sell.

So, it seems Spike Lee will lead Mike Tyson through the toughest most important 12 rounds of his life and I for one am rooting for him.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

2012-06-28T17:18:54-04:00

Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild is a superb addition to the recently minted "You Go, Girl" genre.

This vivid and visceral film brings out the theme of racial diversity in an odd but comfortable mix of a natural yet fantastical world of a child's real-life flavored with her fantasies. As the story unfolds, these unfamiliar places and circumstances begin to take on a familiar feel as we sink deeper and deeper into the clarity of this muddy story of place, parenting and loss. In this film race, gender and age simply exist on the continuum of life's events but do not dominate outcomes.

Quvenzhane Wallis' stunning performance as Hushpuppy ranks high on the list of young girls making their own sense of the world, girls like Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) in Niki Caro's Whale Rider (2002) or the Craig sisters (Everlyn Sampi and Tianna Sansbury) in Rabbit Proof Fence (2002). Hushpuppy's world is relatively simple until her father becomes ill. For her, there is the "dry world" out there and the familiar "wet world" and its occupants in the bath tub where she lives. With remarkable clarity, the film manages to closely examine water as both giver and taker of life. This is a post-Katrina narrative that holds dear and celebrates the idea of home as a geographical place and beseeches us to understand the fight to stay where one belongs no matter what the threat.

Having lost her mother some time before we meet her, Hushpuppy is now forced, it seems, to live in her own house while her father occupies his. She is innocent and fierce, thoughtful with a temper, and simultaneously resists her independent yet patriarchal existence while she holds tight to its familiarity for comfort. In some ways her relationship to her father is much like the father-daughter relationship in Hanna (2011), where the bulk of Hanna's life as we see it is her seemingly brutal training to survive what will come. In Beasts, emotionally wrenching at times, we watch as Hushpuppy's father Wink (Dwight Henry) prepares her for the difficult life ahead, a life without him. At one of the visually and emotionally quieter moments in the film, Hushpuppy says that she can count the times she has been held by someone on two fingers and Zeitling was smart enough to leave us the time and space to absorb the moment.

A stunningly visualized poetic story, a touching coming-of-age tale, a fantastic and surreal narrative that makes good use of the experimental form, with thoroughly engaging (non-actors) acting. I was simply blown away by it all. Benh Zeitlin put his heart into this film and I felt it. My thanks to the people who helped him make it. My thanks to all of those who acknowledged its existence so that I could see it.

Vintage Spike Lee on HBO

2012-05-20T13:44:11-04:00

Last month HBO was showing Spike Lee's Girl 6(1996) and this month (until May 28) Crooklyn (1994).

I have been encouraging folks to take a look at the films and report back on how it compares to their first viewing -- if they have seen it before and if they have not, how it aligns with their "understanding" of the auteur's style. I am currently writing about his contributions to American cinema and not only was I surprised at the results, but, so were the individual spectators. The truth is that Lee's films are far more complex than people remember or are conscious of when watching them. Here are some of the things I called attention to in our post viewing conversations about Crooklyn and Girl 6:

1: They each have women at the center of the narrative.
2: The director appears in both films.
3: They have elements that show up in his films to follow.
4: They both touch on the pursuit of the arts, in particular film and music.

In Girl 6, Lee examines the life of an aspiring actress in New York. I must confess, while I recalled the story I did not recall the ensemble cast which included: Isaiah Washington, Naomi Campbell, Richard Belzer, Madonna, John Turturro, Quentin Tarantino, Halle Berry and Joie Lee among others. Quentin Tarantino plays a director auditioning our main character Girl 6 (Theresa Randle) and when she is asked to take her clothes off, she does so with great discomfort and then storms out. By the time this film was released Tarantino had already directed Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and was probably thinking/working on Jackie Brown starring Pam Grier.

Our "girl" then proceeds to yell at her agent (John Turturro) for sending her to the audition, they argue about what transpired and in response, he lets her go as a client. Her next stop is her acting coach who proceeds to scream at her telling her to "grow up" and lets her go as well. Thus, she is left to hand out flyers on street, work as an extra, etc. to make ends meet. Desperate and sick she reads an ad in the paper and tries for one more job. The job? Working in the phone sex business, which, in its own way, offers her time and space to work on closing the gap between her dreams and reality.

This month we have Crooklyn -- a tender and toughing story about growing up in the complex mix of childhood games and pranks, sibling rivalry and the realities of life in the 1970s. The film is written by three members of the Lee family -- Cinque, Joie and Spike -- and oscillates back and forth between the children and their parents but centers on how the young girl experiences the dramatic events that change their lives forever. See it! It is not what most of us remember from Spike Lee, yet it is distinctly his work. Therein lies the beauty of the film.

Hysteria? Hysterical!

2012-05-08T17:06:56-04:00

While Tanya Wexler's new film Hysteria is at times a LOL-hysterical romantic comedy, it also skillfully navigates important issues about class and medical practices in the 1880s, and takes a good look at women's rights in general.

The story takes place in London and has an interesting ensemble cast of characters that range from a former prostitute to a very wealthy and quirky inventor on up to sundry members of the elite British social class. Nestled in the midst of this is the earnest, handsome and likable Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) who is, in fact, really, credited with "the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science." After being dismissed from several hospitals and following a tireless search for employment, Dr. Granville is finally employed by a private physician -- Dr Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce). His task is to assist the good doctor in his practice, which treats upper-class women suffering from hysteria. I remembered reading an article many years ago about the evolution of this area of medical science in the New York Times, and was curious as to how such a story would be "handled" -- pardon the pun.

As it turns out Dr. Dalrymple has two beautiful daughters (played by Felicity Jones and Maggie Gyllenhaal) who represent very different perspectives on womanhood in this prim and proper Victorian era. One who embodies the conformity and conventions of the times and the other, well, therein lies the drama. The film has a sharp wit, is charming in that British way, and plays gleefully with what Clement Greenberg refers to as Kitsch: "that thing to which the Germans give the wonderful name of Kitsch: popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc." "The precondition," says Greenberg, "for kitsch, a condition without which kitsch would be impossible, is the availability close at hand of a fully matured cultural tradition, whose discoveries, acquisitions, and perfected self-consciousness kitsch can take advantage of for its own ends." Wexler uses all of this to our advantage as she glides comfortably and seamlessly between scenes where women are being "massaged for therapeutic outcomes" to discussions of the suffrage movement.

Paroxysms, phrenology, ducks, Molly (Sheridan Smith) and Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett) contribute to the hilarity while serious conversations about a woman's rights over her own body take place. As the story unfolds we understand the more salient matters surrounding the fun facts about the invention of what we now call the vibrator. As our laughter subsides we are left with an important timeline of women's rights, notions about living true to one's real identity, one man's destiny and its fulfillment, and even an exploration of what factors determine true love. This is informed and intelligent humor set forth by a woman director -- all of which we need more of. Lots to laugh and think about in this film, and you can see it starting May 18th.

Love More! Do Justice! Tell the Truth!

2012-04-18T16:09:04-04:00

On Saturday April 14 at Canio's Cultural Café/book store in Sag Harbor, New York I heard Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, read from his latest work, Gods, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy. Excerpts from the book can be found here. Canio's announcement read as follows: "Arguing that religion must be used for the expansion of democracy, Gods, Gays, and Guns takes up the topics of gay marriage, economic justice, and social movements. With an unflinching pen, Rev. Sekou challenges the reader to rethink the meaning of the role of religion in our global democracy."

Reading Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou is one thing and listening to him is quite another. His energy, sincerity, youthful articulate anger mixed with optimism filled the small space and challenged some of the titles that now rested uncomfortably on the shelves nearby as he spoke. He was listed as an author, documentary filmmaker, organizer, pastor and theologian but nothing prepared me for the palpable emotions that radiated from him, nor his explosive and infectious laughter, which punctuated his truths. I felt his history, no doubt bequeathed by the family members he named in his talk and his Pentecostal roots. He spoke about natural disasters and national failures and the importance of love. He shared his love for his children, family, and friends and reminded us that Cornel West said that: "justice is what love looks like in public."

Then came the moment for someone to ask the "difficult" question, one that really can't be answered. Once, many years ago at Marble Collegiate Church on 5th Avenue a woman asked such a question of Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People. She began her question as many do with a statement then suggested that he needed to write a book called "When Good Things Happen to Bad People." Eventually she went on to ask for guidance on how one copes with horrible people. His answer came via a contextual story and advice he gave his then secretary about handling a very difficult person. "It is better," he said, "to have so-and-so as a problem than it is to have so-and-so's problems." I tell myself that often. Thus, the question to Rev. Sekou came and was -- "When will religious leaders stand up for the right thing?"

His articulate and complex reply, mixed with personal and global history as well as a critique of religious and political leadership -- was simply, don't wait for them, do it yourself. He reminded us about the individual act and noted that many such individual acts could move mountains. I listened carefully, challenged by the unuttered question he asked us, asked me, "What are you doing about it?" His life, work, words and book told us what he was doing and he hoped, I suspect, that we understood that he led by example. I purchased the book and waited for his signature. When it was my turn he asked my name, and I said it was for a friend going through a difficult time, and this is what he wrote: "Love More! Do Justice! Tell the Truth!"

Love More!
Do Justice!
Tell the Truth!

You Go Girl!

2012-04-05T13:50:40-04:00

As a teacher it is my duty to introduce my students to films they have not seen, or in some cases may not want to see. As a teacher I believe it is also my duty to watch the films my students watch, whether I want to see them or not. This has proven to be an exciting adventure for me over the years and many of their recommendations find their way into my lectures. In the past few years I have been noting a trend that first perplexed me and now has captured my full attention. This trend is what I am now calling, in non-academic terms, the "you go girl!" films like Twilight, Jennifer's Body, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hanna, and now The Hunger Games.

I began this conversation publicly in 2008 with a colleague Jocelyn Gonzales on "Studio 360" http://www.studio360.org/people/sheril-antonio/. The show was called "Girls on Film" and I am convinced that I will eventually incorporate this idea into a lecture for my "Anatomy of Difference" class. The entry on the syllabus will probably look like this- "Topic: Young White Female as Other: A close look at deviations from the "norm" via examination of a female character defined as "different" or "other" -- which is not based on race, ethnicity, religion, etc." The film references (or list of clips) would include the films named above as well as some of my older favorites to show a history of similar formulations in classical Hollywood and Independent cinema. That list would include films like Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Lolita (1962), Chinatown (1974), Le Femme Nikita (1990), and Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995).

The course has always had as its goal to help students identify how difference is constructed in films that may be conventional or commercial in form, yet in content challenge accepted notions. I show films that resist customary or accepted notions of "normal" or "other" primarily through textual analysis that focuses on story, character, and the invented cinematic space. In this case I would also argue that these recent films resist traditional gender roles and offer us different forms of cultural analysis albeit in subtext given the explosive nature of these narratives. Twilight gives new meaning to a young girl's decision about who to date; Jennifer's Body ratchet's up the notion of good-girl-gone-bad; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo takes us on a journey from victim to victor; Hanna proves to us that looks can be deceiving; and The Hunger Games, WOW!

The Hunger Games takes place in a world where elements from our collective past and present are tightly woven together to construct a future. This future, not that different from our present, is about the 1% vs. the 99%, control, surveillance, stardom, and my favorite, spectatorship of the reality show genre. In some bizarre way it brings back the notion of a snuff film, and not in the "private" ways explored in films like Strange Days (1995) or 8mm (1999). In this future, barbaric ideas like human sacrifice are mixed with visually stunning forms of ritual and pageantry. Drilling even deeper into the narrative one can also find the dysfunctional family, sycophants, the love triangle, and elements of real humanity.

I have to confess that I have always thoroughly enjoyed action adventure films and have historically been dependent on the male perspective to fully partake of the genre. I am now very conscious of the fact that this has of course changed, not only for me but I presume many other females given this latest trend. These young women, or girls, that have been relegated to the "outsider's" role are exploding on the big screen with some consistency. Whether by personal choice, accident, unfortunate circumstances, or someone's design, these young women are finding themselves in complex and often dangerous or life threatening situations and are taking charge of their destiny in very dramatic, physical, and even non-sexual ways. Watch out!

Remembering Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple

2012-03-15T11:22:33-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of being on a panel that introduced the March 10th New York Times Film Club's Red Carpet Classic Screening of Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985). The panel moderator was Toure and my fellow panelists included Adepero Oduye (Pariah 2011) and LaChanze who won the 2006 Tony for Best actress in a Musical for playing Celie in the Broadway show. Needless to say the issue of race came up and it was interesting to be engaged in that conversation while absorbing the comments from my blog post entitled "Where is The Help for Black Filmmakers in Hollywood."

The film's powerful ensemble cast included Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Adolph Caesar, and Rae Dawn Chong among many others. It's visualization of the bitter sweet (but mostly bitter) truths that were extracted from Alice Walker's book of the same name and that made all the difference to me as a spectator when I thought about the "authorship" of the work. Thus, I experienced the work as a collaborative venture filled with sincerity, passion, and most important, authenticity. I would later write an essay entitled "Matriarchs, Rebels, Adventurers and Survivors: Renditions of Black Womanhood in Contemporary American Cinema" partly inspired by The Color Purple. In discussing Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust (1991) I wrote that: "The film's plot required a superb ensemble cast the likes of which had not been experienced since The Color Purple (1985)."

While I am not usually nostalgic about the past, nor am I prone to "the-good-old-days" talk there was something important about this film and the decades that would follow its release. When I wrote recently "I still dream of a time where we have many images of African Americans to chose from, images that come from black and white directors" I would like to remind us all that there was such a time from 1985 throughout the 1990s. In fact, the very next year would bring Spike Lee's debut feature film She's Gotta Have It (1986) and yes there were diverse African Americans and African characters on big Hollywood screens. Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon with Danny Glover was released in 1987, John Landis' Coming to America with Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, and Madge Sinclair in 1988 and Jerry Zucker's Ghost with Whoopi Goldberg in 1990. Lee returned in 1988 with School Daze and in 1989 with Do the Right Thing and Charles Burnett brought us To Sleep With Anger in 1990.

1991 was a big year for African Americans in front of and behind the camera: John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood, Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala, Bill Duke's A Rage in Harlem, Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City and Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust among others. And the years following saw both Hollywood blockbusters with black stars and African American directors making films: Just Another Girl on the I.R.T -- 1992, Deep Cover -- 1992, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit -- 1993, Menace II Society -- 1993, The Glass Shield -- 1994, Friday -- 1995, Independence Day -- 1996, Jerry Maguire -- 1996, Rush Hour -- 1998, Dr Dolittle -- 1998, etc. This is what Spike Lee meant when he said: "I think there have been some improvements and some steps taken back. But overall, the variety of films being offered to African-American audiences is not where it was 10, 15 years ago. It's very narrow."

On Thursday March 15th LA audiences will have the same opportunity to remember The Color Purple and I wonder what they will be thinking about.

Cruel and Unusual Comedy?

2012-03-12T17:47:05-04:00

In the piece I wrote about The Artist I mentioned the Silent Clown Film Series and I am delighted to report that I have had many inquiries since then about where to see more silent films. As an educator and film enthusiast I'm thrilled to once again be a supporter of the silent film experience and even more excited that we all have ongoing opportunities to partake.

What's next? Check out the
"Cruel and Unusual Comedy" at MoMA.

I was also asked what is the Silent Clown Film Series? And who is Ben Model?

Well, I didn't know either until a friend's father took us some years ago to an event. At this event, a silent film was being screened and beneath the screen someone would be playing a live musical accompaniment. It was to be just like it was when the movies first began in the silent era. The music was provided by a pianist named Ben Model silentfilmmusic.com and it was an awesome experience, one I never forgot. Since then I have been encouraging my colleagues and students to attend screenings by sending out every announcement I receive from silentclowns.com

Ben Model, a musician and a preservationist in his own right, has made this his life's work and excels at it. I say with a great deal of pride that he is an alum of NYU, where he completed a degree in our Undergraduate Film & Television department. Interestingly enough though, he started this career accompanying silent films in 1981 for our Cinema Studies department, in classes taught by Professors Robert Sklar and the legendary William K. Everson. Since then, he has been completing the silent film experiences at the Museum of Modern Art and other venues for close to 30 years now.

Everyone who loves the movies has to have the experience at least once...

Where Is the Help for Black Filmmakers in Hollywood?

2012-03-02T10:34:08-05:00

Congratulations to Ms. Octavia Spencer for winning the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for The Help (2011). I thoroughly enjoyed her on screen passion, humor and audacity. Her irreverence shimmered like glitter, her rage took on an artistic flair, and the relationship she formed with another "outsider" in the film was telling of her humanity beyond the boundaries of race so clearly defined and articulated in the film.

This week's Oscar win for Spencer, however, will no doubt reinforce and fuel the controversy about what kind of black images get supported and celebrated in Hollywood. Ms. Spencer's character, Minny Jackson, was as spunky, fearless, and charming as Hattie McDaniel's Mammy was in Gone With the Wind (1939), but therein lies the issue. James McBride articulated the problem in his essay "On Being A Maid" in this way: "On Jan. 24 President Obama, our first African American president, delivered his third State of the Union address. On that same day, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated two gifted African American actresses, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, for Oscars for playing maids in The Help. This is 73 years after the first African American to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, garnered the award for the same role -- as a maid, and a slave maid at that -- winning the Oscar in the best supporting actress category on Feb. 29, 1940."

The truth is that for the past 10 years most of the Academy Awards that have gone to black actors were for roles that embody what some may call "nostalgic" views of blackness:

-Halle Berry for Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball (2001)

-Denzel Washington for Alonzo Harris in Training Day (2002)

-Jaime Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray (2004)

-Jennifer Hudson as Effie White in Dreamgirls (2006)

-Mo'Nique for Mary Lee Johnston in Precious (2009)

-Octavia Spencer for Minny Jackson in The Help (2011)

So, where is The Help for black filmmakers in Hollywood?

This conversation is by no means new and took place most recently in the Hollywood Reporter in an article entitled: "So What's On Your Mind, Spike Lee?" Among other topics, Lee discussed his recent difficulty getting films made, asking, "Where are the people of color? That's what it comes down to. How many people, when they have those meetings and vote on what movies get made, how many people of color are in those meetings?" These are indeed important questions at a time when what was called "African American Cinema" some years ago has all but disappeared. I hosted a part of a conversation on this same topic last November 2011 at The Museum of The Moving Image where notables such as Richard Wesley, Warrington Hudlin, Nelson George, John Singleton and Matty Rich examined where we were on the "20th Anniversary of the New Wave of Black Cinema." What was disclosed at that gathering is exactly what Lee echoed in his interview: "I think there have been some improvements and some steps taken back. But overall, the variety of films being offered to African-American audiences is not where it was 10, 15 years ago. It's very narrow."

The truth is that the range of black characters in American cinema has indeed narrowed again for audiences in general. I still dream, however, of a time when the desire for diversity of black images belong to all of us, black and white. I still dream of a time where we have many images of African Americans to chose from, images that come from black and white directors. I still dream...

Golden Globes Get It Right With the Artist

2012-01-17T16:26:41-05:00

Congrats to the Hollywood Foreign Press for giving The Artist the respect and attention it deserves. The film won three awards for Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy (Jean Dujardin), and Best Original Score -- Motion Picture (Ludovic Bource). This charming, touching and sincere man-with-dog-meets-girl story achieves what we tell our film students at NYU to do throughout their careers -- visualize the drama! What a superb homage to the silent film era.

The last time I had the pleasure of a silent movie on the big screen was through The Silent Clowns Film Series, silentclowns.com, with live musical accompaniment by Ben Model. This organization has been keeping silent films alive with the public for years and I hope the popularity of The Artist brings this art form back in a big way. What a delight it was to watch, really watch a film without all the over-the-top sound and visual effects. That's not to say that the film was simple in its visual presentation, even though our focus was indeed mostly on the three main characters. The staircase scene was riveting and had great visual choreography that highlighted and contextualized a chance meeting between main characters George Valentin and Peppy Miller. The subsequent conversation set in the midst of the movement associated with people traversing stairs, going somewhere, was emotionally compelling. Two people, each going in different directions, stopped for a moment's conversation while almost everyone else was in motion. Clearly this was also a metaphor for their lives at the time, so perfectly visualized.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about Berenice Bejo's character Peppy Miller in the beginning, fearing this was going to be an All About Eve (1950) sort of story but was most pleasantly surprised by her gratitude, loyalty and, as it turns out, love and respect for George. There were so many wonderful scenes between them, but my favorite was when they were filming the movie-within-a-movie scene where he was to cross a room via a dance with Peppy. The notion that the scene could not conclude because each dance with her captivated him was priceless. As it turned out it held special memories for George as well, as it was the only film he saved from the fire he started in his apartment.

Theirs was not just a happy Hollywood ending, it was also a realistic ending, a respectful ending concocted by a girl who earlier could not easily find the words to blackmail the John Goodman character Al Zimmer to hire George back in his movies.

And then there was the dog, Uggie, a charming, lovable and pivotal character for George, the narrative and the audience, as well. It reminded me of the relationship between Edward Norton's character in Spike Lee's 25th Hour (2002) and his dog. True animals can humanize, calm or comfort us. Even science has come to terms with that fact, but sometimes animals can be our only friend or even save us from some pending or self-inflicted horror. Such was the case with the dog in this film, a welcome central character that should in my estimation have been listed much higher on the cast list on imdb. I must say I was delighted to see him on the stage at the Golden Globes.

Treat yourself, go see The Artist, bring at least one friend or family member, and make sure you have a conversation about it some time after. We should be reminded every now and then about how the movies began and why they became so popular.

On Pariah

2012-01-10T08:12:01-05:00

Dee Rees' Pariah (2011) could and should be the beginning of the next wave in black American or African-American cinema, but don't let that notion box the film into any specific category or genre. Writer/director Rees offers us contemporary American cinema at its finest. Pariah is the story of a black family trying to stay whole while fighting against infidelity, public opinion and internal disagreements. There are no superfluous lines, shots, or scenes in this film where every moment matters as we witness individuals struggle with their core values, which eventually collide in a storm of fear and desire.

This is a film about a black family of four -- mother, father and two daughters. It is about their friendships, belief systems, identity and loss. This is a film that illuminates the deepest emotional spaces between generations, friends and family members. This is a film that traverses the sensitive and vulnerable connective tissue between inner life and external realities. Rees certainly knows her art, relying on her superbly written script and our familiarity with the universal story of growing up. The core narrative is tightly nestled in a seemingly gentle but intense swirl of conflicting family values and peer pressures. She obviously respects our intelligence and has no trouble entrusting audiences with complex and sometimes contradictory characters.

All of her actors deliver powerfully authentic and heartfelt characters that reverberate with emotions, even when scenes and characters are delivered to us in silence. Adepero Oduye embodies the main character Alike (Lee) who struggles with the very texture, tone and nature of her sexuality, which unfolds in the context of a poetic coming of age story. She delivers what Richard Dyer calls "inner life" in perfect pitch.

Lee's mother Audrey is played by Kim Wayans, who gifts us one of the most complex black female characters I have seen in years. She now ranks among some of my favorite matriarchs; Mary Alice as Suzie in Charles Burnette's To Sleep with Anger (1990); Cora Lee Day as Nana Peazant in Julie Dash's Daughter's of the Dust (1991); or Ruby Dee as Lucinda Purify in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991). She is at once determined and misguided, desirous of strengthening her family and yet contributing to its tensions and fractures. Wayans' walks the razors edge of her role, perfectly balanced between the entrapments of her values, grounded in religious beliefs, and her love for her family. In many ways, thanks to her performance and the Rees direction, her suffering is rendered as intensely as Lee's. Charles Parnell as Lee's father (Arthur), Aasha Davis as the love interest (Bina), and Pernell Walker as best friend (Laura) also deliver complex and convincing performances that oscillate between personal desire and external pressures, between public and private.

One of the most powerful scenes in the film is when Laura knocks on her mother's door to tell her she got her GED. Here we experience the depth of story and character that makes this film extraordinary. Rees permits the delivery of a well-formed yet until now absent character, Laura's mother. In this extended moment we are able to understand the very nature of their difficult and emotional relationship, where the mother never speaks. Fortunately for us there are many such moments in the film. Seeing Pariah reminded me of the experience of watching the best of classical Hollywood cinema, where our full and complete engagement was demanded, what my colleagues at NYU Ella Shohat and Bob Stam call a "multi-sensorial experience."