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Kam Williams
is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for
100+ publications around the country. He is a member of
both the African-American Film Critics Association and
The New York Film Critics Online. In addition to a BA in
Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from
Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from
Boston University. Mr. Williams lives in
Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.
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The Tuskegee Airmen
John Lithgow (Actor), Cuba Jr. Gooding
This true story of the black flyers who
broke the color barrier in the U.S. Air
Force during World War II is a
well-intentioned film highlighted by an
excellent cast. Proud, solemn, Iowa-born
Laurence Fishburne and city-kid hipster
Cuba Gooding Jr. are among the hopefuls
who meet en route to Tuskegee Air Force
Base, where they are among the recruits
for an "experimental" program to "prove"
the abilities of the black man in the
U.S. armed services. Fighting prejudice
from racist officers and government
officials and held to a consistently
higher level of performance than their
white counterparts, these men prove
themselves in training and in combat,
many of them dying for their country in
the process. Andre Braugher costars as a
West Point graduate who takes charge of
the unit in Africa and in Italy (where
it's christened the 332nd). The film is
rousing, if slow starting and episodic,
but it's periodically grounded by a host
of war movie clichés, notably the
calculated demise of practically every
trainee introduced in the opening scenes
(ironic given the 332nd's real-life
combat record--high casualties for the
enemy, low casualties among themselves,
and no losses among the bombers they
escorted). Ultimately the Emmy-nominated
performances by moral backbone Fishburne
and the dedicated Braugher and the
energy and cocky confidence of Gooding
give their battles both on and off the
battlefield the sweet taste of victory.—Sean
Axmaker /
Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Red Tails / Red
Tails in the Sunset |
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Oscar nominations 2012: full list
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Juano Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970) was a Puerto Rican stage and film actor of African descent who was a pioneer in the African-American film industry. He made his debut in an Oscar Micheaux film, The Girl from Chicago which was directed at black audiences. Hernández also performed in a serious of dramatic roles in mainstream Hollywood movies. His participation in the film "Intruder in the Dust" earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for "New Star of the Year." . . . In 1949, he acted in his first mainstream film, based on William Faulkner's novel, Intruder in the Dust, in which he played the role of "Lucas Beauchamp", a poor Southern sharecropper unjustly accused of murder. The film earned him a Golden Globe nomination for "New Star of the Year." The film was listed as one of the ten best of the year by the New York Times. Faulkner said of the film: "I'm not much of a moviegoer, but I did see that one. I thought it was a fine job. That Juano Hernandez is a fine actor—and man, too." Film historian Donald Bogle said that
Intruder in the Dust broke new ground in the cinematic portrayal of blacks, and Hernandez's "performance and extraordinary presence still rank above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie."—Wikipedia |
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Riding the Rails
Director: Michael
Uys; Lexy Lovell
Don't
miss this ride!
Riding the Rails
tells the
unforgettable story
of the 250,000
teenagers who left
their homes and
hopped freight
trains during the
Great Depression.
Featuring a
foot-stomping
soundtrack of such
folk greats as
Jimmie Rodgers,
Woody Guthrie, Doc
Watson, Brownie
McGhee and Sonny
Terry, Riding the
Rails vividly
combines the
clear-eyed memories
of witnesses with
archival footage of
teens riding atop
speeding trains and
newsreel interviews
with lean-bodied
kids full of
bravado. Striking in
its detail and depth
of emotion, Riding
the Rails is that
rare film that will
inform, dazzle, and
profoundly move its
audience. This is
not a ride you want
to miss. Featuring
music by Jimmie
Rodgers, Doc Watson,
Woodie Guthrie,
Brownie McGhee, and
Sonny Terry. Special
DVD features
include: new video
segment featuring an
interview with the
filmmakers; photo
gallery featuring
archival images from
the National
Archives and the
Library of Congress;
excerpt from the
companion book;
scene selection;
English audiotrack;
and closed captions.—WGBH
Boston |
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Books on Blacks
in American Film
Why We Make Movies: Black Filmmakers Talk About
the Magic of Cinema (2003)
Black Film as a Signifying Practice: Narration
and the African American Aesthetic Tradition (1999)
Representing; Hip Hop and the Production of
Black Cinema (1999)
Manthia Diawara.
Black American Cinema (1993)
bell hooks,
Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies
(1996)
Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An
Interpretative History of Blacks in American
Films
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Films on DVD
Barber Shop /
Woman, Thou Art Loosed
/
Amistad
/
Crash
/
Hustle and Flow /
Tupac
/
Douglass
Sugar Cane Alley
/
Malcolm X /
Get
on the Bus /
Bowling for Columbine
Sankofa / Daughters of the Dust
Lumumba /
Sometime
in April /
The Agronomist
/
Black Orpheus /
The Sidney Poitier DVD Collection
Cotton Comes to Harlem /
The Spook Who Sat by the Door /
Putney Swope /
Education of Sonny Carson
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Shadrach
Martin Sheen (Actor), John Franklin
Sawyer (Actor), Susanna Styron
(Director)
Sony Pictures
[VHS] (1998)
Paul, an only child, loves visiting the
Dabney family. The Dabneys have seven
children, and they're a much poorer
family. During Paul's tenth summer, set
in the 1930s, a family member he never
even met passes away, and he goes to
stay with the Dabneys while his parents
go off to the funeral. That's when he
meets Shadrach, a 99-year-old black man
that was born a slave and was sold off
to Alabama, being separated from his
family in Virginia. He's been gone all
these years. Sensing death in his old
bones, he travels back to his native
Virginia, wanting to be put to rest
where he belongs. Shadrach happens to be
a Dabney, just like the white family he
came to. Will this family be nice enough
to do for him what he wants to be done?
What will happen along the way? |
Shadrach is a heartwarming and extremely
realistic film. Being raised in Alabama, I can
relate to the underlying plot of the film a lot. One
thing that's really shocking is that Paul looks
almost just like my little brother, making me kind
of watch the movie as if it was through my younger
sibling's eyes. Both of those facts along with the
great acting by everybody, especially Harvey Keitel,
made
Shadrach really hit home for me in a way.
Not to mention that it reminds me of my own
childhood, when I was looked at as being middle to
upper class, but almost all of my friends were less
fortunate, and I never thought a thing about it.
It's a shame
that
Shadrach seems to be relatively unknown.
It's just a simple drama movie with elements of a
coming of age film, but it's a real good one that
will hit home for certain people, maybe in more than
one way. All I did was rent it after hearing that
it's "a good southern movie." I'm glad I did,
because now I look to purchase it one day in the
future. As long as the cussing nearly every other
word doesn't bother you (it shouldn't; that's just
the film trying to be realistic of the times),
you'll love
Shadrach—retrowens,
Amazon.com
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Blaxploitation
films on DVD
Baadasssss Cinema
(documentary) /
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Superfly
/
Cleopatra
Jones /
Foxy Brown
/
Shaft /
Shaft's
Big Score! / Shaft in Africa
/
Slaughter
/
Slaughter's Big Rip-Off
/
Hell Up in Harlem
/
Black Caesar
/
Across 110 th Street
Legend of Nigger Charley /
The Ladies Man
/
Undercover Brother
/
Austin Powers in Goldmember
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Barry Michael Cooper
--
Screenwriter for
New Jack City,
Above the Rim, &
Sugar Hill
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African Underground: Democracy in Dakar
is
a groundbreaking documentary film about
hip-hop youth and politics in Dakar
Senegal. The film follows rappers, DJs,
journalists, professors and people on
the street at the time before during and
after the controversial 2007
presidential election in Senegal and
examines hip-hop's role on the political
process. Originally shot as a seven part
documentary mini-series released via the
internet - the documentary bridges the
gap between hip-hop activism, video
journalism and documentary film and
explores the role of youth and musical
activism on the political process.
http://nomadicwax.com/film/democracy-in-dakar/
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Books on African Film
African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent
/
Symbolic Narratives: African Cinema /
African Cinema: Politics and Culture
Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives In Sub-Saharan
Francophone African Films /
Black African Cinema
African Cinemas: Decolonizing the Gaze /
Questioning African Cinema: Conversations with Filmmakers
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African Films on DVD
Heart of Darkness: The Democratic
Republic of the Congo
(ABC News Nightline)
Black Girl / Borom Sarret /
Sugar Cane Alley /
Kirikou and the Sorceress /
Lumumba
Amandla: A Revolution in Four Part Harmony /
Cry, The Beloved Country /
The Power of One /
Bopha /
Mandela and deKlerk /
Cry Freedom /
Hotel Rwanda
/
Sarafina /
Yesterday
Tsotsi /
Hyenas /
Mandabi /
Xala /
Madame Brouette /
Yeelen /
Life on Earth /
Karmen Gei
Guimba The Tyrant /
Daresalam /
Abouna
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Related files
Birth of
a Genre
Interview with Gore Vidal
Melvin Van Peebles
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Zippety Doo Dah, Zippety-Ay: How Satisfactch'll Is
Education Today? Toward a New Song of the South
Dr. Joyce E. King on
Black Education and New Paradigms
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music website >
http://www.kalamu.com/bol/
writing website >
http://wordup.posterous.com/
daily blog >
http://kalamu.posterous.com
twitter >
http://twitter.com/neogriot
facebook >
http://www.facebook.com/kalamu.salaam
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The State of African Education
(April 200)
Attack On Africans Writing Their Own History Part 1 of 7
Dr Asa
Hilliard III speaks on the assault of academia on Africans writing and
accounting for their own history.
Dr Hilliard is A teacher,
psychologist, and historian.
Part 2 of 7
/
Part
3 of 7 /
Part 4 of 7
/
Part 5 of 7 /
Part 6 of 7 /
Part 7 of 7
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Basil Davidson
obituary—By Victoria Brittain—9 July 2010—Davidson [(9
November 1914 – 9 July 2010) a
British
historian, writer and
Africanist] was enthused early on by the end of British
colonialism and the prospects of pan-Africanism in the
1960s, and he wrote copiously and with warmth about newly
independent
Ghana and its leader, Kwame Nkrumah. He went to work for
a year at the University of Accra in 1964. Later he threw
himself into the reporting of the African liberation wars in
the Portuguese colonies, particularly in Angola,
Mozambique, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. . . . In the
1980s, with most of the African liberation wars now
won—except for South Africa's— Davidson turned much of his
attention to more theoretical questions about the future of
the nation state in Africa. He remained a passionate
advocate of pan-Africanism. In 1988 he made a long and
dangerous journey into Eritrea, writing a persuasive defence
of the nationalists' right to independence from
Ethiopia, and an equally eloquent attack on the
revolutionary leader Colonel Mengistu and the regime that
had overthrown Haile Selassie.
Guardian |
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Basil Davidson's "Africa Series"
Different
But Equal /
Mastering A Continent /
Caravans
of Gold /
The King and the City /
The Bible and The Gun
West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A
History to 1850
By
Basil Davidson
African Slave Trade: Precolonial History,
1450-1850
By Basil Davidson
John Henrik Clarke—A Great and Mighty Walk
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 4 August 2008
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