The Haunting History of Vampires and Blackness is Captured in ‘Black as Night’

October 11, 2021October 12, 2021 Bray Lawrence

In the film Black as Night, screenwriter Sherman Payne pens a haunting and alluring tale of vampires and their victims through a lens not much often looked through. Crafting a story that centers Shawna, a 15-year-old African American woman, as she battles vampires in a modern day New Orleans against a backdrop of not only the history of Hurricane Katrina but also the generational and systemic trauma of being Black in America.

Movies, Streaming

Colman Domingo and Chris Rock Lead the Cast of ‘Rustin’ Biopic

October 5, 2021October 5, 2021 Adonis Gonzalez

Many heroes are lost to time, but legends never die. Bayard Rustin isn’t a name people know as well as Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X. But much like his fellow Freedom Riders and speakers for justice, that kind of notoriety probably wouldn’t have interested Rustin all that much. Nevertheless, it’s a name we’ll all hopefully be getting more familiar with thanks to a new biopic from the ingenious mind of George C. Wolfe.

Movies, Streaming

Nothing is Black and White in Monochromatic Trailer for ‘Passing’

September 21, 2021September 23, 2021 Adonis Gonzalez

Being “white-passing” comes with a certain kind of privilege. One that can mean the difference between a life of discrimination or a life of luxury. Such a privilege is the topic of discussion in Passing, the brand new film based on the book by Nella Larsen, coming to Netflix and select theaters later this year.

Horror, Movies

‘Candyman’ and the Importance of On-Screen Black Positivity

September 5, 2021September 4, 2021 Adonis Gonzalez

So it’s August 24, 2021. Well, obviously not today, unless I finally caught a time traveler in the act, but that was the day I saw Candyman in theaters. Which for the sake of this article, is a very important date.

Streaming, Television

Academy Award-Winning Director Steve McQueen’s New Documentaries

August 31, 2021September 1, 2021 Jamal Michel

The masterful work of Academy Award winning director Steve McQueen spans an impressive set of genres, from films to anthology series, and now the 12 Years a Slave director has three new documentaries coming to Amazon Prime. Last year, we spoke to the talented leads in McQueen’s anthology Small Axe that examined the real-life experiences of West Indians living in mid-20th century London.

Horror, Movies1 Comment

‘Candyman’ is Horror with Something on its Mind

August 30, 2021September 4, 2021 Steven Barnes

Candyman (2021) is Nia DaCosta’s conversation with the original 1992 classic. You know the story: in 1870, freed slave Daniel Robitaille (the amazing Tony Todd) was an artist who fell in love with a white woman. Her father had him tortured, mutilated and killed, his left hand replaced with a hook. Say his name five times while looking in the mirror, the story goes, and he will return and seek vengeance.

Movies, Reviews

‘Unapologetic’ is an Unflinching Exploration of Activism

August 20, 2021August 20, 2021 Bray Lawrence

“What is this helping?” is one of the first sentences uttered by a white restaurant patron unsettled in Unapologetic’s first scene, where protestors express the reality of the recent deaths of Black residents in their community to unsuspecting people eating brunch at restaurants. The scene perfectly encompasses the themes and motives of this documentary: a large and triumphant call to arms to make a more honest and equal world while people sit quietly trying to ignore not only the performance, but the actual knowledge of those who are destroyed and subjugated by these injustices.

Animation, Movies, Sports2 Comments

‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ Puts Black Joy on Full Display

July 16, 2021July 16, 2021 Jamal Michel

The reviews for LeBron James’ and SpringHill Entertainment’s Space Jam: A New Legacy are rolling in and they paint a considerably dismal picture of the imagination critics go to the movies with today. For some context, Steven Spielberg’s 2018 IP extravaganza Ready Player One sits with a decent aggregate rating of 72% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, particularly because of the way the film sets up its action sequences and because it is a Spielberg flick. A New Legacy, however, is already down to 32% from critics and that’s mainly because there are “too many IPs,” and the film doesn’t make algorithms function the way they should in the real world.

Reviews, Theatre

Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘An Octoroon’

July 12, 2021July 12, 2021 Edward Hong

During intermission while watching An Octoroon (written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Judith Moreland) at the Fountain Theatre, an old white woman randomly came up to me and asked what I found so amusing in this play. First, I had to get over the shock that a live human being was touching me (without permission) and getting up in my face to ask this question because after all, this was my first time watching a play with a live audience (albeit in an outdoor theater) in 16 months. Second, what WAS I and primarily all the other POC audience members laughing about?

Movies, Streaming

Regina King and LaKeith Stanfield Lead Dynamite Cast in ‘The Harder They Fall’

July 8, 2021July 8, 2021 Jamal Michel

Between Westworld, Red Dead Online, and Lil Nas X, there has never been a better time to be a Black cowboy than now, and with the upcoming release of The Harder They Fall on Netflix, I’m going to need to get fitted for my frock coat immediately. Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield, and Idris Elba lead a brilliant cast of some of Hollywood’s most dynamic actors in this Jeymes Samuel (They Die by Dawn and JAY-Z: Legacy) epic, new-school Western.

Art, Television

‘Grown-ish’ Returns for Senior Year This Thursday

July 6, 2021July 6, 2021 Laura Sirikul

It’s senior year for the Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) at Cal U.

Freeform’s Grown-ish finally returns this Thursday! After taking some time off school to focus on being a stylist, Zoey is back to finish her final year with her friends and finally graduate. With Aaron and Zoey finally together after three years of “will they, won’t they,” the couple are trying to make it work.

Animation, Gaming

Appreciating the Diversity of Late-Generation ‘Pokémon’

June 28, 2021June 29, 2021 Jamal Michel

When I first caught sight of Pokémon Neo Genesis cards being sold on the Home Shopping Network as a kid, I almost took my mother’s credit card and picked up the phone to put in a few hundred orders. I remember on one such occasion using the spare change from a trip to the gas station to buy a single booster pack. I came home with a gallon of milk and yet another holographic Machamp, all while receiving the admonition I knew was waiting for me at home.

Interview, Streaming, Television

Nyambi Nyambi Avoids Black Trauma in ‘The Good Fight’

June 25, 2021June 29, 2021 Laura Sirikul

Nyambi Nyambi’s character Jay Dipersia has been through a lot the past four seasons of The Good Fight. From facing deportation to fighting pay gap disparities, Jay has been given difficult circumstances to overcome. But, in the fifth season of The Good Fight, which premiered yesterday on Paramount+, Jay is given multiple obstacles that he must deal with — the aftermath of COVID, Black Lives Matter Marches, and losing three of his colleagues — two have moved (Cush Jumbo and Delroy Lindo left in the season five premiere episode) and his fellow investigator Marissa Gold (Sarah Steele) has decided to study law.

Conventions, Television

ATX Festival 2021: Black TV Creatives Discuss What Still Needs to Be Done in the Industry

June 15, 2021June 16, 2021 Laura Sirikul

Celebrating all things television, the ATX festival was virtual again this year with a lineup filled with wonderful television series as well as discussions by leaders in television. One of the many panel conversations had a very serious conversation about race discussions in television called Television in an Era of Racial Reckoning, hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Interview, Streaming, Television

‘Timewasters’ Creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor on His New Series and Time-Traveling While Black

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 Laura Sirikul

When you think of time-traveling films or television series, the first ones you think of mainly consist of white casts. If someone asked you to name a predominantly black, indigenous or people of color (BIPOC) led time-traveling series, it may take a little bit to come up with one, if any. Thankfully, that’s where IMDbTV’s Timewasters comes in to change the game

Gaming, Movies, Music

Death Row Records Celebrates ‘Above the Rim’ Deluxe Soundtrack with Exclusive Merch

May 20, 2021June 11, 2021 Jamal Michel

When we all saw Tupac Shakur in Juice in the ‘90s, not only did we pray to never run into someone like Bishop in our own lives, but we learned the range Pac had outside of the studio. ‘90s and early 2000s Black cinema was marked by a particular era of gangster-laden, hip-hop fueled narratives that sometimes hit the mark, with films like Do the Right Thing, Boyz N the Hood, and New Jack City lending various insights into the cinematic representation of Black Consciousness as it was in the ‘90s and later.

Guest Post, Streaming, Television

A ‘Gaze’ into the Soul of ‘The Underground Railroad’

May 12, 2021May 15, 2021 Guest N.O.C.

by Barry Jenkins | Originally published on Vimeo

In my years of doing interviews and roundtables and Q&A’s for the various films we’ve made, there is one question that recurs. No matter the length of the piece or the tone of the room, eventually, inevitably, I am asked about the white gaze. It wasn’t until a very particular interview regarding The Underground Railroad that the blindspot inherent in that questioning became clear to me: never, in all my years of working or questioning, had I been set upon about the Black gaze; or the gaze distilled.

Comics, Horror

‘Box of Bones,’ An Endorsement

May 12, 2021July 21, 2021 Shawn Taylor

I am a new convert to horror. I was firmly in my comics, SF, SpecFic, fantasy bag for decades until I read Tananarive Due’s My Soul to Keep. After that, I was all in… on horror literature. However, so-called ‘horror comics’ weren’t scary to me. Not even a little. And as a comic fan, it was disappointing. That was then. Now, there are tons of wonderful horror books that speak to my cultural and aesthetic specificity. There’s Image’s Killadelphia and Bitter Root, which just had a huge announcement. And Vault Comics is doing it big.

Anime, Reviews, Streaming1 Comment

‘Yasuke’ is a Beautiful and Bloody Love Letter to the First Black Samurai

April 29, 2021May 15, 2021 Adonis Gonzalez

Yasuke. A real life folktale. Not so much in the sense that he never existed. It’s more like there isn’t much known about his mysterious life, aside from how challenging it must have been.

All that’s known about history’s first Black samurai is that he was likely born around 1540 in Africa, around the Mozambique area. At some point in his life he came in contact with Oda Nobunaga, a feudal lord of Japan, and became a member of his samurai guard.

Guest Post, Marvel, Streaming, Television1 Comment

I Am Captain America: Get Used to It

April 24, 2021May 26, 2021 Guest N.O.C.

by Thaddeus Howze

While Marvel Comics has never allowed Sam Wilson to remain Captain America, it is good to see they have decided to allow him to hold the title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In the comics, they engineered an excuse for him to become Captain America and when they were done with the story arc, Steve Rogers reclaimed his title and his shield.

Books, Fantasy, Sci Fi

An Endorsement: Tim Fielder’s ‘Infinitum’

February 26, 2021August 18, 2021 Shawn Taylor

Afrofuturism is having a moment. First posited by journalist Mark Dery in the early 1990s, Afrofuturism is now a full-blown social, cultural, psychological, technological, and aesthetic movement. And never has this movement, this moment, been more fully realized than in Tim Fielder’s magnum opus, Infinitum. To call it a graphic novel would be to undercut it’s value. It is an enterprise of speculative cultural cartography.

Podcasts

Southern Fried Asian: Dr. David Surratt

February 24, 2021 Southern Fried Asian

On a new episode of Southern Fried Asian, Keith is joined by Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students at the University of Oklahoma Dr. David Surratt to talk about growing up Black and Korean in Tulsa.

Continue reading “Southern Fried Asian: Dr. David Surratt”

Movies, Reviews, Streaming1 Comment

Give Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield Their Roses for ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’

February 1, 2021May 15, 2021 Jamal Michel

With regard to director Shaka King’s masterpiece, the aforementioned sentiment goes double for Kaluuya’s fellow cast members Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne, and Jesse Plemons. Judas and the Black Messiah follows the life and times, and tragic end, of Fred Hampton (played by Kaluuya), the Black Panther Party Chairman of the Illinois chapter in the late 1960s. Most importantly, the film lays bare the attempts of the FBI to infiltrate and destabilize Hampton’s civil rights campaigns through the aid of petty criminal William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) after applying enough pressure on O’Neal to force him into working as their informant.