The Nacelle Company — the studio behind Netflix’s The Toys That Made Us and Disney+’s Behind The Attraction — has announced Icons Unearthed, a new documentary series that will focus on some of the biggest pop culture franchises in history. The first topic of the series will be none other than the Star Wars Universe.
Continue reading “Nacelle Company Launches Vice TV Doc Series with ‘Icons Unearthed: Star Wars’”
Happy Star Wars Day, nerds! In celebration of this very religious holiday LucasFilm has officially announced two new behind-the-scenes specials coming to Disney+.
Continue reading “Lucasfilm Announces New Behind the Scenes Specials Coming to Disney+”
Multiple GRAMMY-nominated artist Olivia Rodrigo has just shared the official poster and trailer for OLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film). The new original movie, which debuts March 25 on Disney+, will have viewers following the singer-songwriter on a cinematic experience to discover the story of her hit album.
Continue reading “Watch the Official Trailer for ‘OLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film)’”
Creating an influential and resonating documentary that digs into the heart of cosplay and Geekdom from a Black perspective as her first film wasn’t exactly Cheyenne Ewulu’s plan to begin with. What was supposed to be more of an artistic catharsis to express the frustration with racism and lack of awareness she noticed in the community she called home, became a beacon for Black cosplayers to find hope and admiration in their work.
Continue reading “Cheyenne Ewulu on ‘Shades of Cosplay’ and Artistic Expression”
It’s Black History Month!
You know what that means, many studios and advertisements will be elevating Black voices for the entire month. But, what about the rest of the year? Rather than only uplifting voices for 28 days, it seems like many companies are listening and starting to do something about it.
Continue reading “HBO Max Celebrates Black History with ‘More Than a Month’ Campaign”
Cosplay is an enigma to me. The act of dressing up as one’s favorite character to an almost identical degree shows a mastery of craft-making, make-up, and acting that is rarely discussed in other mediums. Being a fan of a show or a character is no longer a passive experience when you cosplay, it becomes an active response to the work that inspires you.
Continue reading “‘Shades of Cosplay’ Makes Me Want to Cosplay”
Film director Cheyenne Ewulu directed the 2015 documentary Shades of Cosplay about four Black cosplayers and their experiences during the 2015 Anime-Matusuri convention. Using her background as a cosplayer, Ewulu weaves a story that interacts with the world of cosplay and its issues of racism and inclusiveness in the space. Now in the year 2022, the film is being released online for the first time on February 4, 2022 — to celebrate Black History Month.
Continue reading “‘Shades of Cosplay’ Brings the Black Cosplay Experience Front and Center”
Chaos Magic, 4chan, the 2016 election, and Egyptian gods were not the things I ever thought I would experience all at once but in You Can’t Kill Meme, a documentary film by Haley Garrigus that explores the idea of memes being magic and the magicians who use them. My third eye has been opened and I am looking deeper into the images I find funny and retweet on the internet.
Continue reading “‘You Can’t Kill Meme’ is a Genuine Attempt to Pull the Curtain on Meme Magic”
Director Steve McQueen’s newest Prime Video documentaries on West Indian and Caribbean life in 20th century London are necessary viewing. In a style similar to Ava DuVernay’s 13th, the Academy Award-winning director stitches together archival footage and thoughtful interviews that spotlight the violent history of some of London’s most vulnerable communities. Subnormal: A British Scandal, Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, and Uprising document the racially motivated atrocities that plagued black and brown neighborhoods across London in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, and captures the delicate maneuverings of McQueen’s cinematic eye.
Continue reading “Steve McQueen Highlights Necessary Histories with New Documentaries”
Matt Dillon’s film career has spanned over three decades. The actor has starred in over 50 films such as The Outsiders, Drugstore Cowboy, There’s Something about Mary, Crash, and The House that Jack Built. In 2003, he co-wrote and made his directorial film debut with City of Ghosts. Dillon’s new documentary El Gran Fellove recently had its North American Premiere Screening at the Telluride Film Festival.
Continue reading “NOC Interview: Matt Dillon on His Documentary Film, ‘El Gran Fellove’”
Animator and cosplayer Vishavjit Singh has experienced tremendous trauma in his life. He survived a genocide against Sikh people in India as a young boy, and after he and his family fled to the US, he’s constantly experienced racism and Islamophobia (despite not being Muslim) in the pre- and post-9/11 era. Despite all of this, he remains an optimist for people to treat each other better, and found through his regular cosplaying as Captain America that he could somehow achieve that. But what drew him to this initially?
Continue reading “Why this ‘American Sikh’ Cosplays as Captain America”
In The Beauty President, Terence Smith retells his ’92 presidential campaign as his drag queen persona Ms. Joan Black in a conversational documentary short film by Whitney Skauge. Smith didn’t realize at the time it would be such a historic moment in political art, and this film captures his surprise and delight at being a part of history.
Continue reading “A Beautiful Presidential Conversation w/ Whitney Skauge and Terence Smith”
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.
Continue reading “Academy Award-Winning Director Steve McQueen’s New Documentaries”
“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.
Continue reading “‘Unapologetic’ is an Unflinching Exploration of Activism”
As I watched the Pride flag waving as the credits ran at the end of The Beauty President, I remembered growing up in the early 2000s and how I knew nothing about what that flag meant then. That 20 years later, I can see it at my city’s town hall flying next to the United States flag. Director Whitney Skauge and the film’s subject, Terrance Alan Smith, bring a beautiful historical moment in LGBTQ+ history to the forefront with an air of grace and love that I hope everyone could see.
Continue reading “‘The Beauty President’ is a Beauty to Behold”
Two cites, two fires, and rising temperatures flare up in Bring Your Own Brigade, an American documentary film by Lucy Walker, following the aftermath of the 2018 California Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire that destroyed Paradise and Malibu, California.
Continue reading “‘Bring Your Own Brigade’ Burns Bright”
I told myself I wouldn’t begin this news about the dope new docuseries coming to Peacock mentioning LeBron James and I’ve clearly already failed. While James’ absence from the USA Men’s National Basketball team isn’t new, the real highlights of the highs and lows of the Olympics have been shouldered by the NBA’s new elite squad, specifically younger players like Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, and Bam Adebayo.
Continue reading “Grammy Award-Winning Artist Common to Narrate USA Men’s Basketball Docuseries”
This September, we’ll get an inside look at the life journey and goings on of power couple Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert with their new docu-series We Got Love Teyana & Iman on the E! network. The dynamic duo embark on the ultimate life journey, navigating the many realities of married life, raising children, and creating work as career artists. We Got Love Teyana & Iman takes an authentic and unfiltered inside look at the life of Teyana, Iman, and their daughters Junie B, Baby Rue, as well as their tight-knit entourage of family and friends.
Continue reading “Megastars Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert’s ‘We Got Love’ Arrives This September”
CNN Films & HBO Max has released the official trailer for LFG, an upcoming documentary about the U.S. Women’s soccer team’s fight to for equal pay. It’s hard to believe after winning four Olympic Gold medals and four World Cups over the past 30 years, the women’s soccer team are being underpaid compared to their U.S. Men’s Soccer team, who have zero championships to their name. In 2019, just three months before the Women’s World Cup, the U.S. Women’s team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation over this pay discrepancy.
Continue reading “U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Fights for Equal Pay in ‘LFG’ Documentary Trailer”
Hoyyy! It’s Kuya P back again with an interview covering one of the great films coming out of the Tribeca Film Festival! I recently sat down for a conversation with Director, Dan Chen to discuss his documentary film, Accepted that will make its world premiere at the Festival! Check out our conversation and then head over to the Tribeca Film Festival website to find out how you can view the film from wherever you may be!
Continue reading “Tribeca Film Festival: ‘Accepted’ Filmmaker, Dan Chen”
The last several years have seen numerous fallouts from Hollywood industry titans with regard to representation and the arts. NBC cancelling the 2022 Golden Globes amid the problems the HFPA essentially created for itself is a reminder of the strides still to be had for the industry. Enter Raeshem Nijhon, executive producer and founder at Culture House, a black, brown, and women-owned premium film and TV production company.
Continue reading “Culture House’s Raeshem Nijhon Talks About the Importance of Representation”
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It comes out in theaters on June 18. The documentary about the acting legend, which has a total runtime of 89 minutes, features George Chakiris, Héctor Elizondo, Gloria Estefan, Tom Fontana, Morgan Freeman, Mitzi Gaynor, Whoopi Goldberg, Norman Lear, Eva Longoria, Justina Machado, Terrence McNally, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Karen Olivo.
Continue reading “Watch the Trailer for Roadside Attractions’ ‘Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It’”
Netflix recently released a six-episode documentary series all about romantic love called My Love: Six Stories of True Love. The series follows six couples from Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the U.S. for over a course of a year, pre-pandemic. A local director in that country follows each couple, who have been together from anywhere from 40 to 60 years, on their daily routines and showcases the sparks that still light their relationships. It’s not an easy task to put all of these stories together. That’s where executive producer Jin Moyoung comes in.
Continue reading “‘My Love’ Filmmaker Jin Moyoung Hopes to Inspire Change Through Love”