Category: Film

The Hollywood Reporter Addresses Black Stars’ Racial Abuses Through Life of Hattie McDaniel, the First Black Oscar Winner

In addition to recasting Hattie McDaniels for today's audiences as less of an easy-street heroine who won the first Oscar for Blacks and more of a lifelong victim of emotional abuse in Hollywood due to her color, any Millennials who love Hollywood but never knew Hattie can no longer say they were not told.

Stories of Dynamic Women In Print and On Screen (Part One)

Chances are, Hollywood producers will find a way to turn young Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai's triumphant story I Am Malala into a movie sooner than we all learn to pronounce her last name. In the meantime, here are five women’s true-to-life tales you can read on the page and then see onscreen: 1. The Diary of Anne Frank … Continue reading Stories of Dynamic Women In Print and On Screen (Part One) →

Remembering Director Mike Nichols Through His Movies

It is a miracle and luck when any work of art, creative piece or cultural manufacture reaches out and touches those like it depicts. However, it is supernatural and magic when a work of art, creative piece or cultural manufacture so far beyond an aesthete's race, class, gender and experience arrives to inspire and introduce new lives to them. The handful of works I know from Mr. Nichols all do that for me.

Are You a Joyce Vincent?

In this National Blog Posting Month, I decided to pick my favorite work so far on my blog Negression. My eulogy of a total stranger, Joyce Vincent, remains the most personal piece of writing I have ever done publicly for the sheer emotional response I had to her story's resonance in my life at the point when I wrote it. I think this chilling black female version of a "Sex in the City" tale will always stick out to me and beg attention. It is something I wish I had never had to write, because that means it would have never happened. But since I did have to write it, it was a privilege to learn about myself and my life and what I need to do for myself and for others through the pain of another who was unable to.

*On The Color Purple and Beloved film adaptations…

I remember when The Color Purple movie came out in 1986. To have a beautiful and serious movie, that was not about Blacks killing each other or acting stupid but truly featured the story and amazing acting, was a big event. Oprah Winfrey was already a sort of star, and the other actors were people we knew as well.  … Continue reading *On The Color Purple and Beloved film adaptations… →