talkingaboutblkcinema

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The Low End Theory of Relativity (A Black Film I wish existed)

I was completely blown away by this film. I have been waiting my entire life for a film like this to come out. From the moment I saw the first trailer for the film I knew it was going to be a piece of film history and when it came out it did not disappoint. The story, the acting, and the cinematography were all out of this world. Not to mention how great the representation was in the film. The score, the costume design, and the dialogue all ooze black culture. To have a film of this caliber with a major black cast on top of having a black writer, director and producer is a gigantic step forward for black film history. It is so inspiring to see a film this incredible and this successful be full of black talent 

The story is literally out of this world. It follows three black teens that find a crashed spaceship. The teens take the ship for a joy ride and then find themselves wrapped up in an intergalactic conflict. An evil alien dictator is conquering and enslaving planets across the galaxy and now he has his sights set on Earth. They go on a planet-hopping adventure through space discovering amazing new worlds and seeing amazing sights while also spreading justice and hip-hop throughout the galaxy. The teens manage to save the earth from being destroyed  saving the entire world from alien invasion and become heroes of the earth while showing the whole galaxy black power. The film is full of amazing action scenes, hilarious jokes and fantastic muisic. Its definitely a film that you have to see more than once to experience all of the amazing layers in full.

I love the characters in this film. So often black characters in films are written to be nothing more than stereotypes. We’er made into side character that are only in the story to shoot off catch phrases or to sit in the background and make the film look “diverse”. Another major problem is that most of the time when we do get to be the leads the story is focused on black pain or the story focuses on the strugle trying to make it in “the Hood”. Telling these type of stories isn’t necessarily bad but they are way over done and they don’t show the full spectrum of balck life. I’m so glad this film went into a completely different direction.

The characters in this film are all real fully formed people. No one is a stereotype they’re all real people with full character arcs and motivations. They also all feel like real black people. So often black charters are either written to be black or to be well-written characters. This film manages to balance both perfectly with the characters dialog, clothing, and personalities all showing off their culture without becoming caricatures. This is why it's so important to have black creative teams behind black stories. You couldn’t get a story like this without the culture woven into it at every level.

[talkingaboutblkcinema]

Hebrews to Negros

Hebrews to Negros is a very controversial film. The film became famous when Kyrie Irving was suspended after retweeting a link to it. This spawned a bigger conversation about anti-Semitism and black history. The popularity of this film started a massive push in Black Hebrew Israelite philosophy. On top of this around the same time, Kanye West came out expressing similar views and then went on a rant about Jewish people that resulted in him losing all of his endorsements. All of this chaos was inspired by retweeting this one movie which begs the question. How strong is the message of this film? In my opinion, the answer is that this film is in no way worth all of the attention it got. 

First of all, just on the basis of being a movie, this movie is terrible. I don’t say that about films often but this movie just isn't enjoyable to watch at all. The first 15 minutes of this 3 ½ hour long movie is nothing but logos and advertisements for other projects. This cheap confusing intro sets the tone for the quality of the rest of the film. Once the actual documentary starts it is just hours of the narrator spitting out massive amounts of information with stock photos and generic royalty-free music in the background. The narrator has a very monotone voice which makes the film incredibly boring to sit through. On top of all this film presents so much information so fast that it's nearly impossible to actually process the information of the film as you watch it. This means that you either have to just accept everything the narrator says and move on or constantly pause this 3 ½ hour-long movie in order to analyze all of the claims being made.

On top of the presentation of the film, a lot of the information in the film is not true or is misleading. Of the information that I was able to actually process from the film a lot of is relies on different cultures being near each other and having certain similar words in common. He uses these things combined with some passages from the Bible to try and say that many ancient civilizations were actually black isrealites. He also uses some DNA studies and analysis of bones to try and say some Jewish peoples are black. A lot of these techiques are inacccurate and rely on white supremesist thinking. The film also has many quotes from anti-semites and holocost deniers making the claim that the film is antisemtic pretty valid.

The reason I have such a big problem with this film is that it’s part of a much bigger problem in the black community. Black people have had so many aspects of our history and culture stolen from us. On top of that we have had the parts of history and culture that we can hold onto demonised and ridiculed. So many people try so hard to find any pride in their history. The problem comes when people decide to make up new history to take pride in. So often I see people spread narratives that claim that some ancient civilization was actually black or that a famous person was secretly black all with no real evidence. People eat these narratives up because it makes them feel better abou their history. What people don’t realise is that if you actually look into black and African history you will find so many amazing and inspiring things that completely dispell the European narrative that Africans were primitive and lesser. We don’t need to try and secretly be every other race we just need to be black.

[talkingaboutblkcinema]

Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to bother you is one of the best and most insane movies I’ve ever watched. It is a film that will keep you on your toes at every minute. Just when you think you know what going to happen next the plot takes a sharp left turn into an even more insane realm than you thought possible. Despite all of this the most surprising thing about the film is that despite all of the weirdness the message of the film comes through loud and clear.

The Film tells the very strange story of Cassius Green. Cassius is a poor black man who just got hired by a telemarketing company. Cash isn’t very good at his job but he starts to have massive success after he starts using his “white voice”. He then gets massive success which sends him skyrocketing up the corporate ladder. This puts him at odds with his friend and fellow coworkers who are protesting for better wages. At the top Cash sees just how wild and corrupt the top of the company is and he has to decide whether he’ll stay with corruption or fight it.

One of the commentaries that the film makes that stood out most to me was the idea of making white people feel comfortable. In order to even be acknowledged by the people he calls Cash has to put on a fake happy white voice that gives off a constant air of positivity. When he becomes a power caller and is surrounded by white people he has to have the white voice on 24/7. He does these things to make the white people around him more comfortable. In contrast, his coworkers are doing the opposite. They constantly use stereotypical black slang around him that he is visibly not okay with. When he goes to the CEO’s party he gets asked to talk about if he’s ever shot someone or done gangster stuff then gets forced to rap the N-word which the crowd excitedly chants back at him. This is a commentary on how especially in corrupt spaces black people are forced to bend over backward to tone down their blackness for the comfort of their white coworkers. At the same time, there is no expectation for white people to do the same. On top of this even when we tone our blackness down we are often still only seen as the stereotypes that we’re trying so hard to not portray.

It’s incredible just how many topics this movie comments on at the same time. There are the obvious main topics of racism and workers being mistreated by there the companies they work for, but there are also so many smaller issues that get talked about in the background. Like how the most popular show on TV is just showing people suffering. Another more subtle example is how One of the protesters goes viral at a protest and soon after a company pays her to use her viral protest slogan to sell sodas.

I think one of the subtlest and most impactful messages from the movie comes from the ending. In the end after all of the crazy, unethical, and disgusting things that we’ve seen Regalview and its parent company do the “happy ending” is that everyone goes back to work with a slight pay raise. I think that this is a commentary on the effectiveness of protests and the nature of capitalism. So many times we see a company get exposed for doing terrible things and these terrible things inspire massive protests and boycotts. Then we see the company give a statement saying that they’re going to make a small change in the right direction or that there going to “analyze and reconsider their methods”. After a few weeks, the outrage has died down and things go back to normal. No one gets fired. no one goes to jail. And nothing changes. I think what Boots Riley is trying to say with this film is that even if a company got caught red-handed turning people into Horses, nothing would really change because they would just wait for the controversy to die down.  It begs the question. Can protests really cause change? and if not what should we do instead?

[talkingaboutblkcinema]

Baadassssss

Baadasssss is a biopic that tells the story of the chaotic production of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. The film was directed and starred Mario Van Peebles the son of Melvin Van Peebles the director of Sweetback. The film gives an insightful look into just how hard it was to get Sweetback made and showed how many sacrifices Melvin had to make to get the film made. The film gives insight into the many struggles of trying to get a revolutionary message to the people and the general struggles of working in Hollywood. It also shows just how passionate Melvin Van Peebles was about this film and how much he was willing to sacrifice for his dream to become a reality. After watching this film the way you view sweet back will be completely different.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film is how it shows Melvin as a Father. It's clear throughout the film that Mario has very mixed feelings about his father. In the film, Mario goes out of his way to show just how dedicated his father was to making a film that would inspire and uplift the black community no matter what it would take. At the same time, he shows his father as being cold and demanding, often ignoring all other voices around him. When people tell him that a shot can’t be done or that he should slow down or stop he always brushes them off and keeps moving forward at full speed. This is most clear in the scene where Melvin tells a young Mario that he has to be in a sex scene where he’ll be naked on screen and have to shave his afro. Mario very obviously doesn’t want to do but Melvin makes him anyway for the sake of the film. It’s clear to see in all of their interactions that Mario has a lot of respect for what his father accomplished but that he also feels like he didn’t always make the best choices when raising him.

I didn’t think it was possible but this movie actually completely changed how I view Sweetback. Learning that most of the strange editing story and music choices were due to the massive financial hurdles that the production had to deal with gives the movie a lot more heart than it appears to have at first glance. Also given the context that the sex scenes were necessary to get the film made in the first place. It is incredible just how much of a long shot the success of this film was. At almost every stage of filming, it seemed like the best option would be to just scrap the entire production. Every possible thing that could go wrong did go wrong with this production and it’s a miracle that this film was even finished. Seeing just how much of a struggle it was to get this film made and seeing all the success it got afterward makes the existence of Sweetback feel like a triumph.

[talkingaboutblkcinema]

Sweetback

Sweetback is a film unlike any other. That phrase gets thrown around a lot but I think it applies to Sweetback more than any other film I’ve watched. You would be hard-pressed to find a film that has a similar subject matter, editing, visuals, and general vibe to Sweet Back. Watching this film is an experience that will leave a definite impact on you. Whether that impact is positive or negative will vary but either way, you are guaranteed to remember Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. 

“Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song” is the passion project of director Melvin Van Peebles. The Film tells the very unique story of Sweetback a boy who grew up in a brothel and as an adult becomes a performer there. One day some cops try to frame Sweetback for murder but he ends up killing them both instead. The rest of the film follows Sweetback's journey to escape the law and get to Mexico. This plot sounds simple but the story takes so many wild twists and turns that throughout the whole film it can be hard to predict what will happen next or what’s happing in the current scene.

Another factor that adds to the confusing nature of the film is Sweetback's lack of dialog. Sweetback isn't a silent protagonist but in my opinion, he should have talked way more or not talked at all. He talks so little throughout the film that it can often be hard to determine how he really feels. there are multiple scenes where characters die or Sweetback gets attacked or betrayed and he says nothing at all nor does his face convey any emotion. This would work if Sweetback was completely mute but because he does talk at other parts of the film these scenes feel more like missed opportunities than intentional choices.

The film has inspired a lot of very strong reactions from people. Huey P. Newton the founder of the Black Panther Party loved the film. Newton thought that the film was an excellent display of black love and power. He wrote an entire essay discussing the themes of the film and even made it required viewing for all Black Panthers. On the other hand, many people that the film was a disgrace. They felt that the many sex scenes especially the one featuring a child and the violence in the film paint black empowerment in a bad light.

I can understand both sides of this debate but I lean toward the second viewpoint. The film has very obvious black empowerment messaging. The white cops are shown to deliberately try to kill those who spread pro-Blck messages and they terrorize anyone who stands in their way. All of the heroes of the story are black and there is a throughline in the film of building up the next generation. These themes however can’t overshadow the opening scene where a Sweetback as a child has sex with one of the prostitutes who raised him. I understand that this scene was meant to be Sweetback becoming a man and that the religious music in the background is supposed to indicate that this is more spiritual than sexual. However, the woman’s attitude and the framing of the fact that the scene takes place in a brothel make the message fall flat for me. Also, the idea that a child can “become a man” by having sex with a grown woman is both gross and harmful to promote. I get what the film was trying to do but these elements taint the rest of the message of the film and leave the wrong impact on the audience.

[talkingaboutblkcinema]

Block Party

One of the aspects of the show that I found most interesting was the strong social justice themes throughout the show. Almost every artist in the show incorporated a message about how black people are treated in America. The show shined light on a variety of problems in the black community. There were themes about racism, poliecing, drugs, and how disposible black entertaines are to the industry. The moment where it truly set in how important social justice was to this show was when Fred Hampton junior came out to advocate for the release of political prisoners. Having the whole show stops for So that fred and the Black Panthers could educate the crowd shows the real purpose of the concert. Dave and the other orginizers of the concert were using music and comedy to get peoples attention so that they could then open their eys to the real issues going on in the world.

The way that this show was set up is an odd window into the past. So many artists in this show are considered superstars today so it's almost jarring to see them at a small show with no advertising. The idea of having a concert with Dave Chappelle, Lauren Hill, and Kanye West, plus 5 other acts, and not even advertising it sounds completely insane in a modern context. If you wanted to do something like this today you would need to make it a entire music festival. Its incredible to see how far these artists have come over the last two decades.

This show also shows how the world has changed since the rise of social media. When the people in the crowd were asked how they found out about the show most of them said they found out from small local blogs or they saw people waiting in line and decided to buy a ticket. If this happened in 2022 as soon as people found out about half of the acts that were performing the event would be trending #1 on Twitter. It’s interesting to think about how much faster information movies are now compared to in the early 2000s  

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Malcolm X

Written by Russell Cash

Malcolm X is one of the my favorite movies of all time. The Movie shows the real life story of Civil rights leader Malcolm X and is full to the brim with inspiring moments and amazing performances. There are few films based on true stries that can bring this level of emotions and power. This is one of the only films that gets me emotional every time I watch it. This every part of the film works together to create the definitive depiction of Malcolm X’s life.

If I had to describe the way this movie depicts Malcolm X in the one word it would be powerful. Throughout Malcolms whole life he’s always gaining control of his environment and get more and he’s never afraid to stand up to anyone. When he’s a bookie he’s willing to stand up to his boss, in prison he stands up to the gaurds, and when he gets out he stands up to the the police and eventually the Nation of Islam. We seen this shown best in the scene where he assembles a massive crowd of people to follow him to the police station and hospital then dispearses them with just a few hand gestures. This films shows that Malocolm was an incredibly strong and influential man that was able to draw and inspire thousands with just his words.

One of the biggest draws of the film Is Denzel Washingtons performance. Denzel perfectly embodies Malcolm X. The way he talks, his demen, and just the general attitude of Denzels performance mirrors what Malcolm X was like in real life. Denzel soaks up every scene of the film and gives a captivating performance.through out all the stages of Malcolms life Denzel gives him an air of confidence and leadership. He gives an definitive performance that makes him THE Malcolm X actor. I think that one of the main reasons no one tries to make movies about Malcolm X any more is because they no that no one is going to give a better performance than Denzel Washington does in this movie.

My favorite thing about this film is that it shows all the layers of Malcolm X. when most people talk about Malcolm they focus on him at his most radical. The focus is on Malcolm that wanted nothing to do with white people and constantly called out other civil rights leaders. Most people don’t realize that Malcolm eventually moved past these ideas and focused more on bringing people together. This film does a great job of showing Malcolm's evolution and how his mindset improved over time. This is important because so often people try to minimize Malcolm to just being “the radical one” when they talk about him compared to other civil rights leaders. This idea is often used to divide the civil rights movement into Malcolm X being all about violence and MLK being completely against conflict with white people. Both of these ideas are major reductions of whole these men really were; talking about them this way only tries to divide the movement and distract from the real issues. People made it seem like Malcolm was only radical and violent. It's important that Malcolm is depicted as evolving because his ideology was so much bigger than just thinking that white people were bad and that violence was the way to achieve black liberation. 

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Chameleon Street

written by Russell Cash

Chameleon Street is a 1989 film that was written, directed, and starred by Wendall B. Harris Jr. The film is loosely based on the true story of William Douglas street, a con artist from Detroit. The film follows Street as he lies his way into a variety of different careers.

If I had to describe chameleon street in one word it would be Unique. It’s a film, unlike any other I've ever seen. At no point was I totally sure where the story was going to go next. The film is about Street, a black intellectual who’s after two things: money and women. Street is willing to tell any lie and pull any scheme if it will get him closer to those two pursuits. In fact, lying is Street's greatest asset. Throughout the film, he lies his way into being a surgeon, a lawyer, a reporter, and a husband. His nature of lying is where the film gets its name because like a chameleon Street is always changing to best survive in his environment. 

The main focus of the film is giving the audience a look into Street’s mind. The film opens with him being analyzed by a psychiatrist and the entire story is narrated by him. This means that all parts of the story are focused through the lens of his thoughts and feelings about the world. The way the movie is shot and edited gives it a dream-like atmosphere. This atmosphere combined with Street’s questionable mental state can make it hard at certain times to know whether or not what's happening is real or fake. Ridiculous events like Street perfectly performing surgery with no training, going to a french revolution-themed costume party in an incredibly detailed beast costume, and pretending to murder his own daughter are all treated as completely plausible and normal and not insane. All of these factors come together to form a look into the strange mind of a career con artist s. The moments feel even more insane when you learn that the film is based on a true story.

The film also works as a kind of power fantasy. Street is the archetype of how many black intellectuals see themselves. He’s always the smartest person in the room, he’s leagues above his white colleagues, he’s able to accomplish anything with some slick words and a couple hours of reading, and his only weakness is women. He also never fails on his own. Even though he lies to get jobs he is always excellent at them and is only forced to leave when someone rats him out. He even says at the end of the film that he could do anything, even become president if wanted to, right before he goes to jail after his wife rats him out. 

This film was really well made in my opinion. The story, atmosphere, dialog, and editing all come together to make a truly unique film experience. The unique framing of the story allows the film to transition between multiple different genres from scene to scene. Sometimes it’s a comedy, sometimes it’s a drama and sometimes it even becomes light horror. No matter what the tone, the movie always manages to hold the audience's attention and leaves you guessing what wild event will happen next. Usually, when directors cast themselves as leads in movies they feel like vanity projects, but in Chameleon Street, it feels like Harris was the perfect person for the role. He gives an excellent performance in every scene he’s in and manages to perfectly portray an apathetic con man. It amazes me That Harris was able to create such a well-made film completely independent.