#African American Movies

[azsdiary]

Mood

Philippians 4:6–7 (NIV)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Diary of a Mad Black Woman. And I understand her more and more every day. I’m not mad though. Just understanding - that’s all.

[bkenber]

'The Color Purple' Movie and 4K Review

The following review was written by Ultimate Rabbit correspondent, Tony Farinella. This was my first time having the pleasure of sitting down to watch “The Color Purple,” directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg. This is a director who has never been afraid to tackle any type of film project.  When watching this film, his trademark heart is clearly on display.  What makes it stand out and be…

[nickysfacts]

This makes Tiana the Princess of Creole Cuisine!

🍽️👩🏾‍🦱👑

[woobosco]

Afro Culture (My culture) 

@woobosco

[kafkasapartment]

Bob Willoughby American, 1927–2009 Dorothy Dandridge on the set of “Carmen Jones”, Otto Preminger’s film of the Bizet opera, 1954 Pigment print

[sbrown82]

Josephine Baker as “Zazu Claironin” in The French Way (1945).

[mimi-0007]

Boomerang staring Eddie Murphy, Eartha Kitt,Grace Jones, Halle Berry and Robin Givens

[blackjewels5]

Diana Ross

[weldnas]

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[oldvintageglamour]

Louis Jordan, Bea Griffith, & Milton Woods "Reet, Petite, and Gone", 1947 🖤🖤🖤

[mintaikcorpse]

Yall know any good afro horror movies? Just watched They Cloned Tyrone, and I love it sm

[wowbright]

I'm about halfway through La La Land. Really wanted to like it. I mean, it's a musical. I like musicals. But I didn't know much about it other than that.

Review/liveblog below the cut.

Started suspecting in the opening number that I might not like it, since the opening hinted that it would be an ode to the LA film scene. (Ooh, LA film people talking about how great LA film is--I'm not an actor, I'm not a filmmaker, hopefully this movie will have something more interesting to hook me in.)

Oh, good! It's also going to be about jazz!

Huh. Neither Emma Stone nor Ryan Gosling are very good singers. They are okay at dancing. Now, I hear that these days it's important that anybody in a musical be an actor first and the other things second. But if music and dancing are part of the storytelling, it's important that they be as strong as the acting IMO.

Okay. Now we're back to jazz. He's going to explain to her why jazz is so awesome. He takes her to a club.. Except ... Hmmm. This is uncomfortable. Why are we seeing jazz exclusively through the eyes of this white dude? We see black musicians, but they are just in the background. He plays at a club. Again, black people are furnishings. John Legend gets a line. Then he gets some more lines.

Around now this review of the first half of the movie turns into a live blog of the second half of the movie.

Yay John Legend sings. Alas it's on a stage and not part of the storytelling, but background to the storytelling. Idk I can't really watch this scene too closely because of the strobing lights.

(Aside: Where has she been getting the money to pay for the dresses, the high heels, and now the one woman show? There's a limit to how much you can put on a credit card, isn't there?)

The dialogue in this movie often feels stilted. Is this a stylistic choice?

Now they're arguing. He doesn't like the music he's been playing with John Legend, which is interesting, because it seems like he was enjoying it and she was the one who wasn't enjoying it. Is any of this real or they just like super enmeshed and codependent?

Eh I've completely divested myself emotionally from this movie. I'm going to start fast forwarding to see what happens. It's not like there's musical numbers anyway.

Photo shoot. More strobing lights.

Why do we see him perform, but we don't see her perform?

Oh look they're fighting again. Do I give a fuck? No.

I don't get it. Is it supposed to be a fun musical or A Star is Born?

We have gone half an hour without a genuine musical number.

Emma Stone is singing. This is a musical again! Too bad this song, like the others, is just so-so. (Idk maybe it was Kristin Chenoweth they would sound amazing?) I feel like this song is supposed to be the big emotional payoff for a strong storyline, but unfortunately the storyline hasn't been that strong. (I mean to be fair I have fast forwarded through like the last 20 minutes but that was because the story was already meandering and sucking.)

They break up. Unfortunately, I never bought their love story beyond the initial crush, so I don't care. (I'm not saying I don't believe that these people *could* love each other deeply. I'm saying that the story skipped over the part after the first kiss where they got to truly know each other and fall in love, so I'm not convinced of it.)

What the fuck? in the alternative "what if their lives have been perfect" montage, Ryan Gosling just waves off Keith like he's some kind of subordinate? Like, arguably one of the most talented musicians we have seen in this whole movie? Gross.

Then in the part that is an explicit visual ode to the golden age of movie musicals, when they are on that colorful soundstage resembling a cartoonish LA, I actually lose track of where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are mixed in with all the other dancers. That should not be possible if the correct cinematographic choices were made.

Also I think it should be illegal to market movies as romances when the characters don't end up together in the end.

So yeah I guess this movie got all the accolades because the people who give the accolades and awards see themselves in this story.

But seriously what the fuck now that I've seen this movie I feel like I've been lied to for the past six years.

[queer-poc-otd]

josie marks

josie is a lesbian, and is african american. josie aims to hook up with a girl from the beginning of her movie (bottoms 2023)

[sbrown82]

Nothing But a Man (1964) dir. Michael Roemer.

[weirdlookindog]

Eleven P.M. (1928)

[afrotumble]

20 Black movie directors who changed Hollywood in the last century

Directors such as Melvin van Peebles and Gordon Parks put Black narratives at the forefront of their storytelling in the 1970s, creating a subgenre known as "blaxploitation." These films used Black stereotypes about poverty and drug abuse to put Black actors at the center of the action.

Then in the '80s and '90s, Spike Lee and John Singleton used their films to examine urban and racial tensions, providing a mainstream audience with more nuanced Black characters.