As 2022 came to a close, we asked seven writers and filmmakers to reflect on Jean-Luc Godard's memory. Starting from a single aspect of his filmmaking—a particular film, image, sound cue, or affecting experience with his work—their responses evoke the breadth of his revolutionary legacy. We're thankful they found the words.The pieces below are written by Ephraim Asili, Richard Brody, A.S. Hamrah, Rachel Kushner, Miguel Marías, Andréa Picard, and Lucía Salas.In Memoriam JLGWhen I was in high school in the 1980s, I drove 50 miles with some friends to see Breathless at a student screening in a big auditorium at UConn. How did we know this screening was happening? How did we know how to get there? How did we even know anything was happening anywhere, ever? We saw listings in newspapers and paid attention to flyers. We had maps in our cars. But above all, it...
- 1/30/2023
- MUBI
Exclusive: Apple TV+’s Huey P. Newton series The Big Cigar has rounded out its cast, with Jaime Ray Newman (Dopesick), Noah Emmerich (Dark Winds), John Doman (City on a Hill), Chris Brochu (Zero Contact) and newcomer Brenton Allen coming aboard in recurring roles. André Holland leads the cast, with Alessandro Nivola, Tiffany Boone, Pj Byrne, Marc Menchaca, Jordane Christie, Moses Ingram, Olli Haaskivi and Glynn Turman also set to star, as previously announced.
The six-episode limited series, based on the eponymous Playboy magazine article by Argo‘s Joshuah Bearman, tells the extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Black Panther leader Newton (Holland) relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Nivola) — the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider — to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.
Newman will play Roz Torrance, with Emmerich as Schneider’s brother Stanley, and Doman as his father Abe.
The six-episode limited series, based on the eponymous Playboy magazine article by Argo‘s Joshuah Bearman, tells the extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Black Panther leader Newton (Holland) relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Nivola) — the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider — to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.
Newman will play Roz Torrance, with Emmerich as Schneider’s brother Stanley, and Doman as his father Abe.
- 9/1/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
This review of “The French” was first published on June 17, 2021, after its Metrograph.com streaming debut.
Tennis fans exhausted by two weeks of a Grand Slam competition in Paris that ended last Sunday with a thrilling new champion on the women’s side, and perhaps the cementing of Goat status on the men’s, may believe they’re ready to leave the spring’s red clay season behind for the summer grass and regulation whites at Wimbledon.
But a new reissue of a sports documentary artifact is now available to offer tennis diehards one more rewarding reminder of the enduring thrills and frustrations of battling on the terre battue, William Klein’s movie about the 1981 Roland Garros tournament, “The French.”
Klein, an American-born, French-identified photographer and filmmaker now in his 90s, had long been lauded for his street-smart, irony-laden, instinctively artistic work. His feature debut, the 1966 fashion satire “Who Are You,...
Tennis fans exhausted by two weeks of a Grand Slam competition in Paris that ended last Sunday with a thrilling new champion on the women’s side, and perhaps the cementing of Goat status on the men’s, may believe they’re ready to leave the spring’s red clay season behind for the summer grass and regulation whites at Wimbledon.
But a new reissue of a sports documentary artifact is now available to offer tennis diehards one more rewarding reminder of the enduring thrills and frustrations of battling on the terre battue, William Klein’s movie about the 1981 Roland Garros tournament, “The French.”
Klein, an American-born, French-identified photographer and filmmaker now in his 90s, had long been lauded for his street-smart, irony-laden, instinctively artistic work. His feature debut, the 1966 fashion satire “Who Are You,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
In July 1971, Shirley Chisholm began to talk about it. Chisholm, who in 1968 had become the first African American woman elected to Congress, would run for president. The congresswoman from New York announced her intentions to secure the Democratic nomination in September, and formally announced on Jan. 25, 1972. The Democratic candidates who sought to oppose President Nixon’s bid for a second term counted “Fighting Shirley” and nine white men, all of whom had higher degrees, like Chisholm. Of the 10, all but Chisholm, Wilbur Mills, and Hubert Humphrey had served in the military.
- 2/3/2022
- by Natalee Cruz and John Reed
- Rollingstone.com
Back in the age when what we used to call the press was first discovering itself as “media,” there were unprecedented events — standoffs and uprisings, mass gatherings and cataclysms — that the new media world, transmitting and shaping the reality of those events, wound up making even more unprecedented. George Wallace, in 1963, standing in a schoolhouse doorway at the University of Alabama to block desegregation. The Chicago demonstrations of 1968. The Munich Olympics massacre. The Patty Hearst kidnapping and its nuttier-than-fiction heiress-on-the-run aftermath. The hijackings. Woodstock and Jonestown.
It’s no wonder that a lot of Americans thought the country was falling apart — and in many ways it was, because it needed to. Old systems and corruptions were cracking up. The dam of American conformity and obedience had burst, and what came pouring through was an unruly blend of freedom and violence and exaltation and chaos.
Drawing from a staggering array of...
It’s no wonder that a lot of Americans thought the country was falling apart — and in many ways it was, because it needed to. Old systems and corruptions were cracking up. The dam of American conformity and obedience had burst, and what came pouring through was an unruly blend of freedom and violence and exaltation and chaos.
Drawing from a staggering array of...
- 10/12/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Lee Daniels’ “Wonder Years” reboot pilot at ABC has added two new cast members.
“Psych” and “The West Wing” alum Dule Hill has joined the series as Bill Williams, Dean’s father and patriarch of the central family. Per ABC, “He’s a music professor by day and a funk musician by night – described by Adult Dean as ‘the baddest guy I knew.’ Almost always calm and composed, his favorite words are ‘be cool.’ Bill wants his family and their black, middle class neighborhood to remain self-sufficient and he puts his money where his mouth is.”
Newcomer Laura Kariuki will play Bill’s daughter and Dean’s teenage sister, Kim Williams. According to the character description, she is confident, bright and popular. “She and Dean bicker as siblings do but they have a good relationship. Her parents have her preparing for college – but Kim is starting to rebel, telling them...
“Psych” and “The West Wing” alum Dule Hill has joined the series as Bill Williams, Dean’s father and patriarch of the central family. Per ABC, “He’s a music professor by day and a funk musician by night – described by Adult Dean as ‘the baddest guy I knew.’ Almost always calm and composed, his favorite words are ‘be cool.’ Bill wants his family and their black, middle class neighborhood to remain self-sufficient and he puts his money where his mouth is.”
Newcomer Laura Kariuki will play Bill’s daughter and Dean’s teenage sister, Kim Williams. According to the character description, she is confident, bright and popular. “She and Dean bicker as siblings do but they have a good relationship. Her parents have her preparing for college – but Kim is starting to rebel, telling them...
- 3/18/2021
- by Reid Nakamura
- The Wrap
Dulé Hill and Laura Kariuki have been cast in “The Wonder Years” reboot pilot at ABC, Variety has learned.
They join previously announced cast members Elisha Williams, who will play main character Dean, and Saycon Sengbloh, who will play family matriarch Lillian. The project will show how a black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the turbulent late 1960s, made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too.
Hill will star as family patriarch Bill Williams. He’s a music professor by day and a funk musician by night – described by Adult Dean as “The baddest guy I knew.” Almost always calm and composed, his favorite words are “be cool.” Bill wants his family and their black, middle class neighborhood to remain self-sufficient and he puts his money where his mouth is.
Hill is known for starring in the NBC political drama “The West Wing” as well as the USA Network series “Psych.
They join previously announced cast members Elisha Williams, who will play main character Dean, and Saycon Sengbloh, who will play family matriarch Lillian. The project will show how a black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the turbulent late 1960s, made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too.
Hill will star as family patriarch Bill Williams. He’s a music professor by day and a funk musician by night – described by Adult Dean as “The baddest guy I knew.” Almost always calm and composed, his favorite words are “be cool.” Bill wants his family and their black, middle class neighborhood to remain self-sufficient and he puts his money where his mouth is.
Hill is known for starring in the NBC political drama “The West Wing” as well as the USA Network series “Psych.
- 3/18/2021
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
Psych alum Dulé Hill is set as a lead opposite Elisha “Ej” Williams and Saycon Sengbloh in ABC’s The Wonder Years single-camera comedy reboot pilot. Additionally, newcomer Laura Kariuki (Black Lightning) is set as a series regular in the reboot from Dave exec producer Saladin Patterson, Fred Savage and Empire co-creator Lee Daniels.
Written by Patterson and directed by Savage, the reboot of the classic 1980s family comedy-drama is set in the same era as the original. It looks at how the Williamses, a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Al, in the turbulent late 1960s made sure it was the Wonder Years for them too.
Hill will play Bill Williams, Dean’s (Elisha Williams) dad. He’s a music professor by day and a funk musician by night – described by Adult Dean as “The baddest guy I knew.” Almost always calm and composed, his favorite words are “be cool.
Written by Patterson and directed by Savage, the reboot of the classic 1980s family comedy-drama is set in the same era as the original. It looks at how the Williamses, a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Al, in the turbulent late 1960s made sure it was the Wonder Years for them too.
Hill will play Bill Williams, Dean’s (Elisha Williams) dad. He’s a music professor by day and a funk musician by night – described by Adult Dean as “The baddest guy I knew.” Almost always calm and composed, his favorite words are “be cool.
- 3/18/2021
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
(This post contains Spoilers for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” on Netflix)
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is loaded with moments that will make you laugh, cheer or be outraged. But one of the film’s most alarming moments comes when Bobby Seale, the Black Panther party leader as portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is ordered bound and gagged in his courtroom seat by judge Julius Hoffman.
The scene is a horrifying moment of racial injustice and prejudice that finally boiled over after numerous scenes of Seale being denied his rights, representation and more. It’s such an outrageous sight in a movie that prides itself on its accuracy that it begs the question, was Seale really bound and gagged in the way the movie suggests?
The truth is, yes, Seale was tied to his chair and gagged in full view of the jury,...
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is loaded with moments that will make you laugh, cheer or be outraged. But one of the film’s most alarming moments comes when Bobby Seale, the Black Panther party leader as portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is ordered bound and gagged in his courtroom seat by judge Julius Hoffman.
The scene is a horrifying moment of racial injustice and prejudice that finally boiled over after numerous scenes of Seale being denied his rights, representation and more. It’s such an outrageous sight in a movie that prides itself on its accuracy that it begs the question, was Seale really bound and gagged in the way the movie suggests?
The truth is, yes, Seale was tied to his chair and gagged in full view of the jury,...
- 10/16/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Episode two of HBO's Lovecraft Country features Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey on the Moon" - in fact, the episode itself is titled "Whitey's on the Moon." While Lovecraft Country takes place in the '50s, Scott-Heron's spoken-word poem first came out in 1970, right after the moon landing. Given that the series is a blend of sci-fi monsters and the horrors of Jim Crow segregation, the song choice certainly makes sense. But what exactly is the history behind the song? Let's take a look at the song and how it fits into America's social context during this turbulent era.
Scott-Heron released his debut album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, in 1970. Perhaps the most well-known track from the record is "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." On side two, Scott-Heron also made waves with "Whitey on the Moon." In the opening moments of the recording, Scott-Heron says that he was inspired...
Scott-Heron released his debut album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, in 1970. Perhaps the most well-known track from the record is "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." On side two, Scott-Heron also made waves with "Whitey on the Moon." In the opening moments of the recording, Scott-Heron says that he was inspired...
- 8/24/2020
- by Stacey Nguyen
- Popsugar.com
In the nearly half-century since author Stephen King began entertaining and simultaneously scaring the bejesus out of his countless fans around the world, filmed adaptations of his work have become so much a staple that we’re now deep into the remakes phase of his prolific output. The 2017 feature film version of King’s “It” grossed $700 million worldwide, 27 years after the creepy clown yarn had terrified TV viewers in the form of an iconic miniseries. This year, horror fans will be treated to a 30th anniversary remake of King’s classic terror tale “Pet Sematary.”
Consider this: There are currently nearly 50 King projects in various stages of production and/or development per the film and TV business-tracking site
IMDb, including: the “Shining” feature film sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” a film sequel to “It,” a third season of “Mr. Mercedes” and the second season of the King-Universe TV series, “Castle Rock.”
King...
Consider this: There are currently nearly 50 King projects in various stages of production and/or development per the film and TV business-tracking site
IMDb, including: the “Shining” feature film sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” a film sequel to “It,” a third season of “Mr. Mercedes” and the second season of the King-Universe TV series, “Castle Rock.”
King...
- 2/5/2019
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
As fly-on-the-wall rock-doc experiences go, there are few more thrilling than the first 10 minutes of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1968 film Sympathy for the Devil.
After the opening credits silently roll, we’re immediately transported to London’s Olympic Studios in the June of 1968, where the Rolling Stones are recording what will become Beggar’s Banquet. The band is in peak Byronic-dandy form, sporting an impressive array of colorful trousers and footwear (Bill Wyman’s hot pink boots take first prize), but it quickly becomes clear that these gentlemen aren’t merely flouncing around in their finery.
After the opening credits silently roll, we’re immediately transported to London’s Olympic Studios in the June of 1968, where the Rolling Stones are recording what will become Beggar’s Banquet. The band is in peak Byronic-dandy form, sporting an impressive array of colorful trousers and footwear (Bill Wyman’s hot pink boots take first prize), but it quickly becomes clear that these gentlemen aren’t merely flouncing around in their finery.
- 10/5/2018
- by Dan Epstein
- Rollingstone.com
Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman made its Croisette debut last night to a rapturous welcome, complete with that most over-hyped of Cannes staples: the endless standing ovation. No surprise. Lee’s first movie in Cannes’ main competition since Jungle Fever in 1991 is a searing call-to-arms to a post-Charlottesville world, and the filmmaker’s most impressive work in years.
Earlier in the day, before the movie screened, Lee visited Deadline’s Cannes Studio with his stars John David Washington and Laura Harrier to talk us through his attraction to the story. Washington plays Ron Stallworth, a Colorado Springs undercover officer who successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, ultimately becoming the leader of its local chapter and gaining the trust of Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace).
The project came to Lee after being developed by Blumhouse and Get Out director Jordan Peele. Peele immediately identified Lee as the man to bring it to the screen.
Earlier in the day, before the movie screened, Lee visited Deadline’s Cannes Studio with his stars John David Washington and Laura Harrier to talk us through his attraction to the story. Washington plays Ron Stallworth, a Colorado Springs undercover officer who successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, ultimately becoming the leader of its local chapter and gaining the trust of Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace).
The project came to Lee after being developed by Blumhouse and Get Out director Jordan Peele. Peele immediately identified Lee as the man to bring it to the screen.
- 5/15/2018
- by Joe Utichi
- Deadline Film + TV
Syria’s first ever submission in the Motion Picture Academy’s Foreign Language category, “Little Gandhi”, is one of a handful of documentaries submitted for Best Foreign Language Film nomination this year.
It comes to the Academy in a most unusual way. It was selected not by the country which is how submissions are always made, but by a committee of artists in exile. If any of these people had actually been in Syria they would likely have been imprisoned, tortured and executed, for this was the fate of Ghiyath Matar, the Syrian activist who became known for giving flowers and roses to army soldiers in his home town of Daraya, leader of the once peaceful Syrian revolution and the Little Gandhi of the title. It premiered at the ongoing Asian World Film Festival.
I have yet to see the documentary submission for Academy Award® nomination entitled Syria Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of Isis...
It comes to the Academy in a most unusual way. It was selected not by the country which is how submissions are always made, but by a committee of artists in exile. If any of these people had actually been in Syria they would likely have been imprisoned, tortured and executed, for this was the fate of Ghiyath Matar, the Syrian activist who became known for giving flowers and roses to army soldiers in his home town of Daraya, leader of the once peaceful Syrian revolution and the Little Gandhi of the title. It premiered at the ongoing Asian World Film Festival.
I have yet to see the documentary submission for Academy Award® nomination entitled Syria Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of Isis...
- 10/29/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Most compelling tales of war derive their power from their lack of triumph. In armed conflict, successful action is often coupled with grave consequences and seeing a particular battle through all sides only reinforces that idea of loss. Even the momentarily victorious parties are aware that their success, as a rule, must come at the expense of their foes.
For a series built on opposites, that’s the binary emphasized most in “Guerrilla,” the new six-part drama from Showtime and Sky and the latest foray into television for executive producer John Ridley. Charting the evolution of a small, committed group of black power advocates to members of a newly-formed armed resistance group, it’s a show that continuously reevaluates its own battle lines.
Read More: Idris Elba on England’s Black Civil Rights Movement in ‘Guerrilla’ Behind-the-Scenes Video — Watch
Babou Ceesay and Freida Pinto star as Marcus Hill and Jas Mitra,...
For a series built on opposites, that’s the binary emphasized most in “Guerrilla,” the new six-part drama from Showtime and Sky and the latest foray into television for executive producer John Ridley. Charting the evolution of a small, committed group of black power advocates to members of a newly-formed armed resistance group, it’s a show that continuously reevaluates its own battle lines.
Read More: Idris Elba on England’s Black Civil Rights Movement in ‘Guerrilla’ Behind-the-Scenes Video — Watch
Babou Ceesay and Freida Pinto star as Marcus Hill and Jas Mitra,...
- 4/12/2017
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
[[tmz:video id="0_j9thkrpa"]] Jada Pinkett Smith did something remarkable and powerful Sunday, posting words that could have been delivered by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver 50 years ago. Jada -- whose husband, Will Smith, was overlooked by the Academy for his performance in "Concussion" -- says in a super powerful way, "Maybe it's time we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities, and we make programs for ourselves that acknowledge us in ways that we see fit,...
- 1/18/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Revolutionaries. Visionaries. Militants. Terrorists.
All of these words, and so very many more, can be and have been used to describe the group known as The Black Panthers. Born out of a point in American history where a never ending war was being broadcast on our TV sets and racism flooding our streets, The Black Panther Part for Self-Defense became at first a group seeking equality only to become a groundbreaking collection of African American men and women that would forever change the landscape of this very nation. And thanks to legendary documentarian Stanley Nelson Jr., the party (for the first time) now has a feature length documentary taking a clear-eyed look at the history of this monumentally influential collection of revolutionaries.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of The Revolution tells the rise and fall of this group, with Nelson going directly to some of the top players in the infrastructure of the party.
All of these words, and so very many more, can be and have been used to describe the group known as The Black Panthers. Born out of a point in American history where a never ending war was being broadcast on our TV sets and racism flooding our streets, The Black Panther Part for Self-Defense became at first a group seeking equality only to become a groundbreaking collection of African American men and women that would forever change the landscape of this very nation. And thanks to legendary documentarian Stanley Nelson Jr., the party (for the first time) now has a feature length documentary taking a clear-eyed look at the history of this monumentally influential collection of revolutionaries.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of The Revolution tells the rise and fall of this group, with Nelson going directly to some of the top players in the infrastructure of the party.
- 9/11/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Stanley Nelson's documentary relies heavily upon talking head interviews to capture the multitude of perspectives. The Black Panthers takes a very black and white perspective when chronicling the Panthers' interactions with the police; though in most cases the Panthers were probably right and the police were probably wrong, Nelson seems afraid to question the legitimacy of the Panthers' actions. For example, Nelson does not care if Huey Newton actually killed Oakland police officer John Frey or not, he merely focuses on the media attention that the "Free Huey!" protests received. That said, Nelson has no qualms about revealing the warts of the Panther leadership -- Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, specifically, are shown in fairly unfavorable light.
- 1/24/2015
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
+“Sometimes the class struggle is also the struggle of one image against another image, of one sound against another sound. In a film, this struggle is against images and sounds.”
- British Sounds
There was something in the air when Jean-Luc Godard took up the political banner of the late 1960s and shifted his filmmaking focus in terms of storytelling style and stories told, and in a general sense of formal reevaluation and reinvention. Always considered something of the enfant terrible of the French Nouvelle Vague, Godard was keen from the start to experiment with the conventional norms of cinematic aesthetics, from the jarring jump cuts of Breathless (1960), to the self-conscious playfulness of A Woman is a Woman (1961), to the genre deviations of Band of Outsiders (1964) and Made in USA (1966). But Godard was still, at a most basic level, operating along a fairly conventional plane of fictional cinema, one with...
- British Sounds
There was something in the air when Jean-Luc Godard took up the political banner of the late 1960s and shifted his filmmaking focus in terms of storytelling style and stories told, and in a general sense of formal reevaluation and reinvention. Always considered something of the enfant terrible of the French Nouvelle Vague, Godard was keen from the start to experiment with the conventional norms of cinematic aesthetics, from the jarring jump cuts of Breathless (1960), to the self-conscious playfulness of A Woman is a Woman (1961), to the genre deviations of Band of Outsiders (1964) and Made in USA (1966). But Godard was still, at a most basic level, operating along a fairly conventional plane of fictional cinema, one with...
- 10/17/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
I was just informed that The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975 - Swedish director Göran Hugo Olsson's acclaimed feature documentary which provides audiences with a *remixed* look at the black liberation struggle in the United States during the years in the film's title - is coming to book format. To be published on paperback by Haymarket Books, it'll go on sale at your local or online book store, starting February 4, 2014. The book, which will also be titled The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975, will include historical speeches and interviews by: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile...
- 1/15/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Talk about an intriguing director(s)/subject pairing. Filmmaker, scholar, distinguished professor at New York University, and director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs, Manthia Diawara and British-Ghanaian experimental filmmaker John Akomfrah (who I don't think needs much of an intro around here), have teamed up to co-direct a documentary on the life of Kathleen Cleaver - once member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (Sncc), and eventual Spokesperson for the Black Panther Party (the first woman on its central committee), and wife of the party's Minister Of Information, Eldridge Cleaver. The USA/Algeria/France co-production is...
- 7/12/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Whoa! Talk about an intriguing director pairing. Filmmaker, scholar, distinguished professor at New York University, and director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs, Manthia Diawara and British-Ghanaian experimental filmmaker John Akomfrah (who I don't think needs much of an intro around here), have teamed up to co-direct a documentary on the life of Kathleen Cleaver - once member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (Sncc), and eventual Spokesperson for the Black Panther Party (the first woman on its central committee), and wife of the party's Minister Of Information, Eldridge Cleaver. The USA/Algeria/France co-production is...
- 7/10/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The great photographer, film-maker and iconoclast reflects on a life spent in pursuit of his personal vision
'People were terrified of him, as though it was the lion's den," the Vogue model, Dorothy McGowan, said of working with William Klein back in the 60s. At 84, Klein has mellowed somewhat, though he still tells it like it is. "People ask me why I never went back home to America," he says, when I meet him in his apartment overlooking the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. "Have you seen those crazy right-wing assholes who want to be president? The place is so reactionary it just makes me angry. If I lived there, you wouldn't be interviewing me, I'd be dead from a heart attack by now."
Wearing patched, faded denim jeans and a baggy jumper, his mane of white hair thinner now, Klein moves slowly and unsteadily around his spacious but cluttered living room,...
'People were terrified of him, as though it was the lion's den," the Vogue model, Dorothy McGowan, said of working with William Klein back in the 60s. At 84, Klein has mellowed somewhat, though he still tells it like it is. "People ask me why I never went back home to America," he says, when I meet him in his apartment overlooking the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. "Have you seen those crazy right-wing assholes who want to be president? The place is so reactionary it just makes me angry. If I lived there, you wouldn't be interviewing me, I'd be dead from a heart attack by now."
Wearing patched, faded denim jeans and a baggy jumper, his mane of white hair thinner now, Klein moves slowly and unsteadily around his spacious but cluttered living room,...
- 4/28/2012
- by Sean O'Hagan
- The Guardian - Film News
Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage. Longtime political and human rights activist Angela Davis stopped by Pasadena and TCA this afternoon to help promote a new edition of the PBS series Independent Lens in which she appears. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 is based on footage shot by Swedish journalists in the late 1960s and early ’70s to document the Black Power movement. Premiering on February 9, the show weaves footage shot on the streets of Harlem, Brooklyn and Oakland with interviews of movement leaders Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, Davis and numerous others. Davis is now a college professor, having spent the past 15 years teaching at the University of California – Santa Cruz. Her areas of expertise include the “history of consciousness” and feminist studies. She’s also the author of eight books, one of which documents her years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List in the...
- 1/6/2012
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 19th, 2011
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 brings together, for 90 fascinating minutes, a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the Us drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement – Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them, the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this collection of unedited film was found languishing in the basement of a Swedish Television station. Director Goran Olsson discovered this footage and assembled a documentary chronicling the evolution of one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Featuring music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from prominent African- American artists and activists who were influenced by the struggle — including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli,...
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 brings together, for 90 fascinating minutes, a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the Us drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement – Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them, the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this collection of unedited film was found languishing in the basement of a Swedish Television station. Director Goran Olsson discovered this footage and assembled a documentary chronicling the evolution of one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Featuring music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from prominent African- American artists and activists who were influenced by the struggle — including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli,...
- 10/25/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This fascinating documentary brings together material shot by Swedish documentarists and TV journalists dealing with the African American civil rights movement from the time of Martin Luther King's death to the fall of Nixon, accompanied by recently recorded voiceover commentaries. Among the latter are that remarkable survivor Angela Davis, the film-maker Melvin Van Peebles, Kathleen Cleaver (onetime wife of Eldridge Cleaver, author of Soul on Ice) and Harry Belafonte. Most younger viewers will require more context for both parts of the film than Olsson provides.
DocumentaryWorld cinemaRace issuesPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
DocumentaryWorld cinemaRace issuesPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 10/22/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ One of the finest documentaries screening at this month's BFI London Film Festival, if not all year, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 has been a labour of love for its Swedish director Göran Olsson and production team (including Us actor turned co-producer Danny Glover). Olsson has poured over hundreds of hours of seemingly forgotten archive footage recorded by a group of his countrymen at the time of the Black Power Movement, and has succeeded in creating an incredibly coherent document of the historic events.
Key to the film's success is the quality of interviewee the original Swedish film crew managed to pin down. Black Power icons such as Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale and Angela Davis are all present, giving hitherto unseen accounts of their role in the struggle for African American equality.
Most interesting are the various different approaches and levels of response against oppression that the various figureheads condoned.
Key to the film's success is the quality of interviewee the original Swedish film crew managed to pin down. Black Power icons such as Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale and Angela Davis are all present, giving hitherto unseen accounts of their role in the struggle for African American equality.
Most interesting are the various different approaches and levels of response against oppression that the various figureheads condoned.
- 10/14/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
Danny Glover's new documentary, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-75, profiles the Black Panthers. 'I'm a child of the civil rights movement,' he says
"I think we have to be really observant as consumers," says Danny Glover. "The people we want to be can be reflected in our cultural art, and we can give value to that. We can do that. It can be entertainment – there's nothing wrong with that – but it can be enlightening as well. There is a choice."
He pauses: "Just look at what kind of films are being produced now, and what the film industry is attempting to do, and it seems like it's reverted back to some kind of past vision of the status quo. Look at the films. You see what movies get made, and what movies don't get made. You see what technology has done, and how they're using it in the...
"I think we have to be really observant as consumers," says Danny Glover. "The people we want to be can be reflected in our cultural art, and we can give value to that. We can do that. It can be entertainment – there's nothing wrong with that – but it can be enlightening as well. There is a choice."
He pauses: "Just look at what kind of films are being produced now, and what the film industry is attempting to do, and it seems like it's reverted back to some kind of past vision of the status quo. Look at the films. You see what movies get made, and what movies don't get made. You see what technology has done, and how they're using it in the...
- 10/7/2011
- by Damon Wise
- The Guardian - Film News
On the run for 40 years, Wright's tale has what it takes for screen success. But such storytelling needs a conscientious approach
If the story of George Wright, the convicted murderer captured this week in Portugal after 40 years on the run, has not yet been optioned by an enterprising producer, then the film industry has really missed a trick. From a cinematic storytelling perspective, this tale has everything. Wright, who had participated in a spree of armed robberies, was imprisoned for the murder of the service station owner Walter Patterson in 1962, only to escape from the Bayside state prison farm in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970. Already you've got the heist movie and the prison break-out movie covered. That's a big market: expressed in mathematical terms the potential audience would be (fans of Bonnie and Clyde) + (fans of The Shawshank Redemption). And only a fool would rule out defenders of Buster.
But there's more.
If the story of George Wright, the convicted murderer captured this week in Portugal after 40 years on the run, has not yet been optioned by an enterprising producer, then the film industry has really missed a trick. From a cinematic storytelling perspective, this tale has everything. Wright, who had participated in a spree of armed robberies, was imprisoned for the murder of the service station owner Walter Patterson in 1962, only to escape from the Bayside state prison farm in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970. Already you've got the heist movie and the prison break-out movie covered. That's a big market: expressed in mathematical terms the potential audience would be (fans of Bonnie and Clyde) + (fans of The Shawshank Redemption). And only a fool would rule out defenders of Buster.
But there's more.
- 9/28/2011
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
"Leonard Retel Helmrich's Position Among the Stars should be essential viewing for anyone curious to know what the rapidly modernizing 'second world' actually looks like," writes Steve Macfarlane in the L: "motorcycles, bootlegged t-shirts, plastic Tupperware containers, cell phones, and scores of dead cockroaches. Indonesia — the fourth biggest country in the world, and the nation with the largest Muslim population — has been the topic of Helmrich's life work, a trilogy of docs culminating here."
This "third documentary about the same Indonesian family is a dazzler in at least a couple ways," adds Seth Colter Walls in the Voice. "First off, it's the rare final chapter in a decade-plus-long saga — a trilogy that also includes 2001's The Eye of the Day and 2004's Shape of the Moon — that you can slide right into without any prior knowledge. There's a brief 'previously in post-Suharto Indonesia' montage at the beginning that draws...
This "third documentary about the same Indonesian family is a dazzler in at least a couple ways," adds Seth Colter Walls in the Voice. "First off, it's the rare final chapter in a decade-plus-long saga — a trilogy that also includes 2001's The Eye of the Day and 2004's Shape of the Moon — that you can slide right into without any prior knowledge. There's a brief 'previously in post-Suharto Indonesia' montage at the beginning that draws...
- 9/15/2011
- MUBI
Archival documentaries have a certain allure to them; they offer a window to events and people in the past, rather than resorting to modern techniques of reenactments, or juxtaposing new footage against old photos. The challenge then becomes, when one makes an archive film, how does one make the subject interesting and relevant to a modern audience while visually residing in the past. Filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson does just this with excellent skill in The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975.
While working on another project in a Swedish television studio, Olsson stumbled upon a trove of archival footage, originally recorded by Swedish journalists in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Coming in as outsiders with a curious, neutral disposition, these journalists were able to visit America during a very tumultuous time, and talk candidly with figures on both sides. Shown in a rough, yearly chronological order, the film depicts the complexities faced at the time,...
While working on another project in a Swedish television studio, Olsson stumbled upon a trove of archival footage, originally recorded by Swedish journalists in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Coming in as outsiders with a curious, neutral disposition, these journalists were able to visit America during a very tumultuous time, and talk candidly with figures on both sides. Shown in a rough, yearly chronological order, the film depicts the complexities faced at the time,...
- 9/9/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
On behalf of Sundance Selects, here is the latest information on Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson.s revelatory The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, co-produced by longtime activist and actor Danny Glover. An irresistible audiovisual collage, the film combines a treasure trove of recently rediscovered footage of the 1967.75 black power movement with penetrating commentary by leading contemporary African-American voices, all set to an evocative soundtrack by Questlove of the Roots and Om.Mas. A Best Editing prize-winner at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 also screened at the New Directors/New Films festival.
At the end of the 1960s, numerous Swedish journalists came to the Us, drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Filming for close to a decade, they gained the trust of many of the leaders of the black power movement.Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them.capturing them in...
At the end of the 1960s, numerous Swedish journalists came to the Us, drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Filming for close to a decade, they gained the trust of many of the leaders of the black power movement.Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them.capturing them in...
- 8/17/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Early '80's and a call to ask if I would want to meet with Eldridge Cleaver, former Black Panther and author of the seminal "Soul on Ice," a memoir of a a radical black militant in prison. As a good liberal, I had read Cleaver's book and never believed he would be alive and well (and free) to meet with a William Morris agent. But now I saw "Ice" as a four-hour miniseries for CBS and called Dennis Doty, who was handling the network for packaging. "You want to go to lunch with Eldridge Cleaver?" He, too, envisioned...
- 5/2/2011
- The Wrap
Toronto's 2011 Hot Docs Film Festival is now officially underway, having kicked off the proceedings last night with a screening of Morgan Spurlock's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Over the next week we will be catching some of the many great documentaries playing this year, so you can expect some reviews to turn up on Film Junk and The Documentary Blog in the near future. However, if you're interested in attending some screenings yourself, I thought it might be worthwhile to offer up a quick preview of what's playing so you can try and order some tickets [1] before it's too late. Check out our top picks of the fest, complete with trailers or video clips where possible, listed after the jump! Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey Directed by: Constance Marks Synopsis: The film traces Kevin Clash's rise from his modest beginnings in Baltimore to his current success as the...
- 4/29/2011
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
Fine film-maker whose subjects ranged from Kennedy to Hendrix
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
- 3/25/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
I first saw this at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and posted my review of it soon afterward. It’s screening in New York later this month as a New Directors/New Films Festival selection (its east coast premiere). Press screenings for the Nd/Nf started this week, and I saw the film for a second time earlier this afternoon. I’ve been reviewing all the films screened at the festival, as promised; but instead of typing up a new review of this one, I’m posting my initial Sundance thoughts. So here ya go…
I think we could argue that the legacy of the Black Power Movement really hasn’t been properly placed in context. Historically vilified by some, or fetishized by others, its effect and influence on other political movements still isn’t widely acknowledged and celebrated, unlike the earlier Civil Rights Movement.
Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson’s empowering Sundance 2011 entry,...
I think we could argue that the legacy of the Black Power Movement really hasn’t been properly placed in context. Historically vilified by some, or fetishized by others, its effect and influence on other political movements still isn’t widely acknowledged and celebrated, unlike the earlier Civil Rights Movement.
Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson’s empowering Sundance 2011 entry,...
- 3/11/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Sundance Selects acquired North American rights to Goran Hugo Olsson's The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, the documentary that premiered at 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film also screened at the Berlin Festival this week. Film chonicles footage taken by Swedish journalists focusing on the Black Power and Black Panther movements in the Us. The journos took footage of everyone from Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Angela Davis to Eldridge Cleaver. The 16 mm footage sat in a basement for 30 years. The film's produced by Story Ab's Annika Rogell, and co-produced by Joslyn Barnes and Danny Glover of Louverture Films and Sveriges Television. Arianna Bacco negotiated the deal for Sundance Selects/IFC with Cinetic Media.
- 2/14/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Chicago – Nominated right alongside buzzed-about features such as “Get Low” and “Tiny Furniture” in the Best First Feature category at this year’s Indie Spirit Awards is “Night Catches Us,” the impressive yet entirely overlooked filmmaking debut of writer/producer/director Tanya Hamilton. The film breaks no new ground artistically, but its historical backdrop has rarely been explored in cinema.
Welcome to Philadelphia, 1976. The rumblings of revolution during the 1960s have faded into the distance, but their remnants are scattered all over the volatile neighborhood occupied by Patricia (Kerry Washington). She’s a single mom resigned to shutting out the past while still remaining entrapped by it. Patricia’s caginess causes her ever-curious daughter, Iris (Jamara Griffin), to resort to drastic measures, literally ripping apart the wallpaper in an effort to unearth her family’s blood-stained secrets (this is an example of the film’s less than subtle visual metaphors...
Welcome to Philadelphia, 1976. The rumblings of revolution during the 1960s have faded into the distance, but their remnants are scattered all over the volatile neighborhood occupied by Patricia (Kerry Washington). She’s a single mom resigned to shutting out the past while still remaining entrapped by it. Patricia’s caginess causes her ever-curious daughter, Iris (Jamara Griffin), to resort to drastic measures, literally ripping apart the wallpaper in an effort to unearth her family’s blood-stained secrets (this is an example of the film’s less than subtle visual metaphors...
- 2/10/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
I think we could argue that the legacy of the Black Power Movement really hasn’t been properly placed in context. Historically vilified by some, or fetishized by others, its effect and influence on other political movements still isn’t widely acknowledged and celebrated, unlike the earlier Civil Rights Movement.
Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson’s empowering Sundance 2011 entry, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, produced by Danny Glover, attempts to contextualizes the movement, at home and abroad, highlight its successes and failures, and note its importance today; it wants to raise awareness and reignite penetrating discussion on the movement, by introducing it to a new global generation, in a format that may be more accessible to them – the concept we call the “mixtape,” hence the title.
The story goes… the late 60s/early 70s saw Swedish interest in the Us Civil Rights Movement peak; and with a demonstrated combination of commitment and naivete,...
Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson’s empowering Sundance 2011 entry, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, produced by Danny Glover, attempts to contextualizes the movement, at home and abroad, highlight its successes and failures, and note its importance today; it wants to raise awareness and reignite penetrating discussion on the movement, by introducing it to a new global generation, in a format that may be more accessible to them – the concept we call the “mixtape,” hence the title.
The story goes… the late 60s/early 70s saw Swedish interest in the Us Civil Rights Movement peak; and with a demonstrated combination of commitment and naivete,...
- 1/29/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
In the ’80s, the movies that revolutionized American independent film, changing it from something earnest into something hot-blooded and knowing, were modern freakazoid noirs like Blood Simple and Blue Velvet, drenched in sex and violence and tantalizing dread. These days, the subject matter that has the equivalent effect is high finance. Money, and the corruption of money, is the new, sophisticated content porn of the indie world. More than ever, we’re all obsessed with the lure and the false promise of money, and with how so much of it went poof! over the last three years. The cautionary dawn-of-the-economic-crisis...
- 1/26/2011
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW - Inside Movies
And we’re off…! As I said in my post announcing the Sundance 2011 lineup, I’ll be going over the complete list, highlighting titles that we already haven’t given coverage to, taking into consideration this blog’s specific interests.
The first is a documentary titled The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, directed by Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson, and co-produced by Danny Glover and his Louverture Films.
Its synopsis: From 1967 to 1975, Swedish journalists chronicled the Black Power movement in America. Combining that 16mm footage, undiscovered until now, with contemporary audio interviews, this film illuminates the people and culture that fueled change and brings the movement to life anew.
Included in the mix are appearances and commentary by: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, Angela Davis, Harry Belafonte, Kathleen Cleaver, Robin Kelley, Abiodun Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Seale...
The first is a documentary titled The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, directed by Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson, and co-produced by Danny Glover and his Louverture Films.
Its synopsis: From 1967 to 1975, Swedish journalists chronicled the Black Power movement in America. Combining that 16mm footage, undiscovered until now, with contemporary audio interviews, this film illuminates the people and culture that fueled change and brings the movement to life anew.
Included in the mix are appearances and commentary by: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, Angela Davis, Harry Belafonte, Kathleen Cleaver, Robin Kelley, Abiodun Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Seale...
- 12/2/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
You'd think that there was nothing "nice" about criminals. They are people who should be reviled, particularly for crimes of murder and rape. Yet in a New York Times review that cites Norman Mailer's relationship with Utah killer Gary Gilmore, Michiko Kakutani states: "The 'ordinary' criminal who espouses a radical mode of thought, after all, has long exerted a certain hold on the literary imagination. Jean Genet, for instance, who was jailed for theft and male prostitution, was granted a presidential pardon thanks to pleas from Andre Gide, Jean Cocteau, Paul Claudel and Jean-Paul Sartre, and he was later canonized by Sartre in 'Saint Genet.' Eldridge Cleaver, who wrote .Soul on Ice' while serving time for rape, was praised by Maxwell Geismar for eloquently illuminating the 'black soul which had been colonized' by an oppressive white society.'' For a time Jacques Mesrine, who once held the title...
- 7/21/2010
- Arizona Reporter
Tambay alerted the S&A audience of BAMcinématek’s Contraband Cinema week showings of She’s Gotta Have It, Eldridge Cleaver and Chameleon Street here in NYC. But there are some other great films also showing in this series – docs mostly – that you should check out.
Tomorrow, Saturday July 3rd is what looks to be an interesting flick about the fantastic and notable (also difficult and confusing, but that’s subjective) bi-racial sci-fi writer Samuel Delany, writer of The Einstein Intersection, Dhalgren, and Return to Nevèrÿon series:
The Polymath or The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman
Sat, Jul 3 at 7pm
Q&A with author and film subject Samuel R. Delany and director Fred Barney Taylor
Science fiction author Samuel R. Delany reminds his readers that revolution is both personal and political. Taylor’s film mirrors Delany’s life as a queer, biracial man whose writings rock the...
Tomorrow, Saturday July 3rd is what looks to be an interesting flick about the fantastic and notable (also difficult and confusing, but that’s subjective) bi-racial sci-fi writer Samuel Delany, writer of The Einstein Intersection, Dhalgren, and Return to Nevèrÿon series:
The Polymath or The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman
Sat, Jul 3 at 7pm
Q&A with author and film subject Samuel R. Delany and director Fred Barney Taylor
Science fiction author Samuel R. Delany reminds his readers that revolution is both personal and political. Taylor’s film mirrors Delany’s life as a queer, biracial man whose writings rock the...
- 7/2/2010
- by Curtis the Media Man
- ShadowAndAct
Also screening at Bam Cinematek (see Hey New York #1 just below this post) is a 75-minute 1969 documentary on leading member of the Black Panther Party Eldridge Cleaver, titled Eldridge Cleaver. It’s part of the BAMcinématek Contraband Cinema screening series. I like the title.
The film screens tomorrow, Wednesday, June 30 at 4:30pm, and again on Sunday, July 4, which will be followed by a Q&A with his widow, Kathleen Cleaver.
Synopsis: Under pressure from FBI’s counterintelligence program, Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and his wife Kathleen left the United States for Algeria. There, he set up the International Section of the Black Panther Party which quickly became the hangout of revolutionaries from the Vietnamese and African liberation movements. Director Klein’s moving interview follows up with Cleaver during the Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers, where he expounds upon the Vietnam War and Black Power during a time when “revolution...
The film screens tomorrow, Wednesday, June 30 at 4:30pm, and again on Sunday, July 4, which will be followed by a Q&A with his widow, Kathleen Cleaver.
Synopsis: Under pressure from FBI’s counterintelligence program, Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and his wife Kathleen left the United States for Algeria. There, he set up the International Section of the Black Panther Party which quickly became the hangout of revolutionaries from the Vietnamese and African liberation movements. Director Klein’s moving interview follows up with Cleaver during the Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers, where he expounds upon the Vietnam War and Black Power during a time when “revolution...
- 6/29/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The mythical story of Dock Ellis and the no-hitter he pitched in 1970 while on LSD is one giant matryoshka doll. There's layer upon exquisite layer to be uncovered: The black power movement, the war on drugs, Major League Baseball's free-agency era. And that's just the first couple of layers.
In the last year, the story of Ellis, who died in 2008, has been resurrected in song -- it's the sixth time -- with folkie Todd Snider's "America's Favorite Pastime." That was followed by artist James Blagden's psychedelic animated short, "Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No." Now there's a movie, "No No: A Dockumentary," in production.
Austin filmmakers Jeffrey Radice and Mike Blizzard, "No No"'s writer/director and producer, respectively, took the occasion of June 12th, the 40th anniversary of Ellis' no-hitter with the Pittsburgh Pirates, to debut a seven-minute trailer of their forthcoming documentary. The location was The Highball, the...
In the last year, the story of Ellis, who died in 2008, has been resurrected in song -- it's the sixth time -- with folkie Todd Snider's "America's Favorite Pastime." That was followed by artist James Blagden's psychedelic animated short, "Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No." Now there's a movie, "No No: A Dockumentary," in production.
Austin filmmakers Jeffrey Radice and Mike Blizzard, "No No"'s writer/director and producer, respectively, took the occasion of June 12th, the 40th anniversary of Ellis' no-hitter with the Pittsburgh Pirates, to debut a seven-minute trailer of their forthcoming documentary. The location was The Highball, the...
- 6/24/2010
- by Michael Hoinski
- ifc.com
Dennis Hopper: actor, artist, filmmaker, Hollywood survivor.
Just days after remembering the loss of Sydney Pollack two years ago, we awaken to mourn the loss of another Hollywood icon, Dennis Hopper, less than two weeks after his 74th birthday. Hopper had been on my short list of "dream interviews" during my tenure at Venice Magazine. When I was lucky enough to finally sit down with him in November of 2008, I was thrilled, and didn't know quite what to expect.
What I found while smoking cigars with Hopper in his Venice home-studio, was a thoughtful man with a gentle demeanor, who spoke in measured tones and loved telling stories. Gone was the wild-eyed "enfant terrible" that Hopper had made his name playing, and sometimes living. What I saw instead was a man who seemed to be at peace with himself and his life, who loved his children, art, film and new ideas.
Just days after remembering the loss of Sydney Pollack two years ago, we awaken to mourn the loss of another Hollywood icon, Dennis Hopper, less than two weeks after his 74th birthday. Hopper had been on my short list of "dream interviews" during my tenure at Venice Magazine. When I was lucky enough to finally sit down with him in November of 2008, I was thrilled, and didn't know quite what to expect.
What I found while smoking cigars with Hopper in his Venice home-studio, was a thoughtful man with a gentle demeanor, who spoke in measured tones and loved telling stories. Gone was the wild-eyed "enfant terrible" that Hopper had made his name playing, and sometimes living. What I saw instead was a man who seemed to be at peace with himself and his life, who loved his children, art, film and new ideas.
- 6/1/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
I don't watch American Idol. You'd be surprised how much time it frees up -- like almost enough for an actual life. Not that my hands are completely clean, America -- I confess that I was Taylor Hicks' ghostwriter. That book was called "Heart Full of Soul" -- not to be confused with Soul on Fire by Eldridge Cleaver who I believe led a slightly different Soul Patrol. Still try as you might, you can't avoid Idol entirely. For instance, I just read that the ratings for the show have been down. I also heard that there was some debate raging about whether Kara DioGuardi will return as the fourth judge. I have absolutely nothing against Kara -- I quite enjoy some of her work as a songwriter and have seen enough to definitively declare that she is, in fact, way...
- 5/13/2009
- by David Wild
- Huffington Post
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