"But did he have rhythm?" Madman Films has revealed the first look trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, made by Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez. This film is an entrancing look back at a major moment in global politics during the Cold War, intertwining music history & pop culture with these events. Jazz & decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the Un Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba. After Lumumba was murdered in 1961, the US State Department swings into action by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup in the country. The doc features excerpts from My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin (narrated by Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama), Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, To Katanga & Back by Conor Cruise O’Brien (narrated...
- 5/5/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Louis Armstrong arrived in the Congolese capital, Leopoldville (now known as Kinshasa), on October 28, 1960, armed with his trumpet and wiping sweat from his brow. His visit was part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Africa, an arrangement Armstrong felt ambivalent about. Still, the Congolese people gave Satchmo, as the American jazz trumpeter was known, a near royal welcome. Drummers and dancers carried him to his performance venue on a red chair, fashioned like a throne. Civilians cheered him on. Ten thousand people showed up to watch him play.
This was a momentous occasion, a storied event for the newly independent republic of the Congo. Four months before Armstrong came to play jazz, the country had freed itself from the colonial grip of Belgium to become one of the more than dozen postcolonial African nations formed in 1960. But the region was still plagued with problems, most of them stemming...
This was a momentous occasion, a storied event for the newly independent republic of the Congo. Four months before Armstrong came to play jazz, the country had freed itself from the colonial grip of Belgium to become one of the more than dozen postcolonial African nations formed in 1960. But the region was still plagued with problems, most of them stemming...
- 3/1/2024
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Although he only made two fiction features, filmmaker Michael Roemer benefited greatly from an early rediscovery in the 1990s, thanks to the fortuitous unearthing of a film he made in 1969, The Plot Against Harry, a wry, dry comedy starring Martin Priest. His other film, 1964’s Nothing But a Man, is often compared by critics to the slicker, middle-America-friendly films that Sidney Poitier was making during the same era. Almost without exception, film about the minority experience in ’60s America were smoothed-over paeans to “the triumph of the human spirit,” starring or co-starring whites whose presence is required as witnesses, arbiters, and the final, thankful beneficiaries of growth and change. Bland but well-meaning, films like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and A Patch of Blue, seeking to instruct the white moviegoer by giving them a diagrammatic path to sociopolitical enlightenment, had a funny habit of discounting, even nullifying, the Black experience.
- 2/22/2024
- by Jaime N. Christley
- Slant Magazine
Robert M. Young, the adventurous director who called the shots for Edward James Olmos in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Farrah Fawcett in Extremities and Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta in Dominick and Eugene, died Feb. 6, his son Andrew announced. He was 99.
After getting his start in educational and documentary films, Young also directed the 1969 Peabody-winning CBS telefilm J.T., written by Jane Wagner. Revolving around a Harlem youngster (Kevin Hooks) and an alley cat, it bowed on a Saturday afternoon and was repeated in primetime as the network preempted its most popular show, Gunsmoke.
Young also served as cinematographer, producer and co-writer with director Michael Roemer on the critically acclaimed drama Nothing But a Man (1964), featuring Ivan Dixon and jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln as a struggling young Black couple in Alabama.
Young made his feature directorial debut with Short Eyes (1977), which starred Bruce Davison, José Pérez and several real-life prisoners...
After getting his start in educational and documentary films, Young also directed the 1969 Peabody-winning CBS telefilm J.T., written by Jane Wagner. Revolving around a Harlem youngster (Kevin Hooks) and an alley cat, it bowed on a Saturday afternoon and was repeated in primetime as the network preempted its most popular show, Gunsmoke.
Young also served as cinematographer, producer and co-writer with director Michael Roemer on the critically acclaimed drama Nothing But a Man (1964), featuring Ivan Dixon and jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln as a struggling young Black couple in Alabama.
Young made his feature directorial debut with Short Eyes (1977), which starred Bruce Davison, José Pérez and several real-life prisoners...
- 2/13/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Review: Soundtrack to a Coup d’État is a Vibrant, Complex, and Jazz-Infused Political Essay
It was Mark Twain who said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” which is one way of approaching Belgian filmmaker and multimedia artist Johan Grimonprez’s sprawling, jazz-infused Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. The political essay revisits 1960, a turbulent year in global affairs: Patrice Lumumba rises to power in Congo just as the United States, through the CIA-backed Voice of America radio network, aims to soften America’s image aboard, sending jazz musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, and Max Roach to tour the world. The film positions the jazz musicians as a kind of political cabinet while Gillespie envisions his own run for the White House on TV talk shows back home. It proceeds with a rather kinetic, defiant tone in which the jazz, breaking news, citations, and quotes interrupt the historical footage a more standard documentary may have primarily focused on.
- 2/9/2024
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
“The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo,” Langston Hughes wrote in his poem “Negro.” “They lynch me now in Texas.” The year was 1922, and racial segregation was the norm in the United States. Anti-Black racism in the South was such a millstone that the U.S. Senate failed to pass an NAACP-sponsored anti-lynching bill in January of that year, a list of simple protections that was prevented from coming to a vote due to filibusters.
Hughes’s poem is one piece of ephemera that comprises the massive tapestry that is Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. Director Johan Grimonprez’s documentary is primarily focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo and its struggle for independence from Belgian colonialism, during which time our government was using Black jazz musicians to, in its diplomatic tango with the Soviet Union, paint a portrait of American liberalism as benevolent.
The documentary focuses on...
Hughes’s poem is one piece of ephemera that comprises the massive tapestry that is Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. Director Johan Grimonprez’s documentary is primarily focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo and its struggle for independence from Belgian colonialism, during which time our government was using Black jazz musicians to, in its diplomatic tango with the Soviet Union, paint a portrait of American liberalism as benevolent.
The documentary focuses on...
- 1/23/2024
- by Greg Nussen
- Slant Magazine
Premiering out of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition, the impressionistic essay film “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” refracts the plot against Patrice Lumumba through a kaleidoscopic lens. Cutting between historical footage of the Un General Assembly and home movies shot in liberation-era Congo, weaving in a diverse set of perspectives, and setting the pace to a non-stop rhythm of bebop, rumba and classic jazz, director Johan Grimonprez evokes the euphoria of post-colonial possibility and the heartbreak of the dashed hopes and violent reprisals that would ensue.
“At first, I wanted to explore the colonial legacy of my own country,” says the Belgium-born Grimonprez. “I was already mesmerized by the story of Andrée Blouin, who was an independence leader, an advisor to [Ghana president] Kwame Nkrumah and chief of protocol for [first Congolese prime minister] Patrice Lumumba, but who was almost written out of history. And as a filmmaker, I like to explore those intimate stories within a wider,...
“At first, I wanted to explore the colonial legacy of my own country,” says the Belgium-born Grimonprez. “I was already mesmerized by the story of Andrée Blouin, who was an independence leader, an advisor to [Ghana president] Kwame Nkrumah and chief of protocol for [first Congolese prime minister] Patrice Lumumba, but who was almost written out of history. And as a filmmaker, I like to explore those intimate stories within a wider,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
The Girl Can’t Help It
Blu ray
Criterion
1957 / 2.35:1 / 98 Min.
Starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O’Brien
Written by Frank Tashlin
Directed by Frank Tashlin
In 1957 it was commonplace for burlesque comedians to share the bill with a musical act or two, but in New York’s theater district one of those revues stood out from the rest—it opened on February 8th at The Roxy, a magnificent theater dubbed “The Cathedral of the Motion Picture.” But that cathedral had never held a service like Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It—for 98 minutes the congregation was cajoled, regaled, and set free by a parade of clownish mobsters, gyrating showgirls and hyperventilating rockers raising the roof in 4 track stereo—the only thing missing was 3D—and who needed that with Jayne Mansfield center screen and busting out all over. William Castle introduced the gimmicky Emergo for House on Haunted Hill...
Blu ray
Criterion
1957 / 2.35:1 / 98 Min.
Starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O’Brien
Written by Frank Tashlin
Directed by Frank Tashlin
In 1957 it was commonplace for burlesque comedians to share the bill with a musical act or two, but in New York’s theater district one of those revues stood out from the rest—it opened on February 8th at The Roxy, a magnificent theater dubbed “The Cathedral of the Motion Picture.” But that cathedral had never held a service like Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It—for 98 minutes the congregation was cajoled, regaled, and set free by a parade of clownish mobsters, gyrating showgirls and hyperventilating rockers raising the roof in 4 track stereo—the only thing missing was 3D—and who needed that with Jayne Mansfield center screen and busting out all over. William Castle introduced the gimmicky Emergo for House on Haunted Hill...
- 4/23/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Next summer is already confirmed to be a “Summer of Soul.”
Oscar, Grammy, and Peabody award-winning documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” has sparked a reimagining of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which the film explores.
Produced and directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “Summer of Soul” was the inspiration for a new outdoor music festival set for 2023. The Harlem Festival of Culture (Hfc) will take place in Marcus Garvey Park, formerly known as Mount Morris Park, the same site as the original festival.
Hfc was founded by Harlem native, Ambassador Digital Magazine editor-in-chief Musa Jackson, who attended the original festival as a child and appeared in “Summer of Soul.” Nikoa Evans and Emmy-nominated event producer Yvonne McNair are also co-founders of the Hfc.
“The original event was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that I will never forget,” Jackson said in a press statement. “With this initiative,...
Oscar, Grammy, and Peabody award-winning documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” has sparked a reimagining of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which the film explores.
Produced and directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “Summer of Soul” was the inspiration for a new outdoor music festival set for 2023. The Harlem Festival of Culture (Hfc) will take place in Marcus Garvey Park, formerly known as Mount Morris Park, the same site as the original festival.
Hfc was founded by Harlem native, Ambassador Digital Magazine editor-in-chief Musa Jackson, who attended the original festival as a child and appeared in “Summer of Soul.” Nikoa Evans and Emmy-nominated event producer Yvonne McNair are also co-founders of the Hfc.
“The original event was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that I will never forget,” Jackson said in a press statement. “With this initiative,...
- 4/13/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
“All of us know a great deal about their music and the culture and the fashion and the films. But I didn’t realize how really groundbreaking they were in terms of their careers,” explains Dr. Mehret Mandefro, who is Emmy-nominated for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Series for the “American Masters” documentary “How it Feels to Be Free”; she produced it along with Michael Kantor, Lacey Schwartz Delgado, Elliott Halpern, Elizabeth Trojian, Julie Sacks and Grammy winner Alicia Keys. Based on the book of the same name by Ruth Feldstein, the film chronicles the art and activism of Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Pam Grier, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson. Watch our exclusive video interview with Mandefro above.
SEESee chats with 5 Emmy-nominated TV showrunners: ‘The Boys,’ ‘Black-ish,’ ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked,’ ‘Mahalia,’ ‘Black Lady Sketch Show’
The six artists profiled in the film represent the progress made by...
SEESee chats with 5 Emmy-nominated TV showrunners: ‘The Boys,’ ‘Black-ish,’ ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked,’ ‘Mahalia,’ ‘Black Lady Sketch Show’
The six artists profiled in the film represent the progress made by...
- 8/13/2021
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Emmy voters had a song in their hearts when they went to vote in the 2021 documentary categories. Of the projects nominated for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special, three out of five focused on superstar musicians: “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” “Tina” and “Framing Britney Spears (The New York Times Presents).”
HBO’s look at the Bee Gees led the music documentary crop in overall nominations, with six. Besides outstanding doc, the film about the Brothers Gibb is also up for direction, writing, editing, sound editing and sound mixing in the documentary/nonfiction division.
HBO was also behind the Tina Turner doc “Tina,” which landed three total nominations. It’s up in directing and sound mixing categories on top of its outstanding documentary bid.
“Framing Britney Spears,” which focused on Spears’ private-life travails and not her music, was destined to get fewer nods than competitors, with...
HBO’s look at the Bee Gees led the music documentary crop in overall nominations, with six. Besides outstanding doc, the film about the Brothers Gibb is also up for direction, writing, editing, sound editing and sound mixing in the documentary/nonfiction division.
HBO was also behind the Tina Turner doc “Tina,” which landed three total nominations. It’s up in directing and sound mixing categories on top of its outstanding documentary bid.
“Framing Britney Spears,” which focused on Spears’ private-life travails and not her music, was destined to get fewer nods than competitors, with...
- 7/13/2021
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
"The revolution will not be televised!" Searchlight Pictures has unveiled the first teaser trailer for the new music history documentary Summer of Soul, the feature directorial debut of DJ / musician Questlove - who Mc'd the Academy Awards show live last night. Summer of Soul first premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, and it will stop by HotDocs next. This film won over critics and audiences with audacious, joyful, uplifting look back at this remarkable music event. Summer Of Soul is a doc feature about the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which celebrated African American music and culture, and promoted Black pride and unity. The documentary feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach and more. This is an amazing ...
- 4/26/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
When he’s not part of a Grammy-winning band, providing tunes for late night TV, being involved with Broadway sensations, or DJ’ing the Oscars, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is also making movies. His directorial debut Summer of Soul premiered at Sundance earlier this year, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.
Bringing to life a once-forgotten part of Black history, The Harlem Cultural Festival, the riveting documentary unearths footage from the 1969 summer concert that was sitting in a basement for decades, finally now seeing the light of day. Featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach, and more, the first teaser has now arrived ahead of a July 2 release in theaters and on Hulu.
Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his Sundance review, “In many ways, it’s a miracle. Interspersed with crucial historical context, Summer of...
Bringing to life a once-forgotten part of Black history, The Harlem Cultural Festival, the riveting documentary unearths footage from the 1969 summer concert that was sitting in a basement for decades, finally now seeing the light of day. Featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach, and more, the first teaser has now arrived ahead of a July 2 release in theaters and on Hulu.
Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his Sundance review, “In many ways, it’s a miracle. Interspersed with crucial historical context, Summer of...
- 4/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, who examined the ties between the international arms industry and Western political establishments in his recent documentaries, the award-winning “Shadow World” and “Blue Orchids,” is set to explore its impact in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in his new project, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.”
Grimonprez and producer Daan Milius are presenting the project at the Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival’s Cph:Forum financing and co-production event, which runs April 26-30.
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” looks back at the hopeful rise of Patrice Lumumba, who became the first prime minister of the newly independent Congo in 1960, only to be deposed a few months later and executed the following year. Lumumba, who is also the subject of a new feature film project, had alarmed Belgium and the United States with his assertions that Congo’s riches should belong to the country’s people. He...
Grimonprez and producer Daan Milius are presenting the project at the Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival’s Cph:Forum financing and co-production event, which runs April 26-30.
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” looks back at the hopeful rise of Patrice Lumumba, who became the first prime minister of the newly independent Congo in 1960, only to be deposed a few months later and executed the following year. Lumumba, who is also the subject of a new feature film project, had alarmed Belgium and the United States with his assertions that Congo’s riches should belong to the country’s people. He...
- 4/24/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The Inheritance Review: History, Art, Ideology, and Love Converge in Thrillingly Alive Debut Feature
History, art, ideology, and love make up the four pillars of Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance, a thrillingly alive debut feature that resides both inside the square rooms of a West Philadelphia house and outside the boundaries of genre. As its title suggests, to assume the past experiences, lessons, and artistic creations of others can be liberating. But there’s also great personal responsibility to pass on that knowledge in some productive way.
With every jarring cut, temporal jump, and splash of vibrant color, Asili seems to be asking one central question: what do we do with the brimming feelings accumulated from learning about tragic events, listening to social justice leaders, experiencing the poems of living legends, and hearing live music? It’s a central conundrum facing young people immediately after experiencing a genuine moment of epiphany.
That sense of untapped energy fuels the scripted drama about a group of...
With every jarring cut, temporal jump, and splash of vibrant color, Asili seems to be asking one central question: what do we do with the brimming feelings accumulated from learning about tragic events, listening to social justice leaders, experiencing the poems of living legends, and hearing live music? It’s a central conundrum facing young people immediately after experiencing a genuine moment of epiphany.
That sense of untapped energy fuels the scripted drama about a group of...
- 3/11/2021
- by Glenn Heath Jr.
- The Film Stage
A pulsating panorama of “Black, beautiful, proud” people, “Summer of Soul,” is . But this one, which marks the directorial debut of The Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, comes with a most unfortunate history: Its film reels were buried in a basement for 50 years, largely unseen, until now.
The “Questlove Jawn,” as it’s introduced in opening credits, covers the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, aka “The Black Woodstock.” The name stuck over the years not only because the concerts coincided with that other big rock festival upstate. The idea for the event flowered from the ashes of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, as well as the Civil Rights movement, and was created to celebrate African-American music, culture and politics, and to promote Black pride and unity.
It wasn’t the first time. The initial Harlem Cultural Festival took place in 1967, when a thirtysomething Harlemite singer named...
The “Questlove Jawn,” as it’s introduced in opening credits, covers the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, aka “The Black Woodstock.” The name stuck over the years not only because the concerts coincided with that other big rock festival upstate. The idea for the event flowered from the ashes of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, as well as the Civil Rights movement, and was created to celebrate African-American music, culture and politics, and to promote Black pride and unity.
It wasn’t the first time. The initial Harlem Cultural Festival took place in 1967, when a thirtysomething Harlemite singer named...
- 1/29/2021
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Not many people know his name, but half a century ago Tony Lawrence created something extraordinary in the middle of New York City. And few people know the name Hal Tulchin, but he documented the feat. It was called the Harlem Cultural Festival, and over six weekends in the summer of 1969 it showcased more than five dozen acts and drew 300,000 people, who were charged not a cent to see — are you ready? — Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Staple Singers, Sly and the ...
- 1/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Not many people know his name, but half a century ago Tony Lawrence created something extraordinary in the middle of New York City. And few people know the name Hal Tulchin, but he documented the feat. It was called the Harlem Cultural Festival, and over six weekends in the summer of 1969 it showcased more than five dozen acts and drew 300,000 people, who were charged not a cent to see — are you ready? — Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Staple Singers, Sly and the ...
- 1/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Editor’s note: Yoruba Richen is the director and Mehret Mandefro and Lacey Schwartz Delgado are executive producers of American Masters: How It Feels to Be Free, a documentary that looks at the historical importance and overlooked contributions of Black performers. Focusing on Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier, the docu — also executive produced by Alicia Keys — airs tonight on PBS in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Richen, Mandefro and Schwartz Delgado wrote this guest column for Deadline.
As we honor Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend and the nation prepares to inaugurate our 46th president, let us remember the Black women our Vice President-elect Kamala Harris described as “too often overlooked, but so often prove that they are the backbone of our democracy.” Specifically, let’s consider the all-too-often overlooked Black female performers, who have long used their art to...
As we honor Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend and the nation prepares to inaugurate our 46th president, let us remember the Black women our Vice President-elect Kamala Harris described as “too often overlooked, but so often prove that they are the backbone of our democracy.” Specifically, let’s consider the all-too-often overlooked Black female performers, who have long used their art to...
- 1/18/2021
- by Yoruba Richen, Mehret Mandefro and Lacey Schwartz Delgado
- Deadline Film + TV
PBS’ American Masters documentary “How It Feels to Be Free” – which counts Alicia Keys among its roster of exec producers – salutes the careers of six Black female entertainers who used their celebrity to promote civil rights and challenge racists stereotypes.
The documentary – which premieres today on PBS and is set to become a market priority for its distributor Fremantle at NATPE this week – is directed by Yoruba Richen.
A Yap Films production in association with Itvs, Chicken & Egg pictures and Documentary Channel in Canada, it celebrates the careers of Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier.
While its premiere may seem timely in the wake of the Time’s Up and Black Lives Matters movements, PBS and Itvs first came on board five years ago – it just took years to raise the necessary finance, according to Richen.
It was only when two of the film...
The documentary – which premieres today on PBS and is set to become a market priority for its distributor Fremantle at NATPE this week – is directed by Yoruba Richen.
A Yap Films production in association with Itvs, Chicken & Egg pictures and Documentary Channel in Canada, it celebrates the careers of Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier.
While its premiere may seem timely in the wake of the Time’s Up and Black Lives Matters movements, PBS and Itvs first came on board five years ago – it just took years to raise the necessary finance, according to Richen.
It was only when two of the film...
- 1/18/2021
- by Ann-Marie Corvin
- Variety Film + TV
Popstar Alicia Keys is to exec produce a feature-length documentary about six iconic African American female entertainers for PBS.
American Masters: How It Feels To Be Free will tell the story of Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier and how they challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.
The doc, which will air in early 2021 on PBS and the Documentary Channel in Canada, features interviews and archival performances with all six women, as well as original conversations with artists influenced by them, including Keys, Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, Latanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as family members, including Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley.
It is based on the book How It Feels To Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement by Ruth Feldstein.
American Masters: How It Feels To Be Free will tell the story of Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier and how they challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.
The doc, which will air in early 2021 on PBS and the Documentary Channel in Canada, features interviews and archival performances with all six women, as well as original conversations with artists influenced by them, including Keys, Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, Latanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as family members, including Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley.
It is based on the book How It Feels To Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement by Ruth Feldstein.
- 7/28/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
PBS has announced a new programming slate consisting of two new series, two documentaries, a children’s special and a new Prime Video channel, all set to roll out between Fall 2020 and Winter 2021.
The network released the plans during its virtual press tour in lieu of this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour, which was canceled due to the coronavirus.
On August 4, PBS will launch a new Prime Video channel called PBS Documentaries, which will include a library of programs including the entire Ken Burns collections and films from “Nova,” “Frontline,” “American Masters,” “Nature, “American Experience,” “Independent Lens,” “Pov” and other independent producers.
Also Read: 'Wishbone' Feature Film in the Works From Universal Pictures and Mattel
PBS also announced two new series, including “Tell Me More With Kelly Corrigan,” an interview program featuring the New York Times bestselling author, and “The Black Church: This Is Our Story,...
The network released the plans during its virtual press tour in lieu of this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour, which was canceled due to the coronavirus.
On August 4, PBS will launch a new Prime Video channel called PBS Documentaries, which will include a library of programs including the entire Ken Burns collections and films from “Nova,” “Frontline,” “American Masters,” “Nature, “American Experience,” “Independent Lens,” “Pov” and other independent producers.
Also Read: 'Wishbone' Feature Film in the Works From Universal Pictures and Mattel
PBS also announced two new series, including “Tell Me More With Kelly Corrigan,” an interview program featuring the New York Times bestselling author, and “The Black Church: This Is Our Story,...
- 7/28/2020
- by Margeaux Sippell
- The Wrap
Coming to Film Forum in New York City is “Black Women,” a 70-film screening series that spotlights 81 years – 1920 to 2001 – of trailblazing African American actresses in American movies.
Scheduled to run from January 17 to February 13, the series is curated by film historian and professor Donald Bogle, author of six books concerning blacks in film and television, including the groundbreaking “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” (1973).
“Last year, Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer at Film Forum, asked me if there was something I was interested in doing, and this was a topic that I had been thinking about, because I recently updated my book on the subject, ‘Brown Sugar,’ which dealt with African American women in entertainment from the early years of the late 19th century to the present,” said Bogle. “That’s really the way it came about, and it just developed from there.
Scheduled to run from January 17 to February 13, the series is curated by film historian and professor Donald Bogle, author of six books concerning blacks in film and television, including the groundbreaking “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” (1973).
“Last year, Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer at Film Forum, asked me if there was something I was interested in doing, and this was a topic that I had been thinking about, because I recently updated my book on the subject, ‘Brown Sugar,’ which dealt with African American women in entertainment from the early years of the late 19th century to the present,” said Bogle. “That’s really the way it came about, and it just developed from there.
- 1/17/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Jazz continued to explode in 2019, shooting off in countless directions. There wasn’t one dominant trend, sound, or scene in the genre this year, but there were clear areas of focus, informal constellations of like-minded players and conceptualists: artists who harnessed the energy of rock, devised unusual instrumental textures, pushed compositional limits, or embraced the power of the voice in non-traditional ways. Here, from the perspective of one curious listener, are a few of the releases that stood out this year, arranged according to certain key features. The below isn...
- 12/11/2019
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Forgive me for stealing Carson Daly’s hyperactive terrier refrain — “We’Ve Got A Steal!” — and twisting it into a battle cry for The Voice‘s Season 11 Knockout Rounds.
RelatedThe Voice Renewed for Two Seasons, Gwen Stefani to Return as Coach
Just when this cycle of NBC’s reality singing competition was starting to look sleepier than Christina Aguilera during an Adam Levine monologue, tonight’s two-hour extravaganza delivered not one, not two, but five or six potential contenders to Alisan Porter’s iron(-throated) throne.
Oh, yes, ladies and gentlemen… “We’Ve Got A Season!”
Knockouts mentors/upsettingly...
RelatedThe Voice Renewed for Two Seasons, Gwen Stefani to Return as Coach
Just when this cycle of NBC’s reality singing competition was starting to look sleepier than Christina Aguilera during an Adam Levine monologue, tonight’s two-hour extravaganza delivered not one, not two, but five or six potential contenders to Alisan Porter’s iron(-throated) throne.
Oh, yes, ladies and gentlemen… “We’Ve Got A Season!”
Knockouts mentors/upsettingly...
- 10/25/2016
- TVLine.com
In Michael Roemer's superb and little-seen 1964 drama Nothing But a Man — playing October 8 and 9 as part of Film Forum's seven-movie Roemer tribute — Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln play a young couple striving to make a life for themselves in small-town Alabama. Lincoln's Josie, serene and self-possessed, is a preacher's daughter and a college-educated schoolteacher who refuses to let white people define her identity. Dixon's Duff Anderson, a former railroad worker whose independence and intelligence threaten the white male authority figures in the town where he's chosen to settle, doesn't have the same emotional fortitude. His circumstances are different, for reasons Josie understands: "It's not as hard on a girl," she tells him, trying to soothe him after he's lost...
- 10/8/2014
- Village Voice
It won’t take a historian to convince you how turbulent the political atmosphere was in the 1960s — simply look at the American cinema for proof. There had been an influx of the film with the residue of McCarthyism (The Manchurian Candidate), spy thrillers with the looming threat of the Russians (From Russia with Love), and the deep-seated fear of nuclear apocalypse (Dr. Strangelove). These were films about professionals and about the jobs the men in high positions carried out with our voices and votes at a passive distance. The United States’ personal struggle, one dealt with on a day-to-day basis by the average citizen, was the civil rights movement, a stark attempt of reconciliation of the nation’s troubled past by affirming a real equality for black citizens — a cultural as well as legal battle. Cinema’s visual representation for African Americans at this point was throwing Sidney Poitier into a Hollywood production,...
- 11/7/2013
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
A compelling new film documenting Muhammad Ali's battle against the Vietnam war draft shows the fighter's ongoing relevance, in and out of the ring
"Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan" was how the record company's slogan put it back in the 1960s. Equally, nobody plays Ali like Ali, then or now. So it was sensible of the director Stephen Frears and the screenwriter Shawn Slovo to mix original newsreel footage with newly shot material when putting together their film Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, which they presented to an audience at the British Film Institute on Tuesday night.
Its Us premiere took place 24 hours later in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali's home town, kicking off Three Days of Greatness, a gala at which humanitarian awards were presented in the boxer's name to recipients including Jimmy Carter and Christina Aguilera. No one who saw it on either side of the Atlantic this week could doubt that if any sceptic,...
"Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan" was how the record company's slogan put it back in the 1960s. Equally, nobody plays Ali like Ali, then or now. So it was sensible of the director Stephen Frears and the screenwriter Shawn Slovo to mix original newsreel footage with newly shot material when putting together their film Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, which they presented to an audience at the British Film Institute on Tuesday night.
Its Us premiere took place 24 hours later in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali's home town, kicking off Three Days of Greatness, a gala at which humanitarian awards were presented in the boxer's name to recipients including Jimmy Carter and Christina Aguilera. No one who saw it on either side of the Atlantic this week could doubt that if any sceptic,...
- 10/4/2013
- by Richard Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
He fled the Nazis for a British boarding school – then made a shocking drama about segregation in the deep south. Michael Roemer talks fate, family and sadistic governesses
The first time Michael Roemer set foot in the American south, something pinged in his brain. He had never been there before; he grew up in Germany and Britain, but that day in segregated Alabama in the early 1960s, "I recognised everything. It was immediate. I said, 'Oh, I know this. I know what this feels like.'"
In the last 10 days, I have seen three films by Roemer: two documentaries and Nothing But a Man, his first feature, shot in 1963. The documentaries – Dying, a short piece following three people in the last few months of their lives; and Cortile Cascino, a study of a slum in Palermo, Sicily – are 40 years old and hard to get hold of. Nothing But a Man...
The first time Michael Roemer set foot in the American south, something pinged in his brain. He had never been there before; he grew up in Germany and Britain, but that day in segregated Alabama in the early 1960s, "I recognised everything. It was immediate. I said, 'Oh, I know this. I know what this feels like.'"
In the last 10 days, I have seen three films by Roemer: two documentaries and Nothing But a Man, his first feature, shot in 1963. The documentaries – Dying, a short piece following three people in the last few months of their lives; and Cortile Cascino, a study of a slum in Palermo, Sicily – are 40 years old and hard to get hold of. Nothing But a Man...
- 10/2/2013
- by Emma Brockes
- The Guardian - Film News
Blue Jasmine | Prisoners | Greedy Lying Bastards | Mister John | Hannah Arendt | Runner Runner | It's A Lot | Girl Most Likely | Smash & Grab: The Story Of The Pink Panther | Austenland
Blue Jasmine (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2013, Us) Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard. 98 mins
In the downward trajectory of late-era Allen comes a startling spike to remind us how great he still can be, especially when it comes to women's roles. This show belongs to Blanchett, playing a Manhattan one-percenter brought down to earth. Propped up by alcohol, drugs and her sister, she's an accident that's already happening, and a magnificent, tragicomic creation.
Prisoners (15)
(Denis Villeneuve, 2013, Us) Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano. 153 mins
A kidnapping case refuses to crack in this weighty, slippery whodunit.
Greedy Lying Bastards (12A)
(Craig Scott Rosebraugh, 2012, Us) 90 mins
Climate-change deniers get a dose of their own medicine, as this impassioned doc lays out a history of hypocrisy.
Mister John (15)
(Christine Molloy,...
Blue Jasmine (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2013, Us) Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard. 98 mins
In the downward trajectory of late-era Allen comes a startling spike to remind us how great he still can be, especially when it comes to women's roles. This show belongs to Blanchett, playing a Manhattan one-percenter brought down to earth. Propped up by alcohol, drugs and her sister, she's an accident that's already happening, and a magnificent, tragicomic creation.
Prisoners (15)
(Denis Villeneuve, 2013, Us) Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano. 153 mins
A kidnapping case refuses to crack in this weighty, slippery whodunit.
Greedy Lying Bastards (12A)
(Craig Scott Rosebraugh, 2012, Us) 90 mins
Climate-change deniers get a dose of their own medicine, as this impassioned doc lays out a history of hypocrisy.
Mister John (15)
(Christine Molloy,...
- 9/28/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
This subtle, delicately judged, pioneering 1964 drama about African American life is a joy
This rerelease of the 1964 film Nothing But a Man, the pioneering drama about African-American life, is an enormous pleasure. The performances are so fresh and natural – yet so subtle and delicately judged. The direction is superb in its control and the cinematography creates a gripping docu-realist vision. Why has this passionate and involving love story been relatively overlooked? Could there have been a politically correct reluctance to endorse a film about black people made by a white man? Michael Roemer is a German-born immigrant whose Jewish background and experience of Nazi persecution gave him what he felt was a heightened sensitivity to America's racial injustice. Well, it is a joy to see this film now. Duff (Ivan Dixon) is an Alabama railroad worker who falls in love with a schoolteacher, Josie (Abbey Lincoln). The couple encounter racism...
This rerelease of the 1964 film Nothing But a Man, the pioneering drama about African-American life, is an enormous pleasure. The performances are so fresh and natural – yet so subtle and delicately judged. The direction is superb in its control and the cinematography creates a gripping docu-realist vision. Why has this passionate and involving love story been relatively overlooked? Could there have been a politically correct reluctance to endorse a film about black people made by a white man? Michael Roemer is a German-born immigrant whose Jewish background and experience of Nazi persecution gave him what he felt was a heightened sensitivity to America's racial injustice. Well, it is a joy to see this film now. Duff (Ivan Dixon) is an Alabama railroad worker who falls in love with a schoolteacher, Josie (Abbey Lincoln). The couple encounter racism...
- 9/26/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Join Macy Gray, Lou Reed, Roberta Flack, Dr. John, Danny Glover, Christian McBride and 40 other legends for an unforgettable night that will help save music itself.
The 10th annual A Night In Harlem event will take place at the Apollo Theater in New York on May 19 to benefit the Jazz Foundation of America. For over 22 years, the Jazz Foundation has been dedicated to saving the homes and lives of elder jazz and blues musicians in crisis. It now assists in over 5,000 cases a year, including hundreds of New Orleans musicians and their children still recovering from Katrina.
Past performances and appearances have included legends like Bill Cosby, Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Elvis Costello, Chevy Chase, Hank Jones, Abbey Lincoln, Odetta and many others.
Read more...
The 10th annual A Night In Harlem event will take place at the Apollo Theater in New York on May 19 to benefit the Jazz Foundation of America. For over 22 years, the Jazz Foundation has been dedicated to saving the homes and lives of elder jazz and blues musicians in crisis. It now assists in over 5,000 cases a year, including hundreds of New Orleans musicians and their children still recovering from Katrina.
Past performances and appearances have included legends like Bill Cosby, Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Elvis Costello, Chevy Chase, Hank Jones, Abbey Lincoln, Odetta and many others.
Read more...
- 4/13/2011
- Look to the Stars
Another one bites the dust! See you next year… maybe.
So, what did you all think? I live-tweeted the entire broadcast. Good times, as I’m sure those who were following me will agree
Not too many major surprises. I fully expected The Social Network to win, since it did so well in all the pre-Oscar awards ceremonies. In fact, I think the only major award it won was in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Aaron Sorkin.
It was a night fit for a king… The King’s Speech cleaned up nicely in the major categories… Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture. As I said on Twitter last night, rumors of Harvey Weinstein’s strong-arm tactics are apparently true!
Inception did well… but in the technical categories, inspiring the ire of many fanboys and girls, many who felt that the film was robbed in the...
So, what did you all think? I live-tweeted the entire broadcast. Good times, as I’m sure those who were following me will agree
Not too many major surprises. I fully expected The Social Network to win, since it did so well in all the pre-Oscar awards ceremonies. In fact, I think the only major award it won was in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Aaron Sorkin.
It was a night fit for a king… The King’s Speech cleaned up nicely in the major categories… Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture. As I said on Twitter last night, rumors of Harvey Weinstein’s strong-arm tactics are apparently true!
Inception did well… but in the technical categories, inspiring the ire of many fanboys and girls, many who felt that the film was robbed in the...
- 2/28/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
I’d forgotten about this contest! Terrible of me, I know!
It was likely because I only got 1 single entry. So, either most of you couldn’t identify all the film titles and faces in the video, or the $50 gift cert wasn’t enticing enough, or you just didn’t give a shit.
Regardless, as a refresher, I put together the below video compilation last month, highlighting black cinema in 2010. Your task was to name every film used in the video And the names of the faces in the Rip section towards the end of it.
As I stated then, all the answers could have been found right here on the blog, because we’ve talked about all of them.
I was later supposed to repost the video, along with a list of all the films and the RIPs in the video, so that you all can compare with your guesses.
It was likely because I only got 1 single entry. So, either most of you couldn’t identify all the film titles and faces in the video, or the $50 gift cert wasn’t enticing enough, or you just didn’t give a shit.
Regardless, as a refresher, I put together the below video compilation last month, highlighting black cinema in 2010. Your task was to name every film used in the video And the names of the faces in the Rip section towards the end of it.
As I stated then, all the answers could have been found right here on the blog, because we’ve talked about all of them.
I was later supposed to repost the video, along with a list of all the films and the RIPs in the video, so that you all can compare with your guesses.
- 1/14/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
We at Mubi think that celebrating the films of 2010 should be a celebration of film viewing in 2010. Since all film and video is "old" one way or another, we present Out of a Past, a small (re-) collection of some of our favorite of 2010's retrospective viewings.
***
This is a list of older movies I saw for the first time in 2010—not necessarily the best, but the ones that gave me the greatest sense of discovery. It’s a sad commentary on contemporary film culture that only five of the twelve films I mention are available on Netflix.
Routine Pleasures (Jean-Pierre Gorin, USA, 1986)
An essay film from the Godard’s former collaborator during his leftist Dziga Vertov Group days. The movie begins as a documentary about a group of model train enthusiasts in San Diego who have constructed an elaborate imaginary world with enormous and minutely detailed landscapes and a...
***
This is a list of older movies I saw for the first time in 2010—not necessarily the best, but the ones that gave me the greatest sense of discovery. It’s a sad commentary on contemporary film culture that only five of the twelve films I mention are available on Netflix.
Routine Pleasures (Jean-Pierre Gorin, USA, 1986)
An essay film from the Godard’s former collaborator during his leftist Dziga Vertov Group days. The movie begins as a documentary about a group of model train enthusiasts in San Diego who have constructed an elaborate imaginary world with enormous and minutely detailed landscapes and a...
- 1/5/2011
- MUBI
Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln has died at her New York home, aged 80. The star passed away at her Manhattan property on Saturday, August 14, her brother David Wooldridge confirms to The New York Times.
Born Anna Marie Wooldridge in Chicago in 1930, she released her debut album, "Abbey Lincoln's Affair - A Story of a Girl in Love", in 1956. Largely inspired by Billie Holiday, Lincoln went on to release more than 20 albums throughout her six-decade long career.
She also branched out into movies, starring opposite Sidney Poitier in 1968's "For Love of Ivy" and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the film. Lincoln married jazz musician Max Roach in 1962, but they divorced in 1970.
She is survived by her brothers David and Kenneth Wooldridge and her sister, Juanita Baker.
Born Anna Marie Wooldridge in Chicago in 1930, she released her debut album, "Abbey Lincoln's Affair - A Story of a Girl in Love", in 1956. Largely inspired by Billie Holiday, Lincoln went on to release more than 20 albums throughout her six-decade long career.
She also branched out into movies, starring opposite Sidney Poitier in 1968's "For Love of Ivy" and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the film. Lincoln married jazz musician Max Roach in 1962, but they divorced in 1970.
She is survived by her brothers David and Kenneth Wooldridge and her sister, Juanita Baker.
- 8/16/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Jazz singer, actor and civil rights activist strongly influenced by Billie Holiday
If Abbey Lincoln was overwhelmed by the responsibility of being proclaimed "the last of the jazz singers", she never let it show. As her great contemporaries and principal influences among the classic female jazz vocalists fell away – with Billie Holiday the first to go, in 1959, and Betty Carter the last, in 1998 – Lincoln steadfastly maintained her dignified, almost solemn, focus; her tart, deftly timed Holiday-like inflections, and her commitment to songs that dug deeper into life's meanings than the usual lost-love exhalations.
And, like Ella Fitzgerald, who all her life took to a stage as if she were surprised to find anyone had come to see her, Lincoln became the opposite of a celebrated jazz diva. In some of her London performances during the 1990s, she would sit quietly beside the piano, tugging at her clothes, like someone who...
If Abbey Lincoln was overwhelmed by the responsibility of being proclaimed "the last of the jazz singers", she never let it show. As her great contemporaries and principal influences among the classic female jazz vocalists fell away – with Billie Holiday the first to go, in 1959, and Betty Carter the last, in 1998 – Lincoln steadfastly maintained her dignified, almost solemn, focus; her tart, deftly timed Holiday-like inflections, and her commitment to songs that dug deeper into life's meanings than the usual lost-love exhalations.
And, like Ella Fitzgerald, who all her life took to a stage as if she were surprised to find anyone had come to see her, Lincoln became the opposite of a celebrated jazz diva. In some of her London performances during the 1990s, she would sit quietly beside the piano, tugging at her clothes, like someone who...
- 8/15/2010
- by John Fordham
- The Guardian - Film News
"Abbey Lincoln, a singer whose dramatic vocal command and tersely poetic songs made her a singular figure in jazz, died on Saturday in Manhattan," reports Nate Chinen in the New York Times. "She was 80 and lived on the Upper West Side." Her "career encompassed outspoken civil rights advocacy in the 1960s and fearless introspection in more recent years... She starred in the films Nothing But a Man, in 1964, and For Love of Ivy, opposite Sidney Poitier, in 1968."
Update, 8/15: A remembrance from Glenn Kenny, a bit of viewing from Phil Nugent and a profile to listen to from NPR.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow The Daily Notebook on Twitter and/or the RSS feed.
Update, 8/15: A remembrance from Glenn Kenny, a bit of viewing from Phil Nugent and a profile to listen to from NPR.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow The Daily Notebook on Twitter and/or the RSS feed.
- 8/15/2010
- MUBI
Born Anna Marie Wooldridge, actress, jazz singer, activist Abbey Lincoln died today, Saturday, August 14th, in New York City. She was 80 years old. Her death was announced by her brother David Wooldridge.
Coincidentally, she just celebrated her 80th birthday, on August 6th.
Rest in peace.
Read New York Times’ obituary Here.
Here she is with Ivan Dixon in the cherished 1964 classic, and Shadow & Act fave, Nothing But A Man.
Coincidentally, she just celebrated her 80th birthday, on August 6th.
Rest in peace.
Read New York Times’ obituary Here.
Here she is with Ivan Dixon in the cherished 1964 classic, and Shadow & Act fave, Nothing But A Man.
- 8/15/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Gifted jazz singer, Abbey Lincoln, died on Saturday in New York City, reports the New York Times. Lincoln's death was announced by her brother David Wooldrige.The Michigan native is known for her singing, but also remembered for her bold outspoken stance on civil rights. Her songs were often laced with emotional revelations to deep philosophical reflections. She looked to a lot of the great Jazz artists for inspiration, such as, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington...
- 8/14/2010
- Essence
How would I feel if I were a brown student at Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott, Arizona? A mural was created to depict some of the actual students in the school.
Let's say I was one of the lucky ones. The mural took shape, and as my face became recognizable, I took some kidding from my classmates and a smile from a pretty girl I liked.
My parents even came over one day to have a look and take some photos to e-mail to the family. The mural was shown on TV, and everybody could see that it was me.
Then a City Councilman named Steve Blair went on his local radio talk show and made some comments about the mural. I didn't hear him, but I can guess what he said. My dad says it's open season on brown people in this state. Anyway, for two months white...
Let's say I was one of the lucky ones. The mural took shape, and as my face became recognizable, I took some kidding from my classmates and a smile from a pretty girl I liked.
My parents even came over one day to have a look and take some photos to e-mail to the family. The mural was shown on TV, and everybody could see that it was me.
Then a City Councilman named Steve Blair went on his local radio talk show and made some comments about the mural. I didn't hear him, but I can guess what he said. My dad says it's open season on brown people in this state. Anyway, for two months white...
- 6/6/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Awesome, awesome stuff! I own the entire album from which this track, Freedom Day, comes -1960’s We Insist! – Freedom Now, featuring Abbey Lincoln on vocals, over music composed by her then husband, jazz legend, Max Roach and lyricist Oscar Brown. It’s a must-have for any lovers of jazz music and revolution . Pick up a copy Here if you don’t already own it (h/t Aiac):...
- 4/27/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Sundance Channel will be kicking off its Black History Month in February with Harry Roemer's 1964 drama "Nothing But a Man" and an original five-part series "Brick City."
On February 2, the network will start the celebration with "Nothing But a Man." Considered to be one of film's finest explorations of black life in America, the film centers on an African American man who wants to be treated as "nothing but a man," instead of just a boy. Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris, and Gloria Foster star.
After the film, the first installment of "Brick City" will air at 7 p.m. Et/Pt. The original series will capture the daily drama of Newark, New Jersey residents.
The series will run throughout all Tuesdays of February.
On February 2, the network will start the celebration with "Nothing But a Man." Considered to be one of film's finest explorations of black life in America, the film centers on an African American man who wants to be treated as "nothing but a man," instead of just a boy. Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Julius Harris, and Gloria Foster star.
After the film, the first installment of "Brick City" will air at 7 p.m. Et/Pt. The original series will capture the daily drama of Newark, New Jersey residents.
The series will run throughout all Tuesdays of February.
- 1/27/2010
- icelebz.com
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