documentary
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A Long-Awaited Aretha Doc Is Now Due for Release—But Is That What the Queen of Soul Wanted?
Try to sit through the two minutes and 38 seconds of the Amazing Grace trailer without getting the least bit emotional. We dare you. In fact, we’ll wait. It’s been less than three months since Aretha Franklin died, but now, a Sydney Pollack-directed documentary chronicling the recording of her seminal 1972 live gospel double album…
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A Sandra Bland Documentary Is Coming to HBO
The story of Sandra Bland will be coming to HBO this fall. On Wednesday, HBO confirmed their fall lineup of documentaries, including Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland. The documentary will give an inside look at Bland’s life up until her death and feature video blogs that Bland made. Also, her…
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10 Thoughts on The Loving Generation Documentary About Biracial Kids Born After Loving v. Virginia
Today, the final installment of the documentary The Loving Generation was released (please go check out “Episode 1: Checking Boxes,” “Episode 2: We Are Family,” “Episode 3: Coming of Age” and “Episode 4: The Obama Era”). Full disclosure: I’m in the documentary. It explores the stories of biracial black-and-white children born after the 1967 Loving…
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10 Thoughts on Tell Them We Are Rising, the Documentary About the Story of HBCUs
As an alumnus of Morehouse College and a staunch advocate for HBCUs, I was very excited to finally see the Stanley Nelson film Tell Them We Are Rising, a documentary about HBCUs. Overall, I thought it was cool, with some very interesting stories and facts, but I believe it suffered from a time crunch. Ultimately,…
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#FreeCyntoiaBrown: People Want Justice for Former Child Sex Slave Jailed in 2006 for Killing Man Who Exploited Her
In 2004 a then-16-year-old Cyntoia Brown, a child sex slave, was arrested for the murder of Johnny Allen, a 43-year-old man who was using her after he had picked her up at a Nashville, Tenn., Sonic fast-food restaurant. Brown’s story has been brought to the world’s attention via a documentary by filmmaker Dan Birman, who…
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Was Marsha P. Johnson Killed Because of Her LGBT Activism?
At one point in the Netflix documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, an incarcerated transgender woman named Kitty asks another, Victoria Cruz, who is an activist and counselor for domestic abuse: “What happens when a flower gets wilted? Does it just die away and it’s forgotten?” The question serves as subtext for the…
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Netflix to Premiere Tragic Documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
On Oct. 6, Netflix will globally premiere The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, directed by Oscar-nominated documentarian David France. The documentary courses through the untimely death and unsolved murder of the transgender trailblazer Marsha P. Johnson, all the while shedding light on the impact she had as a leader of the gay-rights movement.…
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Exclusive Preview: Copwatch Explores What Happened to the People Who Filmed Famous Cop Killings
Spoiler alert: If you happen to film a police officer killing a black person, the cops might not like it. That’s one of the not-so-surprising revelations from a new documentary set to premiere this month. Copwatch isn’t about cops, police killings or even injustice. Instead, director Camilla Hall chronicles the aftermath of what happens when…
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Watch: Complex Premieres Documentary Before the Hashtag: Sean Bell
He was only 23 years old, and on the day of his wedding in 2006, Sean Bell was shot and killed by five undercover officers. The shooting took place shortly after a bachelor party in Queens, N.Y. According to the New York City police commissioner at the time, Raymond Kelly, a fight broke out outside…
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Jay Z to Produce Docuseries and Film About Trayvon Martin
On the heels of Jay Z and the Weinstein Co. telling the story of Kalief Browder, the two are now teaming up to bring Trayvon Martin’s story to life via a TV docuseries and film. According to Variety, the six-part miniseries will delve into Trayvon’s life before he was killed by George Zimmerman, and his…