english-language films
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And the Skippy Goes To! Here Are The Root's 2nd Annual The Blackest Awards Winners
2020 was a year. And I don’t mean that in a good way. Because this whole endeavor is about positivity, I won’t even speak on any of the negativity. What I will say is that 2020 did provide many moments of positivity in the form of movies and television, and the internet straight showed out.…
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Malcolm D. Lee and Dayna Lynne North Are Bringing Us a TV Show Based on The Best Man—Which Is Just Like Candy
I know the Electric Slide is supposed to come at the end in Black movies, but I have to start off this blog with a celebratory Slide! Y’all, there is going to be a TV series based on The Best Man! Happy Black History Month! That’s right, the 1999 film where it all started (which…
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Can a Short Film About Police Brutality Win an Oscar? Van Lathan, Travon Free and Nicholas Maye Set Out to Make History With Two Distant Strangers
I’ve always had a fascination with Run Lola Run. In this film, Lola, played by Franka Potente, has to deliver 100,000 Deutschmarks in order to spare her boyfriend from a rather unsavory fate. But the catch is that each time she fails, the movie resets itself and she has the opportunity to learn from her…
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The Obama’s Higher Ground and Netflix Team Up for 6 All-New Projects
When they go low, we get to streaming. Or at least, that’s my game plan following the latest announcement between Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the former first family and the streaming giant unveiled a total of six new projects over the weekend, all set to…
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Exclusive: I Spent a (Lady) Day on the Set of Lee Daniels' The United States vs. Billie Holiday
On a brisk day in Montreal, Quebec in November 2019, I entered the sound stage for the production of The United States vs. Billie Holiday. In turn, I also entered the eccentric world of director Lee Daniels, who noted that he chose Montreal because it was the closest resemblance to a past Harlem that doesn’t…
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The Film Adaptation of Nella Larsen's Passing Secures an Over $15 Million Netflix Deal at Sundance
Sundance strikes again! The largest independent film festival in the United States, gone virtual this year instead of celebrating in its typical environs in Park City, Utah, is ground zero for some of the most anticipated films of the year. This year, one long-anticipated film adaptation proved worth the wait: Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella Passing, adapted…
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Cicely Tyson’s Public Viewing to Take Place at New York's Abyssinian Baptist Church
A force both onscreen and off, Cicely Tyson blazed a trail of her own, lighting the way with elegance, grace, style, class and dignity at every turn. Now, as the icon is laid to rest, Variety reports that the family of the late actress, who died on January 28 at the age of 96, will…
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Tennessee Cop Reprimanded for Posting Picture of Daughter as Blackface Bubba From Forrest Gump
Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m on the internet too much or if some people aren’t on the internet enough. I’m simply at a loss for how, in 2021, some whites are still posting blackface pictures on the internet and not expecting there to be consequences. A police officer in Tennessee has been reprimanded after…
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Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler Lands 5-Year Exclusive Deal With Disney Television
It looks like Ryan Coogler will continue to bring both “di strenf” and di talent of the Black Panther to The Walt Disney Company. On Monday, Deadline announced that the Creed and Fruitvale Station director secured a five-year overall exclusive deal with Disney in tandem with Coogler’s production company Proximity Media. With this deal comes…
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The Root Presents the 2nd Annual Blackest Awards. Welcome to the 2021 Skippies!
Guess who’s back in the *CENSORED* house with some new awards for the African American crowd!!!?? If you said, it’s gotta be the shoes, then you’re wrong. It’s the Ro-Ro-The Root, bringing back our Blackest Awards for the second time. That makes it official, we can call it an annual award now. We want to…