Moonlight
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Who Could, Should and Will Win at the 89th Academy Awards
I have a complicated relationship with the Academy Awards. As I’ve said before, when we need the approval and validation of the dominant group in order for us to see our own work as valuable, we engage in a form of internalized racism that centers whiteness even as we engage in the subversive work of…
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Watch: In Focus With Moonlight Director Barry Jenkins, Who’s Vying for Oscar on Sunday
Editor’s note: In Focus is a video series showcasing the new wave of black filmmakers. Earlier this year, before Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed film Moonlight went on to earn eight Academy Award nominations—including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay—the writer-director sat down with The Root to discuss how he got involved with the…
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Mahershala Ali's SAG Award Acceptance Speech Is The Blackest Thing That Ever Happened This Week
While y’all’s cousin Sage Steele was on Instagram lamenting that the airport protesters might cause some people to be a little late for their flights — ultimately reminding us all to never trust a Black person named after a spice — Mahershala Ali took his SAG award acceptance speech as an opportunity to provide the…
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The Winners of 2016
Flatly, 2016 as a staff, record label and as a motherf—king crew has collectively sucked. Far too many people have died, and a spoiled, mango-colored racist man surrounded by a bunch of like-minded bigots and sycophants will soon make life hell for many who have survived. However, as draining as this year has felt for…
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From Blackbird to Moonlight: Black Queer Men Are More Than Enough
The movie Moonlight has been met with critical acclaim since June. Some reviews have stated that the film is riveting because of the story that it tells: a young black gay man navigating drugs, mass incarceration and the violence of his neighborhood. Based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, the film navigates…
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7 Black Movies to See if You Can’t Bear to See Birth of a Nation (or Even if You Do)
Ever since Nate Parker’s film The Birth of a Nation earned a record $17.5 million distribution deal and walked away with the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, the movie has been positioned as the film most likely to solve Hollywood’s #OscarsSoWhite problem. But Parker’s past…