sundance
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Ava DuVernay's ARRAY Continues To Walk The Walk—Will Build a New Theater and Implement Grants for Filmmakers of Color
If there’s one thing to take from Ava DuVernay’s career journey, it’s that she has proven she is here to create a true legacy. Having already positioned herself as a huge film juggernaut, the award-winning filmmaker has made history (and bank!) in various ways, but always makes a note to pause and pass the baton…
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Watch: Sundance Darling The Last Black Man in San Francisco Trailer Is a Must-See
Perhaps no other city in America is as synonymous with gentrification as San Francisco. In 1970, around 96,000 black people lived in the city—about 13 percent of the San Francisco’s total population, according to the Census (h/t Huffington Post). In that past 40 years, that percentage has been halved. Now, as real estate prices and the…
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Sundance 2019: A List of Black Movies to Watch While You're in the White Mountains
It’s that time again; indie filmmakers and film lovers alike are descending upon the frosty mecca known as Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded by Robert Redford in 1978, the Sundance Film Festival is known as the largest independent film festival in the U.S. Most folks don’t necessarily think of blackness when they…
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HBO’s Documentary King in the Wilderness Is a Chilling Portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final 18 Months on Earth
“Everything you thought you knew about Martin Luther King Jr. is wrong,” says Trey Ellis, producer of the upcoming HBO documentary on King’s final 18 months of life, titled King in the Wilderness. The title of the documentary, which premiered at Sundance, is fitting considering that the civil rights activist’s final chapter found him dealing with…
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Chiwetel Ejiofor Delivers Oscar-Worthy Performance in Come Sunday at Sundance
In 2005, NPR’s This American Life broadcast the story of Bishop Carlton Pearson’s struggles with his faith that divided a church during the late 1990s and put him in the crosshairs of religious folk after he questioned God’s intentions. Director Joshua Marston brilliantly reimagines this narrative with Come Sunday, which is heading to Netflix after…
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Sundance’s Tyrel Is Get Out Without Hypnosis or the Sunken Place
Tyrel may immediately draw comparisons to Get Out for its initial premise of an African American finding himself in an awkward situation during a weekend getaway surrounded by white people. But where Sebastian Silva’s Sundance flick differs from Jordan Peele’s Oscar-nominated movie is that Tyrel exists without hypnosis or the sunken place. It doesn’t pack…
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Ambitious, Thought-Provoking and Utterly Bizarre, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You Was the Most Mind-Blowing Movie at Sundance
Before he received a rousing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival for his bizarrely brilliant social-critique film debut, Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley was ruffling the feathers of corporate America as the frontman of political hip-hop group the Coup. The Oakland, Calif., collective is infamous for their 2001 album, Party Music, and its prophetic cover art,…
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Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s Breakout Performance Anchors Powerful Young-Adult Novel-Turned-Sundance Film Monster
It’s maddening that a book written in 1999 still carries so much relevance in 2018. Nearly two decades ago, Walter Dean Myers’ young-adult novel approached a racist court system that paints African-American men as guilty “monsters” before any evidence is presented. Sadly, this concept holds true as former music video director-turned-first-time filmmaker Anthony Mandler (Beyoncé…
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Strong Island Is on Netflix. You Should Watch It Now
Officiating funerals is one of the hardest things I have to do in ministry. I struggle with the right words to say, the right Scriptures to read. This is difficult for me because I am agonizingly aware that the family before whom I stand lost someone they love. And no matter what I say, their…
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Watch: Filmmaker Shaka King Is Making Sure We Really See the Black Experience
Director and writer Shaka King is busy in the TV-and-film industry at the moment, but that wasn’t always the case. “It took a while, but once I started getting the work, it kept coming in. For a while I wasn’t getting shit, but ‘Mulignans’ really did a lot for my career,” says King, who hails…