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‘The Sapphires’ and Solidarity Between People of Color
The Sapphires (2012) This is a guest post written by Jaya Bedi. I predict that this is going to be a very popular film. Well, it already is a popular film — in Australia. But I can already tell...
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Good Hair From Root To End: Why Is Nappiness Still Considered A Sin?
An advertisement for Good Hair. Written by Janyce Denise Glasper “Why should you get a perm?” asks Chris Rock, narrator and co-writer of Good Hair, speaking to a little girl who has endured the...
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Travel Films Week: ‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back’
How Stella Got Her Groove Back film poster. Written by Janyce Denise Glasper How Stella Got Her Groove Back is based on Terry McMillan’s bestselling novel of the same name and stars two wonderful...
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Wedding Week: ‘Coming to America’ and Coming to Terms with New Marriage...
Coming to America movie poster. Written by Leigh Kolb When I was a kid, Coming to America was one of my favorite movies. I’m not quite sure exactly what it was–maybe I just thought Eddie Murphy was...
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Wedding Week: "Jumping The Broom" Addresses Racial Hangups While Marrying...
Jumping the Broom poster. Written by Janyce Denise Glasper Uh oh! Sabrina Watson has done it again! “I promise you, God, if you get me out of this situation, I’ll only share my cookies with the man I...
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‘Fruitvale Station’: White Audiences Need to Look, Not Look Away
Fruitvale Station movie poster. Written by Leigh KolbFruitvale Station, unlike most feature films, is not told from and for the perspective of the white gaze. For white audiences, this is startling,...
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‘Fruitvale Station’ Humanizes the Pigeonholed African American Father/Child...
Fruitvale Station film poster. Written by Janyce Denise Glasper “I got a daughter…” groans Oscar Grant. “He just shot me…” Lying face down, a coward’s bullet inside his back, young Oscar’s black-brown...
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Black Masculinity in ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’
Lee Daniels’ The Butler Written by Erin Tatum. My experience going to see Lee Daniels’ The Butler made an impression on me even before the film started playing. I don’t think I have ever been to a...
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Facing the Horror of ’12 Years a Slave’
12 Years a Slave Written by Leigh Kolb As we walked out of the theater from seeing 12 Years a Slave–still tear-stained and overwhelmed–a wealthy-looking white couple filed out behind us. “That didn’t...
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Notes from the Telluride Film Festival: A New Look at American Slavery in ’12...
This is a guest post by Atima Omara-Alwala. From Red Tails to Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Django Unchained, there have been a lot of “Black Exodus” movies lately, and by Black Exodus, I mean every...
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‘Deuce Bigalow’: Pleasure, Male Likability, and Finding Love Through...
Written by Jenny Lapekas. Navigating male prostitution has always been tricky, but Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (Mike Mitchell, 1999) unburdens audiences from tackling any heavily philosophical...
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‘Love Jones’: The Soundtrack of the Neo-Soul Generation
Love Jones movie poster This guest post by Inda Lauryn appears as part of our theme week on Movie Soundtracks. The summer of 2000. I share my extensive music collection with my friends. In this...
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She’s Pretty for a Black Girl: ‘Dark Girls’ and Colorism in America
Written by Jenny Lapekas. I can remember an episode of Chappelle’s Show (a sketch series that offered some valuable commentary on race and race relations in America) where Paul Mooney says, “Everybody...
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The Female Gaze: Dido and Noni, Two of a Kind
This guest post by Rachel Wortherley appears as part of our theme week on The Female Gaze. In 2015, the film industry continues to designate female characters to the roles of wives, mothers,...
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