10 Years of Black Cinema Club

October 2021 marks ten years of the Black Cinema Club (BCC 10).  In honour of the tenth anniversary of their screening of Black films from Africa, the Caribbean, the United States, Britain and Europe, they are showing a whole programme of Black films.  

All of these screenings are being held online, so you can join us and enjoy them wherever you are in the world.  See you there!  BCC 10 presents:  

Friday 1st October:  Finding Fela. 

Filmmaker Alex Gibney uses period interviews and performances plus highlights of the Broadway production of `Fela!' to tell the story of Afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti.

Saturday 2nd October:  The Wood.   

Three old friends -- Mike (Omar Epps), Roland (Taye Diggs) and Slim (Richard T. Jones) -- recount memories of their shared childhood in Inglewood, Calif., as they prepare for Roland's wedding to his fiancée, Lisa (LisaRaye). When the groom goes missing without a word, Mike and Slim struggle to find their nervous friend and return him to his impatient bride before the wedding begins. Along the way, they continue to swap stories about lessons learned during their awkward teenage years. 

Sunday 3rd October:  1804:  The Hidden History of Haiti. 

This documentary film about the untold history of the Haitian Revolution was produced by the creator of the best-selling Hidden Colors film series.  1804 goes in-depth about the four principal players who were instrumental in Haiti's independence: Makandal, Dutty Bookman, Toussaint Louvature, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. This documentary gives a compelling look into the strategies, the motivation and the mindset that led to Haiti being the only enslaved  population who successfully overthrew their oppressors.

Tuesday 5th October:  I Ain't Scared of You, a Tribute to Bernie Mac.  

Friday 8th October:   Summer of Soul, or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised. 

Saw this one a few weeks ago, and it is definitely worth watching again.  In the summer of 1965, a whole lot of talented Black people performed for FREE in NYC.  The lineup included Stevie Wonder (on drums!), Gladys Knight and the Pips, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone and many more.  Be there!  

Sunday 10th October:  Sankofa.  

A model (Oyafunmike Ogunlano) on a photo shoot in Ghana encounters an old mystic (Kofi Ghanaba) who transports her into the past, where she becomes a slave.

Saturday 16th October:  Really Love.  

Isiah is an up-and-coming painter under the tutelage of Yusef Davis, hoping to impress Chenai Hungwe to potentially launch his career. However, upon meeting Stevie Richmond, a friend of his boy Nick’s girlfriend Mecca, he gets a little distracted. Yet, as Yusef told him, you have to live to find your muse, and with Stevie, Isaiah does live. But with Stevie being a prominent up-and-coming lawyer, soon to finish school, and getting offers across the United States, while both have made time for each other in DC, will their relationship survive when distance adds an additional strain to it?  

Sunday 17th October:  Hidden Colors.  

Hidden Colors is a documentary about the real and untold history of people of color around the globe. This film discusses some of the reasons the contributions of African and aboriginal people have been left out of the pages of history. Traveling around the country, the film features scholars, historians, and social commentators who uncovered such amazing facts about things such as: The original image of Christ; The true story about the Moors; The original people of Asia; The great west African empires; The presence of Africans in America before Columbus; The real reason slavery was ended And much more.  

Monday 18th October: The Banker.  

Samuel L. Jackson stars in this true story about two men who decided to open a bank in Georgia in the 1950s, when Black people were not even allowed to set foot inside a bank. 

Revolutionary businessmen Bernard Garrett (Anthony Mackie) and Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson) devise an audacious and risky plan to take on the racist establishment of the 1960s by helping other African Americans pursue the American dream. Along with Garrett's wife Eunice (Nia Long), they train a working class white man, Matt Steiner (Nicholas Hoult), to pose as the rich and privileged face of their burgeoning real estate and banking empire - while Garrett and Morris pose as a janitor and a chauffeur. 

Tuesday 19th October:  Rue Cases Negres  

It's been so many years since I've seen this charming, delightful film from Euzhan Palcy.  

In the French colony of Martinique in the 1930s, rambunctious teenager Jose (Garry Cadenat) lives in a rundown shack in a small farm village with his doting grandmother, M'Man Tine (Darling Legitimus). While studying diligently at the local school, Jose also learns at the side of wise village elder Medouze (Douta Seck), who tells him first-hand of the lives of African slaves. When Jose wins a scholarship to a prestigious high school in the capital, he brings the wisdom of the village with him.  

Thursday 21st October:  Out of Darkness.  

Out of Darkness explores the Nubian/Kushitic origins of Nile Valley Civilization, contact between Africa and the Americas since the times of antiquity, as well as the influence of the Moors in Europe leading to intellectual Renaissance. In addition, the film will analyze the history of modern day racism, the concept of "white supremacy," the impact of Hip Hop as a social movement, and the idea of nationhood.                          

There are more which have not listed here.  Check out BCC 10 for details.  

Go here for lots more Black history blogs.  

What's your favourite Black film?  Or what are your top 10?  Please comment below and please share this with your networks.  

Happy Black History Month/African Heritage Month!  

 

Is Black Really Beautiful?

Below is my review of the new documentary Beauty Is, from director Toyin Agbetu of Ligali.  

Beauty Is explores the relationship people of the African Diaspora, and all African people,  have with beauty.  

Our quest for beauty influences:  
- our health
- our economics
- our relationships and
- our self-esteem

and the film explores all of those areas.  

This is a very important film, and we need to keep having these conversations.  

There is a link to the Ligali anti-skin-bleaching campaign below.  

I will be interviewing the Director of Beauty Is, Toyin Agbetu, soon, so stay tuned!  

You can listen to my review below.  

Find Additional Books Podcasts with Zhana21 on BlogTalkRadio

 

Click here for Natural Hair/Nappturality. 

Click here for The Key to Confidence and Self-Esteem.  

Click here for the Ligali anti-skin-bleaching campaign. 

 Click here for my Black Success audios. 

Click here for my analysis of the film 12 Years a Slave.

Black Film: 83 Days

At a recent African Odysseys film event, we were privileged to view the trailer for 83 Days. 

George Stinney Jr. was a 14-year-old boy who was accused of murdering two white girls in South Carolina in 1944.  They had asked him where they could pick flowers and he had given them directions. 

A number of people were rounded up once the girls’ bodies were found, but they were all let go after George admitted he had seen the girls and given them  directions. 

George’s family were first taken out of the County, then out of the State.  So there he was, all alone, with no one to support or advise him.

The officials said he had confessed to the murder of these two girls, but they did not produce a confession.  When he was put on trial, his court-appointed lawyer was a tax attorney with no trial experience, who offered no defense.  There was no evidence against George, but he was convicted.   To this day, there is no transcript of the trial. 

So, at the age of 14, George Stinney Jr. became the youngest-ever person to be executed in the United States.  (However, we are still imprisoning children.) 

The producer, Ray Brown, said they had come up against opposition while researching this film.  As a result of their efforts,  George Stinney Jr. has now been pardoned.  

This is a story that needs to be told, and I am glad the film will be released next year.  Unfortunately, we need to remember that this was just one of a long line of State-sponsored murders of people of African heritage – and not just in the U.S.A. 

 Click here for more details of 83 Days. 

Not Gonna Fall in Your Lap

"It's not just gonna fall in your lap." These are some wise words from legendary film director Spike Lee.  Click here to watch the video on Spike Lee's advice to aspiring filmmakers. 

 

Did you know it took him 20 years to make the Malcolm X film, from inception to the final production? 

Too many of our people are waiting for something to drop into their laps - waiting for some hero, leader or saviour to rescue them.  That's what I said in "Do You Play the Lottery?"  Please check this out and leave your comments there. 

Slavery by Another Name

The documentary Slavery by Another Name is being screened as part of the Black History Month Youth Film Series at the Schomburg.  

For this and more Black History Month events, see Black History/Cultural Events.  

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas A. Blackmon, and narrated by Laurence Fishburne, Slavery by Another Name is a documentary that squares off against one of America's most common misconceptions: that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The documentary tells the story of new systems of indentured and involuntary servitude that took its place and lasted well into the 20th century. 

This film gives a voice back to a largely forgotten population of victims and perpetrators (including interviews with their living descendants today). This screening is part of a week-long series of films for young audiences that capture a diversity of voices on the African-American Experience. All films are followed by a discussion by the filmmakers, scholars, or Schomburg educators.  

For this and more Black History Month events, see Black History/Cultural Events. 

The only problem I have with this film is that it suggests that this practice is not still going on.  For more about this, see:  Prisoners Provide Cheap Labour for Microsoft.  

Film Africa: Filming Tomorrow

Film Africa, the UK’s largest annual festival of African cinema and culture, is back in November 2012 with 10 days of 70 African films, 35 leading filmmakers offering Q&As, free professional workshops, and 9 African music nights.  

Filming Tomorrow will be a screen-seminar on grassroots filmmaking in Africa

As the conditions in which film is made change rapidly and radically, so too does the practice of filmmaking. In this open seminar, we will look at alternative filmmaking collectives, citizen journalists and community TV. Here, we will open up the discussion into the future of radical filmmaking in Africa.

Section 1: Urban Film and Space presented by Joshua McNamara
Section 2: Mosireen and collective filmmaking presented by Omar Robert Hamilton.
Section 3: Open discussion.  

Tuesday 6th November 6:00pm 

Venue  :Rich Mix

06:00PM - 08:30PM

FREE

No booking required, spaces limited.  

Click here for more details.  

Black Fighter Pilots of WWII

Black Fighter Pilots of WWII was the most recent presentation by London Black History Walks.  Every time I attend one of these events, I am very moved and inspired.  And I always learn something new.  

Those fighter pilots from the United States, the Caribbean and Africa were seriously courageous, and some of them were seriously fine!  

Nightfighters, a 1994 documentary about the Tuskegee Airmen, was screened.  Many of the men talked about their own experiences during the war.  They were reported as being not good enough. 

Click here to read more. 

This coming Sunday's event will be How Black People Won World War 2.  Click here for this and more Black History Month events. 

Black History Film: The First Grader

As I stated in Historic Victory for Kenyans/The Mau Mau, four elderly Kenyans have been granted the right to sue the UK government. Given these recent developments, the screening of this film I attended in London was very timely.

The First Grader tells the story of Maruge, an elderly Kenyan man who has never learned to read and write, and who decides to go back to school.

Maruge has received a letter from the government and wants to read it for himself. In the course of the film, we catch glimpses of what he suffered at the hands of the British – his imprisonment and torture and the killing of his family during the “Mau Mau” uprising of the 1950s.

The First Grader graphically depicts the lack of knowledge of subsequent generations, who don’t understand what he fought for, or what he is fighting for now.

When I told my 90-year-old dad that the subject of this film was a man in his eighties, he immediately replied, "That's wonderful!". This was my response as well.

So I was shocked to see the reactions of some of the locals, who resented the fact that Maruge was going back to school, even though he was not taking resources away from any children. This showed how far the African tradition of respect for the elders has been eroded.

Some even assumed the headmistress, played by Naomie Harris, was being bribed to educate this senior learner.

This film is a must-see for those who, like many, know little or nothing about the history of Kenya under colonisation.

After the screening, we had a panel discussion which included one of the lawyers representing the elderly Kenyans who have just been granted the right to sue the British government. For more about this, see: Historic Victory for Kenyans/The Mau Mau

The screening was held before that decision had been reached. The panel explained that the UK government had, for many years, denied the existence of any documentation about what had happened in Kenya.

Then an archive was discovered which contained documentary evidence of what was done in Kenya and many other countries under British colonisation.

Thus the decision was granted. We will be discussing this on What U Need to Know on Saturday the 13th of August, as part of our discussion of African Emancipation Day. Click here to join us or go to Success Strategies for Black People on Facebook.

See also: Africa and Africans on Film

Fire in Babylon

Even if, like me, you know nothing about cricket, you need to see this film.

As depicted in Fire in Babylon, in the early 1970s, the West Indian cricket team was an international joke. They were referred to as "calypso cricketers" and were seen as entertainers, not as winners.

When they travelled to Australia in 1975, the Australian team humiliated them and the "fast bowlers" physically assaulted them with the ball. So the West Indies team decided to fight back.

This was a matter of pride. Having gained independence from the British, they felt, by the 1970s, like they had something to prove.

The team captain, Clive Lloyd, travelled around the Caribbean islands in search of fast bowlers - and he found some. These guys just did not quit. Some of them could bowl the ball at 90 mph. When they got on the field, they could do serious damage, not just to the other players' bodies in the form of bruises and broken bones, but to their pride.

Fire in Babylon features interviews with many members of the West Indies team during that period.

Up until then, the captains of the West Indies team had always been white. But in the 1970s, there was a new, revolutionary spirit about, partly inspired by Bob Marley's music. The film contains some great clips of Marley in performance, singing "Get Up, Stand Up".

At the same time the West Indies team were rising, Black people in Britain were coming under increasing pressure from racism. When the West Indies team played in England and beat the England team in 1976, people in the stands - both Black and white - were cheering them on.

The players from the Caribbean also felt a connection with Black people fighting apartheid in South Africa.

The West Indies team defeated Australia, considered the best cricket team in the world, after which they dominated world cricket - they never lost a test series from 1975 to 1990. (For those who don't know, a test series is the highest level of international cricket - I think.)

Fire in Babylon was an incredibly uplifting, inspiring and moving film. Just one of many wonderful events hosted by Black History Studies.

See also: Next Black History Events.

Black Film: Blood Ah Go Run

I saw this film when I first came to the UK, nearly 30 years ago.

I saw it again recently, with a Q & A with the director, Menelik Shabazz, when it was screened at the BFI as part of the African Odysseys programme.

Blood Ah Go Run (Blood Will Flow/Be Shed) documents events that took place in London in 1981 including the New Cross fire, the subsequent Black People’s Day of Action, and the Brixton riot.

The film records how the Metropolitan Police attacked and attempted to subvert the peaceful march on the Black People’s Day of Action, the first time Black people in the UK had demonstrated publicly in such numbers.

White British people and institutions must have been shocked when they realised the potential power of Black people in this country.

The Brixton riot followed two months later, sparked by the “Sus” laws and the police’s “Operation Swamp” in Brixton. To read more about this, click here for my blog about Mavis Best. See also my interview with Alex Wheatle.

In retrospect, I wonder what the authorities expected to happen – the actions of the police seemed calculated to provoke riot and unrest.

In the Q & A, Shabazz described what he called “guerilla filmmaking”. Film stock was expensive, so he had to beg and borrow partial reels of film on which to record this film. The footage of the riot was taken directly from TV coverage.

Shabazz also described how he went into the BBC studios after hours so that a colleague could edit the film.

Blood Ah Go Run documents a crucial point in British history and, as such, should be shown in every school.

See also: Next Black History Events.

Africa and Africans on Film.

Images of Black Women International Film Festival

The 7th Edition of the Images of Black Women International Film Festival (IBW) continues across March and April for a double celebration: the 100th anniversary of International Women's Month & the United Nations' announcement of 2011 International Year for African Descent people.

Click here for details.

Want to raise money for your arts event? Click here to download Shaking the Money Tree.

Click here for more Black cultural events.

See also: Africa and Africans on Film.

Where Are the Positive Images of Black Families?

When I was a child growing up in the '60s, I recall Valentine's Day being about more than romantic love. It was not just for couples. Valentine's Day celebrated love in all its forms, including the love of parents for their children, the love of family, and the love which is found in friendships.

As Joan E. Gosier, author of Cotton Pickin' Paycheck, writes in More Black Success Volume 5, where are the positive images of Black families?

Where are the images of normal, healthy Black families with two parents?

This is one of the questions addressed in the film Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, which was screened by Black History Studies last night in London.

The film contains a series of interviews with couples talking about their experiences of marriage, in which they share the joys as well as the challenges of marriage.

See also: What Is Black Love?

The couples talk about the importance of having the Obamas as role models of a happy, loving and stable couple and family.

One person refers to a 12-year-old boy who has been quoted as saying "Marriage is for white people".

The film makes the point that, if we have never seen something, we are unlikely to aspire to it.

Visualization is so important for our development. If you can see it, you can be it. I talk about this in my book Success Strategies for Black People.

This is why we need to have positive images in Black literature, film, and every art form.

This is also one reason why it is vital for us to learn about Black history. It is vital for us to know about Black achievers, past and present, and about those who have challenged injustice and oppression.

If you have not seen Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, I urge you to see it.

Black History Film: 500 Years Later

I far preferred this film to Motherland.

500 Years Later explores the importance of history for us as people of African heritage.

Using a series of talking heads as well as powerful and disturbing images, music and sound recordings of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X, this film examines the legacy of self-hatred and low self-esteem which we have inherited due to the slavery experience, and the need for self-love, self-determination and self-reliance among people of the African Diaspora.

I explore these themes further in Why We Need to Heal.

In my book, Black Success Stories, the late Len Garrison, founder of the Black Cultural Archives, describes the steps we need to take in order to research our history. Click here to buy it.