Black transgender women are dying at astronomical rates, typically at the hands of Black men. However, no one talks directly to them about their experiences. With her directorial debut Kokomo City, Grammy-nominated producer, singer and songwriter D. Smith is turning her lens on Black trans women. These sex workers, living and working in New York City and Georgia, share stories about their upbringing, aspirations, violence and everything in between.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Black women experience epic love stories. It may not seem that way based on what the media says and how often Hollywood ignores the romantic lives of Black women, but like everyone else, we have moments that sweep us off of our feet and take our breath away. Writer/producer Attica Locke has always known the importance of seeing all facets of Black women’s lives on-screen, especially as leading ladies. Therefore, the Little Fires Everywhere writer learned that her sister, Tembi Locke, was penning her memoir, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home, about her epic love story; Attica knew that it also needed to come to life on screen.
Before Tembi even finished penning the novel, Attica pitched the film to Hello Sunshine — Reese Witherspoon’s production company. “I literally pitched my sister’s entire book in one sitting and said, ‘You have to read it,'” the From Scratch showrunner told Shadow and Act. “[Hello Sunshine President Lauren Neustadter] went, ‘Okay.’ She was a little dubious like, ‘Your sister wrote a book?’ But they read it, and within a week, we were in their office just talking about ‘How are we going to do this?'”
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
When we think of horror films, there is often a feeling of edginesses and tension. Certain tropes and beats are used to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Though filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s latest movie, adapted from Camille DeAngelis’ novel of the same name, Bones and All, has horror elements, it subverts all of the traditions of the genre to offer something profoundly moving, gory, and rich.
The film opens in 1988 in rural Virginia. Maren (a mesmerizing Taylor Russell) has just moved to a small town with her quiet but slightly overbearing father (a criminally underused André Holland).
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Based on the real life, Agojie, the fearless warrior women who acted as the king’s guard and kept Dahomey (now Benin) safe in the 19th century, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King is a thunderous action film. It praises the strength of Black women and the power of sisterhood. The Women King had been a passion project for Viola Davis for several years. She didn’t hold back when she finally got the opportunity to transform into Nanisca, the Agojie’s general.
With a new king (John Boyega) on the throne, she is determined to pull Dahomey away from the slave trade. With her top soldiers, Amenza (Sheila Atim) and Izogie (Lashana Lynch), by her side, Nanisca has a new crop of recruits to train so that the Agojie may defeat their rival, tribe Oyo and be done with the slave trade for good.
However, Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), a defiant recruit, will show Nanisca that sometimes the best thing to do is turn your back on the rules.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
As Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic, The Woman King, opens, a statuesque Black woman emerges from blades of tall grass. Clad in cowrie shells and coated in oil, she looks fearlessly out into the open plane before raising her fist and calling out into the darkness — a crop of similarly dressed Black women emerging behind her. And with that sound, a film centering on Black womanhood and the power of choice begins at a rip-roaring pace.
Set in 1823 in the robust lands of Dahomey, West Africa — now called Benin, Prince-Bythewood introduces her audience to an illustrious kingdom. King Ghezo (John Boyega) has just ascended the throne, taking over for his brother. Though Dahomey is a pleasant and peaceful place, the ongoing slave trade with the Americans and Europeans continues to be a sore point among the citizens. The terror and barbarism of enslavement and the patriarchal structure of the society, along with the nearby dominating tribe called the Oyo, rings loudly. Dahomey owes its safety to General Nanisca (an enraptures Viola Davis), who leads her all-women army, the Agojie.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union are absolutely stellar in The Inspection.
Merriam-Webster defines the word inspection as “a careful and critical examination.” In his fiction debut film, filmmaker Elegance Bratton turns his sharp lens on his own story of rejection, perseverance, and self-acceptance. Set in Trenton, New Jersey, in the years following the September 11th terrorist attack, The Inspection follows Ellis French, a quiet young man whose sensitivity and sexuality have driven a wedge between him and his hostile and hyper-religious mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union, who also served as executive producer). Her rejection of Ellis at age 16 has led him to homelessness for nearly a decade of his life. The distance between himself and his mother wounds Ellis so profoundly that he decides to enlist in the Marines in a final effort to earn not just her respect but her love.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Netflix has dropped the trailer for A Jazzman’s Blues, the upcoming film from Tyler Perry.
Here’s the official synopsis:
A sweeping tale of forbidden love, A JAZZMAN’S BLUES unspools forty years of secrets and lies soundtracked by juke joint blues in the deep South. Written, directed and produced by Perry, the film stars Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer as star-crossed lovers Bayou and Leanne.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
For Tyler Perry, now is the time for dreaming. Nearly 30 years in the making, the multi-hyphenate talent presented clips from his forthcoming sweeping epic, A Jazzman’s Blues, at the 20th annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival on Aug. 6.
Told over 50 years from 1937 to 1987, the romantic drama follows the forbidden romance between lovers Bayou (Joshua Boone) and Leanne (Solea Pfeiffer).
Filmed with cinematography by Brett Pawlak, the film unravels five decades of secrets and lies entwined with a juke joint blues soundtrack. The film also stars Amirah Vann, Austin Scott, Milauna Jemai Jackson, Brent Antonello, Brad Benedict, Kario Marcel, Lana Young, and Ryan Eggold. Songs for the film were arranged and produced by multi-Grammy winner and two-time Academy Award nominee Terence Blanchard with music by Aaron Zigman. The choreography was done by the legendary Debbie Allen.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
For its 26th year, American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is returning to Miami Beach. For the past two years, Founder and CEO Jeff Friday and his business partner and wife, Nicole Friday, President & General Manager of ABFF Ventures LLC, have held their renowned festival virtually amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Now, with the world getting back into the swing of things, the Fridays and 2022 Ambassador Issa Rae are inviting journalists, actors, entertainment VIPS, film and TV lovers, and anyone else who’d like to join back to the in-person festivals. It will be a celebration that consistently recognizes stories for us and by us.
This year, ABFF will run from June 15-19, and Shadow and Act will be in attendance for all of the screenings, talks, and various events. American Black Film Festival began in 1997 after Jeff Friday attended a slew of mainstream festivals where diversity and inclusion were hard to find. From that moment forward, the Fridays have worked diligently to ensure that Black stories and creators are recognized.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Writer-director Léa Mysius' second feature, The Five Devils (Les Cinq Diables), seems pretty straightforward at first. The film follows eight-year-old Vicky (Sally Dramé), who lives in the French Alps with her swim instructor mother, Joanne (Blue is the Warmest Color's Adèle Exarchopoulos), and her firefighter father, Jimmie (Moustapha Mbengue). Vicky is an outcast and the only Black student at school; her classmates tease her with racist taunts like "butt brush" and "toilet brush," referencing the massive afro that swirls around her face. Despite the bullying, Vicky is primarily unbothered. She's content to spend her time with her mother and grandfather (Patrick Bouchitey), collecting jars full of her favorite scents that she keeps diligently labeled in her room.
Vicky's intense sense of smell is the first indication that there is something mystical and magical amiss with this film. For many people, smells enact memories, driving us back to certain places and spaces in our lives. But for Vicky, it's much more than that. Using her nose alone, she can find her mother in a blindfolded game of hide-in-seek. She can also identify where something has been or what it has come into contact with. Her collected scents are her reprieve from the chaotic world around her until something even more powerful begins to consume her.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
From the moment Julie (Julie Ledru) is introduced in Rodeo, it's made clear that the only thing she cares about is motocross. However, the expensive sport doesn't exactly fit into the twenty-something's current lifestyle and financial plan. Living in a housing project apartment with her mother and brother, every day of Julie's life has been a fight. Still, first-time director Lola Quivoron never presents Julie as a waif. Though her slender frame and wild mass of hair could have certainly had her walking runways in another life, in this one, she spends her days stealing motorbikes from unsuspecting eBay sellers after she cons her way into getting test drives.
As a loner, companionship -- romantic or otherwise -- doesn't seem to be high on Julie's list until a faithful encounter with the B-Moore bike gang changes everything. Riding solo, Julie happens upon one of the all-male group's illegal rides. Enamored, she watches them as they thrust their bikes in the air, twisting and turning their bodies over the seats and handles with elegance and style. The scenes are some of the most mesmerizing of the film. Quivoron worked with acclaimed stuntman Mathieu Lardot of Mission: Impossible fame to capture the shots on-screen.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Ts Madison doesn't pull any punches. For years, Madison has been a fearless and outspoken social media sensation, connecting with her fans, whom she lovingly calls her "Maddie Mob," and giving her thoughts and opinions on her beloved internet talk show, The Queen's Supreme Court. Now, the powerhouse personality is elevating, becoming the first Black transgender woman to executive produce and star in her own docu-series, WE tv's The TS Madison Experience.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Black women are often called the backbone of the Black community. We are literally the vessels through which the community continues to flourish. Yet, Black women endure the most abuse, othering, and hurt. We rarely get to be our fully realized selves without fear of retaliation from those outside of our community, and at times, even Black men. In her picturesque and haunting documentary, (In)Visible Portraits, filmmaker Oge Egbuonu turns her lens on Black women giving us back our agency and narrative.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
In their new comedy-drama thriller, HBO Max has reimagined Chris Bohjalian's The Flight Attendant for the small-screen. The compelling miniseries follows Cassie Bowmen (Kaley Cuoco), a first-class flight attendant who wakes up hungover in a swanky Bangkok hotel room with a dead man next to her. As Cassie tries to piece together the previous evening, she attempts to go on about her life as if nothing happened. As her co-workers and good friends, Shane (Griffin Matthews) and Megan (Rosie Perez) become increasingly suspicious; the FBI begins putting their case together.
Tasked to solve this murder mystery, Greenleaf alum Merle Dandridge stars as FBI agent Kim Hammond, a whip-smart woman who suffers no fools and has even less patience for Cassie's convoluted story. Ahead of The Flight Attendant's debut on HBO MAX, Shadow and Act chatted with Dandridge about the series' twists and turns, and why portraying Kim has been a breath of fresh air.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Each year in Oakland, California, children from over 120 schools, ages ranging from preschool level through 12th grade are given the opportunity to compete in the Martin Luther King Oratorical Festival. More than a competition, the MLK Oratorical Festival becomes a learning moment for the youth and an opportunity for them to speak confidently in front of large crowds, sharing both the words of Dr. King and their own original content, while also mastering their posture and cadence in a way that may have never been available to them before.
Now, the history behind the competition, the organizers and the children who participate are being highlighted in the new HBO documentary We Are The Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest. Directed and produced by Amy Schatz and executive produced by Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali and Amatus Karim-Ali, the documentary is a warm reminder that if we continue to pour into our children, not all hope is lost.
A moving, feel-good documentary, We Are The Dream chronicles the 2019 competition, which also aligns with the 40th anniversary of the MLK Fest. While presenting the Oakland community as a backdrop, Schatz makes it clear that the MLK Oratorical Fest is a tradition that is deeply embedded into the hearts of the city's long-term residents. Still, what stands out in the doc are the educators who have remained committed to the children, despite dwindling resources and an increasingly fast-paced digital world. These teachers and mentors take the time to foster relationships with young people so they can feel encouraged and supported, allowing the audience to learn from these fresh and unjaded minds
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
There has been such a void in Black Romance dramas that we didn't realize how much we were craving one until The Photograph hit us in the face.
Though we still cling to our favorites, such as 1997's Love Jones and 2000's Love & Basketball, Black romance on screen is nearly as old as cinema itself. The earliest surviving movie depicting Black intimacy is 1898's Something Good — Negro Kiss, a 29-second silent film. Since then, the romance drama category has taken off in Hollywood with timeless films like Casablanca and Titanic. Still, seeing Black people in these kinds of narratives is a rarity.
In 1964, Nothing But a Man, though not widely seen, made a powerful impact on cinema. Set in Birmingham, Alabama, it follows the romance of a railroad worker and a preacher’s daughter, played by Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln. The film showcases a Black romantic drama in a way that isn’t packaged for the white masses, as has been implied of 1943's Stormy Weather or 1954's Carmen Jones. Following Nothing But a Man, films like Mahogany came to be in the 1970's. However, it wasn’t until the 1990's that a slew of romantic dramas, including The Best Man and Waiting to Exhale, or romantic comedy Boomerang began to take center stage. Yet, in the past 20 years, there have been only sprinklings of Black intimacy, sex and relationships on screen, heteronormative or otherwise, especially in mainstream cinema.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
The 2016 Presidential election revealed just how divided America can be. Many people across the country seemingly voted against their best interests for a presidential nominee whose policies would do more harm than good for the average working-class American. The election showcased, yet again, how many people will cling on to hatred, bigotry and racism because the privileges of whiteness are the only things they have of value.
In The Last Shift, filmmaker Andrew Cohn offers a birds-eye view of working-class, small-town America. The narrative showcases two lives that intersect, bringing about frustrating results.
Albion, Michigan is a town that the rest of America has forgotten. Stanley (Richard Jenkins) has lived there his entire life. He's worked the graveyard shift at Oscar's Chicken and Fish for the past 38-years, where he makes less than fifteen dollars an hour.
Stanley is exceptionally prideful about his life's choices. He's content in the grind of his daily work, his rented room in a flophouse and the evenings he spends playing darts and drinking Mountain Dew with his buddy Dale (Ed O'Neill). However, Stanley is ready for the next chapter of life. He's decided to retire from Oscar's, earn his driver's license and drive down to Sarasota, Florida to get his ailing mother out of her hellish nursing home.
Before his final shift, Stanley's boss, Shazz (Dolemite Is My Name's Da'Vine Joy Randolph), has tasked him with training his replacement. Jevon (Shane Paul McGhie) is a young Black father who has recently been released from prison after defacing a public monument. He's full of lofty ideas about the world and has a passion for writing. However, his angst, aimlessness and the suffocating confines of Albion have left him feeling stuck with only the air mattress in his mom's house as a life raft.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Cinema has a history of examining the breaking, ripping and pulling apart of families. What is almost never seen on screen is the rejoining and the reconnection of what was once broken, or the aftermath of what occurs when lives are forced back together. Ekwa Msangi's feature directorial debut Farewell Amor is a quiet, elegant film about a family torn apart by the Angolan Civil War only to reconnect 17-years later in New York City's JFK airport.
Walter (The Chi's Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) is an Angolan-born taxi-cab driver who fled from Angola to New York City, leaving his wife, Esther (Zainab Jah), and daughter, Sylvia (Jayme Lawson), behind. Now, nearly two decades later, having battled the United States' often chaotic and sometimes corrupt immigration system, the family is together once again. What should be a happy occasion is a tense meeting of virtual strangers.
Accustomed to life as a single man, with a routine that involves driving during the day, dancing at night and a beautiful lover, Linda (Nana Mensah), Walter struggles to make room for Esther and Sylvia in his home and in his heart. Still, he's determined to do what he feels is honorable. Stuffing down his feelings over the loss of Linda and the life he's grown accustomed to, Walter carves out space for his wife and daughter in his cramped one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. Meanwhile, Esther isn't quite the woman he once knew. Now a devout Christian who prays fervently and offers more than the family can afford in tides, Esther feels that God has truly blessed her family with their reunion. However, she struggles with the cracks and imperfections of her new family dynamic. America is a terrifying new world for a woman who has experienced so much loss. Though Walter is present, she feels his emotional absence, which only heightens the deep-seated loneliness that she's carried with her for so long.
It's also hard for Sylvia to adjust to life in a different place, but with more maturity than most teenagers in her position, she does her best to embrace her new life. In America, she's able to foster her secret love of dancing. The introverted teen also captures the eye of DJ (black-ish's Marcus Scribner), a boy at school who encourages her to try out for the step team. While she is used to living under the looming shadow of her beloved but Bible-bound mother, Sylvia recognizes that a relationship with a more lenient and understanding Walter may provide the kind of freedom that she's been craving, she's just uncertain if she can trust him.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Softie opens with 1,000 liters of blood, and the carnage doesn't stop there. Kenyan filmmaker Sam Soko's bold and emotionally visceral documentary follows photojournalist and activist Boniface Mwangi, on his quest to change the corrupt political system in Kenya. It's a system that has choked the country since colonialism and continues into its near-60 years of independence. Despite the corruption and the high cost of human life, two political dynasties have clutched onto the most powerful political offices in Kenya. At the same time, the blood of Kenyans continue to pool at their feet.
Though the film opens on the cusp of the 2017 elections (government elections in Kenya happen every five years), Soko takes the time to give his audience a history lesson. Using propaganda from the British occupation, Soko explains how Kenya was divided into tribes by the British. Today, those tribes that have been pitted against one another for power and greed. More than an assessment on the political state of Kenya, Softie is a crash course on the man, who, though not yet 40, witnessed the corruption in his country first hand.
A young photojournalist during the violent aftermath of the 2007 elections which led to the country's leaders being tried in the International Criminal Court, Mwangi turned his camera lens on what was happening to his people. Men were being sliced apart by machetes, people were being dragged through the streets and beaten to death . with impunity. Fed up with the press and the government's apathy, when he had the literal evidence to back up his claims, Mwangi quit his job and took to the streets in protest.
Now, a decade later, Mwangi is still working tirelessly to expose the country's corrupt political system. Soko's Softie unpacks what it costs Mwangi to speak up and force change.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
The past haunts many of us. Roads we could've taken regularly play over in our minds, suggesting what might've been. From the outside looking in, this doesn't appear to be the case for Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie); She has moved on from the events of yesterday.
She's a waitress at Wayman's BBQ & Lounge, a fiercely protective mother to her precocious 15-year-old daughter, Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) and a beloved member of her Black Ft. Worth, Texas community. Turquoise puts all her energy into giving Kai the opportunities she never had. Yet, the heartbreaking thing about director Channing Godfrey Peoples' debut feature is that all of the ambitions Turquoise desperately has for Kai were once within her own grasp.
As Miss Juneteenth opens, Turquoise stands in the mirror with a glistening crown atop her fluffy curls, with the Black national anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" booming in the background. Turq has a radiance and youthfulness about her, despite the weariness that comes with working yourself to the bone and raising a strong-willed teenage daughter. She is reminiscing on the beauty queen title she held fifteen years prior. Back in 2004, Turq won the Miss Juneteenth pageant, which commiserates the day slavery was abolished in Texas. Her title earned her a scholarship to a Historically Black College or University of her choosing.
Yet, life has a way of putting your mind at war with your heart. For Turquoise, it's a battle she's been fighting with Kai's father, her estranged husband Ronnie (Insecure's Kendrick Sampson), for over 15 years. Despite his past and present choices, Turquoise is still smitten by the immature but charismatic mechanic. All of these years later, she still desperately wants Ronnie to live up to all of his promises.
Miss Juneteenth is a breathtaking canvas for Beharie's emotional range, deliberate choices and profound warmth as an actress. It begins slow, with Peoples meticulously fleshing out Turquoise's world. The chemistry between mother and daughter even elevates the sometimes choppy narrative. Beharie has a way of channeling both friendship and an authoritative tone in the same breath or with one look. Though Turquoise recognizes that Kai has different aspirations than she once did, she is incapable of fully accepting this. Kai's desires are mainly to join a dance team, attend the big state school and slay in Battle of the Bands. However, Turq's desperate desire for her daughter to achieve what she never did overwhelms her.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.