Film & Movie Archives
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Christmas in Harlem: BLACK NATIVITY
by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor There are so many movies that have gone to the stage and so many Broadway shows that have become movies, that I could start a whole new blog just comparing the adaptations back and forth of both. Here’s another one – “Black Nativity” a staged musical originally written by Langston Hughes, the show was first performed Off-Broadway on December 11, 1961. It’s a stylized, gospel retelling of the Biblical Jesus, Mary & Joseph Christmas story told with a dark skinned cast. Now writer/director Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou, Talk to Me) has put her own spin on the tale for her new movie Black Nativity starring…
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A Chat with Malcolm D. Lee on Ushering in The Best Man Holiday
If you are black and living on earth you’ve seen the movie The Best Man at some point in your life. In fact, How many times have you watched it over the last 14 Years? (comments welcome). Thus making the sequel a much anticipated movie event! And I can unequivocally say it was worth the wait – The Best Man Holiday not only serves these beloved characters in heart and truth and spirit, but is also sure to become an annual Christmas Classic. The opening montage flashes briefly back to Lance (Morris Chestnut) and Mia’s (Monica Calhoun) wedding, while quickly filling the audience in on each character’s progression since last…
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Once the Movie vs Once the Musical
Tinsel & Tine at “Once” the Musical Opening Night Once, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, kicked off the Broadway Philadelphia season at the Academy of Music, and I got to see it opening night! I wanted to do an in-depth comparison of the film vs. the Broadway show and had planned to stream the movie Once before opening night, as I hadn’t seen this charming little film since it was in theaters way back in 2007. That was the plan, however, I was running around doing the Philadelphia Film Festival, started a new job that’s…
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You Said a Mouthful Gleiberman – 12 YEARS A SLAVE
by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor Normally, I try to only read interviews and behind the scenes info before writing my reviews, and leave reading other’s reviews til after, so as not to taint my originality. I should have kept to that policy, because now that I’ve read Owen Gleiberman’s CNN Entertainment/ EW.com review on the Steve McQueen much anticipated movie 12 Years A Slave, I feel I should just write my agreement to every word Gleiberman offers; words my heart were crying to write, but would never have been so eloquently expressed: Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave is an agonizingly magnificent movie: the first great big-screen dramatization of slavery.…
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Greater Filmadelphia: THE SUSPECT (#PFF22)
by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor Most of the films I screen during the 22nd Annual Philadelphia Film Festival will be included in one round-up post at the end of the festival, however, The Suspect, having been made in Philadelphia by first time director Stuart Connelly, deserves its own post, for that reason, and because of the subject matter of race. We’ve been examining race history, racial bias and racial profiling a lot in films lately – Django Unchained, Fruitvale Station, The Butler, 12 Years A Slave, rightly so in the face of what’s happening in politics – so much of the opposition President Obama faces is not because he’s a…
