#blackfilmoftheweek

[luminaltheater]

Black Film Of The Week: LOVE & BASKETBALL (2000)

Written & directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood; with Omar Epps & Sanaa Lathan 

Why: Love & Basketball is that near perfect movie, like 99.95% perfect. This pick may feel like we’re paying fan service, but really, in these world health crisis times, it's films like Gina Prince-Bythewood’s romantic drama masterpiece that makes you appreciate life and love.  

From childhood, Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) meet and instantly bond through their love of basketball. As they grow older, that love turns into a mutual romance for them both. But eventually, like most love, it then turns sour (not really a spoiler, it happens in every movie love story!).  Will they both love each other again, and love the game?  You have to watch it to find out.

As adept as the direction is, the casting was equally as spot on with co-starring roles for Debbi Morgan (just off of her star-making turn in “Eve’s Bayou”), the incomparable Alfre Woodard, Dennis Hasbert as Quincy’s basketball star dad Zeke, and a laid back Harry J. Lennix, in addition to early career roles for Regina Hall, Gabrielle Union, Boris Kodjoe, and of course Kyla Pratt as a young Monica. And real talk, these are also just some beautifully diverse Black people on-screen!

There are innumerable moments in the film that warm both your heart & soul. From the sweet and extremely tastefully done first love scene, to all the ball-playing scenes with Monica & Quincy (that dorm room scene, whew!), and even the moments of career and family despair, you grow with these characters. 

But above all, it’s the connection that Q & Monica possess - it feels so real!  Sanaa Lathan especially imbues Monica with equal toughness and vulnerability that allows you to feel everything that Monica is going through (no offense to Epps: two of his films have made our list so far!).       

I recall some people thinking the title is goofy, and maybe it is, but it lays it all out right there, and once you watch the first ten minutes of it, you’ll be hooked. Love & Basketball, our #BlackFilmofTheWeek

-  Curtis Caesar John, founder, The Luminal Theater

Love & Basketball is available on multiple top streaming platforms (but not Netflix)

(original post - 3/19/2020)

[luminaltheater]

Black Film of the Week: STILL BILL (2009)

Directed by Damani Baker & Alex Vlack 

Why: A favorite film of the staff, we had the documentary “Still Bill” on our list, but with the passing of its subject, legendary soul singer Bill Withers, we had to move this up.  

“Still Bill” is easily one of the best music documentaries you’ll ever see.  

Covering the history of this passionate man, who before he broke into music served in the Navy and then made toilets for airplanes, the film charts his rise in the business and his decisions to leave it, to his life as an aged musician working to maintain a good relationship with his wife and children, specifically his daughter Kori, who is a burgeoning singer/songwriter like her pops.

What Baker, who you may also know from his personal docu “The House on Coco Road”, and Vlack are able to do here is connect the audience with a man we think we know through his songs, but because he was never as mainstream as a Marvin Gaye nor stayed in the music business too long, we don’t truly know - but by midway through the film will fall further in love with.  Don’t get it twisted though, the music does make this film rise to the top, entrancing audiences into Bill’s life.  

For many of us that didn’t grow up in the early 70’s, through interviews with Bill, if you watched this film in its first run it was probably the first time you saw footage from the PBS show “Soul” and its host/producer Ellis Haizlip, whose own dynamic life, as well as the show’s, was recently covered in the documentary “Mr. Soul”. There are also cameos from Cornel West, Sting, Corey Glover, and “The Black Godfather” Clarence Avant.

“Still Bill” is a soul-stirring yet calming turn into Bill Withers’ life that you must see.  You can rent “Still Bill” on iTunes for a small fee.  

[luminaltheater]

Black Film Of The Week: FREE ANGELA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS (2012) 

Directed by Shola Lynch

Why?  Angela Davis, one of Black America’s (and in many ways, the world’s) most dynamic freedom fighters - for most of her life - is a person who continues to push the envelope on seeking justice for those wronged, and who brings fresh perspectives on life and liberty for all.   She crackles with the energy of those more than half her age, and in this documentary by Shola Lynch, the same director who assured Shirley Chisholm’s legacy to future generations with “Chisholm ‘72: Unbought & Unbossed”, uses Davis’ own words and archival footage, as well as recreations (starring theatre & film actress Eisa Davis from “Passing Strange” and “House of Cards” - and Angela’s real life daughter, which we JUST discovered!) to tell her true story.

“Free Angela”  centers on a central moment in Davis’ life: when in 1970 her social activism led her to be charged with conspiracy to kidnapping and murder after Jonathan Jackson’s (Black Panther George Jackson’s younger brother) abduction of a judge from his Marin County, California courtroom, which resulted in a police shoot-out that left four people dead - and put her on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. 

Knowing she’d never get a fair trial, Davis went underground before her arrest, but was eventually acquitted by an all-white jury - and reflects the pervasive fight that Black folks still face in 2020 America. 

But watch “Free Angela and all Political Prisoners” for free on Tubi, YouTube, Vudu to see the full story on Angela Davis’ full life...and share your thoughts with us and others.

(original post: March 26, 2020)