Last year was supposed to be a banner film for Black filmmakers. Fruitvale Station, The Butler, and 12 Years a Slave were released and their…

“12 Years A Slave”, “Fruitvale Station” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” each received a whopping nine nominations from the Black Reel Awards. All three films are vying for Best Picture along with  the Jackie Robinson biopic “42” and “Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.” READ: 2013: The Best And Worst In Black Movies “The Best Man […]

2013 will go down in history as the year Black cinema turned a corner.  While mainstream outlets like the NY Times  declared 2013  the “breakout year in Black film” and BuzzFeed cynically observed that “we’ve been here before” (we haven’t), ultimately moviegoers had the final say at the box office.  First time directors like Sheldon Candis (“LUV”) and Ryan Coogler […]

The love train for “12 Years A Slave” came to a full stop Monday night at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.  The critically acclaimed film failed to win any of their three nominations (Best Feature, Best Actor, Best Breakthrough Performance).  One of the most buzzed about […]

  Black Americans have endured their fair share of unjust treatment at the hands of the police and laws put in place to protect the country’s citizens. We’ve also found ourselves being victimized a second time during the trials and receiving no justice. Considering that it’s still fresh in our minds, a prime example is […]

Movies

What is “Fruitvale Station” about? The film “Fruitvale Station” tells the story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old San Francisco Bay Area resident killed in 2009 by a transit officer at the Fruitvale Station stop on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). The film debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand […]

I guess it’s fitting that on the day I saw “Fruitvale Station,” the dramatic retelling of the murder of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, it was pouring rain from the sky. God must have known I was going to need something to mask my tears. Watching “Fruitvale Station” was a first for me. It was the first […]

Movies

Who is Michael B. Jordan? Michael B. Jordan is a 26-year-old actor best known for his performances on the TV shows “The Wire,” “Friday Night Lights” and “Parenthood.” Michael B. Jordan has also appeared in numerous feature films, the most recent being “Fruitvale Station,” the acclaimed new drama about Oscar Grant, the young San Francisco […]