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redcarpetview · 2 years

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SXSW FILM & TV FESTIVAL DIRECTOR JANET PIERSON SHIFTS TO DIRECTOR EMERITUS ROLE CLAUDETTE GODFREY PROMOTED VP, DIRECTOR OF FILM & TV

The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals announced today that Janet Pierson, revered VP, Director of the SXSW Film & TV Festival will become Director Emeritus and her long-time deputy, Claudette Godfrey, Film Festival Programming Director, will assume leadership of the SXSW Film & TV Festival.

2022 marked Pierson’s 15th year as head of SXSW Film & TV, capping a forty-five year career championing independent films and filmmakers in a variety of roles including exhibitor, producer’s rep, executive producer and segment producer and segment director of IFC-Criterion’s Split Screen. During her tenure as head of SXSW Film & TV, Pierson ensured the event was vital and wide-ranging, championing numerous careers in both the Conference and Festival, launching a dedicated section for Episodic programs years before other festivals and showcasing a renowned XR exhibition section, all while contributing to the strategy and direction of the broader event. Many of the films and careers Pierson has been privileged to be involved with are highlighted at SXSW Film at 25 and Alumni Stories. Her new role will include serving as a programmer for the 2023 event, where she will be celebrated for her exceptional contributions to SXSW and the entertainment sphere.

“Leading SXSW Film (now SXSW Film & TV) starting in 2008 at the age of 50 was a wonderful, and quite unexpected, adventure. It’s been glorious to present so much great work at our unique event, yielding so many transformative experiences for creators and audience alike,” said Pierson. “I’m intensely proud of the work our small and very mighty team has accomplished. Now, 15 years and 14 events later, it feels right to hand the reins to the new Director, Film & TV, Claudette Godfrey. Claudette and I began working together in 2008 and she has been a significant collaborator and leader every step of the way. I’m excited to remain on the programming team to continue to support and elevate creators in this new capacity as Director Emeritus. It’s been a true privilege and I’m filled with gratitude.”

Claudette Godfrey. Vice President, Director of Film & TV.

Claudette Godfrey is widely regarded as a tastemaking curator of new voices in film. She has championed numerous short and music video filmmakers who went on to illustrious and award-winning careers, including Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Janicza Bravo (Lemon, Zola) Trey Shults (Krisha), Jim Cummings (Thunder Road) and many others. A native Austinite, she holds a singular understanding of every facet of SXSW, serving in a variety of capacities during her 17-year tenure at the event, ranging across volunteers, operations, and programming, and often multiple disciplines at once.

Godfrey started as a volunteer crew manager in 2006, working her way up to an essential programming and operational force, becoming Film Festival Coordinator in 2009, Shorts Programmer and Operations Manager in 2010, Senior Programmer in 2017, and Director of Film Festival Programming in 2022. In her new role, Godfrey will lead the team and be responsible for the vision, programming, and execution of the SXSW Film & TV Festival, and the film and TV-focused content within the SXSW Conference.

“Janet is an incredible leader and mentor, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to watch and learn from her example. Our bold community of filmmakers, our enthusiastic audiences, and our gifted team that makes it all happen perpetually inspire me,” said Godfrey. “I’m a hype woman at heart, and it’s a great joy in my life to discover and elevate new talent by curating and evolving an event that celebrates film, TV, and creativity. I started from the bottom and the journey has been exceptional — it’s an immense honor to continue to build on the legacy of SXSW Film & TV and take it into the future.”

Register now for the 2023 event to get the best hotel rates and options. SXSW Film & TV and XR submissions are open through October 18, 2022.

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#Film #Music #SXSW #SXSW Film & TV Festival #Claudette Godfrey #Janet Pierson #SXSW Conference #Naomi Richard #naomijrichard #naomi j richard #Naomi Logan Richard #IFC-Criterion’s Split Screen #SXSW 2023 #SXSW2023 #RCV #Red Carpet View

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twiststreet · 2 years

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Rewatching the first season of Atlanta, for the first time, in anticipation of this week’s season 3 debut. I remember thinking the second season really dwarfed the first season, but the first season’s got some pretty, pretty great stuff in there, too-- at least, that Black Justin Bieber episode really landed with me this time. (Jane Adams!!!!!!! Why doesn’t Jane Adams have more people? I think she’s just always so great. I think she’d kill on a White Lotus or something like that).

Or it’s just cool to me how the Nutella Guy (aka Ahmad White -- “You might know me from your dreams”) shows up in that first episode. Like, for a very first episode to include a scene that strange, and unexplained. (He wasn’t in the script for the first one that’s floating around online, which is pretty different overall-- it starts with Glover getting kicked out of Princeton, and doesn’t have the shooting in it at all. Plus, most of the funniest dialogue isn’t in the script-- it’s a much weaker piece of material-- you can see how much work it took to get it on its feet. Or besides never really going anywhere huge with the shooting, the interesting thing is how there’s this black cloud around Brian Tyree Henry all season that never pays off-- a guy randomly showing up in a Batman mask, a bartender mentioning that someone was looking for him-- it’s just part of the scenery, in a way that kind of makes the show richer).

First season just has jokes, too. Or just things I think are funny-- Donald Glover, here, just saying “I’m glad that story’s being told”...

#atlanta #zazie beetz having to hide that she's laughing #episode directed by Janicza Bravo

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blackinperiodfilms · 2 years

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FX Officially Orders Series Adaptation of Octavia Butler's Kindred

Based on the genre-bending novel by Octavia E. Butler, Kindred follows a young Black writer who finds herself ripped through time, shunted between modern-day Los Angeles and a nineteenth century plantation that holds her family's secrets.

The series stars newcomer Mallori Johnson as Dana, Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy and David Alexander Kaplan. Janicza Bravo directed the pilot and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins adapted the novel.

The eight episode series is coming to FX; no debut date yet. This is the first image from the series.

#Kindred #Octavia Butler #Mallori Johnson #Janicza Bravo #Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

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theliterateape · 3 years

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I Like to Watch | Mrs. America (Hulu)

by Don Hall

Trumpism is just Reaganism minus the niceties of at least pretending to be a decent human being.

Reagan ran against Carter as the Democrats were pursuing policies that were meat-and-gravy to the GOP: crime, inflation, high gas prices, humiliation, and evacuation in the Middle East. Add to that the cultural shifts toward more inclusion and a census that predicts a waning white male influence and the table is set for another Reagan Revolution or MAGA-inspired call toward American exceptionalism.

I lived through the rise of Reaganism; I was seduced by it for a time before I started to see through the ugliness behind pushing culture back to the 1950s. Reaganism was a solid line reaction to the the loud, messy, and societally progressive noise of the leftist activists of the 60s and it seems, upon reflection, as inevitable.

Civil Rights and anti-war apostles were pivotal yet, as the 70s slowly crept into being it was the feminist movement and the the 'women's libbers' who were most motivated and thus most feared by the Good Old Boy network. Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem were the front-facing members of a club that represented the equal rights of women and almost pushed through the Equal Rights Amendment. An amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for all citizens.

Opponents claimed it was redundant as the Constitution already guaranteed in vague terms that very right but those on the losing end of America's promise wanted something more concrete.

They were fierce. They were brave. They fought the good fight.

If there's one source of joy I embrace in film and television it's superhero shit. No johnny-come-lately, I loved that stuff before I had pubic hair so the fun I have watching any show featuring super-powered characters is incomparable. A close second is historical political dramas. I love 'em.

All the President's Men. Lincoln. Primary Colors. JFK, Frost/Nixon, The Trial of the Chicago Seven. The dramatization of real people doing the work of those who battle it out on a national scale to shape the country is fascinating and, when done well, feels like a living history lesson.

I dig the streaming world. I savor the nearly unlimited options. I was, until recently, a hold out on Hulu. The ads, I suppose. Yet, the platform has on offer so much that people declare as outstanding I had to finally give in and do that one-month free trial deal.

The first series on my list was Mrs. America.

Created and co-written by Davhi Waller and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Amma Asante, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and Janicza Bravo, the series details the political movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and the unexpected backlash led by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly in the 1970s.

The nine-part series premiered on April 15, 2020 to widespread critical acclaim. At the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, it received ten nominations including Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Writing. In January 2021, the American Film Institute named Mrs. America as one of its ten best television shows of 2020.

In terms of casting, this brilliant television show managed the acting equivalent of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team: Cate Blanchett as Schlafly, Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug. Additionally, Elizabeth Banks as Jill Ruckelshaus, a Republican feminist activist, co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Ari Graynor as Brenda Feigen, a feminist activist and attorney, the National Legislative Vice President of NOW.

Solving the problem of having that much star wattage as well as serious talent all mashed together is the device that each episode up to the eighth is individually titled and features a main character ("Phyllis," "Bella," "Shirley," etc.). Contrary to the idea that, in order to fully portray the fight for ratification one must demonize Schlafly (truthfully, an easy target), the writers and Blanchett give her a sense of humanity and purpose in her opposition to the ERA. While she is definitely the villain of the tale, she is a wholly relatable villain and not without merit.

Blanchett gives an edge and a deep sorrow at her circumstances. Byrne is fantastic as Steinem and embodies her look as well as her peculiar brand of celebrity activism in a manner I'd yet seen. I knew about Chisholm but had forgotten that she was the first black woman to run for president and Aduba certainly deserved her Emmy for the role.

Smack dab in the middle of every scene of the STOP ERA crowd of housewives is Sarah Paulson. She is not playing anyone famous or historical. Her Alice Macray is a fictional composite of the kind of woman who would be a part of Schlafly's movement. In each episode, her presence is felt but it seemed as I watched that to have an actor as superb as Paulson in such a tangential role was a bit of a waste.

Until episode eight entitled "Houston."

Without Schlafly for the first time, the STOP ERA women are invited to the 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston to defend their cause. Alice is overwhelmed by her surroundings, goes to the hotel bar where she makes friends with a woman who appears to be a bedfellow but is actually in the feminist camp. The woman gives her a pill to relax which is really LSD.

Alice is tripping and looking for food amongst an entire complex of hippies, feminists, and the enemies of her stated cause. She sees the ERA movement in a completely new light and the anguish of her blindness to being a woman fighting against the women's cause strikes her like a bolt of lightning.

I've always enjoyed Paulson in just about everything she's ever done including her role in Sorkin's poorly received Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Here, though, in the penultimate episode, she shows the very heart of the entire program. As her Alice finds the discord in the approach of her friends and, specifically Phyllis, Paulson gifts us with an insight beyond the partisan divide so prevalent then, so destructive today.

She's extraordinary.

Up til that episode I was ready to declare Mrs. America the closest to a perfect season of television I've seen since Six Feet Under or The Wire. After the episode, I can declare that Mrs. America is one of the flawless examples of how history, television, and storytelling can meet and elevate as well as educate.

I love my superhero shows and these historical figures were no question superheroes.

#Mrs. America

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indiereel · 4 years

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DIRECTOR OF THE WEEK #1: Janicza Bravo is one of the fiercest female directors you need to put on your radar right now.

There isn´t much the Los Angles based writer and director can´t do - she directs film, TV and theater. I personally first became aware of Bravo through her work in TV, directing some of my favorite episodes of Atlanta. She also worked on other acclaimed television series including Dear White People, LOVE or divorce.

Since her feauture-length dark comedy Lemon (2017), Bravo is considered as one of the rising stars of the indie scene.

Starring Taylour Page, her latest film Zola is based on the viral Twitter story about two stripper´s misadventures in Florida in 2015 that started with the words: “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this here bitch fell out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.”. Instead of glamorizing that part of society like many other films, Zola fiercely pulls back the curtain. But of course, just like Lemon it´s funny too.

For more tips and news about women in front of and behind the camera, follow us on TWITTER

What is your favorite Janicza Bravo work? Tell us below!

#women filmmaker #female directors #indie films #independent film #janicza bravo #zola #lemon #directoroftheweek #dark comedy #twitter #bravo #florida #tv #womenempowerment #atlanta #dear white people #sundance film festival #indie scene #feature

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kristenswig · 4 years

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Kristenswig TV Awards the last part!

Best Limited Series Devs I Know This Much Is True Mrs. America The Plot Against America Too Old to Die Young ZeroZeroZero

Best TV Movie Blow the Man Down Share

Best Directing for a Limited Series or TV Movie Devs, “Episode 7″ (Alex Garland) I Know This Much Is True, “Four” (Derek Cianfrance) Mrs. America, “Houston” (Janicza Bravo) Mrs. America, “Reagan” (Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck) Share, (Pippa Bianco) Too Old to Die Young, “Volume 5: The Fool” (Nicolas Winding Refn) ZeroZeroZero, “Sharia” (Janus Metz)

Best Lead Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie Rhianne Barretto - Share Cate Blanchett - Mrs. America Kaitlyn Dever - Unbelievable Zoe Kazan - The Plot Against America Andrea Riseborough - ZeroZeroZero

Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie Dane DeHaan - ZeroZeroZero Nick Offerman - Devs Mark Ruffalo - I Know This Much Is True Morgan Spector - The Plot Against America

Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie Rose Byrne - Mrs. America Poorna Jagannathan - Share Jena Malone - Too Old to Die Young Margo Martindale - Mrs. America Sarah Paulson - Mrs. America Alison Pill - Devs Cristina Rodlo - Too Old to Die Young

Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie Anthony Boyle - The Plot Against America Giuseppe De Domenico - ZeroZeroZero Philip Ettinger - I Know This Much Is True Marcello Fonte - I Know This Much Is True Charlie Plummer - Share Harold Torres - ZeroZeroZero

Best Writing for a Limited Series or TV Movie Mrs. America, “Houston” (Dahvi Waller) Mrs. America, “Phyllis & Fred & Brenda & Marc” (Micah Schraft and April Shih) Mrs. America, “Reagan” (Dahvi Waller & Joshua Allen Griffith) The Plot Against America, “Part 6″ (David Simon) Share, (Pippa Bianco) Too Old to Die Young, “Volume 2: The Lovers” (Nicolas Winding Refn & Ed Brubaker) ZeroZeroZero, “Same Blood” (Leonardo Fasoli, Max Hurwitz, Mauricio Katz)

#there were some ties in the voting

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mizelaneus · 3 years

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your-dietician · 3 years

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Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/entertainment-heat-wave-is-coming-this-summer-what-to-watch-for-entertainment/

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

Remember 2019, when hot girl summer became a motto for living with confidence?

Well, with life getting closer to normal and vaccines nudging the pandemic into — fingers crossed — the rear-view mirror, 2021’s entertainment calendar for the next few months has a similar mood.

Call it a hot everything summer.

Blockbuster movies are returning to theaters. Live concerts are set to resume. Television and streaming shows are back to being a nice part of the mix, not a sole entertainment lifeline. And with travel heating up again, beach books can actually be read on a faraway beach.

To navigate this soaring heat index for fun, here is a list of recommendations that are sunny, breezy, steaming and sizzling. You get the idea.

Hot Jeff Daniels summer

Michigan’s resident acting great always keeps it real — remember his plaid dad shirt at February’s virtual Golden Globes? His latest project evokes his home state’s ethos of blue-collar endurance. “American Rust,” a nine-episode series premiering Sept. 12 on Showtime, stars Daniels as the police chief of a Rust-Belt Pennsylvania town who is feeling “ticked off and kind of jumpy” when a murder investigation tests his loyalties. If the preview looks a bit like HBO’s gritty “Mare of Easttown,” that’s a very good thing.

Hot goofy summer

In real life, metro Detroit native Tim Robinson could be a calm, collected guy. But as a sketch comedian, he’s made an art form out of wildly overreacting to life’s little embarrassments. “I Think You Should Leave,” his mini-masterpiece Netflix show, is back July 6 with a second season. Besides brilliantly making himself the butt of the jokes, Robinson always remembers his hometown friends. Let’s hope for repeat appearances by his pals like “Detroiters” co-star Sam Richardson and Troy’s own Oscar nominee, Steven Yeun.

Hot retro Motor City summer

The Detroit of the mid-1950s comes alive in director Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move,” available July 1 on HBO Max. The crime drama starring Don Cheadle, David Harbour, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm and more is about some low-level criminals given a simple assignment that draws them into a mystery that stretches to the heights of the automotive industry’s power structure. The film was shot last year in Detroit under strict COVID-19 safety measures, because Soderbergh, who filmed 1998’s “Out of Sight” here, would accept no other city as a substitute.

Hot road trip summer

Six years ago, a young waitress from Detroit created a viral Twitter thread about a bizarre journey she took to Florida with a new friend to do some freelance stripping. It was as compelling as a novel and as vivid as a movie. Cut to June 30 when “Zola” hits theaters starring Taylour Page and Riley Keough. It’s a comedy and a thriller that defies expectations and makes J-Lo’s “Hustlers” seem mild. Director Janicza Bravo and screenplay co-writer Jeremy O. Harris have created a raunchy adventure that still respects A’Ziah (Zola) King as a strong woman and original writing voice.

Hot action dad summer

Yes, Matt Damon is now old enough to play a Liam Neeson-esque outraged father out for justice. In “Stillwater,” Damon is a worker for an Oklahoma oil rig who must travel to France to try and clear his daughter (Abigail Breslin) of murder charges. Think “Taken,” if it were a serious drama directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy of “Spotlight” fame. It comes out July 30, just in time to make Damon’s fans from his “Good Will Hunting” days feel ancient.

Hot reboot summer

It has been almost a decade since “Gossip Girl” ended its run, which is way too long to be without fashion tips from impossibly beautiful rich kids. The newly reimagined “Gossip Girl” on HBO Max arrives July 8 with some notable improvements, like the inclusiveness of its cast of newcomers. But it’s bringing back the original narrator, Kristen Bell (who grew up in Huntington Woods), as the voice of the title character with the hidden identity.

Hot sweating summer

Sweating is a bodily function, but what exactly is it all about? “The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration,” out July 13, will explore the biology, history and marketing behind the moisture that makes us glow (to use a polite term). It covers everything from the role of stress in sweat to deodorant research that involves people who can sniff out, literally, the effectiveness of a product. Since the New York Times recommended the book as one of its 24 summer reads, you know that author Sarah Everts did sweat the details.

Hot Olympic star summer

The 2021 Tokyo Games, which run July 23-Aug. 8, will feature the world’s best gymnast, Simone Biles. She still enjoys competing, but quarantining gave her some time to improve her work-life balance, as she told Glamour for its June cover story (which comes with a dazzling photo spread of Biles). “Before I would only focus on the gym. But me being happy outside the gym is just as important as me being happy and doing well in the gym. Now it’s like everything’s coming together.” For the 24-year-old GOAT, the sky — or, maybe, gravity — is the limit.

Hot variety show summer

“What percentage of white women do you hate? And there is a right answer.” That was among the questions posed by internet sensation Ziwe to her first guest, Fran Lebowitz, on the current Showtime series that carries her name. Combining interviews, sketches and music, “Ziwe” deploys comedy to illuminate America’s awkwardness on issues of race and politics. The results are hilarious, so find out about Ziwe now before her next project arrives, a scam-themed comedy for Amazon called “The Nigerian Princess.”

Hot ice road summer

Take the driving skills of the reality series “Ice Road Truckers” and add one stoic dose of Liam Neeson and you’ve got “The Ice Road,” which premiered Friday on Hulu. The adventure flick involves a collapse in a diamond mine, the miners trapped inside and the man (Neeson) who’s willing to steer his ginormous rig over frozen water to attempt a rescue mission. Crank up the AC temporarily!

Hot kindness summer

There is a better way to be a human being, and he shares a name with an Apple TV+ series. “Ted Lasso,” the fish-out-of-water sitcom about an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who’s drafted to lead a British soccer team returns for a second season on July 23 —the date that Lasso fans will resume their efforts to be more empathetic and encouraging, just like Ted. Only there’s a new sports psychologist for AFC Richmond who seems impervious to Ted’s charms and home-baked biscuits. She doesn’t like Ted? We’re gobsmacked!

Hot podcast summer

When Michael Che guested on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” recently, his segment was interrupted repeatedly by Dave Chappelle, who kept plugging his “The Midnight Miracle” podcast available on Luminary. What Chappelle was selling is worth the listening. “The Midnight Miracle” brings him together with his co-hosts, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, and his famous friends from the comedy world and beyond for funny and though-provoking conversations interspersed with music. If you were a fly on the wall of Chappelle’s home, this is what you might hear.

Hot series finale summer

The last 10 episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” start airing Aug. 12 on NBC, a too-short goodbye to one of the most underrated comedies in TV history. You can give all the glory to “The Office,” but the detectives of the Nine-Nine could go toe to toe with Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton branch in terms of quirkiness, humanity and office romances and bromances. It’s hard to pick a favorite dynamic among the characters, but the irritated father-incorrigible son vibes between Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) and Det. Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) are sublime.

Hot musical comedy summer

Keegan-Michael Key and “Saturday Night Live’s” Cecily Strong lead a star-studded cast in “Schmigadoon!,” an AppleTV+ series premiering July 16 that magically transports a backpacking couple to a land of 1940s musicals. Until Broadway reopens in September, this parody love letter to the power of musical theater should do nicely. And the premiere episode’s song “Corn Pudding”? Catchy!

Hot nostalgia tour

Hall & Oates are criss-crossing the nation with enough 1980s hits —”Maneater,” “Kiss on My List,” “I Can’t Go for That,” “You Make My Dreams Come True,” etc. — to make you want to trade your mom jeans for spandex leggings. As if they weren’t enough top-40 goodness, their opening acts are Squeeze, still pouring a cup of “Black Coffee in Bed” all these years later, and K.T. Tunstall, whose “Suddenly I See” is immortalized as the anthem of “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Hot all-female, all-Muslim punk band summer

A British import now airing on the NBC streaming spinoff Peacock, “We Are Lady Parts” would be notable alone for defying stereotypes about Muslim women. But this sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim aspiring rock band is a gem of both representation and laughs, thanks to characters like Amina, a shy doctoral candidate in microbiology whose complaints about a guy she calls “Bashir with the good beard” inspires a song.

Hot documentary summer

While Woodstock has become synonymous with epic music gatherings, the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 is finally about to get the pop-culture recognition it deserves. “Summer of Soul: (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” directed by the Roots drummer Questlove, will hit theaters and Hulu on July 2. It chronicles a mostly forgotten event that drew superstars like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, the Fifth Dimension, Sly & the Family Stone and B.B. King. Using his vast knowledge of music, archival footage and interviews with performers and those who attended, Questlove has created a history lesson that’s also the best concert you’ve never seen before.

Hot Marvel summer

Once you’re all caught up with the summer streaming sensation “Loki” on Disney+, please turn your attention to two new films. “Black Widow,” the long-awaited star turn for Scarlett Johansson’s former KGB assassin Natasha Romanoff, makes its debut July 9. It’s followed by “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for Sept. 3 and starring Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”) as the martial arts master of the title. All brought to you by the corporate global entertainment domination machine that is Marvel.

Hot biopic summer

“Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson, arrives Aug. 13 at theaters, nearly three years to the day the world lost the Queen of Soul. Although Cynthia Erivo gave a fine performance earlier this year as Franklin in “Genius: Aretha” on the National Geographic network, the odds are good that Hudson, chosen by Franklin herself for the part, will be the definitive screen Aretha.

Hot fiction summer

Terry McMillan calls “The Other Black Girl” essential reading. Entertainment Weekly describes it as “‘The Devil Wears Prada’ meets ‘Get Out,’ with a little bit of ‘Black Mirror’ thrown in.” This debut novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris mixes office politics with suspense in its story of Nella Rogers, an editorial assistant who’s the only Black staffer at a noted publishing company. When Hazel, a new Black employee, is hired, things seem to be improving. But then Nella starts receiving ominous unsigned notes. Sounds like yet another reason to keep working from home.

Hot slow dance summer

After nearly four months on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, “Leave the Door Open” remains the song most likely to provoke a quiet storm on the dance floor. The hit single from Silk Sonic (aka Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) may sound like a cover of a long-lost ‘70s classic R&B tune, but it’s a contemporary song that can make you forget the humidity long enough for “kissing, cuddling, rose petals in the bathtub, girl, lets jump in.”

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sknews7 · 4 years

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My Working From Home Life: Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival director of programming | Features

Los Angeles-based Kim Yutani is director of programming for the Sundance Movie Competition. She started programming quick movies for the pageant in 2006, and have become a characteristic movie programmer in 2009, specializing in US and worldwide fiction options, overseeing shorts programming, and dealing on offscreen panels and conversations. She was instrumental in creating Sundance Movie Competition: Hong Kong.

Yutani represents Sundance internationally, serving on juries, talking on panels, and dealing to domesticate relationships with movie commissions, business, and artists around the globe. Since 2014, she has additionally overseen a collaboration with the Berlinale’s EFM – housed inside the Sundance Movie Competition at EFM programme – which has supplied publicity and gross sales alternatives for Sundance movies instantly after premiering on the Competition.

She began her programming profession at Outfest Los Angeles, the place she was the creative director and the director of programming. She was a programmer for the Provincetown Worldwide Movie Competition, has been a reader for Inventive Capital, and was on the quick movie nominating committee for Cinema Eye Honors. Previous to her movie pageant work, Yutani was a movie critic and freelance journalist specializing in impartial movie. She acquired her begin within the business as assistant to the director Gregg Araki.

What’s lockdown life like for you proper now? I’m in Los Angeles with my associate Liz and our two cats, Mountbatten and Andrew. Lockdown life has been hectic with work, however we’ve loved discovering new components of our neighbourhood on foot. The cats have spectacular inside clocks and demand their meals at very particular instances, in order that they lend to a regimented schedule.

What’s the temper among the many pageant neighborhood? Pals and colleagues are extremely supportive of one another, and eager to be taught from each other as all of us adapt and reimagine our numerous programmes. A lot of what’s central to the pageant neighborhood – journey, gathering densely in enclosed areas, in-person conferences – has been paused or reworked.

What are you able to inform us what Sundance Movie Competition will look in 2021? We can be unveiling an thrilling digital dwelling for the pageant, which suggests it’s going to be extra accessible, by extra individuals than ever earlier than, and we’re planning to reinforce that with reside programming not solely in our year-round dwelling of Utah but in addition throughout a community of different cities.

What key pageant parts are organisations like Sundance eager to protect regardless of the scenario we discover ourselves in? How do you try this? The sense of neighborhood and discovery that pervade our pageant. Seeing new work that’s daring and sudden, after which speaking about it with individuals from totally different walks of life, possibly even gaining some contemporary perspective – that’s on the core of what we do, and we’re discovering modern methods to maintain that contemporary and thriving. Keep tuned!

How do you see festivals evolving in a post-pandemic world? This yr has catapulted lots of festivals into imagining a digital future – prefer it or not. Festivals have needed to confront questions of accessibility, curation and intent: who’re they for, and the way are they delivering for that viewers within the purest means?

What are you having fun with watching, studying and listening to throughout this time? With out a commute I’m in a position to watch extra TV lately. I believed Mrs. America was distinctive, and my favorite episode was Houston, directed by Sundance alum, Janicza Bravo. It was thrilling to see the world uncover Shira Haas in Unorthodox.She got here to Park Metropolis with Tali Shalom Ezer’s Princess in 2015. I additionally beloved bingeing on the crime thriller Marcella. I’m having fun with a e book my buddy Sanam at Mubi gave me, At all times Dwelling, about chef Alice Waters written by her daughter Fanny Singer, and I’m anxious to learn Adrian Tomine’s The Loneliness Of The Lengthy-Distance Cartoonist.

What has most stunned you about your self throughout lockdown? Choose me if you’ll, however I by no means used to differentiate weekends from weekdays, and being on Zoom conferences all in the course of the week has made me recognize unplugging on the weekends!

What’s the very first thing you’ll do when the lockdown is lifted? My family and friends and I’ve all been very cautious lately and have restricted ourselves to quick entrance porch visits, so it could be good to collect comfortably in particular person finally – possibly even eat collectively at a restaurant?

What constructive change would possibly this carry to the business? Arising with artistic methods to work and difficult our outdated methods of working have been so inspiring over the previous few months. Questioning what we’ve got accepted for therefore lengthy and having tough conversations about advanced topics round race, gender, fairness mustn’t – and should not – cease. I really feel like we’ve all discovered a lot and going again to “enterprise as normal” just isn’t an choice.

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bloomingnightskty · 4 years

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These all sound amazing!

Utopia Falls

It's not every day that we get a sci-fi drama series about young people in the future discovering hip hop and using it as a tool for freedom, but in 2020 that's exactly the kind of out-the-box programming coming to CBC Gem. Utopia Falls is the brainchild of R.T. Thorne, the award-winning filmmaker behind a ton of your favourite music videos (and episodes of Degrassi). With Boi-1da serving as executive music producer and choreography by the iconic Tanisha Scott, this is an Avengers-level assembly of Canadian talent, and I for one am super excited to see their collective vision manifest. It begins streaming on CBC Gem Friday, Feb. 14.

The Negroes Are Congregating

First of all: amazing title. Second of all: if you're in Toronto in March, you should make time to see this play. Written by Natasha Adiyana Morris and celebrating its world premiere at Theatre Passe Muraille in March, The Negroes Are Congregating is a poetic yet scathing deep dive into racism in Canada and around the world. I had a chance to see a workshop production and I'm telling you, this play asks certain questions that will stick with you long after the curtains close.

Transcendent Kingdom

Yaa Gyasi's debut novel Homegoing took the literary world by storm. Transcendent Kingdom is the follow-up to that bestseller, and it tells the tale of a Ghanaian family living in Alabama as they cope with depression, addiction and grief. The protagonist, Gifty, is studying neuroscience at Stanford University, trying to understand the source of her family's troubles. But when science can't provide the answers, she turns to faith. I'm excited to snuggle under my covers and read this one.

Flags of Unsung Countries

The Art Gallery of Southern Manitoba recently made a commitment to prioritizing the work of Black Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) women artists in the Prairies, and they have an exciting lineup on the way. It begins with an exhibit by the brilliant Liz Ikiriko, a Saskatchewan artist now living in Toronto. Flags of Unsung Countries originated at the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina but will make its Manitoba debut January 16.

Initiated as an attempt to understand the journey of her father — a Nigerian immigrant living with mental illness in the Prairies — this photographic installation explores questions of migration, ceremony and the concept of home. Ikiriko's work as an artist and curator is constantly inviting viewers to question the relationships and systems that we so often take for granted and this exhibit promises to do much of the same.

Zola

In 2015, the internet was introduced to one of the greatest Twitter storytellers to ever grace the platform: Aziah "Zola" Wells. In a string of 148 tweets, she told the epic tale of a road trip to Florida that includes sugar daddies and pimps, stripping and prostitution, murder and a suicide attempt. Super serious topics, I know, but as told by Wells, it was an edge-of-your-seat social-media thriller that boasted famous fans like Ava DuVernay, Solange Knowles and Missy Elliott. The film version is coming to Sundance later this month. Directed by Janicza Bravo (who's also directed some of your fave episodes of Atlanta and Dear White People) and written by Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris (the man who shook up Broadway with 2018's Slave Play), this movie promises to be a hell of a ride.

Lovecraft Country

Produced by Jordan Peele, you say? That name is all it takes to spark my interest, but this new television series also has a number of other factors in its favour. It stars Jonathan Majors (one of my new favourite actors) alongside Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aunjanue Ellis and Michael K. Williams, and is a drama-horror that takes place in the 1950s Jim Crow American South (definitely a period ripe with material for horror). Misha Green is the showrunner, and if you ever watched Underground (which was tragically cancelled after just two brilliant seasons) you'll know why this is a very, very good thing. It comes to HBO later this year.

Controlled Damage

Viola Desmond's story deserves all the treatments: novel, major motion picture, rap songs, poems and, of course, the stage. Andrea Scott's play Controlled Damage has its world premiere at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax this February. What better way to celebrate Black History Month than by reliving a Canadian Civil Rights hero's courageous act of bravery?

Love is the Message the Message is Death

Condensing 400 years of history into a seven-minute looped video scored by Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam" sounds like an impossible task. But under the purposeful eye of Arthur Jafa, one finds a collage of images that showcases the nuance, pain, joy, sexuality, spirituality, mess, love and grief of Black life in the United States of America.

Hearing Kanye sing, "This is a God dream, this is a God dream, this is everything," while watching Jafa's meticulously edited array of images is an experience you don't want to miss. The installation is on now at the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal to March 3.

Untitled Fred Hampton Project (formerly known as Jesus Was My Homeboy)

If you don't know the story of Fred Hampton — the young, charismatic Black Panther activist who was identified as a threat by the FBI and assassinated in his home by the police — please do some research before this film drops. His story is one that is both inspiring and tragic, enraging and mobilizing. It needs to be told and seen on the big screen.

Directed by Shaka King (a member of the dream team behind Random Acts of Flyness), produced by Ryan Coogler (oh, you know, just the genius who gave us Black Panther, Creed and Fruitvale Station, no big deal) and starring LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya, I am counting down the days until this film arrives. (It's scheduled for August, but since it still doesn't have a name...who knows!)

Soul

Seriously, Disney: can we get an animated movie with Black characters who get to stay human beings for the entirety of the film?

As skeptical as I am, I'm going to give this new one a chance, only because it boasts a cast filled with so many of my faves, including Jamie Foxx, Questlove and Phylicia Rashad. The start of the trailer also hints at some great jazzy numbers and a storyline about following one's artistic passion (I'm always a sucker for narratives like that). It comes to theatres in June.

Corrections

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Boi-1da ccomposed the score for Utopia Falls. The composer is Nikhil Seetharam.Jan 13, 2020 11:55 AM ET

#blackhistorymonth #black history month #black history #black history in canada #CBC #cbcarts #blackmedia #blackhistoryevents #blackshows #blackcommunity #fortheculture #mustsee #utopiafalls #blackhistory365 #blackpride #bhm #Canadian

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years

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HBO's Comedy Series Camping is an Unpleasant Trip

The world of fiction boasts a long, proud history of stories of deeply unpleasant people you somehow care about, in spite of that visceral unpleasantness. (Mostly, they’re men.) These stories can be wearying, but when they’re good, they’re also rewarding. We recognize in these people the nastiest, ugliest corners of ourselves; we also recognize their, and our, humanity. We cringe, we laugh, and sometimes, we’re better for it. It’s like magic. If only “Camping” could manage such a trick. But hey, at least it pulls off the unpleasantness.

The last joint project from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner (“Girls”), who announced the end of their writing partnership this summer, “Camping” is an American take of the British series of the same name, which was created by Julia Davis. It centers on a group of what one might be tempted to call friends, but which could more accurately be described as a loose collection of people who know each other, most of whom like at least a few people the people there and can barely tolerate others. They’ve come to celebrate Walt’s (David Tennant) birthday, a weekend-long event organized by his peevish, abrasive, and overzealous wife Catherine (Jennifer Garner, working extremely hard). Among them: Nina-Joy (Janicza Bravo), whose tension with Catherine threatens to capsize the weekend from moment one, and her husband George (Brett Gelman); Catherine’s tentative sister Carleen (Ione Skye), her boyfriend Joe (Chris Sullivan), who left his A.A. 30-day chip as a tip at a diner, and his teenage daughter Sol (Cheyenne Haynes); and Miguel (Arturo Del Puerto), whose recent separation from his wife makes the others believe he won’t show. But show he does, bringing a force of chaos in his wake: Jandice (Juliette Lewis), a DJing, reiki-practicing, pill-dispensing notary who some would call a free spirit and others would call unhinged. The weekend, unsurprisingly, goes badly.

It’s not that unpleasant people who treat those around them like garbage can’t be great TV. “Mad Men” comes to mind. So does “Girls,” for that matter. The problem with “Camping” is not that Catherine, Jandice, and company��but especially Catherine and Jandice—are people with whom you’d never in a million years want to share a campsite. No, the issue is that they’re not really people. For every glimmer of humanity or odd moment of self-recognition, there are 10 that bear no resemblance to reality without so much as a glimmer of the engagingly absurd. They are sketches, and they’re not entertaining ones; they say things that might be funny, if a human being said them, but as lines delivered by the caricature of a really disagreeable person, they’re just off-putting.

Nowhere is this a bigger problem than with Catherine, played with admirable but uneffective gusto by Garner. It would be easy to say that she was simply miscast as Catherine, a bitter, manipulative, painfully un-self-aware woman seemingly incapable of casual pleasant interactions. And admittedly, it’s not a perfect fit—"off-putting" is perhaps more in Garner’s wheelhouse than “loathsome.” But there are glimmers throughout the four episodes screened for critics of what might have been, had the writing for those episodes presented her with anything coherent to play. A scene in an emergency room in which a spiraling Catherine tells her young son Orvis (Duncan Joiner) that it’s possible to look fine but feel terrible plays simply and beautifully, a moment of recognizably human conversation that’s so welcome that viewers, if they’re anything like me, will drink it in as greedily as if it were an ice-cold beer on a very hot day in the middle of an interminable camping trip with some incredibly lousy people.

There are similar moments, some quiet, and hard to watch—she’s especially good with Tennant, who we’ll return to in a moment—but they’re depressingly rare. The rest is all blitzing through paragraphs about Instagram followers and detailed schedules and chronic pain and pelvic floors and near-constant assertions that everyone around her is constantly ruining her life, at every moment. When one line would get the point across—“Checking in, eight adults one child four nights at the Groupon rate,” in one breath, to the campground’s bemused proprietor (Bridget Everett)—there are usually four, and at least half are gruesomely on the nose. On “Alias,” Garner successfully sold the Rambaldi mythology, which involved Da Vinci and big red floating balls of goo. She got four Emmy nominations for that show. She can’t even kind of make this junk work.

Others fare better. The only remotely shaky thing about Tennant’s performance is his often comically thick American accent; in all other respects, he carefully crafts a portrayal of a loving, supportive man who is just about at the end of his gosh-darned rope and completely unsure of how to handle that. As the similarly put-upon Nina-Joy, Bravo gets to play something like the straight man, but instead of being the solid wall off which jokes can bounce, she’s the reasonably sane, clear-eyed person who reaffirms that yes, this is all crazy. She does it all with appealing reserve and emotional resonance. The same is true of Chris Sullivan’s Joe, who imbues his spiraling jackass with enough vulnerability and self-loathing to avoid making him another loathsome object. And while there’s nothing subtle about it, Lewis’ turn as the wild Jandice is so damned entertaining that it’s hard not to hunger for more. She’s occasionally funny, bless the Lord, but more importantly, she’s a force, an energy. Jandice enters the frame and things change.

“Camping” seemingly never stops, never shuts up, and yet somehow it still takes a good long while before it seems to be getting anywhere. Yet paradoxically, the slowest moments are the ones in which the best of the series seems to emerge. It’s not just that the acting is best in those quiet moments. When the characters take a breath, a real sense of place seeps in between the sentences. Directors Konner, John Riggi, and Wendey Stanzler—the last of whom directed the “Parks and Recreation” episode “Flu Season,” one of the best sitcom outings of the century so far—each evocatively capture the vast, dark, loud-quietness of a campground after dark, while Stanzler in particular makes every beige tent feel insanely cramped and small. In the former case, the cameras wander down paths, creeping up on the characters or catching sight of them from a distance. In the latter, it’s always crammed in somehow, one more unwelcome presence in a space that’s way too small to contain such uncomfortable people.

It’s effective stuff, but perhaps too effective at times. “Camping” traps eight adults, two children, in a campground at the Groupon rate for a weekend from hell. On such weekends, every day is too long, every irritation heightened. It’s not a good state in which to live, but it could be ripe material for comedy, or for good storytelling. What you’re given here is a camping trip you’d never want to take, with people you’d never like to meet, doing things you’re almost embarrassed to watch. With all that discomfort, there may not be much to stop audiences from packing up their shit and moving on.

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