#afi docs 2021

Now streaming on #PrimeVideo, the latest documentary from Betsy West & Julie Cohen uncovers a previously unknown activist - Pauli Murray. Read my review below!

I want to see America be itself.Pauli Murray We all know the name Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and other civil rights heroes from the 1960s. Most documentaries will often cover these people, the events that surrounded them, or other social issues of the time. However, My Name Is Pauli Murray‘s titular subject is not a name I’d heard before, nor was many of the…

Film Review: No Straight Lines – The Rise of Queer Comics ★★★1/2

Directed and produced by Peabody Award-winner Vivian Kleiman (a longtime collaborator of filmmaker Marlon Riggs), the beautifully crafted documentary feature No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics, which received its world premiere at last month’s Tribeca Film Festival, chronicles the history of queer comics by focusing on five lesbian and gay trailblazing cartoonists, with insights from the…

Just when thought the state of democracy couldn't get any worse... Enter the quest for #PRESIDENT in Zimbabwe #documentary #afidocs

Apparently politcal shenanigans are global. President Mugabe had ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years.  However, when polling began, so did the cheating. Mugabe’s presidency got smacked by rigged elections and violence against political opponents.  Then, In November 2017, President Mugabe is outed in a military coup led by Mugabe’s former Vice-President Mnangagwa, setting the stafe for a crucial election…

When was the last time you saw a newstand or picked up a local paper? Storm Lake reminds me that supporting local papers is a journalistic lifeline for some communiites #stormlake #afidocs

Not along ago, sitting at a stop sign, a newstand I frequented was shut down.  It’s not an uncommon scene.   In the past 15 years, one in four newspapers have shuttered in the US. With a circulation of almost 3,000 readers this twice-a-week paper, the Storm Lake Times,  is one of the last of its kind.  People don’t support journalism they way they used to.  The whole professionis becoming a…

Where were you on 9-11? I remember vivdly where I was and the paralyzig panic that permeated me for hours on that day. #911 #afidocs

It was close to 9am in Los Angeles and I was on running in Griffith Park with my APLA (AIDS Project Los Angeles) training group.  Right about that hour, all of our phones simultaneously buzzed.  One right after another.  When I answered mine, it was my Aunt telling me a plane hit the Pentagon.  My father worked at the Pentagon.  We hadn’t heard from him…yet.  My Aunt phoned again , a few moment…

Having just lost Paul Mooney, this in-depth look at the life of legendary @IAmDick Gregory @showtime couldn't come at a better time. What a blessisng he continues to be. #dickgregory #afidocs

The 60’s brought an onslaught of comic talent whose presence soare like comets for decades. Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Moms Mabley, Paul Mooney and Dick Gregory.  Being from St. Louis, Missouri, I was more than a little familiar with Dick Gregory.  He attended Sumner High School with my Mom and my Uncle (who he shared on spot on the track team wtih).  The world know him as a acerbic comedy talent…

Baby, Van Joness was called many things in his quest to get The First Step Prison Reform Act passed. But, it was not without heartache, loss and some slings and arrows #thefirststep #afidocs2021 #afidocss

  Before Van Jones was a CNN pundit or worked with President Obama, he just a marginalized nerd from Jackson, Tennessee wanting to change the world.  As a staunch, respected grass roots prison reform activist, he had a hand in closing five prisons. Yet, opinions surrounding him, his passion and even his reputation were about to take a major pivot when Donald J. Trump was elected Presient of the…