#nationtime

Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long? Because my mouth Is wide with laughter You do not hear My inner cry? Because my feet Are gay with dancing You do not know I die?

With Black History Month winding down, I thought it may be fitting to wrap up my focus on films by Black creators by recommending a handful that I have not given my thoughts on via the DOOMonFILM blog, but feel that they deserve attention nonetheless.  Some are streaming and will be easy to find, others may or may not require a little sleuthing, but all of them are definitely worth the time invested. 

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling is the semi-autobiographical biopic co-written, produced and directed by Richard Pryor, the iconic comic the story centers around.  For all of his wonderful achievements in stand-up and film, many people tend to focus on Pryor’s tragic freebasing accident that ironically helped correct his path away from drug addiction.  With that in mind, it was an extremely brave choice for Pryor to center his film around this event and use it as a way to take stock of his past, the positive and negative impacts that he had on others (as well as those who impacted him), and most importantly, his choices in regard to all of this.  The end result is a touching, deeply-moving film with as much drama and deep emotion as there is humor, and perhaps one of the best films in the Richard Pryor canon.

The Greatest takes a similar approach to the biopic, only this time, Muhammad Ali steps in to the Richard Pryor role to tell his own story.  The coverage goes from Ali’s amateur days and his rise onto the world stage via the Olympics to the wake of his struggles with the United States draft board, his banishment from boxing, and his eventual triumphant return.  The power of the film comes from Ali presenting us with the turmoil he felt having the prime of his career stripped from him during its prime, with his approach to celebrity and his choice to convert to the Nation of Islam also given attention.  While there are plenty of amazing documentaries that cover the prolific career and life of Ali, this film stands as the only narrative telling of his life as told by the man that lived it.

Love Jones stood as an interesting point in the evolution of my appreciation for film, specifically in regards to my acceptance of how Black people are presented on the screen versus the greater public’s understanding of how Black people are represented.  As a fan of Larenz Tate, I wanted to seem him continue to stretch his wings and distance himself from the typecasting that should have occurred in the wake of his performance as O-Dog in the instant classic Menace II Society, and having Nia Long, Bill Bellamy and a number of other prolific Black actors didn’t hurt either.  I was also finding my way into the poetry scene of Austin, which added another point of connection for me to the film.  The compelling factor, however, came in a discussion with a former co-worker who found himself unable to “suspend disbelief” long enough to enjoy the film, and to my surprise, the “belief” was that Black people like the ones in the film do not exist.  I didn’t necessarily take offense to the statement (not on a personal level, anyway), but it was a very direct eye-opening moment that changed my perception of how we are perceived, even in the modern day.

Of all the streaming services providing films that fall under the Black History Month umbrella, Criterion Collection has stepped up unlike any other.  One of my favorite aspects of their infusion has been the wealth of William Greaves films on the platform, but they recently added Nationtime, a documentary centered around the National Black Political Convention of 1972 that took place in Gary, Indiana.  Unfortunately, I’ve not seen this one yet, but I plan on correcting that sooner than later.

Robert Townsend has found himself in an odd position of finding his relevance seemingly minimalized over the years, which is a shame, because the man is not only one of the funniest in Hollywood, but he opened the doors for many people that followed in his footsteps and eventually attained iconic statuses in their own right.  His debut film, Hollywood Shuffle, not only served as comedic fodder in the vein of Abrams/Zucker/Abrams, but it simultaneously provided insight into both the Black experience in Hollywood in general and Townsend’s journey specifically.  While his films like Meteor Man and The Five Heartbeats may have gained bigger fandoms, Hollywood Shuffle will always stand as his underappreciated cult classic until it gets the credit it rightly deserves.

The debate on racism and its systematic nature continues to run rampant, so for those looking for some insight and education on the matter, 13th is a must-watch.  Many people tend to dismiss slavery as a thing of the past and act as if it has no impact on the present, which is its own debate, but 13th focuses specifically on how slavery as we once knew it has been morphed into a business via the 13th Amendment and the way it has created the prison pipeline and prison industrial complex.  All sides of the debate are given the opportunity to voice their stances and provide information as support, which leaves the burden of conclusion on the viewer, which speaks to this film’s strength as a documentary both in terms of production and social significance.

Hood films were all the rage in the mid-1990′s, so it was refreshing (no pun intended) to see a film such as Fresh.  While many films dealt with the issues of poverty via guns, drugs and the like, Fresh was about a young man attempting to better himself by improving his mind, using chess as the vehicle for said improvement.  While the film did not create a boom in terms of Black chess players, it did let people on both sides of film know that hood films did not have to check a limited number of boxes.  On a side note, the film also has a banger of a soundtrack.