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Chris Hayden
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 10:23 am: | 
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Just finished a book THE 50 MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK FILMS by S. Toriano Berry and Venise T. Berry.
I enjoyed it, though it didn't have some of my candidates (Do the Right Thing, New Jack City, Green Pastures, Porgy and Bess, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Uptown Saturday Night, The Mack) but, as the authors said, it was THEIR list, not THE list.
All of the entries are good, but I think, for those of us who have engaged in armchair movie production (you know that one that either goes "If all the black people in America gave a dollar" or "If all the blacks with big bank got together"--then we would have quality black films, you should read the chapters involving the troubles with films "Countdown at Kusini"--(made by Delta Sigma Theta), "The White Girl" made by Tony Brown and "The Spook Who Sat By the Door" made by Ivan Dixon.
The ones on the making of "Malcolm X" and "Get on the Bus" might give one hope--note also that both of them were Spike Lee jointz. This dovetails with our discussion above on Books to Movies. |
Carey
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 04, 2003 - 01:35 pm: |
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Hello Chris
I guess the key to this list is "influential" and not the best. But if New Jack City was not on the list I'm very curious to see the others. Not that the film was great( Good) but it did usher in a new era of black films. Okay, you mentioned Malcolm X and Get On The Bus, give us a few more that were in the book. I know The Color Purple and Beloved was included??? By the way, I did give Beloved another look the other night and you know what, It actually wasn't bad. I still stand by my position that it wasn't a great film but it wasn't the dog I thought it was. I think my major objection is still the character Beloved. The stump preaching in the woods was also a bit corny. There's nothing special about this movie to consider it anything other than an average flick. |
ME
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 07, 2003 - 01:00 pm: |
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I thumbed through the book when I saw it at the library here. When I saw no mention of Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Euzahn Palcy, Bill Gunn, Wendell Harris, Larry Clark or Haile Gerima I figured these folks weren't serious. If S. Toriano Berry is the same brother who worked with black independent filmmaker Zenaibu Irene Davis & made some independent films himself, then he should know about the works of these filmmakers. |
Chris Hayden
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 12:20 pm: |
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Carey: I posted this message in reply to your post before but for some reason it was not posted (along with an URL so you could see the book, cover, etc.
ME, I don't know what edition of the book you looked at, everbody but Bill Gunn, Wendell Harris and Larry Clark is in there.
Carey, Beloved is not in there. The Color Purple was, as well as To Sleep With Anger, Daughters of the Dust, A Dry White Season, Sankofa, others were the Johnson v Jeffries fight film, Body and Soul, Stormy Weather, Home of the Brave, Sgt. Rutlege, Black Like Me, Cooley High--damn, bro--I ain't gonna list 'em all--Get Da Book! |
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