#Black entertainment

[iluvjuicybooty]

💖💝💖💝

[scorpionextdooor]

[globalriseofblackpeople]

Def gone watch this show

[whitneyehouston]

I’m every woman

Soul train awards 1994

[ragstobiitches]

S3E13 The Story of Gangstalicious

[empireoftheblackpanther]

[worldwide-blackfolk]

[heckyeahdaveeddiggs]

The dire need to see these two as siblings again!

[delta7of96]

Richard Roundtree, star of Shaft and Roots, dies aged 81 | Los Angeles | The Guardian

[With Heaviest of Hearts & Sorrowful Soul...]

Rest In Peace and Power, Dear, Beloved, and Unforgettable Big Uncle Richard "Shaft" Roundtree... You breathed strength, confidence, & soul into the Culture

Kings. Fly. High. Forever.

[lillaurenp96]

Welp, that's society and apparently everyone is cool with it so at least the majority, that's the way it is 🤷🏽‍♀️

[iluvjuicybooty]

🩷🩷🩷

[scorpionextdooor]

[acetyla]

All The Queen’s Men🤍 Review

Let’s talk about it. 🎙️💬

Season 1

My favorite character so far from the show is Madam of course. She is super fearless, intelligent, & a complete leader! I stan SO hard.🩷 I really am taking notes ever since she has showed me her personality. I also love that she is into guns, she has a pink one that’s stays with her. ☺️ Everyone loves her because she’s down to earth & loyal 🧶. I strive to be as strong minded & completely sure of myself.

Doc is too trusting of people, but I guess.. how sure can you REALLY be of someone? He checked every room & crevice of that motel room & still didn’t expect it to be who it was. 😆

As far as Dime & Amp, they are SO cute, he is fine as hell. I can’t wait for them to actually hook up, without all the cockblocking.

I love the atmosphere so far. Everything is unfolding in a nice way. Nothing left un-turned.

How are you guys feeling? 😎💬

[xenodisparity]

What is Black Film?

If you were to ask for an answer immediately, I wouldn’t know. I’d probably say something stupid like “The Color Purple” (dir. Steven Spielberg). But with further analysis, I’d be honest. I don’t know. I don’t know what “Black Film” is. Is it the connection a movie holds within the culture? Does an all black crew necessitate the “Black Film” tagline?

I’m going to regurgitate a phrase I’ve heard very often. “Black People are not a Monolith”, and with that being said, not everything NEEDS to be a black film. But that rhetoric is harmful. Bear with me here. My personal perspective on Black culture in film & tv is entirely warped. Astray. Discombobulated. Any word you wanna used to describe…f**ked up. I give credit to the lack of positive representation of myself in media as a growing black boy, all the way to a young man.

What do I mean by this? Why am I so confusing right now? Because I’m confused. Because I myself don’t know how I feel about this topic. But I am not ignorant. I am not complacent. I know that there is more to the world that I can learn. I know that there is more to the culture than what I’ve seen so far, and at this point, it is my duty to make sure I see through.

Fourteen year old me would have sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes at the thought of having a conversation about the idea of Black Film. Particularly because he believed that it wasn’t necessary. He believed that not everything needed to involve Black people. “The world doesn’t revolve around you” is the phrase he consistently said to himself. He was tired of the internet. He was tired of social media pages such as “The Shaderoom” and “Worldstar”, which popularized gossip & instigation within the black community. He thought it was ignorant.

Let me switch gears real quick and talk about a movie I’ve recently watched titled, “American Fiction”. It was written, produced, and directed by Cord Jefferson. A black man. American Fiction tells the story of Thelonius ‘Monk’ Ellison, a black author who is fed up with Black stories in entertainment always including pain, or negativity. Monk is played by Jeffery Wright. Opposite of Jeffery Wright is Issa Rae, who plays Sintara Golden, a popular author who writes stories about the black experience, whether it be negative or positive.

In the movie, Monk goes through a series of events fueled by envy, disdain, hypocrisy, and jealousy. He wants his novels to become popular. He’s a black man creating stories. To him, that’s a “Black story” Experiencing his novel is the “Black experience” because he is the black man who wrote it. He doesn’t want to “feed” into the stereotypes and create a story centered around black trauma.

But that’s not what makes the bread. It’s even more apparent when Monk’s sister dies suddenly, the caretaker for his mother. His sisters death is the catalyst for this movie. It creates his motives. He doesn’t even grieve the loss of her life. He can’t accept it. His mother’s health rapidly declines after her daughter’s death. He still cannot accept it. Monk closes himself off internally from everyone. He has a complex.

Monk is getting anxious. He needs money to pay for his mother’s care. Their family has a maid, but she found love. She wants to leave and get married. Monk lets her leave. Throughout the movie, Monk questions why isn’t he in love, why isn’t he married. Why is he so much like his father, but not at the same time. Did I mention Monk’s father committed suicide by gunshot when he was younger? Oh I didn’t? Sorry. Monk is going through a lot as you can see. I didn’t even need to add that part.

Are you noticing something? Has your brain flipped? No? Yes? Maybe so?

Monk succumbs to his desires and writes a book titled “Fuck”, written by a fictional character, “Stagg R. Leigh”. Stagg is a fugitive on the run, but he wanted to write a book and share his terrible, no good, dirty black experience. Monk uses this pen name and fictional character to garner millions of dollars in revenue. He can finally pay for his mother’s care.

But now here comes the next battle…Internalized Racism!! Monk is shocked that “Fuck” is critically acclaimed. Monk denounces the work in private, but he secretly loves the attention. He got what he wanted. He got his popularity, he got his coin. But at what cost? He had to dig into the stereotypes he hates so much. Here’s the kneeslapper, Monk himself IS a stereotype.

Monk & Sintara Golden are chosen to join three white judges on a panel for the literary awards. But Monk doesn’t care about black stories because he only allows himself to see the negativity in them. He doesn’t allow himself to understand the representation, to be empathetic and realize that the world doesn’t revolve around his ideals. Monk thinks that Issa Rae’s character, Sintara Golden, is fetishizing and exploiting black trauma.

He called her work “Black trauma porn”. Monk believes that Black people have the potential to be more, to create better stories. Sintara tells him “Potential is what people see when they think what’s infront of this isn’t good enough.” This silences Monk. The jury for the awards ends in the three white voices declaring that “Fuck” by Stagg R. Leigh is essential to black voices. Much to Sintara & Monk’s dismay.

At the literary awards ceremony, “Fuck” is revealed to be the winner of this year’s award. The crowd applauses as they look around for Stagg R. Leigh. Monk’s anxiety is at an all time high. He decides to go on stage. Monk reveals he has a confession to make, but right before he speaks, we smash to black.

What? Excuse me? Is that how it ends? These are all the thoughts I had until we opened again on Monk reading off a script while speaking with a movie director played by Adam Brody. They’re on the set of “Plantation Annihilation”. The director criticizes Monk for the smash to black ending, calling it boring. He needs to bring “more”.

Has this entire movie been a screenplay Monk has been writing? Is Monk really the man we know? The conversation with Brody’s character ends when him and Monk come to a conclusion. Right as Monk goes to the stage and proclaims his pen name, a SWAT team runs in and points weapons at him. At Stagg R. Leigh. They then shoot him down, proclaiming the award trophy was a gun.

The director loves this ending, and Monk sighs. Shortly before he leaves, he comes face to face with an actor dressed as an enslaved man. The actor throws up a peace sign, and Monk nods. He drives away & we finally cut to black. The End.

In this movie we had a man by the name of Thelonius ‘Monk’ Ellison battle his own internalized racism in regard to what a “Black story” is. I saw my fourteen year old self in Monk. I related to how Monk felt about the negativity within Black stories. The difference is, I didn’t let myself become ignorant, I didn’t turn my head at the sight of stereotypes, and I most certainly did not become a hypocrite.

The thematic elements of “American Fiction” are plain as day. Yet, they’re so complex, so nuanced, that I am itching to watch it again. I want to see what else I can uncover. The standard of Black entertainment is always under a lens. From Spike Lee to John Singleton…and even…..Tyler Perry. Black stories are plentiful, despite the content. Representation matters. Getting more Black faces on screen matters.

With this watch of “American Fiction”, and my personal opinions aside, I can finally answer the original question.

What is Black Film?

Black film is an amalgamation of collaborative effort between several Black entertainers to tell a story about the Black experience.

[mansorus]