Otelo Burning set my emotions ablaze! I watched a geographically distant past that became present that ended up as a timeless tale despite the specificity of race, place, and the specific historical backdrop.

This often-quiet film explodes with deep passion igniting memories of the South African apartheid and the perils...

When teaching the film Precious (2009) I would have to encourage students to grapple with issues of spectatorship with regard to representations of Blacks in American cinema. Although Black Americans or African Americans have been filmmakers since the early 1900s, it was not until the 1980s that mainstream...

Leslye Headland's debut film Bachelorette (2012) is an intensely complex mix of totally inappropriate humor and very sad moments carefully nestled in a well drawn study of how past regrets became the noticeable roots of our characters' present habits. The four women at the center of this story...

Partly paying homage to Red Hook, Brooklyn, partly a loss of innocence story on many, many levels, partly a commentary on churches across America, Red Hook Summer (2012) thrusts its main character Flick (Jules Brown) and the audience into a hot and confusing summer in the housing projects...

Mike Tyson -- Undisputed Truth
Directed by Spike Lee

Spike Lee has done it again but for the first time, it's on Broadway and the kind of LIVE! I have never before experienced.

As soon as we entered the Longacre on 48th street it was clear that Brooklyn...

Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild is a superb addition to the recently minted "You Go, Girl" genre.

This vivid and visceral film brings out the theme of racial diversity in an odd but comfortable mix of a natural yet fantastical world of a child's real-life...

Last month HBO was showing Spike Lee's Girl 6(1996) and this month (until May 28) Crooklyn (1994).

I have been encouraging folks to take a look at the films and report back on how it compares to their first viewing -- if they have seen it before and if they...

While Tanya Wexler's new film Hysteria is at times a LOL-hysterical romantic comedy, it also skillfully navigates important issues about class and medical practices in the 1880s, and takes a good look at women's rights in general.

The story takes place in London and has an interesting...

On Saturday April 14 at Canio's Cultural Café/book store in Sag Harbor, New York I heard Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, read from his latest work, Gods, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy. Excerpts from the book can be found

As a teacher it is my duty to introduce my students to films they have not seen, or in some cases may not want to see. As a teacher I believe it is also my duty to watch the films my students watch, whether I want to see them or...

I recently had the pleasure of being on a panel that introduced the March 10th New York Times Film Club's Red Carpet Classic Screening of Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985). The panel moderator was Toure and my fellow panelists included Adepero Oduye (Pariah 2011) and LaChanze who...

In the piece I wrote about The Artist I mentioned the Silent Clown Film Series and I am delighted to report that I have had many inquiries since then about where to see more silent films. As an educator and film enthusiast I'm thrilled to once again be a supporter...

Congratulations to Ms. Octavia Spencer for winning the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for The Help (2011). I thoroughly enjoyed her on screen passion, humor and audacity. Her irreverence shimmered like glitter, her rage took on an artistic flair, and the relationship she...

Congrats to the Hollywood Foreign Press for giving The Artist the respect and attention it deserves. The film won three awards for Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy (Jean Dujardin), and Best Original Score -- Motion...

Dee Rees' Pariah (2011) could and should be the beginning of the next wave in black American or African-American cinema, but don't let that notion box the film into any specific category or genre. Writer/director Rees offers us contemporary American cinema at its finest. Pariah is the story of a...