Though he was hilarious, he was also arrogant, sexist, rude, and hard to work with. He wanted the truth." Combing through the years of O'Neal's stand-up career with extremely direct interviews with family, friends, and a fiance, Killin' Is Easy documents one of the greatest but also troubled and complicated comedians of all time. "Killing is easy," his friend says, "but that's not what he wanted. Patrice O'Neal, who sadly passed away at the young age of 41, was one of the funniest people in the world, but he was more interested in being true to himself. While much of Black cinema is rightfully focused on racism and the fight for equity, Summer of Soul captures a delirious sense of joy missing from many important films it's the block party of the year.
perform emotional renditions of classics, and it's incredible to see them all in one place. The musicians in the film (who often watch and comment upon themselves with 60 years of hindsight) are brilliantly spirited- Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, Sly Stone, B.B. Questlove assembles nearly 50 hours of obscure and forgotten footage from 1969, combined with news footage and interviews to tell a quintessential story about that cultural moment from a Black perspective. While Woodstock has been celebrated as one of the most cultural events of the past century, it took Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's directorial debut for people to see the deep significance of The Harlem Culture Festival from the same year. These are the top ten Black films of 2021. It's an important thing." Black cinema is about having people of color tell their own stories rather than reenacting them through the lens of white filmmakers it's about storyelling from an honest perspective, one with the potential to change the stories of others. Ryan Coogler has stressed how important it was to have a Black director for Black Panther, saying, "Perspective is so important in art. Finally, thanks to the stories and struggles of brilliant artists, some of the most successful and acclaimed films of 2021 were birthed from the minds and efforts of Black creators, and the opportunity is developing where Black directors are vital to a film's authenticity and delivery. Ultimately, Black stories and characters in mainstream culture were usually shaped by white directors, screenwriters, and producers until fairly recently, which is why Rotten Tomatoes has "The 115 Best Black Movies of the 21st Century" but no similar article for the 20th. It wasn't until the 1970's that Black cinema truly hit the mainstream, but even then it was denigrated by the term " Blaxploitation," referring to the landmark films of Gordon Parks and Melvin Van Peebles, amongst others. Beloved by Black audiences, the movies were largely ignored and forgotten by an industry which couldn't have cared less, and only a hundred of these survive. 'Race films,' as they were called, were made by early Black cinematic trailblazers like Paul Robeson and Oscar Micheaux outside of the studio system, as the Hollywood machine would never allow them to be produced. This strong, human desire has been present in cinema since its inception. Spike Lee has said to Vulture, "People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world," which is why it's so important for Black films to exist.
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A Black film can be defined as a movie created by Black filmmakers and centered on their lives and stories, something which has been a real rarity throughout history, and in doing so connects to people who have otherwise felt marginalized. For a long time, the predominant whiteness of the movie industry had failed to accurately reflect the real experiences and identities of Black audiences, which is why Black cinema is a necessary corrective to a century without diverse representation. It's extremely powerful and affirming to be able to relate to an incredible character.