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MEAN SLEEP: MIDNIGHT'S DREAM
REM sleep or Stage 5 sleep, is usually associated with dreaming-beautifully bizarre, random, or startlingly human-it produces a creative feed for granting it a second thought or |
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REEL TALK IN BROOKLYN
Big up Brooklyn for doing what you do since day one! Big up women worldwide for claiming your minds, bodies, and souls when it seems the whole world |
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BAM got (Afro)Punked!
Summer in New York City is when the sensory rages and reigns, and BAM serves samples of punk, progress, and sci-fi at the third annual Afro-Punk Festival. Through |
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Lights, Camera, Africa: Ousmane Sembène, R.I.P.
African cinema is left with the permanence of greatness following the passing of Ousmane Sembène, le père du cinéma africain, the trinity of African film. The Senegalese director, |
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Documenting Ghana
Coming a year after its first outing, the West African Documentary Forum has just opened Ghana's Real Life Documentary Film Festival for a second go-round. The festival opened |
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The Truth is in the Knowing
To follow up on our initial post on SFIAF, we've decided to offer some additional information on the festival (along with a few highlights). The 2007 San Francisco |
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Africana Motion Pictures
Ever since San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) opened up nearly 2 years ago, the institution, under the leadership of exective director V. Denise Bradley, has |
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Portraits of an Aristoblack
How ironically relevant and timely, we thought, when reading about the release of Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artists, a DVD box set showcasing the varying fields of |
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We Have Momentum
Momentum is defined as "mass in motion." Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an |
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West Side Stories
Great film-related stuff just keeps coming out of Austin, Texas, no doubt spurred by that city's recent rep as a haven of underground filmmaking. First we tracked the |
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Tadesse's Texas Tea
Yes, black gold that is, but this ain't Texas and we are not talking tea. We are talking about Tadesse Meskela’s battle of the bean in Black Gold, |
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Word is Bourne
We've been keeping our eye on indie filmmaker St.Clair Bourne lately, especially since various groups, including BAD-West have seen fit to sing his praises so loudly. He let |
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Afrofuture
First we want to say that we know what it's like to be sleep-deprived, so we're all the more grateful to Kenyan artist Jimmy Ogonga for staying up |
| Step in the Name of Love
Although we doubt the King of R&B will grace the place, Sharon Bridgforth, an award-winning performance artist and writer, invites Austin massive to Sexy Sundays, to step in |
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Reel Young
Corey "CJ" Jennings, CEO of Next Generation Awareness Foundation told us some time ago that one of NGAF's missions is to bring independent film to U.S. cities that |
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Guiding Light
Film is a surface art. Light on the water, shadows on the pavement, white snow on black skin--the illumination of contrasts. British-born filmmaker Isaac Julien plays these surfaces |
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Black Gold
Standing in the shadow of Hollyweird is the City of Angels. Historically, Los Angeles is home to gold--both black and the kind that manifest destinies are built on. |
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Blue Noted
We got Austin, USA-based poet and performance artist Sharon Bridgforth to tell us about approaching her work as a "spiritual practice" in our January Texas artist feature. What |
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Eye & I
Since the days of the zip-coon, to the hardcore thug of present day, stereotypes continue to affect how we see and are seen--especially at a young age. And |
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Hammer Time
Credited for developing some of the most engaging educational programs on the west coast, UCLA's Hammer Museum will feature several interdisciplinary programs this season. Two events of particular |
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Youth Connection
Since the release of When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee's announcement to direct a film on the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and beginning negotiations to produce and direct |
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A-philly-ations
So it seems that film festivals are in the air. After sitting on our desks and occupying our leisure conversations for several months, we've realized that it's high |
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Ladies First
2007 begins with several festivals that take interdisciplinary studies and female empowerment to a new level. April 26 will mark the beginning of the Austin Woman's Film, Music |
| 4 Minute Mile
In an interview with Spike Lee, Melvin Van Peebles likened Lee to Roger Bannister--the man credited with running the first four-minute mile. The point of this comparison was |
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Remix/Reflect Africa
Every two years an event happens in Burkina-Faso that is eagerly anticipated by many, but still remains under the mainstream radar: The Pan African Film and Television Festival |
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Been in Effect
Somewhere in between the death of Jimi Hendrix and the moment that Run DMC hit the studio with Aerosmith, the African American influence that birthed what we call |
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Make Some Noise
Speaking of Nigeria, there are those who by the mere mentioning of their name elicit wild responses. Crazy, genius, pioneer: Fela. This year, on World AIDS Day (December |
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Celluloid Bulletin/Screen Gems
Several film festivals have come across our desks this week many of which we deem mentionable. Planning to begin 2007 with a new name, the Women of Color |
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Natural Histories
Given our recent mention of the new Bling book by Ossé and Tolliver, we wouldn't want to leave the impression that we've gone all materialist on you. The |
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Painted Ladies
We've recently learned that our friend Wangechi Mutu is among the over one hundred women artists to be featured in the Brooklyn Museum's spring exhibition Global Feminisms, which |
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Betwixt and Between
Given that artist Cauleen Smith and poet A. Van Jordan both had a love for the language of cinema, their collaboration on an installation was probably inevitable. The |
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Special Delivery
Not that we don't like surprises, but being of a certain temperament we're often happier having at least a hint about what's coming next. So imagine our sheer |
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DIY
We've always thought of Austin, USA as a do-it-yourself town, which is why it makes sense to us that University of Texas senior Ozii Obiyo would take it |
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Reel Urban
Most film festivals and film-related events focus on the heavy hitting industry cities: Los Angeles, New York, London. Corey "CJ" Jennings, CEO of Next Generation Awareness Foundation, has |
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Gods and Men
We haven't been able to take our eyes off Brazilian film since Hector Babenco's Carandiru in 2003. Aw hell, for all that, let's take it back to 1981's |
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Dust Off
Roz Payne has more black historical documents stuffed under her bed than most of us will probably ever lay hands on, much less own. As a founding member |
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Border Crossings
Hip-hop these days serves as more than just simultaneous low, middle, and high art for the masses. It has come to serve as an all-purpose inoculation against obsolescence |
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Queer Flicks
We at Code Z have been taking note of the explosion of film festivals around the world. Even tiny Gregory, South Dakota, USA (pop. 1300) has a film |
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Black Film Students: P2P
University of Alabama at Birmingham professor Tony Bingham is taking a learn-by-doing approach to teaching African American film history to his students. Part of his "Black Image: Screen |
