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Posts published in “Documentary”

Eleven Year-Old Prodigy Malik Kofi Set to Take Classical Music World by Storm

By goodblacknews on March 16, 2013
Malik Kofi playing the cello: photo courtesy Mario Page
Malik Kofi playing the cello: photo courtesy Mario Page

Malik Kofi is extraordinarily talented; a child prodigy, musical genius, awe-inspiring orator, with intellectual gifts well beyond his years.  Not only is the 11-year-old academically brilliant but his superior musical abilities leaves audiences spellbound.  An impressive multi-instrumentalist, Kofi plays the piano, drums and guitar. However, his passion is for the cello.
“Malik is a musical prodigy,” says Craig Hulgren, a cellist in the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, who has been Kofi’s teacher for the past five years. “He has advanced technological and interpretative abilities as a child. Beyond that he also puts in the hard work to develop those talents.”
Born into a working-class family in Birmingham, Alabama, Kofi’s unique story is a testimony to excellence against all odds.  The product of a teenage mom, Kofi’s maternal grandmother, Ruby Cox, has raised him as her own since he was an infant.  She says Kofi came out of the womb curious and eager to learn.

Whitney Young Documentary On PBS Tells Story Of Unsung Civil Rights Leader

By goodblacknews on February 24, 2013

 Whitney Young Documentary

WASHINGTON — Just before the March on Washington in 1963, President John F. Kennedy summoned six top civil rights leaders to the White House to talk about his fears that civil rights legislation he was moving through Congress might be undermined if the march turned violent.
Whitney Young Jr. cut through the president’s uncertainty with three questions: “President Kennedy, which side are you on? Are you on the side of George Wallace of Alabama? Or are you on the side of justice?”  One of those leaders, John Lewis, later a longtime congressman from Georgia, tells the story of Young’s boldness in “The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights,” a documentary airing during Black History Month on the PBS series “Independent Lens” and shown in some community theaters.

Beyoncé’s HBO Documentary Breaks HBO Ratings Records

By goodblacknews on February 21, 2013
Beyonce Knowles attends 'Beyonce: Life Is But A Dream' New York Premiere at Ziegfeld Theater on February 12, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)

Beyonce Knowles attends ‘Beyonce: Life Is But A Dream’ New York Premiere at Ziegfeld Theater on February 12, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)

Beyoncé’s HBO documentary Life Is But A Dream may have garnered mixed reviews, but it pulled in record ratings for HBO.  The superstar’s documentary had the “largest audience for a HBO doc since Nielsen revised its method of measuring viewership in 2004,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Beyoncé’s documentary premiere drew 1.8 million viewers, breaking the previous record of 1.7 million set by Spike Lee’s Hurricane Katrina opus When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts in 2006.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com

Young Filmmaker Samantha Knowles asks 'Why Do You Have Black Dolls?' in her Debut Documentary

By goodblacknews on February 9, 2013

Samantha Knowles, 22, surrounded by the subject of her new 25-minute movie.
Sometimes, a doll is not just a doll. It’s a reminder of a child’s beauty and potential.  No one understands that better than 22-year-old director Samantha Knowles, whose experience growing up as an African-American in a predominantly white community was the inspiration for her new documentary, “Why Do You Have Black Dolls?”
The 25-minute debut film about the significance of black dolls has been accepted at five film festivals and a trailer for “Why Do You Have Black Dolls” can be seen on Youtube.com.
“When I was 8, a white friend came over and innocently asked, ‘Why do you have black dolls?” remembers Knowles, who was raised in Warwick, N.Y., and now lives in Prospect Heights. “At the time, I obviously couldn’t really answer the question.”  Fourteen years later, she can.  Knowles, who initially made the film as her honors thesis at Dartmouth College, spent $6,000 and interviewed more than 20 dollmakers and historians, mostly in New York and Philadelphia.

PBS Celebrates Black History Month with Special Programs and New Black Culture Website

By goodblacknews on February 1, 2013

Sister Rosetta Tharpe
In celebration of Black History Month and as part of its year-round commitment to diverse programming, PBS announced an on-air lineup commemorating the contributions of African Americans in music, dance, television and civil rights, providing an in-depth look at key figures and events that shaped black – and American – history. In addition to these programs, PBS announced it will launch the PBS Black Culture Connection, a digital storybook of black films, history, trends and discussion that’s available throughout the year on PBS.org as of today, February 1, 2013. 
“PBS’ mission is clear – to provide accessible, educational, informative programs of every genre and culture all year long. Since February is Black History Month, our schedule is heavily focused on the contributions of African Americans,” said Donald Thoms, Vice President, Programming. “During the month, we are also continuing our commitment to feature stories and films from diverse and independent producers, which remains a staple of our content offerings year round.”

Documentary “The Forgotten Cowboys” Explores Lives and History of America’s Black Cowboys

By goodblacknews on November 21, 2012
Jason Griffin (center) is one of the stars of "The Forgotten Cowboys," a documentary film by John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald which follows the lives of black cowboys in the U.S.Jason Griffin (center) is one of the stars of “The Forgotten Cowboys,” a documentary film by John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald which follows the lives of black cowboys in the U.S.

(CNN) — Jason Griffin straps his right arm in bandages, preparing himself to grip the reins a wildly bucking bronco. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a rough beard, he steps into his cowboy boots, fits a Stetson hat and heads out to meet his mount in the rodeo arena.  Griffin is a four-time world champion bareback bucking horse rider — competing in a sport that began in the 19th century heyday of the Wild West.  With each victory — he has also won three all-round rodeo championships — the Texan raises awareness of a strong tradition which is rarely seen in the many novels, films and television series dedicated to the tales of the old West: The historic story of America’s black cowboys.

On cinema screens and paperback covers, the cowboys of old were heroic, hard-bitten and — almost always — white. In reality, the American West of the 1800s was traversed by an assortment of black, white, Mexican and Native American cattle hands. Contemporary records are rare but historians now estimate that up to one in four Texan cowboys was African American, while the number of Mexican cowboys was even greater.

John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald’s documentary film — and multimedia project — “The Forgotten Cowboys” follows Griffin and other contemporary black cowboys as they gain a following competing at rodeos and go about their working lives.

Watch online: the video trailer for the documentary “The Forgotten Cowboys”

Tattoo Artist Imani K. Brown Promotes Creativity and Craft in the Body Art World

By goodblacknews on November 7, 2012
Imani Brown Tuskegee Airmen Tattoo

One of the oldest and most prevalent cultural practices across the globe, tattooing has become increasingly popular in the African-American community. Yet while this group has demonstrated a growing affinity for receiving tattoos, the number of licensed black artists practicing the profession is much smaller by comparison. Add gender to the mix, and the number dwindles even further.

“I want to believe there are more of us [women], but so far, there are very, very few,” African-American tattoo artist Imani K. Brown, 32, told theGrio. ”I know about two in Detroit. That’s it.”  Being a black tattoo professional has placed the artist in a strange caste. “People think we’re on the darker side of life,” said Brown, referring to misconceptions about her line of work.  ”That we’re all rockstars and worship the devil.”

Yet, Brown is a trained artist who hails from Washington D.C.’s Pinz-N-Needlez Tattoo, one of the few black-owned and operated shops in the country. To add further distinction, she is documented as only the second licensed black female tattoo artist in America. She recently learned of the first accredited black female artist, 66-year-old Jacci Gresham of New Orleans, upon watching the new documentary Color Outside The Lines, by black tattoo artist Miya Bailey and filmmaker Artemus Jenkins. Brown is also featured in the film.

1970s Martial Arts Star Ron Van Clief Featured In "The Black Kungfu Experience"

By goodblacknews on September 19, 2012

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdAX75j54C8&w=420&h=315]
Meet kungfu’s black pioneers and heroes who flourished at the junction of African American and Asian cultures. The Black Kungfu Experience traces the rise of black kungfu in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and resonates in the contemporary martial arts scene in Washington D.C, Los Angeles, The Virgin Islands, Jamaica, and Hong Kong.

1970s Martial Arts Star Ron Van Clief Featured In “The Black Kungfu Experience”

By goodblacknews on September 19, 2012

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdAX75j54C8&w=420&h=315]

Meet kungfu’s black pioneers and heroes who flourished at the junction of African American and Asian cultures. The Black Kungfu Experience traces the rise of black kungfu in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and resonates in the contemporary martial arts scene in Washington D.C, Los Angeles, The Virgin Islands, Jamaica, and Hong Kong.

Angela Davis Documentary Brings Life Of Revolutionary To Big Screen

By goodblacknews on September 10, 2012

 

Willow Smith, Jaden Smith, producer Sidra Smith, director Shola Lynch, actors Will Smith, Angela Davis and Jada Pinkett Smith attend the 'Free Angela & All Political Prisoners' premiere during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall on September 9, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

From Ebony.com: Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, a new film by Shola Lynch, in which Angela Davis, 68, speaks openly for the first time in forty years about the tumultuous events of her twenties, debuted at this week’s Toronto International Film Festival. Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, who introduced the doc at the festival, just announced that their Overbrook Entertainment have partnered with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation as executive producers of the documentary about the scholar who came to embody Black power and Black radical feminism.