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Paramount Pictures Donates DVDs of "Selma" to Every High School in U.S.

By goodblacknews on April 26, 2015

Source: Paramount Pictures | 20th Century Fox

In honor of the DVD release of Selma, Paramount Pictures will be sending a copy of the film to every high school in the USA, both public and private. The DVDs will be provided free of charge and teachers will receive study guides along with it.

Director Ava DuVernay stated, “Our ‘Selma’ filmmaking journey has had many highlights, but to me, the response from students and educators has been the most magnificent part of the experience. To think that this triumphant story of dignity and justice will be available to every high school in this country is a realization of many dreams and many hopes. I applaud Paramount on this extraordinary effort, and salute the teachers who will provide classes and context on the work of Dr. King and his comrades to the young minds of our nation.”

Megan Colligan, the president of Paramount Pictures’ Worldwide Distribution and Marketing stated, “The response from students and teachers to our ‘Selma for Students’ initiative was overwhelmingly positive and we are delighted to be extending the campaign. During the film’s theatrical run more than 300,000 young people were able to see the film for free. By providing DVDs to all of the high schools in the country, we hope to reach all 18 million high school students with the film’s powerful and inspiring story. With many of these students preparing to vote for the first time in next year’s elections, it is especially fitting that they witness the bravery and fortitude of those who fought to establish the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

We love how much support Selma has been receiving countrywide. We hope more educational and inspirational films will receive the same support. 

article by Courtney Whitaker via madamenoire.com

Director Ava DuVernay Honored by Barbie With Her Very Own "Shero" Doll to Be Auctioned for Charity

Director Ava DuVernay Honored by Barbie With Her Very Own "Shero" Doll to Be Auctioned for Charity

By goodblacknews on April 24, 2015

Director Ava DuVernay (l) and her "Shero" doll by Mattel (r)
Director Ava DuVernay (l) and her “Shero” doll by Mattel (r)

Barbie revealed today that the company is honoring six “Sheroes” – women heroes who inspire girls “by breaking boundaries and expanding possibilities for women everywhere,” as the press release states.

These women are being honored by Barbie at the Variety Power of Women Luncheon in New York City with a one-of-a-kind doll created in their likeness – each made to encourage girls to dream and imagine themselves as everything from a mermaid to a movie star, a fairy to a filmmaker, and a princess to a president.The Sheroes who will be honored in a way that is unique to the Barbie brand, with a one-of-a-kind doll in their likeness, are:

  • Ava DuVernay: I’m sure she needs no intro at this point… but just in case you’ve had your head in the sand… Director of 2015 Academy Award Best Picture nominee, “Selma,” and founder of African American Film Festival Releasing Movement.
  • Emmy Rossum: Golden Globe nominated actress and spokesperson for Best Friends Animal Society, the only national animal welfare organization dedicated exclusively to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters and a leader in the no-kill movement.
  • Eva Chen: The youngest appointed female Editor-in-Chief of a national fashion magazine, Lucky.
  • Kristin Chenoweth: Emmy and Tony Award nominee and winner, who also founded the Kristin Chenoweth Art & Education Fund.
  • Sydney “Mayhem” Keiser: Five year-old fashion designer with work appearing in Vogue and signed on with major national fashion brand, J.Crew, for the collection ‘Little Mayhem for J.Crew’ launching in June.
  • Trisha Yearwood: Award-winning Country artist, best-selling author, Food Network host and entrepreneur.

Following the awards ceremony, each Shero will auction off their doll to benefit a charity of her choice.”Barbie has always represented that girls have choices, and this Spring we are proud to honor six Sheroes who through their trade and philanthropic efforts are an inspiration to girls,” said Evelyn Mazzocco, General Manager Barbie. “Started by a female entrepreneur and mother, this brand has a responsibility to continue to honor and encourage powerful female role models who are leaving a legacy for the next generation of glass ceiling breakers.”The Shero celebration will culminate on National #Shero Day, Monday, April 27, where fans will have the opportunity to pay tribute to the Shero who has empowered them using #Shero #BeSuper and tagging @Barbie via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.Here’s what the complete doll collection looks like:

Barbie 2015 Sheroes Dolls
article by Tambay A. Benson via blogs.indiewire.com

Denzel Washington’s "The Equalizer" to Get Sequel

By goodblacknews on April 23, 2015
The Equalizer
Sony has officially announced a sequel to the Denzel Washington thriller “The Equalizer.”  Rumors of an “Equalizer” follow-up began months before the movie opened in September, but it was the film’s strong box office results and home entertainment sales that ultimately pulled the trigger on the second installment.
Washington is expected to reprise his role as vigilante Robert McCall in “Equalizer 2.” Chloe Moretz and Marton Csokas co-starred in the original.  Based on the 1980s TV series, “The Equalizer” earned over $192 million at the global box office last year. It was co-financed by Village Roadshow and debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.
Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) directed the first “Equalizer.” It’s unknown whether he’ll return for the sequel. He and Washington are next re-teaming on MGM’s remake of “Magnificent Seven,” which reunites the duo with “Training Day” actor Ethan Hawke.
article via Variety.com
 

Queen Latifah's Bessie Smith biopic "Bessie" Set to Debut May 16th on HBO (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on April 3, 2015
Official Still of Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith in HBO's biopic
Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith in HBO’s biopic (Courtesy: HBO)

Queen Latifah stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO Films drama “Bessie,” which is directed by Dee Rees, from a screenplay written by Rees, Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois.
With a story by Rees and Horton Foote, the film focuses on Smith’s transformation from a struggling young singer into “The Empress of the Blues,” one of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s.
HBO has announced its movie will debut on Saturday, May 16 at 8PM.
The cast includes Michael Kenneth Williams as Bessie’s husband, Jack; Khandi Alexander as Bessie’s older sister, Viola; Mike Epps as Richard, a bootlegger and romantic interest; Tika Sumpter as Lucille, a performer and romantic interest; Tory Kittles as Bessie’s older brother, Clarence; Oliver Platt as famed photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten; Bryan Greenberg as renowned record producer and music critic John Hammond; with Charles S. Dutton as Ma Rainey’s husband, William “Pa” Rainey; and Mo’Nique as blues legend Ma Rainey.
The film will offer an intimate look at the determined woman whose immense talent and love for music took her from anonymity in the rough-and-tumble world of vaudeville to the 1920s blues scene and international fame, capturing her professional highs and personal lows, and ultimate legend.
Described by HBO as a labor of love for the filmmakers, “Bessie” has been 22 years in the making. The first draft was written by playwright Horton Foote. Queen Latifah was approached by producers Richard and Lili Fini Zanuck to take on the role of Bessie when she was just launching her acting career. She eventually came on board as an executive producer, along with producing partner Shakim Compere.
Director Dee Rees caught HBO’s attention with the buzz around her award-winning film, “Pariah.”
Says Latifah, “I have been excited about this project since the very beginning. When HBO got involved, we were thrilled and we worked together to make something that would capture Bessie’s life honestly and respectfully.”
Watch the telepic’s first full-length trailer below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FhmzwXfgz8&w=560&h=315]
original article by Tambay A. Obenson via blogs.indiewire.com

TONIGHT: Powerful Doc "Black Panther Woman" Makes NYC Premiere at New Voices in Black Cinema Festival

By goodblacknews on March 29, 2015
Still from "Black Panther Woman"
Still shot from “Black Panther Woman”

Set to make its New York premiere tonight, March 29, 2015, at 9:30pm, at the New Voices in Black Cinema Festival, at BAMcinématek in Brooklyn, NY, is “Black Panther Woman” – director Rachel Perkins‘ documentary on the little known Brisbane chapter of the Black Panther Party, which was directly inspired by the American Black Panthers.

To pre-purchase tickets, visit http://www.bam.org/film/2015/black-panther-woman.
Central to the film is Marlene Cummins (photo above), who was introduced to Australia’s Black Panther Party in 1972, when she met and fell in love with its leader, beginning her education into the Black Power movement.

This Australian chapter of the Black Panther Party adapted the politics and style of the American Black Panther Party, from the clothing to their defiance, attracting the attention of the local authorities. Yet, unlike their American comrades, who numbered in the thousands across America, the Australian chapter comprised of just 10 members – young Aboriginal people who staged educational theatre shows, kept watch on the police on what they called ‘pig patrols,’ and were at the forefront of demonstrations, including the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
According to director Rachel Perkins, what began as a straightforward story, recounting the Black Panther Party in Australia, slowly revealed itself as something more. The tensions around the movement and her personal life tightened around Marlene, and finally led to the break up of her relationship with the party’s leader. Marlene filled the vacuum with alcohol and quickly spiralled into a cycle of addiction that left her vulnerable on the streets. Her vulnerability and her belief in the movement made her a target for black men in power. Marlene recalls the incident of her rape, by two Indigenous leaders, after which she made the difficult decision to stay silent. Dedicated to the cause, and distrustful of police, she, like other Aboriginal women facing abuse, chose to stay silent to protect the movement from criticism.

Eddie Murphy Joins Cast of Richard Pryor Biopic Directed by Lee Daniels

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2015
Eddie Murphy Beverly Hills Cop
(PHOTO: GABRIEL OLSEN/FILMMAGIC)

Eddie Murphy is in talks to join the cast of Lee Daniels’ untitled Richard Pryor biopic, sources confirm.  He will play the late comedian’s father, LeRoy “Buck Carter” Pryor, a boxer and WWII veteran, in the Weinstein Co. drama.
Mike Epps is attached to star as the legendary comedian.
Daniels teased the Murphy casting Thursday night on Instagram with a photo of himself and the actor.


Murphy, who recently appeared in the “SNL” 40th Anniversary special, grew up idolizing and impersonating Pryor as a comedian in the ’70s.
“Richard’s the one that made me want to do comedy,” he previously said. “When I was little I used to sneak into my basement and put his albums on.”
Daniels is riding the success of his hit TV drama “Empire,” which Fox just renewed for a second season. He also directed “The Butler” for the Weinstein Co.
Murphy can be seen next in the culinary drama “Cook.”
article via Variety.com

Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke and "Training Day" Director Antoine Fuqua Reteam on "Magnificent Seven"

By goodblacknews on March 2, 2015

Denzel Crushes "Fences"!It’s been over a decade since Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, and director Antoine Fuqua patrolled the mean streets of Los Angeles in “Training Day,” and it looks like that team is looking to head to the Wild West for their next collaboration.
Sources say the Oscar-nominated Hawke is in final negotiations to join Washington in MGM’s “Magnificent Seven” remake with Fuqua directing.
Chris Pratt and Haley Bennett are also on board to star.
The 1960 original, itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai,” starred Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen. It centered on seven gunslingers who protect an oppressed Mexican village from a group of outlaws.
The script was most recently reworked by John Lee Hancock, with “True Detective” creator Nic Pizzolatto writing the previous draft.
MGM is hoping the pairing of Hawke with Washington leads to the same success the two saw on crime drama “Training Day,” which overperformed at the box office and led to both men receiving Oscar nominations, with Washington eventually taking home the prize.
article by Justin Kroll via Variety.com

New Book "Envisioning Freedom" Shows African Americans Helped Invent the Movies

By goodblacknews on February 9, 2015
Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life

As centennial commemorations of DW Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” gear up, a new book by historian Cara Caddoo proves African Americans helped invent the movies a decade before the first Hollywood film. Published by Harvard University Press, “Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life” uncovers the forgotten history of black inventors, filmmakers, and exhibitors.

“A lot of people assume that African Americans just followed in the footsteps of white filmmakers,” says Caddoo, an Assistant Professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, “That’s really a whitewashing of American film history.”
Years before the 1915 debut of Griffith’s pro-KKK film, which is widely credited for inaugurating “modern American cinema,” African Americans produced their own films and built their own theaters. Caddoo explains that this began in the 1890s–more than a decade before Hollywood, and long before the rise of better-known black filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux.
The first African American films featured themes like the “American Negro and the Negro abroad.” In “The Devil’s Cook Kitchen,” a minister named H. Charles Pope used movies to highlight black contributions to American history, and to explain the “26 sins” involved in dancing.
Some black filmmakers were former slaves, others just a generation removed. Faced with racial discrimination and shoestring budgets, these black film pioneers relied on their wit. Segregation limited African Americans’ access to public space so they turned black churches, lodges, and schools into motion picture theaters during off hours.
“Envisioning Freedom” is packed with colorful characters such as Fleetwood Walker, the first–and last–major league baseball player before Jackie Robinson. Caddoo writes that Walker became an inventor and traveling motion picture exhibitor after his baseball career. One of his most important inventions was an alarm system that enabled film projectionists to switch seamlessly between reels of film.
When “Birth of a Nation” debuted, African Americans launched the first mass black protest movement of the twentieth century. By that time, motion pictures were deeply integrated into black life. African Americans had produced films and used them to fundraise, build businesses, construct theaters, and socialize in an era of racial segregation. Caddoo explains, “They were fighting to reclaim a form of popular culture that they had helped create. Tens of thousands of African Americans participated–housewives, gangsters, ministers, and schoolchildren, from Hawaii to Massachusetts, and from the Panama Canal to Canada.”
Pick up a copy of the book via Amazon here.
article by Tambay A. Obenson via blogs.indiewire.com

'Selma,' 'Blackish,' Taraji P. Henson Win Big at NAACP Image Awards

By goodblacknews on February 7, 2015
Taraji P. Henson
NAACP Image Awards Winner Taraji P. Henson (PHOTO CREDIT: EARL GIBSON III/WIREIMAGE)

Last night’s NAACP Image Awards was nothing but pure glam. Celebrities slayed on the red carpet while host Anthony Anderson kept the crowd laughing all night. But it was the winners who had us buzzing.

After being snubbed in the Academy Award race, Selma was the clear-cut winner in the film categories, snagging the award for Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture (David Oyelowo), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Common) and Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture (Carmen Ejogo).
“We did this movie because we wanted to tell their story—our story,” said Selma producer Oprah Winfrey in her acceptance speech.
Meanwhile, “Blackish” swept the television categories, taking home all the top honors for comedy series, beating out shows like “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Lies.” The show won Best Comedy Series as well as the awards for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series (Anthony Anderson), Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (Tracee Ellis Ross), Oustanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Laurence Fishburne) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Yara Shahidi).
Shonda Rhimes‘ “How to Get Away with Murder” won for Outstanding Drama Series, and its star, Viola Davis, won for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.
In the music categories, Pharrell Williams won for Outstanding Male Artist while Beyoncé won for Outstanding Female Artist. Taraji P. Henson took home the Image Award for Oustanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her role in No Good Deed, and Belle won for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture.
For a full list, visit www.naacpimageawards.net.
article by Taylor Lewis via essence.com

NYC: A Screening Series Not to Be Missed Kicks Off Today! "Black Independents in New York, 1968–1986"

By goodblacknews on February 6, 2015
Tell It Like It Is

Kicking off today, Friday, February 6, 2015, is a must-attend series, presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center (NYC), titled “Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968–1986” – from the opener, Kathleen Collins‘ stately 1982 feature “Losing Ground” (read my review of the film here); to Ayoka Chenzira‘s humorous, though inciting short “black hair” travelogue, “Hair Piece A Film for Nappy-Headed People;” Camille Billops‘ devastating documentary on a young black woman’s struggles to come to terms with her physically abusive father (dead at the time of the making of the film) as well as a mother, abused herself, unable to protect her children in 1982’s “Suzanne Suzanne,” and more.
A series programmed by Michelle Materre and Film Society of Lincoln Center Programmer at Large Jake Perlin, co-presented by Creatively Speaking, other titles included in the program, which some of you would be familiar with, include Bill Gunn‘s seminal “Ganja & Hess” (a film that Spike Lee *reinterpreted* in his latest work, “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus”); William Greaves’ instructive “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm;” another Bill Gunn film, “Personal Problems” (which came after “Ganja”), the work of cinéma-vérité, capturing a middle class black family in crisis; St Clair Bourne’s intimate documentary capturing Amiri Baraka‘s trial and conviction for “resisting arrest” despite allegations of police harassment, in “In Motion: Amiri Baraka;” and much, much, much more.
Of course, given the period and city covered, the early work of Spike Lee is well represented, with “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads” and “She’s Gotta Have It,” both scheduled to screen.
Tickets for this must-attend series of rare screenings can be purchased online here.
It’s quite exhaustive, so I strongly encourage you to take full advantage, because you may never get another opportunity quite like this again, or anytime soon, after this run ends. Check out the full lineup here.
In the meantime, here’s a just-released trailer for the series:

article by Tambay A.Benson via blogs.indiewire.com