27 February 2017 After a weekend spent revamping the Foreign Influence website, I am ready to return to some projects put on hold at the end of 2016. Four topics in particular continue to hold my attention–Crip Theory and the development of a curriculum for Disability Studies, the ongoing search for the best ways to … Continue reading
by Courtney Weaver Remember this house and do not forget who built it… Last weekend I sat in the Ark Lodge theater in Columbia City to view the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro the recent adaptation of the legendary writer and public intellectual’s unfinished manuscript, Remember This House, directed by Raoul Peck […] … Continue reading
by Brian Bergen-Aurand A Century of Black Cinema On this day in Black History Month, I want to introduce a ninety-minute documentary from the 1990s that aims a provide an overview of one hundred years of black cinema. The documentary is wholly centered on Hollywood and the denial or access black talent has had in … Continue reading
by Brian Bergen-Aurand While my wife and I were living in Singapore, we adopted two children from Ethiopia. When we brought them home, I searched for lists of children’s films with strong black characters, especially strong black female characters. One film atop many such lists is Disney’s 2009 The Princess and the Frog (written and … Continue reading
by Brian Bergen-Aurand Thinking over my earliest experiences with black film, reminded me of the 1963 film Lilies of the Field, directed by Ralph Nelson and starring Sidney Poitier and Lilia Skala. The story is a simple one: a traveling laborer stops for water at an Arizona convent and becomes the answer to the German … Continue reading
by Brian Bergen-Aurand “Always do the right thing.” ~Da Mayor For Black History Month 2017, I am writing on a black film each day. The expressions will be personal and critical. The scope will be limited to what I have seen and remember seeing. I will not be going into great detail about each film, … Continue reading
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