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Review of the Documentary Mr. Civil Rights |
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Written by Patricia Turnier, LL,M (Master's degree in Law)/LL.D (PhD in Law) Candidate in 2016
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Sunday, 16 August 2026 13:19 |
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This documentary was produced by PBS. Throughout the film, one hears beautiful music, including gospel. Several prominent intellectuals speak in the film about what Thurgood Marshall represented for the American nation, such as legal scholars Vernon Jordan and Kimberly Crewnshaw (who created and developed the famous socio-political concept of intersectionality). Thurgood Marshall studied at Lincoln University, the first African American university founded in 1854. He then continued his education at Howard University Law School. Charles H. Houston was his mentor. Houston studied law at Harvard. He influenced Marshall to become a social engineer.
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Written by Kam Williams
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Thursday, 29 November 2018 23:42 |
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Curious Adoptee Tracks Down Birth-Mom in Bittersweet Biopic
Saroo (Dev Patel) had the misfortune of being born into poverty in India's Khandwa district. He lived there with his single-mom, Kamla Munshi (Priyanka Bose), along with his big brother, Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), and younger sister, Shekila (Khushi Solanki).
His illiterate mother was reduced to carrying rocks for a living, and she could barely afford to keep a roof over their heads. So, when Guddu found a night job hauling bales of hay, Saroo leapt at the chance to contribute, too, even though he was obviously a little small.
And he promptly fell asleep after the long ride to the worksite sitting on his brother's bike's handlebars. "It's my fault," Guddu lamented, before leaving Saroo alone to spend the night on a train station bench.
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The Hate U Give: Film Review |
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Written by Kam Williams
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Monday, 22 October 2018 20:50 |
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Amandla Stenberg Stars in Adaptation of Searing, Inner City Saga
16 year-old Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) straddles two different worlds which never intersect, one, black and poor, the other, white and privileged. That's because she lives in the ghetto in Garden Heights, but her parents (Regina Hall and Russell Hornsby) have sent her to Williamson, an exclusive prep school located on the other side of the tracks.
They know that Williamson gives her a better chance of making it out of the 'hood than the local public high school which is only good for girls who want to get “high, pregnant or killed.” Consequently, Starr uses slang when hanging out with her friends on the block, although she always talks properly around her classmates.
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Crazy Rich Asians: FILM REVIEW |
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Written by Kam Williams
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Tuesday, 04 September 2018 22:53 |
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Heir Takes Fiancee' Home to Meet Picky Mom in Delightful Romantic Dramedy
Even though Nick (Henry Golding) and Rachel (Constance Wu) have been dating for a few years, they don't know much about each other's background. That's because they live in New York City where he's never bothered to reveal that he's from one the wealthiest families in Singapore, and she's never talked about her humble roots, having been raised by a single-mom immigrant (Kheng Hua Tan) to the U.S. from China.
The difference in social status never affected their relationship, since Nick's so unassuming, and ambitious Rachel beat the odds by getting a great education en route to becoming an economics professor at NYU. In fact, they've gotten along so well that he's seriously considering proposing. He's even picked out a diamond ring.
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Written by Kam Williams
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Thursday, 24 August 2017 13:12 |
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Claustrophobic Docudrama Revisits '67 Riots through the Prism of Infamous Interrogation at Algiers Hotel
Detroit's '67 riots broke out in the wee hours of July 23rd, in the wake of a police raid on an unlicensed bar where folks had been toasting a couple of vets who'd recently returned from Vietnam. Word spread like wildfire through the Black community that the cops had arrested all 82 people they found inside, and it wasn't long before mobs began looting and firebombing stores all around the 'hood.
The rebellion would last five days and result in over 1,000 injuries and 7,000 arrests, while also claiming 43 lives. In terms of property damage, about 2,500 businesses were destroyed and hundreds of families were left homeless.
The insurrection was quelled by the Motor City's police force in conjunction with the state of Michigan's National Guard as well as federal troops from the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions. While the arrests at the speakeasy ostensibly served as the flashpoint for the civil unrest, the revolt was really the result of long-simmering frustrations with the poor quality of housing, employment and education in the ghetto.
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Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child Film Review |
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Written by Kam Williams
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Monday, 29 May 2017 16:22 |
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Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was born in Brooklyn to a Puerto Rican mother and a father of Haitian extraction. Blessed with a rebellious nature, he ran away from home a lot during adolescence, finally leaving for good at 17. Moving to Manhattan, he dropped out of school to fritter away his days spray-painting his alias, "Samo," all over the place, because as he put it, "The whole object of doing graffiti is fame."
Fortunately, some well-connected folks in the high-priced art world recognized that Jean-Michel Basquiat actually had some talent and convinced the kid to go legit. He agreed to give it a try, and watched with amazement as his paintings rapidly escalated in price from $200 to $30,000 a piece. It wasn't long before he found himself rubbing elbows with celebrated icons like Andy Warhol and Julian Schnabel.
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Hidden Figures: Film Review |
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Written by Kam Williams
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Monday, 03 April 2017 23:12 |
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NASA Docudrama Belatedly Credits Contributions of Unsung African-American Mathematicians
All of the astronauts picked by NASA to participate in its maiden manned space programs, Mercury and Gemini, were White males. However, behind the scenes, there was a dedicated team of African-American, female mathematicians who played a pivotal role in ensuring that they launched and returned safely, whether from orbiting the Earth or a mission to the moon.
Hidden Figures equipped only with pencils and slide rules, these so-called “human computers” were among the best and the brightest minds recruited by NASA to do the critical calculations needed to win the space race with Russia. Author Margot Lee Shetterly gave these unsung heroines their due in Hidden Figures, a best seller belatedly crediting their quantitative contributions to the cause.
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I Am Not Your Negro: Film Review |
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Written by Kam Williams
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Tuesday, 07 February 2017 00:31 |
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Oscar-Nominated Documentary Inspired by James Baldwin's Unfinished Manuscript
When novelist/social critic James Baldwin passed away in 1987, he left behind an unfinished opus entitled Remember This House. The 30-page manuscript assessed the plight of African-Americans in the United States while specifically reflecting upon the assassinations of three civil rights icons: Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
With I Am Not Your Negro, director Raoul Peck (Lumumba) fleshes out Baldwin's musings, cinematically, into a searing indictment of the United States as an unapologetically-racist nation. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the movie has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary category.
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