film

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• 6/6/2021
  

  Two Films Show the Historical Toll and Present Danger of Ethnic Violence

  by Walter G. Moss

  Two films show the dire consequences of ethnic antagonism during and after the second world war, and the potential for ideology to incite and justify violence.

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• SOURCE: UChicago News
  5/25/2021
  

  The Hidden History Of “Guerrilla Television”: UChicago Scholars Preserve Decades-Old Videos

  Technological innovation in the 1960s allowed more people to shoot video and push for community-based television. University of Chicago scholars are working to digitize and preserve "guerrilla television." 

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• SOURCE: CNN
  4/29/2021
  

  Why a Black Captain America changes everything

  by Peniel E. Joseph

  "As both a scholar of Black history and a lover of superheroes, I see Sam Wilson as the perfect embodiment of a Captain America for our current age."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/28/2021
  

  ‘Citizen Kane’ Is No ‘Paddington 2,’ Says Rotten Tomatoes

  A recently unearthed negative review of "Citizen Kane" bumped the film classic out of Rotten Tomatoes' "100% Club" of films, and placing it behind some unlikely competitors, including "Paddington 2" and "Toy Story." 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  4/22/2021
  

  The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular. But Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten

  "What do veteran Panthers—some of whom are now at an advanced age and fighting to make ends meet after spending more than half their lives in prison—think of this recent boom in artistic and commercial interest?"

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/25/2021
  

  Women Dominate One Academy Award Category. Here’s Why

  by David Resha

  Women have dominated the Documentary Feature category at the Academy Awards, and have indeed shaped the genre from the beginning. But this reflects the fact that the film industry has been more willing to entrust leadership to women in the low-cost, low-stakes environment of documentaries than in feature film. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  4/7/2021
  

  How a New Kung Fu TV Series Is Reclaiming Much More Than Just the Martial Arts

  The reboot of the 1970s series reflects a history of activism by Asian Americans for greater representation and control of their image in popular culture. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/2/2021
  

  Her Crazy Driving is a Key Element of Cruella DeVil’s Evil. Here’s Why

  by Genevieve Carpio

  The depiction of Cruella DeVil as a dangerous and deranged driver in the new prequel to "101 Dalmatians" draws on deep-seated sexist tropes that recognize driving and mobility as aspects of women's social freedom. 

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• SOURCE: WGBH
  3/29/2021
  

  ‘Atomic Cover-Up’ Reveals A Previously Unseen Story Of Human Devastation

  The new documentary "Atomic Cover-Up"  reminds that "people of goodwill can differ over whether we did the right thing in order to bring a terrible war to its conclusion or if, instead, we committed unforgivable crimes against humanity. What none of us can do is look away."

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• SOURCE: Letters and Politics
  3/22/2021
  

  Working for a Living: The Depiction of Asian American Women in Film & Theater

  Cinema scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu discusses the ways that film has contributed to social perceptions of Asian and Asian American women. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  3/17/2021
  

  John Singleton Saw a Tenderness in Black L.A. that the World Refused to Look At

  John Singleton's films showed the fullness of life in South Central Los Angeles during the tumultuous 1990s that the news media didn't always portray.

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  3/11/2021
  

  How to Think About Classic Hollywood’s “Problematic” Movies

  by Richard Brody

  Critic Richard Brody asks whether efforts to put problematic Hollywood movies into context is adequate; there is a systematic lack of attention to characters of color in classic Hollywood that is much tougher to fix. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/15/2021
  

  The Forgotten Film That Paved The Way For This Year’s Oscars Contenders

  by Rebecca Prime

  For the 1968 film "Uptight!," white director Jules Dassin enlisted Ruby Dee and Julian Mayfield to remake the 1935 film "The Informer" around the Black Panther Party, a move which drew on all three principals' experiences with surveillance over political activism and provoked a sabotage effort by the FBI.

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• SOURCE: Hollywood Progressive
  2/28/2021
  

  Reflecting on Capitalism Through "I Care a Lot"

  by Walter G. Moss

  The new Netflix film "I Care a Lot" features a protagonist who preys on the elderly as an appointed conservator, and reflects the dangers of a social safety net entrusted to the profit motive. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/1/2021
  

  ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ is the Film to Help Us Understand 2021. Here’s Why

  by John Beckman and Theo Zenou

  Abbie Hoffman used his conspiracy trial as a guerrila theater stage, the peak of his career as an activist who used absurdity and wit to expose the hypocrisies of American society. 

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• 2/28/2021
  

  History and Film: Reflections on Konchalovsky’s “Dear Comrades!”

  by Walter G. Moss

  Andrei Konchalovsky's film "Dear Comrades" examines the struggles of ordinary people in the Soviet Union to find truth amid ideology and fear. 

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• SOURCE: Bright Lights Film Journal
  2/23/2021
  

  A Star Is Shorn: Thanks to Woefully Underinformed Campus Activists, Acting Legend, Badger Alum, and Civil Rights Champion Fredric March Is Suddenly “Off Wisconsin”

  by George Gonis

  In 2018, the University of Wisconsin stripped actor Fredric March's name from a campus theater because of his brief affiliation in 1919 with a campus society called the Honorary Ku Klux Klan. The author argues that this misconstrues the nature of the society, which was not affiliated with the "Invisible Empire" KKK, and erases March's steadfast support for civil rights and opposition to Nazism.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/16/2021
  

  Is This the Most Radical Film Ever Produced by Hollywood?

  “Judas and the Black Messiah” is the rare Hollywood film to explore a vision of Blackness that has nothing to do with white audiences.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/10/2021
  

  "Judas and the Black Messiah" Is an American Tragedy

  The performances of the lead actors in "Judas and the Black Messiah" elevate the story of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton's assassination by the police and FBI to a complex story of the Black freedom movement. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/4/2021
  

  And in the Beginning, There Was Gordon Parks

  "What astounded the actor Richard Roundtree about Parks when he was cast to play a suave and unflappable Harlem detective — and, in a sense, the first Black superhero — in “Shaft,” was how closely the character resembled the director himself."