Black Movie Month Triple Header Oct 7-9

Just so you get a taste of Black Cinema over the weekend, I got a triple header for you...

Day 7: Belly

The 1998 film would be the directorial debut of music video director Hype Williams. Belly would be filmed in New York City as an urban drama. The film stars hip-hop artists DMX and Nas, alongside with Taral Hicks, Method Man dancehall artist Louie Rankin, R&B singer T-Boz. In addition to starring in the film, Nas also narrates and collaborated with Hype Williams on the screenplay.

Tommy Brown and his friend Sincere are gangsters who have learned how to make a good living by dealing drugs and pulling armed robberies. Tommy and Sincere have been able to move out of the ghetto in Queens where they were raised and relocate to an upscale section of Manhattan; they would seem to have it made, but both realize that their lives are headed toward a dead end. Sincere begins getting in touch with his African roots and tries to convince his girlfriend Tionne that they should emigrate to the Motherland, while Tommy has a religious awakening and joins the Nation of Islam.

Some have said that it has a weak plot however I beg to differ, I think the film deals with some critical issues of manhood, family, self-identification, spiritual renewal, and balance just to name a few things. I'd like to think that there is a spiritual awakening that occurs within the film.

Belly is a brilliant "noir-type" film that provides a powerful and visual message. Just think the title alone "Belly" speaks volumes..."A belly is what a pregnant woman has; it is the external shape of soon-to-be-born child. It is the womb, the source of life. It is the promise of what is to be, as well as the origins of what is. If you abstract it, it's shape will be that of a circle - the symbol of wholeness, of the journey to individuation."

And that house....wow!! Nice!!


Day 8: Beloved

 This 1998 film is one that will always be remembered in my book!! If you know anything about the novel that it is based on, it is very intense and that is to be expected of the movie also. Many critics would say it was too long and very emotional, but that's what the book is about....welp can't please them all.

Beloved is a complete package deal that does not just hammer any one particular message home. It covers everything from motherhood, race, brutality, the dangers of love and commitment, and freedom. It's in there folks!! Such a beautiful, twisted story that will definitely pull at your heart.

Oprah Winfrey would buy the rights to Toni Morrison's novel in 1987, even before it won the Pulitzer Prize. And to think it took her ten years to bring the novel to the screen.


Day 9: Drumline
What is there not to like about watching a good ol' HBCU band do their thang on the football field!! Drumline is the 2002 film about a young drummer from New York, played by Nick Cannon, who enters the fictional Atlanta A&T University and bumps heads with the leader of his new school's drum section. The screenplay, which was inspired by The Southwest Dekalb High School Drumline (SWD), was written by Tina Gordon Chism and Shawn Schepps.

What I liked about Drumline, was that its central focus was about Black College Marching Bands (the ins and outs) a subject that is not really discussed within the movie sector. These folks in a sense are like athletes in that they shed blood, sweat, and tears and compete with the best of them!! Drumline is a good wholesome family movie that any and everyone can watch and enjoy!!

Special SHOUT OUT to my ALMA MATER CAU!!!