Oprah Winfrey is 70!
The media mogul officially turned 70-years-old on Monday, Jan. 29.
In a new essay published on her Oprah Daily site, Oprah explained why she chose not to celebrate her birthday in a “big” way this year.
Keep reading to find out more…
In her essay, Oprah wrote that she felt “such pressure from all my friends to do something big, something special; to have a dinner, a party or luncheon — or to go somewhere like a spa, a hike, a resort or to meditate in Nepal.”
“I thought about it all, took in all their suggestions, and finally did what one friend, Wintley, recommended. He said, ‘You’re too blessed to stress. Savor the fragrances of your extraordinary life,’” Oprah continued. “It reminded me of the last line of ‘Love After Love,’ one of my favorite poems by Derek Walcott: ‘Sit. Feast on your life.’”
Instead of...
The media mogul officially turned 70-years-old on Monday, Jan. 29.
In a new essay published on her Oprah Daily site, Oprah explained why she chose not to celebrate her birthday in a “big” way this year.
Keep reading to find out more…
In her essay, Oprah wrote that she felt “such pressure from all my friends to do something big, something special; to have a dinner, a party or luncheon — or to go somewhere like a spa, a hike, a resort or to meditate in Nepal.”
“I thought about it all, took in all their suggestions, and finally did what one friend, Wintley, recommended. He said, ‘You’re too blessed to stress. Savor the fragrances of your extraordinary life,’” Oprah continued. “It reminded me of the last line of ‘Love After Love,’ one of my favorite poems by Derek Walcott: ‘Sit. Feast on your life.’”
Instead of...
- 1/30/2024
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris will donate a collection of 15 plays by Black playwrights to 53 libraries and community centers across the country, a donation made in lieu of sending Slave Play scripts to Tony Award voters.
O. Harris made the announcement last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, telling the NBC talk show host that a donation of The Golden Collection has been made in Meyers’ name to his alma mater Northwestern University. The playwright said the donation was made to recognize Meyers’ early and continued support of Slave Play.
The Golden Collection, named for Harris’ grandfather Golden Harris who died two weeks before the playwright learned that Slave Play had been booked at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, was launched in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign. The plays selected for the collection include Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins,...
O. Harris made the announcement last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, telling the NBC talk show host that a donation of The Golden Collection has been made in Meyers’ name to his alma mater Northwestern University. The playwright said the donation was made to recognize Meyers’ early and continued support of Slave Play.
The Golden Collection, named for Harris’ grandfather Golden Harris who died two weeks before the playwright learned that Slave Play had been booked at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, was launched in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign. The plays selected for the collection include Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins,...
- 12/8/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Saint Lucian poet and playwright Derek Walcott, who received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature, has died aged 87. The Nobel laureate – best known for his collections “In A Green Night: Poems 1948 – 1960” and the epic “Omeros,”… Continue Reading →...
- 3/17/2017
- by shadowandact
- ShadowAndAct
This post originally appeared on Entertainment Weekly.
Whether he’s reading to kids at the White House, hitting up local bookstores on Black Friday, or giving recommendations to his daughters, President Barack Obama may as well be known as the Commander in Books.
Potus is an avid reader and recently spoke to the New York Times about the significant, informative and inspirational role literature has played in his presidency, crediting books for allowing him to “slow down and get perspective.” With his presidency coming to an end this Friday, EW looked back at Obama’s lit picks over the years...
Whether he’s reading to kids at the White House, hitting up local bookstores on Black Friday, or giving recommendations to his daughters, President Barack Obama may as well be known as the Commander in Books.
Potus is an avid reader and recently spoke to the New York Times about the significant, informative and inspirational role literature has played in his presidency, crediting books for allowing him to “slow down and get perspective.” With his presidency coming to an end this Friday, EW looked back at Obama’s lit picks over the years...
- 1/19/2017
- by Mark Marino
- PEOPLE.com
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Nostalgia for the Light is playing March 23 - April 22 , 2016 in the United Kingdom.The Pearl ButtonAt 2015’s Berlin International Film Festival, The Pearl Button, the latest film by Patricio Guzmán, was awarded the Silver Bear prize for Best Script. No doubt deserving of this honor, one of the most high profile of the Chilean director’s near-five-decade career, the jury’s recognition of a documentarian for achievement in screenwriting may appear to some as strange, even misplaced. The oddity might help highlight that Guzmán has, in film, found striking new ways of revisiting and indeed rewriting historical subject matter.Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship—as contemporaneously chronicled in Guzmán’s exhaustive and episodic 1976 guerrilla film, The Battle of Chile—has remained the central subject of the director's work, though a topic approached and brought into close-up through an ever-abstracting...
- 4/6/2016
- by Ross McDonnell
- MUBI
Nominations for the 46th NAACP Image Awards have been revealed and "Belle," "Beyond the Lights," "Dear White People," "Get On Up," and "Selma" are duking it out for the Outstanding Motion Picture Award.
Winners will be announced on Friday, February 6, 2015 in a two-hour televised event on TV One.
The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.
Here's the complete list of nominees for the 46th NAACP Image Awards:
Television
Outstanding Comedy Series
. "black-ish" (ABC)
. "House of Lies" (Showtime)
. "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central)
. "Orange is the New Black" (Netflix)
. "Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Bet)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
. Andre Braugher - "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (Fox)
. Anthony Anderson - "'black-ish" (ABC)
. Don Cheadle - "House of Lies" (Showtime)
. Keegan-Michael Key - "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central)
. Kevin Hart...
Winners will be announced on Friday, February 6, 2015 in a two-hour televised event on TV One.
The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.
Here's the complete list of nominees for the 46th NAACP Image Awards:
Television
Outstanding Comedy Series
. "black-ish" (ABC)
. "House of Lies" (Showtime)
. "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central)
. "Orange is the New Black" (Netflix)
. "Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Bet)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
. Andre Braugher - "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (Fox)
. Anthony Anderson - "'black-ish" (ABC)
. Don Cheadle - "House of Lies" (Showtime)
. Keegan-Michael Key - "Key & Peele" (Comedy Central)
. Kevin Hart...
- 12/10/2014
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Nominations for the 46th annual NAACP Image Awards were announced today across categories in film, television, music and the literary world. In the film arena, top nominees were Amma Asante's "Belle," Gina Prince-Bythewood's "Beyond the Lights," Justin Simien's "Dear White People," Tate Taylor's "Get On Up" and Ava DuVernay's "Selma." Check out the full list of nominees below. Winners will be announced on Feb. 6. And remember to keep track of the season via The Circuit! Film Outstanding Motion Picture "Belle" (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films) "Beyond The Lights" (Relativity Media) "Dear White People" (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions) "Get On Up" (Universal Pictures) "Selma" (Paramount Pictures) Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture Amma Asante, "Belle" (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films) Antoine Fuqua, "The Equalizer" (Columbia Pictures) Ava DuVernay, "Selma" (Paramount Pictures) John Ridley, "Jimi: All Is By My Side" (XLrator Media) Gina Prince-Bythewood, "Beyond The Lights...
- 12/9/2014
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
Gearing up for another year of excitement, the 46th Annual NAACP Image Awards just unveiled the first round of hopefuls and there are plenty of worthy contenders.
In the television categories, Shonda Rhimes’ series “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” are among the most nominated, though “Black-ish” is also up there. Meanwhile, “Selma” and “Get on Up” are the top two movies on the docket, ahead of the big event on Friday, February 6th, 2015. Per the official website, “The NAACP Image Awards honors the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film, and honors those who promote social justice through creative endeavors.”
And the nominees are:
Outstanding Comedy Series
“Orange is the New Black” (Netflix)
“black-ish” (ABC)
“House of Lies” (Showtime)
“Key & Peele” (Comedy Central)
“Real Husbands of Hollywood” (Bet)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Andre Braugher – “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox)
Anthony Anderson...
In the television categories, Shonda Rhimes’ series “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” are among the most nominated, though “Black-ish” is also up there. Meanwhile, “Selma” and “Get on Up” are the top two movies on the docket, ahead of the big event on Friday, February 6th, 2015. Per the official website, “The NAACP Image Awards honors the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film, and honors those who promote social justice through creative endeavors.”
And the nominees are:
Outstanding Comedy Series
“Orange is the New Black” (Netflix)
“black-ish” (ABC)
“House of Lies” (Showtime)
“Key & Peele” (Comedy Central)
“Real Husbands of Hollywood” (Bet)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Andre Braugher – “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (Fox)
Anthony Anderson...
- 12/9/2014
- GossipCenter
Paramount’s Selma, Universal’s Get On Up and Lionsgate’s Dear White People are among the Outstanding Motion Picture nominees for the NAACP’s Image Awards, which will be bestowed live on TVOne on February 6. On the TV side, Shonda Rhimes’ ABC trifecta of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder are all up for best drama. Here is the full list:
Film
Outstanding Motion Picture
“Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)
“Beyond The Lights” (Relativity Media)
“Dear White People” (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)
“Get On Up” (Universal Pictures)
“Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Chadwick Boseman – “Get On Up” (Universal Pictures)
David Oyelowo – “Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Denzel Washington – “The Equalizer” (Columbia Pictures)
Idris Elba – “No Good Deed” (Screen Gems)
Nate Parker – “Beyond The Lights” (Relativity Media)
Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
Gugu Mbatha-Raw – “Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)
Quvenzhané Wallis...
Film
Outstanding Motion Picture
“Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)
“Beyond The Lights” (Relativity Media)
“Dear White People” (Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)
“Get On Up” (Universal Pictures)
“Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Chadwick Boseman – “Get On Up” (Universal Pictures)
David Oyelowo – “Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Denzel Washington – “The Equalizer” (Columbia Pictures)
Idris Elba – “No Good Deed” (Screen Gems)
Nate Parker – “Beyond The Lights” (Relativity Media)
Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
Gugu Mbatha-Raw – “Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)
Quvenzhané Wallis...
- 12/9/2014
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
The first day of the Havana Film Festival I was at the Hotel Nacional, registering for the festival, seeing familiar faces from Cuba and the Caribbean and old friends from the USA: Oleg Vidov and his wife Joan Borsten were there as Oleg who had starred in 3 Soviet films made in Cuba was an honored guest. Havana regulars were there: Marlene Dermer, director of Laliff and Laurie Anne Schag, VP of International Documentary Association. Laurie Anne not only gives tours of Cuba with her colleague Geo Darder, but this year she also screened her film at the festival, the documentary Oshun’s 11 about a tour of the Yoruba Orisha religion in Cuba.
Harlan Jacobson of Talk Cinema and Sarah Miller brought in tours as well and we went together to the Acapulco theater to see the Puerto Rican romantic heist movie Hope, Despair (La Espera Desespera) by writer/ director Coraly Santaliz Perez (♀) . Im Global’s Bonnie Voland the VP of Marketing was there with with Stuart Ford and his friend. Bonnie gave a great presentation on marketing which I will report on in these pages soon. Im Global and Mundial, their their new joint venture with Gael Garcia Bernal, showed The Butler and Bolivar: The Liberator. This new Mundial title was oddly programmed at the same time as the Venezuelan version of the exact same story, Bolivar, el hombre de las dificultades by Luis Alberto Lamata, a Venezuelan-Cuban-Spanish co-production. I wonder if both cinemas were packed or if one was more popular than the other. Publicity and marketing at this festival is a strange and unknown process, though I know Caroline Libresco-produced and Grace Lee-directed American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs brought in audience after a radio interview with Caroline and Grace had aired.
Ruby Rich was also here giving a very interesting presentation on Queer Cinema whose historical roots (Todd Haynes, Derek Jarman) were mostly unknown to the young Cuban audience. She is an old hand in Havana, having attended the festival in the heady days of the 1970s. The theme of homosexuality was prevalent in many of the films this year. A government Institute of Human Sexuality has been established under the leadership of the daughter of Raul Castro, and Cuba has apologized for its past treatment of homosexuality. This reversal has opened the doors of freedom. Filmmaker Enrique Pineda Barnet, the writer of Soy Cuba, the great Russian-Cuban epic, used to have to work underground with his personal homosexual films (After his fame was established with La Bella del Alhambra he was “allowed” to work underground). He is now able to be officially accepted with his works like Verde, Verde which showed in the Festival. Venezuelan Miguel Ferrari’s Azul y no tan rosa was feted for his treatment of this little-discussed issues in his home country.
Enrique Pineda Barnet’s meditation on what it means to be gay in Havana (Verde, Verde) marks his first film in years to be accepted into the official festival.
The U.S. invitees who give workshops here and at the international film school Eictv makes me wonder who is making the connections and how. Last year Hawk Koch and Annette Benning were here and created a support mechanism of AMPAS with the festival. This year, aside from Oleg Vidov Bonnie Voland and Ruby Rich, other American invitees giving workshops included Robert Kraft (Avatar, Titanic, Moulin Rouge) on film music was obviously brought in by the Academy. Mike S. Ryan, an independent filmmaker from New York was the big surprise as we never knew his role as producer of such films as Todd Solondz’s Palindromes and Life During Wartime, Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy and Ira Sach’s Forty Shades of Blue, Hal Hartley’s Fay Grim and many more including Liberty Kid, the winner of HBO’s Latino Film Festival 2007 and Bela Tarr’s final film, The Turin Horse. His newly finished film is Last Weekend starring Patricia Clarkson and Zachary Booth. This Independent Spirit “Producer of the Year” winner was here working with filmmakers at Eictv, the international film school and also did a presentation in the festival conference series.
Im Global’s Stuart Ford and friend with Bonnie Voland at the Hotel Nacional
Oliver Stone, a favorite of Cuba since his HBO films Comandante and Persona Non Grata, brought in a History Channel doc series called The Untold History of the United States, made up basically of interviews with key people in the eras of World War II: Roosevelt, Truman and Wallace [sic],The Bomb, Cold War: Truman, Wallace [sic], Stalin, Churchill and the Bomb, The 1950s: Eisenhower, The Bomb and The Third World.
A fruit vendor on our walk to the Infanta Theater
Laurie Anne Schag secured radio promotion for Caroline Libresco of Sundance Institute and Grace Lee, here as a producer and director to show their new film: American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. The audience at the Infanta Theater was mainly brought in by the radio show but also included us, the friends, and the Trinidad + Tobago delegation. The Q&A sessions were informed and informative as the Cubans and Americans discussed the notion of Revolution as put forward by Grace Lee Boggs a 90+ year old community organizer who came out of Barnard College in the 40s to Detroit and has never abandoned her Marxist Socialist standards but recognizes that social revolution can only succeed if the people themselves are revolutionized from grassroots action and within the individuals carrying out the action. Without transformation from within, action to change the government is only a rebellion. So what about the Cuban Revolution? The discussions were very enlightening and the audience felt that this film was new and interesting.
I attended the first of four screenings of Caribbean films hosted by ttff (Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival) at the Infanta Theater. My readers know from my blogs of last November how astonished and moved I was by the population makeup of Trinidad + Tobago and of the Caribbean in general. This area of small islands, formerly colonized by Spanish, French, German and Dutch has created a particular island culture society whose film culture is taking the next evolutionary step. Forming a marketplace and a place of cultural exchange among its constituents, ttff’s director Bruce Paddington is working with Cuba’s national film organization, Icaic’s Luis Notario to develop a real film market for Caribbean film. Apropos, Bruce was also showing his documentary on the Revolution in Grenada, called Foreward Ever: The Killing of a Revolution, which was the motto of Maurice Bishop the elected president who was forcefully removed and murdered by the opposition when the U.S. army under the Commander-in-Chief, President Ronald Reagan sent in forces presumably to protect the American medical students attending medical school there in 1983.
Twenty-five Cubans were also killed in the fighting which ensued on this otherwise always peaceful island where now a reconciliation among neighbors is still in process.
The other four screenings of ttff were varied and interesting in their unique Caribbean points of view. The opening film, Poetry is an Island: Derek Walcott was a portrait of the St. Lucia poet and Nobel Prize winner for literature. The short film, Passage, by Kareem Mortimer, a filmmaker I have known for many years from the Bahamas and Trinidad, was astounding in its recall of one of the most degrading aspects of the slave trade, as black Haitians huddled in the tiny hold of a decrepit fishing boat as they were smuggled into Florida from Haiti. Another short, Auntie, from the Barbados by Lisa Harewood told of a current social issue in which “Aunts” take care of young children while their single mothers go abroad to earn money for their care. As the child in this movie reaches her teen years, her mother sends for her which leaves a grieving single woman “Auntie” alone with no thanks and no child to care for in her older years. Other shorts included The Gardener by Jo Henriquez from Aruba and One Good Deed by Juliette McCawley from Trinidad + Tobago.
The window on Caribbean issues was opened wide. The Barbados comedy Payday in which two friends decide to leave their job as security guards and open their own business was made on a shoe string but gave a picture of how the youth are living today with ganga, grinding dancing, sexy encounters told with a sweet mischievous naughtiness. Songs of Redemption, by Miquel Galofre and Amanda Sans, winner of ttff’s Jury Prize and the Audience Award goes inside what had been Kingston Jamaica’s worst prison until the new prison director introduced classes to educate the prisoners, including a music rehabilition program which goes beyond all expectation… Truly redeeming.
Trinidad + Tobago filmmakers Karim Mortimer from Bahamas, Lisa Harewood from Barbaddos, Alex (Egyptian/ Austrian / Bahamanian business partner of Karim, Shakira Bourne
The film program was suspended for a full day in which all cultural and entertainment events throughout Cuba were cancelled to observe a national day of mourning for Nelson Mandela.
Harlan Jacobson of Talk Cinema and Sarah Miller brought in tours as well and we went together to the Acapulco theater to see the Puerto Rican romantic heist movie Hope, Despair (La Espera Desespera) by writer/ director Coraly Santaliz Perez (♀) . Im Global’s Bonnie Voland the VP of Marketing was there with with Stuart Ford and his friend. Bonnie gave a great presentation on marketing which I will report on in these pages soon. Im Global and Mundial, their their new joint venture with Gael Garcia Bernal, showed The Butler and Bolivar: The Liberator. This new Mundial title was oddly programmed at the same time as the Venezuelan version of the exact same story, Bolivar, el hombre de las dificultades by Luis Alberto Lamata, a Venezuelan-Cuban-Spanish co-production. I wonder if both cinemas were packed or if one was more popular than the other. Publicity and marketing at this festival is a strange and unknown process, though I know Caroline Libresco-produced and Grace Lee-directed American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs brought in audience after a radio interview with Caroline and Grace had aired.
Ruby Rich was also here giving a very interesting presentation on Queer Cinema whose historical roots (Todd Haynes, Derek Jarman) were mostly unknown to the young Cuban audience. She is an old hand in Havana, having attended the festival in the heady days of the 1970s. The theme of homosexuality was prevalent in many of the films this year. A government Institute of Human Sexuality has been established under the leadership of the daughter of Raul Castro, and Cuba has apologized for its past treatment of homosexuality. This reversal has opened the doors of freedom. Filmmaker Enrique Pineda Barnet, the writer of Soy Cuba, the great Russian-Cuban epic, used to have to work underground with his personal homosexual films (After his fame was established with La Bella del Alhambra he was “allowed” to work underground). He is now able to be officially accepted with his works like Verde, Verde which showed in the Festival. Venezuelan Miguel Ferrari’s Azul y no tan rosa was feted for his treatment of this little-discussed issues in his home country.
Enrique Pineda Barnet’s meditation on what it means to be gay in Havana (Verde, Verde) marks his first film in years to be accepted into the official festival.
The U.S. invitees who give workshops here and at the international film school Eictv makes me wonder who is making the connections and how. Last year Hawk Koch and Annette Benning were here and created a support mechanism of AMPAS with the festival. This year, aside from Oleg Vidov Bonnie Voland and Ruby Rich, other American invitees giving workshops included Robert Kraft (Avatar, Titanic, Moulin Rouge) on film music was obviously brought in by the Academy. Mike S. Ryan, an independent filmmaker from New York was the big surprise as we never knew his role as producer of such films as Todd Solondz’s Palindromes and Life During Wartime, Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy and Ira Sach’s Forty Shades of Blue, Hal Hartley’s Fay Grim and many more including Liberty Kid, the winner of HBO’s Latino Film Festival 2007 and Bela Tarr’s final film, The Turin Horse. His newly finished film is Last Weekend starring Patricia Clarkson and Zachary Booth. This Independent Spirit “Producer of the Year” winner was here working with filmmakers at Eictv, the international film school and also did a presentation in the festival conference series.
Im Global’s Stuart Ford and friend with Bonnie Voland at the Hotel Nacional
Oliver Stone, a favorite of Cuba since his HBO films Comandante and Persona Non Grata, brought in a History Channel doc series called The Untold History of the United States, made up basically of interviews with key people in the eras of World War II: Roosevelt, Truman and Wallace [sic],The Bomb, Cold War: Truman, Wallace [sic], Stalin, Churchill and the Bomb, The 1950s: Eisenhower, The Bomb and The Third World.
A fruit vendor on our walk to the Infanta Theater
Laurie Anne Schag secured radio promotion for Caroline Libresco of Sundance Institute and Grace Lee, here as a producer and director to show their new film: American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. The audience at the Infanta Theater was mainly brought in by the radio show but also included us, the friends, and the Trinidad + Tobago delegation. The Q&A sessions were informed and informative as the Cubans and Americans discussed the notion of Revolution as put forward by Grace Lee Boggs a 90+ year old community organizer who came out of Barnard College in the 40s to Detroit and has never abandoned her Marxist Socialist standards but recognizes that social revolution can only succeed if the people themselves are revolutionized from grassroots action and within the individuals carrying out the action. Without transformation from within, action to change the government is only a rebellion. So what about the Cuban Revolution? The discussions were very enlightening and the audience felt that this film was new and interesting.
I attended the first of four screenings of Caribbean films hosted by ttff (Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival) at the Infanta Theater. My readers know from my blogs of last November how astonished and moved I was by the population makeup of Trinidad + Tobago and of the Caribbean in general. This area of small islands, formerly colonized by Spanish, French, German and Dutch has created a particular island culture society whose film culture is taking the next evolutionary step. Forming a marketplace and a place of cultural exchange among its constituents, ttff’s director Bruce Paddington is working with Cuba’s national film organization, Icaic’s Luis Notario to develop a real film market for Caribbean film. Apropos, Bruce was also showing his documentary on the Revolution in Grenada, called Foreward Ever: The Killing of a Revolution, which was the motto of Maurice Bishop the elected president who was forcefully removed and murdered by the opposition when the U.S. army under the Commander-in-Chief, President Ronald Reagan sent in forces presumably to protect the American medical students attending medical school there in 1983.
Twenty-five Cubans were also killed in the fighting which ensued on this otherwise always peaceful island where now a reconciliation among neighbors is still in process.
The other four screenings of ttff were varied and interesting in their unique Caribbean points of view. The opening film, Poetry is an Island: Derek Walcott was a portrait of the St. Lucia poet and Nobel Prize winner for literature. The short film, Passage, by Kareem Mortimer, a filmmaker I have known for many years from the Bahamas and Trinidad, was astounding in its recall of one of the most degrading aspects of the slave trade, as black Haitians huddled in the tiny hold of a decrepit fishing boat as they were smuggled into Florida from Haiti. Another short, Auntie, from the Barbados by Lisa Harewood told of a current social issue in which “Aunts” take care of young children while their single mothers go abroad to earn money for their care. As the child in this movie reaches her teen years, her mother sends for her which leaves a grieving single woman “Auntie” alone with no thanks and no child to care for in her older years. Other shorts included The Gardener by Jo Henriquez from Aruba and One Good Deed by Juliette McCawley from Trinidad + Tobago.
The window on Caribbean issues was opened wide. The Barbados comedy Payday in which two friends decide to leave their job as security guards and open their own business was made on a shoe string but gave a picture of how the youth are living today with ganga, grinding dancing, sexy encounters told with a sweet mischievous naughtiness. Songs of Redemption, by Miquel Galofre and Amanda Sans, winner of ttff’s Jury Prize and the Audience Award goes inside what had been Kingston Jamaica’s worst prison until the new prison director introduced classes to educate the prisoners, including a music rehabilition program which goes beyond all expectation… Truly redeeming.
Trinidad + Tobago filmmakers Karim Mortimer from Bahamas, Lisa Harewood from Barbaddos, Alex (Egyptian/ Austrian / Bahamanian business partner of Karim, Shakira Bourne
The film program was suspended for a full day in which all cultural and entertainment events throughout Cuba were cancelled to observe a national day of mourning for Nelson Mandela.
- 1/9/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
From new voices like NoViolet Bulawayo to rediscovered old voices like James Salter, from Dave Eggers's satire to David Thomson's history of film, writers, Observer critics and others pick their favourite reads of 2013. And they tell us what they hope to find under the tree …
Curtis Sittenfeld
Novelist
My favourite books of 2013 are Drama High (Riverhead) by Michael Sokolove, Sea Creatures (Turnaround) by Susanna Daniel, and & Sons (Harper Collins) by David Gilbert. Drama High is incredibly smart, moving non-fiction about an American drama teacher who for four decades coaxed sophisticated and nuanced theatrical performances out of teenage students who weren't privileged or otherwise remarkable and in so doing, changed their conceptions of what they could do with their lives. Sea Creatures is a gripping, beautifully written novel about the mother of a selectively mute three-year-old boy; when she takes a job ferrying supplies to a hermit off the coast of Florida,...
Curtis Sittenfeld
Novelist
My favourite books of 2013 are Drama High (Riverhead) by Michael Sokolove, Sea Creatures (Turnaround) by Susanna Daniel, and & Sons (Harper Collins) by David Gilbert. Drama High is incredibly smart, moving non-fiction about an American drama teacher who for four decades coaxed sophisticated and nuanced theatrical performances out of teenage students who weren't privileged or otherwise remarkable and in so doing, changed their conceptions of what they could do with their lives. Sea Creatures is a gripping, beautifully written novel about the mother of a selectively mute three-year-old boy; when she takes a job ferrying supplies to a hermit off the coast of Florida,...
- 11/24/2013
- by Ali Smith, Robert McCrum, Tim Adams, Kate Kellaway, Rachel Cooke, Sebastian Faulks, Jackie Kay
- The Guardian - Film News
Poetry is an Island, directed by Ida Does, and produced by Does and Rebecca Roos, will premiere at this year's Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival, which runs September 17th - October 1st. The subject of Island is Derek Walcott, St. Lucian Nobel prize winner poet and playwright, and the island that inspires him. Here's more about the film: Derek Walcott, Poetry is an island, is a feature documentary film about Nobel laureate, poet, playwright, and visual artist, Derek Alton Walcott (1930). The film depicts an intimate portrait of Walcott, as we visit his art studio, his childhood home, and his current residence in St. Lucia. It also includes exclusive archive material from the...
- 8/6/2013
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
What made film-maker Judd Apatow want to be be funny? Or inspired novelist Stephenie Meyer to create a world of vampires? In My Ideal Bookshelf, more than 100 writers and other cultural figures were asked to share the literary journeys that helped them realise their ambitions and find success. Here are four
• What would your 'ideal bookshelf' be, and why?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, novelist: 'All my characters drank ginger beer'
I grew up in a university town in Nigeria. I was an early reader and, what I read as a young child, were mostly British and American books. I was also an early writer. And when I began to write, at about the age of seven – stories in pencil with crayon illustrations, which my poor mother was obligated to read – I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading.
All my characters were white and drank ginger beer, because the...
• What would your 'ideal bookshelf' be, and why?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, novelist: 'All my characters drank ginger beer'
I grew up in a university town in Nigeria. I was an early reader and, what I read as a young child, were mostly British and American books. I was also an early writer. And when I began to write, at about the age of seven – stories in pencil with crayon illustrations, which my poor mother was obligated to read – I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading.
All my characters were white and drank ginger beer, because the...
- 11/26/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Everett Collection Co-founder of the Russian Samovar and ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
As rain whipped sideways, Roman Kaplan stood just outside the doorway of the Russian Samovar smoking a cigarette and greeting guests with the easy smile of an old friend.
A dapper man in a tan jacket, Kaplan founded the bar and restaurant on West 52nd Street 25 years ago, along with the poet Joseph Brodsky and ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Every few months book publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux...
As rain whipped sideways, Roman Kaplan stood just outside the doorway of the Russian Samovar smoking a cigarette and greeting guests with the easy smile of an old friend.
A dapper man in a tan jacket, Kaplan founded the bar and restaurant on West 52nd Street 25 years ago, along with the poet Joseph Brodsky and ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Every few months book publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux...
- 5/19/2011
- by Stefan Sirucek
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
The 42 annual NAACP Image Awards nominations were announced Wednesday (Jan. 12) by actresses Kimberly Elisa and Sanaa Lathan, rapper 50 Cent, singer Smokey Robinson and actors Columbus Short and Affion Crockett at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA.
ABC and NBC led the TV categories with 18 nominations each, followed by CBS and the Lifetime Movie Network with 10 apiece. "Grey's Anatomy" and "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" tied at five noms apiece, while "For Colored Girls" topped all other movies or TV series with seven nominations. Tyler Perry's film and television projects had a combined total of 20 nominations.
The entire list of nominees is as follows:
Television
Outstanding Comedy Series
• "30 Rock" (NBC)
• "Are We There Yet?" (TBS)
• "Glee" (Fox)
• "Modern Family" (ABC)
• "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" (TBS)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
• David Mann - "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" (TBS)
• Dulé Hill - "Psych" (USA)
• Lavan Davis...
ABC and NBC led the TV categories with 18 nominations each, followed by CBS and the Lifetime Movie Network with 10 apiece. "Grey's Anatomy" and "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" tied at five noms apiece, while "For Colored Girls" topped all other movies or TV series with seven nominations. Tyler Perry's film and television projects had a combined total of 20 nominations.
The entire list of nominees is as follows:
Television
Outstanding Comedy Series
• "30 Rock" (NBC)
• "Are We There Yet?" (TBS)
• "Glee" (Fox)
• "Modern Family" (ABC)
• "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" (TBS)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
• David Mann - "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" (TBS)
• Dulé Hill - "Psych" (USA)
• Lavan Davis...
- 1/12/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
The 42 annual NAACP Image Awards nominations were announced Wednesday (Jan. 12) by actresses Kimberly Elisa and Sanaa Lathan, rapper 50 Cent, singer Smokey Robinson and actors Columbus Short and Affion Crockett at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA.
The awards celebrate the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film. The awards will air live Friday, March 4 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt on Fox.
ABC and NBC led the TV categories with 18 nominations each, followed by CBS and the Lifetime Movie Network with 10 apiece. Lionsgate led the film categories with seven nominations and For Searchlight followed with six. "For Colored Girls" topped all other movies or TV series with seven nominations. Tyler Perry's film and television projects had a combined total of 20 nominations.
The entire list of nominees is as follows:
Motion Picture
Outstanding Motion Picture
• "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street...
The awards celebrate the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film. The awards will air live Friday, March 4 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt on Fox.
ABC and NBC led the TV categories with 18 nominations each, followed by CBS and the Lifetime Movie Network with 10 apiece. Lionsgate led the film categories with seven nominations and For Searchlight followed with six. "For Colored Girls" topped all other movies or TV series with seven nominations. Tyler Perry's film and television projects had a combined total of 20 nominations.
The entire list of nominees is as follows:
Motion Picture
Outstanding Motion Picture
• "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street...
- 1/12/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
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