In his provocative 2021 book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, New York Times opinion columnist Charles M. Blow calls for a “reverse Great Migration” of African Americans from the North back to the South to upend today’s political power structures while reclaiming the land and culture they left behind. South to Black Power does more than illustrate Blow’s enlightening ideas; we journey through Blow’s personal story, from his childhood in Louisiana to his role as father to young adult children in New York City, showing us the hard-won truths behind his vision for the future.
With a fist full of credit cards, a lucky run at the horse track, and a title that called to mind a certain French film star, Franco Stevens launched the best-selling lesbian lifestyle magazine ever published, connecting her community in an unprecedented way. AHEAD OF THE CURVE is a new feature documentary about the extraordinary woman who started Curve magazine, and by doing so helped accelerate the political and social evolution of the nation.
Queer culture and the arts would be much poorer without the presence and contribution of butch and stud lesbians, whose identity is both its own aesthetic and a defiant repudiation of the male gaze.
Documentary film on events that happened on August 28th in African-American history, shown at the Smithsonian African-American History Museum.
An intimate documentary exploration of heritage and history against the backdrop of a brewing Afro-centric revolution as the U.S. government prepares to invade the island nation of Grenada. First hand accounts from activists Angela Davis, Fania Davis and Fannie Haughton weave together director Damani Baker’s family portrait of utopian dreams, resistance and civil unrest with a film score composed by music luminary Meshell Ndegeocello.
Based on the life and death of Gov't Mule bassist Allen Woody, and the making of a double-disc tribute album (Gov't Mule's The Deep End , Volumes 1 & 2) featuring a host of legendary bass players. Throughout the film, director Mike Gordon (of Phish, who also plays on the album) interviews Woody's family and bandmates and also discusses the philosophy and technique of bass playing with a number of the instrument's legends, including Chris Squire, Les Claypool, John Entwistle, Flea, Bootsy Collins, Mike Watt, Roger Glover and others.
In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.
A struggling construction worker and an aspiring musician find themselves falling in love.
Welcome to Africville gives voice to what may have been marginalized members of an Afro-Canadian community in 1969. It's intention is to be a catalyst to thought and reflection about the lives and struggles of people from that community whose stories still go untold. It is the fictional account of a family. We listen to the stories of three generations of women and their friend Julius on the day their community is to be destroyed by the municipal government of Halifax. This story is a portrait of four individuals coping with universal uncertainties and insecurities.
In Hollywood, the lives of a successful film producer, his wife, a police detective and a surveillance agent intersect after a botched abduction.
A musical documentary accompaniment to the 1994 benefit compilation album concerning AIDS in the African-American community.