Film Release Wishlist

 

In the Morning film poster.

While waiting for Criterion to announce the blu ray/DVD release of Alice Diop’s incredible Saint Omer (two of the five titles have their intended dates already), I could not resist compiling together this small list of films that are currently inaccessible via streaming or physical channels. 

Some rarer films are on YouTube channels (aka Black film activism) such as reelblack. Maya Cade’s Black Film Archive aides in ensuring that Black films do not slip beneath the cracks. The gatekeepers certainly do not want us celebrating ourselves for good reason— for they set up the goalposts to what is considered worthy cinema and what deserves to be celebrated and preserved. A newer resource called Just Watch lets you know where film/TV are currently streaming, but some do not show up (already demonstrating our erasure). IMDb has limited information including photographs, stills, and cast/crew involvement. Thus, financial pitfalls too cause these films not to see the light, let alone a streaming platform— short films having an even trickier slope, especially since sometimes these are a director’s student works. 

Black women stories are as essential and significantly valuable as the stories white filmmakers create. Yet the filmmaking cannon begs to differ. 

Loretta Devine and Obaka Adedunyo in Will. DP: possibly Jessie Maple, IMDb has limited information on this film besides the questionable 5.5/10 score. 

Jessie Maple, the first Black woman admitted into the New York camera union, has several seemingly vaulted films. Will (1981) a Harlem based drama about a former basketball star turned heroin addict was the first independent drama film shot by a Black woman (and film debut of Loretta Devine) and Twice As Nice (1989) about twin students at Columbia University competing to be the first woman to join the MBA basketball team— Maple’s second achievement/feat. These are impossible to find yet very important for film buffs. In 2013, Will was restored by the New York Women In Film and Television’s Women’s Film Preservation Fund— may be a positive sign in our direction for a future release. 

A humorous still from Ayoka Chenzira’s Hair Piece: A Film For Nappy Headed People about “Turn Back” weather. Straight/relaxed Black hair has a timeliness to it (a Cinderella element as the film suggests) and the consequences can be dire in precipitation, mainly rain. DP: Ann Chapman. 

Once the hair reverts to its natural state, the girl’s smile has turn upside down and her posture is slouched, depressed. DP: Ann Chapman.

The first Black woman animator Ayoka Chenzira (director of Alma’s Rainbow (1993) currently streaming on Criterion and Kanopy) helmed a piece on Black hair inspired by her living in Brooklyn— a short experimental animation called Hair Piece: A Film For Nappy Headed People (1984); included in the National Film Registry in 2018. On Becoming A Woman (1986) is another animation short unavailable. 

The UCLA Film & Television Archive works diligently to share materials on their YouTube channel. Other alumni works longed to see are Alile Sharon Larkin’s Your Children Come Back to You (1979) and Dreadlocks and the Three Bears (1991), Jacqueline Shearer’s A Minor Education, and Stormé Bright Sweet’s The Single Parent Family: Images In Black (1977)— the latter available on the campus premises like Melvonna Ballenger’s unfinished Nappy Headed Lady. Although Your Children Come Back to You and A Minor Education are two films previously viewed at a program, other generations need access to these beautiful works that show the testament to our collective strengths and phenomenal progress in the face of existing in an unjust society. 

 

A still from Jacqueline Shearer’s A Minor Altercation. Other information unknown. 

Leal (C. J. Lindsay) and Zuri (De’Adre Aziza) in Nefertite Nguvu’s In The Morning. DP: Arthur Jafa of Daughters of the Dust and Crooklyn.

A few years ago, back at a Blackstar Film Festival panel, filmmaker Nefertite Nguvu talked about the pros and cons of making In The Morning (2014)— a film shot on low budget and in eight days. The gorgeously  lit film centers nine Black friends in Brooklyn navigating through love and relationships, people breaking up, another moving abroad. With stars like the brilliant Emayatzy Corinealdi (of my favorite film Middle of Nowhere) and Numa Perrier (writer/director of Jezebel) and positive word of mouth buzz, In the Morning deserves to be in conversations about Black romance in cinema beyond the usual fare (primarily directed by men). How can it be in any such dialogue if not present for audiences to indulge in? 

Jet, an ambitious Black law student, is torn between chasing her dreams or staying in the traditionalist women role. 

Maya Angelou, screenwriter of the TV film adaptation of her own autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and director of Down on the Delta, has several works unavailable including two pieces from an anthology series called Visions (1976-1980). Angelou directed Tapestry / Circles (both aired on December 30, 1976), two hard-to-find mid-length episodic films about Black girls and women that would instill necessary wisdom to the generations coming up today. Tapestry is about a young woman torn between her lover and best friend who want her to stick to the ideal female role versus her own career dreams. Circles focuses on a very religious grandmother’s hope for her granddaughter to stay away from outside provocation.   

José (Garry Cadenat) with his grandmother (Darling Légitimus) look for a promising future in Euzhan Palcy’s Sugar Cane Alley. DP: Dominique Chapuis. 

Sugar Cane Alley (1983), a history making feature by Martinique filmmaker Euzhan Palcy, explores the relationship between a precocious young boy living with his tired grandmother, a sugar plantation worker. It seems to suggest the exhausting previous generation wanting better for the family tree’s future by investing all the time and energy in not just physical labor past a certain age. Educating the youth— using the skill of learning withheld against the oppressed—perhaps propels the grandmother into action. She may be a poor, broken and beaten body, but her clever, sharp mind acknowledges her grandson’s intelligence and will be damned if a cruel history repeats for him. 

This small list hints at probably dozens of films directed by Black women across a global cinematic history; not even brushing the surface of what’s lost or stored away from our hungry eyes. At the theaters nowadays, when viewing their films (far and few in between) my logic remains similar to the refrain of the migrating lover in Toni Morrison’s Sula— to cherish the person fully knowing you intend to never see them again. Within the minutes of a short film or a feature, each frame of the moving picture must be pressed into memory; bearing the saddened notion that this momentous experience will likely not be repeated.  

‘The Invitation,’ An Allegory For Society?

 

Tokenism is never an enjoyable sight. 

In a horror/thriller film like The Invitation, incumbent fear heightens for Kira. She is surrounded in a modest grouping, the sole Black woman— dark skinned too. The tender vulnerability of such tremulous situations mirrors fragile workplace environments, walking along eggshells, playing an almost superficial kind of nice. Kira must have been deeply embedded within herself, forcing any residual doubt to surpass just to undergo an awkward evening. All she wanted was to have a nice, normal dinner at her boyfriend’s ex-wife’s house. She kindly greeted everyone, let in no airs or grievances of discomfort. And yet the hosts could not revise their murderous plans. 

Poor Kira. 

Before Kira and Will even arrive to the candlelit party, Will accidentally hits a deer and kills it out of misery. Once they reach Eden’s grand house, where windows are prevalent and doors are mysteriously locked, all seems well— scarily well. Will was once married to Eden and they lost their young son, grieving the loss in different ways. Tragedy drove their relationship apart with Will coping through psychology and Eden finding a new husband in weird behaving David. 

Moreover, Eden and David’s extra notch politeness carries a sinister vibe, but only Will notices the facade. Kira, however, is trying to be everyone’s friend, much like any Black woman wanting to break the ice. By dismantling conditioned stereotypes that requires Black characters to provide cheap laughs, act sassy, or speak Ebonics, Kira is instead a caring, considerate listener, attentive to Will’s outbursts. After all, this quiet, calm house and the company of strangers is Will’s world. Kira is the willing participant, entering into another dimension of her boyfriend’s past and uncertain future. 

The illustrious Emayatzy Corinealdi is the poised Black woman survivor in a film directed by Karen Kusama, written by two men— Phil Hay (Kusama’s husband) and Matt Manfredi. Corinealdi has appeared in a limited horror/supernatural features such as the direct-to-video Vampz and a TV movie called Demons. The fact remains that this solid, multifaceted, utterly gorgeous actress deserves to have more starring roles. She is definitely an admired presence to look up to, considering that Middle of Nowhere (her first starring vehicle) remains a favorite romance. 

Once Kira and Will realize that murder is indeed on the menu, it is high time to flee. For Kira, the getting to know an ex phase has hit an unsuspected curveball. As the guests die one by one, Eden remains beholden to that scary layer beneath the niceness, reminiscent of the squeaky clean white people in Get Out. She is evil without truly comprehending it. With the morbid intensity like that of a religious cult leader, she believes her intentions are genuine, that murdering these innocents provides a service.

Hopefully, after witnessing and surviving that terribly violent ordeal, Kira decided to break up with David and chill out with her normal Black friends offscreen. 

‘Middle of Nowhere’ is an Underrated Powerhouse

Middle of Nowhere film poster. 

On January 16, 2014, I watched Ava DuVernay’s romantic indie drama, Middle of Nowhere (released two years prior) for the first time on an iPhone. My laptop was broken and that iPhone was the sole way to finally see the film, a special AFFRM Rebel member exclusive. On January 13, 2015, the official DVD release day, it took several stores to find a copy and that would jumpstart the second, third, fourth or so viewings on a new laptop. Then, months later, the Lightbox Film Center showed it on a big screen during a celebration of cinematographer, Bradford Young. Each watch is a present unwrapped, especially to an avid film lover desiring to see more humanist depictions of Black lives by Black filmmakers.

Thus, Middle of Nowhere, an obvious personal favorite, is of significant importance often left off Best Black Film lists.

Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi) puts her medical studies on hold in order to help her imprisoned husband Derek.

It opens with Ruby, a tough, resilient medical student who travels far by bus to see her imprisoned husband Derek— in for fraud. On the bus, women bond over their missing men, knowing that these short, strict visitations are all they can hold onto until the next one— year after year after year. When Ruby and Derek see each other, the sparks are flying, the love is spoken through their eyes and ready smiles. Afterwards, Ruby speaks on his behalf, constantly overworking and exerting herself to make ends meet and keep an expensive lawyer on Derek’s case. This authentically paints the true depressing reality for marginalized bodies— always over exerting themselves for a bit of freedom. Before the arrest, Ruby and Derek were dreamily living like a queen and king, well above middle class in a huge furnished house with a nicely manicured yard.

Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi) and Brian (David Oyelowo) share a dance. 

Aside from prison visits, Ruby is staying devoted to Derek by putting medical school on hiatus and taking extra hospital shifts much to the dismay of her mother, Ruth. Now Ruth is a stern parent prone to yelling and belittling even over the smallest matters. This constant verbal abuse makes for jarring scenes, especially between Ruth and Rosie— Ruby’s sister, a single mother of a precocious little boy. Meanwhile, Derek’s outside life threatens Ruby’s happiness. In comes Brian— a flirtatious bus driver— that has it bad for the married woman, Ruby.

Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi) may be flawed in some instances, but she is far from stupid. 

Ruby, painted in pivotal degrees of vulnerable softness and graceful femininity, is one to be desired, fought for. Whether it is by two handsome men, a fretful mother, or a sister with a small son, Ruby is the light hovering around the shadowy places no one wants to remain stuck in. Derek kept a heartbreaking betrayal under wraps, Brian is staying civil to an old relationship, Ruth wants her daughters to still need her, and Rosie searches for love in all the wrong places. From Ruby, Derek wants her forgiveness, Brian wants to be her “next,” Ruth wants her to get her life in order without Derek, and Rosie wants guidance.

Yet Ruby refuses to be a mule to anyone.

One of the most jaw dropping scenes is what transpired between Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi) and Derek (Omari Hardwick) on her final visit. 

Although the story plays a bit into the “struggle love” narrative, DuVernay’s poignant writing and abstracted direction segways the overused Black love stereotype into another route altogether. Ruby eventually realizes that she cannot put her life on hold for Derek, wait in the wings for the course of an unseen future that has presently changed the both of them. Everything passed her by whilst working twice as hard to free him. She needs to be in a new, refreshing moment, deserves to find her path without him clouding her purpose. And that moment happens to be her career, her family, and Brian.

Middle of Nowhere is an intriguing trifecta of threes— Ruby’s need to keep an old life together whilst being seductively pulled by another is more than the typical interloper love triangle, Ruby and Rosie’s adulthood with complicated Ruth, and the unhealthy, unresolved generational turmoil from Ruth causes so much conflict that Rosie doesn’t grant her much grandmother time. 

Middle of Nowhere family: Sharon Lawrence, David Oyelowo, Ava DuVernay, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Edwina Findlay, Troy Curvey III, and Omari Hardwick. 

Middle of Nowhere is seamlessly tied together. There is a reason why this poignant picture won African American Film Critics Association Awards, Black Circle Film Awards, Black Reel Awards, Independent Film Awards, dramatic at Sundance Film Festival (DuVernay being the first African American woman to be honored), and the Josephine Baker Award from Women Film Critics Circle Awards. It is also why many still cannot comprehend its exclusion from the main awards circuit of Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, etc. The memorable music selection includes some Goapele. Bradford Young’s excellent cinematography reveals a tremendous, tender care in lighting Black bodies. Aisha Coley’s casting of Emayatzy Corinealdi, David Oyelowo, Lorraine Touissant, Omari Hardwick, and Edwina Findlay remains top notch. This arrangement of brown and dark brown skin hues with Corinealdi playing a rootable lead makes women like her feel seen and loved, makes their stories valid.

DuVernay’s gorgeous effort is worth watching again and again because it is one of the finest, most masterful examples of Black people falling in love and making sacrifices in order to make love function. It is so very important to champion Black artistry when it is of this quality. Creators like DuVernay fight hard to write, direct, and produce films for us about us and distribution can be their biggest challenge. With this word of mouth in mind, please watch Middle of Nowhere and spread the gospel to family and friends. Tell them that DuVernay has a romantic poet side in addition to award heavyweights Selma, 13th, and When They See Us.