The mission of The Department of Afro-American Research Arts and Culture to identify the global significance of the creative contributions pioneered by an international diaspora of Blackness
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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Black History 1992 (1992)


























CG
This video was released way back in 1992, which, lest we should forget, was the year of the Black Hawk Down affair in Somalia, the Rodney King riots, Magic Johnson and Arthur Ashe getting AIDS, Spike Lee's Malcolm X, and many, many other historic events.  This tape will remind the history buff in all of you about this stuff.  This should also be of particular note to those of you outside of the States, who may not have ever know some of the stuff that is talked about here.  I know, interesting and informative is not as good as mud wrestling,  but I would recommend checking this one out.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Black Girl (1966)


























"Black Girl [Original title: La noire de...]" (1966) is a French-Senegalese arthouse drama film written and directed by pioneering African filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. The movie is a simple but stark reality of a Senegalese woman who left home with a white couple with promises of work in France but instead lives as a housemaid in isolation. The film's star is Mbissine Thérèse Diop, who appeared in her first film. Arthouse films rely heavily on symbolism that can go past casual movie watchers' attention. There isn't any action or intense dialogue, but more so the narrative of a woman suffering within herself and by her employer's bigoted behaviors.

Director: Ousmane Sembène
Writer: Ousmane Sembène

Starring Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine, Momar Nar Sene, Ibrahima Boy

A young Senegalese woman moves to France to work for a wealthy white couple but soon finds out that life in the tiny apartment is a prison, mentally and physically.