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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Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Mushroom Man [El hombre de los hongos] (1976)

 



















Starring:

This story concerns a very wealthy family living in Mexico in the middle of the 19th century. While out hunting in the woods one day, the father discovers a young black orphan by the river. He brings the boy back to his large estate and names him Gaspar. Friendly and intelligent, the boy quickly becomes a new family member. He runs around and plays with their two young daughters as if they were his own sisters.

In a separate storyline, this family throws lavish dinner parties. One of their favorite dishes is mushrooms cooked with an old family recipe from Spain. How does the family know if the current batch of picked mushrooms is edible? Simple! They get a volunteer to eat a few first. If the volunteer keels over and dies, then the family does not serve mushrooms later at the party.

The family has one other flirtation with danger: They keep a vicious black panther chained up in the central courtyard. On occasion, he is freed and chases after people. For all their seeming sophistication and nobility, this family seems a little wacky to me!

Some years pass and Gaspar grows up to be a handsome young man, and the daughters become beautiful women. They continue to go on outings to the woods and swim in the river. But what had formerly been a child's play has become flirtatious. Along the way, Gaspar reveals knowledge of different species of mushrooms growing in the woods.

The family unit unravels as the daughters grow jealous of Gaspar's attention, and the parents become unhappy seeing their white daughters spending time with a black man. Family members scheme against each other...

Free, White and 21 (1963)












Starring: 

Storyline
The central conflict in this film is whether African-American businessman Ernie Jones (played by O'Neal) raped Swedish immigrant and civil rights Freedom Rider Greta Mae Hansen (played by Lund). Jones was the proprietor of the hotel at which Hansen decided to stay during her time in Dallas. The movie is primarily a court room drama, with many of the key events portrayed in flashback sequences as Ernie Jones and Greta Mae Hansen testify.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Hour Glass (1971)















Directed by:

Starring:


Storyline
In the midst of the Black consciousness movement, a basketball player imagines his profession to that of a gladiator. After a series of reflections including his upbringing as a foster child of White Americans, he returns to his origins.

Cry, the Beloved Country (1951)






















Starring:
Storyline
In the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee) journeys to the city to search for his missing son, only to find his people living in squalor and his son a criminal. Reverend Misimangu (Sidney Poitier) is a young South African clergyman who helps find his missing son-turned-thief and sister-turned-prostitute in the slums of Johannesburg.