In light of recent events in America, members of the BanterFlix team sat down to champion different films that showcase black talent, both in front of and behind the camera and discuss important issues relevant to the Black Lives Matter campaign.
Night of the Living Dead (Joe McElroy)
Night of the Living Dead is not only a landmark in horror cinema but American cinema in general. Initially drawing much criticism for its graphic scenes of gore, George A. Romero’s game-changing film about a group of people trying to survive a horde of cannibalistic ghouls has gone on to define the zombie sub-genre.
Over the years the film has also garnered much deserved praise for its social commentary which can be interpreted in a number of ways. It can be read as an example of “red fear” as a result of the ongoing Cold War or an examination into the televised violence of the Vietnam War.
However, the most common and enduring reading of the film lies in how it is a commentary on the Civil Rights movement, thanks to its leading actor, Duane Jones. Jones’ casting marked the first time an African – American actor to be cast in the leading role in a mainstream horror film.
Romero cast Jones as main protagonist Ben, purely because he thought that he was the best actor that read for the role. Even after his casting, Romero didn’t change the script as the role wasn’t written with race in mind. The only aspects of the character that changed in the script were down to Jones himself.
Ben was originally was supposed to be an uneducated truck driver but Jones didn’t like this depiction so he adapted aspects of the dialogue to reflect the character we see on screen, improving the film. Jones’ depiction is that of a resourceful man with a commanding presence.
He remains calm in the face of both the onslaught of the dead and dealing with the conflict with the others in the farmhouse. Back in 1968, this kind of casting was unheard of as black men were cast either as villains or buffoonish side characters used to prop up the white hero.
Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the film is its ending. With everyone else dead, Ben looks out the window after hearing some sirens in the distance only to be shot dead by a mob of rednecks, mistaking him for a zombie. He survived the night, but he didn’t survive prejudice.
His demise is a tragic sucker punch that is made all the more horrific by the subsequent images. His body is dragged out of the house with hooks and thrown onto a bonfire in a series of still images. This montage resembling a newsreel from the time serves a stark reminder of lynchings, emerging like the dark chapter of an American history book.
Night of the Living Dead is a prime example of the right film that came along at the right time and George A. Romero didn’t even realise it. It wouldn’t have been possible without the revolutionary casting of Duane Jones in the leading role. As Ben, Jones held up a mirror to American society and has an enduring legacy for black actors in horror cinema and beyond.
Loving (Gavin Moriarty)
There’s a quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates that seems apt, not only for right now but in relation to the film Loving.
“An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future.”
Loving tells the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and a black woman who in 1958 defied Virginia state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. They are threatened with jail and eventually have to leave the state only to return to fight their case; a case which goes all the way to the Supreme Court. Two things stand out in Loving: defiance and love. It’s more accurate to say that love in Loving is an act of defiance.
Loving doesn’t have the fire and righteous anger of Do The Right Thing or Mississippi Burning but it does have a slow, engrossing and intimate look at a time in the not too distant past. A past where interracial marriage was outlawed. From the very first shot, there is an air of intimacy and authenticity as we see a pensive Mildred (Ruth Negga) in close-up as she reveals to Richard (Joel Edgerton) that she is pregnant.
It’s a beautifully shot scene that allows the subtly and beauty of the acting to do all the heavy lifting. And with that scene director Jeff Nichols shows his intent to, in his own words, create “a painfully beautiful film”. And he does.
Beautifully shot by Adam Stone, there aren’t any sweeping grand shots of the Virginian countryside; just simple wide shots that effortlessly show the natural beauty of the landscape. The camera moves in an almost languid way so the scenes are allowed room to breathe and as a result, you are fully immersed in this quietly beautiful and at times devastating drama.
The acting from Negga and Edgerton is of the highest calibre, they both put in truly magnificent performances that aren’t showy, but truthful. The look that Negga gives Edgerton when she finds out the result of the Supreme Court case is so utterly moving, it is a masterclass in acting.
Negga is Irish and Edgerton is Australian but if you didn’t know about their respective nationalities, you would swear they were natives of Virginia. The characters feel real and lived in and the attention to detail of the period is so well done, you really do feel as if you are back in that era.
Nichols is also the credited writer of Loving and the script is just as devastatingly subtle a the acting. In one of the best scenes of the film, an ACLU attorney asks Richard a simple question that is met with a strikingly simple but poignant answer:
“Is there anything you’d like me to say to the Supreme Court Justices of the United States?
Yeah, tell the judge I love my wife.”
It is one of the best scenes in the movie and so unassumingly heart-breaking that you have to remind yourself that this didn’t happen long ago. The film is, in many respects, a perfect companion piece to Ava DuVernay’s equally devastating and eye-opening documentary 13TH. Both deal with race but also resistance and the necessity of resistance in times when dark and malevolent forces seek to divide and degrade.
Loving is a beautifully direct and simple story of extraordinary courage but also resistance. A resistance born out of a simple act: Love. It’s cliched to say but there’s always an unassailable nugget of truth to those old cliches. But love demands action and that first action, especially for our younger generation who are susceptible to the lies and hate masquerading as humour or information on social media (and in their social circles too), is education.
Show them black history, show them black stories, introduce them to Spike Lee, Boots Riley, Barry Jenkins and Ava DuVernay. That’s the least you can do. The rest demands action. And the story of Richard and Mildred Loving is the story of love in action.
Blackkklansman (Victoria Brown)
This film is important. Based on the incredible true story, Spike Lee’s Blackkklansman uses the past to comment on the present and is unfortunately all too relevant two years on. The film follows rookie black cop Ron Stallworth (John David Washington, son of Denzel Washington who has previously portrayed Malcolm X) who, alongside Jewish colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), infiltrates the KKK during the early 1970s.
Blackkklansman opens with perhaps the most famous scene from Gone with the Wind where Scarlett O’Hara searches through a crowd of wounded confederate soldiers, only to transition to a racist leader (played by Alec Baldwin) practising a white supremacist transcript in front of a black-and-white newsreel of manipulated representations of the black community, chosen to support the character’s cause.
Baldwin looks directly into the camera as he spouts his hatred and although it is incredibly uncomfortable to watch, it sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Stallworth is subjected to both constant casual racism and more violent expressions of hatred during his time with the police force – in fact, his hiring was part of a PR scheme to make the police force look more diverse by encouraging “minorities to apply”. His white colleagues constantly use the word “toad” when referring to black criminals. Stallworth initially ignores the comments but eventually retorts, claiming that “there are no toads here, only human beings”. There are lines like this throughout the film and they’ve stuck with me ever since, but Blackkklansman has two particularly powerful scenes that I will never forget.
The first one is when Stallworth is assigned an undercover mission to attend a talk by ex-Black Panther and African Nationalist Kwame Ture, otherwise known as Stokley Carmichael. The police force in Colorado Springs are worried that Ture will rile up the community’s black residents into retaliation to their unjust treatment – God forbid – so Stallworth’s job is to report back the effect Ture has on his audience, which is mostly black college students.
During Ture’s powerful speech his audience does indeed become enthusiastic, and rightly so, but Stallworth has to try to remain neutral; being a member of the police force in the US and a black man are almost mutually exclusion during this point in history. What makes the speech so emotional is Lee’s decision to cut between Ture and close-ups of individuals looking up at him and listening (Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody video comes to mind); this decision emphasises the significance of the individual black person and the black people as a unified community. It’s an incredibly moving scene.
The second is a juxtaposition of the KKK and the black community. The shots of the present KKK show them watching D. W Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (a racist 1915 film so powerful and influential that it reignited the KKK) while eating popcorn and laughing at the racist and over-exaggerated portrayal of black people as rapists and murderers. Topher Grace’s portrayal of David Duke, KKK Grand Wizard, oozes Trump; he thrives on flattery, genuinely believes that his beliefs are natural and scientific, and there are even a few quotes alluding to “America’s greatness” to cement their similarities.
In contrast, the scenes of the young black community who invited Ture to speak at the start of the film have gathered in an intimately small house to hear Jerome Turner (Harry Belefonte) deliver a personal experience of US racism. As the KKK cackle at their ancestors murdering black people, Turner speaks of the unjust murder of his mentally-disabled black friend around the same time
The Birth of a Nation was released. Turner explains that the white jury unjustly convicted his friend in just four minutes and that the crowd dragged him into the street where they kicked him, stabbed him, going as far as to cut off his genitals, before burning him to death.
Belefonte’s execution, with his raspy and emotion-heavy voice, is so powerful that I cried. And what this scene demonstrates to a contemporary audience is the impact cinematic representations can have on societies; it forces us to consider how minority groups are being represented on screen today.
Although Stallworth and Flip’s story ends in a light and funny tone, mocking David Duke’s stupidity over the phone, the film ends with contemporary footage of the riots and protests in Charlottesville in 2017, alongside footage of both Duke and Trump condoning the violence and insinuating that the black community were the antagonists.
Lee goes as far to include shots of the car that rammed into the crowd, killing protester Heather Heyer. Blackkklanman concludes with a photo of Heather saying, “Rest in Power” and showing the US flag upside down as it slowly fades into black and white. As a white woman, I will never understand the experiences of the black community, but I stand with them. Blackkklansman is a great place to start when educating yourself about black history and culture and confronting your white privilege. It’s a film we can learn from.
Black Panther (Jim McClean)
Sitting down to write this article to champion the Black Lives Matter campaign there is a multitude of films I could’ve picked from.
Several movies come instantly to mind, films like Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing or John Singleton’s Boyz in the Hood, two films I vividly remember watching with a group of friends at my parents’ caravan in Co Down in my early teens.
I remember being shocked by what I saw, but you’ve got to realize that growing up in Northern Ireland this white teenager had only ever seen anything that had been dealt with within these movies from the news, but watching these films helped give me a new perspective and sent me down a pathway of wanting to know more.
That’s the power of cinema, it’s a window into the world of people you may never meet, but by spending time in their company it can help you develop a better understanding of the issues they face on a daily basis. Watching countless movies over the years has made me realise just how naïve I was growing up, not only regarding racial issues but on a multitude of many things.
Jesus, I remember having a copy of Disney’s Songs of the South at home when I was younger and having no idea how racially insensitive the whole movie was until I was much older.
As I grew older I did become increasingly more aware of racial issues and cinema has been my biggest educational tool in this area. Films like Amma Asante’s Belle and A United Kingdom, Boaz Yakin’s Remember the Titans, Dee Rees’ Mudbound and more recently Jordon Peele’s Get Out and Steve McQueen’s Widows.
The sequence in McQueen’s film were Veronica (Viola Davis) relives the memory of the death of her son Marcus, is such a poignant and visually stunning piece of cinema that had such a profound impression on me when I saw it in the cinema.
I could sit down and write about any of those films and many others too, but when I sat down to think about this piece the first film that came to mind was Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (I know Therese will be writing about his 2013 feature Fruitvale Station). The reason I wanted to mention Black Panther was because it’s a film I was initially a little down on when it was released back in 2018.
Not because I didn’t think it was bad in any way, but just because to me it felt like yet another ‘run of the mill’ comic book movie. But then I remember listening to the film’s star Chadwick Boseman chatting with Simon Mayo on BBC Five Live about his reaction to Martin Scorsese’s comments about the Marvel cinematic universe not being cinematic and I was struck by how naive I’d been.
During the interview, Boseman said that Scorsese couldn’t see a film like Black Panther as being cinematic because ‘he didn’t feel the mystery that black people felt when watching it for the first time’.
Yes to me, a white 30 something-year-old cinemagoer Black Panther was very much just another instalment within the MCU, but try telling any young black boy or girl, who’ve had to look at white superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all their lives, that Black Panther wasn’t something special.
Of course, it is and we should celebrate the work of Ryan Coogler, Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Letitia Wright and everyone who were involved on this project, a film steeped in black culture that proved to be such a box-office success.
It’s true, so many of the films I loved growing up where all very heteronormative and dominated by largely white casts, you only need to look at so many mainstream horror films from the 1980s and even my beloved Ghostbusters was not kind to Ernie Hudson in its marketing campaign.
Cinema has moved on over the years and now offers a greater degree of diversity both in front of and behind the camera, but there is undoubtedly a long way still to go. We can only hope that as new storytellers emerge from different backgrounds in the years to come, the stories they tell will the ones that help heal the racial divide and increase a new generation’s awareness on issues such as racism and diversity.
So even now in 2020 when so many individuals proudly proclaim to be ‘woke’ and more aware than ever on these issues, I begrudgingly have to hold my hands up and say I’ve still so much to learn and in many ways, I’m still just as naïve in many ways on racial matters as I was when I first watched Do The Right Thing all those years ago.
Regardless of this, I’ll always use cinema as a means of teaching myself more about the world as Atticus Finch tells Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it!”.
Us (Darren Vincent)
Regular listeners of the Podcast will be aware the horror genre is not my strong point. Especially in a cinema where I am not able to press pause, search google for the jump-scare times or read Wikipedia and pretend I have seen it in front of my friends. So you can imagine my anxiety when Jim invited me to watch and review Jordan Peele’s Us for my very first podcasting experience. What shocked me, even more, was that it was one of the most enjoyable cinema experiences I have had in recent years.
Us is Peele’s follow up to the hugely popular Get Out, which was critically praised for its original script, performances and its racially driven plot. Us is a seemingly typical home invasion slasher movie but in true Peele fashion, there is a much more cerebral and thought-provoking under below the surface.
The film follows an African-American family on their way to vacation at a seaside resort. Lupita Nyong’o (12 years a slave) plays Adelaide, the mother of the family who is haunted by a traumatic experience she had as a child, one which happened not too far from where they are staying.
The theme of self-reflection is evident and Peele’s message is not about the horrors that we witness around us. True horror comes from when we look right at the darkest part of ourselves.
As the family make their way back to their cabin for the evening they are visited by a strangely familiar family who begins to stalk and torment them. The film serves as a political, racial and economic analogy for the United States of America and through Peele’s brilliant storytelling he is able to disguise these struggles in his story without making them blatantly obvious to his audience.
What also struck me during the showing was that for the large part the story plays out in broad daylight, again not your typical horror movie. This could be an attempt to highlight the normality of the situation, how we live our lives without knowing what we truly are.
Peele questions our human nature to often sit back and ignore our fellow man, as long as we are ok as the individual – then why worry about anyone else?
It is a complete injustice that Lupita Nyong-o was not recognised by the academy for her performance in the film, she is simply fantastic and had shown real dedication through vocal coaching to perfect her traumatised tone. Her husband is played by Winston Duke (Black Panther) who provides some great comedic moments throughout.
The cinematography is a perfect fit for the tone of the story, plenty of bright primary colours for the beach resort with contrasting dark tones, blood red jumpsuits and darker shadows for our antagonists.
The soundtrack too is full of 90s cruising hip-hop music reworked to fit the more sinister moments in the film. You will never be able to listen to ‘I Got 5 on it’ by Luniz without thinking of the stabbing violin sounds from the score. Peel also uses music to add a layer of comedy too with Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys providing a cheery contrast to the misfortune of family friends played by Elisabeth Moss (Handmaid’s Tale, The Invisible Man) and Tim Heidecker (Bridesmaids).
Peele is one of the most creative and engaging directors of this generation and takes great risks in his film-making. Us will leave you theorising and questioning with your eyes fully open. I am really looking forward to his next release, even if it means hiding behind Jim again.
Fruitvale Station (Therese Rea)
Fruitvale Station (2013), is a poignant biographical depiction of the last 24 hours of 22-year-old Oscar Grant’s life. Grant was murdered by Officer Johannes Mehserle at Fruitvale Station, Oakland California, on New Years Day 2009. The film is written and directed by Ryan Coogler.
The film stars Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant III, Melonie Diaz as Sophina Mesa, Octavia Spencer as Wanda Johnson, Ariana Neal as Tatiana Grant and Chad Michael Murray as Officer Ingram (Inspired by Officer Mehserle).
It was first screened at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic Film. It was also screened at Cannes in 2013 winning the award for Best First Film.
The film opens with real footage of Oscar’s murder, which was captured by one of the bystanders on the platform. It’s an attempt by Coogler to acknowledge the dire need for authenticity in this depiction and casts a real foreboding shadow over the story that is about to unfold.
The film then follows Oscar about his day to day life, bringing his daughter to pre-school and buying food for his mother’s birthday later that night. Although Oscar does have his flaws, he has spent time in prison, neglects to tell his family that he lost his job two weeks prior and hasn’t been faithful to his girlfriend Sophina.
Regardless, he is a loving father who dotes on his daughter Tatianna and loves his mother and sister and would do anything for them.
Coogler’s directorial style engrosses you in the story. He utilises a POV, shaky camera style which really places you inside the story most specifically in the scenes at the platform and in the hospital; at times it can feel your actually witnessing the sorrow with Oscar’s family and friends in the hospital.
The ending brings you back to this horrific reality, as it details the events following Oscar’s death and fast-forwards to 2013 at a rally at Fruitvale Station where we see a grown-up Tatianna, mourning the loss of her father.
This instils this in your mind that the events depicted in the film actually happened and are still happening to this day. I’m ashamed to say that I had never heard of this case prior to watching the film and it has urged me to search for more documentaries and films, depicting the horrific murders of black people worldwide.
It’s frightening to see that this is still happening to this day, most recently with the murders of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbey and all of those other black men, women and children who we do not know the names of at present.
As a creative, I want to use my platform to educate myself in areas that I know nothing about and whilst I may never understand how it may feel, I want to try, and will support anyone who requires my support.
If you have not seen Fruitvale Station, I strongly urge you to do so and is currently available on Netflix to stream.
For more information, we’d recommend seeking out Into Film’s educational resources on the Black Lives Matter Campaign. Check out their website for more information.