Nate Parker as Nat Turner leading slave revolt in Birth Of A Nation. Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation was this year’s big winner at the Sundance Festival. The film took home the two top awards of the festival, the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award dramatic.
The icing on the cake came after a bidding war ensued over the-little-film that-could. When the dust cleared, Fox Searchlight purchased Birth for $17.5 million. According to Variety, it is the biggest deal ever made at Sundance.
Parker, who invested his own money in the picture, wrote, directed, produced and stars in the pre-civil war feature that was seven years in the making. Birth tells the story of Nat Turner, a slave and preacher and what lead up to his leading one of the most successful slave rebellions in American history in 1831 in Southampton County, VA.
Birth of A Nation’s talented predominately African American cast includes Gabrielle Union, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Penelope Ann Miller, Mark Boone Junior, Aunjanue Ellis and Jackie Earle Haley.
Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation already has Oscar buzz around it and the much touted flick has not even been released yet.
On another Oscars note, the Academy Awards will air live from Los Angeles’ Dolby Theater Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 7p.m. ET. Comedian Chris Rock will host the show. He has no plans to boycott but will include the #Oscarsowhite talk in his monologue. This alone should make for a very interesting Academy Awards.
https://youtu.be/Y8lYFUb9SbE
It appears to be the season of history telling for African American TV and film makers. John Legend, the Grammy award winning singer, writer and producer has added TV producer to his lengthy creative resume by contributing to this much needed telling of unsung heroes slave related stories.
Legend produced the upcoming slave driven TV series, Underground. It will air in March on cable’s WGN America. Underground follows slaves who escape plantation life and journey to freedom along the famous non-physical railroad. It stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell, her brother Jussie Smollett (Empire), Christopher Meloni, Alano Miller, Jessica de Gouw, Adina Porter, Mykelti Williamson, Amirah Vann, Johnny Ray Gill, Chris Chalk and Reed Diamond.
Race is another movie you should see. It is based on the true story of African American Olympic track superstar Jesse Owens. The film centers on Owens’ trials in a segregated United States leading up to his gold medal, record breaking performance at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin when Adolph Hitler and the Nazi’s were in power in Germany. Directed by Stephen Hopkins, the movie stars Stephan James, Carice van Houten, Jason Sudeikis, William Hurt and Jeremy Irons. Go see this movie. You will be educated and entertained. The Race opens in theaters February 19.
Comedy
https://youtu.be/hvQhHY1Oox4
A movie that will make you laugh is Open Roads’ 50 Shades of Black starring Marlon Wayans. It is a parody of the hit film 50 Shades of Grey. Check out 50 Shades of Black in theaters now.
Ride Along 2, directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Fantastic Four), stars Ice Cube (James) and Kevin Hart (Ben), reprising their roles as two Atlanta law enforcement officials in the action comedy. The two work together on a case involving drugs that leads them to Miami. Ride Along 2 will give you plenty of laughs. It is a good date night movie. So get a date and go see it. Ride Along 2 is in theaters now.
See you watching movies!
Follow me on Twitter:
@linwoods
