film
-
Dorchester Projects: presenting a home movie film festival for the south side.
(above, taken by me during Dorchester Projects’ Summer Daycamp, 2011) The last installment of The Dorchester Projects’ Outdoor Home Movie Film Festival is this Thursday, August 11th at 9pm and will feature Live Musical Accompaniment… Sounds like a fantastic way to spend the last little chump change of summer. Organizers request you RSVP to dorchester.projects@gmail.com.…
-
Ronald Fair: Griot of Chicago Tales
1932— Ronald Fair is perhaps best known as a teller of crisp, satirical, and unsentimental Chicago Tales: inner city stories of struggle, morality, and overcoming (not unlike his own Chicago story). Born in Chicago on October 27, 1932, Fair attended public school. He was inspired as a young man by fellow Chicagoan Richard Wright to begin writing.…
-
Fame: Cult Movie of the Week
Fame (1980) is one of those movies that makes you wish you lived in a world so filled with youthful fervor that at anytime a group of kids might break into interpretive dance and jump on a cab. We don’t. But that didn’t keep us from cheering for the characters in the film (especially Coco…
-
Cult Movie of the Week: Stray Dog (1949)
A work of Japanese Noir from iconic Japanese director Kurosawa, “Stray Dog” (1949) gets by on good looks, swagger, and heart. Featuring a slinking pace, the film’s cadence is ultimately trumped by its ability to be beautifully gritty and enveloping, just like summer. Set in the depths of summer in Post-World War II Tokyo, the film follows detective Murakami as he seeks to…
-
Wattstax (1973) Cult Movie of the Week
Movie trailer for the 1973 black documentary, Wattstax. Perhaps the closet thing to “BLACKstock” we’ll ever see. Great performances from Memphis’ Stax Recording artists of the time and an indelible message of unity, self-determination, and respect (and fly fashion). I can’t be 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure that the chemical pink ensemble (complete with white,…
-
Cult Movie of the Week: Sparkle
Not unlike many movies that are labeled as “Blaxploitation”, the soundtrack to Sparkle (1976) is often regarded more highly than the film itself. A Curtis Mayfield-produced gem sung by Aretha Franklin, the soundtrack to the movie is glorious… but laden with its share of controversy. What’s controversial? First, the film is a pre-Dreamgirls rags-to-riches story…
-
Hi-Fi White: Foodstamps, Bulldogs, and Hollywood
Wilbur White was a nightclub singer on the South Side of Chicago whose bluesy growl wielded so much power that he was nicknamed Hi-Fi. He’d been in the clubs since the 1950s, and although I hear he put on a knockout of a show, that never translated into record sales. Speaking of knockouts, he…
-
Cult Movie of the Week: Shaft in Africa
I will start with the disclaimer: I am not really a blaxploitation film lover. I’m a lover of their funky romps-of-soundtracks. That said, I dig Shaft in Africa despite its more reserved soundtrack. Why? It’s titled Shaft…..in Africa! Not only Africa, but, specifically, Ethiopia… a country that holds a lot of romance for me because…
-
The Other Chicago
I had a recent conversation with a friend in which I said I’m sorry that tourists miss out on the Other Chicago, the part I can’t live without: Driving down Lake Street. Waiting in line FOREVER for a Rainbow Cone. The Garfield Park Fieldhouse presenting as a tiny gold speck on the horizon westbound down…
-
Cult Movie of the Week: Jacksons an American Dream
Yeah, I said it. Angela Bassett, Terence Howard, dude from Welcome Back, Kotter Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, etc., in the story of Gary, Indiana’s most famous sons (and daughters). I recently pulled out my (second) dub of this. It’s a textbook cult classic: lines you can’t forget, larger than life characters… and untouchably-dope music. Since I couldn’t…
darkjive.com 