FILM(S) MONITORED
THE GOSPEL

Our monitor of “The Gospel,” which was a very good film, is below.   Before getting to that we’ve got a few links for an excellent magazine as well as some upcoming activities in dance and exhibits.   Hopefully you’ll get a chance to link on and perhaps subscribe to and/or attend some of the events.

American Legacy magazine:
www.americanlegacymag.com
AL is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year.   AL is currently a quarterly, but there are plans to increase its distribution to six times per year.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater :
www.alvinailey.org
AAADT’s annual month long winter season runs from November 30, 2005 – January 1, 2006.   The usual classics, including “Revelations” and “Cry,” are definitely on the agenda; but there are also some new ones from last season, including “Love Stories” (songs by Stevie Wonder) and “Shining Star” (songs by Earth, Wind & Fire), that are also refreshing.  And for the new season, some brand new ones, which are certain to be creatively awesome as well, are premiering this season.   [ NOTE:   Earth, Wind & Fire has a new album out called Illumination, which has several really good tracks on it ( www.earthwindandfire.com ).]

Dance Theatre of Harlem :
www.dancetheatreofharlem.org
According to DTH’s Web site, there are no immediate events coming up but DTH offers dance classes and other activities for kids, teens, and adults.

New- York Historical Society :
www.nyhistory.org                   www.slaveryinnewyork.org
NYHS is presenting the Slavery in New York exhibit, which runs from October 7, 2005 – March 5, 2006.   There will be many interesting presentations and speakers, including Howard Dodson (head of Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) and James O. Horton (co-author of the excellent Slavery and the Making of America, which is the companion book for the WNET PBS series).

Millions More Movement :
www.millionsmoremovement.com
For those interested in learning more and/or open to traveling to the tenth year anniversary event this weekend, this link provides all of the details.

This quote is from the 10/14/2005 special photo issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine in the What to Watch section about a CBS television show:   “CBS continues its proud (novel) tradition of acknowledging White people as the new minority by hiring Roselyn Sanchez.”   That could mean many things, but what do you think it means?

With our new monitoring format, we will no longer put the range for the number of times the N-word is used in a film because once is too much, especially if it’s unnecessary and/or excessive usage.   Also, based on the history of White Supremacy in this country and the fact that there’s a connection between Blacks/Jews/White Supremacy that’s worth exploring in general, but specifically as it connects within the entertainment industry, we will include a column (for the monitored films only) that will note if any derogatory Jewish slang terms (kike, hymie, hooknose, etc.) are used.   [ NOTE:   If necessary, see BN-W #34 for a more detailed explanation of the unfortunate need to monitor this.]

If you missed any other BN-W monitors, just send an e-mail to bannword2@yahoo.com and request that it be sent to you.   It’s very hard not to give any content critique on the films we monitor, so we will no longer even attempt to abide by that statement.   But we definitely do continue to highly encourage you to see these films for yourself and, if applicable, make your own judgment call on the N-word usage – appropriate/inappropriate? necessary/unnecessary? sensible/nonsensical? does it add to or take away from the film’s concept? does the N-word have to be used at all? is there a valid reason for doing so? is it mandatory for the scene(s) to be effective? what are the circumstances/situation that necessitate any use of the word? is it just thrown in for humor, fear, crime, insult? are other culturally insulting slang terms used as much as the N-word in the film?   Lots of questions and a whole lot of reasons to wonder what’s the real purpose and thought process behind why these actors, writers, directors, producers, executive producers, distributors, and studios/studio heads and executives give the “greenlight” for these crews to liberally use (or allow to be used) the N-word.

FEATURE FILM(S) :

T H E   G O S P E L

[Release Date:   10/7/05]

Starring Boris Kodjoe, Clifton Powell, Tamyra Gray ; screenplay written by Rob Hardy; directed by Rob Hardy; produced by Will Packer; executive produced by Holly Davis-Carter, Fred Hammond; studio – Screen Gems (Sony)
 

NOTE :   Although the reviews for this were either mediocre or non-existent, we recommend going to see it.   Many critics can’t relate to a so-called Black movie with no senseless violence; no calling one another “nigger/nigga”; no misogyny; and no cheating-on-you, you-done-me-wrong-again type of love stories, so you get the bland and/or unenthusiastic review write-ups in the newspapers/magazines.   But this film is very family friendly, it focuses on just regular people living regular lives and going through life’s ups and downs, daily living, and common changes that day-to-day basics for ALL of us – regardless of “race” – require.   The focus is on improving one’s life through being flexible and looking deeper into what really makes you happy in your soul – and using that to know when to stop the bickering and bring UNITY with others in your life.   There’s also a plug in there for adoptions, which is really great especially since there are so many children ready, willing, and able to be adopted:

http://www.adopting.org/
http://www.adoption.com/
http://www.adopting.com/

The primary down side to this film was the marketing end of it which was similar to that of Denzel Washington’s “Antwone Fisher” a few years ago, where there was plenty of publicity about the film but then there was a semi-limited release and you couldn’t find it in your neighborhood during the opening weekend.   With all of the promoting that was done, “The Gospel” only opened on about 969 screens nationwide which meant a lot of people may have wanted to see it but couldn’t find it near their home.   It seems highly unlikely in the entertainment business, but it almost appears to be a promote-to-fail type of marketing campaign.   Nevertheless, box office reports indicate the movie still did surprisingly well with an unexpected $7.5 million over the weekend (it cost $4 million to make), so it may have done even better if more local theaters had it playing and people could conveniently get to it.

BN-W Monitor Coming Soon:  “Domino” [Monique, Delroy Lindo]; “Jarhead” [Jamie Foxx, Jake Gyllenhall]; “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” [Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson]; “Rent” [Taye Diggs, Rosario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin]; “In the Mix” [Usher]; “Syriana” [Jeffrey Wright, George Clooney, Matt Damon]; “Pink Panther” [Steve Martin, Beyonce Knowles]

Also Coming :   DVD Monitoring; Fall 2005 Music Monitoring