By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act Cinematographer extraordinaire Bradford Young has been named the 2015 Kodak Cinematographer-in-Residence at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. This is the 16th year of the residency program, which is sponsored by the...
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act It continues to be a point of contention, even among black people. Who gets to tell *our* stories? It's a guaranteed debate starter - new film or TV project is announced with black protagonist(s), but non-black creator (writer and...
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act In the spring, we learned that Idris Elba had joined the cast of the next "Star Trek" movie (the 3rd one), playing a villain, although, since then, details on who this villain is have been kept tightly underwraps, so we still...
By Andre Seewood | Shadow and Act Much of the power of the film image, excluding for the moment its historical preeminence, resides in its grandeur; its tiny images in multiple millimeters projected over our heads and transformed into gigantic images in multiple...
By Aramide A Tinubu | Shadow and Act Though Nichole Galicia began her career as a high fashion model strutting across runways around the globe, it was her breakout role in Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 film “Django Unchained” that got everyone buzzing about her. In the...
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act Before Spike Lee made his mark, Michael Schultz was the most prolific African American filmmaker since Oscar Micheaux, directing around 12 feature films between 1970 and 1990 (and much more if I included TV movies and serials)....
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act I really loved this! It looks like it was as fun to make as it is to watch. It actually gave me some ideas for a series I've been thinking about. But in short, Lupita Nyong'o, who is featured on the October cover of Vogue...
by Ashanti Scott | Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Ethosheia Hylton’s latest film LIA is one of 41 films directed by women of color that will be screened at Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series on Oct. 24-25 in Brooklyn at LIU. Tickets:...
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act And so it begins... I've long wondered what distribution company would pick this up. Question answered! RLJ Entertainment has announced its acquisition of all North American rights to “Nina,” the Nina Simone biopic that Zoe...
Ramin Setoodeh | Variety Idris Elba nearly plunged to his death filming Cary Fukunaga’s “Beasts of No Nation.” The indie drama, about an African tyrant known as “the commandant” who recruits an innocent boy into his army of youth soldiers, took Elba into the depths of...
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act It may come as a surprise to some that Spike Lee, despite a 30-year-long career as a filmmaker, and over 20 feature films, has never won an Academy Award (unless you count the Student Academy Award he received in 1983 for his NYU...
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act Viola Davis, who won a Tony award for her performance in the 2010 Broadway production of "Fences," has revealed that she will appear in a screen adaptation of the August Wilson play. “They are making 'Fences,' August Wilson’s...