https://vimeo.com/561405000 By Adrienne Westenfeld | Esquire | Published: Jun 15, 2021 In 1979, up-and-coming television producer Joseph Lovett scored the opportunity of a lifetime. Just a few months into his stint at 20/20, ABC’s upstart television news magazine,...
Angelique Jackson | Variety Seven years ago, pioneering film and TV producer Debra Martin Chase was thinking about leaving Hollywood. The first Black woman to ink an overall deal at any studio, she’d produced such genre-defining hits as “The Princess Diaries,” “The...
By Matthew Carey | Deadline Principal photography has wrapped on Following Harry, a documentary that offers an inside view of 96-year-old civil rights icon Harry Belafonte’s continuing mission of social justice. The film directed and edited by Susanne Rostock is being...
By Daniel D'Addario | Variety Austin Butler transformed into a music icon this year, taking on the presence and the swagger of the King in Baz Luhrmann’s electrifying “Elvis.” And Janelle Monáe made the reverse journey, continuing her reinvention from futuristic pop...
by Aisha Harris | Criterion.com Laying bare the typecasting of Black actors in the 1980s, Robert Townsend’s crackling directorial debut, Hollywood Shuffle (1987), is a satire that has lost none of its bite. The film’s protagonist, Bobby Taylor (Townsend), a young...
by Johnnie Walker | TheWrap While the historical action film “The Woman King” is Thuso Mbedu’s first feature film, it’s been a long time coming. The “Underground Railroad” actress has overcome a number of challenges in her life so far, and said she’s been “living on...
by Angelique Jackson | Variety Gina Prince-Bythewood — one of the most successful Black women directors in Hollywood and the visionary behind “Love & Basketball,” “Beyond the Lights” and “The Old Guard” — took a special date to the world premiere of “Black...
By Andrew Wallenstein | Variety It doesn’t take an industry insider to understand how busy Kevin Hart is. But what his many fans may not know is that in addition to the many films, TV series and stand-up performances that feature his talents, Hart also has a budding...
By Valerie Complex | Deadline Alice Diop’s French drama Saint Omer opens in theaters today, and I remember the emotions I felt when I saw the film at Venice last year. It was a very personal experience for me — as if someone was telling my story on screen. At the...
By Ramin Setoodeh | Variety Brian Tyree Henry and Paul Dano started in theater —— which will come as no surprise to anyone who sees them in their latest films, playing characters with carefully crafted backstories. In Lila Neugebauer’s “Causeway,” Henry portrays...
By Valerie Complex | Deadline Welcome to another episode of the Scene 2 Scene podcast! It’s Valerie Complex with an exciting new episode where I chat with Devotion director J.D. Dillard. Dillard has established himself as a director and writer to watch, with authentic...
by Angelique Jackson | Variety While Chinonye Chukwu was filming “Till” — which tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice following the lynching of her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till — she spotted someone she didn’t recognize visiting with the...