Revisiting the Canon Archives

What, you don’t think Candyman, directed by a white man, written by a white man, and starring Virginia Madsen, should have a place in the black film canon? Given those facts you may have a decent argument. But! Candyman himself is black, it’s set in the projects, and there are Rottweilers and gang-bangers. Plus, it’s Read More

Eve’s Bayou, Kasi Lemmons’s amazing directorial debut, is the story of a young girl who learns a public secret about her father and must deal with the consequences of her discovery. Through a combination of voiceover narration, flashbacks, and premonitions within memories, Eve’s Bayou turns out to be much more than the tale of ten-year-old Read More

It’s hard to overstate the impact John Singleton’s 1991 film Boyz n’ the Hood had on black cinema. It helped launch the careers of a slew of prominent actors: Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding, Jr., (who would all go on to be Oscar nominees on other films), as well as Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Read More