getWOKE! Festival Throwbacks 1: Sundance 2010

It's not because of any hype coming from a major studio. It's not because of any insider information I possess. Not any connection I have to folks related to these flicks. It's not even because I've seen these films. But there are a few trailers and director interviews that have me 'syced' to keep up with the following motion pictures.

I told you at New Year's beck and call: 2010 is the year to get literate in pictures and sounds. It's the year to GET 'WOKE and STAY 'WOKE--and that is my hope for this online space. In that spirit, the following films have me a bit energized about their potential to keep your eyelids way strong.



Sundance 2010
While I didn't hear any comparisons to the Park City Blackout of 2009, there were two pieces in particular that get me giddy. (No. 'Waiting for Superman' is not one of them. I am hating on that movie.) Funny enough, both come from rookies. The first is from Rookie Director Eyad Zahra.

The Taqwacores
Eyad Zahra
LOGLINE
based on the novel by Michael Muhammad Knight
getWOKE APPEAL
problematizing--and altogether screwing--assumptions about religious and cultural identification, and performance of the same
LEARN MORE
www.punkislam.com




Now here's the trailer:



So, besides the fact that The Roots (!) have done the score for this film...
Besides the fact that Anthony Mackie stars...
Besides the fact that he's reuniting with my homie-ette, Kerry Washington...
This film, though fictional, centers around two individuals who can't do bourgeois romance after being Black Panthers. Meet Tanya Hamilton (!)(I know! Black woman director! WHOO!!) and read up on first-time producer, Ron Simon.

Night Catches Us
Tanya Hamilton
LOGLINE
In 1976, complex political and emotional forces are set in motion when a young man returns to the race-torn Philadelphia neighborhood where he came of age during the Black Power movement.
getWOKE APPEAL
with the dearth of 'Black loooooove' flicks, I'm sometimes tempted to want something light and fluffy like 'romance'; i want to see if we can really view a Black man and Black woman engaged in the business of revolutionary love , particularly at a time when our movement-building is being pre-empted by marriage statistics
LEARN MORE
www.nightcatchesus.com







Next Up: Pan African Film Festival 2010 (and all the Black love you can stand)