OHHHHHHH SNAP!

So....

it's happening as we speak. But it's the bomb{dot}com, and I wish I could tele-transport myself and whoever else would like to be there--there. Komplex of Fly Gypsy, DJ Huck Finn and Black Ice are over on U Street bringing it. BUT! If you have wings, fly birdie, fly:

http://www.fusicology.com/new/index/events/detail.cfm?rid=31&id=11138.

Iranian Film Festival 2010 >> Run right through Freer

Going on right now (as in this weekend and next week) you should def check out this happenstance. Happenstance for me, cuz I was just watching 'Amanpour.' on CNN via iPod and thinking, Hmmmm...I wonder if there are any good Moussavi docs or narrative interpretations?

And then I found out Iranian Film Festival 2010 is happening in DC! Yay! Not sure I'm gonnna find a Moussavi pic, BUT there are definitely some titles that are in high demand. The screenings are free, and tickets are available an hour before each showing. Still, prepare to stake your claim early as seats are expected to fill up fast.

Learn more about each film over at the Smithsonian's site. Dates, times and location are also available.

Yours truly is particularly intrigued by the doc titled Consulting God Estekhareh, by Mohammad Sadegh Jafari. Abbas Kiarostami will be live and in full effect all festival long. Peep the fest descriptor below.

The Freer Gallery of Art is located at Jefferson Drive and 12th St., SW, Wash., DC. Metro map it.

In Freer's own words:

The Freer’s fourteenth annual festival of Iranian films presents five new films
and a video installation by Abbas Kiarostami. This series is organized by Carter
Long of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and with the support of ILEX
Foundation: Olga M. Davidson and Niloofar Fotouhi.

Headliner, Abbas Kiarostami (with the stunna shades on) discussing his directorial style.

'Volcano Eruption' just ahead of Festival Flurries

In light of the approaching festival season and Reggae Film Fest 2010 being a pond away, I borrow this from waxpoetics: Henry 'Junjo' Lawes documentary-ed in Volcano Eruption, a Reggae Anthology from VP Records. Check out the trailer below:

reBlog from Blackboxoffice: Tavis Smiley Ends State of the Black Union Series

SHOCK! DISMAY! Whaaaaa????! Courtesy of Black Box Office:

The State of the Black Union (SOBU) symposium has been one of the most anticipated events for millions of African Americans during the last decade, but after 10 years of conversations, founder Tavis Smiley has announced the end of the series.

Blackboxoffice, Tavis Smiley Ends State of the Black Union Series, Jan 2010

You should read the whole article.

NAACP Image Award Noms Announced

See the full list here.

Besides the expected, I'm a lil' psyched about Sophie Okonedo's (Secret Life of Bees) nod for 'Skin' in the Outstanding Actress category. Continuously stoked for Gabourey Sidibe and MoNique.

Check out all the movies you never knew existed--voted on by the subcommittees--over at the Image Awards' official site.

Deuces. More surmising and speculation later.

Veiled Threat | B*tch Magazine

Veiled Threat Bitch Magazine

Princess Hijab takes on commercial kulcha Adbuster-style. Respect.

Talk about a specSPESH. I think this is a short waiting to happen. Could be a 30s jam. Or a music video. idk. That'd be tha bizness.

yesi'mHATIN: 'Avatar' tops $1bn ww, and $8m on a schoolday

And the only reason i'm breaking my silence (again...) on 'Avatar' is cuz, yes, I'm HATING!

James Cameron has made it official: he's not worried about competition, he IS the competition.

smh

All I'm saying...is it took a 3-D, 10-foot-tall and aqua blue Zoe Saldana (and Laz Alonso!!!!!!!!!!!) to tell the same story most...browner films been told [sic].

But don't be surprised when we really do take over a planet...

and project a whiteman avatar to 'save' it.

Jus sayin'...not hatin' this time. Just saying.

Now that i'm thinking about it...I recall hating on 'Titanic', too. It just wasn't as deep because I was madly in lust with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Sundance & Reggae Film Fest 2010!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Not only are we in Awards season (which, actually...makes me want to croak...) BUT come the end of January (21-31st to be exact) you--and I--will both be wishing we could hightail it to Salt Lake City, Utah for the frou-frou-chic-chic festival of film festivals: Sundance!

But wait--there's more! For the low, low price of $4.99--for those of us raiding the festivals on a budget (sike!)--you can get the Sundance iPhone application fit for your iPhone or iPod Touch! Eh? Ehhhh? (I am too through with them. An app? Really?)

You could just, like...watch the channel for free, tho...

We're closing in on Reggae Film Fest 2010, as well. Brought to you by Jamaica Film Academy, the Fest is going down February 25-27th in New Kingston Hilton in Jamaica. Check out the playlist over at Jamaica Film Academy's site, but this is the festival's third year in full effect. Not sure you're gonna find any shortcuts around this festival--you'd kinda have to go to get the goods...but I would luhh luhh luhh to see 'Reggae in the Ruff'--a doc by Don McConnell, and 'Coping With Babylon' (2007) by Oliver Hill. They couldn't've chosen a more enticing title. Lotta Rasta themes in dere...

But that is all! If you're feeling indie, go sign up for Sundance alerts to receive a short download link. :-) Niiiiiiice.

Check the 'Reggae in the Ruff' promo below:

Check Out IFP's Filmmaker Labs...(pssst: it's freeeeeeeeeee)

IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs for Narrative and Documentary Features are a one-of-a-kind FREE mentorship program designed to support first-time feature film directors who are in a rough cut or post production funk.

Documentary Lab applications are due by 2/12/2010 for the April 12-16th run, and Narrative Lab applications are due 3/26/2010 for the June 7-11th run. Learn more on IFP's site.

And please peruse ifp.org. Lotsa goodies to be found.

Essence: Vintage Vamp and Black H'W'D Reincarnated

Essence.com tips hat to 1930s H'W'D madame, Theresa Harris*. Watch her school Ginger Rogers in this clip from Professional Sweetheart (1933).

Anybody remember Paul Mooney on Chappelle's Show, Mooney on Movies? He said he loved Mammy in 'Gone with the Wind', played by Hattie McDaniels. McDaniels couldn't go to the premiere but she could scrub floors in the movie. Then he said,

"Everybody comes back to get their money. I believe she came back as Oprah." Where has Ms. Harris reappeared...

Bolder and Older: PJ Morton’s Third Act | Soul Sessions

source: BET

Night Watch: Keke Palmer as Roxanne Shante...

While we're on the topic of documentaries and Roxanne Shante...

Keke Palmer--of 'Akeelah and the Bee' and (new-school) Nickelodeon fame, has been set to star as the legendary femcee since 2007.

Still waiting.

Rumor has it that financing is what has been slowing the presses. <*eyeroll...> Isn't it always... <*grinding teeth...>

Will definitely be keeping watch for any new developments on that front. But if anybody manages to reach a breakthrough, go speed that Nina Simone biopic up, too. Another tease that's been on the backburner for the last half of the aughts. Mary J. Blige had been named the actress-to-be in that pic for MTV FILMS, NO LESS, but something tells me that until we see some Black, Brown and green teeth behind it, we'll be waiting.

Fembassy!!!!? OMG!! *now these is stupid.*

So while we're on the subject of revivals, emcee Invincible brings [wait for it]...'THE REVIVAL'!!

The 17min. doc eavesdrops on the indeed legendary Roxanne Shante and Bahamadia, and tru-schoolers Stacy Epps, Eternia, Shortee, and Invincible as they skip through Europe (and the 'hoods of international haters) as part of We-B-Girlz --independent women in Hip Hop tour.

Too appropriate.

You woulda thunk [sic] bytwenty8 told 'em to say what they gon' say about "staying 'woke" and mindful entertainment buuuuuuuuut I didn't. It's just a simple truth that kindred spirits share. Go check the entire doc out over HERE at Invincible's site. Fembassy is airing interviews with all of the ladies on the weekly. And you'd be wise to follow Fembassy en general--it's your #1 source for Femcees. Tha bizness.

"Now these is stupid."

Reel 'Round Town | JAN 2010 in DMV so far...

>>"Music is the Weapon" @ Sankofa Cafe, 1/3 :: 6p

>> "Jazz in the District" @ BloomBars, 1/6

"Garbage Dreams" from ITVS & Community Cinema DC @ Busboys & Poets, 1/24

• Fred Haas signing of The Assassination of Fred Hampton @ Sankofa, 1/31, 3pm

Vintage Is The Nu-Nu

The most memorable moment in 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s has got to be when community organizer, Ms. Joan breaks up a would-be scrap on the corners of late 1970s South Bronx. She takes the DJ’s mic and admonishes the block party crowd—rimmed with ‘hood leaders and the ghetto’s most prone to NYPD hyper-surveillance.

The street corridors quiet down in reverence when they see her approach the booth—a respect most of the cops sidling up and down the street could only wish for (with or without heat). Seeing that the crowd is waiting for her gentle rebuke to grace the sound system, she finally speaks—and in the tone they expect and feel they deserve from a Mother:

“Freak! Now I mean, freak! We came here to party, hear??”

She breaks her sternness with a smile, the two so-called gangsters she broke up agree to fight tomorrow, and the DJ cranks again.

Now that’s “vintage.”

And that’s what birthed hip hop as we know it. In the midst of a community that had been hollowed out by the disappearance of jobs (check), displacement of Black and Brown neighborhoods (check), imminent reign of Reagan (comparable enough to a recent departure of Bush, and who knowwwwws what Empire has in store next—check), and can suddenly be relegated to the shadows of an ice blue Tiffany’s kind of demographic that didn’t—couldn’t—exist or expect to only a few short years before…(check, but insert Starbucks here)

A culture emerged that quenched the thirst for rebellion.

And I hope the point is made: we could use a sort of revival.

Within the last decade, folks mourned and beat the horse past dead about Hip Hop’s fate. More than anything, what undergirded these discussions was a longing—not just for content that would nourish the aught-sick soul (riddled with degradation and commercial compromise) but for Movement that would protect that space where we can “freak” and let our minds be free (in the midst of social turbulence and chaos).

So it’s not such a terrible thing that SNL'er (yes) Gary Weis couldn’t churn the 80 Blocks doc out sooner en masse than October 2009. He made it in ’79 alongside Jon Bradshaw and George Van Noy under the tag Togg Films, Above Average and Late Nite Productions.

His intention was to cover (we hope not fetishize) 'gang life' in BX with, it seems, a cursory glance at how tagging, emceeing, and deejaying threaded through (3 of 5). But you’d be wise to check it out.

Perhaps one of only a few glimpses we can get to guide us through the Palindrome mirror: RETWEET: Past and Future are but mirrors of the present moment. Live today as you would have it reflected through all time.

Where do we go from here, Hip Hop?

How do we shelter the people and stay awake just the same?
All the answers we could ever want are staring us down our backs. Sankofa.