I'd honestly love to see a movie surrounding perhaps a black man or woman figuring out what to do with themselves after being liberated. Trying to find family, Identity, and a place to fit in, work, and their personal day to day struggles. You could say so much with it too without being dehumanizing and shocking. I'd be interested to see it because honestly as much as I like to educate myself on history I don't actually know what specific struggles they went through directly after liberation. I know the general ones but I'd love to see the specific small interpersonal struggles that remained as they try to pick themselves up and live. It's something I've never seen represented in media.
Ohh yeah! And you could tackle things like sharecropping and the violent coup of the racist Democrats, aspects of post-civil war America that are often glossed over as: they’re free XD
@prescott racks i don't think making art about a subject means you're romanticizing it automatically, but care would have to be taken to treat the subject matter with the gravity it deserves.
I'd love to see a movie like this with a minimal musical soundtrack, very natural lighting, and a grimy, realistic cinematic style. Hollywood loves to romanticize the f*ck out of everything & it gets exhausting after awhile.
Was there ever really a _direct_ time when black people were liberated? I feel like it would be more of a progression of generations slowly being more and more free rather then suddenly having rights. Also, anything to do with slavery would be dehumanizing and shocking, I doubt there is a way to represent it without heavily watering it down for people who can't stomach it.
I think cinema about slavery and the black struggle **absolutely** need to keep being made because for a lot of people (black or otherwise), that is their first encounter with less discussed aspects of black history. There are plenty of people who didn’t know about the Tulsa Massacre or Sundown Towns until Watchmen (2019) and Lovecraft Country explored them. If you’re going to portray black struggles, just do it in new and well-written and honest ways. We should absolutely have more Black Panthers, Black Is King and media that celebrate blackness, but blackness is connected to both the past and the future. We shouldn’t forget what our ancestors went through. It’s not fair to us or them.
1000% agree. But I also agree that we need to see more complex and nuanced (and realistic) portrayals of slavery. I'd love to see a quiet movie about a family's journey. Or stories like Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing. It's gross to me that I've watched movies about slavery and learned more about the white character's goals, dreams, family, etc than I have about the black characters.
@@morley364, and hopefully, an honest one too. I remember feeling incredibly angry when I found out Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman" speech was largely made up and no original copy of what she actually said exists. The speech was rewritten later by a white man who heard the speech and done in a stereotypical Southern dialect, even though Truth herself was from New York and spoke Dutch as her first language.
Tariq Thomas Yeah, I was hoping Black Panther would set up a precedent that black people could be winning, show that can do great things. I just couldn’t even watch Antebellum
YES! I'm not native but I would love to see movies written by and about natives, their history and stories. More books, comics and visual novels from natives would also be wonderful :)
We need more movies depicting what Natives went through, and how we were enslaved for 80 years prior to the Puritans landing. We need to see movies that show how numerous Tribes helped Black slaves escape, helped fight the Confederacy and then were hunted down and murdered by the Union after the Civil War was over. We need a movie about Lincoln from our perspective ( he was a terrorist) and we need a realistic movie about how horrific Columbus actually was. ( so bad in fact he was stripped of titles. So even then they knew he was a monster) We need movies that end the narrative that racism is geographical, and it's worse in the south when the truth is that the North is just as guilty.
Yeah, I live in Illinois and it seems to me like nobody in Illinois talks about, knows about, or cares that all the cities here were built by massacring native populations and forcing some to move west. Most people here if they had settler ancestors are proud of them, not knowing how horrible most of the settlers were to the natives.
@@paperl9328 And Black soldiers contributed to Native genocide when they joined the military, as well as free Blacks who settled Native territories both before and after the civil war. There are over 500 distinctly different Native cultures today, and there were far more before colonization. Natives were sold overseas into slavery some 80 years prior to Black enslavement. So there are far more stories to be told and doing so doesn't erase the mistakes a handful of Tribes out of thousands made. The slavery Natives participated in was akin to the slavery that many African tribes participated in, not chattel slavery that was occurring in the US. ( ie there's an actual time limit, you're not born into slavery, and you eventually become a Tribal member) The choice between siding with the confederacy or the union was evil bastards who kill us and remove us to reservations or evil bastards who will formally recognize our individual Tribal sovereign status and stop killing us. Both were evil, but one promised to no longer utterly eradicate us from the planet.
@@pheenobarbidoll2016 I'd like to say that I am Chickasaw, and painfully aware of our forced removal. Us owning slaves does not erase the horrors we went through-I did not mean for my contribution to come off as a counterpoint. It isn't.These realities can and do coexist-that's all I mean to say. However, as I am afraid that settlers will twist my words, I think I'll delete my comment.
@@paperl9328 I'm Keetoowah, and we fought with the Union then were hunted down and slaughtered. Unfortunately, colonizers already do use it as some sort of proof " everyone had slaves" while ignoring the differences. And since they've never heard of the UKB, we don't count or something. The fact we are (and always have been) anti slavery of *any* kind goes unnoticed. Doesn't serve their narrative.
Here in Brazil we have the same kind of thing, of course without the same relevance of Hollywood but we don't have much content about slavery that aren't this kind of tragedy or even some weird fantasy versions. Our biggest writer was black (everybody thought he was white), we had a black president in 1909 (again, everybody thought he was white). The colorism is so prevalent in Brazilian history that many people just see slaved people as a template of a sad and hurt person, the thousands of heroes that we had never come to the screen. Or even worst, now the far right is trying to rewrite history by saying things like "that guy who fought to freed thousands of slaves and build secret cities was actually a slave owner by himself! The proof is that people used to enslave people at the time so we must be right!"
I just remembered a little historical crossover between USA and Brazil about slavery. Once the South losses the Civil War some slave owners started to think "how about we go to Brazil and keep owning human lives?" They moved to a city close to my home town, Santa Bárbara, and founded another city called America (very creative) , so they'd keep being slave owners. However they didn't know that the region had some really low tech farming equipment, they had some high tech steel plows so they got rich because of that. A few years later we got our own (a bit problematic) abolition (my home town had a strong abolitionist moment, I'm a bit proud of my great grandparents neighbours) and the former slave owners of Santa Bárbara and Americana just got rich with industrialization. The weird stuff is: in all of my childhood, every time I needed to go to those places, I never understood why they had so many Dukes of Hazzard's fans...
@@user-mb9nm7bq5e it's OK friend, the Brazilian educational system isn't the best on history, most people doesn't know much more than the basic (discovery, colony, Empire, crazy Republic ) I guess our most remembered historical figures are still Portuguese, we have some really bad gaps of knowledge and I envy the way history is relevant as a cultural unification trait in US. You see, I'm descendant of an Italian family that came here in the XIX century, what is my cultural heritage, my family's, my country or both? Most people similar to me know their European family history in details but fail to learn why they arrive in here, what make it possible, etc. I'm pride of my Italian heritage but denying that my culture stated to feel disrespectful to me once I started to think about colonialism. I started trying to fill the gap in my history knowledge as much as I could in honor to the millions of people who suffered and died in the past because I'm result of that, showing their stories to everyone is the least I can do. Brazil has a amazing (and a bit crazy history) that is reduced to "boring" by a educational system that doesn't help people building a national identity, I dream with the day it change and lines like "dude, what about that Little Oak guy, that was crazy!" became common (ok, that was a really obscure Brazilian history reference)
@@SoWhosGae Machado de Assis, his most influential work is "The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas" (I guess in English you can also find it with the title "Epitaph of a Small Winner"), it's about this upper middle class guy who lived during the Brazilian Empire (Louis Bonaparte is on the news during the protagonist childhood, the old men in a Brazilian pub arguing violently about news from half across the globe is the same as today). The guy is dead when the story begins and so his ghost starts to remember all of his life, in no particular order, the chronology is a bit more emotional than temporal and he, as a ghost, became omniscient, or he makes you feel like he is (does he really know what the other people think about him or it's all just in his dead head?) It's a fantastic story about this shitty person who know can judge himself and everyone else in his life, the thing goes a long way. About Machado, he founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters (the club of the really fucking good authors) and translated a lot of stuff to Portuguese (you know, here in Brazil we have ravens but not crows, however everyone get confused because Machado translated the Poe poem as "The Crow", it sounds better in Portuguese and a Brazilian raven is not at all frightening, I mean, ravens are seen as silly and funny in here) And I remember having read about Harold Bloom saying that Machado would be the most important black author in the history, but the discussion here in Brazil was if he was really black, because colorism is just in everything in Brazil. Is started a moviment, some people colored the most used black and white Machado's picture, shared in the most common printing sizes and asked to people to glue it in every book that they found to spread the image of a black Machado de Assis. Some call vandalism, I call amazing.
Me TOO! I thought the character was going to be pushed back and forth through time and be so torn up from the transitioning that she herself couldn't remember which time was the one she started in and neither would the audience! That would have been abetter movie, I think.
Here's my problem with almost every slave story movie. How often is it that you see the slaves just talking to each other? Like one that's not the main character, just two random people talking to each other? Because you know what they will be talking about, it wouldn't just be about running. It'll be about how they got here. it'll be about what is going on in America during that time. I think the only slave story that I can actually watch and get behind is Underground. Aldi's Hodge and Journee Smoulett portray what is happening to these people in a very personal way, acting and reacting how somebody in that situation honestly would act. Not only that, the show shows you the root of every f****** problem with the America's government through each episode with the characters
Underground is the reason I understand Summertime (Porgy & Bess); overall a very eye-opening experience. As a black woman, I've been exposed to the culture and history but never fully understood a lot of it, there was always a missing piece; this is why I believe so much in the importance of education and representation.
@@JKJ1900 yeah I've heard it pretty often that slavery must have not been too bad because of that reason. Real easy to fall for if your school didn't show you any of the pictures of torture devices and lashing scars (and it's not like school is designed to help you remember what you're taught either way..... )
Who else was hoping for a movie version of Octavia Butler's "Kindred" when they saw the first "Antebellum" trailer? I know I was. I'm sad that they just went with a Shyamalan twist
My theory is that the creators couldn’t get the rights to Kindred so they made this Walmart trauma porn mess. The similarities of the characters between Antebellum and Kindred seem a little suspicious to me.
As someone who is not American, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to learn from you, your videos always leave me pondering the topics you talk about!
Oof, she's really not a good source of information. Come to think of it, didn't she write an article lamenting the media's reaction to JOKER, not because it was the wrong reaction but because it backfired?
As a person raised where the Antebellum south is glorified, the ads for Antebellum were upsetting to watch. I can't even imagine trying to watch that movie.
@@CrowTR0bot you’ve got a point. It would have to be a labour of love, a indie movie perhaps. But not enough people know about Sojourner Truth, and how brilliant of a woman she was. She deserves more recognition
Unfortunately because of the US educational system, a lot of Black Americans don't really know that much about slavery in the United States. We don't talk much about the slavery of Native Americans either (didn't really occur in planter-style economies). The Dawn of Detroit is a good history book that actually has narratives about enslaved Africans and Native Americans who were in bondage because of the fur trade. Soul by Soul is another book every American should read. I was a big fan of the new Roots the history channel did some years ago but I think a lot of people ignored it. I would love to see someone turn "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" into a prestige film.
Yeah, Roots was something else. I watched it when I was really young and felt so much dread. And it wasn’t until later in high school that I learned how much damage was toward Native Americans, and how they also enslaved African Americans
I grieve for the country we could've been. 😞 America was set on the track to today's injustices by the revisionist history from the Reconstruction Era. If only it truly were a war of "northern aggression", fought on moral grounds. 😫 White guilt & white fragility (perhaps even the concept of whiteness itself!) might've been nipped in the bud if something like South Africa's post-apartheid Truth Commission had kicked off America's Restitution Era, instead of "the reconstruction". But no, apparently it was more important to the ruling classes to appease the loser traitors & bring them back into the fold, than it was to face & rectify the widespread injustices that were perpetuated by all states, both North & South. 😔
@@OReily08080 A few Native Americans were given slaves, but it was far from a common thing in First Nations ethnicities and it was definitely not as common as it was in White American Society.
I got the impression from Antebellum that it was supposed to be a condemnation of the glorification of antebellum south while ignoring, downplaying, or even fetishizing slavery, especially with the plot twist. And while that's a message I can get behind -- the folks still flying confederate flags and pushing back against taking confederate statues down and insisting that the Civil War was about states' rights are proof that it's an issue -- the movie didn't do a good job with it. Which is a shame because, again, it's a message worth being put out there. I just don't know how it would be done (and even if I did, I'm definitely not the person to do it since I'm white). Also, since you mentioned Ira Aldridge, there was something done on him, though it wasn't film. Lolita Chakrabarti wrote the play "Red Velvet" about Aldridge starting his career in London. I had the privilege to watch it when it came to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and I thought it was pretty well done, though while it addressed the obstacles he faced (not only as a black man but also as a proponent of more engaged acting rather than the "teapot method" used at the time, which also tied with the above when the first play he was in was the lead role in Othello), it didn't go that much into what he achieved. He has a successful career at the end of the play, but it's played down in favor of the sense of alienation he feels being in a predominately white world. All I was left with about him was that he was the first black man to play Othello in Europe. And while I understand the author's intent, I wish more about him came across in the play because he had a huge impact. People cited him as an example when they argued for abolishing slavery in Britain. He inspired other black people across the pond and had an acting troupe by blacks for blacks named after him following his death. Hell, he got knighted! That's a big deal! And yet I had to look him up to learn all these amazing things about him. It's such a shame. Also, there's the fact that this is a play and theater is less accessible to general audiences than film is. That's also something that can't be forgotten.
I always learn A LOT with you!! About books, movies, history, etc. I'm not from the US, I don't live there either, but as a Latin American, I thank you for the eloquent way you explain so many important issues in media and society. Also, it's sooo important and I value it so much that you use the word enslaved people instead of "slave", language IS important! PS: sorry for my English, it's obviously not my main language hehe
I think you can still have sad movies about slavery and Black films in general if you are thinking about the intersectional aspect of it, as you mentioned. Harriet Tubman was disabled because of a head injury, but as Jessica Kellgren-Fozard pointed out in her Tubman video, this aspect of her is often overlooked or even shunned.
It’s really important that she had this disability, too… she became very focused on freedom because she literally depreciated in monetary value as a result of her injury. Her family was threatened to be split up and she was in greater danger because she was seen as this liability. She also had epilepsy as a result of her head trauma, which she interpreted as having visions from God. And maybe she did! Regardless of how we may view that today, she drew this massive inner strength from her beliefs and her trust in the Lord. She would not have had exactly that same force of personality outside the influence of her particular experience with disability.
I'm not a black american, but I'm a descendant of genocide and displacement and so much of what you're saying about trauma and how we remember our ancestors and their experiences resonates so deeply with me.
As a white woman there's absolutely no hot take I can add to this comment section that contributes any type of value, but I hope my comment gives you an algorithm bump anyway. :D Great video.
Well you could of said the movie sucked? It's Garbage? I actually saw half of it before I watched it I seen all the reviews realized this movie is garbage it's like fucked up rich white people were the directors black people were slaves got tortured okay what's the point I don't need to see half hour of torture 1 scene is enough ...than the black woman slave randomly woke up in modern day times absolutely stupid this entire movie probably written by Donald trump That's how stupid it was LOL
I was at first interested in this movie, thinking these people were being pulled into the past for unknown reasons. Like that image of the plane skipping out was like a time slip or whatever. Then I heard the first reviews and got hesitant. But when you mentioned the theme park aspect, I actually had to pause the video and scream my frustration at the stupidities of such an idea. Wtaf....
Yeah from the trailer I assumed it was a movie about some sinister supernatural forces taking this woman back to the Antebellum era. But thankfully the trailer gave me everything I needed to know that this movie was not for me.
@@ornenow4703 okay so I thought it would be like Kindred too but my hopes were not too high. I would literally DIE for a movie version of Kindred if it were well made
You're not the only one - I missed the visual clues at the beginning (I guess I"ve seen so many septum piercings that it didn't stick out to me, although I remember thinking "They allowed them jewlery. . .well a cross makes sense, as they wanted them to be Christians - but not to actually read the Bible" and was pretty much "WHERE is this movie going?" cuz I kept expecting more of a ci-Fi twist and I've sat through movies that felt plodding purposefully before (that pacing was part of the entire theme of the movie/foreign fillms, etc.) until she woke up again in the slave cabin.
I never noticed the gap in nuanced, living-focused stories of slavery (or even reconstruction! Absolutely reconstruction! It's such a facinating period that was, like, given only 5 minutes in history class!) on screen until you just pointed this out! I guess I just assumed these things were going on because people were always living through trials and hard times in humanity's history. I didn't think about how it creates a knowledge gap or that people might not have thought to assume that life prevailed through american slavery too.
Exactly! The Reconstruction era was so important but it gets skipped over in the discussion, as if the civil war ended and we skipped directly to the 60's.
@@tinymxnticore, you can thank the Daughters of the Confederacy for that. They led a movement in the early 20th century to basically delete Reconstruction from American textbooks. And we need to rectify that. You can teach an entire semester on Reconstruction and still not cover everything.
The weirdest part is that tons of Westerns take place during Reconstruction, it would be so easy to have Western movies that touch on the real experience of the time
I’ve been learning more about the diaspora in regards to food, and I recently visited Jekyll Island where most of the slaves brought here were renamed and sold at auction… I found this place dedicated to the descendants of the people who were brought there. It was an incredibly painful experience to see these places and learn of the atrocities, but I do feel better. I feel stronger, and I feel motivated to be more successful because of what they endured for me to be here
When I saw the first trailer for Antebellum, I thought it was about a modern woman being brought back in time to the Antebellum south. That would actually might have been a decent film; a lot of good horror films are based on actual events. Slavery by its nature but especially in the Americas was horrific. You'd think that would be good enough. But nooooooooope.
When you talked about the shakespearian black actor, it reminded me of Alessandro Medici, first grand Duke of Florence, a half black man, and he inspired the character Othello. I want to see more media about him.
Whoa!? I didn’t even know he was black since the first that comes up/most popular/often only portrait of him was where they obviously intentionally obscure that by making him much lighter than every other portrait and intentionally hiding his hair…Wow! You’d think everyone would be screaming about that! i mean OTHELLO!
My great grandmother lived on a farm with her siblings, her black father and her indigenous mother. Sometimes she talks about her parents leaving in a covered wagon and her brothers secretly cooking up a chicken as a treat for them all. Stories about black history have a lot of variety and I'd love to see them
Off-topic: I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Boys. I don't seem to align with the consensus of "OMG this is the best superhero show of all time" that's been going around.
This was a really great and nuanced take on the subject. I'll admit I was thinking we had too many slave movies before I watched this, but I wasn't thinking of the possibilities that hadn't been explored. Thank you for opening my eyes to that idea.
Was that sarcasm? Hell, she didn't even address prostitution, sex slavery. Frankly, she seems to have forgotten that black people weren't the only ones enslaved.
Great video as always and this needed to be desperately said! I can't help but think that his needs to be said for all movies on the injustices that people suffered in this country. I am so sick and tired of how every single interpretation of Japanese Internment in media has to have the Interracial couple during the camps. Like yeah I get why we need to have these kind of pairing stories, but during a story about the humiliation and violation of rights on a whole ethnic group. Nah, that reads like a "LOOK! Not all white people were believed in this!"
When I was in 4th grade, we were shown a film about slavery. Yeah, I thought that too. "What film coukd you show to 4th graders about slavery?!" Well I don't remember the title but it was about a young girl in slave times who learned to read and write along with the master's daughter and her struggles with keeping it a secret from not only the people who owned her, but her own people too. Since learning how to read and write was taboo for slaves and she was worried about how everyone around her was going to react after her mom found out she could read and berated her for it.
Great overall insight on this issue! Foundational black people in America are the physical manifestation of "living history". So many of our cinematic stories have yet to be told/shown. When people mention to me how they are "tired of slave movies" I most times find when talking to them further that they are not really "tired of slave movies" but more so like you mentioned, the specific portrayal. There are so many untapped genre vantage points this historic era could show its mind boggling. We are talking about 400 years worth of stories. Since the Jewish holocaust and WWII there has been at least one movie released every year either directly or indirectly connected to these horrible events. That's a movie every year for 74 years about tragic events that lasted only 10 years . That's not even including TV shows. These events have been portrayed in every genre possible from serious drama to Nazi zombies! 400 years of systematic oppressions and our justice struggle is a GOLDMINE.
I think there's a kind of occam's razor about representation: there's the side of "any representation is worthwhile representation" or it's "all representation must represent the most progressive views and encapsulate every facet of the diaspora experience" when it's always somewhere in the middle. Definitely agree that a lot of people aren't active/intentional about seeking out a diversity of black stories, that information is often inaccessible, and of course not nearly enough black filmmakers get platforms or significant capital (financial or social) to break through to the mainstream attention span! But I hope that we'll get to a point where we're there's such a breadth of black stories in the cultural conversation that imperfect representation--or the necessary stories of significant pain and trauma--won't be seen as the only battleground for discussions of black representation. Also, I reeeeeally want to hear your take on The Boys 👀
We definitely gotta stop shaming people for not wanting to read. I'm dyslexic and I'm doing so much better cramming videos at double speed than I would be forcing my way through books
You need to be careful about who you are listening to though. There are a lot of great, knowledgeable UA-camrs out there but very few of them are actual historians. Supporting current research into American slavery (research that is often done by Black American historians) is important. Also, there are a lot of great books that are available on audio and you could probably find copies of them at your local library.
Same case for me, I'm dyslexic too. I try to deal with it by listening to audiobooks. This also brings to mind that my first encounter with dyslexia representation was in Rubber Band Man from Static Shock. She should do a review of that series. It was a favorite of mine
I agree with you and the replies above mine. There is a lot of unnecessary shaming, but I think the important sentiment behind the 'please read' crowd is how, like the others mentioned, it's easier to get to incorrect info outside of books. Not to say there aren't incorrect books, but the research standard is higher for books than an average video, and especially so for an exceptionally ignorant video. I have ADHD, so to those recommendating audio books, I'm not out there reading OR listening to books. And a lot of dyslexic people wouldn't have that focus either. So I just hope that people are able to recognize that good, researched content needs to be more accessible (including more accessible to people like us) AND that as the audience for that content, we need to remember people can put out both manipulative videos that are wrong but also sincere videos that are wrong, because there's less of a research-y culture/system in place. Like, both can be true, and both should ditch the shame angle.
@@alphabettical1 yeah the way I cope with misinformation in videos is to always have multiple sources on any topic. And to never attach to strongly to something I've only heard once and doesn't obviously align with previous knowledge I have
When I was growing up, I remember reading a number of very complex, nuanced books told from the perspective of enslaved people (usually kids) where things like family dynamics, relationship with religion, and also just everyday kid issues of growing up were at the center of their attention. I was a little white kid in the 90s in that sort of Midwestern laissez faire segregation, and I don't remember many adults ever talking to me in any depth about slavery until high school. Although my mom did take us on a "haunted tour" of the South, which honestly was just a run down of some of the most horrific things enslavers ever did. But I still feel like many of those books, which again were meant for kids, were really good at setting me up to understand the full scope of humanity and potential world view of the characters. But being honest about the 21st century, the 3-5 hours a day I used to spend reading books have since transitioned into binging shows, hopefully awesome UA-cam content, and movies. It's insulting to the whole country (and by extension the rest of the world) that the mainstream screen output America makes in regards to slavery, which covered continents and centuries, seems to boil down to "slavery bad" where I just walk away feeling exhausted and feeling I haven't learned anything I hadn't already known. I feel like it's always presented as a few stock characters in Southern plantations a couple years before the Civil War. Where are the people who fought in the Revolutionary War? The frontiersmen I am sure must have been a huge part of history, like York? Where in the world is Toussaint Louverture's Netflix series!? It seems like producers are worried that if they aren't just showing constant whippings, people will somehow forgot how horrific slavery was, but I thought we were in the age of complex storytelling through extended series? Why is this output being catered to the least developed viewers on this topic? Side note, there was one really interesting book I remember reading, does anyone know it? About a modern kid who blows off his grandpa (I think) when he gives him an heirloom pocket watch but is then transported back to living with his ancestors on a plantation.
100% YES. I was thinking about the Holocaust while you were speaking. And how the media surrounding it is so diverse. And how there's just SO MUCH of it.... And how I've still only found ONE piece of media surrounding it that I could actually stomach. It's Maus. It's told by the author INTERVIEWING his dad! The author cares about his dad and that makes a difference. It wasn't just about being in a death camp. It wasn't just about how awful hiding was. It showed so much of this man's life and stopped triggering guilt / shame / fear for me. It took me through a myriad of emotions and educated me at the same time.
not to sound cliche, since i know this video isn't for me as a non-black person, but this video was really informative. i actually looked up ira aldridge because of this video and it honestly so frustrating how many stories like his we don't get to see told on a mainstream level. i live in new england in a very white area (i'm half white, half iranian), and literally the only things we were taught about black history in public school was like...slavery and mlk. they barely acknowledge the historical existence of other ethnicities and peoples of color. it's really disheartening how much we're forced to learn on our own because the institutions that are supposed to teach us would rather sanitize and/or hide people's history.
As a Southerner, and student of history, one discrepancy that I’ve noticed is that slavery movies are just about always about plantation slaves. As if people in cities didn’t also own slaves. And what’s more, those urban slaves often had quite different experiences from their rural counterparts. It’s a shame how much it’s overlooked, especially since a big part of the reason is probably because a lot of people don’t know about it.
I hadn’t thought before about how books portray Black people’s experience of chattel slavery so much better than films. Thank you for bringing up that avoiding triggering voyeuristic/savioristic/exceptionalistic media doesn’t mean no more movies about that harm. It means, center & dignify the stories of those who were harmed… and ensure that their descendants & communities get the profits directly!
Based on the trailer, I was so sure Antebellum was about a woman who lives in the present but keeps finding herself being sent back in time. Supernatural elements plus the already present horrors - which I think could be very cool and powerful. But it sounds like what they did instead was like The Hunt from earlier this year.
My family and I have been going through the same decolonization and my mother was teaching us about my great great grandmother Lottie Codges who escaped slavery who started her own bootlegging company and survived breast cancer. My mother grew up with her and learned so much, and I'm so grateful to learn her name and who she was. We as black folks need to learn what it was like and the names of our ancestors who were taken away from us. Thank you so much for making this video and for validating my and many others journey!
I would like to see a film that really delves into the psychology of enslaved people and how the various forms of mistreatment effected their mental health
I’m kind of torn on this topic. I remember when that tv series underground came out. I was like I’m done with slave movie/tv series narratives. I recently started watching it on Hulu. (Didn’t finish watching the series my opinion of it could change) I liked how they dig into & don’t shy away from how ingrained the institution of slavery is baked into every aspect The enslaved characters have depth & humanity that they have to consistently fight to keep hold of. Most of them importantly they had a sense of urgency in even though they was in bondage. So I was like there is still something new that can be mined from the narrative. Also love video by the way.
I would like there to be a movie set in the indentured slave period like we find in "before the Mayflower"- when enslaved people could actually earn their freedom. All the while gradually shifting to a white centrist's propaganda of keeping slaves enslaved and how that entail made people start coming up with excuses for race separation. Starting with the inferiority angle(religion,class, physic) then to Othering, and finally to fear mongering and patrolling. A journey into how a thought - subconscious or conscious cemented one of the greatest devistations this country has ever committed. One of great shame. And importance/relevance today. Or reconstruction period's cool too, I didn't know Harlem was a booming metropolis rich in business and the arts. What's the story there, what stories could've/ could come up from there and places like it.
Thank you for sharing but this validates my point again. Now, Melina has well meaning people calling for more slavery movie’s. I hate this channel. This is the last episode ever I’ll watch
@@denzellcoleman925 sure that one take away but she's also calling for "better slave movies" or ones where black folks are shown to overcome plus thrive, as they have so rightly done since slavery. She's calling for more representation of the black community as a whole not this jumbled mess [Antebellum] impersonating history.
It’s weird, somehow in the 1800s stuff got worse, obviously there was racism but I was reading recently about how small communities of mixed natives and whites weren’t unusual in rural areas in the 16 and 17 hundreds
@@Claire-bz8mq yea in daniel immerwahr book "how to hide an empire" there's a snippet where he tells how the founding fathers actually wanted separate land [indian country] for native american but settlers kept moving in and without laws to protect them eventually gave there land away. He continues with how , "the little house on the prairie" was a true life story depicting growing up on these begotten indian lands.
This is great analysis. I struggled with lots of ANTEBELLUM as well, despite how hard I stan Janelle Monae. It felt like the point it was trying to make was about how only exceptionalism can overcome trauma, and that felt... wrong. This video helped reinforce some of my thoughts and shed some new light on the subject, especially in how these narratives are often centered.
Oof. I was so excited for Antebellum when I first heard about it. I thought it would be a modern take on Kindred. Boy was I all the way wrong about that. It also made me a bit uncomfortable that the movie was so focused on the pain of black women and focused heavily on trauma and pain specific to women (miscarriage, for instance) but was so flagrantly being directed by men who had not concept of what they were actually depicting. Also, justice for Gabourey Sidibe. Her character deserved an arc and she deserves to be cast as not just the fat sassy black friend.
i could literally listen to you talk about these sorts of things (and honestly, everything you wanna talk about)....... forever. you're just so fucking wonderful. thank you for being here and helping me to understand a little better, why these conversations are so important.
You articulated so many of the thoughts I got while reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Now that book should be adapted as a movie, since it really centers Black people’s experiences during slavery.
So, I am not all the way through this yet, but hearing you talk about this lingering victim blaming for historical slavery, it really makes me think about the conversations around modern slavery. One of the things that struck me reading interviews with modern enslaved people was the consistent pattern slavers use. They try to make it look like escape or resistance are the worse options. They do that with physical barriers and abuse but they also do it with lies, isolation and by trying to pit their victims against each other. And it struck me because once that pattern was pointed out I could see it in the historical sources too. These criminals have always tried to tell their victims that they couldn't survive if they escaped or that they'd be arrested or that their family would be punished. And when a victim is dealing with the lasting physical and psychological symptoms or trauma, has no resources, may be doesn't even speak the local language- I think that historical slaves, like modern ones, were really aware of the risks that came with resistance and escape attempts. And I think they made rational, hard headed, horrible decisions because of that. Decisions that we find difficult to understand without the god awful experiences they went through.
I was so excited for Janelle Monáe and the cinematography looks amazing. Unfortunately, Western cinema's obsession with chosen one narratives makes for a terrible framework to discuss slavery. It very much reminds me of Andy Samberg in "The One Who Dared To Leave".
We need Woodstock version of slavery huh. Have slaves and racist in the fields together dancing, dropping acid, building spaceships an pigs flying so we can make more racist feel better about their crimes of wars and their trash history. Not today or ever
Commenting again because I wanna boost you and I think this video has an incredibly beautiful thesis. I think people forget about the daily life and the monotony of trauma. Slavery lasted for over 200 years in the US. And enslaved peoples cooked and made clothes and also loved each other. I think that a white gaze wants to see the trauma to justify stuff rather than see resilience. just hearts to you for voicing this so well. love your stuff
An important thing you mentioned which I think would be such a wonderful opportunity for talented black filmmakers: Reconstruction. There are several different sub-eras of Reconstruction that each movie could focus on. Just imagine the plethora of amazing stories that have yet to be told from this crucial part of Black American History.
I know I'm late to the conversation, but this is making me appreciate the Addy books (yes, from the American Girl Dolls series). It's been a while since I read them, but I feel like they ticked every box on your list. Edit: Except, obviously, for being books not movies. But they came to mind because they weren't Serious Literature For Grown-Ups. They were a mass marketing ploy for overpriced dolls, and also happened to be surprisingly good books that seriously influenced a lot of kids, including myself.
I love your videos! I am constantly disappointed with Hollywood's depictions of Black stories - like, there are SO MANY as you have said, and we only get one. I feel like the same thing happens for so many marginalized groups - there's only one story that ever gets told and so it becomes the narrative, and society (i.e. white cis straight men) can't progress past those stereotypes. Thanks for the recommendations!!!
Why is this video only now being recommended to me by the algorithm? I saw Antebellum the night it premiered, expecting a completely different movie. Over a year ago, I am now seeing your video, and you illustrate so well why the film felt so wrong. Thank you and keep making your excellent commentary!
"Stamped from the Beginning" has been on my radar since my girlfriend's best friend mentioned that her husband read it and loved it. So I'm definitely going to get a copy and read it before the year is out.
When you said the white people in Antebellum were giving Stormfront vibes, I thought you meant the "magazine" until you mentioned The Boys. You're not wrong either way.
Great video - you've really helped bring clarity that slavery movies are important, but we should demand they be nuanced and explore all parts of the black experience. This is our history, not just a bad point in time. It effects us to this day. Our relatives survived centuries worth of horror - we would not be here if they haven't and that really hits home for me. That is something to be proud of and now I want to know how they survived it, what kept them going. I think exploring all of their experiences will shed light on that.
I haven't seen the movie but when I googled the "plot twist" it seemed like a reason for me to check it out because I was already so turned off by the torture porn aspect of it. But as a horror genre, can someone explain why the "theme park" idea is bad? Because I've only known life in the US and it seems pretty accurate considering how 1)dixiecrats glorify the confederacy to this day & 2)there's literally a giant Noah's Arc theme park in Kentucky complete with dinosaurs lol
I really appreciate you putting all this into words because honestly, I truly believe that THIS is the long form of what our folx are saying when we say we're "over " the slavery/black suffering films-- over the ones being made, or the ones that have been made...because it's never quite the right lens or tone or perspective, as you described!
Thank you, I am grateful that you exist. I am an actor and someday I will produce film that honors our ancestors and the hidden stories that need to be shown. It will be tough, but you reminded me why I must continue to fight for this. You have no idea who will hear your words and who's lives you will change. You are a gift with a true affinity for communication and understanding. This is why you are here. This is why your ancestors survived. So that you can tell they story and pass it on. And live the life they knew all were deserving of. Much love and light
What I like about this video is that it actually changed my mind about the necessity of more slave movies. because mentioning the humanity of slave people rather than just about the trauma was what made it click for me for that I’ve read books that have told the story about slavery without it being all about the pain and was more about those living during that time. And that, what I want is more movies like the books I’ve read that are more humane, and not just movies trying to show why slavery is bad
"the Nightingale" directed by Jennifer Kent. A historical thriller/horror. This movie captures the humanity within the brutality of genocide and enslavement that other films don't (albeit a Black Australian perspective rather than a Black American perspective.) This film isn't trauma porn, it is trauma. The brutally honest reality of trauma during colonization brought on screen. A dark meditation and the realest film I have ever seen (they actually had therapists for the actors and at screenings.) I would definitely look into it BUT make sure you're in a good mental and emotional place and have a supportive network of friends (I absolutely wouldn't watch it alone.) TW: r*pe, murder, lynchings misogynoir, antiblackness, infanticide, realistic depictions of PTSD. Also: Be aware that both African Australians and Indigenous Australians are racialized as Black. The Black Wars of Tasmania (called Van Diemens Land by Colonizers at the time) were genocidal enslavement and annihilation campaigns perpetrated against Indigenous Tasmanians. Jennifer Kent collaborated with Black Tasmanians to ensure the accuracy of the cultures and languages of the peoples.
I would LOVE to see an Ira Aldridge movie! There are so many great ideas Hollywood is sleeping on. It's ridiculous. As always, thank you for this video.
One of the movies I recommend often to broaden the understanding of black slavery is Alex Hailey’s ‘Queen’ with Halle berry as the main role. She’s not meant to represent the blackest person around, but the line we toe between black women and women in general.
Beloved was a weird movie. I only saw it once when I was a teenager (my sister read the book). Weird but good. We just need more Toni Morrison movies. I’m not surprised Roots wasn’t mentioned, but I think that’s another complicated can of worms.
I'd honestly love to see a movie surrounding perhaps a black man or woman figuring out what to do with themselves after being liberated. Trying to find family, Identity, and a place to fit in, work, and their personal day to day struggles. You could say so much with it too without being dehumanizing and shocking. I'd be interested to see it because honestly as much as I like to educate myself on history I don't actually know what specific struggles they went through directly after liberation. I know the general ones but I'd love to see the specific small interpersonal struggles that remained as they try to pick themselves up and live. It's something I've never seen represented in media.
Ohh yeah! And you could tackle things like sharecropping and the violent coup of the racist Democrats, aspects of post-civil war America that are often glossed over as: they’re free XD
If you haven't read homegoing by yaa gyasi, you should :) of course I want a movie like that too, and this book touches on that
@prescott racks i don't think making art about a subject means you're romanticizing it automatically, but care would have to be taken to treat the subject matter with the gravity it deserves.
I'd love to see a movie like this with a minimal musical soundtrack, very natural lighting, and a grimy, realistic cinematic style. Hollywood loves to romanticize the f*ck out of everything & it gets exhausting after awhile.
Was there ever really a _direct_ time when black people were liberated? I feel like it would be more of a progression of generations slowly being more and more free rather then suddenly having rights.
Also, anything to do with slavery would be dehumanizing and shocking, I doubt there is a way to represent it without heavily watering it down for people who can't stomach it.
I think cinema about slavery and the black struggle **absolutely** need to keep being made because for a lot of people (black or otherwise), that is their first encounter with less discussed aspects of black history.
There are plenty of people who didn’t know about the Tulsa Massacre or Sundown Towns until Watchmen (2019) and Lovecraft Country explored them. If you’re going to portray black struggles, just do it in new and well-written and honest ways.
We should absolutely have more Black Panthers, Black Is King and media that celebrate blackness, but blackness is connected to both the past and the future. We shouldn’t forget what our ancestors went through. It’s not fair to us or them.
1000% agree. But I also agree that we need to see more complex and nuanced (and realistic) portrayals of slavery. I'd love to see a quiet movie about a family's journey. Or stories like Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing.
It's gross to me that I've watched movies about slavery and learned more about the white character's goals, dreams, family, etc than I have about the black characters.
@@brees3 *adds Homegoing to reading list*
I've said it once and I'll say it again, WHERE IS MY SOJOURNER TRUTH MOVIE
@@morley364, and hopefully, an honest one too. I remember feeling incredibly angry when I found out Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman" speech was largely made up and no original copy of what she actually said exists. The speech was rewritten later by a white man who heard the speech and done in a stereotypical Southern dialect, even though Truth herself was from New York and spoke Dutch as her first language.
Tariq Thomas Yeah, I was hoping Black Panther would set up a precedent that black people could be winning, show that can do great things. I just couldn’t even watch Antebellum
Also, can we please get more native movies? Like, in general?
YES! I'm not native but I would love to see movies written by and about natives, their history and stories. More books, comics and visual novels from natives would also be wonderful :)
@@dagmai5100 Okay, I'm Métis. I have literally never, in my life, seen a Métis movie. Not one.
@@surgeland9084 a Métis movie would also be really interesting
Yes! I loved the movie Smoke Signals, and Sherman Alexie has written some great books but I'd love to see more!
Check out Blood Quantum if you want something for the scary season ❤
We need more movies depicting what Natives went through, and how we were enslaved for 80 years prior to the Puritans landing. We need to see movies that show how numerous Tribes helped Black slaves escape, helped fight the Confederacy and then were hunted down and murdered by the Union after the Civil War was over. We need a movie about Lincoln from our perspective ( he was a terrorist) and we need a realistic movie about how horrific Columbus actually was. ( so bad in fact he was stripped of titles. So even then they knew he was a monster) We need movies that end the narrative that racism is geographical, and it's worse in the south when the truth is that the North is just as guilty.
Yeah, I live in Illinois and it seems to me like nobody in Illinois talks about, knows about, or cares that all the cities here were built by massacring native populations and forcing some to move west. Most people here if they had settler ancestors are proud of them, not knowing how horrible most of the settlers were to the natives.
OMFG I COULD NOT AGREE MORE!!! Your mind is beautiful and I'm begging you to become a director/writer and bring these stories to film!!
@@paperl9328 And Black soldiers contributed to Native genocide when they joined the military, as well as free Blacks who settled Native territories both before and after the civil war. There are over 500 distinctly different Native cultures today, and there were far more before colonization. Natives were sold overseas into slavery some 80 years prior to Black enslavement. So there are far more stories to be told and doing so doesn't erase the mistakes a handful of Tribes out of thousands made. The slavery Natives participated in was akin to the slavery that many African tribes participated in, not chattel slavery that was occurring in the US. ( ie there's an actual time limit, you're not born into slavery, and you eventually become a Tribal member) The choice between siding with the confederacy or the union was evil bastards who kill us and remove us to reservations or evil bastards who will formally recognize our individual Tribal sovereign status and stop killing us. Both were evil, but one promised to no longer utterly eradicate us from the planet.
@@pheenobarbidoll2016 I'd like to say that I am Chickasaw, and painfully aware of our forced removal. Us owning slaves does not erase the horrors we went through-I did not mean for my contribution to come off as a counterpoint. It isn't.These realities can and do coexist-that's all I mean to say. However, as I am afraid that settlers will twist my words, I think I'll delete my comment.
@@paperl9328 I'm Keetoowah, and we fought with the Union then were hunted down and slaughtered. Unfortunately, colonizers already do use it as some sort of proof " everyone had slaves" while ignoring the differences. And since they've never heard of the UKB, we don't count or something. The fact we are (and always have been) anti slavery of *any* kind goes unnoticed. Doesn't serve their narrative.
Here in Brazil we have the same kind of thing, of course without the same relevance of Hollywood but we don't have much content about slavery that aren't this kind of tragedy or even some weird fantasy versions.
Our biggest writer was black (everybody thought he was white), we had a black president in 1909 (again, everybody thought he was white).
The colorism is so prevalent in Brazilian history that many people just see slaved people as a template of a sad and hurt person, the thousands of heroes that we had never come to the screen.
Or even worst, now the far right is trying to rewrite history by saying things like "that guy who fought to freed thousands of slaves and build secret cities was actually a slave owner by himself! The proof is that people used to enslave people at the time so we must be right!"
I just remembered a little historical crossover between USA and Brazil about slavery.
Once the South losses the Civil War some slave owners started to think "how about we go to Brazil and keep owning human lives?"
They moved to a city close to my home town, Santa Bárbara, and founded another city called America (very creative) , so they'd keep being slave owners. However they didn't know that the region had some really low tech farming equipment, they had some high tech steel plows so they got rich because of that.
A few years later we got our own (a bit problematic) abolition (my home town had a strong abolitionist moment, I'm a bit proud of my great grandparents neighbours) and the former slave owners of Santa Bárbara and Americana just got rich with industrialization.
The weird stuff is: in all of my childhood, every time I needed to go to those places, I never understood why they had so many Dukes of Hazzard's fans...
@@user-mb9nm7bq5e it's OK friend, the Brazilian educational system isn't the best on history, most people doesn't know much more than the basic (discovery, colony, Empire, crazy Republic ) I guess our most remembered historical figures are still Portuguese, we have some really bad gaps of knowledge and I envy the way history is relevant as a cultural unification trait in US.
You see, I'm descendant of an Italian family that came here in the XIX century, what is my cultural heritage, my family's, my country or both?
Most people similar to me know their European family history in details but fail to learn why they arrive in here, what make it possible, etc.
I'm pride of my Italian heritage but denying that my culture stated to feel disrespectful to me once I started to think about colonialism.
I started trying to fill the gap in my history knowledge as much as I could in honor to the millions of people who suffered and died in the past because I'm result of that, showing their stories to everyone is the least I can do.
Brazil has a amazing (and a bit crazy history) that is reduced to "boring" by a educational system that doesn't help people building a national identity, I dream with the day it change and lines like "dude, what about that Little Oak guy, that was crazy!" became common (ok, that was a really obscure Brazilian history reference)
Who is your biggest writer? I know a few brazilian authors but Idk what do you guys consider the "classics" or the biggest.
@@SoWhosGae Machado de Assis, his most influential work is "The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas" (I guess in English you can also find it with the title "Epitaph of a Small Winner"), it's about this upper middle class guy who lived during the Brazilian Empire (Louis Bonaparte is on the news during the protagonist childhood, the old men in a Brazilian pub arguing violently about news from half across the globe is the same as today).
The guy is dead when the story begins and so his ghost starts to remember all of his life, in no particular order, the chronology is a bit more emotional than temporal and he, as a ghost, became omniscient, or he makes you feel like he is (does he really know what the other people think about him or it's all just in his dead head?)
It's a fantastic story about this shitty person who know can judge himself and everyone else in his life, the thing goes a long way.
About Machado, he founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters (the club of the really fucking good authors) and translated a lot of stuff to Portuguese (you know, here in Brazil we have ravens but not crows, however everyone get confused because Machado translated the Poe poem as "The Crow", it sounds better in Portuguese and a Brazilian raven is not at all frightening, I mean, ravens are seen as silly and funny in here)
And I remember having read about Harold Bloom saying that Machado would be the most important black author in the history, but the discussion here in Brazil was if he was really black, because colorism is just in everything in Brazil.
Is started a moviment, some people colored the most used black and white Machado's picture, shared in the most common printing sizes and asked to people to glue it in every book that they found to spread the image of a black Machado de Assis.
Some call vandalism, I call amazing.
Paulo F. Crocomo Oh wow that's pretty interesting. I'll def read him, thanks a lot.
I love Janelle Monae, so it was a MAJOR bummer to read reviews and find out that Antebellum was kinda garbage.
Exactly
Same 😞
Instead of movies like Harriet, Hidden Figures, and Antebellum, I would love to see her in a different light
@@OReily08080 Season 2 of Homecoming has issues but it’s worth watching for her performance
@@tinymxnticore Janelle uses they/them pronouns
I thought the Antebellum was going to have a more supernatural /Twilight Zone feel to it but it reminds me more of Shyamalan's The Village.
When I saw the trailer I thought “oh, they’re doing something like Kindred.”
Now I wish someone would make a movie out of that.
@@animeotaku307 Exactly my own thoughts
Me TOO! I thought the character was going to be pushed back and forth through time and be so torn up from the transitioning that she herself couldn't remember which time was the one she started in and neither would the audience! That would have been abetter movie, I think.
@@Kaydiasez That’s at least a better premise than what we got.
Yeah, I totally thought it was a time travel movie.
Here's my problem with almost every slave story movie. How often is it that you see the slaves just talking to each other? Like one that's not the main character, just two random people talking to each other?
Because you know what they will be talking about, it wouldn't just be about running. It'll be about how they got here. it'll be about what is going on in America during that time.
I think the only slave story that I can actually watch and get behind is Underground. Aldi's Hodge and Journee Smoulett portray what is happening to these people in a very personal way, acting and reacting how somebody in that situation honestly would act. Not only that, the show shows you the root of every f****** problem with the America's government through each episode with the characters
Gotta check that show out! Right on for that info on it
I loved that show so much.
Underground is the reason I understand Summertime (Porgy & Bess); overall a very eye-opening experience. As a black woman, I've been exposed to the culture and history but never fully understood a lot of it, there was always a missing piece; this is why I believe so much in the importance of education and representation.
i haven't watched it because i was scared it would just be more trauma porn. thank you for sharing this perspective. i'll have to check it out now.
My sister had fallen for the "people want to take good care of their property" propaganda and 12 years a slave helped her see past that
@boulderarms she's mostly just young
@boulderarms I am
I didn't realize that was a form of propaganda
@@JKJ1900 yeah I've heard it pretty often that slavery must have not been too bad because of that reason. Real easy to fall for if your school didn't show you any of the pictures of torture devices and lashing scars (and it's not like school is designed to help you remember what you're taught either way..... )
Gaasuba Meskhenet I’ve been watching Roots since I was 5, so whenever I had the watered down slave topics at school, I cried bs in my head
The point of “we are descendants of those who survived and persevered through horrific torture.” Is a fantastic point that I had not considered
Who else was hoping for a movie version of Octavia Butler's "Kindred" when they saw the first "Antebellum" trailer? I know I was. I'm sad that they just went with a Shyamalan twist
Absolutely! Really, anything she's written.
I totally thought this when I saw the trailer in the theatre!!
Yeeeeeeees!!! This should have been Kindred!
My theory is that the creators couldn’t get the rights to Kindred so they made this Walmart trauma porn mess. The similarities of the characters between Antebellum and Kindred seem a little suspicious to me.
@@tyloona
Similar in what ways?
I want to see more representation of the Black Frontier life.
Thank you for sharing because I would too. The Lone Ranger was black an I’d like to see him as a black man
I've never thought about that before and I think it's a good idea.
Absolutely overdue!!!!
I want a western about Bass Reeves, that dude was BAD ASS
@@MrTino12 Yes he was. I also learned in high school history class that one in three cowboys was black.
As someone who is not American, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to learn from you, your videos always leave me pondering the topics you talk about!
Oof, she's really not a good source of information. Come to think of it, didn't she write an article lamenting the media's reaction to JOKER, not because it was the wrong reaction but because it backfired?
As a person raised where the Antebellum south is glorified, the ads for Antebellum were upsetting to watch. I can't even imagine trying to watch that movie.
Please can we have a Sojourner Truth movie? She was such an inspiring woman!
I dunno, do you really want Hollywood neolibs watering down her more radical talking points?
YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
@@CrowTR0bot you’ve got a point. It would have to be a labour of love, a indie movie perhaps. But not enough people know about Sojourner Truth, and how brilliant of a woman she was. She deserves more recognition
Unfortunately because of the US educational system, a lot of Black Americans don't really know that much about slavery in the United States. We don't talk much about the slavery of Native Americans either (didn't really occur in planter-style economies). The Dawn of Detroit is a good history book that actually has narratives about enslaved Africans and Native Americans who were in bondage because of the fur trade. Soul by Soul is another book every American should read. I was a big fan of the new Roots the history channel did some years ago but I think a lot of people ignored it.
I would love to see someone turn "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" into a prestige film.
Yeah, Roots was something else. I watched it when I was really young and felt so much dread. And it wasn’t until later in high school that I learned how much damage was toward Native Americans, and how they also enslaved African Americans
I grieve for the country we could've been. 😞 America was set on the track to today's injustices by the revisionist history from the Reconstruction Era. If only it truly were a war of "northern aggression", fought on moral grounds. 😫 White guilt & white fragility (perhaps even the concept of whiteness itself!) might've been nipped in the bud if something like South Africa's post-apartheid Truth Commission had kicked off America's Restitution Era, instead of "the reconstruction".
But no, apparently it was more important to the ruling classes to appease the loser traitors & bring them back into the fold, than it was to face & rectify the widespread injustices that were perpetuated by all states, both North & South. 😔
@@OReily08080 A few Native Americans were given slaves, but it was far from a common thing in First Nations ethnicities and it was definitely not as common as it was in White American Society.
The majority of Native Americans fought With the Confederacy. They also kept Slaves up the 20th century.
I got the impression from Antebellum that it was supposed to be a condemnation of the glorification of antebellum south while ignoring, downplaying, or even fetishizing slavery, especially with the plot twist. And while that's a message I can get behind -- the folks still flying confederate flags and pushing back against taking confederate statues down and insisting that the Civil War was about states' rights are proof that it's an issue -- the movie didn't do a good job with it. Which is a shame because, again, it's a message worth being put out there. I just don't know how it would be done (and even if I did, I'm definitely not the person to do it since I'm white).
Also, since you mentioned Ira Aldridge, there was something done on him, though it wasn't film. Lolita Chakrabarti wrote the play "Red Velvet" about Aldridge starting his career in London. I had the privilege to watch it when it came to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and I thought it was pretty well done, though while it addressed the obstacles he faced (not only as a black man but also as a proponent of more engaged acting rather than the "teapot method" used at the time, which also tied with the above when the first play he was in was the lead role in Othello), it didn't go that much into what he achieved. He has a successful career at the end of the play, but it's played down in favor of the sense of alienation he feels being in a predominately white world. All I was left with about him was that he was the first black man to play Othello in Europe.
And while I understand the author's intent, I wish more about him came across in the play because he had a huge impact. People cited him as an example when they argued for abolishing slavery in Britain. He inspired other black people across the pond and had an acting troupe by blacks for blacks named after him following his death. Hell, he got knighted! That's a big deal! And yet I had to look him up to learn all these amazing things about him. It's such a shame.
Also, there's the fact that this is a play and theater is less accessible to general audiences than film is. That's also something that can't be forgotten.
I always learn A LOT with you!! About books, movies, history, etc. I'm not from the US, I don't live there either, but as a Latin American, I thank you for the eloquent way you explain so many important issues in media and society. Also, it's sooo important and I value it so much that you use the word enslaved people instead of "slave", language IS important! PS: sorry for my English, it's obviously not my main language hehe
Oof, she's not a good source for information. Come to think of it, wasn't she pissed that the media's reaction to JOKER backfired?
I think you can still have sad movies about slavery and Black films in general if you are thinking about the intersectional aspect of it, as you mentioned. Harriet Tubman was disabled because of a head injury, but as
Jessica Kellgren-Fozard pointed out in her Tubman video, this aspect of her is often overlooked or even shunned.
i love jessica :D
It’s really important that she had this disability, too… she became very focused on freedom because she literally depreciated in monetary value as a result of her injury. Her family was threatened to be split up and she was in greater danger because she was seen as this liability.
She also had epilepsy as a result of her head trauma, which she interpreted as having visions from God. And maybe she did! Regardless of how we may view that today, she drew this massive inner strength from her beliefs and her trust in the Lord. She would not have had exactly that same force of personality outside the influence of her particular experience with disability.
I'm not a black american, but I'm a descendant of genocide and displacement and so much of what you're saying about trauma and how we remember our ancestors and their experiences resonates so deeply with me.
As a white woman there's absolutely no hot take I can add to this comment section that contributes any type of value, but I hope my comment gives you an algorithm bump anyway. :D Great video.
Thank you for sharing and being mindful on that matter sister. Please be safe I’m this pandemic
You’re a gem
(Also here to contribute to the algorithm)🤙
Well you could of said the movie sucked? It's Garbage?
I actually saw half of it before I watched it I seen all the reviews realized this movie is garbage it's like fucked up rich white people were the directors black people were slaves got tortured okay what's the point I don't need to see half hour of torture 1 scene is enough ...than the black woman slave randomly woke up in modern day times absolutely stupid this entire movie probably written by Donald trump
That's how stupid it was LOL
Why do insist on demeaning yourself?
We need more writers of color during the making of movies about this topic. One POC is not a "ticket to representation city".
I was at first interested in this movie, thinking these people were being pulled into the past for unknown reasons. Like that image of the plane skipping out was like a time slip or whatever.
Then I heard the first reviews and got hesitant. But when you mentioned the theme park aspect, I actually had to pause the video and scream my frustration at the stupidities of such an idea. Wtaf....
I thought the same thing. From the previews I thought it would be similar to Octavia Butler's Kindred. I was unpleasantly surprised lol
Im still watching the video but AMUSEMENT PARK?! WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Yeah from the trailer I assumed it was a movie about some sinister supernatural forces taking this woman back to the Antebellum era. But thankfully the trailer gave me everything I needed to know that this movie was not for me.
@@ornenow4703 okay so I thought it would be like Kindred too but my hopes were not too high.
I would literally DIE for a movie version of Kindred if it were well made
You're not the only one - I missed the visual clues at the beginning (I guess I"ve seen so many septum piercings that it didn't stick out to me, although I remember thinking "They allowed them jewlery. . .well a cross makes sense, as they wanted them to be Christians - but not to actually read the Bible" and was pretty much "WHERE is this movie going?" cuz I kept expecting more of a ci-Fi twist and I've sat through movies that felt plodding purposefully before (that pacing was part of the entire theme of the movie/foreign fillms, etc.) until she woke up again in the slave cabin.
I never noticed the gap in nuanced, living-focused stories of slavery (or even reconstruction! Absolutely reconstruction! It's such a facinating period that was, like, given only 5 minutes in history class!) on screen until you just pointed this out! I guess I just assumed these things were going on because people were always living through trials and hard times in humanity's history. I didn't think about how it creates a knowledge gap or that people might not have thought to assume that life prevailed through american slavery too.
Exactly! The Reconstruction era was so important but it gets skipped over in the discussion, as if the civil war ended and we skipped directly to the 60's.
@@tinymxnticore, you can thank the Daughters of the Confederacy for that. They led a movement in the early 20th century to basically delete Reconstruction from American textbooks. And we need to rectify that. You can teach an entire semester on Reconstruction and still not cover everything.
The weirdest part is that tons of Westerns take place during Reconstruction, it would be so easy to have Western movies that touch on the real experience of the time
love that "the language of the criminal" -- the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house
It's a shit take.
My former professor wrote wicked flesh!!! I low-key had a crush on her she is amazing
I had no idea the hayes code included making it so movies couldn't show slavery as bad
I’ve been learning more about the diaspora in regards to food, and I recently visited Jekyll Island where most of the slaves brought here were renamed and sold at auction… I found this place dedicated to the descendants of the people who were brought there. It was an incredibly painful experience to see these places and learn of the atrocities, but I do feel better. I feel stronger, and I feel motivated to be more successful because of what they endured for me to be here
When I saw the first trailer for Antebellum, I thought it was about a modern woman being brought back in time to the Antebellum south. That would actually might have been a decent film; a lot of good horror films are based on actual events. Slavery by its nature but especially in the Americas was horrific. You'd think that would be good enough. But nooooooooope.
When you talked about the shakespearian black actor, it reminded me of Alessandro Medici, first grand Duke of Florence, a half black man, and he inspired the character Othello. I want to see more media about him.
Whoa!? I didn’t even know he was black since the first that comes up/most popular/often only portrait of him was where they obviously intentionally obscure that by making him much lighter than every other portrait and intentionally hiding his hair…Wow! You’d think everyone would be screaming about that! i mean OTHELLO!
My great grandmother lived on a farm with her siblings, her black father and her indigenous mother. Sometimes she talks about her parents leaving in a covered wagon and her brothers secretly cooking up a chicken as a treat for them all. Stories about black history have a lot of variety and I'd love to see them
Off-topic: I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Boys. I don't seem to align with the consensus of "OMG this is the best superhero show of all time" that's been going around.
I probably would have enjoyed 'The Boys' more if I'd forgotten that Alan Moore did the same thing but better over 30 years ago
I like it for its use of the Stormfront character and addressing the rise of fascistic beliefs in the USA
I had to watch the Boys for work and HATED it
You are wrong that is all
I would also have to disagree with "OMG this is the best superhero show of all time", but I liked it nonetheless.
This was a really great and nuanced take on the subject. I'll admit I was thinking we had too many slave movies before I watched this, but I wasn't thinking of the possibilities that hadn't been explored. Thank you for opening my eyes to that idea.
Was that sarcasm? Hell, she didn't even address prostitution, sex slavery. Frankly, she seems to have forgotten that black people weren't the only ones enslaved.
@@SirBlackReeds you seem a littttttttle salty, dude
Great video as always and this needed to be desperately said!
I can't help but think that his needs to be said for all movies on the injustices that people suffered in this country. I am so sick and tired of how every single interpretation of Japanese Internment in media has to have the Interracial couple during the camps. Like yeah I get why we need to have these kind of pairing stories, but during a story about the humiliation and violation of rights on a whole ethnic group. Nah, that reads like a "LOOK! Not all white people were believed in this!"
When I was in 4th grade, we were shown a film about slavery. Yeah, I thought that too. "What film coukd you show to 4th graders about slavery?!" Well I don't remember the title but it was about a young girl in slave times who learned to read and write along with the master's daughter and her struggles with keeping it a secret from not only the people who owned her, but her own people too. Since learning how to read and write was taboo for slaves and she was worried about how everyone around her was going to react after her mom found out she could read and berated her for it.
Great overall insight on this issue! Foundational black people in America are the physical manifestation of "living history". So many of our cinematic stories have yet to be told/shown.
When people mention to me how they are "tired of slave movies" I most times find when talking to them further that they are not really "tired of slave movies" but more so like you mentioned, the specific portrayal. There are so many untapped genre vantage points this historic era could show its mind boggling. We are talking about 400 years worth of stories.
Since the Jewish holocaust and WWII there has been at least one movie released every year either directly or indirectly connected to these horrible events. That's a movie every year for 74 years about tragic events that lasted only 10 years . That's not even including TV shows. These events have been portrayed in every genre possible from serious drama to Nazi zombies! 400 years of systematic oppressions and our justice struggle is a GOLDMINE.
I think there's a kind of occam's razor about representation: there's the side of "any representation is worthwhile representation" or it's "all representation must represent the most progressive views and encapsulate every facet of the diaspora experience" when it's always somewhere in the middle.
Definitely agree that a lot of people aren't active/intentional about seeking out a diversity of black stories, that information is often inaccessible, and of course not nearly enough black filmmakers get platforms or significant capital (financial or social) to break through to the mainstream attention span! But I hope that we'll get to a point where we're there's such a breadth of black stories in the cultural conversation that imperfect representation--or the necessary stories of significant pain and trauma--won't be seen as the only battleground for discussions of black representation.
Also, I reeeeeally want to hear your take on The Boys 👀
We definitely gotta stop shaming people for not wanting to read. I'm dyslexic and I'm doing so much better cramming videos at double speed than I would be forcing my way through books
You need to be careful about who you are listening to though. There are a lot of great, knowledgeable UA-camrs out there but very few of them are actual historians. Supporting current research into American slavery (research that is often done by Black American historians) is important. Also, there are a lot of great books that are available on audio and you could probably find copies of them at your local library.
Same case for me, I'm dyslexic too. I try to deal with it by listening to audiobooks. This also brings to mind that my first encounter with dyslexia representation was in Rubber Band Man from Static Shock. She should do a review of that series. It was a favorite of mine
I agree with you and the replies above mine.
There is a lot of unnecessary shaming, but I think the important sentiment behind the 'please read' crowd is how, like the others mentioned, it's easier to get to incorrect info outside of books. Not to say there aren't incorrect books, but the research standard is higher for books than an average video, and especially so for an exceptionally ignorant video.
I have ADHD, so to those recommendating audio books, I'm not out there reading OR listening to books. And a lot of dyslexic people wouldn't have that focus either. So I just hope that people are able to recognize that good, researched content needs to be more accessible (including more accessible to people like us) AND that as the audience for that content, we need to remember people can put out both manipulative videos that are wrong but also sincere videos that are wrong, because there's less of a research-y culture/system in place. Like, both can be true, and both should ditch the shame angle.
@@alphabettical1 yeah the way I cope with misinformation in videos is to always have multiple sources on any topic. And to never attach to strongly to something I've only heard once and doesn't obviously align with previous knowledge I have
@@cfbg but not every book has an audio book.
I like listening to animal farm on UA-cam
When I was growing up, I remember reading a number of very complex, nuanced books told from the perspective of enslaved people (usually kids) where things like family dynamics, relationship with religion, and also just everyday kid issues of growing up were at the center of their attention. I was a little white kid in the 90s in that sort of Midwestern laissez faire segregation, and I don't remember many adults ever talking to me in any depth about slavery until high school. Although my mom did take us on a "haunted tour" of the South, which honestly was just a run down of some of the most horrific things enslavers ever did. But I still feel like many of those books, which again were meant for kids, were really good at setting me up to understand the full scope of humanity and potential world view of the characters.
But being honest about the 21st century, the 3-5 hours a day I used to spend reading books have since transitioned into binging shows, hopefully awesome UA-cam content, and movies. It's insulting to the whole country (and by extension the rest of the world) that the mainstream screen output America makes in regards to slavery, which covered continents and centuries, seems to boil down to "slavery bad" where I just walk away feeling exhausted and feeling I haven't learned anything I hadn't already known. I feel like it's always presented as a few stock characters in Southern plantations a couple years before the Civil War. Where are the people who fought in the Revolutionary War? The frontiersmen I am sure must have been a huge part of history, like York? Where in the world is Toussaint Louverture's Netflix series!? It seems like producers are worried that if they aren't just showing constant whippings, people will somehow forgot how horrific slavery was, but I thought we were in the age of complex storytelling through extended series? Why is this output being catered to the least developed viewers on this topic?
Side note, there was one really interesting book I remember reading, does anyone know it? About a modern kid who blows off his grandpa (I think) when he gives him an heirloom pocket watch but is then transported back to living with his ancestors on a plantation.
100% YES. I was thinking about the Holocaust while you were speaking. And how the media surrounding it is so diverse. And how there's just SO MUCH of it.... And how I've still only found ONE piece of media surrounding it that I could actually stomach. It's Maus. It's told by the author INTERVIEWING his dad! The author cares about his dad and that makes a difference. It wasn't just about being in a death camp. It wasn't just about how awful hiding was. It showed so much of this man's life and stopped triggering guilt / shame / fear for me. It took me through a myriad of emotions and educated me at the same time.
not to sound cliche, since i know this video isn't for me as a non-black person, but this video was really informative. i actually looked up ira aldridge because of this video and it honestly so frustrating how many stories like his we don't get to see told on a mainstream level. i live in new england in a very white area (i'm half white, half iranian), and literally the only things we were taught about black history in public school was like...slavery and mlk. they barely acknowledge the historical existence of other ethnicities and peoples of color. it's really disheartening how much we're forced to learn on our own because the institutions that are supposed to teach us would rather sanitize and/or hide people's history.
As a Southerner, and student of history, one discrepancy that I’ve noticed is that slavery movies are just about always about plantation slaves. As if people in cities didn’t also own slaves. And what’s more, those urban slaves often had quite different experiences from their rural counterparts. It’s a shame how much it’s overlooked, especially since a big part of the reason is probably because a lot of people don’t know about it.
Good point. One of my ancestors was owned by a fishing boat Capt. He literally lived on the boat.
I hadn’t thought before about how books portray Black people’s experience of chattel slavery so much better than films. Thank you for bringing up that avoiding triggering voyeuristic/savioristic/exceptionalistic media doesn’t mean no more movies about that harm. It means, center & dignify the stories of those who were harmed… and ensure that their descendants & communities get the profits directly!
Based on the trailer, I was so sure Antebellum was about a woman who lives in the present but keeps finding herself being sent back in time.
Supernatural elements plus the already present horrors - which I think could be very cool and powerful.
But it sounds like what they did instead was like The Hunt from earlier this year.
This is one of my favourite videos of yours. I honestly choked up a few times watching it. Thank you so much for sharing this!
My family and I have been going through the same decolonization and my mother was teaching us about my great great grandmother Lottie Codges who escaped slavery who started her own bootlegging company and survived breast cancer. My mother grew up with her and learned so much, and I'm so grateful to learn her name and who she was. We as black folks need to learn what it was like and the names of our ancestors who were taken away from us. Thank you so much for making this video and for validating my and many others journey!
👀 Jennifer's Body earrings. Love it.
YES
I would like to see a film that really delves into the psychology of enslaved people and how the various forms of mistreatment effected their mental health
Time to remove Antebellum from my que.
I’m kind of torn on this topic. I remember when that tv series underground came out. I was like I’m done with slave movie/tv series narratives. I recently started watching it on Hulu. (Didn’t finish watching the series my opinion of it could change)
I liked how they dig into & don’t shy away from how ingrained the institution of slavery is baked into every aspect
The enslaved characters have depth & humanity that they have to consistently fight to keep hold of.
Most of them importantly they had a sense of urgency in even though they was in bondage.
So I was like there is still something new that can be mined from the narrative.
Also love video by the way.
The new mic sounds great!
👆🏽
Found your channel recently and I'm in love. Love finding black women who discuss stuff like TV, films and comics.
I would like there to be a movie set in the indentured slave period like we find in "before the Mayflower"- when enslaved people could actually earn their freedom. All the while gradually shifting to a white centrist's propaganda of keeping slaves enslaved and how that entail made people start coming up with excuses for race separation. Starting with the inferiority angle(religion,class, physic) then to Othering, and finally to fear mongering and patrolling.
A journey into how a thought - subconscious or conscious cemented one of the greatest devistations this country has ever committed. One of great shame. And importance/relevance today.
Or reconstruction period's cool too, I didn't know Harlem was a booming metropolis rich in business and the arts. What's the story there, what stories could've/ could come up from there and places like it.
Thank you for sharing but this validates my point again. Now, Melina has well meaning people calling for more slavery movie’s. I hate this channel. This is the last episode ever I’ll watch
@@denzellcoleman925 sure that one take away but she's also calling for "better slave movies" or ones where black folks are shown to overcome plus thrive, as they have so rightly done since slavery. She's calling for more representation of the black community as a whole not this jumbled mess [Antebellum] impersonating history.
You know those would be amazing, I would love to watch so reconstruct movies or the brutality of indentured servitude and the helpless being freed
It’s weird, somehow in the 1800s stuff got worse, obviously there was racism but I was reading recently about how small communities of mixed natives and whites weren’t unusual in rural areas in the 16 and 17 hundreds
@@Claire-bz8mq yea in daniel immerwahr book "how to hide an empire" there's a snippet where he tells how the founding fathers actually wanted separate land [indian country] for native american but settlers kept moving in and without laws to protect them eventually gave there land away. He continues with how , "the little house on the prairie" was a true life story depicting growing up on these begotten indian lands.
you are so eloquent and this is an amazing analysis!
This is great analysis. I struggled with lots of ANTEBELLUM as well, despite how hard I stan Janelle Monae. It felt like the point it was trying to make was about how only exceptionalism can overcome trauma, and that felt... wrong. This video helped reinforce some of my thoughts and shed some new light on the subject, especially in how these narratives are often centered.
thanks for the warning. just from your description of antebellum, I am already scared.
Oof. I was so excited for Antebellum when I first heard about it. I thought it would be a modern take on Kindred. Boy was I all the way wrong about that.
It also made me a bit uncomfortable that the movie was so focused on the pain of black women and focused heavily on trauma and pain specific to women (miscarriage, for instance) but was so flagrantly being directed by men who had not concept of what they were actually depicting.
Also, justice for Gabourey Sidibe. Her character deserved an arc and she deserves to be cast as not just the fat sassy black friend.
i could literally listen to you talk about these sorts of things (and honestly, everything you wanna talk about)....... forever.
you're just so fucking wonderful. thank you for being here and helping me to understand a little better, why these conversations are so important.
Thank for expressing the ideas that I have felt!!!
I'll definitely be checking out those book links!
You articulated so many of the thoughts I got while reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Now that book should be adapted as a movie, since it really centers Black people’s experiences during slavery.
So, I am not all the way through this yet, but hearing you talk about this lingering victim blaming for historical slavery, it really makes me think about the conversations around modern slavery. One of the things that struck me reading interviews with modern enslaved people was the consistent pattern slavers use. They try to make it look like escape or resistance are the worse options. They do that with physical barriers and abuse but they also do it with lies, isolation and by trying to pit their victims against each other. And it struck me because once that pattern was pointed out I could see it in the historical sources too.
These criminals have always tried to tell their victims that they couldn't survive if they escaped or that they'd be arrested or that their family would be punished. And when a victim is dealing with the lasting physical and psychological symptoms or trauma, has no resources, may be doesn't even speak the local language- I think that historical slaves, like modern ones, were really aware of the risks that came with resistance and escape attempts. And I think they made rational, hard headed, horrible decisions because of that. Decisions that we find difficult to understand without the god awful experiences they went through.
I was so excited for Janelle Monáe and the cinematography looks amazing. Unfortunately, Western cinema's obsession with chosen one narratives makes for a terrible framework to discuss slavery. It very much reminds me of Andy Samberg in "The One Who Dared To Leave".
I had to Google that last bit, thanks for the laugh 😅 I learned a lot from this comment section
Exactly
Thank you for the list of books and movies! Looking forward to watching and reading beyond what I’ve already done.
We need a Kindred adaptation.
We need Woodstock version of slavery huh. Have slaves and racist in the fields together dancing, dropping acid, building spaceships an pigs flying so we can make more racist feel better about their crimes of wars and their trash history. Not today or ever
One just came out but it’s… something
Commenting again because I wanna boost you and I think this video has an incredibly beautiful thesis. I think people forget about the daily life and the monotony of trauma. Slavery lasted for over 200 years in the US. And enslaved peoples cooked and made clothes and also loved each other. I think that a white gaze wants to see the trauma to justify stuff rather than see resilience. just hearts to you for voicing this so well. love your stuff
An important thing you mentioned which I think would be such a wonderful opportunity for talented black filmmakers: Reconstruction. There are several different sub-eras of Reconstruction that each movie could focus on. Just imagine the plethora of amazing stories that have yet to be told from this crucial part of Black American History.
Yesssss The Watermelon Woman getting a mention in your description!! So good, so underappreciated
Thank you for this!!!
I know I'm late to the conversation, but this is making me appreciate the Addy books (yes, from the American Girl Dolls series). It's been a while since I read them, but I feel like they ticked every box on your list.
Edit: Except, obviously, for being books not movies. But they came to mind because they weren't Serious Literature For Grown-Ups. They were a mass marketing ploy for overpriced dolls, and also happened to be surprisingly good books that seriously influenced a lot of kids, including myself.
I love your videos! I am constantly disappointed with Hollywood's depictions of Black stories - like, there are SO MANY as you have said, and we only get one. I feel like the same thing happens for so many marginalized groups - there's only one story that ever gets told and so it becomes the narrative, and society (i.e. white cis straight men) can't progress past those stereotypes. Thanks for the recommendations!!!
Why is this video only now being recommended to me by the algorithm? I saw Antebellum the night it premiered, expecting a completely different movie. Over a year ago, I am now seeing your video, and you illustrate so well why the film felt so wrong. Thank you and keep making your excellent commentary!
Yes! I *cannot* wait to hear your thoughts on The Boys!
"Stamped from the Beginning" has been on my radar since my girlfriend's best friend mentioned that her husband read it and loved it. So I'm definitely going to get a copy and read it before the year is out.
When you said the white people in Antebellum were giving Stormfront vibes, I thought you meant the "magazine" until you mentioned The Boys. You're not wrong either way.
Great video - you've really helped bring clarity that slavery movies are important, but we should demand they be nuanced and explore all parts of the black experience. This is our history, not just a bad point in time. It effects us to this day. Our relatives survived centuries worth of horror - we would not be here if they haven't and that really hits home for me. That is something to be proud of and now I want to know how they survived it, what kept them going. I think exploring all of their experiences will shed light on that.
I haven't seen the movie but when I googled the "plot twist" it seemed like a reason for me to check it out because I was already so turned off by the torture porn aspect of it. But as a horror genre, can someone explain why the "theme park" idea is bad? Because I've only known life in the US and it seems pretty accurate considering how 1)dixiecrats glorify the confederacy to this day & 2)there's literally a giant Noah's Arc theme park in Kentucky complete with dinosaurs lol
Boondocks did it better.
I really appreciate you putting all this into words because honestly, I truly believe that THIS is the long form of what our folx are saying when we say we're "over " the slavery/black suffering films-- over the ones being made, or the ones that have been made...because it's never quite the right lens or tone or perspective, as you described!
giiiiirl
everything damn thing you said
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💕💕💕💕
Thank you, I am grateful that you exist. I am an actor and someday I will produce film that honors our ancestors and the hidden stories that need to be shown. It will be tough, but you reminded me why I must continue to fight for this. You have no idea who will hear your words and who's lives you will change. You are a gift with a true affinity for communication and understanding. This is why you are here. This is why your ancestors survived. So that you can tell they story and pass it on. And live the life they knew all were deserving of. Much love and light
this is such a good video! love it
I'm very grateful to have gotten this perspective from you. 💛
When she said she had thoughts of the boys I was like so a review or recap or commentary video coming🤔🧐
We are not separate from our enslaved ancestors well said my young sister GOD BLESS YOU
Holy shit thank you, thank you, thank you.
What I like about this video is that it actually changed my mind about the necessity of more slave movies. because mentioning the humanity of slave people rather than just about the trauma was what made it click for me for that I’ve read books that have told the story about slavery without it being all about the pain and was more about those living during that time. And that, what I want is more movies like the books I’ve read that are more humane, and not just movies trying to show why slavery is bad
Thanks for the education.
Man, thank you so much for putting this into words.
"the Nightingale" directed by Jennifer Kent. A historical thriller/horror. This movie captures the humanity within the brutality of genocide and enslavement that other films don't (albeit a Black Australian perspective rather than a Black American perspective.) This film isn't trauma porn, it is trauma. The brutally honest reality of trauma during colonization brought on screen. A dark meditation and the realest film I have ever seen (they actually had therapists for the actors and at screenings.) I would definitely look into it BUT make sure you're in a good mental and emotional place and have a supportive network of friends (I absolutely wouldn't watch it alone.) TW: r*pe, murder, lynchings misogynoir, antiblackness, infanticide, realistic depictions of PTSD.
Also: Be aware that both African Australians and Indigenous Australians are racialized as Black. The Black Wars of Tasmania (called Van Diemens Land by Colonizers at the time) were genocidal enslavement and annihilation campaigns perpetrated against Indigenous Tasmanians. Jennifer Kent collaborated with Black Tasmanians to ensure the accuracy of the cultures and languages of the peoples.
I came here from The Professors tweet, stayed for your EDH decks, and finished, for now, with you and Mitch. Keep up the good work.
I would LOVE to see an Ira Aldridge movie! There are so many great ideas Hollywood is sleeping on. It's ridiculous.
As always, thank you for this video.
One of the movies I recommend often to broaden the understanding of black slavery is Alex Hailey’s ‘Queen’ with Halle berry as the main role. She’s not meant to represent the blackest person around, but the line we toe between black women and women in general.
Beloved was a weird movie. I only saw it once when I was a teenager (my sister read the book). Weird but good. We just need more Toni Morrison movies.
I’m not surprised Roots wasn’t mentioned, but I think that’s another complicated can of worms.
I’m so glad you shouted out my man Ira.
I feel like we should have more movies about the reality of today rather than the reality of the past .
You've worded my thoughts so perfectly!
And I'm looking forward to your video about The Boys 👀
I’d ADORE an Ira Aldridge film! Such a great story!
Great analysis. There’s so much untapped talent that could be empowered to tell unique, creative stories that are currently ignored.
12 years a slave was a powerful movie for me. It bothered me for days after watching it. Chewitel ejiofor was amazing in it.
I'm really curious about your reaction to Lovecraft Country on HBO. Different time periods but an overlapping set of issues.
ua-cam.com/video/jREySLvJOVE/v-deo.html
@@isenhobbitz Thanks.:D