What is super important is that Cheryl and Tamara’s friendship is not romanticized. In fact, the focus of their friendship in the film is accepting and working out their issues with one another around dating, filmmaking, cultural work, and being in community.
Read MoreRoles are important in all narratives, but especially so in dystopian ones. It is always useful to have someone well versed in the law… as well as someone well versed in medicine and someone well versed in, say… communications? or perhaps let’s call it information sciences. So in this film, the networked protagonists are something of a three-in-one structure - Antonio the attorney, Capitù the Surgeon, and André the journalist. Or put another way - Antonio the ethical protector, Capitù the creative carer, and André the mischievous messenger. They are Black (or “highly-melanated”) and highly skilled and in deep community with one another. And still, the film centers on this conundrum - which André gives voice to when he asks “How did we let it get to this?”
Read MoreOne film club member was struck by how James Baldwin relates himself, as a Black American, to others. Particularly how, in this case, he relates himself across diaspora to self-described “West Indians” in Britain. Those who are generationally American in film club related to the opening of his soliloquy with being asked by a Black British West Indian man “Where are you from?”
Read MoreSeek out views from the rubble to accompany your watching of Open Bethlehem. Check out Reverend Munther Isaac's "Christ in the Rubble" Easter sermon, whether you are Christian or not, because, as Reverend Issac says, should Christ be born today, Christ would be born in the rubble. And for those who love their liturgies, or are just curious about the entire service: Christ in the Rubble: a Liturgy.
Read MoreWe see the interplay of worship and madness, the overlap of them - how one undulates into the other. The mystery of what is occurring in the ecstatic moment.
Read MoreThe possibilities of this dream state. That it allows us to access the grieving mother’s perspective, or perhaps an idealized version of this perspective.
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