Blue_Tires
Blue_Tires's JournalAfrican-American Film Festival Releasing Movement Launches Multi-Platform Label, Array
The African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement, Ava DuVernay’s collective for distributing black independent film, has launched a new multi-platform label, Array.
Its first acquisition is “Better Mus' Come,” a love story set in a violent time in Jamaican history when rival gangs wreaked havoc on the streets.
DuVernay launched AFFRM to push movies from African-American filmmakers into commercial theaters with help from supporters like Los Angeles’ Pan African Film Festival and New York’s Urbanworld Film Festival.
This new distribution label will target not just theaters but other platforms like video-on-demand.
“AFFRM’s new label Array is built to serve the tremendous burst of black cinematic talent across the globe, filmmakers who are embracing new technologies to tell their stories by any means necessary,” DuVernay said in a statement. “The goal is to expand the brand cultivated over our first four theatrical releases by reaching new audiences via both digital and traditional platforms,”
“Better Mus' Come,” to which Array holds all U.S. distribution rights, was written and directed by Storm Saulter.
“Storm’s work on ‘Better Mus' Come’ as director, writer and cinematographer is wildly impressive, incredibly important and deserves to be seen by as many film lovers as possible, DuVernay said in a statement. “We’re proud that his gem will launch ARRAY.”
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/african-american-film-festival-releasing-movement-launches-multi-platform-label-array-72926
Black America Is Not Shawty Lo and His 10 Baby Mamas
In a piece at Clutch magazine, Tami Winfrey Harris writes a sharp rebuke of the media and the African-American community for buying into black dysfunction in light of the impending spring premiere of Oxygen's All My Babies' Mamas, about Atlanta rapper Shawty Lo, his 11 children and their 10 mothers.
Sometime this spring, the Oxygen network will air a program called All My Babies' Mamas, featuring someone called Shawty Lo. You probably already know this because a press release and video leak last week (video since removed) caused the heads of good black folk to explode all over the interwebs. You could hear the pop from space. The one-hour special documents Shawty, 31, whose mama named him Carlos Walker, and his relationships with his 11 children, their 10 mothers, and his newest, a 19-year-old girlfriend. Oh, and in the spirit of Flavor of Love, the women on the show will have their identities erased in favor of nicknames like "Fighter Baby Mama," "First Lady," and "Bougie Baby Mama."
Lord, pass me my smelling salts.
The impending debut of All My Babies' Mamas has been met with some predictable responses: A petition urging Oxygen to shelve the special and a whole lot of people vowing never, ever to let their eyeballs see this shitshow. But two reactions I find troubling: black shame and a heap of demeaning talk about single-parent and nontraditional families.
The "Ban All My Babies' Mamas" petition, which, as I'm writing, has 73 signatures on Change.org, calls for the Oxygen show to be canceled for demeaning black women, girls, and children and stereotyping black men. I have no doubt the show will do all these things. And -- make no mistake -- the show's creative team, Liz Gateley and Tony DiSanto, mean for this to be so. Nearly every reality show, from Here Comes Honey Boo Boo to Love & Hip-Hop, is built on the exploitation and promotion of bias and stereotype.
Read Tami Winfrey Harris' entire piece at Clutch magazine.
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/black-america-not-shawty-lo-and-his-10-baby-mamas
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2012/12/black-america-is-not-shawty-lo/
Host Hiatus...
Fellow DUers:
I'm sad to say that circumstances in life have intervened, and I'll be spending much less time on DU starting a couple weeks from now -- So this group will need the other hosts (currently Number23, nofurylike, Frenchiecat, onpatrol) to carry the load...
I won't be gone forever; just a lot more occasional lurking and less posting...
I want to thank all of you for your participation, insights, and helping to make this a very headache-free group to host...
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Member since: 2003 before July 6th
Number of posts: 55,445