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During our coverage at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, our incredibly gifted photographer Corey Ransberg, captured some interesting highlights at parties, talks and in the press line at one of the most popular film festivals of the year.

Our trip to the snowy mountains of Park City was a blast and here is a collection of great photos to add to our yearbook!

Clemency

Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard). As she prepares to execute another inmate (Aldis Hodge), Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.

World premiere Sunday, January 27th at Sundance in Park City, Utah.

Representation in Hollywood with The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill

Despite years of effort to bolster diversity in front of and behind the camera, challenges remain in achieving real equality and inclusion in Hollywood. The Atlantic presented a discussion led by staff writer Jemele Hill about how Hollywood can get this right.

Velvet Buzzsaw

Velvet Buzzsaw is a satirical thriller set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles, where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.

World premiere Sunday, January 27th at Sundance in Park City, Utah.

The Wolf Hour

An exquisitely tense, densely layered world featuring Academy Award Nominee Naomi Watts in a tour de force performance that displays every fiber of her emotional range as an actor. June (Watts) was once a celebrated counter-culture figure, but that was a decade ago. She now lives alone in her fifth-floor South Bronx apartment, having all but cut herself off from the outside world. It’s the notorious “Summer of Sam” and June only has to look out of her window to see the violence escalating with the brutal summer heat. The city is on a knife’s edge, a pressure-cooker about to explode into the incendiary 1977 New York blackout riots.

World premiere Saturday, January 26th at Sundance in Park City, Utah.

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

Against all the odds, in The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, a thirteen-year-old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine. Based on the true story of William Kamkwamba.

World premiere Friday, January 2th at Sundance in Salt Lake City, Utah

Relive

Los Angeles detective Jack Radcliff fields a distressed phone call from his niece Ashley and rushes to the rescue—only to find the girl and her parents dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Then, just as the police department declares the killings an open-and-shut case, Jack gets another call from Ashley. With the cell-phone connection acting as a link between the past and the present, Jack urges Ashley to collect clues that will help him to solve her murder and change her fate.

World premiere Sunday, January 27th at Sundance in Park City, Utah.

Native Son

In this modern reimagining of Richard Wright’s seminal novel, a young African-American man named Bigger Thomas takes a job working for a highly influential Chicago family, a decision that will change the course of his life forever.

The 2nd Annual MACRO Lodge at Sundance Presented by Shea Moisture
The Black Creators Midnight Brunch Honoring ColorCreative. Sponsored by Color Of Change, The Open Society Foundations, and Firelight. Friday, January 25th in Park City, Utah.

For more images from our coverage at Sundance 2019 go to our IG page here
Also follow the tag Sundance19 for reviews, event coverage and more!

Now that the government has been temporarily reopened, Nancy Pelosi has re-extended the invitation for Donald Trump to deliver the State of the Union Address from the House floor. Traditionally, the opposition party issues a response address afterwards, and this year, the Democrat to give that speech will be Stacey Abrams.

Abrams lost saw her race for governor stolen from her after massive reports of election fraud overseen by her opponent, Georgia’s then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp (the person charged with overseeing elections). At the time, she acknowledged that the election was over but refused to concede because “Concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper.”

“I will not concede,” she said, “because the erosion of our democracy is not right.”

Stacey Abrams: “I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial elections.”

Abrams adds that she’s not conceding, just acknowledging the reality. She says a concession means that “an action is true, proper…” pic.twitter.com/37f42EWfpd

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) November 16, 2018

Trump’s State of the Union Address is likely to focus on questionable brags about economic gains under his leadership and immigration fearmongering. No doubt he will talk at length about his desired wall.

The Democrats then get to tell the country what they see as the state of the union, and by appointing Abrams to this role, party leadership is signaling that voter rights and the erosion of our democratic practices are major priorities. Indeed, that’s what Chuck Schumer said when he made the announcement.

Stacey Abrams—who narrowly lost Georgia’s gubernatorial election in November—will deliver the Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union address. pic.twitter.com/myuumxlXqt

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 29, 2019

“She is a great spokesperson, she’s an incredible leader,” he said. “She has led the charge for voting rights, which is at the root of just about everything else.”

During the 2018 primary elections, reports of election fraud came out of a number of states. In North Dakota, a new law requiring voters to show a form of identification that includes their home address directly targeted Native American voters. In Abrams’ state of Georgia, there were polling place closures, missing voting machines, and hundreds of thousands of cancelled voter registrations. After the election was over, Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin worked to limit the power of incoming Democrats, undermining the decisions of voters who elected new leadership.

Abrams has launched a voting rights group and she’s also thought to be eyeing a Senate run in 2020. She’s exactly the kind of tenacious voice Democrats need to be representing the party.

At a moment when our nation needs to hear from leaders who can unite for a common purpose, I am honored to be delivering the Democratic State of the Union response. https://t.co/0dpA3lJZpS

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) January 29, 2019

The State of the Union and the Democratic response are scheduled for Tuesday, February 5th.

(image: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

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We’re now getting more information about why Tisha Campbell-Martin and Duane Martin’s marriage came to an end. According to TMZ, the former My Wife and Kids star obtained a restraining order against her ex-husband after alleging years of physical and emotional abuse. In court documents, Campbell-Martin said her ex-husband of more than two-decades recently punched […]

The post Tisha Campbell-Martin Granted A Restraining Order Against Ex-Husband Amid Abuse Allegations appeared first on Essence.

According to Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Number One, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart’s legendary Captain Jean-Luc Picard will be missing that “Captain” designation in his standalone series.

We don’t know much about the forthcoming Picard-centered series that CBS is developing, save Stewart’s involvement alongside writerly names like Michael Chabon (and, blessedly, ladies!), and that the show is set to debut sometime in late 2019.

In a recent interview, the man who was Cmdr. William T. Riker discussed whether any of the old bridge crew might show up and confirmed that we’ll see Picard in a very different stage of his life. Frakes said:

“The feeling is we would love to be part of it. But the feeling is also that it’s Patrick’s show. [Laughs.] Having said that, I can’t imagine a world where there’s no reference to what happened to the rest of the Next Generation cast. Patrick isn’t playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard this time, he’s done with [that phase of his career in] Starfleet in this show. That’s about the only thing I do know about the show. Patrick and I had a steak dinner a couple of weeks ago and this man, who I’ve known for 31 years now, is so excited about this show he’s like a little kid. It’s fabulous! He’s thrilled and excited to be invited into the writer’s room and he’s a producer on the show and he’s part of the development of the story arc. It’s terrific. I mean he is a guy who is fully engaged.”

Although’s Frakes’ nugget about Picard no longer being a Captain is being breathlessly reported as News around the Internet at the moment, Stewart said as much himself back when the show was announced:

“He may not, and I stress may not, be a captain anymore. He may not be the Jean-Luc that you recognize and know so well,” Stewart told audiences at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. “Twenty years will have passed, which is more or less exactly the time between the very last movie—Nemesis—and today.”

So we already knew that we’d be finding Jean-Luc in a different stage of his career, two decades post-Nemesis. Starfleet-wise, it’d be astounding that Picard hadn’t been promoted to Admiral in that time, unless something went seriously amiss. But I don’t think we’ll be getting Admiral Picard, either. I still think a cool idea for the show could be Picard-as-Federation diplomat—a role he often assumed anyway—and this could take him to many different worlds and allow him to seek out new life and new civilizations. Of course, something could have happened to make Picard leave Starfleet entirely, so we shall see.

I am absolutely thrilled to hear Frakes’ report about Stewart’s excitement level. Sir Patrick Stewart is perfect and we don’t deserve him.

It goes without saying that it would be a delight to have other members of The Next Generation crew pop in from time to time, even if this will be Picard’s show. Right now, as much as I love Riker, if I could make it so that any special guests could be guaranteed, first on my list would be John de Lancie’s deliciously meddlesome Q. After all, there’s never a dull moment when Q’s around, and he’s rather in love with Picard?

We may not deserve Sir Patrick Stewart, but we definitely deserve a Picard/Q reunion. I’ll hold out hope.

(via TVWeb, images: Paramount)

• If you’re a fan of The Magicians (TV series or books), here are 12 other magical reads. (via The Portalist)
• A fascinating look at how each member of Congress ended up there—generally using pathways to power the rest of us can’t access. (via NYTimes)

• Deadline has long had an unacknowledged right-wing lean, but this take, positing that Roma is by definition a political vote cast by “virtue signalers” that will “split and diminish” the Oscar audience, is another low in a very low season. pic.twitter.com/luDm0tRO6B

  — Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 28, 2019

• Supergirl‘s Nicole Maines on her role as TV’s first trans superhero. (via Comicbook)
• Wait, what?
  

  #DnD is excited to help announce IN LEAGUE WITH DRAGONS. 12 new songs from @mountain_goats, to be chanted over campfires ascending the hill of the Dragon Lord. Only the fearless need apply. Released 4/26. Pre-order now at https://t.co/eYboS9huUQ. pic.twitter.com/tBkAeKEGly

  — Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) January 28, 2019

What did you see out there today?

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