Uncategorized
https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-cast-and-crew-explore-deeper-myths-behind-the-wheel-of-time/
*The actors segment of this interview was recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike*
BGN interviews the cast and crew of the Prime Video series The Wheel of Time.
Featured in the interviews are: Rosamund Pike (Moiraine Damodred), Josha Stradowski (Rand al’Thor), and directors Sanaa Hamri and Thomas Napper.
The Wheel of Time is based on Robert Jordan’s best-selling novels, which are among the most popular and enduring fantasy book series of all time, with over 90 million copies sold. In the Amazon Original series The Wheel of Time, Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski, Gran Turismo) learns he is The Dragon Reborn—a dangerous figure from history destined to save the world … or break it. Desperate to protect him from the Dark One, an army of powerful women must reckon with his burgeoning power and encroaching madness. The Wheel of Time turns, and the Last Battle approaches. Though Rand thought he destroyed the Dark One, evil is not gone from the world. In Season Two, threats new and very old seek out the young friends from the Two Rivers, now scattered over the world. The woman who found and guided them is now powerless to help, and so they must find other sources of strength. In each other, or themselves. In the Light … or the Dark.
Interviewer: Jeandra LeBeauf
Video Editor: Jamie Broadnax
The Wheel of Time is currently streaming on Prime Video.
The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival is right around the corner, and this year there are a number of films from the Black diaspora that will be screened at the festival. This list includes films with a Black ensemble cast, Black experiences, and/or Black filmmakers. While the films may not be exclusively Black or African American, they each have one or more of those categories included on this list.
Synopsis credit for each comes directly from the Tiff.net website.
(Directed by Leslie Norville)
This new CBC documentary series uses contemporary interviews and archival footage to chronicle Canada’s long history of anti-Black racism, including episodes on police brutality and the rise of hip-hop music.
(Directed by Maggie Betts)
Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx star in this rousing David and Goliath courtroom drama about one family’s struggle to hold onto their mom-and-pop funeral home in the face of heartless corporate exploitation.
(Executive Produced by Serena and Venus Williams)
In this documentary that was executive produced by Serena and Venus Williams, the filmmakers use archival footage and new interviews to tell the story of the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup, a moment virtually erased from the history of soccer.
(Da’Vine Joy Randolph prominent role)
Paul Giamatti stars in Alexander Payne’s latest about the bond that forms between a strict professor and a belligerent student he’s stuck supervising over the winter holiday at an elite boarding school.
(Directed by Roger Ross Williams)
Inspired by the book of the same name by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams’ Stamped from the Beginning explores the history of anti-Black ideas in a way that helps us grapple with present-day racism.
(Black ensemble cast)
Two young boys, best friends Malik and Eric, discover the joys and hardships of growing up in the sprawling Cabrini-Green public housing complex in 1992 Chicago in the latest film from director Minhal Baig (Hala, TIFF ’19).
(Director Cord Jefferson)
Jeffrey Wright stars in Cord Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure — a wicked satire about the commodification of marginalized voices and a portrait of an artist forced to re-examine his integrity.
(Black ensemble cast)
After a sexual assault, a Toronto musician spends a weekend trying to find the money for HIV-preventive treatment, in this ferocious debut from writer-director M. H. Murray and writer-star Mark Clennon.
I Do Not Come to You by Chance
(Director Ishaya Bako)
Ishaya Bako (The Royal Hibiscus Hotel, TIFF ’17) directs this adaptation of Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s award-winning 2009 novel about a struggling Nigerian graduate whose only surefire path forward seems to be abetting his shady uncle’s fraudulent email scam.
Bria Mack Gets a Life **Recommended**
(TV Showrunner Sasha Leigh Henry)
Bria Mack Gets A Life is a self-assured comedy series from Sasha Leigh Henry (director of TIFF ’20 short film Sinking Ship) that shows what adulthood is like for a smart young Black woman as she is reluctantly entering the workforce.
(Director Henri Pardo)
Kanaval is the story of one young boy’s journey from a small port town on the coast of Haiti in 1975, during the town’s celebrations of carnival, before a traumatic event forces him and his mother to flee to Quebec.
(Black Experience)
Watch superstar Lil Nas X transcend genres and defy expectations in this revealing, jubilant, and inspiring musical documentary.
(Director Monica Sorelle)
Monica Sorelle’s narrative feature debut is a slice-of-life portrait of an immigrant worker and family man gradually contending with his class aspirations and housing insecurities in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
(Director Ramata-Toulaye Sy)
Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s tragic romance follows two lovers on a quest for self-possession in the face of tradition and against the terrestrial majesty of the Sahel.
(Black Ensemble Cast)
When an investigative journalist is killed, it falls to his colleague to expose the corruption that cost her friend his life. From returning director Ian Gabriel comes this high-energy political thriller highlighting the devastating risks faced by South African whistleblowers.
(Director Ladj Ly)
Set largely in an underprivileged Parisian suburb, Ladj Ly’s follow-up to Les Misérables (TIFF ’19) is an incendiary indictment of racist policies that force the poor into unsafe and inadequate living conditions.
(Director Rosine Mbakam)
This narrative feature debut by established Cameroonian documentarian Rosine Mbakam is a moving portrait of fortitude and care centered on a valiant seamstress and single mother in Douala.
(Director George C. Wolfe)
George C. Wolfe brings Bayard Rustin’s story to life, with a joyous performance by Colman Domingo as the activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington while being forced into the background because of his sexuality.
(Director Raoul Peck)
A Black family in North Carolina battles decades of harassment by land developers trying to seize their waterfront property, in this searing documentary by Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro).
(Director Apolline Traoré)
Apolline Traoré won the Panorama Audience Award at Berlinale ’23 for this unflinching look at the crisis plaguing the Sahel region of Northern Africa.
(Black Experience)
Carolina Markowicz returns to the Festival with Toll, a film about a Brazilian mother who falls in with a gang of thieves in an attempt to keep her family afloat.
Touki Bouki *Anniversary Screening*
(Director Djibril Diop Mambéty)
The influence and reputation of Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki, a film that “tears up the screen with fantasies of African modernity never before seen on film” (Manthia Diawara), has only continued to grow in the 50 years since its release.
(Black Experience)
A theatre troupe finds escape from the realities of incarceration through the creativity of putting on a play in this film based on a real-life rehabilitation program and featuring a cast that includes formerly incarcerated actors.
The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs September 7–17, 2023. Happy watching!
I’m going to start with a controversial statement that’s going to position me in a very peculiar place for the rest of the article, but I have to say it to properly frame everything that will come after…I think Man of Steel (2013) was a good depiction of Superman.
I think Henry Cavill’s depiction of specifically Superman and in a different timeline, probably could have been a decent Clark Kent. It’s not a perfect movie by any means (the death of Jonathan Kent being one of the more egregious moments of the film), but I felt it captured the larger than life nature of an extraterrestrial with superpowers. The last act set up what could have been an interesting interpretation of Superman, who has resolved not to kill after being forced to use force to stop Zod from killing innocent people.
However, we never got the chance to explore that as we were thrust into a series of movies that never let Superman be the focus, instead pitting him against a vague ideological opposite, positioning him as a tyrant, killing him, resurrecting him in a primal state, and then never really properly revisiting the character’s optimistic core. And during this time, we got a cavalcade of dark-Superman stories between Brightburn, The Boys, and Invincible that explored the dark implications of a near omnipotent being.
And these are interesting stories. Kingdom Come and Red Son are fascinating explorations of the character, but I think after a decade or so of the uber-serious ubermensch, I longed for a more uplifting version of the character. The CW’s Superwoman and Superman and Lois definitely erred more on the side of optimism, and the mythos lent itself to some good moments here and there, but never quite endeared itself to me to a point where I’d adore it. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t feel the need to proselytize it.
Enter My Adventures with Superman.
(Some potential spoilers interspersed throughout.)
I don’t think I can stress how much I didn’t know I needed this until I saw the trailer. And I don’t think I could have been happier when in the opening minutes of the pilot, a young Clark Kent adorned with that cool 90’s S on his shirt manages to save a woman from crashing into a tree and quietly discovering that he has superpowers. He immediately flies up to the sky with a goofy smile and immediately wonders about his origin. The story then picks up in the present where we get to meet our trio and the show draws fantastic parallels between Clark and Lois,and establishes all of the characteristics we have come to expect: Clark’s earnest Midwestern charm, Lois’s driven career nature, and Jimmy being Clark’s biggest hype man.
Throughout the first season, we see a truly modern version of the character. One with a more sci-fi bent, with the myth of the inaugural season revolving around repurpose Kryptonian tech. One with clear anime influences, helped brilliantly by Studio Mir giving Clark the magical girl transformation that we as a society didn’t know we needed until the glowing blue light subsumed our favorite flying brick. Also, they riffed off iconic nerd properties with a Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque redesign of Parasite, a bishonen Slade Wilson, and mechs…so many glorious mechas.
Episode 4 was a big one! The Ivo Tower gala space was designed by Roger Oda. Roger also build out a model for us to reference, which saved my butt because the BGs were massive so that we could have plenty of coverage. pic.twitter.com/nwoM2Zdbi8
— Molly Stanardavail. for work
It’s a story that recognizes that Superman’s story is an immigrant story, where Clark’s parents risked everything to get him to a safe haven without fully knowing if he would be accepted, and Clark having to reconcile with an unknown heritage and the inherent fear that society has of “the other.” It’s a story that recognizes that Clark Kent being a journalist is an integral part to the character, where the relentless search for truth and justice alongside Lois and Jimmy is how they grow and demonstrate their principles. We see them cultivate sources, investigate crime scenes, asking the hard questions to others (and themselves), and yes, break the rules, but it’s all in pursuit of a better world. It’s a story that positions the military as a reasonable antagonist, an entity that fears what they don’t understand to the point of doing anything they can to stop a perceived threat based on a prior incident.
Everything about this show is a brilliant balance of elements. It’s got triumphant music and incredible animation for both the high-octane action and the sweet tender moments of friendship and romance. It’s the way that the intro plays with a happy go-lucky guitar riff as our heroes valiantly face a menagerie of sci-fi villains. The way Jimmy keeps referring to a psychic starfish in Germany, how Lois wears a formal outfit inspired by the traditional Korean hanbock, how Martha Kent adds the finishing touches to her son’s costume.
Jack Quaid (who is having an absolutely incredible year between spots on The Boys, Oppenhiemer, Star Trek) brings a distinct earnesty to Clark, capturing the stalwart nature of the Man of the Steel and the questioning young adult still trying to figure things out. Alice Lee captures the energetic spirit of Lois, easily selling how the determined journalist in training draws the eyes of Clark. Ishmel Sahid gleefully matches the energy of the two folks in his inner circle who are a lot a lot. The supporting cast rounding out the world and just giving us such a complete version of Metropolis, Task Force X, and hints of a broader world.
At the time of writing, the season finale isn’t out, but I was in tears for the majority of episode 9 because it got the characters. It has enduring optimism. It has a sense of humor. The fact that Superman, that Clark constantly chooses to do good for no other reason than that he can. And it’s not like the story strays away from addressing the “Beware the Superman” tropes that have circulated in parallel (even going so far to make meaningful use of the Multiverse to stage some interesting conflicts that episode 10 will address if the promo is anything to go by).
It reminds me of Superman: For All Seasons, of the original Tomasi/Gleason run that got me invested in the character, of Christopher Reeves and Margot Kidder’s chemistry.
It shows a deep understanding and respect for the mythos and the current audience that needs a paragon type figure. It’s a fascinating, enthralling version of the “Boy Scout” and is a textbook case study on how to make an almost god-like character relatable and interesting. It’s yet another example why I think DC just needs to invest all of their money to animated properties because between this and Harley Quinn, there aren’t any superheroes stories coming close to the level of insight these series have on their characters and why we adore them.
So do yourself a favor and join me in watching and rewatching My Adventures with Superman to make sure that we don’t just get a second season, but a third, and fourth. And maybe some companion series set in the world. They took Young Justice from me, so I’m going to remain greedy when it comes to my heroes.
Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram!
The post Oh, So There Are Folks Who Understand Superman appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.