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Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster have been crafting visual stories for decades. Their expressive storytelling counters stereotypes of people of color, showing their subjects drawing upon personal strength and culture while challenging the status quo.
The co-directing couple has gained acclaim for Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, a hybrid documentary celebrating Giovanni’s lasting impact as a poet, artist, and social commentator. This cultural icon gets her flowers in this film for being an outspoken truth-teller on racism, sexism, and other social issues.
BGN had the pleasure of speaking with these thought-provoking filmmakers via Zoom about their work on the Going to Mars project, visualizing Nikki Giovanni’s significance to the culture, and why telling our stories is crucial.
First, let me say that this film was beautiful. It is complex and rich with all the archival footage. Nikki Giovanni is so significant to the culture across generations. Can you speak about the plan for this film and how you wanted to frame the presentation?
Michèle Stephenson: We didn’t want it to be an expose on what happened to her at this point in her life, who hated her, or what was her reaction to this and those kinds of conventional devices we sometimes see, especially in the commercial space that we wanted to avoid. We wanted to still stay very intimate and emotional as well.
She is reckoning with the passing of time, as well as reconciling relationships with her son, granddaughter, and partner. It was evident that throughout the film that she has very clear boundaries about what she will answer or explore. How did you go about making that a seamless part of the film?
Joe Brewster: Well, it’s always an issue with every film. The characters have boundaries. Sometimes they will tell you and sometimes you have to learn by trial and error. I would say that hers were fairly clear; clearer than most. There were other things we discovered. But our process is to discover those and move beyond them.
What we discovered is that most of what we needed to know was in a poem somewhere. You hear very early on that these are obstacles she has with memories. It’s in the opening credits. She establishes those boundaries, and we’re very intentional about letting the audience know this is what we are experiencing. The beauty of that is later on we’re able to use that in the telling of the story. Case in point, when she completely refuses to remember one of her most famous poems about the death of Martin Luther King. We have a cornucopia of vehicles that tells stories on different levels, sometimes parallel.
MS: The seamlessness that you mentioned? It comes from a lot of hard work of clunkiness and being able to be self-aware enough to realize where the clunkiness comes in and whether something is working or not. You have a particular vision as a director but the end result is often out of a communal conversation because you want the guidance or the feedback that helps you get to the finishing of the film.
This is where we often debated back and forth of whether we were going to be not just transparent but to fully center her boundaries in the film. We realized this was very important. You’ll see that her explaining her boundaries happens in rhythms. We set it up with more of the dramatic ones. In some ways, that intentional insurgence is about her personality development revealing who is really is and how she negotiates her own vulnerability.
This is very important when we see this boundary come back not just in the audience discussion over Martin Luther King’s assassination but we see it in the boundaries with her son. Those moments are really important to explain her reaction to an audience member or her harsh boundaries with her son. We need to understand that refusal to be vulnerable in her most painful moments, being the driving force, is how she sets boundaries at whatever cost. The stubbornness comes from this place that’s quite deep that we reveal in the first few minutes of the film. It allows us to take the journey from a particular perspective that embraces complexity and contradiction.
Taraji P. Henson gives voice (so amazingly, by the way) to the poems, and she’s also one of the executive producers. How did she come on board for this project?
JB: We were gifted that via Nikki. Nikki would not read some of her older work but did not stand in the way of it being in the film. So, we initially found someone, a teacher here in Brooklyn, who was amazing but we lost her. We decided to broaden our search. Our producer, Tommy Oliver from Confluential Films, had a personal relationship with Taraji. She was very busy and on her way to Asia for a mental health break. She called and said she had a few hours, let’s go!
We found a studio there, tapped in via Zoom, and we had a session in which she read seven poems over the course of two to three hours. She knocked them out of the park. It’s a reoccurring voice that might be Nikki’s younger voice or interpreted as her younger voice. Taraji was so powerful. We’re deeply grateful for her collaboration because it definitely brought the film to a whole other level for us.
What are you hoping people receive from the film? What are you hoping people feel?
JB: There may be obstacles but there is a way to love, to grow, to be in community, even though there are hard knocks. Nikki’s relationship with Gus, her father, is about as traumatic as you can have as a child. But she took that and, in her own way, rose above that. Her work tells us that we can rise above. She will not discuss things that make her unhappy. But I was gifted with her work and it inspired me not to think about the trauma that we are bombarded with every day by the media. Instead was the reminder that there was a love in my community and excellence in my community. Hopefully, the audience will not lose sight of that.
MS: There is a moment in the film when Nikki is talking to her students, and she mentions that you can’t be happier, five or ten years down the road, when someone reads your poem and tells you how much it moved them. But you didn’t do that poem to teach or to lecture. So, I think it’s the soul of the film, in terms of us as artists. We were gifted with this experience and this artistry Nikki provided us. We did a remix based on our own sources of pain and search for healing that in some ways only art can provide as a balm. Then you share it out there and see how it lands. My hope is that as we share this, people are bringing their own interpretations and maybe see things we never expected. That is really what art is about and what keeps us surviving and thinking.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project coming soon to Max.
Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster have been crafting visual stories for decades. Their expressive storytelling counters stereotypes of people of color, showing their subjects drawing upon personal strength and culture while challenging the status quo.
The co-directing couple has gained acclaim for Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, a hybrid documentary celebrating Giovanni’s lasting impact as a poet, artist, and social commentator. This cultural icon gets her flowers in this film for being an outspoken truth-teller on racism, sexism, and other social issues.
BGN had the pleasure of speaking with these thought-provoking filmmakers via Zoom about their work on the Going to Mars project, visualizing Nikki Giovanni’s significance to the culture, and why telling our stories is crucial.
First, let me say that this film was beautiful. It is complex and rich with all the archival footage. Nikki Giovanni is so significant to the culture across generations. Can you speak about the plan for this film and how you wanted to frame the presentation?
Michèle Stephenson: We didn’t want it to be an expose on what happened to her at this point in her life, who hated her, or what was her reaction to this and those kinds of conventional devices we sometimes see, especially in the commercial space that we wanted to avoid. We wanted to still stay very intimate and emotional as well.
She is reckoning with the passing of time, as well as reconciling relationships with her son, granddaughter, and partner. It was evident that throughout the film that she has very clear boundaries about what she will answer or explore. How did you go about making that a seamless part of the film?
Joe Brewster: Well, it’s always an issue with every film. The characters have boundaries. Sometimes they will tell you and sometimes you have to learn by trial and error. I would say that hers were fairly clear; clearer than most. There were other things we discovered. But our process is to discover those and move beyond them.
What we discovered is that most of what we needed to know was in a poem somewhere. You hear very early on that these are obstacles she has with memories. It’s in the opening credits. She establishes those boundaries, and we’re very intentional about letting the audience know this is what we are experiencing. The beauty of that is later on we’re able to use that in the telling of the story. Case in point, when she completely refuses to remember one of her most famous poems about the death of Martin Luther King. We have a cornucopia of vehicles that tells stories on different levels, sometimes parallel.
MS: The seamlessness that you mentioned? It comes from a lot of hard work of clunkiness and being able to be self-aware enough to realize where the clunkiness comes in and whether something is working or not. You have a particular vision as a director but the end result is often out of a communal conversation because you want the guidance or the feedback that helps you get to the finishing of the film.
This is where we often debated back and forth of whether we were going to be not just transparent but to fully center her boundaries in the film. We realized this was very important. You’ll see that her explaining her boundaries happens in rhythms. We set it up with more of the dramatic ones. In some ways, that intentional insurgence is about her personality development revealing who is really is and how she negotiates her own vulnerability.
This is very important when we see this boundary come back not just in the audience discussion over Martin Luther King’s assassination but we see it in the boundaries with her son. Those moments are really important to explain her reaction to an audience member or her harsh boundaries with her son. We need to understand that refusal to be vulnerable in her most painful moments, being the driving force, is how she sets boundaries at whatever cost. The stubbornness comes from this place that’s quite deep that we reveal in the first few minutes of the film. It allows us to take the journey from a particular perspective that embraces complexity and contradiction.
Taraji P. Henson gives voice (so amazingly, by the way) to the poems, and she’s also one of the executive producers. How did she come on board for this project?
JB: We were gifted that via Nikki. Nikki would not read some of her older work but did not stand in the way of it being in the film. So, we initially found someone, a teacher here in Brooklyn, who was amazing but we lost her. We decided to broaden our search. Our producer, Tommy Oliver from Confluential Films, had a personal relationship with Taraji. She was very busy and on her way to Asia for a mental health break. She called and said she had a few hours, let’s go!
We found a studio there, tapped in via Zoom, and we had a session in which she read seven poems over the course of two to three hours. She knocked them out of the park. It’s a reoccurring voice that might be Nikki’s younger voice or interpreted as her younger voice. Taraji was so powerful. We’re deeply grateful for her collaboration because it definitely brought the film to a whole other level for us.
What are you hoping people receive from the film? What are you hoping people feel?
JB: There may be obstacles but there is a way to love, to grow, to be in community, even though there are hard knocks. Nikki’s relationship with Gus, her father, is about as traumatic as you can have as a child. But she took that and, in her own way, rose above that. Her work tells us that we can rise above. She will not discuss things that make her unhappy. But I was gifted with her work and it inspired me not to think about the trauma that we are bombarded with every day by the media. Instead was the reminder that there was a love in my community and excellence in my community. Hopefully, the audience will not lose sight of that.
MS: There is a moment in the film when Nikki is talking to her students, and she mentions that you can’t be happier, five or ten years down the road, when someone reads your poem and tells you how much it moved them. But you didn’t do that poem to teach or to lecture. So, I think it’s the soul of the film, in terms of us as artists. We were gifted with this experience and this artistry Nikki provided us. We did a remix based on our own sources of pain and search for healing that in some ways only art can provide as a balm. Then you share it out there and see how it lands. My hope is that as we share this, people are bringing their own interpretations and maybe see things we never expected. That is really what art is about and what keeps us surviving and thinking.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project coming soon to Max.
The immortal John Witherspoon will be forever missed. His comedic genius was paralleled only by the life lessons he imparted to a new generation of men and women both in his TV roles and his voice acting. Robert Jebediah Freemen, affectionately known as Grandad from The Boondocks animated series — brilliantly voiced by the very same John Witherspoon — was the animated embodiment and an inexhaustible fountain of these great life lessons and moments.
Robert’s old-school approach to life, combined with the attempts to navigate the modern world and societal norms while also raising two very spirited grandsons, Huey and Riley, provided the audiences with a treasure trove of life lessons that transcend the boundaries of the fictional suburb in which they lived. So, we’re here to explore five life lessons from Grandad from The Boondocks that taught us about life, love, and Woodcrest.
Appreciating Differences
Grandad really values his friends — as most of them are… well, dead. However, his interactions with the living, like Uncle Ruckus and Tom and Sara DuBois, highlight another important lesson: the value of appreciating differences in those we deem friends. Grandad’s relationship with Uncle Ruckus is perhaps among the most complex in the show because the latter always provides viewpoints that starkly contrast Grandad’s beliefs. Yet again, Grandad tolerates Ruckus and engages with him in a begrudging friendship.
Something similar could be said about his relationship with the DuBois family. Tom and Sara are an interracial couple, which contrasts Grandad’s more traditional views; he never wanted to be friends with them, but his tolerance of them speaks volumes about how Grandad sees friendship — it’s not about agreement on all aspects of life, it’s about understanding and respecting different perspectives.
Remember Where You Come From
Throughout much of the series, Grandad often reminisced about the old days. This portrayed him as a grumpy old man and sometimes relic of the past who more often than not was just trying to find his footing in the present, which provides great entertainment value because he would often fail hilariously in his attempts to adapt to the new ways of a social media fueled era.
However, as often as he might’ve struggled with contemporary societal trends — like modern dating, entrepreneurship, and trying to be “cool” with the new kids — he never allowed anything to shake his core values. From his insistence on discipline to his respect for tradition, Grandad showed the audiences that it’s possible to adapt to change, or at least try to, without losing sight of where you come from.
It’s Never Too Late
Grandad’s love life in the series was a rollercoaster, and his romantic escapades ranged from pursuing a young gold digger to his entanglement with a kung-fu master of the White Lotus style — the deadliest styler there is, according to the Boondocks’ own master martial artist, Huey. So, it’s safe to say that Grandad’s relationships were nothing if not complicated. Through his amorous misadventures, Grandad exposed the multifaceted nature of love and relationships, showing us that love isn’t all that simple.
This actually teaches us a few valuable lessons. It’s never too late to seek love, but one must approach it with a mix of soft heart and discernment because love, as integral as it can be to the human experience, can also be quite messy and challenging. Grandad’s relationships throughout the series taught us about the pitfalls of infatuation, the importance of self-respect, seeing beyond the surface, and having the courage to walk away from toxic situations, especially if you’re dating a White Lotus kung-fu master who has been raised by wolves.
Value Community
To be entirely honest, Grandad often seems very self-centered throughout the whole show, but the truth is that his interactions with other residents of Woodcrest, hilarious as they might be, illustrate the importance of community. His actions in the show, from his attempts to start a business to standing up to local bullies and dealing with neighborly disputes, showed us that being a part of a community means actively contributing to said community, not just living in it.
Humor Is a Survival Tool
Using humor to cope with the seriousness and difficulties in life is perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from Grandad. Amidst all the chaos and the challenges associated with trying to raise his two grandsons, struggling with contemporary trends, finding love, and trying to be an active member of the Woodcrest community, Grandad often employed humor to navigate through life’s complications. Grandad’s witty one-liners and deadpan deliveries are the embodiment of humor that reminds us that laughter can be the best of medicines when it seems like the times are tough.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Grandad’s character was a treasure trove of real-life lessons; he was far from the perfect character, but he was very real. Despite being a fictionalized amalgamation of forgotten civil rights figures and disgruntled AARP members, the lessons he taught us about life remain universal, as they remind us of the values that make us who we are and the humor that keeps us going.
Even ghosts need a day job. That’s where we find the pair of British boy spirits at the heart of Netflix’s new series, Dead Boy Detectives. Comic book characters created by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner in the pages of The Sandman, the duo eventually appeared in several DC and Vertigo titles before headlining their own 12-issue series plus a number of other short spurts. As part of Geeked Week, the streaming giant has released the first trailer for Dead Boy Detectives, which finds ghost gumshoes Charles and Edwin up against loads of supernatural problems, and death itself.
Steve Yockey, creator of Max’s The Flight Attendant, developed Dead Boy Detectives for Max originally. Given that streaming service’s rampant offloading, we’re lucky Netflix decided to pick it up. This also means this series can officially exist within Netflix’s Sandman universe. Good news for you, Gaimanites out there. The two dead boys had previously appeared on Doom Patrol, but those were different versions of the characters and won’t related to this show.
The official synopsis for the Dead Boy Detectives series is as follows:
Do you have a pesky ghost haunting you? Has a demon stolen your core memories? You may want to ring the Dead Boy Detectives. Meet Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), “the brains” and “the brawn” behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts… who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.
No release date as yet for the Dead Boy Detectives, but the trailer looks fun, and we’re hoping that translates to the full series.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
The post Netflix Unveils First DEAD BOY DETECTIVES Teaser appeared first on Nerdist.
As the holiday season approaches, we take this time to partake in the capitalist tradition of showing our affection and care for others in our lives by the purchasing of digital and physical goods. There is something nice about getting something for that special someone who reads, collects, and enjoys manga. Here’s a quick opportunity to share some of the gift suggestions I think the manga head in your life might appreciate this holiday season. It’s not a comprehensive list by any means but consider it a jumping off point for you and anyone else who needs some recommendations as we head into December!
A Gift for Them that’s Really a Gift for Everyone (Because Sharing is Caring)
I’m talking about manga box sets. While box sets *can* be pricey, they are a terrific gift for the manga reader in your life who wants a complete series to pour over and immerse themselves in. A box set for manga readers is ideal for someone who just started a series and knows that they want to read more, a lot more of it. It is also an ideal gift for someone who always wanted to read so-and-so and now–they can when they open up your gift! The fun thing about these is that you can read them and share them around–if that’s your thing. Sure, it’s a gift for them that they also can share with you!
Additionally, manga box sets usually come with extra goodies like double-sided posters and other exclusives that aren’t usually found just anywhere. It used to be that manga box sets were a little hard to find but now, you can find them in multiple places like big chain stores like Walmart to Bookshop, BooksAMillion and more! One tip with Black Friday and other sales coming up is that you shop around and price check if there is a certain box set that you’re thinking of buying and gifting!
For the Folks who have (Almost) Everything
We all have *that* person in our lives who loves manga and has nearly everything–so what to give them? Can I suggest an official guidebook to a series that they may adore, artbook, or better yet, a spin-off manga that focuses on food? From the more popular Spy x Family: The Official Guide-Eyes Only for those who love the anime, have all the manga volumes and would devour anything related to the series, this guide book Includes behind-the-scenes details covering the first nine volumes of the hit manga, as well as tribute illustrations from 16 artists, including Hajime Isayama (Attack on Titan), Yuji Kaku (Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku), and Kazue Kato (Blue Exorcist)!
For a more unique gift idea not tied to a hugely popular IP, I’d suggest the Steam Reverie in Amber artbook by Kuroimori. Seven Seas Entertainment published the full-color steampunk artbook & manga collection hardcover–includes all 22 Major Arcana as removable tarot cards! This is such a beautiful release from an award-winning Japanese artist who contributed to Final Fantasy art that some creative in your life who enjoys artbook might adore. Here’s a quick flip through of the gorgeous book if you want a look!
Lastly, what about a cookbook…or manga that can function as one? The wildly popular Witch Hat Atelier manga series is still going strong, and the spinoff manga series focusing on the magic in the kitchen is now available with an English translation. We’re told that this “culinary spinoff that lets readers try their hand at recreating a variety of sumptuous recipes. This time, the magic is in the kitchen as Qifrey and the gang whip up everything from sizzling stews to crackling croquettes”. The manga Includes a variety of real sweet and savory recipes with step-by-step instructions.
For the Anime Watchers in the Chat:
Here’s an overlapping category for this gift guide–manga series for the more recent anime series that finished seasons–are that overlooked and overrated! Like, sure you could pick up One Piece or anything else edging towards that longevity and popularity and that’s fine. Here are some series that may have gone under your radar: Bocchi The Rock! follows a shy, awkward, and lonely high school student who dreams of being in a band. Both the source material–the manga and the anime adaptation have wowed folks with its tackling of social anxiety and a heartfelt exploration of the struggle and joys of one girl’s teenage years. I would label it slice of life for teen readers.
Heavenly Delusion aka Tengoku Daimakyou certainly pushed the envelope on adapting a manga with an incredible story about dreams, adolescents, and reality. So much so that I considered the anime (my review here) a hidden gem of sorts, earlier this year. The manga’s story takes place after some calamity has befallen Japan, and the place is mostly a wasteland with survivors here and there. (I wrote a bit about my first impressions here.) Some children are hidden away sheltered in a sort of paradise, and others eking out a living. I found myself immediately invested in this engaging dark story of survival, growing up, and living a life–manufactured or not. It is without a doubt for older readers 16+ and up!
Kids Just Want to Have Fun
Kids check out manga from the library. Kids read manga. Kids buy manga. Kids love manga. Kids are certainly recommending manga to each other and telling their peers which series are mid and which series are must reads. If we know all this to be true, why wouldn’t you consider buying the kids who are manga lovers in your life, a volume or two–or three? If the question on your brain is: what to buy? I’ve bought Witch Hat Atelier and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun for a friend’s middle schooler who loves female protagonists and also spooky things.
I’ve also recommended Haikyu!! for a teenager who loved Edward Elric of Fullmetal Alchemist and hilariously requested another short king. I gladly offered up to volleyball loving Shoyo Hinata. I personally follow updates from Ashley Hawkins’s blog, the Manga Librarian and would also recommend Sara Smith’s blog, The Graphic Library. Barnes & Nobles has a kid-friendly guide for manga and graphic novels for the younger ones. I like this list of titles of Manga & Light Novels for Middle School. Other faves of mine that I always recommend are My Neighbor Seki and Yotsuba&! which are series read and loved by kids and adults alike.
For the Digital Only Folks
Consider purchasing access to a manga app like my favorites: Azuki! and buying them a Premium membership! Gift memberships cost $4.99 for one month of Premium and codes never expire. I have covered a number of titles from the app like My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files, SUZUKI JUST WANTS A QUIET LIFE, Tsukiko and the Satellite and Other Stories and Wakakozake. There are a number of manga apps out there but in my research I couldn’t find many gift options or gift subscriptions.
I found that you also can gift folks manga and related items like light novels on the Bookwalker website. The one catch is that I believe that they must have an account to read said manga, gift codes are valid for 180 days from its purchase, and can be only used once. I do like Bookwalker for its web-based reading format as well as its mobile one.
Fancy Disclaimer: I have not received any of these items in consideration of making this gift guide. This is just a short and sweet fun little guide that I wanted to put together! If you find it helpful in your holiday shopping, please let me know in the comments or on social media!
See our gift guides from previous years here.
Love manga? So do we! Check out more manga reviews and related content here!
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The post The Gift Guide for the Manga Lovers in Your Life appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.