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In its inaugural year in Washington, DC, and second year in its hybrid format, the 4th Annual LightReel Film Festival (formerly the Lakefront Film Festival) today announced exclusive new live events, a new site, and its slate of virtual offerings. Running from June 8–10, 2023, LFF boasts a wide variety of national and international films, spotlighting a plethora of narrative and documentary features and shorts. Under its new name, LightReel Film Festival is excited to embody its new designation as a celebration of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) filmmaking, offering films that recognize diverse visual storytelling from across the globe.
This year, LFF features films from eight countries and five continents. While the streaming portion consists of more than 30 films including narrative features, documentaries, and shorts written, directed, or starring a person of color. From the comedy/drama, No No Girl, a tale of Japanese Americans dealing with a secret to the heart-wrenching Nigerian drama, Employee of the Month, the virtual portion of the festival amasses a wealth of deep and powerful insights into the human condition.
On Friday, June 9, 2023, LightReel will recognize the twentieth anniversary of the Brazilian masterpiece City of God as just one of its live events. In 2003, the independent film was a critical success receiving four Academy Award nominations for its true-life depiction of the gritty streets of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
Also on Friday, put on our headsets and plug in as LightReel opens its one-of-a-kind virtual reality (VR) lounge, The VR Experience, where patrons will enter a whole new world of interactive films through the lens of an Oculus headset! Curated by Adrian Rashad Driscoll, The VR Experience will welcome the return of Emmy Award-winning CNN host Van Jones with his The Messy Truth in VR series. This immersive digital lounge promises the most fully engaged film experience of any festival in the area.
“We are extremely excited that the vision of the LightReel Film Fest is coming to fruition in the Nation’s Capital. This year’s event continues our evolution, moving the festival experience forward with a great slate of BIPOC films and groundbreaking VR content,” stated Festival Director Tim Gordon. “We look forward to engaging audiences and ‘shining our light on attendees!”
The LightReel Film Festival is pleased to announce the Angelika Pop-Up at Union Market is its new home for live events. Because of its ease of accessibility, the Angelika is the ideal location for LFF live events, including the spotlight films and The VR Experience.
The entire slate, tickets, and passes for the can be found at: www.lightreelfilm.com. Tickets and passes for the LightReel Film Festival are on sale now. Individual tickets for online events are priced at $15 each. The Full Fest pass, which allows access to all the online films and the VR Experience, is only $75.
Follow the LightReel Film Festival on social media or the official site for more announcements, including the opening night film, the closing night film, secret events, and the annual talk series. Stay tuned!
About the LightReel Film Festival
The LightReel Film Festival is an annual showcase for cinematic talent hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African Americans in Film (FAAAF). The festival serves as an opportunity to inform, collaborate, entertain, and educate its audience through the cinematic achievements of a wide and diverse collection of filmmakers from around the world. From 2019 to the present day, the LightReel Film Festival has been a unique and immersive cultural experience for its community, filmmakers, and stakeholders.
My Broken Mariko is a manga that has forever changed me. Published by Yen Press in 2020, it is the heart wrecking journey a young woman takes to liberate her best friend–a task she couldn’t complete in life. however, now she strives to do so in death–with Mariko’s ashes, that is. Waka Hirako’s stunning self-contained volume of manga is a difficult read about friendship and redemption but one that I recommend for its narrative depth and hopeful ending.
I was rereading the manga and was emotionally overwhelmed by this particular image found on the inside of the dust cover of the physical copy. I found the very same image on the very last page of the manga where the credits of the creative team and other publishing information is. I wanted to write on how the simple repetition of sharing this image adds not only to the overall story of My Broken Mariko but to me as a reader when I think on my cannon of images that strike me as comforting and profound in manga.
Note: This editorial will explore the women who are centered in My Broken Mariko. Please know that while I do not spoil the entirety of the manga certain details are revealed and elaborated on. To avoid any spoilers, please consider reading this brilliant manga and returning to read this editorial if this caught your eye!
Trigger warnings: mention of suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence in work and in the written editorial below
Comforting Mariko
In comics, but especially manga it is not uncommon to see hugs, to see embraces on the page. Characters in love, rivals duking it out, or friends encouraging one another. Hugs meet different characters at different stages of their stories. When I first picked up My Broken Mariko and opened the manga, the very first image that I saw was this one: of a little girl being held by a woman. Their eyes were closed and seemingly nothing interrupted them. I thought of it, before reading the work, as a sweet, comforting piece of imagery. And then I read the tale that is Waka Hirako’s English debut work and I wanted to be held.
RE: My Broken Mariko by Waka Hirako
— Carrie "Silk Press SZN" McClain (@DivineBlkPearl) May 8, 2023
(Yen Press) I am forever gonna be inconsolable, by the creative team placing this image from the manga on the dust cover—top ten manga images that wrecked me—like HOLD ME FOREVER PLS, EMOTIONAL DAMAGEpic.twitter.com/h0bxeOYqv8
My Broken Mariko centers on Tomoyo Shiino, a burned-out office worker who needs way more than a good night’s sleep or even a stiff drink to make it through the week. Life is a bit crappy, but it’s a living–it’s her life. She is blind-sided to the ninth degree to learn that her best friend, Mariko who has survived an incredible dysfunctional life–where she had survived several instances of abuse–has died. Shiino has known Mariko since they were school aged girls and has known the darkness that has permeated in her friend’s life. Shiino had been an anchor in her friend’s life. No matter what happened to her or how much they had drifted away as adults, she was a lifeline to Mariko.
Shiino couldn’t protect her from her secretive violence of her father in her childhood or the cancerous romantic relationship that produced broken bones and self-deprecating jokes. In her own way, Shiino was there for Mariko who was never properly loved nor appreciated. The image that readers are presented with is an imaginary one: of an adult, Shiino embracing her friend Mariko who is depicted as a young girl. This image is one that never truly happens in their lifetime. In short, it is a comforting, if not heartbreaking image, to open with to hint at the journey a young woman takes to not only comfort the memory of a dear friend gone too soon but herself, who is now alone in the world.
Liberating Mariko
The event that acts as a catalyst for this entire trip that Shiino takes in My Broken Mariko is when she literally liberates Mariko’s ashes from her father’s home. Shiino bravely enters the home of this man who heaped on years of abuse on her friend starting when she was a little girl. We’re talking years of abuse: including the physical abuse from Shiino’s’s memory of coming to the house as a kid and seeing her young friend cowering at the door with a vivacious black eye. We’re also talking about the sexual abuse Shiino accuses Mariko’s father of forcing upon his daughter as a minor before Shiino takes off with her friend’s ashes. This horrible man who created most of the great tragedies in Mariko’s life now has her ashes in his home. It is a sickening image to stomach with the knowledge as a reader that I have now.
Again, this image of Shiino embracing her friend Mariko as a young girl takes on another grander meaning if we read this physical act as a way to liberate her from her abuser and tormentor. In the first chapter of My Broken Mariko, Shiino goes home after hearing the news and recalls a childhood memory of first recognizing that Mariko was an abused child and how powerless she felt, unable to save her. Before leaving for her friend’s childhood home, she even thinks to herself that she’s going to “liberate her best friend’s ashes, even if she has to stab someone to do it.” Mariko’s ashes are being kept at his home, a place she probably never wanted to return to.
This embrace is a liberating one. This image of them embracing has no association to being handled roughly or with malice. It is an embrace without violence. It is a defining image of female love and adoration via friendship that I have locked away in my heart for the rest of my days on this earth. Shiino and Mariko in each other’s arms is simply one of the most moving and heartbreaking images that manga has gifted me that I continue to come back to.
don’t know who worked on the book cover design/ dust jacket design for the English version but I know that’s the first image I opened up to when I got my physical copy & the last and the way I sobbed— great imagery to remind readers of the love for and reclaiming of Mariko
— Carrie "Silk Press SZN" McClain (@DivineBlkPearl) May 8, 2023pic.twitter.com/lKlUiqzZZl
Reclaiming Mariko
When I originally wrote about this blistering, brilliant yet saddening manga for the site, I mentioned that Shiino set out to redeem her dear friend but also herself as someone who could never truly save her destructive friend who moved from one trauma to the other in life. As hinted on the first page of the manga, Mariko takes her own life. Shiino is left with survivor’s guilt on top of the guilt she carried around from not being able to save the lost Mariko from the troubles she found herself in. This image of their embrace makes me weep when I think of Shiino seeking to reclaim her friend from the dark hole she was in when Mariko considered herself broken, worthless, and unlovable–an unwanted stain. The very hole that she perhaps could not get out of when she decided to take her own life.
What Shiino was unable to do in life for Mariko is pressed upon by what she does for her after her friend’s death. In the climax of the manga, Shiino physically uses Mariko’s ashes as a weapon to save a fleeing crying girl in distress as she’s running towards Shiino–a total stranger. It is a most poetic intervention where this grieving young woman sees her beloved friend in the many stages of her life seeking aid, crying, and reaching out–and acts to save a life, the life of a young woman in distress. This act of protecting this girl launches both Mariko’s ashes and Shiino forward off the very cliff that Shiino cried at. It is the very place where she cries out to Mariko asking her why she didn’t ask her to join her in death.
In the aftermath of the encounter, she’s approached by another person, a young man she meets in her journey with her friend’s ashes. They have a brief conversation where he too mentions that he was suicidal once and the epiphany he gained was to keep living. Taking care of yourself and taking care of the one you loved in your memories is perhaps the best way to honor that person and in spirit, reunite with them. It is important to note this may not be the best answer for everyone grieving from losing a loved one to suicide, yet it is, in the best spirit, what Shiino needed to hear to be able to return home. As a character who is both mourning a friend she feels she failed to save from committing suicide and is also dealing with suicidal ideations through the book, this is a powerful moment of clarity and gaining back agency in her life that she felt she was losing after hearing the news of Mariko’s death.
Seeing the two young women hugging again on the final page reminds me as a reader of the great love we have for our friends that helps carry us through grief and the darker stages of mourning. Friendships of women in particular on the page always hit differently for me when I read them written and created by other women. When interviewed by Nancy Powell and a question regarding the intensity of Mariko and Shiino’s friendship came up, Hirako included in her answer: “…that the experience of female friendship depicted in this manga is probably somewhat universal, to a degree.” The friendship in the manga wasn’t based on personal experience but what she concluded of any good friendship between women.
When I think of this, my interpretation emphasizes the fiery desire that women have that they use to protect each other in this life and the next. It is the same desire that I have inside me for the women and femmes that I am honored to call friend that keep us connected through distance and time. On the pages of manga, seeing Shiino and Mariko’s embrace reminds me of that desire. Acting as a symbolic gesture only reinforces that great love in such a profound way that it will never leave my mind, now. I once wrote that My Broken Mariko effectively defines heartbreak, survivor’s guilt, and closure on the page. It is my hope that this narrative about a woman’s journey to give a beloved friend a final sendoff deserving of her only comforts, liberates, and reclaims any readers in the same shoes who pick up this manga and start reading.
Reaching out is the first step to safety. If you or a loved one are having thoughts of suicide, a mental health professional can help. If you are currently in a state of distress, this website will direct you to dedicated crisis services. If you are outside the United States, please consider this helpline that includes online chat and phone lines for finding help and resources.
My Broken Mariko is available where comics and most manga are sold.
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The post Profound Images of Comfort Found in Manga (‘My Broken Mariko’) appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Here We Go Again, Again
This is happening, again. If you are a fan of the Fast franchise, fast-ten your seatbelts! See what I did there? They had a perfectly good, built-in tagline and didn’t even capitalize on it. Listen y’all, Fast X is back like it never left, because it never left. Hasn’t left for twenty-two years. Honestly? It’s been as good as it’ll ever be. As the spectacle gets larger and more spectacular, it begs the question: will it ever be ‘too much’?
How Much is Too Much?
The answer is no. There is no ‘too much’. Dom Toretto and the family are back again like the Hess truck at Christmas. Come to think of it, that would be a hell of a cross-promotion! As per usual, the stakes are higher than ever. Well, the stakes are where they always are, but they feel more stake-y. There’s no real way to critique a Fast movie, it exists in a pocket dimension outside of the rules of cinema. This franchise literally breaks all of the parameters of “good” filmmaking and is a leap of predictable cash grabs. Despite all of that, this is the most entertaining movie on Bast’s green Earth, and we have to live with that fact. I laughed every single time the camera slowly crawled toward Dom’s tortured, angry face. Let’s get into it.
The Review
Fast X does nothing new. But it does everything it does do, well. I know how that sounds, but it’s all true.
If you can name a plot mechanism that semi-threw you for a loop in the first nine movies, they all happen here in the span of just one flick. The Family trots the globe and engages in heists, answering to everyone and no one at the same time. Slick visuals, gratuitous shots of women dancing in exotic locales, dozens of modified cars, and product placement on par with the first Sonic movie, all of the pieces that make it visually scintillating remain. Cinematography and stuntwork are of the highest caliber since John Wick 4 (not that long ago). The fight choreo was very uninspired, but it’s filmed well – although it hasn’t really gotten better in a few movies. Cameos were top-notch. The franchise must really be in its final phase, because they are calling in every favor they ever had in Hollywood. Folks came out of the woodwork to get this check.
Two things do stand out in this movie. First, Fast has always held diversity in high regard. Not the vague, please the PoCs while not making the white folk uncomfortable type diversity, nah. I’m talking about the ‘put Tego Calderon, Don Omar, and Black Latinx folks up front in the Puerto Rico scenes’ diversity. Women in strong roles, men engaging in vulnerability with one another, and folks from all walks of pop culture adding their flavor to the Fast cameos. Fast X continues in that tradition of unwavering representation. Internationally known on the microphone with a cast hailing from every damn where.
A Very Expensive Joker Audition Tape
Secondly, what catches you by surprise is Jason Momoa’s heel turn as the bold antagonist Dante Reyes. The word that best describes Momoa’s performance is ‘unhinged:’ Flamboyantly dressed, methodical yet maniacal, and delivering the best lines in the entire film. This man is competing with Academy Award winner Charlize Theron (albeit it’s Fast X) and coming out on top. Honestly, his performance is the entire reason to see this movie. To be clear, Jason Momoa channeled the eccentric and creepy charisma of every iteration of The Joker, and it worked. It was different to see Momoa play the villain, especially one bucking gender expression norms when he’s usually cast as the hypermasculine lead.
This is a Live-Action Cartoon
Ever since that fate-ful entry into the franchise (See? Did it again.) Fate of the Furious, when these racers turned robbers turned rogue state vigilantes took down a drug kingpin; the whole series slipped into some alternate universe. A universe where two overclocked Dodge Charger SRT8s can pull a bank vault out of a wall located in a police station, and have it be manipulated as a weapon. In midday, rush hour traffic – which is beside the point. This moment in the fifth movie is a key point in the timeline that shifted things toward unbelievably unbelievable levels of madness. There’s a clear ‘point A’ to ‘point B’ connection from the safe heist in F5 to Dom doing parkour on London rooftops – in Timbs!?! Loosely laced?!
Things in Fast X proceed to move into the superhuman. We watched Dom take his muscle car off a gigantic municipal landmark while dodging liquid fire and defying gravity as we know it, only to emerge unscathed. Like, fam, not a glass scratch? Not a bruise from bouncing around inside a steel frame? No rug burn from the leather upholstery on them bucket seats? If that’s the case, this ain’t even a live-action movie. This is now a cartoon. Fast X has so much CGI stuntwork that it’s damn near a cartoon. If this came on FOX Kids when I was a teen, would’ve been neck and neck with X-Men ‘92. What’s wild is that they brought attention to this fact in Fast 9 introducing the most important moment in Roman’s (played by Tyrese Gibson) two-decade existence. But, I digress.
So much of the fight choreography, chase scenes, and even the dialogue is so totally unmoored from reality that this could easily be a B-grade MCU entry. That said, it’s amazing. It does everything it says it will do and there are no upper (or lower) limits to what this franchise will do to center family over everything. To be honest, they’re really losing out. At the present rate of spectacle, the last movie in this ending trilogy (yes, Fast X will arrive in three parts) should basically be a crossover with the Transformers and Jurassic franchises. Hell, throw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in there for giggles. It would still be believable.
This is Only the Beginning of the End
In typical Fast fashion (see, another one) this is the first of an ending trilogy and Fast X sends us off on two separate cliffhangers, because why not? Fast X goes for broke, swings for the fences, puts the pedal to the metal, and never stops never stopping. If you’re looking for non-stop action, badly placed humor, wacky pacing, and a relentless narrative, look no further. The Fast franchise has captured the minds and hearts of the world and has no limit in sight. The only thing they haven’t done is time travel. Although, Cipher did roll up in a DeLorean…Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
You can find Fast X in every movie theatre, everywhere. Check that out for a good time.
Watching Fast and the Furious? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
Cover image via Universal Pictures
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The post ‘Fast X’ Gon’ Give it to Ya: Part One Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Fast X might have been the first of a two (possibly three) part finale for the main franchise, but that didn’t stop it from raising a whole lot of questions. From the fate of main characters and the potential return of others, to missing figures and questionable allegiances, there’s still so much we need to learn before Dominic Toretto turns the NOS off forever. But which ones are the most pressing? These are the “X” biggest issues the Fast & Furious needs to address before it drives off into the sunset.
I: Did Tej, Roman, Han, and Ramsey really die in that plane crash?
C’moooon. We all know the answer: absolutely not. Those four are 100% alive. But there’s still intrigue around that plane crash. Exactly how did they survive? Did they have a tiny little glider like Jakob? Also, what awaits them on the ground? Will they now come to Dom and little Brian’s rescue? And how will all of this impact Han’s dating life? Those are actual Fast X questions that this furious franchise needs to give answers to.
II: Did Jakob do permanent emotional damage to little Brian in Fast X by having his nephew murder people?
We’re comfortable also giving this one an unequivocal “no,” because there are rarely any real stakes or long-lasting consequences in this franchise. But this moment was so absurd it would be professional pop culture malpractice not to address it. Jakob really, really shouldn’t have let his young nephew murder people when he could have simply fired his car cannon himself. So why did he do it? That should cause serious, lasting emotional damage to a child. It won’t, but it should!
Oh, yeah, he also saw his Uncle Jakob blow up. And a madman kidnapped him before trying to crush him with two semi-trucks. We’re very worried about young Brian and hope to find out he’s miraculously un-phased by all of this.
III: Will Dom and Little B survive Dante’s dam flood?
Okay, obviously some of these Fast X questions are not really up for debate. That burst dam is more likely to drown Jason Momoa’s Aquaman than it is the invincible Fast & Furious Superman known as Dominic Toretto. The intrigue around Fast X‘s big cliffhanger is exactly how he and his son will avoid certain death from a literal dam-sized flood. We’re expecting their escape will be absurd, physically impossible, and a whole lot of fun. So, you know, exactly what we love about these movies.
IV: Did John Cena’s Jakob really die in Fast X?
Wow, a question that doesn’t already have a definitive and obvious answer! Now we’re driving with NOS! In any other franchise entry we’d say there’s no way Jakob actually died. Letty and Han both survived exploding cars. But the end of the main franchise will likely need some permanent deaths for it to have a real emotional impact. And those previous fake-outs weren’t shown in slow-motion like Jakob’s apparent sacrifice, so there’s reason to think this one was really different.
Obviously John Cena can come back (we won’t argue with those who believe he definitely will), but this might be the rare Fast & Furious death that sticks.
V: Is Isabela Neves’ sister Elena really dead?
Speaking of dead characters, Fast X revealed the late Elena Neves had a younger sister named Isabela. She’s a talented street racer and a literal member of the Fast family. (She’s little Brian’s aunt.) With the Neves clan taking on a bigger role in the franchise, is it possible Elena will be the next character to come back from the dead? It wouldn’t even be that hard to explain. Cipher is twisted enough to have faked Elena’s death specifically sho she could use her as leverage over Dom a second time.
VI: Where is Tess’s Dad Mr. Nobody?
The world is on the brink and yet Mr. Nobody remains MIA. Is he hiding, dead, captured, or trapped in a Cyclops’ cave? (Wait, strike that last one. Wrong Nobody.) We don’t know where the Agency’s former leader is or what happened to him. All we know is his fast-driving associates and their new ally Tess, his own daughter, could really use his help stopping the maniacal Dante. So where is Mr. Nobody and why hasn’t he been around for multiple movies? The answer to this question might be the most important one in the whole franchise.
VII: What other targets of Dante Reyes’ vengeance will return to the franchise?
Dante Reyes wants to make any and all associates of Dominic Toretto suffer. His vision board showed countless faces from Dom’s past, including Eva Mendes’ Monica Fuentes. Will she return to the franchise like Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs has? What other figures from Fast‘s past will also return for this final ride? Luke Evans? Anyone who ever bought a crappy tuna sandwich from Mia? Everyone who has ever known Dom and his friends is now in danger and therefore a candidate to come back. Except for the guy in the tightey whities Deckard Shaw beat up.
VIII: Why did Gal Gadot’s Gisele return now?
We covered this absurd resurrection in-depth. It’s possible (likely?) Mr. Nobody helped Gal Gadot’s Gisele go into hiding just as he did with Han previously. But who aided her isn’t as important as why she faked her death in the first place. And why did she choose to come out of hiding now? We have a million questions about Gisele’s missing ten years, and somehow her showing up on giant submarine isn’t even in the top 900,000 things we’re confused about.
IX: Is Charlize Theron’s Cipher a part of the Fast family now?
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, but does that make them family? That’s the question Fast X raised about the franchise’s longtime villain Cipher. After a brutal fight her and Letty worked together to escape an Agency black site in Antarctica where a waiting Gisele found them. Are they formally working together against Dante? If so, does that mean Charlize Theron’s Cipher now part of the Toretto extended family the way so many other franchise foes have joined up with them? We hope not, but we can’t rule it out, especially if it turns out she didn’t actually kill Elena.
X: Will we ever see Brian return (in any way) on screen?
Ever since Paul Walker’s death the franchise has explained his character’s absence by saying Brian is keeping his kids safe when things get dangerous. But with the Fast & Furious coming to an end will we actually “see” Brian in some capacity? Could Walker return to help save the day via CGI or old footage like Carrie Fisher in The Rise of Skywalker? Or will they show Brian (maybe played by one of his brother’s again like in Furious 7) from behind, possible walking with his wife Mia or hugging Dom?
The Fast franchise has never forgotten its friend Paul. Will it also keep a role open for Brian in their farewell? It’s been a long time since he rode with them and it feels like we’ll see him again before this family’s story comes to an end.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
The post X Big Questions We Need Answered After FAST X appeared first on Nerdist.