Houston, TX – In the last six months, there have been a few really good pro-Black films: Moonlight, Get Out, and Sleight. The most recent addition to the list of Black Lives Matter era films is director Benny Boom's All Eyez on Me, a movie that chronicles the life of rapper Tupac Shakur. Unlike some films about famous rappers such as Get Rich or Die Trying (50-Cent) and 8 Mile(Eminem), All Eyez on Me has a strong focus on the political dimension of Tupac's music. It also gives a beautiful portrait of his life and the incredible passion with which he made great hip hop music.
2016 has been a year marked by many important struggles for justice, and also by the ascent of reactionary right wing politics to the White House. All of our movements will face big battles in 2017 as Donald Trump and his band of billionaires and generals take the reigns of power. Here’s some new music from the past year that can help inspire us to carry forward and strengthen our movements for the struggles to come. These are only a sampling of songs from this year; if you want to add more that have inspired you, comment on the article on facebook.
Every December, I put together my list of top 10 movies for the year. Usually I've missed a couple that would probably make the list, and this year is no different – The Birth of a Nation; Snowden and Weiner, to name three. Nevertheless, here's my Top 10 of 2016:
It's October, which means scary movie marathons are underway in living rooms and movie theaters across the country. Since the release of Nosferatu in 1922 to present day, horror films remain widely popular among audiences. All art reflects the social, political and economic conditions around it, and at its best, the horror genre allows us to work out our collective fears and anxieties about the world. I've found that horror flicks provoke some of the most interesting discussions, often serving as a springboard for exploring bigger political and social questions. Along those lines, this is the first of three horror movies I'll look at over the month of October in Fight Back! News.
Highlights the need for a alliance between the working class and the Black liberation movement
It's hard to imagine a movie like Free State of Jones coming out at a better time. A little over a year ago, a white supremacist murdered nine Black members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, drawing inspiration from the Confederate States of America (CSA) and the KKK. In response, activists battled to tear down the Confederate flag from state buildings and won. All of this took place exactly 150 years after the end of the Civil War.
Chicago, IL – The Free State of Jones is a movie, now playing in Chicago, that portrays the story of how poor white farmers and slaves rebelled against the Confederacy during the Civil War of 1861-65. This movie was directed by Gary Ross and written by Leonard Hartman and Gary Ross. It’s about two and a half hours long.
I went into Eli Roth's The Green Inferno with very low expectations. Boasting the tagline, “No good deed goes unpunished,” this 2015 horror film follows the gory demise of a group of college student activists from the U.S. who get captured, tortured and eaten by a cannibalistic tribe in the Amazon rainforest.
The minute I read the first sentence of the opening crawl – “Luke Skywalker has vanished” – I knew I was watching Star Wars again. Indeed, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, delivered the goods that fans of the original trilogy craved out of the extremely underwhelming prequel movies. Director J.J. Abrams mixed a potent cocktail of original storytelling, proven plot elements, dynamic new characters and familiar actors (Harrison Ford giving his best performance in 25 years). Over the film's 135-minute runtime, I felt the same childhood sense of awe and excitement that I experienced as a seven year-old watching the original films for the first time.
Houston, TX – Jay Roach’s new movie, Trumbo, is an excellent film about the American communist screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo. The film is a biography of Trumbo’s life, his political commitments and the severe repression he faced during the U.S. government’s blacklisting campaign of Hollywood leftists in the 1950s. Unlike most Hollywood films, Trumbo paints communists in a very favorable light, showing that they were committed to the fight for social justice and the struggle to improve the lives of working people.
'3½ Minutes' highlights that racism, not ‘loud music,’ was at the center of Dunn Trial
Jacksonville, FL – Duval County became the center of international attention following the murder of 17-year-old African American youth Jordan Davis by a racist vigilante in 2012. Jordan, along with three friends, was shot in a parked SUV at a gas station by Michael Dunn, a white 46-year-old man. After state prosecutors failed to win a guilty verdict for the first-degree murder charge of killing Jordan, Dunn was retried and eventually convicted in 2014, receiving a sentence of 90-plus years in prison.
Fort Lauderdale, FL – 20 anti-war activists gathered here, April 19, to watch and discuss Citizenfour, the critically acclaimed documentary. The movie tells the story of courageous National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden. In 2013, Snowden went into hiding and then revealed the shocking extent to which the U.S. government spies on people. Snowden also revealed the U.S. government is using illegal spying methods for the purpose of political repression.
The delegation of anti-war activists from the U.S. have been staying at a fancy, old hotel right by Red Square in Moscow. The Metropol is over 100 years old.
Washington, DC – At a Feb. 3 press conference in Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hong Lei, stated that China is against any meeting between President Obama and the Tibetan separatist leader, the Dalai Lama.
Chicago, IL – The movie Selma is a dramatic portrayal of how history was made by African American men, women and children and their white allies in Alabama, the cradle of the confederacy. It’s about people who decided to take a stand and make the ultimate sacrifice. The opening scene is in Birmingham where the KKK blew up more Black churches than anywhere in the U.S. Thus right away we are thrust into the thick of things, the real dirt and blood of battle of the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s with all the emotional and physical pain one can bear. Through the eye of the camera we are immediately swept into the graphically violent acts of KKK terror.
Los Angeles, CA – The movie Cesar Chavez by Mexican actor/producer Diego Luna again puts the public eye on the injustices and harsh working conditions of the mostly Mexicano farm workers in the U.S. It also covers the early history of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) and its first strike and the successful grape boycott against the growers. The movie was funded by mostly Mexican investors and shot entirely in Sonora, Mexico, as it was not a priority for U.S. film makers.
Russian war epic holds lessons for U.S. audiences on modern day crisis in Ukraine
Last year, I might have thought of Stalingrad as an interesting history lesson. But when I sat down in the theater to watch the new Russian war epic last weekend, all I could think about was the crisis in Ukraine.
Milwaukee, WI – Nearly 50 Palestine solidarity activists disrupted a speech hosted by the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation on Jan. 30. The event featured Ron Leshem, the original producer of the Israeli television series Hatufim, which was adapted for U.S. television as the series Homeland.
Milwaukee, WI – Nearly 50 Palestine solidarity activists disrupted a speech hosted by the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation on Jan. 30. The event featured Ron Leshem, the original producer of the Israeli television series Hatufim, which was adapted for U.S. television as the series Homeland.
