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Justin Simien’s four-part documentary series “Hollywood Black” spotlights the impacts, challenges and triumphs of Black pioneers in Hollywood. And the doc’s first episode tackles the industry’s earliest portrayals of Black people in media, including minstrels and stereotypical characters — but also the Black leaders who set out to change the narrative.

“Cinema is not really possible without Blackness. For starters, Black is literally the thing that all cinema fades in from and fades out to,” Simien narrates in the series. “From its very beginnings, Hollywood has been fascinated with Blackness. Not only are we the first subjects in early motion pictures, but we are also the subject of the first blockbusters, early animation and of course, the first talkie.”

“In fact, every time Hollywood is looking to reinvent itself or expand its reach, it tends to do so with Black bodies,” Simien adds. “Consciously or not, Black faces make money,...

Justin Simien’s Hollywood Black, an edifying if focus-challenged four-part docuseries about the central yet under-appreciated African American contributions to cinema history, comes with a couple of semi-contradictions.

The documentary’s entire premise is based on the inadequacy of how film schools address the topic, yet it’s inspired by the book by Donald Bogle, whose Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks has been indispensable in cultural studies classes for 50 years. It presumably aims to bring its topic to the widest possible modern audience, but does so on a streaming service — MGM+ — whose footprint is rooted in the past and nearly negligible in the present.

Full of fascinating conversations with fascinating people and packed with interest-piquing clips, Hollywood Black nevertheless falls well short of resembling a definitive documentary on the subject. But even well-informed viewers are bound to come away with several insights and a few overlooked texts to seek out.

Before the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened its doors in 2021, even senior staffers were surprised by the depth of Black film history that dwelt in its archives. Looking through the film posters and memorabilia from race movies of the early 20th century, co-curator Doris Berger found herself amazed and chagrined. She had stumbled on a treasure trove and heritage she knew little about.

Berger is not alone and her experience isn’t surprising. The foundational titles most of us know and gravitate to first when we think of Black film tend to be the earnest classics of the 1960s, the blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, and the indie Black cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.

In those archives, Dr. Berger recognized a rich history screaming out for greater attention. The result was an exhibition, conceived and produced in partnership with National Museum of African American History and Culture film and photography curator Dr.

After a year that saw actors hit the picket lines for four months, it’s no surprise that the awards season has felt more urgent and emotional than previous years. That was no more apparent than at the 35th annual Annual Palm Springs International Film Awards Thursday. The event, hosted by Mary Hart, honored 9 acting nominees and one feature film (Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”) that, no doubt, we’ll be hearing more of in the coming months.

The night was filled with tears and laughter, starting with Danielle Brooks, who won the Spotlight Actress Award for her role as Sofia in “The Color Purple.” The actress gave Oprah Winfrey a shout-out, praising her for taking Steven Spielberg’s advice while making the 1985 film and not losing weight. For Brooks, it allowed curvy women to feel they had a space in Hollywood. She also talked about the...

Somehow, “Chicago,” Rob Marshall’s Oscar-winning musical, has just turned 20.

Based on the 1975 musical of the same name (which itself originated in a play from 1926), “Chicago” was a critical and commercial smash, making more than 300 million worldwide and winning six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Catherine Zeta-Jones. (Even more impressive: the last time a musical had won an Oscar for Best Picture was back in 1968 for “Oliver!”)

Looking back on the movie, it’s perhaps most surprising to remember that it was director Rob Marshall’s first film. Marshall was already a staple in theater, but with “Chicago” he established himself as a truly excellent filmmaker too. He would go on to direct films like “Into the Woods,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Mary Poppins Returns” and the upcoming live-action version of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”

TheWrap spoke to Marshall about “Chicago” on...

Hale County This Morning, This Evening enters the Oscar nomination voting homestretch with added momentum. The documentary by RaMell Ross captured Outstanding Nonfiction Feature at the Cinema Eye Honors in New York Thursday night, the latest prize for a film that has been racking up awards since it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last January.

“It’s really gratifying,” Ross tells Deadline when pressed for his reaction to the film’s reception. “I’m eternally appreciative of the team that we had. We were like, ‘I don’t care what anyone says. We like the film. We can stand behind what we did.’”

What Ross and his team did was to create a film that observes in compelling detail the African-American experience in a rural part of Alabama. Black lives here are rendered in poetic imagery of wonder and beauty, in sharp contrast to typical depictions of African-American life...

The simplest way to describe “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” — and maybe the best way, since it’s a film of elemental radiance — is to say that it’s a documentary put together like a series of photographs. In this case, the photographs are filmed images, so they in effect come to life. The director, RaMell Ross, moved to Hale County, Alabama, in 2009 to work as a basketball coach and photography teacher, and the film is his impressionistic portrait of the life he found there — a caught-on-the-fly tapestry of experience. James Agee and Walker Evans shot some of their most famous images in Hale County, and Ross’s film could be considered a raw ragged lyrical answer to their mythologies. Filmed over several years, “Hale County” is a diary of a time, place, and culture, and you could call it a transcendental scrapbook, because it wipes away the muck...

When Megyn Kelly used her perch on “Megyn Kelly Today” to defend the use of blackface before an audience of millions, she professed ignorance of a bygone practice that still annually haunts the nation 170 years later, especially during Halloween. Kelly may have lost her job, but anyone getting up to speed on the controversy because of one debate about costumes should understand that the conversation goes much deeper than that. The tradition of blackface remains a sore point in American history that continues to have a destructive impact to this day.

Needless to say, white audiences will never be able to engage with “blackface” through the nuanced lens that black audiences can bring. Terence Nance addressed this disconnect in several episodes of his HBO series “Random Acts of Flyness,” when he literally gives face to a Larry Wilmore “Daily Show” quote (“Here is when blackface is Ok: When you have a black face!

Nicolas Winding Refn announced last October he was launching a free curated website of films and essays, and now it’s almost time for that website to launch. The Guardian reports byNWR.com is set to launch later this July, and Refn celebrated his upcoming website debut by telling the publication the first four films that will be made available to stream for free. Refn handpicked Curtis Harrington’s “Night Tide,” Bert Williams’ “The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds,” Ron Ormond’s “The Burning Hell,” and Dale Berry’s “Hot Thrills and Warm Chills.”

The Guardian asked Refn to write a bit about why he chose each title, which provides some very Refn insight into each cult movie. The filmmaker explained the reason for creating a website by saying, “Over recent years, I’ve bought and had restored scores of old movies as a hobby. I wondered what to do with them.

As he gears up byNWR.com, a new curated platform of films and more that’s billed as “An Unadulterated Expressway for the Arts,” Drive helmer Nicolas Winding Refn described the reasoning behind the site, telling me it’s “like a Rubik’s Cube in outer space, full of culture inspiring the world to be a better place.”

In a piece he earlier penned for The Guardian, timed to the July 4th holiday, Refn wrote, “This is a frightening time to be alive,” but “certainly, we have to embrace such an apocalyptic time, because the alternative is hand-wringing inertia and that’s perfect for those in power.” And what’s needed, “is art: good, challenging art, not good-taste art, which is the chief enemy of creativity.”

An expert on cinema of different genres and eras — he’s developing remakes of some classic horror pics — Refn has acquired and restored old movies as a hobby.

Mubi is exclusively premiering online the new restorations of Hot Thrills and Warm Chills (1967) and The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds (1965) as part of the series ByNWR. I think it was Quentin Tarantino who said that the grindhouse enthusiast not only has to drink a lot of milk to get to the cream, they have to drink a lot of curdled milk. And I generally figured I would leave that to someone else because it didn't sound too appetizing. So I have to be grateful to Nicholas Winding Refn, a sturdier trashonaut than I, who has performed curatorial duties, rediscovering and restoring two prime examples of cultist cream, thick, clotted and soured and probably very bad for your figure. I shouldn't, I really shouldn't. But I'm going to.Hot Thrills and Warm Chills (1967) accompanies its nonsensical title with some really exciting Latin rhythms, credited to "Dario de Mexico" (who has...

Nicolas Winding Refn has announced he is launching a curated website of films, essays, photography, and more art in February 2018. The website, entitled “byNWR.com,” will be completely free for users, including the streaming films. Refn made the announcement during an appearance at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France, where he described the project as “an unadulterated cultural expressway of the arts” that will “create a modern idea of what cinema will become.”

Read More:Nicolas Winding Refn Teases ‘Too Old To Die Young’ TV Series With Punk Track

The website’s mission statement reads: “byNWR shares Nicolas Winding Refn’s passion for the rare, the forgotten and the unknown, breathing new life into the culturally intriguing and influential. Quarterly volumes of content divide into three monthly chapters, each featuring a fully-restored film. These revived cinematic gems inspire a wealth of original content, curated by special Guest Editors.”

The...

Saturday afternoon, the National Society of Film Critics, "made up of many of the country’s most distinguished movie critics," announced the winners of its annual "Best of" vote. Critical darlings came out on top, with Jean-Luc Godard’s 3-D film "Goodbye to Language" prevailing in the Best Picture category. The Nsfc’s picks offer a selection of Oscar sure-things and outsider alternatives. After debuting at Cannes, "Goodbye to Language" trickled in to a few American theaters. Without any Best Foreign Language Film representation (France went with "Saint Laurent"), the film was destined for place on the fringes of the season. Leave it to Nsfc to come through for art. On top of Best Picture, Godard’s film earned love in the Director and Cinematography categories. With Patricia Arquette and J.K. Simmons picking up their 18,000th Supporting Actor wins, Timothy Spall, under-lauded for his work in "Mr. Turner," won Best Actor.

The National Society Of Film Critics has voted Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language best picture of the year 2014.

The group’s 49th annual poll (January 3) at the Film Society Of Lincoln Center in New York also brought joy for best director Richard Linklater for Boyhood, best actor Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner and best actress Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night and The Immigrant.

The 59 members voted via a weighted ballot process, without nominations, on any film or performance that opened in the Us in 2014. Scrolls are sent to the winners.

Scott Foundas of Variety was elected to succeed David Sterritt as chairman for 2015. Liz Weis remains executive director.

Full list of winners including votes:

Best Picture

*1. Goodbye To Language 25 (Jean-Luc Godard)

2. Boyhood 24 (Richard Linklater)

3. Birdman 10 (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)

3. Mr. Turner 10 (Mike Leigh)

Best Director

*1. Richard Linklater 36 (Boyhood)

2. Jean-Luc Godard 17 (Goodbye To Language)

3. Mike Leigh 12 (Mr. Turner)

Best Non-fiction Film

*1. Citizenfour 56 (Laura Poitras)

2. National Gallery 19 (Frederick Wiseman...

Ah the National Film Registry inductees! One of the most important December cinematic traditions that I always forget about. I wish it were in March each year -- since it's not any kind of "year in..." since film works aren't eligible for induction until they're ten years old. Placed it March it would also serve as a nice salve to the sometimes wounding notion that the Oscars are the only barometer for American movies that are deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" I wish too that this annual honor were more practical (restoration, anyone?) and less symbolic in nature. 

The Twenty-five 2014 Inductees

Which have you seen and which will you be seeking out?(presented in chronological order)

Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day(1913)

The oldest surviving film featuring African-American actors. But no title cards, credits, or script has survived. 

Shoes (1916)

Directed by Lois Weber, a female film pioneer. This...

Every year, the National Film Registry within the Library of Congress selects 25 films worthy of preservation. The films must be at least 10 years old, and this year’s crop includes such films as Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, The Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski, the John Wayne vehicle Rio Bravo and the beloved children’s classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The full list of films now includes 650 films, with the most recent now being from 2004, James Benning’s documentary 13 Lakes.

The full list of additions is below:

13 Lakes (2004) Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913) The Big Lebowski (1998) Down Argentine Way (1940) The Dragon Painter (1919) Felicia (1965) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) The Gang’s All Here (1943) House of Wax (1953) Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000) Little Big Man (1970) Luxo Jr. (1986) Moon Breath Beat (1980) Please Don’t Bury Me Alive! (1976) The Power and the Glory...

Every year since 1989, the National Film Registry has done its part to ensure the continued existence of the greatest and most important movies ever made. They do this by adding 25 titles at a time to the Library of Congress, where they are maintained and kept in the hopes of keeping them around forever. In the past we.ve seen them add titles like Pulp Fiction, The Matrix, and Silence of the Lambs, and today, the 2014 group of films has been announced. It.s a list with more than a few titles you.ll be happy to see, and you can check out the full list below: 13 Lakes (2004) Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913) The Big Lebowski (1998) Down Argentine Way (1940) The Dragon Painter (1919) Felicia (1965) Ferris Bueller.s Day Off (1986) The Gang.s All Here (1943) House of Wax (1953) Into The Arms Of Strangers: Stories Of The Kindertransport (2000) Little Big Man (1970) Luxo...

As it does annually around this time of the year, the Librarian of Congress today named 25 motion pictures that have been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry for 2014. And, also as usual, there's always at least one film that tells a story about people of African descent. This year it's "Bert Williams: Lime Kiln Club Field Day" - a silent black and white film produced in 1913 that is believed to be the oldest (101 years old) surviving film to feature black actors, led by vaudevillian Bert Williams, the first African American to headline a Broadway show, and the most popular recording artist at the time. The short story, previously...

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has announced the twenty-five films that have been added to National Film Registry this year. Each of these titles are set to be preserved for all time as "cinematic treasures."

Amongst the highlights of this year's batch are the Coens' "The Big Lebowski," Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby," Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," the original "House of Wax" and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," the John Wayne classic "Rio Bravo," and iconic 1980s comedy "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

Every year, twenty-five films that are deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant have been added to the list. One condition - the films must be at least ten years old. This year's full list includes:

13 Lakes (2004)

Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Down Argentine Way (1940)

The Dragon Painter (1919)

Felicia (1965)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

The Gang's All Here (1943)

House of Wax (1953)

Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport...

Each year, the Library of Congress selects 25 films to be named to the National Film Registry, a proclamation of commitment to preserving the chosen pictures for all time. They can be big studio pictures or experimental short films, goofball comedies or poetic meditations on life. The National Film Registery "showcases the extraordinary diversity of America’s film heritage and the disparate strands making it so vibrant" and by preserving the films, the Library of Congress hopes to "a crucial element of American creativity, culture and history.” This year’s selections span the period 1913 to 2004 and include a number of films you’re familiar with. Unless you’ve never heard of "Saving Private Ryan," "The Big Lebowski," “Rosemary’s Baby” or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Highlights from the list include the aforementioned film, Arthur Penn’s Western "Little Big Man," John Lasseter’s 1986 animated film, “Luxo Jr.," 1953’s “House of Wax,...

Spanning the years 1913-2004, the 25 films to be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry for 2014 include Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man, John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski. The annual selection helps to ensure that the movies will be preserved for all time. This year’s list brings the number of films in the registry to 650.

Also on the list are John Lasseter’s 1986 animated film, Luxo Jr; the original Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder; and Howard Hawks’ classic 1959 Western Rio Bravo. Documentaries and silent films also make up part of the selection which represents titles that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant; they must also each be at least 10 years old. Check out the rundown of all 25 movies below:

2014 National Film Registry...

We never stop recovering our film history. In 2014 alone we found a 1916 version of Sherlock Holmes starring the legendary stage actor William Gillette (the only known footage of the man considered the definitive Holmes of his era in character) and an unfinished orphan film shot in 1913 starring black Broadway star Bert Williams. The digital tools have given filmmakers, producers, studios and film archivists and restorers the ability to resurrect damaged prints and rescue damaged footage previously beyond the scope of physical and chemical methods and the transition from film prints to theatrical digital formats for repertory and revival showings has created new incentives to restore and remaster classic films for new theatrical screenings. >> - Sean Axmaker...

We never stop recovering our film history. In 2014 alone we found a 1916 version of Sherlock Holmes starring the legendary stage actor William Gillette (the only known footage of the man considered the definitive Holmes of his era in character) and an unfinished orphan film shot in 1913 starring black Broadway star Bert Williams. The digital tools have given filmmakers, producers, studios and film archivists and restorers the ability to resurrect damaged prints and rescue damaged footage previously beyond the scope of physical and chemical methods and the transition from film prints to theatrical digital formats for repertory and revival showings has created new incentives to restore and remaster classic films for new theatrical screenings. >> - Sean Axmaker...