The movie tells the story of a gang leader in Jamaica with ties to a political party and his struggle raising a child. It stars American actor Roger Guenveur Smith (“Malcolm X”, “Do The Right Thing)” and Jamaican newcomers Sheldon Sheperd and Nicole ‘Sky’ Grey.

Long time Caribbean radio host from WBLS, Dahved Levy will host and there will be a Q&A with director, Storm Saulter following the movie.

Buy Tickets Here

Watch The Trailer

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Film director and FAMU alumnus Will Packer will be previewing his new movie, “Think Like A Man,” three months before its commercial release in a screening that will be free to FAMU students.

One of the featured films, “Flying Ace” — about Black airmen during World War One — was released in the 1920s by Norman Studios, a white-run Jacksonville, Fla. enterprise that specialized in producing films with African-American casts and crews.

Lisa Dunbar, senior curator at the Museum of Florida History, said the movie the Flying Ace is “not just a Florida story,” but a national one.

A traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum will feature the original Flying Ace movie poster at the Museum of Florida History.

The Tallahassee Film Society will be showing two notable documentaries. “Dare Not Walk Alone” is a 2006 documentary covering  St. Augustine’s civil rights protests circa 1964. “It’s close to home,” said John Fraser, founder of Tallahassee Film Society, who describes “Dare Not Walk Alone” as a “good positive film on civil rights. ”

“Alley Pat” is a 2009 documentary about an Atlanta radio personality during the 1950s and 1960s. “Alley Pat was a disc jockey ahead of his time,” said Fraser.

In addition to screenings, the festival boasts a film forum, a writing workshop, and a banquet at FAMU’s Grand Ballroom to honor local citizens who have witness the history of African-American films. The film forum will explore how to succeed in the film industry, featuring assistant director and stage manager, Anthony B Major and casting director, Melvin Johnson.

Sharon Saunders, the Tribute to African-American Films Planning Committee Chair said in a press release, “We have been working in conjunction with several local groups to not only pay tribute to a segment of African-American culture, but to highlight FAMU alumni and staff contributions to the entertainment field as we celebrate FAMU’s 125^th anniversary.”

For more information on this event or to purchase tickets go to http://tallahasseefilmfestival.com/ or www.famu.edu

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Movies like The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon altered the U.S. film industry and the minds of American people forever.  His movies brought a new idea to what it meant to fight, and what it meant to be a fighter. Bruce Lee spoke differently, he talked of the importance of self knowledge, and fearless free expression. These were not things American folks usually accepted with the idea of combat.

Around the same time, the Shaw Brothers began to make their own films like 36 Chambers of Shaolin, Five Deadly Venoms and One-Armed Swordsmen hypnotized the American masses. They instilled a new the idea of what violence, honor, respect, discipline, humility and human character meant.

This fascination with martial arts culture took an even bigger turn when the TV Show Kung-Fu aired. It was not the best TV show ever made. There were many racist undertones in the show from time to time. However, some of the conversations between the original Master Po and his students.

Additionally, these films and TV shows introduced a new idea of how to practice  nonviolence to Americans from all walks of life. These films had an affect music as well. Rap music from artists such as Wu-Tang Clan, Dilated Peoples, Andre Nickatina, Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys, One Be Lo and many others have paid much homage to the impact of the movies and the philosophies learned from them.

The work of Bruce Lee, The Shaw Brothers, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and other films of the time helped teach Whites and Blacks alike the power of peace. To seek peace not  just outside ourselves, but more importantly the one we all seek inside ourselves.

Unfortunately the biggest mistake we make in the West is to think that someone who loves to study boxing,  kung-fu, wrestling or jiu-jitsu loves to fight. We think somewhere internally they enjoy hurting other people.

Now take a look at Buddhist monks. They are known globally as one of the most peaceful people on the planet. But they are also known for having a long tradition of cultivating self defense techniques.It is precisely because they have extensive knowledge of how to break bones and choke people, that they choose not to.

Let me be clear. When someone lashes out at a woman and swings wildly at her, it is proof that they’ve lost emotional control.

That act is completely different from the woman being swung on to tactically evade the fist coming at her. If she decides it is necessary to isolate her attackers arm, and  break it so she can be safe- that is nonviolence. She has created no violence in a space where violence was prevalent. Buddhism teaches nonviolence without question. Still Buddhists were taught that to observe injustice going on and do nothing made one worse than “devils.”

Martial arts films are the only movies in existence that consistently show women of clear mind and action fully capable of defending themselves. In America we look at women who can fight as “manly” and unattractive. Martial arts encourage women to learn self defense to cultivate and preserve their beauty and spirit. At the same time, we learn that violence is never to be taken lightly. That seemingly casually aggressive situations can turn deadly fast.

The roots of what motivated the attacker and the response from the woman who was attacked came from two different places. The attack came from rage or a desire for power. The response the woman gave was rooted in self preservation and a desire for peace. Jet Li was recently explaining the meaning of martial arts to CulturePulp :

In Chinese writing, wushu comes from two words: one is “stop” and one is “war.” “Stop-war.” In most action films, people focus on the “war.” Fighting, fighting, fighting. Violence against violence. Nobody talks about the “stop.” [laughs]

Today MMA (mixed martial arts) is taking over the world. The sport proves humanity has evolved to a place where martial artists can test their skills safely and make a great living a it. It is also important to acknowledge that many of the fighters you see in the UFC and Strikeforce almost never get caught up with the law. They are often far too focused on their physical and mental well being to run the streets trying to hurt people for the sake of their ego.

Now we see bullying as a long ignored social epidemic. We see crimes against women and young girls as a global cancer. Our children are also horribly out of shape. Teen obesity and disease from poor health are common among our kids. It is not the parents, educators or politicians who are helping America solve this issue. It is a family of martial artists, named the Gracie’s. Two brothers, Rener and Ryron Gracie, created Bullyproof and Women Empowered for children and adult women  in need of realistic ways to protect themselves.  Their cousin Kyra Gracie is respected around the world for her accomplishments. Beyond the self defense techniques, the students are taught about the psychology of an attacker so they can used “verbal jiu jitsu” to evade a confrontation altogether.

Today we see many of today blockbuster movies for kids like Kung Fu Panda and Jaden Smith’s Karate Kid introducing young people to the ideas of self discipline, inner peace and learning the power of not fighting. In these ways, the martial arts fused with film and music have helped preserve the legacy of nonviolence laid down in America by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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“Precious” came off to many critics as “poverty porn”: The main character is illiterate, on welfare, has HIV and a down syndrome baby, is sexually abused by her father and verbally and physically abused by her mother.

“Alike,” on the other hand, is not defined by her sexuality or her struggles, and while her family is by no means rich, she is also not defined by poverty. Rather than having a litany of issues to focus on, “Alike’s main struggle is having her family come to grips with her sexuality, which she does as a heroin and not a victim.

What the films do have in common, though, is that the main characters both have abusive Mothers that are played by well-known comedians Monique and Kim Wayans. While Monique plays the role of the angry villain in “Precious,” Wayans’ character, through her humanity,  is easier to relate to.

“Pariah” is also filled with real-life characters, while “Precious,” unfortunately, is fraught with stereotypes. Despite not being a woman or lesbian, I could easily relate to “Alike’s experiences of finding an identity, losing her virginity and having her heart broken. And even though Wayans’ character is homophobic, her love for her daughter is palpable.

Another similarity between the films is that both have become a favorite of critics. While “Precious” was widely praised by white critics yet bashed by African-American critics, “Pariah” has received praise from both groups. Will “Pariah” get the same Oscar treatment that “Precious” had? With the Academy’s history of failing to reward “authentic” African-American films, it seems unlikely. Hopefully, the Oscars will get it right on this one.

Watch the trailer here:

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In addition to the best drama nomination, Viola Davis received a nomination for best actress in a drama. While Jessica Chastain and Octavia Davis were both received best supporting actress in a motion picture nods.

The nominations are among the first major honors on the long road to the Feb. 26 Academy Awards. The SAG list of contenders and Golden Globe nominees that will be announced Thursday help sort out favorites from also-rans for Oscar voters, whose nominations come out Jan. 24.

Read more at chron.com.

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Two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis will play the 16th President in the upcoming film “Lincoln,” directed by Steven Spielberg. But will slavery be depicted truthfully?

CBS News reports that the film is currently in production.

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Anyone familiar with Lewis’s acting knows he will give no less than a top-notch performance.

But the real question is whether or not the movie will reveal how the slavery debate really went down during Lincoln’s presidency.

It is generally taught in high schools and universities that Abraham Lincoln “freed the slaves” and was a diehard abolitionist. But his role in the slavery debate is far more complicated and nuanced than many Lincoln enthusiasts would care to admit.

In an NPR interview, historian Eric Foner says not only did Lincoln struggle with how to best deal with slavery, he was unsure of how to view black people in general .

In the Peoria speech, Lincoln said that slavery was wrong, Foner says, and then admitted that he didn’t know what should be done about it, even contemplating “free[ing] all the slaves, and send[ing] them to Liberia — to their own native land.”

“Lincoln is thinking through his own position on slavery,” says Foner. “[This speech] really epitomizes his views into the Civil War. Slavery ought to be abolished — but he doesn’t really know how to do it. He’s not an abolitionist who criticizes Southerners. At this point, Lincoln does not really see black people as an intrinsic part of American society. They are kind of an alien group who have been uprooted from their own society and unjustly brought across the ocean. ‘Send them back to Africa,’ he says. And this was not an unusual position at this time.”

So will Spielberg’s direction show audiences the complexity of Lincoln’s thought process, as Foner explains? Or will the film deprive us of this internal, psychological battle altogether?

In a New York Times interview, historian Steven Hahn says that while many slaves foresaw Lincoln’s 1960 election to the White House as their meal ticket out of the slave shack, their enthusiasm was very much misplaced.

Lincoln’s policy in 1860 and 1861 was to restrict the expansion of slavery into the federal territories of the West but also to concede that slavery in the states was a local institution, beyond the reach of the federal government. At the very time that slaves were imagining Lincoln as their ally, Lincoln was assuring slaveholders that he would uphold the Constitution and the Fugitive Slave Law and make no moves against them and their property.

Hollywood has a history of whitewashing the severity of slavery.

Perhaps the worst depiction of relationships between slave and master was shown in the made-for-television film “Sally Hemings: An American Scandal.” In the film, President Thomas Jefferson and Hemings, who was one of his slaves, were depicted to have been in an affectionate love affair. The severity of slavery was something of an afterthought.

Spielberg, on the other hand, tends to have a very good track record on revealing the horrors of racism in his movies. He won a Best Director Academy Award for “Schindler’s List,” a movie about a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories.

His other successful race film, “The Color Purple,” dealt directly with the extreme sexual and emotional abuse African American women endured at the hands of black men in their own families. The film is a very cringe-viewing experience-especially as an African American.

Spielberg rarely pulls punches when dealing with race in his films.

So let’s hope the legendary director gives us a knockout movie that shows how Lincoln really dealt with slavery.

“Lincoln” is scheduled for release next year, CBS News reports.

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5. Scarface

Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay and Brian De Palma directed this movie that reflected the violent chaos that cocaine brought to Miami in the late 70s and early 80s. Al Pacino gave an epic performance as Cuban immigrant turned drug lord, Tony Montana.

4. Casino

“Casino” was written by Nicholas Pileggi and directed by Martin Scorcese. It is based on the real life story of Sam Rosenthal, but the protagonist’s name was changed to Sam Rothstein. Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone give excellent performances and Robbie Robertson did an excellent job providing the music for the movie.

3. The Godfather

Directed Francis Ford Coppola and written by Coppola and Mario Puzo, “The Godfather” is an epic tale of the fictitious Corleone mafia crime family and their struggles. Marlon Brando gives the performance of a lifetime and Al Pacino is incredible in his break out role.

2. Goodfellas

Nicholas Pillegi wrote and Martin Scorcese directed this real life story of mafia affiliate, Henry Hill. With its raw depiction of criminal life, “Goodfellas” takes away whatever romance and glamour that other movies have attributed to mob life.

1. The Godfather II

Again written by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, “Godfather II” expands on the original by both going forward and backward, covering the origins of the original Godfather, Vito Corleone. The epic tale shows how crime took down Cuba and features great performances by Pacino and DeNiro as well as Lee Srassberg who played the Meyer Lansky based character, Hyman Roth.

According to the lawsuit, Singleton claims he allowed Paramount to distribute Hustle & Flow in 2005 for $9 million, a fraction of what he could have made.

The tradeoff, according to the lawsuit, is that Paramount agreed to finance two more Singleton films in the future. The only stipulation was that the budgets would not exceed $3.5 million.

Read more at Your Black World.

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CALIFORNIA — The historical drama “The Help,” which deals with the plight of African American maids in the 1950s and 60s had a very strong first weekend at the box office earning $25 million.

The film almost beat the summer blockbuster “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” which made $27 million.

Entertainment Weekly reports:

Not far behind was The Help, which surprised the industry with a substantial $25.5 million. Disney released the PG-13 drama on Wednesday in an attempt to build buzz heading into the weekend. That strategy seems to have paid off. The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel and starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Bryce Dallas Howard, grossed a combined $9.9 million on Wednesday and Thursday — boosting its five-day total to $35.4 million. It also garnered a rare A+ rating from CinemaScore audiences, which means the film should be benefiting from exceptional word of mouth. Adult women were the driving force behind the $25 million movie’s success this weekend. According to Disney, 74 percent of the audience was female and 60 percent was over the age of 35.

Read More At Entertainment Weekly

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Entertainment Weekly reports:

“Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers,” the statement read.The group of scholars took issue with novelist Kathryn Stockett’s use of “black” dialect, her nearly uniform portrayal of black men as cruel or absent, and the lack of attention paid to the sexual harassment that many black women endured in their white employers’ homes

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The Tuskegee Airmen are the African American flying brigade that fought in World War II.

After delays, the movie called “Red Tails,” has finally been given a release date of January 2012 and will star Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard.

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After the movie, executive producer Montaigne “Logic” Massac, executive producer writer and star of the movie, Casey Gane-McCalla, the producer, writer, creator and star of the movie  and other members of the cast and crew talked to a camera crew about the how the movie was made and the message behind the movie.

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The new X-Men movie, “X-Men, First Class” is out and many people are noting its political undertones and racial metaphors. Still, X-Men is still not the only SciFi movie based on racism

1.    X Men (The Civil Rights Movement)

Stan Lee has admitted that the world of  the X-Men was partially based on the Civil Rights movement. The X-Men and other mutants are meant to represent Black people, as they are discriminated against, persecuted by the government and attacked by violent mobs. The X Men set out to achieve their leader, Professor Xavier’s, dream of mutants living in harmony with humans, making him the Martin Luther King figure of the movie. His nemesis, Magneto, wants to fight against humans and takes a more militant stance against human oppression of mutants. In the movie he quotes Malcolm X, saying he will fight for mutant rights, “By Any Means Necessary.”

Watch A Discussion On Malcolm X, Professor X, Magneto and Martin Luther King

2. Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (Slavery)

In this prequel to Planet Of The Apes, primates are used as servants and slaves for human beings. Eventually, Caesar, the chimpanzee protagonist of the movie leads a primate revolution against human beings. Caesar tells a black assistant to the oppressive governor “You, of all people should understand that to be free, we need power,” making the slavery allegory all the more clear.

Watch The Trailer For Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

3. District 9 (Apartheid)

The director of District 9, Neil Bloomkamp said his experience growing up in apartheid era South Africa inspired the film. In the movie, aliens are relocated to District 9, an alien Soweto where the “prawns” are forced to live in shanty towns and experience prejudice from human beings and oppression from South Africa’s government.

Watch The Original Short Film For District 9

4. Alien Nation (Immigration, Integration)

In Alien Nation, a flying saucer full of aliens, who look exactly like humans, but with weirder heads, lands in Los Angeles. The aliens served as the discriminated minority in the movie and were given the derogatory name “slags.” A TV show followed later, and the aliens were used to give social commentary for issues relating to African Americans and Mexicans.

Watch A Clip From The Alien Nation TV Show

5. Brother From Another Planet (Slavery)

In this movie, a mute black alien with three toes and telekinetic powers crashes into the New York harbor. He is chased by alien slave masters, who are trying to capture him and bring him back to their own planet.

Watch The Trailer For Brother From Another Planet

The T.D. Jakes produced “Jumping The Broom” leapt over expectations this weekend with an opening of over $13 million.

The class-conscious comedy movie was only expected to open up with between $8-10 million in sales.

While Tyler Perry seemed to have the Black marriage/comedy market in a stranglehold, Jakes appears to be a player now with the success of this movie.

Read more at WSJ

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By Pamela McClintock and Tim Appelo

When Kenneth Branagh cast Idris Elba as Heimdall in the upcoming summer tentpole Thor, a furious debate erupted among fanboys, with some insisting it was wrong for a black man to play a Nordic god.

But the London-born actor has no patience for the debate. “It’s so ridiculous,” he said Feb. 24 at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J.

“We have a man [Thor] who has a flying hammer and wears horns on his head. And yet me being an actor of African descent playing a Norse god is unbelievable? I mean, Cleopatra was played by Elizabeth Taylor, and Gandhi was played by Ben Kingsley.”

Beyond that artistic defense, though, there is an even more basic reason black actors welcome colorblind casting: There is a ceiling on the amount of business black-themed movies can achieve, so the opportunities for black actors and actresses remain limited unless they can also claim parts in mainstream entertainment.

Black-themed movies have established a niche where they can do significant business at the domestic box office, but because they don’t travel well overseas, there’s a limited number of them.

Tyler Perry has ushered in a new era of black genre pics and provided exposure for numerous African-American stars. His movies have been a boon for Lionsgate, but they also demonstrate the math. Perry’s films have grossed a combined $469 million domestically, with an average gross of $52 million.

Other companies such as Fox Searchlight and Screen Gems have also entered that market. Most recently, Fox successfully relaunched the Martin Lawrence Big Momma franchise, casting newcomer Brandon T. Jackson opposite Lawrence.

Screen Gems’ Obsessed, in which Elba starred opposite Beyonce and white actress Ali Larter, succeeded in playing to black and white audiences, but — like other genre movies — it hit a ceiling in terms of total gross, earning $68.3 million domestically, and $5.6 million overseas.

Not long after Obsessed, Screen Gems teamed with Chris Rock to remake the British comedy Death at a Funeral — but with a mostly black cast. The film also starred James Marsden and Owen Wilson, upping its chances of crossing over. Still, Funeral did only so-so business, grossing $42.7 million domestically and $6.3 million overseas, mostly in the U.K.

But even though they can turn to such genre films for employment, black actors have been losing ground. In the early 2000s, blacks played 15 percent of roles in film and TV. Today, it has fallen to 13 percent , according to SAG. And black directors make up only 4 percent of the DGA.

This year’s Academy Awards offered a stark reminder of the lack of diversity in the movie business; the nominees, both above and below the line, were almost uniformly white. And though 13 black actors have won Oscars in the ceremomy’s 83-year history, only two directors have been nominated: John Singleton for 1991’s Boyz N the Hood and Lee Daniels last year for Precious.

“I mean, were there any black Academy Award nominees this year? No, zero,” says Don Cheadle, who was nominated for best actor for 2004’s Hotel Rwanda. “Is there really a dearth of talent? Who decided that? Who do you point to and get mad at? It’s hard to pin down.”

People were so desperate for any sign of color at the Feb. 27 ceremony that many media outlets, including the Boston Globe, accepted as act the rumor that True Grit nominee Hailee Steinfeld’s mother is part African-American. (Steinfeld’s rep told THR that the claim, spread on the Internet in recent days, is erroneous.)

It isn’t lost on black actors, though, that Steinfeld, because of her debut performance in the Coen brothers’ Western, is already on the list of hot emerging stars that’s being closely monitored by power brokers throughout Hollywood. It’s harder, and takes longer, for emerging black actors to get on the same roster. Being cast in movies made primarily for white audiences can help exponentially.

For while Hollywood knows the market for black films is circumscribed, it also realizes that black audiences can boost grosses on movies aimed at wider audiences. Studios rely heavily on black moviegoers to turn out for their mainstream films. Blacks, who represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, buy 12 percent of all movie tickets, according to the latest statistics from the MPAA.

“The prosperity of the African-American audience is enormous, and they contribute formidably to the bottom line for films like Iron Man or Transformers,” one veteran studio executive says.

Animated films also do huge business among black audiences. In 2009, Disney released its first toon featuring a black princess, The Princess and the Frog, and it grossed $267 million worldwide.

Seeking out roles, regardless of color, allows black actors more opportunities and the chance to build a following among general audiences.

When Anthony Mackie set his sights on playing Sgt. JT Sanborn in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, he and longtime manager Jason Spire had some convincing to do. The part was written for a white male.

“That was the play we decided we were going to make,” recalls Spire, who signed Mackie when the actor was attending Juilliard and Spire was still an agent at Gersh. “Unless there is actually a reason why a role has to be a certain color or a certain ethnic background to be pivotal to the story, in my opinion, all roles should be colorblind. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be.”

Although Mackie had worked in film for nearly a decade, starring in a number of acclaimed indies, it was only after his performance in eventual best picture Oscar winner Hurt Locker that doors began opening wider. He has a substantial role in Universal’s The Adjustment Bureau, opening March 4, playing a guardian angel to Matt Damon’s character. And in February, he closed a deal to star in one of Hollywood’s more high-profile studio projects: Fox’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Jackson is another up-and-comer who has benefited from colorblind casting, having played a Greek satyr in 2010’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

But actors like Mackie and Elba still face a tough road in trying to emulate the statesman status of A-listers such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, who have succeeded — against tough odds — in transcending racial barriers.

Smith has become one of the world’s biggest box-office draws, debunking the commonly voiced notion that black stars can’t travel overseas. His films have grossed $2.52 billion worldwide, not far behind the $2.87 billion collected by Tom Cruise films.

“I think it’s interesting that the only lock in this business is Will Smith,” Cheadle says. “But he didn’t break out until [1997’s] Men in Black, when Sony put its full power behind him.”

Freeman fought for, and won, the chance to play the role of Red in Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, which earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor in 1995. In Stephen King’s novella, Red was a middleaged, balding Irishman.

Darabont has said in interviews that he always had Freeman in mind for the part because of the actor’s demeanor and voice.

In the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, Washington was cast in the title role of Maj. Bennett Marco, the character played by Frank Sinatra in the original. The casting raised eyebrows, but the film went on to gross north of $96 million worldwide.

Taraji P. Henson, who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, says there is still a certain mind-set in Hollywood that keeps studios from casting a wider net and using actors of different ethnicities. And until that changes, opportunities will continue to be limited.

“We are petitioning in negotiations for a role they weren’t even thinking about. They’re just indifferent,” she says. “My people question why a character has to be black, or anything.”

Most say Hollywood needs to do a better job if it is to reduce the glaring disparity in terms of the number of blacks onscreen and behind the camera.

In an interview with THR, Singleton says that with expanding diversity in this country and a globalized consumer audience, he hopes that the entertainment industry will cultivate markets for performers of color — men and women —and take the same risks that are taken with white artists.

“I think if the playing field were, in fact, level, we would find that audiences around the world would buy good storytelling and consume good storytelling,” he says.

Television arguably has a better track record in terms of colorblind casting. Diversity became a popular story line about a year ago, when the tide turned at the broadcast networks. (It wasn’t a surprise when media outlets began to label it the Obama Effect.)

Although the five networks still carry a lack of programming specifically geared to an African- American audience — a void left by UPN’s exit and filled only on cable by TBS and BET — their slates increasingly feature minority leads. CBS led the way with Criminal Minds (Forest Whitaker), NCIS: Los Angeles (LL Cool J) and CSI (Laurence Fishburne), while NBC backed the since-canceled Undercovers, which featured two black leads in Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe.

ABC shows including Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, both created by African- American producer Shonda Rhimes, feature black actors as part of their ensemble casts.

Cheadle has personal experience with colorblind casting. The role he plays in the upcoming Showtime series House of Lies was written for a middle-aged Jewish man.

But it doesn’t mean he wants to hide who he is, or his cultural background.

“A white Jewish guy in the part would play it differently,” Cheadle says. “I want to make a virtue of that difference. Don’t make me uncomplicated. Dogs are the only things that are colorblind, and even they see shades.”

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The movie is already being compared to hip-hop mockumentaries such as “CB4″ and “Fear Of A Black Hat” and “Hollywood Shuffle.” Several people have praised the “Monkey Gang” online. Such as IceDotCom who wrote:

Even though this is pretty funny, the sad thing is…it’s pretty damn accurate to today’s current state of rap music. So while you’re watching you gotta ask yourself: how bad has rap music become for it to be this much of a parody of itself?

Top selling British hip-hop artist, Tinie Tempah said this about the Monkey Gang

This looks incredible, I think this clearly goes to show that rap & hip hop is going through a transitional period where, DVD’s and crews like this are slowing becoming a thing of the past and subject maters within the genre are being a lot more varied and vast!

Its a new day people!

The site iHipHop.com wrote

This mockumentary trailer is ridiculous, but not exactly too farfetched in comparison to what material makes its rounds on certain gangsta websites.  In fact the fake song “I Sell More Crack Than You” sounds a lot like THIS REAL ONE.   Notice the not too subtle shots at Baby and Lil Wayne in the middle of this video.  I can’t believe this is only a trailer…they really plan on making a full-length film out of this?

Krackblog has called them the Most Important Group In Hip-Hop and online comedian, Eben Gregory said:

First…know that it’s amazing how painfully accurate this is. And then…EbenGregory was like…this has to be a mockumentary.

This is EbenGregory.com…telling you it is also real.

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Though it was a controversial era for African-Americans, Blaxploitation cinema was a creatively rich period that broke down racial barriers for many black actors and filmmakers. Names like Richard Roundtree, Pam Grier, and Melvin Van Peebles became household names and showed an empowered side to African-American lives. Though the NAACP would strongly oppose the images depicted in many Blaxploitation films, if it wasn’t for them, the idea of a black superhero might not have ever existed.

1. The films showed Hollywood the power of the Black dollar at the box office and paved the way for a generation of black filmmakers and films with all black casts.
2. Classic slang words and phrases like, “Mack”, “cold blooded”, and “solid”.
3. The Man was always white.
4. The best soundtracks.
5. “Across 110th Street” by Bobby Womack
6. “Super Fly” by Curtis Mayfield
7. Unapologetic use of white ethnic slurs like the word “honky”
8. Athletes turned actors, and good ones, e.g. Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Bernie Casey
9. Gordon Parks, director of Shaft and the sequels, Shaft’s Big Score and Shaft In Africa
10. Films set in black cities like Oakland (Hit Man); Detroit (Detroit 9000); Houston (Sugar Hill)

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Los Angeles — The Council Of Conservative Citizens, a White Supremacist organization is calling for a boycott of the movie, “Thor” which is based on a comic book that is based on Norse mythology because of Idris Elba’s role as the Norse God, Heimdall. Elba, who is British, has been in several movie and televisions show, but it perhaps best known for his role as Stringer Bell on the TV Show, “The Wire.” The Guardian Reports:

The Council of Conservative Citizens is upset that London-born Idris Elba, star of The Wire and BBC detective series Luther as well as a number of Hollywood films, is to play deity Heimdall in the Marvel Studios feature. The group, which opposes inter-racial marriage and gay rights, has set up a website, boycott-thor.com to set out its opposition to what it sees as an example of leftwing social engineering.

Read The Whole Story

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Rapper turned actor Ice Cube is commonly known for acting in Slap-stick Black films which typically play on Black stereotypes. With his new movie “The Lottery Ticket” coming to theaters tomorrow, Ice Cube shares that the movie is a cautionary tale, and meant for audiences to have a good time, despite critics fear of it being a shameful movie.

In a phone interview with Ice Cube, there was no holding back when it came to his latest film, “Lottery Ticket.” As always I like to play the Devil’s Advocate so he was asked right off about reinforcing Black stereotypes.

“Probably so,” Cube retorted, “but the thing about stereotypes is in some ways there’s some truth in them. It’s who we are. We’re more or less having fun with those ideas in this film. This is not like a serious drama. It’s who we are in some ways and we should really stop being ashamed of who we are and start understanding who we are. And, if we don’t like it, we should do something about it and change it.”

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Cube continued to explain the virtues of “Lottery Ticket,” which also stars Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackson and Loretta Devin, Keith David and Terry Crews.

“It’s a cautionary tale but it’s a fun movie meant for having a good time. We touch on grief, materialism, friends and family, and older people who are kind of shut away from the community-Shut-ins like Mr. Washington. He gave up on the community a little bit and a person like Kevin comes through and gives him hope again. It’s touches on all these subjects without being a sap story.”

Read entire article at Eurweb.com

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Hollywood icon Michael Douglas’ years of smoking and drinking is the probable culprit for his throat cancer diagnosis, according to one doctor who said the “Wall Street” star’s condition is likely curable.

“That combination is, unfortunately, a recipe for development of a throat cancer,” Dr. Kenneth Hu, co-director of the Head and Neck Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, told “Good Morning America” today. “I think the fact that he’s getting radiation means it’s curable.”

News of a tumor in Douglas’ throat was released Monday. People magazine is reporting that the star known for his gravelly voice will soon undergo eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.

“It tells you that it’s probably an intermediate stage cancer,” said Hu, who is not involved with Douglas’ treatment.

Read more at CBSNews

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In an interview with ESPN, Mike Tyson revealed that he appeared in the smash comedy hit “The Hangover” so he could have money to “supply my drug habit.” He also said that he did not expect the movie to be a success and planned to sell bootleg copies of the movie. You can listen to the interview here.

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Movie Trailer:

From Wikipedia

The Social Network is an upcoming 2010 drama film directed by David Fincher about the founding of the social networking website Facebook. The film features an ensemble cast which consists of Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Malese Jow, and Joseph Mazzello.

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The film was written by Aaron Sorkin and adapted from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. The film is distributed by Columbia Pictures and is set for an October 1, 2010 release. None of the Facebook staff, including founder Mark Zuckerberg, will be involved with the project. One of the co-founders, Eduardo Saverin, was a consultant for Mezrich’s book.

Read entire story

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In an interview with Paper magazine, Canadian rapper, Drake has expressed interest in playing Barack Obama in a movie.

I hope somebody makes a movie about Obama’s life soon because I could play him. That’s the goal [laughs]. I watch all the addresses. Anytime I see him on TV, I don’t change the channel, I definitely pay attention and listen to the inflections of his voice. If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m pretty good at impressions. Slowly but surely, I’m not in the study mode because nobody’s called me about anything, but I just pay attention so when the day comes I’m not scrambling to learn how to speak like him. I want to be involved in great film projects. I don’t want to do the basketball movie that everyone does. I don’t want to do the typical black film that everyone expects. I think that I have enough experience to actually be involved in a real meaty project full of substance.

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From Splinter End

By openly preferring Caucasian actors over Asian actors in an open casting call, Paramount demonstrated their innate racist assumptions – that a no name White actor was more capable of increasing box office numbers and (perhaps) “acting” than an equivalent Asian actor regardless of the Eastern-based characters in the series. Additionally, by casting Asian actors as secondary or supporting characters, Paramount clearly wished to create an “authentically diverse” universe, one that is distinctly Eastern and non-Western in its roots.

This purports my conceit that Paramount blatantly reinforces racism at the institutional level, driven by innately racist assumptions and an ethnocentric desire to bundle Eastern culture – rich in history and human stories – into a big old Yellowface bowtie. Make it as pretty and shiny and “Asian-y” as you want – in the end, this movie is racist and a disrespectful slap in the face of the Eastern heritage it so wishes to profit off of. The studios underlying assumption about marketability and acting capability of White over Asian actors is insulting, and to claim that their production is “diverse” because they cast Asians as secondary and supporting characters ignores the bigger issue at hand – the starring, main Asian characters are portrayed by White actors instead of Asian actors.

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The 14th annual American Black Film Festival wrapped up Sunday, with a community showing of its centerpiece film, “Stomp the Yard: Homecoming.”

The festival drew more than 3,000 participants to Miami, Florida, for four days of workshops, panel discussions and movie screenings.

Aspiring writers, directors, producers, actors and others flocked from across the United States and overseas for the opportunity to share their work and network with some of Hollywood’s elite.

Celebrated director Spike Lee taught a master class on filmmaking and offered a sneak peak of his latest project, the documentary “If God Is Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise,” a follow-up to his acclaimed film “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” about the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast.

Despite his schedule, Lee said he returns to support the festival whenever he can.

“It’s always reinvigorating to see new talent,” Lee said of the festival. “I was where they are many, many, many years ago.”

Lee’s new film will be shown on HBO, which has been sponsoring the film festival since the beginning. Time Warner, HBO’s parent company, also owns CNN.

Festival founder Jeff Friday declared the event a success and said it has grown from humble beginnings when it was known as the Acapulco Black Film Festival.

“We are seeing so many talented men and women who are drawn here year after year, and the films this year are incredibly diverse,” he said. “This has become the premier film festival for black artists and filmmakers.”

Producers Will Packer and Rob Hardy are two such individuals who have made the festival an annual destination. Their company, Rainforest Films, was well-represented as their film “Takers,” starring festival ambassador Idris Elba, opened the event, while another project, “Stomp the Yard: Homecoming,” closed it.

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“This is the place to be,” Packer said on the red carpet of the festival premiere for the action thriller “Takers.” “There’s no other place like it where so many black filmmakers and artists can come together to share and celebrate the work.”

The festival sponsored a community screening Sunday of “Stomp the Yard: Homecoming,” the sequel to the hit film about students at a historically black college, at a Miami high school.

Attendees to the festival were able to gather information on everything from production and budgeting to how to make films that will make money.

A group of professional athletes participated in a pilot program aimed at educating them about the film industry.

The Pro-Hollywood Initiative was conceived after Baltimore Ravens football player Terrell Suggs attended the festival last year seeking information for his newly launched production company. He went on to produce his first film, “Sisters,” based on a screenplay by a writer he met at the festival.

Jennifer Thibeaux was the professional coach for the Pro-Hollywood Initiative athletes and said they often have the connections and the resources to get projects greenlighted but lack the knowledge.

“The players got an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the industry from people like Spike Lee and Robert Townsend,” she said. “They were inspired and they were motivated. They have been ringing my phone saying, ‘OK, what do we do next?’ ”

One of the weekend’s highlights was the festival’s honors program. R&B chanteuse Chrisette Michele was presented with the rising icon award, and Academy Award-nominated “Precious” director Lee Daniels received the career achievement award.

“I’ve been to film festivals all over the world, and I can say this is the best,” Daniels said. “We are one; we are all black filmmakers.”

Actress Golden Brooks, best known for her role as Maya on the hit sitcom “Girlfriends,” won the best actress award. She said it is imperative that black artists celebrate each other.

“This is going to create more buzz, and it will get more people out there to support our work,” Brooks said.

Indeed, hundreds of fans showed up to screenings and red carpet events for the chance to catch a glimpse of some of the cast members and celebrities in attendance, including “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” actress Tamara Tunie, “The Game” star Pooch Hall and “Soul Food” star Darrin Dewitt Henson.

Other award recipients included the HBO Star Project winners Emayatzy Corinealdi and Stephen Hill; the film “Legacy,” which won for best movie, and “Stag and Doe,” which won the HBO short film competition.

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From CNN:

When director Ivan Dixon and writer Sam Greenlee were trying to get the politically charged African-American film “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” made in the early 1970s, they faced major challenges in securing funding.

Not much has changed since then, says Christine Acham, a University of California-Davis professor who is working on a documentary about the making of the film.

Acham said that though conditions have improved in the last 40 years, black filmmakers still struggle to get their films made.

Check out our gallery of the hottest black stars in Hollywood:

“It is always challenging for African-American filmmakers to get funding,” Acham said. “It’s clearly helped by the Oprahs and Tyler Perrys of the world, who have their own studios and the ability to greenlight projects, but outside of that, if you are an independent or a black filmmaker, it is difficult to get black stories told.”

Times are tough for Hollywood in general. With the country firmly entrenched in a recession, gone are the days when studio executives were eager to take a multimillion-dollar chance on projects that may or may not find an audience.

Click here to read more.

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On a good note, with recent talks of the making of the Winnie Mandela biographical film (bio-pic) played by Jennifer Hudson, I wonder whether the film would measure-up to some of the great biopics of the past. Here’s a ranking of the top 15 Black bio-pics films of all time Click to view rankings:

#15: Cadillac Records
#14: Notorious
#13: What’s Love Got To Do With It (The Tina Turner Story)
#12: Talk To Me (The Petey Greene Story)
#11: The Pursuit of Happyness
#10: The Temptations
#9: Antwone Fisher
#8: The Ernest Green Story
#7: The Last King of Scotland
#6: Ali
#5: Hotel Rwanda
#4: Lady Sings the Blues
#3: Malcolm X
#2: Ray
#1: The Jacksons: An American Dream

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From CNN:

There was a time when if a white actor or actress was cast in the role of a character of color, there was very little outcry.

When Swedish actor Warner Oland portrayed Asian detective Charlie Chan or Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, there was no call for boycotts or publicized outrage.

But times have changed, and these days some fans ask the question why, with so many talented black, Latino and Asian actors, does Hollywood continue to pass them over?

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“It seems that not a year goes by where this debate isn’t had, and I think it’s a worthy debate,” said Andrew Wallenstein, editor for The Hollywood Reporter’s website. “I think this stems from a long-held frustration regarding the access of minority actors to leading roles. It’s bad enough that they are far less likely to be cast in those roles in general, and it’s downright galling to them that in roles in which they are perceived as having a natural advantage they are still getting beaten out.”

The latest example is the controversy surrounding the news that Angelina Jolie has been tapped to play the Queen of the Nile in a planned film based on the forthcoming biography “Cleopatra: A Life.”

Click here to read more.

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Despite Success Of Black Actors, Hollywood Remains Race-Conscious

From Newsweek:

All of us, together, with a few simple keystrokes and mouse clicks, can make things happen. It was the story of the 2008 election, and now it’s becoming the story of pop culture, as Internet campaigning is now responsible for crowning tomorrow’s superstars, reanimating television shows, and making the irrelevant relevant again. (Just look at Betty White.) The latest benefactor of the digital hive mind is Donald Glover, the African-American star of Community and former 30 Rock writer who, through a series of comment discussions on a blog, found himself the people’s choice to star as Peter Parker in the forthcoming Spider-Man reboot from (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb. Glover has responded to the movement, which has become a trending topic on Twitter and launched its own Facebook campaign, by saying he loves the character and would be interested but wants to audition, not to be handed the part. Glover’s insistence on going through traditional channels to get the part seems to suggest that he senses something a little fishy about the whole thing, and he’s right. What’s being asked for, it seems, is an appointment based on race rather than merit.

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Glover is a talented guy, no doubt. He’s a sharp comedian, plus he has the boyish good looks to make for a credibly dorky-cute Peter Parker. But the suddenness of all of this suggests that people still, in theory, like the idea of colorblind casting. Glover’s resume isn’t long or high-profile enough that people heard his name and thought, “Oh yes, definitely him.” Rather, they saw a photo and thought, “Well, why not Denny Gordon? Sorry, Donald Glover, whatever.” It’s not a bad impulse. It’s disappointing that in this day and age an actor of color isn’t considered for franchise characters like Spider-Man. There are black superheroes in the movies now, most recently Will Smith in Hancock and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Iron Man 2. But the first is an original character, and the second is one that only comic-book fans know was originally white. There is inequality afoot, and no one likes that. Pair that with the fresh victory of White’s triumphant appearance on Saturday Night Live and you suddenly have a new Internet tradition: trying to get maybe-improbable actors into things you want them to be in.

Click here to read more.

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From the LA Times:

Tyler Perry is doing just fine without 3-D, thank you.

The writer, director and producer’s latest effort, “Why Did I Get Married Too?,” took in a most impressive $30.1 million in its first weekend. The sequel to his 2007 hit “Why Did I Get Married?” not only beat the opening of that movie by almost $10 million, but it was also Perry’s biggest start for a movie that didn’t feature his Madea character.

Click below to view GALLERY: Tyler Perry’s Leading Ladies

With nine hits in the last five years, none of this should come as a surprise. Yet even his own studio seemed caught a little off guard. “I always underestimate his box office,” said Dan Spitz, Lionsgate’s executive vice president of distribution.

Click here to read more.

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In this clip from the NewsOne/DV Republic-sponsored debate about the film “Precious,” NYU film professor Sheril Antonio explains her reservations about the effect the movie has on the image of the Black family, in particular Black women and mothers. Do you think “Precious” paints a damaging picture of our community? Let us know in the comments.

*** VIDEO MAY BEGIN AT 1:00min MARK ***

The movie “Precious” holds the highest number of Academy Award nominations for a Black film in history, but does it inspire or stereotype? At Sunday’s Academy Awards we’ll find out what the industry thinks, but this Friday we want to know what you think about this highly controversial film.

Noted film producer and DVRepublic.org founder and chief Warrington Hudlin, in partnership with NewsOne, has brought together two acclaimed Black thinkers to lead the discussion: Outspoken cultural critic Stanley Crouch and NYU film professor Sheril D. Antonio will go head to head in a live debate about the movie this Friday, March 5th, at 7:30pm. Watch a live stream of their debate here on NewsOne.com and join what promises to be an explosive conversation.

The Precious debate. You don’t want to miss it.

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Check out NewsOne’s coverage of the film’s success and the controversy that has erupted around it:

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From The Root:

When Hattie McDaniel, the first African American ever nominated for an Academy Award, arrived at the Ambassador Hotel for the 1940 ceremony, she was seated at a table on the extreme periphery of the auditorium. McDaniel had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress based on her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939). Though this seating assignment was quite insulting, such slights were not uncommon, as McDaniel had also been forced to miss the film’s Atlanta premiere due to southern Jim Crow laws. McDaniel would go on to win the Academy Award that evening in 1940, becoming the first African American to ever win the prestigious award. It would be 24 years before another African American would be declared an Oscar winner.

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In the 61-year time span from 1940-2001, only five other African Americans—Sidney Poitier, Lou Gossett, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Cuba Gooding (can we put an asterisk next to this one?)—won the distinct gold statuette in the prestigious acting categories. Of those six total awards, Sidney Poitier is the only one to have won in the Best Actor category for his role in Lilies of the Field (1963); all the others were for supporting roles.

So when Eddie Murphy stood up to present the award for Best Picture at the 1988 awards ceremony, the troubled racial history of Hollywood loomed large. Murphy, a comedian whose persona was generally apolitical, decided that the incongruity of his prominent presence at the 1988 ceremony, set against the lack of recognition for African Americans in Hollywood historically, was just too insulting to ignore. Murphy “went off,” chastising the gathered industry figures regarding Hollywood’s racism. He said that if one looked closely at the scattered history of African Americans receiving Oscars, that at the rate things were going, another African American probably would not be receiving an award until the year 2004.

Click here to read more.

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From MSNBC:

They are three of the biggest stars in Hollywood. They are also black.

Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Tyler Perry are money machines, although each is unique in operation. As bankable entertainers, there are few who can match them for consistent box-office clout. That probably isn’t something that could have been said 20 years ago — or even 10 years ago.

Has Hollywood become more tolerant, more accepting, more open-minded? Or is it simply that its obsession with green makes it color-blind when it comes to backing a project? And do Washington, Smith and Perry represent a breakthrough, or are they isolated cases who have defied the odds?

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As Black History Month unfolds, the film industry sees the aforementioned titans standing tall on top of a pile of dough. Washington’s recent “The Book of Eli” grossed more than $32 million in its opening weekend ending Jan. 17 and has since amassed more than $63 million. Smith is the only actor in history to have eight consecutive films released that grossed more than $100 million each. Perry, a writer-producer-director and playwright, has raked in more than $400 million with his works and is a one-man cottage industry.

“I think they’d be the first to tell you that African-American actors have made strides in terms of movies and Hollywood,” said Glenn Whipp, a film critic for the Los Angeles Times, Variety, MSN and others. “I think it’s much like when Obama was elected president, people don’t pay attention to color and are able to see past it.”

Click here to read more.

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From the Telegraph:

Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie is threatening legal action against the makers of a biographical film about her starring Jennifer Hudson.

The film is likely to detail the fraud, kidnapping and murder controversies that have surrounded the anti-apartheid leader’s former wife.

Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, as she has been known since her divorce from Mr Mandela in 1996, is one of South Africa’s most controversial and divisive figures.

She is revered in some quarters as the “Mother of the Nation” for her role in the struggle, the harassment she suffered from the white authorities, and her populist rhetoric that still appeals to South Africa’s poor.

But for others she is reviled. She once notoriously declared that “with our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country”, referring to the preferred way of killing suspected informers in the townships, setting fire to a petrol-filled tyre around their necks, so ensuring an agonising death.

Under apartheid she was convicted of kidnapping Stompie Moeketsi, 14, who was later found beaten to death in Soweto, and long after the advent of democracy, she was convicted of more than 40 charges of fraud in 2003 – her prison sentence was replaced with a suspended term on appeal.

Click here to read more.

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PHILADELPHIA — Near the end of the hit film “Avatar,” the villain snarls at the hero, “How does it feel to betray your own race?” Both men are white — although the hero is inhabiting a blue-skinned, 9-foot-tall (2.74-meter-tall), long-tailed alien.

Strange as it may seem for a film that pits greedy, immoral humans against noble denizens of a faraway moon, “Avatar” is being criticized by a small but vocal group of people who allege it contains racist themes — the white hero once again saving the primitive natives.

Since the film opened to widespread critical acclaim three weeks ago, hundreds of blog posts, newspaper articles, tweets and YouTube videos have said things such as the film is “a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people” and that it reinforces “the white Messiah fable.”

The film’s writer and director, James Cameron, says the real theme is about respecting others’ differences.

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In the film (read no further if you don’t want the plot spoiled for you) a white, paralyzed Marine, Jake Sully, is mentally linked to an alien’s body and set loose on the planet Pandora. His mission: persuade the mystic, nature-loving Na’vi to make way for humans to mine their land for unobtanium, worth $20 million per kilo back home.

Like Kevin Costner in “Dances with Wolves” and Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai” or as far back as Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 Western “Broken Arrow,” Sully soon switches sides. He falls in love with the Na’vi princess and leads the bird-riding, bow-and-arrow-shooting aliens to victory over the white men’s spaceships and mega-robots.

Adding to the racial dynamic is that the main Na’vi characters are played by actors of color, led by a Dominican, Zoe Saldana, as the princess. The film also is an obvious metaphor for how European settlers in America wiped out the Indians.

Robinne Lee, an actress in such recent films as “Seven Pounds” and “Hotel for Dogs,” said that “Avatar” was “beautiful” and that she understood the economic logic of casting a white lead if most of the audience is white.

But she said the film, which so far has the second-highest worldwide box-office gross ever, still reminded her of Hollywood’s “Pocahontas” story — “the Indian woman leads the white man into the wilderness, and he learns the way of the people and becomes the savior.”

“It’s really upsetting in many ways,” said Lee, who is black with Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. “It would be nice if we could save ourselves.”

RELATED: Transformers’ Racist “Little Black Sambots”

Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of the sci-fi Web site io9.com, likened “Avatar” to the recent film “District 9,” in which a white man accidentally becomes an alien and then helps save them, and 1984′s “Dune,” in which a white man becomes an alien Messiah.

“Main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color … (then) go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed,” she wrote.

“When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?” wrote Newitz, who is white.

Black film professor and author Donald Bogle said he can understand why people would be troubled by “Avatar,” although he praised it as a “stunning” work.

“A segment of the audience is carrying in the back of its head some sense of movie history,” said Bogle, author of “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films.”

Bogle stopped short, however, of calling the movie racist.

“It’s a film with still a certain kind of distortion,” he said. “It’s a movie that hasn’t yet freed itself of old Hollywood traditions, old formulas.”

Writer/director Cameron, who is white, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that his film “asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message.”

There are many ways to interpret the art that is “Avatar.”

What does it mean that in the final, sequel-begging scene, Sully abandons his human body and transforms into one of the Na’vi for good? Is Saldana’s Na’vi character the real heroine because she, not Sully, kills the arch-villain? Does it matter that many conservatives are riled by what they call liberal environmental and anti-military messages?

Is Cameron actually exposing the historical evils of white colonizers? Does the existence of an alien species expose the reality that all humans are actually one race?

“Can’t people just enjoy movies any more?” a person named Michelle posted on the Web site for Essence, the magazine for black women, which had 371 comments on a story debating the issue.

Although the “Avatar” debate springs from Hollywood’s historical difficulties with race, Will Smith recently saved the planet in “I Am Legend,” and Denzel Washington appears ready to do the same in the forthcoming “Book of Eli.”

Bogle, the film historian, said that he was glad Cameron made the film and that it made people think about race.

“Maybe there is something he does want to say and put across” about race, Bogle said. “Maybe if he had a black hero in there, that point would have been even stronger.”

LOS ANGELES — “The Princess and the Frog” earned a big wet kiss from family audiences as the animated musical leaped to No. 1 with $25 million in its first weekend of nationwide release, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Disney musical is the studio’s first hand-drawn animated tale in five years, a contrast to the computer-animated films that now dominate the cartoon world.

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“I’ve always believed that when you start with great storytelling, then the format aside doesn’t mean anything,” said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

The movie also is a return to Disney’s reinvention of classic fairy tales, offering a 1920s New Orleans twist on the Brothers Grimm story “The Frog Prince,” following the adventures of a young woman turned into a frog by a kiss from an amphibian.

Despite its No. 1 finish, “The Princess and the Frog” drew modest crowds compared to many big animated tales, which can open with two or three times as much business. Those films typically open during the busy summer season, though, and Disney is counting on the long shelf life that many films manage during the holidays.

“The Princess and the Frog” took over at No. 1 from the inspiring sports tale “The Blind Side,” which slipped to second-place with $15.5 million. Released by Warner Bros., “The Blind Side” raised its total to $150.2 million.

A surprise box-office sensation, “The Blind Side” is on its way to a domestic total of about $230 million, said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of distribution.

“The Blind Side” chronicles the real-life story of Baltimore Ravens rookie lineman Michael Oher, who had been a homeless teen taken in by a wealthy couple (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw).

“It’s the heartland that’s pulling the strings of the movie,” Fellman said. “While it’s performing well everywhere, the response in smaller marketplaces and Christian communities has been outstanding.”

The film opened the same weekend as “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” but with only a fraction of that movie’s blockbuster business. Audience word-of-mouth has kept crowds coming for “The Blind Side,” while “New Moon” has waned to the No. 4 spot with an $8 million weekend, raising its domestic haul to $267.4 million.

Warner Bros. also had the No. 3 film with a $9.1 million debut for another inspirational sports drama, Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela saga “Invictus,” featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Freeman stars as the South African leader, who uses an underdog World Cup run by the country’s rugby team to help unite the racially divided nation.

Though it had a modest start, “Invictus” debuted in the range of Eastwood’s sober drama’s “Mystic River” and “Million Dollar Baby” in their first weekends of wide release. Eastwood’s films draw older audiences and tend to have a long life at the box office, Fellman said.

“The Lord of the Rings” creator Peter Jackson had a strong opening in limited release for “The Lovely Bones,” which pulled in $116,000 in three theaters.

The Paramount Pictures release features Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Stanley Tucci in an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-seller about a murdered girl looking back on her grieving family from the afterlife.

The Weinstein Co. drama “A Single Man” also started well with $216,328 in nine theaters. The film stars Colin Firth as a gay academic in the early 1960s who’s planning to end his life amid grief over his lover’s death.

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Hollywood is poised for a big finish to its record box-office year, with James Cameron’s science-fiction epic “Avatar” opening Friday, followed Christmas week by the family comedy “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” Robert Downey Jr.’s action tale “Sherlock Holmes” and the nationwide expansion of George Clooney’s comedy “Up in the Air.”

With nearly three weeks left in the year, 2009 domestic revenues already have set a new record of $9.79 billion, surpassing the previous high of $9.68 billion in 2007, according to Paul Dergarabedian, Hollywood.com box-office analyst.

Domestic grosses should top $10 billion for the first time within the next 10 days or so. Dergarabedian estimates that Hollywood will finish the year with $10.5 billion domestically.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Princess and the Frog,” $25 million.

2. “The Blind Side,” $15.5 million.

3. “Invictus,” $9.1 million.

4. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” $8 million.

5. “Disney’s a Christmas Carol,” $6.9 million.

6. “Brothers,” $5 million.

7. “2012,” $4.4 million.

8. “Old Dogs,” $4.39 million.

9. “Armored,” $3.5 million.

10. “Ninja Assassin,” $2.7 million.

From Time:

Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements
With the voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos and Keith David
Opens Nov. 25 (limited), Dec. 11 (wide)

The joke about the princess and the frog must be nearly as old as the original fable: she gives the homely amphibian a smooch, and rather than turning him into a handsome human, she instantly becomes a frog. Hardly less antique was the Disney company’s notion to turn the gag into a cartoon in the old, hand-drawn, “2-D” style. Disney introduced this feature-length format with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 and, over the next 60 years, just about perfected the mixture of story, illustration and pop music. Today, virtually nobody does animated features as original musicals. As for the technology, CGI — the computer-driven animation used in Pixar’s and DreamWorks’ hit movies — is the princess, and 2-D the frog.

But frogs have more fun. The Princess and the Frog, which opens Wednesday in New York and Los Angeles, and Dec. 11 in the rest of the country, is a start-to-finish delight. It proves that 2- can be more than 3-, when gifted filmmakers put old-fashioned snap back into animation. The lines are freer here, the character movements more supple, the sense of fun unfettered. The movie is a triumph for its directors and co-writers, John Musker and Ron Clements — the guys who jump-started Disney’s cartoon renaissance with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and created a whole new world with the 1992 Aladdin, then coasted (Hercules, 1997), flopped (Treasure Planet, 2002) and vanished. Entrusting an expensive, freighted project like this to a couple of 56-year-olds might seem like letting an Old Timer’s Day pitcher start a World Series game, but Musker and Clements show no sweat. Their piece has the lightness of an inspired improv session by New Orleans jazz masters.

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Melissa Anderson, a writer for the Dallas Observer, wrote a review of the new Sandra Bullock movie, “The Blind Side.” She condemned the movie, which tells the tale of a large mute African American who moves in with a white Christian family, as a racist story about white saviors who save downtrodden African Americans. She writes:

Blind Side the movie peddles the most insidious kind of racism, one in which whiteys are virtuous saviors, coming to the rescue of blacks who become superfluous in narratives that are supposed to be about them.

She continues:

Viewers, however, are constantly reminded of the pathologies the black gentle giant has escaped: the crack-addicted mother, the thugs of the country-ghetto housing project who offer him a 40-ouncer. Life with benevolent white people gives Michael the golden opportunity to partake in one of the most patronizing, we-are-the-world scenes imaginable: dueting with S.J. on “Bust a Move.” S.J. becomes an unbearable martinet, bossing Michael around during drills for football practice, where the large lad shines as a left tackle at the Christian academy, eventually drafted to Ole Miss. But Michael is unable to figure out what he actually needs to do on the field—until his white mama explains it to him: “This team is your family. You protect them.”

She concludes:

The filmmakers would like to lull you to sleep with this milk of amnesia, hiding behind the fact that this bewilderingly condescending movie is based on an actual person—but one who you end up knowing almost nothing about.

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