CB4 (1993) Directed by Tamra Davis
February 22, 2009
Spank Rock and Amanda Blank by Last Night’s Party (NSFW)
Photo by The Face Hunter
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979) Directed by Gilbert Moses III
From Wikipedia: The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh tells the story of a struggling professional basketball team, The Pittsburgh Pythons, whose continuous losing streak and lack of talent has made them the laughing stock of Pittsburgh. This results in several players asking to go elsewhere in the league, except for the star player Moses Guthrie (Julius Erving), mostly because he is the highest paid player on the team and is not liked by the teammates.
Sensing that the team really needs a miracle, the team’s ball and waterboy Tyrone Millman (James Bond III) decides to turn to his favorite hobby, astrology, as a way to turn around the team’s fortunes. He brings his idea to an astrologer named Mona Mondieu (Stockard Channing), and they come up with the perfect concept: A team composed of players who were born under the astrological sign of Pisces (matching the star sign of Moses Guthrie), thus the ‘birth’ of “The Pittsburgh Pisces!” The movie has attracted an unlikely cult following to this day, most notably for its disco-inspired decor/setting and soundtrack that was infused into the film, as well as the appearances of many NBA stars (including lead actor Julius Erving) and the rising careers of Debbie Allen and Harry Shearer.
Glory (1989) Directed by Edward Zwick
From Wikipedia: Glory is a 1989 American drama war film based on the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as told from the point of view of its commanding officer, Robert Gould Shaw during the American Civil War. The 54th was one of the first formal units of the U.S. Army to be made up entirely of African-American men (apart from the officers).
Trivia: Denzel Washington’s performance earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Disorderlies (1987) Directed by Michael Schultz
The Last King of Scotland (2006) Directed by Kevin Macdonald
From Wikipedia: The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden’s novel of the same name. It was adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock and directed by Kevin Macdonald. The film was a co-production between companies from the United Kingdom and the United States, including Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4.
The Last King of Scotland tells the fictional story of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scottish doctor who travels to Uganda and becomes the personal physician to the dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). The film is based on factual events of Amin’s rule.
The title comes from a reporter in a press conference who wishes to verify whether Idi Amin declared himself the King of Scotland.
Whitaker received outstanding critical acclaim for his performance as dictator Idi Amin in the film. He won the Best Leading Actor award at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors’ Guild and the BAFTAs, in addition to awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics’ Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics’ Association, the National Board of Review and many other critics awards, for a total of at least 23 major awards, with at least one more nomination.
“Cream 09” by Sean Freeman
The Story of Three Day Pass (1968) Directed by Melvin Van Peebles
From Wikipedia: By the late 1950s, Van Peebles had been involved filmmaking and had made two short films. He was unable to establish himself as a film director in Hollywood because the concept of a black director was unheard of in America at that time. Consequently, he went to France, learned the language, and wrote La Permission in French.
Learning he could adapt one of his novels into film with a $60,000 grant from the French Cinema Center, so long as his film was “artistically valuable, but not necessarily commercially viable,” he sought a film producer. Once partnered with the Office de Production d'Edition et de Realisation (OPERA), a collective consisting of Michel Zemer, Guy Pefond and Christian Shivat, he shot La Permission in 36 days for a cost of $200,000, finally releasing the picture under the title The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968).
DanseDance by Julien Vallee and Nicolas Burrows
A Soldier’s Story (1984) Directed by Norman Jewison
From Wikipedia: A Soldier’s Story is a 1984 drama film directed by Norman Jewison, based upon Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning Off Broadway production A Soldier’s Play. A black officer is sent to investigate the murder of a black sergeant in Louisiana near the end of World War II. It is a story about racism and segregation in a black U.S. Army regiment with white officers deep in the Jim Crow South, in a time and place where a black officer is unprecedented and bitterly resented by nearly everyone.
The movie was first shown at the Toronto Film Festival. It won the New York Drama Critics Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theater Club Award, and three Village Voice Obie Awards. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards: for Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Adolph Caesar as the murder victim), and Screenplay Adaptation.
