Above The Rim

I recently watched the remarkable Above The Rim. I must confess that watching the charismatic, handsome, talented and imposing Tupac Shakur was a bitter sweet experience. Bitter in that such talent was short lived and yet sweet because one cannot help but appreciate the screen presence of young Shakur. I could watch such brilliance over and over again.

Above the Rim is a story about a jock who is caught between the seductive life of thuggery and a straight forward life of College Basketball. It stars Duane Martin, Leon, Tupac Shakur and a young Bennie Mac. This is one of those movies is often left out of the must-watch list but I recommend that you rent it and enjoy it.

For Coloured Girls is definitely not for 'Sissy Girls'

I am writing this post with a mixed bag of emotions. But such is the state that Tyler Perry's latest movie will leave in as soon as the credits start rolling.

I kinda knew that For Coloured Girls was going to be one of those movies that was going to leave emotionally drained and with a negative view of the African American male. This film goes out of its way to incorporate all the harshest cruelties that a black woman can endure in one narrative(rape, back alley abortions, abuse, STIs... I could go on). This is a heart wrenching film that left me cold for the most part.

Perry departs from his Madeaesque story telling style to tell a chilling yet poetic tale of a number of Coloured Girls in modern day America. I take my hat off to Perry for getting out of his comfort zone as a Director. For Coloured girls are a good movie but I am not sure I could bare another screening.

The All-star cast includes Janet Jackson, Kimberly Elise, Kerry Washington, Anika Noni Rose, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, Loretta Devine, Macy Gray and Whoopi Goldberg. These ladies are all champions in their challenging roles.

The guerrillas strike again

The Uganda/South Africa film production collective, ’Yes! That’s Us’ is perfecting the art of collaborative-guerrilla film making. Donald Mugisha and James Tayler the primary members of the group are proving that the African idiom “two heads are better than one” still holds true. The two recently completed their second guerrilla feature film, ‘Yogera: Silence Speaks’, shot in the backstreets of Kampala, Uganda. The collaborative effort in Yogera’s production cannot be understated. The pair thought up the story, found the cast and crew and did the filming. Because of this the director is credited as ‘Yes! That’s Us’ with the names of Tayler and Mugisha appearing on the producers, editors, writers and photography credits. Yogera recently got a screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Goteborg International Film Festival.

The film is tale of a deaf mute (Hope) who runs away from the countryside to live in the big city with her twin sister, who is not ready for the responsibility of a deaf mute the modern city. After a fight with her sister, Hope disappears and wanders around the city experiencing the challenges and cruelty that Kampala holds for a person like her.