It’s been quite awhile, and thank goodness Ashlee and Carolyn were at the ready to almost completely unpack the meticulously crafted balance of subtly and clarion call for the cumbersome nature of swallowing intersectional micro (and honestly, macro) aggressions in Mariama Diallo’s anticipated feature film debut, Master (2022).
Our music folk razaq el toro has new music out!
26 Jan 2022
What Mama Had Forgot To Mention Was... [Fast Color]
Secrets are complicated, right? A multi-generational magical realist, sci-fi, drama furthers even the mess out of what is a superhero in the context of Black women and girls in Julia Hart's 2019 well received, Fast Color.
In Plain Sight: Fast Color by Carolyn Mauricette
Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story
FAST COLOR Q&A with Gugu Mbatha-Raw & director Julia Hart - April 28, 2019
I Am A Clique
12 Dec 2021
I’m A Peaches Stan [A Low Down Dirty Shame]
With Carolyn on the verge of a bionic hip and Ashlee on the verge of a losing some good sanity, the two chose the unwind this holiday season with a 90s action comedy, Keenan Ivory Wayans' A Low Down Dirty Shame.
What's its historical context? How does it function as a potentially progressive vehicle and be questionably problematic at the same time? Let's talk...
28 Oct 2021
Black Women vs. The Patriarchy [Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight]
It's all fire dicks and armageddon in Wormwood, New Mexico in the mid-1990's. Thank the seven star alignments that we're still here to talk of the tale...
Ashlee couldn't believe she found even more to unpack in the film she's dissected to death, 1995's Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight, a pretty under-discussed and underappreciated (to a degree) horror film that everyone should watch this Halloween season.
Director Ernest Dickerson throws in homages to Alien which, Carolyn loves even more because of the Cleo the cat/Jonesy connection.
Plus! There's a whole lot about this sometimes surpisingly Black feminist work that incorporates a range of characters that are not easy to label, which is the fun of it all, including some cheesy, on-brand humor from a self-aware work both from cast and crew who were just having fun.
We've noted the following for consideration:
The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators by bell hooks
Subjects of Desire (2021) Official Trailer
Modern Etiquette: The Despicable World of Spitting
8 Sept 2021
We Gotta Fight Literal Monsters Now Too?! [Sweetheart]
I mean, of course Black women do. And are we believed when we say they're out there?
Carolyn leads an exploration into J.D. Dillard's minimalist masterpiece, Sweetheart from 2019.
And a 'lil bonus somethin' somethin' :)
The Invisible Black Women Epidemic
Ashlee's Sweetheart blurb
Sweetheart: A Creature Feature with Heart (Carolyn's Review)
Trey Anthony On Putting Her Self First and Why She’ll Never Share Her Relationships on Social Media Again
Sweetheart Q&A
J.D. Dillard's new film Devotion
Black Horror Creators Sound Off on "Candyman"
13 Aug 2021
"Free Range Children" [Crooklyn]
Carolyn and Ashlee have another sentimental chat about Black mothers and inter-generational relationships between Black women and girls in 1994's underrated Spike Lee jawn, Crooklyn.
Speaking of Black women, DON'T MISS Carolyn's virtual lecture, A Different Monster: Black Women and the Monstrous for Fantastia Film Festival 2021 on August 21 at 4:00PM EST.
Register here!
Sorrowful black death is not a hot ticket: bell hooks on Spike Lee’s Crooklyn
Spike Lee Looks Back On Crooklyn
Remember Zelda Harris Who Played Troy Carmichael in 'Crooklyn'? This Is How She Looks Now after Painful Battle with Fibroids
Video: bell hooks - Cultural Criticism (Spike Lee)
Crooklyn Dodgers (Special Ed, Masta Ace & Buckshot) - Crooklyn (Official Video)
19 Jun 2021
Love & Bossa Nova [Black Orpheus]
VH1 Reality content was totally inspired by the like-films that came before...
And this is the one where Carolyn thinks she swindled Ashlee into watching a musical, which Ashlee argues the music in the drum-heavy 1959 visual affair, Black Orpheus actually wasn't cringey or shoe horned.
This vibrant, beautiful film based on the play, Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes follows the formula of enamored at first sight, jealously, surrealism, and spirituality, all surrounding the nougat that is Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This brought up a whole lesson on Black cross-cultural exchange, exposure, experience, and simply embracing all dimensions of ourselves because let's be honest; we all trace back to one continent.
Black Orpheus Interviews
Subjects of Desire
https://www.drcherylthompson.com/
Black Orpheus Sountrack
Looking for "Black Orpheus," a French documentary about Black Orpheus’s cultural and musical roots and its resonance in Brazil today
Guava Island [Trailer]
James Baldwin on Carmen Jones (1954)
Also!
It's our one year anniversary! We get into the year (very briefly) on our evolution as film writers/critics/lovers (that should be the name of a web series) but basically, a rant exchange between tired Black women... tiiii 'ed.
18 Apr 2021
This Ain't About THEM!
Our guide to 'finding other Black horror to support 'cha damn self', Carolyn and Ashlee talk why Amazon's newest latest, THEM just AIN'T, and how the reception sparked the need again, to emphasize that the kind of content folks want, is out there!
Especially the still underappreciated Black women content creators who've made horror films like R. Shanea Williams (Paralysis), Zandashe Brown (Blood Runs Down), and so many more that are on the horizon who are making fresh, orginal art.
Them is Pure Degradation Porn by Angelica Jade Bastien
'Girls Trip' Writer Tracy Oliver Was Told Black Women Don't Like Horror Films
The Nightmare (2015)
Southern Gothic For Real: Visual Artist & Storyteller Zandashé Brown
Black Women Film! Canada
Canadian filmmaker Kelly Fyffe-Marshall
Feature horror films directed by Black women:
Hanelle M. Culpepper, Within (2009)Meosha Bean, Camera Phone 2 (2016)Nia DeCosta, Candyman (2021)
Upcoming-
Mariama Diallo, MasterReagan Gomez, CharcuterieThembi Banks, JujuNikyatu Jusu, Nanny
16 Mar 2021
Barbecue The Becky [She Never Died]
Carolyn teases her budding talent for lecturing Canadian genre film history and Ashlee processes the bone marrow of Jason Krawczyk's pen and Audrey Cummings' eye on 2019's darkly comedic/fantasy, horror fare, She Never Died!
Watch it now on Tubi
Carolyn's review
She Never Died was a 2019 BiTS winner!
21 Feb 2021
Hot Men & Terrible Bosses [Little]
There's so much more in 2019's for-the-family flip on Tom Hanks' 1988, Big...
Little, starring Regina Hall, Issa Rae, and Marsai Martin is all about digging up those ugly childhood memories that inform who we are as adults. And how much of it carries into our on the job personas.
And Carolyn and Ashlee just hate mean bosses.
Time's Up For Toxic Workplaces
Meet Marsai Martin, The Youngest Executive Producer In Hollywood
Many thanks:
Art by Samara Banks of Mixed Hues
Sound by by Razaq El Toro
4 Feb 2021
When SVU Was Good [Diva]
Carolyn dusts off her French and nostalgia for Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981 caper, Diva.
Ashlee is just here to make Law & Order: Special Victims Unit references and point out the many conspiracies that this intriguing film highlights.
Jean-Jacques Beineix: The Hollywood Interview
A Brief History of Cinéma Du Look
NEW ART thanks to Samara Banks of Mixed Hues
FRESH NOISE Reely Melanated Theme by Razaq El Toro
22 Dec 2020
I'll Write Some Songs About A White Man's Butt [The 40-Year-Old Version]
For our final episode of the year, Ashlee wanted to ramble about arguably the best movie of the year, Radha Blank's Kool-Aid Man debut, The 40-Year-Old Version.
18 Nov 2020
Brotherly Love in Motor City [KIN]
Carolyn's Summer sci-fi fave KIN, a story about a working-class kid just trying to find some normalcy after a family loss turns into a journey of destiny tied to a an otherworldly device that only he (Myles Truitt's Elijah) has the power to wield!
KIN was based on a short film (BAG MAN) by Josh and Jonathan Baker who have talked about in-depth the deeper meanings that Ashlee and Carolyn find is the beating heart of this narrative.
You can also purchase the score here!
12 Oct 2020
Feminisms For K-12! [Born In Flames]
bell hooks wrote the book, Feminism Is For Everybody, Lizzie Borden made the penultimate film exemplifying that.
Listen to Carolyn lead the lesson on Borden's 1983 docu-fiction Born In Flames.
You can also read Carolyn’s essay, “Born in Flames’ Adelaide Norris, A Sci-Fi Joan of Arc” for further reference.
The Political Science Fiction of “Born In Flames”
The Incredible Black Canadian Women You Should Know
First Run Features website: https://www.firstrunfeatures.com/
For the Canadian rare DVD collector, check out Suspect Video's online store: https://www.suspectvideo.ca/
Carolyn on Twitter @vfdpixieAshlee on Twitter @AshleeTakesNote
Sound edits by Carolyn
Graphics by Ashlee
Intro/Outro Music: I Got This by David Renda (felisyanstudios.com)
15 Sept 2020
The Great Multiplicitous Blackness Caper [Jumpin’ Jack Flash]
…it’s a gas, gas, gas.
Ashlee breaks out the tissues and nostalgia for 1986's Jumpin’ Jack Flash while Carolyn adds even more context for the broader discussions about Whoopi’s career in the mid-1980’s.
What backlash ensued?
Can we still look back in fondness and enjoy it today?
The answers may be as complicated as British intelligence spies, moles, and KGB meddling.
Dive into Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films by Donald Bogle
Bogle talks about Whoopi's roles and how she doesn't necessarily represent the Black diaspora. That's okay with us because we saw ourselves in her and Black women are dynamic and unique, just like Whoopi.
Learn more about Whoopi’s career in Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film by Mia Mask:
Mask talks about how Whoopi Goldberg’s stardom is unconventional and to a degree, unprecedented because foundationally as a comedic actress and performer, she already defies convention of who is seen as funny and respected in the space, and doubled with her race and appearance. She defies "acceptable" femininity with her dark skin and natural hair (locs) which was not a everyday/common American style in the early-mid 1980’s.
Consistently, Goldberg has played characters that challenge assumptions and, to an extent, pushed back on racial stereotypes.
She’s also had to fight to be seen as desirable in films. A love scene was cut from the film, Fatal Beauty despite her protests.
“Closer reading of her star vehicles demonstrates the way her characters—and the situations in which they are place—trouble supposedly stable gender categories, critique notions of white identity, question whiteness as a social formation, and identify white racism.”
Carolyn on Twitter @vfdpixieAshlee on Twitter @AshleeTakesNote
Sound edits by Carolyn
Graphics by Ashlee
Intro/Outro Music: I Got This by David Renda (felisyanstudios.com)
13 Aug 2020
We’re Rooting For Everyone Black [Alien vs. Predator]
Carolyn throws roses at the feet of Sanaa Lathan in her most radical ass starring vehicle, 2004’s Alien vs. Predator.
Our bad: we forgot to note the under critiqued, ‘aliens built the pyramids’ myth the film plays with which, we both agree undermines how African civilizations haven’t been fully respected… ever.
“Last One Standing: Alien vs. Predator” in Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before: Subversive Portrayals in Speculative Film and TV by Diana Adesola Mafe
Kroft Talks about Movies: Predators, Engineers, and Aliens: Complete Timeline
Carolyn on Twitter @vfdpixieAshlee on Twitter @AshleeTakesNote
Sound edits by Carolyn
Graphics by Ashlee
Intro/Outro Music: I Got This by David Renda (felisyanstudios.com)
13 Jul 2020
Honestly, Vaginas [Knives and Skin]
The Midwestern teen gothic noir that Carolyn and Ashlee wish they had during high school.
What About “The Breakfast Club”? by Molly RingwaldModern English shares new quarantine performance of ‘I Melt With You’
Addressing the Epidemic of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
Two Black Trans Women Were Killed in the U.S. in the Past Week as Trump Revokes Discrimination Protections for Trans People
WE ALL FAILED OLUWATOYIN SALAU. ALL OF US. by Clarkisha Kent
Thank you Bryan Christopher and Jennifer Reeder for helping make this episode happen!
Carolyn on Twitter @vfdpixieAshlee on Twitter @AshleeTakesNote
Sound edits by Carolyn
Graphics by Ashlee
Intro/Outro Music: Hmu by Drake Stafford (FMA)
19 Jun 2020
I Love You Black Man, I Love You Black Woman [See You Yesterday]
Ashlee and Carolyn travel back in time with Stefan Bristol's Netflix debut film See You Yesterday.
An Interview with Fredrica Bailey and Stefon Bristol On 'See You Yesterday'
Carolyn's In Plain Sight: Afrofuturism and Inclusivity Series
John Boyega's Protest Rally Speech
Carolyn on Twitter @vfdpixieAshlee on Twitter @AshleeTakesNote
Sound edits by Carolyn
Graphics by Ashlee
Intro/Outro Music: Hmu by Drake Stafford (FMA)
19 Jun 2020
Selah The Queen Bee, So You Best Take Heed [Selah and the Spades]
Ashlee and Carolyn discuss Tayarisha Poe's debut feature film Selah and the Spades.
With Selah and the Spades, Tayarisha Poe Is Capturing the 'Volatility of Being Alive'
Carolyn on Twitter @vfdpixieAshlee on Twitter @AshleeTakesNote
Sound edits by Carolyn
Graphics by Ashlee
Intro/Outro Music: Hmu by Drake Stafford (FMA)
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