Reely Melanated

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!

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

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... 

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

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"

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)

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.

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)

Upcoming-

Mariama Diallo, Master

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!

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