Omegstrat6
01-08-2023, 10:12 AM
Having only one night off between night shifts is pretty crap as it doesn't give your body clock time to re-adjust so spent most of last night unable to sleep and ended up looking for something to watch on the kindle. Hadn't realised that Till was now on Prime so went for that as it had had good reviews. Must say that Danielle Deadwyler is really very good in the lead roll as Mamie, Emmett's heartbroken mother.
This is a well known story but one which took a criminally long time to reach the screen. Apparently Barbara Broccoli had been trying to get it done for some years but the studios weren't interested because they thought that audiences would prefer to keep the past in the past. The whole BLM thing though proved just how relevant this story still is today. The past is not always such a different country.
Based on the years of research and following on from screenwriter Kieth Beauchamp's previous documentary, Chukwu's film is understated but powerful. Mamie, who eventually agreed to use the death of her son to help spur on the Civil Rights movement, died in 2003. Carolyn Bryant, the woman whose false claims of ***ual harassment by 14 year old Emmett led to his brutal death at the hands of her husband and brother in law, died this year. No one was ever prosecuted for Emmett's death. The thing that struck me was that this didn't happen in the 1920s or 1930s but in 1955. Elvis's first hit, "Heartbreak Hotel" came out in January 1956. It is in living memory for many still. More shockingly-and an inditement of American society - is that lynching did not become a federal criminal offence until 2022.
Also watched actor David Harewood's documentary on Black Face/Minstrely on bbc. The Black and White Minstrel Show on BBC drew audiences of around 2 million and ran until 1978 despite later years of protests. If you think it was all harmless entertainment that was simply "of its time" then watch this. The racial tropes introduced by this form of entertainment would have a lasting effect in this country. As Hardwood points out when watching an old film of Black Face street entertainers in the late 1890s in London, the children seen watching this would have their perceptions of Black people very much informed by such grotesque stereotypes (they would be very unlikely to meet real Black people) and these were then the generation that would demonstrate such ingrained attitudes towards the Windrush immigrants after the war.
When people start on about the evils of colonialism and Empire, I agree with many that we should not get brow beaten into feeling guilty for things that we didn't do and weren't involved with and that happened in a different time period with totally different cultural attitudes. We need to learn and move on. BUT to learn from history you first have to bring it out into the light and examine its various truths, uncomfortable as they may be. If we really want to move on, I believe that we first have to acknowledge the past and try and understand it's influences and impact, not bury it.
This is a well known story but one which took a criminally long time to reach the screen. Apparently Barbara Broccoli had been trying to get it done for some years but the studios weren't interested because they thought that audiences would prefer to keep the past in the past. The whole BLM thing though proved just how relevant this story still is today. The past is not always such a different country.
Based on the years of research and following on from screenwriter Kieth Beauchamp's previous documentary, Chukwu's film is understated but powerful. Mamie, who eventually agreed to use the death of her son to help spur on the Civil Rights movement, died in 2003. Carolyn Bryant, the woman whose false claims of ***ual harassment by 14 year old Emmett led to his brutal death at the hands of her husband and brother in law, died this year. No one was ever prosecuted for Emmett's death. The thing that struck me was that this didn't happen in the 1920s or 1930s but in 1955. Elvis's first hit, "Heartbreak Hotel" came out in January 1956. It is in living memory for many still. More shockingly-and an inditement of American society - is that lynching did not become a federal criminal offence until 2022.
Also watched actor David Harewood's documentary on Black Face/Minstrely on bbc. The Black and White Minstrel Show on BBC drew audiences of around 2 million and ran until 1978 despite later years of protests. If you think it was all harmless entertainment that was simply "of its time" then watch this. The racial tropes introduced by this form of entertainment would have a lasting effect in this country. As Hardwood points out when watching an old film of Black Face street entertainers in the late 1890s in London, the children seen watching this would have their perceptions of Black people very much informed by such grotesque stereotypes (they would be very unlikely to meet real Black people) and these were then the generation that would demonstrate such ingrained attitudes towards the Windrush immigrants after the war.
When people start on about the evils of colonialism and Empire, I agree with many that we should not get brow beaten into feeling guilty for things that we didn't do and weren't involved with and that happened in a different time period with totally different cultural attitudes. We need to learn and move on. BUT to learn from history you first have to bring it out into the light and examine its various truths, uncomfortable as they may be. If we really want to move on, I believe that we first have to acknowledge the past and try and understand it's influences and impact, not bury it.