Guests include Bret Wood and DJ Spooky who discuss the new Kino Lorber box set “Pioneers of African American Cinema” in separate segments. Among the most fascinating chapters of cinematic history is that of the so-called ‘race films’ that flourished in the U.S. between the 1920s and ’40s. Unlike the ‘black cast’ films produced within the Hollywood studio system, these films not only starred African Americans but were funded, written, produced, edited, distributed, and often exhibited by people of color.
Sean Gullette (“Pi”) on his new film “Traitors“. Malika, leader of Traitors, an all-female punk rock band, has a strong vision of the world, her hometown of Tangier, and her place in it. When she needs money to save her family from eviction and to realize her dreams for the band, Malika agrees to a fast cash proposition: a smuggling run over the mountains for a dangerous drug dealer. But her companion on the road is Amal, a burnt-out young drug mule who Malika decides to free from her enslavement to the dangerous drug dealers. The challenge will put Malika’s rebel ethos to the test, and to survive she will have to call on all her instincts and nerve.
Margaret Brown on her earlier documentary feature “Be Here to Love Me“, now available on Fandor. Singer-songwriter Townes van Zandt was at the center of Austin’s outlaw country scene in the 1970s, but, while friends like Waylon Jennings and Steve Earle went on to mainstream stardom, the mercurial Van Zandt retreated into a haze of alcoholism and mental illness. Through interviews and rarely seen live footage recorded throughout Van Zandt’s performing and recording career, this sympathetic documentary traces his work and life, which was cut short on New Year’s Day 1997, when he was 52.
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