Sundance. The Black List.

"Under the combined control of the director and esteemed photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and the film critic Elvis Mitchell, The Black List offers 20 abbreviated interviews with influential black Americans from every corner of society," writes S James Snyder in the New York Sun. "The final product is an inspiring mosaic that speaks to what it means to live as a black American, and serves as a meditation on how far we have to go as a nation in correcting the inequities that persist to this day." Says Mitchell: "As an African-American, one of the reasons I wanted to do this was to see something I had never seen before - an honest and insightful acknowledgement of the breadth and depth of the black experience in this country. Honestly, that's something you don't see in the mainstream media today."

"The real relevance of this film, politically and socially, is that it's not a series 'experts' talking about black culture, the impact of poverty, or how swell it is that these people overcame being African-American to succeed in their films," writes Kim Voynar at Cinematical. "Race is an issue that's discussed by the subjects, of course, but it's talked about through the lens of personal stories and black culture."

"The idea of art as both inspiration and personal mentor recurs throughout The Black List, whether it's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talking about meeting Miles Davis, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash delivering an appreciation of Jimi Hendrix or Toni Morrison describing how she was steeped in literature since early girlhood," observes Justin Chang in Variety. "'Writing is mine,' the Pulitzer-winning novelist declares at one point, and if anything connects the film's diverse voices, it's that sense of personally owning one's individual talents, of excelling without boundaries."

More at the site.

Posted by dwhudson at February 2, 2008 10:04 AM