Tall tales, danger, and a dark world of honor take center stage in Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings. MACA is a notorious prison in Côte D’Ivoire, D’Abijan. It’s overcrowded and neglected, and the inmates are left to their own devices, creating a hierarchy and society that suits their needs. From the outside, MACA looks... Continue Reading →
Fantasia Film Festival 2020: Kriya
A night out at the club where the triumph of a sick DJ set and meeting a beautiful woman ends in a nightmare in Sidharth Srinivasan’s Kriya. Neel (Noble Luke) is a DJ who meets Sitara (Navjot Randhawa) after he plays at a nightclub. They are hot and heavy with each other, and Sitara decides... Continue Reading →
Afrofuturism: Vision of the Future from “The Other” Side: Presentation and Extra Reading
I did a presentation on Afrofuturism for the 2020 Fantasia Film Festival. If you missed it, you can watch it here. There will be other great panels available on this playlist too! And check out the festival if you're in Canada because there are lots of amazing films. If you are interested in more... Continue Reading →
Review: Useless Humans
Living in these quarantine times can be heavy since our lives have drastically changed. With all the disturbing news reports, sometimes a laugh is in order, and the sillier, the better. You’ll find an abundance of LOL silliness with Stephen Ohl’s first feature, Useless Humans. Brian (Josh Zuckerman) is turning thirty and looking forward to... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Indigenous Representation
I'm furious about an editorial piece in a Toronto newspaper with an inflammatory headline asking why racism against Indigenous people isn't getting more attention. The editors cite that there has been more reporting on anti-Black racism, and that's the most divisive thing I've heard during the uprising. I'm not adding a link to this... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Octavia E. Butler and Black Futures
Octavia E. Butler’s birthday was on June 22, 1947. She is the mother of black futures and would have been 73 years old this year. Her worlds explored Black people and situations where race, sexuality, and hierarchy determined the fates of her characters. She never sugar-coated scenarios, often bringing the worst of human nature to... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: The Girl with All the Gifts
The zombie genre has been played out and regurgitated for a long time now, leaving horror fans jaded and looking for a new angle. In 2014, Mike Carey (as M.R. Carey) wrote The Girl with All the Gifts, a book about a zombie plague instigated by a fungus. In 2016, he wrote the screenplay for... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Brown Girl Begins
Afrofuturism is a term coined by cultural critic Mark Dery, but I tend to lean towards writer and filmmaker Ytasha Womack’s definition which states: “Whether through literature, visual arts, music, or grassroots organizing, Afrofuturists redefine culture and notions of blackness for today and the future. Both an artistic aesthetic and a framework for critical theory,... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Hot Docs 2020-Coded Bias
What happens if you want to create a fun project for your MIT class only to find that you don’t exist to your own project? This happened to then graduate student Joy Buolamwini when she wanted to create a facial recognition mirror, the “Aspire Mirror”, that would project fun filters to start your day. Because... Continue Reading →

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