Story:A strange singer with God-given talent drifts through his adopted city of Memphis with its canopy of ancient oak trees, streets of shattered windows, and aura of burning spirituality. Surrounded by beautiful women, legendary musicians, a stone-cold hustler, a righteous preacher, and a wolf pack of kids, the sweet, yet unstable, performer avoids the recording studio, driven by his own form of self-discovery. His journey quickly drags him from love and happiness right to the edge of another dimension.
Details: According to Matt Zoller Seitz of Rogerebert.com, Memphis is a quasi-documentary drama about the creative struggles of Memphis blues musician and poet Willis Earl Beal, who’s playing a version of himself here. Beal is a superficially compelling character, in his passive and medicated way. He seems to be blocked. His label wants him to finish his new album but he seems to have fallen down a sort of tinkering spiral, endlessly reworking his work. Is he a perfectionist, or is he procrastinating? When his bandmates press him for more specific directions and grow irritated by his vagueness, are we seeing a misunderstood genius struggle to make himself understood by lesser talents, or a man whose gifts don’t really match his mystique? Read the full review here: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/memphis-2014
Source(s): IMDB, rogerebert.com.
Cast: Rae Dawn Chong (Jenny), Candice Coke (Dee Dee), Preston Davis (Tommy), Jackée Harry (Savannah), Anne-Marie Johnson (Alex), Debra Wilson (Darien), Christopher Judge (Freddy), Omarosa Manigault (Eva Lang), Phil Morris (Harley).
Story:Three rival actresses and their crew, desperate and hating each other, reunite for a horror movie sequel when someone starts killing them off just like in their movie. Sources: Amazon, IMDB.
Release Date: 2/7/15 (TV One) Genre: Drama Rating: NR Running Time:Unknown Studio: White Water Productions, Inc. Director: Rusty Cundieff
Cast:Sharon Leal (Annie), Larenz Tate (Terrance), Lori Beth Sikes (Emily), Brody Rose (Tommy), Barry Shabaka Henley (Rev. Stokes), Zhane Hall (Red).
Story: According to Shadow and Act, White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the white’s only drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it. Based on a children’s book by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein, which was itself based on their childhood experiences. Source(s): Shadow and Act; IMDB.
Release Date: 5/3/19 Genre: Drama/Biography Rating: R Running Time:108 mins. Studio: King Bolden Director:Dan Pritzker
Cast:Gary Carr (Buddy Bolden), Erik LaRay Harvey (Bartley), Yaya DaCosta (Nora Bolden), Reno Wilson (Louis Armstrong), Karimah Westbrook (Alice Bolden), JoNell Kennedy (Ida Bass), Robert Ri’chard (George Baquet), Serena Reeder (Mavis), Michael Rooker (Pat McMurphy), Ian McShane (Judge Perry).
Story: The film is set in 1931 New Orleans, when Buddy Bolden, a long-time asylum inmate, hears the strains of a Louis Armstrong concert drift into his room from the radio in a nearby nurse’s station. The sound evokes memories of his long-forgotten youth as a ground-breaking cornetist, when he played and improvised his way to the forefront of a new musical style, ultimately creating what would evolve decades later into jazz.
Ian McShane will portray Bolden’s nemesis the politician Judge Perry, with Erik LaRay Harvey as Bolden’s manager Bartley, Yaya DaCosta as wife Nora Bolden, Michael Rooker as Perry’s enforcer Pat McMurphy, and Reno Wilson as Louis Armstrong.
Cornet player Charles “Buddy” Bolden was born on September 6, 1877. At the age of 30, he was committed to an asylum where he died in 1931. The only recording he made was never found. He invented Jazz. BOLDEN reimagines the compelling, powerful and tragic journey of an unsung American hero and the social context in which his revolutionary music was conceived. Weaving together fragmented memories of his past, BOLDEN invites you to experience a world fueled by passion, greed and musical genius, in early 1900s New Orleans. Source: Blackfilm.com.
Trailer:
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Details: On November 14, 2014, NOLA.com reported, Bolden, director Dan Pritzker’s long-gestating biopic on jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden — the so-called “first cornet king of New Orleans” — is coming home to the city in which Bolden made his name. After filming in Atlanta and North Carolina, the production is packing its bags for the Crescent City. Pritzker’s self-financed passion project first went before cameras in 2007 and then underwent a first round of reshoots in 2009. This latest round is expected to see Pritzker reshoot approximately half of his film.
Part of the reason for the extensive reshoots is because actor Anthony Mackie, who portrayed Bolden in the first two shoots, was unavailable for this latest round of shooting. He is being replaced in the cast by actor Gary Carr. Other cast members include Ian McShane, who will take over for Jackie Earle Haley in the role of Bolden nemesis Judge Perry; and Nelsan Ellis, who will play Bolden’s band manager. Jazzman Wynton Marsalis composed the film’s score.
The talented but troubled Buddy Bolden is among the more colorful characters in New Orleans’ jazz history. A huge draw in his hometown of New Orleans in the early 1900’s, his “Funky Butt (Buddy Bolden’s Blues)” is among his more celebrated numbers, one widely covered by other musicians. Tragically, Bolden’s career — and his life — was cut short by a struggle with mental illness. By the time he was 30, he was institutionalized at the Louisiana State Insane Asylum, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He died at 54 years old of what is described as alcohol-related psychosis and was buried in a pauper’s cemetery in New Orleans.
His musical influence, however, long outlasted him. No known recordings of his work exist, and facts about his life have become intermingled with myth. Still, with his improvisation-heavy blend of ragtime and blues — which he performed with his Bolden Band under the name King Bolden — he is widely recognized as an originator of the musical form that would become jazz.
Source(s): NOLA.com (adapted); Movie Insider; IMDB. Photo Credit: NOLA.com.
Cast:Rochelle Aytes (Hailey Colburn), Brian White (Christopher Michaels), DeRay Davis (Sans), Erica Hubbard (Sybil), Jay Ellis (Jonathan Colburn), John West, Jr. (Darnell Raye), Steven Williams (Robert Colburn), Valarie Pettiford (Pamela Colburn), Jillian Murray (Shelly), Quinton Aaron (T.I.), Angeline-Rose Troy (Rebecca), Leonard Roberts (Matthew), Elimu Nelson (Peter), Amin Joseph (Jamison).
Story: Hailey is a self-proclaimed serial dater who has no interest in marriage, kids or a picket fence. Hailey does however enjoy the company of men, five to be exact. She believes no one man can possess all five of her most coveted qualities. She works as a recovery specialist for a glorified corporate collection agency that specializes in the “million dollar debtor”. Hailey’s methods are scandalous, but gets the job done. Soon Hailey meets Christopher, her next mark, who has sworn off women and has no interest in her. As the five falls from the flock one by one, Hailey has to cross lines to get the one man who has it all. Source: IMDB.
Release Date: 1/30/15 (Theatrical Release) Genre: Drama Rating: Unknown Running Time: Unknown Studio: Relativity Media Directors: Mike Binder
Cast: Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, Gillian Jacobs, Jennifer Ehle, Anthony Mackie and Bill Burr.
Story: Black or White tells the story of a grandfather (Costner) who is suddenly left to care for his beloved granddaughter. When the little girl’s paternal grandmother (Spencer) seeks custody, a legal battle ensues that forces the families to confront their true feelings on race, forgiveness and understanding. Anchored by an all-star cast and based on real events, the movie is a look at two seemingly different worlds, in which nothing is as simple as black or white. Source: Official Facebook page; Comingsoon.
Release Date: 1/13/15 (DVD); 1/17/14 (Sundance Film Festival)
Black Cinema Connection 