Passage pairs Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga as old friends who lead very different lives thanks to a crucial detail. Rebecca Hall makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of Harlem’s Renaissance writer Nella Larsen’s tale of two childhood friends who are reunited as adults. Irene (Thompson) has established herself as a philanthropist and the wife of a successful Harlem doctor, while Clare (Negga) has married a wealthy man who does not know she is black. Both Thompson and Negga do extraordinary work and Hall’s film – shot in stunning black and white – reveals the spoken and unspoken complexities of the characters’ relationship to each other and to the world in which they live.
Summer of Soul (… or when the revolution couldn’t be television) illuminates Black Woodstock. We have another directorial release with this documentary directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who revisits the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. A series of free concerts staged over several weekends, the festival found legends like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and Sly and Family Stone performing free shows for happy crowds in the same year as Woodstock. Thompson’s film concisely puts the moment in context, breaking the scorching, sometimes revealing, performance scenes with interviews that explore the musical, cultural and historical significance of the event – including the neglect that greeted much of the black culture of the era and led to to this historic footage being archived for 50 years.
Judas and the Black Messiah is an instant Oscar candidate. The Shaka King film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, the president of the Illinois section of the Black Panther Party who died at the hands of the Chicago police at age 21 in 1969; and Lakeith Stanfield as William O’Neal, the FBI informant who helped set up the fatal operation at Hampton’s apartment. Previously best known for working on prestigious TV comedies, such as High maintenance and Strident, King makes a difficult and successful turn for the dramatic with Judas, which offers a different view of Hampton’s revolutionary politics and O’Neal’s conflicting motives. this we must appear a lot in the conversation.
The Sparks Brothers is Edgar Wright’s documentary debut. This is a caring and comprehensive look from the band Sparks, which has released album after album eccentric since the 70s, usually from the periphery of the music industry. Wright spends time with Ronald and Russel Mael, the California-born brothers who have been the only constant members of the band, and the many musicians and artists they have inspired over the years.
Street gang: how we got to Sesame Street narrates the innovative debut of the beloved basic children of television. Sesame Street it has been around for so long and has influenced so many generations that it is easy to forget that it was occasionally controversial when it premiered in 1969. Although it struggles a bit to fit so much history into the length of a feature film, Street gang helps to provide some much needed context.
Rita Moreno: just a girl who decided to go ahead tells the story of decades of a beloved Hollywood veteran. This documentary traces the life and career of the actress born in Puerto Rico, from her roots, going through a period of acting, limiting “exotic” roles in Hollywood until her recent resurgence via One day at a time. It is an uncritical adoration, but the extensive interviews with Moreno make her look like a woman whose charm and commitment to her principles make her difficult to not adore.
