(no subject)
Feb. 18th, 2018 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDW is dead this weekend.
Watching the Olympics, and writing mainly. Have written well over 50 pages to date on new story. It's lead character is an African-American female bomb specialist, who'd wanted to be a doctor, but had a knack for dismantling bombs and was co-opted by the army to do just that. It's a second chance at romance novel, exploring a lot of controversial topics.
Read a few articles that explained why I got so excited about The Black Panther -- it's the first superhero and/or action film that I've seen that presents a positive picture of Africa, and blacks. It's not colorblind casting -- the characters are cast because they are black and/or African. It also has the most complex villain in the Marvelverse and by far the most innovative. And, it subverts various tropes -- the women are shown in warrior and science tech roles, not as just mothers or caregivers. And they kick male ass. But it's not gender blind casting -- they are powerful because they are women. And not just one type of black man or black woman is show-cased.
It's an empowering film for those who have been presented as oppressed or inferior for ages. And it's done in a blockbuster, fun, superhero pic -- where the superhero is the black race, the African race.
Plus the message? It's not that we are better than you are or our tribe is superior, but that we need to build bridges and become one tribe not many tribes. It's not anti-tribalism or preachy in any way, what it does is state we need to share, and embrace our differences and similarities and learn from each others cultures.
I just can't stop thinking about it. It's by far the most interesting and groundbreaking film that I've seen in a long time, and the most positive in its message. I like it a lot better than Get Out and Shape of Water, which says something.
I honestly think everyone should see this film. And I don't tend to think that very often and particularly not with superhero flicks -- because let's face it, they don't work for everyone any more than indie slice of life hyper-realism flicks do.
But this film is important, I think, because it jumps outside the formula and makes us look at what we think we know in another way or rather with new eyes.
At church this morning -- on the sign out front, there was a quote from Marcel Proust...
This movie makes you sort of look at superhero films, Africa, race, etc -- with new eyes.
Watching the Olympics, and writing mainly. Have written well over 50 pages to date on new story. It's lead character is an African-American female bomb specialist, who'd wanted to be a doctor, but had a knack for dismantling bombs and was co-opted by the army to do just that. It's a second chance at romance novel, exploring a lot of controversial topics.
Read a few articles that explained why I got so excited about The Black Panther -- it's the first superhero and/or action film that I've seen that presents a positive picture of Africa, and blacks. It's not colorblind casting -- the characters are cast because they are black and/or African. It also has the most complex villain in the Marvelverse and by far the most innovative. And, it subverts various tropes -- the women are shown in warrior and science tech roles, not as just mothers or caregivers. And they kick male ass. But it's not gender blind casting -- they are powerful because they are women. And not just one type of black man or black woman is show-cased.
It's an empowering film for those who have been presented as oppressed or inferior for ages. And it's done in a blockbuster, fun, superhero pic -- where the superhero is the black race, the African race.
Plus the message? It's not that we are better than you are or our tribe is superior, but that we need to build bridges and become one tribe not many tribes. It's not anti-tribalism or preachy in any way, what it does is state we need to share, and embrace our differences and similarities and learn from each others cultures.
I just can't stop thinking about it. It's by far the most interesting and groundbreaking film that I've seen in a long time, and the most positive in its message. I like it a lot better than Get Out and Shape of Water, which says something.
I honestly think everyone should see this film. And I don't tend to think that very often and particularly not with superhero flicks -- because let's face it, they don't work for everyone any more than indie slice of life hyper-realism flicks do.
But this film is important, I think, because it jumps outside the formula and makes us look at what we think we know in another way or rather with new eyes.
At church this morning -- on the sign out front, there was a quote from Marcel Proust...
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
This movie makes you sort of look at superhero films, Africa, race, etc -- with new eyes.