Dear Reader
Hello from post-snow yucky-slush New York City! I consider it a birthday gift from the universe to have received the record-setting snowfall we did this past weekend—it really does make the cold a little more easier to bear when a beautiful white blanket covers the ground and the trees and all the mounds of rubbish bags left on the sidewalk.
The snowfall in NYC coincided with this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. I find myself treasuring memories of travel and people a little more these days, and caught myself chuckling thinking about how the snow in Park City would make getting from venue to venue for the film screenings such an arduous task. My friend Alicia and I used to say to each other, if we found ourselves complaining too much, “It’s not like we’re trying to get to brain surgery!” It is indeed a privilege to get to see films and talk to the people who lovingly make them—even if one steps into a pile of snow of unknown depth and gets covered in icicles on the way to do so.
Speaking of Sundance, keep an ear/eye out for Questlove’s directorial debut, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), which picked up two prizes at the festival’s end, the Grand Jury and the Audience Award. It’s all about the lesser-known Harlem Culture Festival, which took place around the same time as Woodstock but didn’t receive any of the same attention, despite having the likes of Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone and BB King.
Also debuting at the festival, Judas and the Black Messiah, which will come out next Friday, the 12th, on HBOMax and in some theatres, is a must-watch. When I spoke to Daniel Kaluuya about taking on the role of Black Panther Party deputy chairman Fred Hampton, he told me the biggest version of himself had to show up. He also talked at length about the prep he did to play the part, but also about why it was worth it:
“He is a figure that encapsulates so much of what people today are fighting for in America, and around the world. And he was a channel. He was murdered at 21 and he was a channel, a vessel for all these incredible ideas, incredible philosophies, that are still being used today. And what the Black Panther party represented, as well, really resonated with me, and really resonated with how I see the world, and how I want the world to be.”
The film adds to a greater understanding of what the late Hampton stood for and the outreach that the Black Panther Party was doing. And it’s hard not to think of Breonna Taylor being killed in her home, when one sees what happened to Hampton over 50 years ago. Yet here we are, as the anniversary of her death approaches, with justice still not served, and activists continuing to push for police reforms and public policies that would prevent more needless deaths like hers.
Sundance also gave us the gift of Chloe Zhao’s work, when her first film Songs My Brothers Taught Me debuted there at the 2015 festival. As mentioned in my previous newsletter, her third feature, Nomadland, was my favourite film of 2020 (although I guess, since it’s only coming out this year it should be my favourite film of 2021!) One of the reasons the film is so good is the music that she selected for the film, from Ludovico Einaudi. It’s a great tonic for when you need to catch your breathe and calm yourself a little.
Thank you for reading and subscribing.
I’ll leave you with a home-made video from the Resistance Revival Chorus, who come together by the creed that ‘joy is an act of resistance.’
Stay safe, stay sane,
Your neighbour
Nadia