It’s finally here. After weeks, months, even years of hype. Buildup. Eager anticipation. Marvel’s latest superhero adventure Black Panther roars into theaters this weekend. It’s another journey into the world of the Avengers. Iron Man. Captain America. The Incredible Hulk. But this one feels different. A majority black cast. A black director. Black screenwriters. A black producer. An “unapologetically black” film, our guests say. Its rave reviews have crossed color lines. It’s a big movie with a lot to say about race. Feminism. Colonialism. And the Black Diaspora. This hour, On Point: Black Panther takes over the big screen. —Jane Clayson
This show airs Friday at 11 a.m. EST.
Guests:
Jamil Smith, journalist, author of TIME magazine’s cover story headlined “The Revolutionary Power Of Black Panther.” (@JamilSmith)
ReBecca Theodore-Vachon, film and television contributor to Entertainment Weekly, Forbes and the New York Times. (@FilmFatale_NYC)
Frederick Joseph, marketing professional and philanthropist and creator of the Black Panther Challenge, a crowdfunding effort to raise money for black children to see Black Panther. (@fredtjoseph)
From The Reading List:
TIME: The Revolutionary Power Of Black Panther — “The first movie I remember seeing in a theater had a black hero. Lando Calrissian, played by Billy Dee Williams, didn’t have any superpowers, but he ran his own city. That movie, the 1980 Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, introduced Calrissian as a complicated human being who still did the right thing. That’s one reason I grew up knowing I could be the same.”
Huffington Post: Why I’m Raising Money For Kids To See Black Panther — “We all know the story of black pain and trauma. It is told to us over and over again, from K-12 to Hollywood. We’ve been the enslaved in a still constant fight to overcome white supremacy. We’ve been the strange fruits hanging from trees and the viral videos of countless shootings of unarmed citizens.”
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