Interesting....

Sergio sent this email to me today. I love to learn about new Black filmmakers and share them with you. This one seems to be making a bit of a splash, and he has one of the coolest names ever:

IW-

So have you heard that the big new film that's getting all the praise at this year's Cannes Film Festival is Hunger directed by black British filmmaker Steve McQueen? (Of course NOT to be confused with the famous actor with the same name) This McQueen is a highly praised modern visual artist in the U.K. and Europe and Hunger is his first film. (I've attached a photo of him below) I've sent you a link to Variety's review of his film and a comments from Variety's Anne Thompson from her blog about the movie.

The last African-American filmmaker I can think of who got praised at Cannes for his film was Spike Lee and that was some years ago. We being left in the dust.

Sergio

Variety review

http://www.variety.com/article/VE1117937146.html?c=-1

Thompson On Hollywood:

"This is a talented new filmmaker, hugely gifted, visual and daring. The story of an IRA hunger strike in a Belfast prison is rough to sit through. McQueen throws everything in your face. But he does it with style. And Michael Fassbender--who appears to come close to really starving himself-- is a new star. He's going to play Heathcliff in a new version of Wuthering Heights. I doubt that anyone in the states will pick Hunger up. This is about discovering new talent. There was a rousing ovation from the press; Brit McQueen may be a strong candidate for the Camera d'Or, the prize for first-time filmmakers."

From IW: So if this film and the filmmaker are so great, why won't it get picked up in the states? Is it the subject matter--or the fact that the director is black, and not only Black, but has the nerve to be dark complected too?

We get films in America with dark subject matter regularly, and I get the feeling that if this movie were made by someone like Terrence Malick, we would be reading something different. I am so very, very sick of us being regulated into some f**ked up box. This is one of the very films we need to have shown in the U.S., that shows the versatility and diversity of what a Black filmmaker is capable of.