Arts entertainment

The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts announced Friday that it will remove its exhibit of Hollywood legend John Wayne, citing an initiative to promote “anti-racist cultural values” following protests from students. … [Read more...] about USC’s School of Cinematic Arts to Remove John Wayne Exhibit

The stories of rape, torture, murder, family destruction, and disease were absent from the schoolbooks. It was as if there had been no struggle, as if the negro—man, woman, and child—had suffered in silence until a right-minded president deemed slavery an immoral enterprise and waged a bloody battle to destroy it. It wasn’t as simple as all of that, of course, but we were led to believe that slavery was finally abolished by American Exceptionalism as the nation demonstrated a unique ability to heal itself without the complications of foreign intervention. … [Read more...] about Goldie Taylor—Nate Parker’s Alleged Sins Won’t Keep Me From Seeing ‘The Birth of a Nation’

“What I’d like to do with my art is challenge Hollywood as a whole,” he offered. “The reality is that we’re built on shaky ground. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation film really put us in a tough spot with regards to race relations. He had this film that basically created this mantra that whites should embrace white supremacy as a means of self-preservation. He was considered a genius for his technique and this film became the leading projector of social thought, and of cinematic thought, and that is the foundation we’re built on.” … [Read more...] about ‘The Birth of a Nation’: Meet Nate Parker, the Revolutionary Filmmaker Behind the Sundance Smash

Her other big project from the past year, The Wolf of Wolf Street, also received a very heated response. However, the actress is so unrecognizable as Leonardo DiCaprio’s first wife, Teresa Petrillo Belfort, that most people—including some of her HIMYM coworkers—had no idea she was even in it. “One of the crew guys was like, ‘You know what movie I just saw this weekend? Wolf of Wall Street. Have you seen that yet?’ I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I did see it,’” she says. The next day, he finally connected the dots. “I took it as the ultimate compliment. It used to happen with Once all the time. I would come out of the theater and people would be like, ‘Do you know when the Girl is coming out?’ I’d be like, ‘No, I think she’s still up there.’ I love that. That’s my goal, to do stuff like that.” … [Read more...] about How Cristin Milioti Met Sitcom Stardom

Early on, in 2014, we were in rehearsal. We sat outside for a lunch break and the discussion of racism in its current state ensued. I was taken aback to hear how some of my friends, who are kind and loving individuals, spoke of multiple instances where they were profiled for the color of their skin while being in predominantly white areas, streets and neighborhoods. … [Read more...] about What one of the few White ‘Hamilton’ cast members learned about race