“Black Panther” is a game changer.
With over $1.3 billion worldwide, it shattered the long-standing, fallacious belief that black films don’t sell overseas.
It also should close 2018 as North America’s highest-grossing film — a historic first for a film with a predominantly black cast, black writers, and directed by a black filmmaker.There’s another way to look at this: Deja vu.
Hollywood’s interest in black stories surges, and then the “renaissance” is followed by a fallow period … until the next one.
It’s a pattern that strips the consistency and continuity that’s essential for lasting change.In the late 1960s, following the Civil Rights movement and facing pressure from a socially and politically conscious black audience seeking full representations of their humanity, Hollywood responded with blaxploitation movies.
(It didn’t hurt that Hollywood was in economic flux at the time.) This overdue recognition of the power of
Read full article