myDylarama

Nina Turner, Operation Varsity Blues & Black Student Debt

Abla Kandalaft, Coco Green — 2022-09-26T10:16:05Z

"What unites these documentaries is that they both believe in a meritocracy"

Summer break is officially over... In this episode, we discuss the problem of student debt in the US, the very specific ways it affects Black Americans and the elitism of higher education, through:
– The Intercept documentary Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis, narrated by former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a longtime ally of the growing debt abolition movement, which looks at the crippling student debt in the US specifically affects Black women. You can watch it HERE.

– The Netflix documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal about the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. The doc is a mix of re-eactements and real life interviews, and stars Matthew Modine as Rick Singer. It depicts the scandal surrounding the uncovering of a scam run by a private college councillor and “adviser” Rick Singer, who used bribes and doctored photographs to get rich people's kids into elite universities.

The issues we take with both docs is that they don't quite address some of the more fundamental, systemic inequalities, which mean that tackling the debt crisis in this way, or condemning Rick Singer's "side doors" into higher education just isn't enough.

Here is some additional reading on the subject that will hopefully help you gain more context:

Black Student Debt
7 findings that illustrate racial disparities in education
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2016/06/06/7-findings-that-illustrate-racial-disparities-in-education/

Degree Attainment for Black Adults: National and State Trends
https://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Black-Degree-Attainment_FINAL.pdf

How Black Women Experience Student Debt
https://edtrust.org/resource/how-black-women-experience-student-debt/

Raising Undergraduate Degree Attainment Among Black Women and Men Takes on New Urgency Amid the Pandemic
https://edtrust.org/resource/national-and-state-degree-attainment-for-black-women-and-men/

Student loans, the racial wealth divide, and why we need full student debt cancellation
https://www.brookings.edu/research/student-loans-the-racial-wealth-divide-and-why-we-need-full-student-debt-cancellation/

The Student Debt Crisis? It's Infinitely Worse for Black Women
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/student-debt-black-women/

Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/

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Revisiting 2017! The Art Of Loving / Get Out

Coco Green, Ola Magdziarek — 2022-06-24T14:14:57Z

Coco Green and Ola Magdziarek review a couple of cinematic highlights from 2017: Maria Sadowska's The Art Of Loving, which tells the story of Polish sexologist Michalina Wislocka who fought for her book to be published in the late 1970s, and Jordan Peele's Get Out, in which Daniel Kaluuya's African American Chris Washington visits his white girlfriend's parents. A series of bizarre, unsettling events ensues.

‘The Art of Loving' (Sztuka Kochania), Poland 2016, Dir. Maria Sadowskav

Ola Magdziarek

Have you ever wondered how sex was officially perceived under the communist regime? Apparently it was in dire need of a revolution, girl-style. In 1978, Michalina Wislocka took Poland by storm with the guidebook, 'The Art of Loving'. Dr Wislocka, renowned for her contribution to sexual education in Poland, was very progressive for her time. As a medical doctor, she upheld the idea that sex is a form of entertainment, a source of pleasure and, most importantly, a way of showing affection to the one you love. And, if there's no one else you love, she explained how sex is a way to love yourself.

Director Maria Sadowska, who first made her name in the music industry, follows the struggle of Dr Wislocka to publish her book in a country ruled by our typical ‘white middle-aged men', although the oligarch is protrayed as more comical than scary or authoritarian. Subsequent to her ideology being rejected by all three pillars of power: first the government, then the church and, lastly, most of the press; the doctor finally finds an ally in a female editor, who understands the paradox of having a male medic advise on women's health. The film gives us an insight into the impetus behind her determination to overcome all authorities and to finally publish her work.

Despite the film's inspirational nature, it is not a faithful potrayal of the woman's life; which gives an opportunity for the right-wing media to attack the film. Avoiding Dr Wislocka's controversies takes away from understanding more about this figure and the times, but may have been necessary to tell the story of the book, advocacy and women's health. However, we do gain a sense of the Dr's personality, such as her love for clothes made of patterned curtains, and the atmosphere of Poland, in scenes set in a rural spa in summer. Nevertheless, the protagonist is an extremely likeable person and a role model to new generations of women trying to make their way in science. The director sneaked in a hint on difficutlies for a woman to follow a medical career while having children, and a critique of delegalising abortions.

A topical film in a country which is currently under strong far-right rule, facing a threat of introducing the strictest abortion law in the world, ‘The Art of Loving' warns us from turning back on history and reversing all the progress in women's reproductive rights. Although surprising, and scary, is that not much seems to have in the politics of progress. On the whole, without reading into the context, the film is good entertainment and gives an opportunity to delight.

‘Get Out', USA 2017, Dir. Jordan Peele

Coco Green

In short, loved it. In long, ‘Get Out' is everything you've heard and more. Consistently, whether I'm in book club, the bar, in a secret black people meeting at work, people who've seen it want to see it again. And those who have seen it twice offer to go with me to see it for a third time. The only thing armchair critics are wrong about is that the film is scary. Not sure who billed it as a horror film, but know that it is suspense and social commentary.

This film is a meet the parents story, with black Chris, and his white Rose, off to meet her parents, in a post-Obama colourblind American, in which Rose, to Chris's consternation, doesn't even need to tell her parents that he's black. Although Chris is Rose's first black boyfriend, she's not worried about her parents; they voted for Obama after all. But ‘Get Out' does try to reassure audiences early on that Rose is not naïve. When confronted with what she believes is over racism directed at Chris, she is vocal in her opposition. But the question remains, what happens when the racism is covert? Can Rose recognise microagressions and what does she understand about white privilege and interracial relationships? And what is expected of her on all of these fronts?

The film works primarily because of the suspense/science fiction element, which is also a refreshing change from the slapstick, dramas and documentaries that aim to tackle similar issues. This also taps into the concept of black anxiety and pessimism, in which Chris is justifiably wary and not used a reconciliatory character to alleviate white fears that there are grounded, smart, monogamous black men out there. Peele, who also wrote the screenplay, lulls you with recognisable comedic dialogue before taking a sharp turn to incongruous objects or reactions, then violence.

‘Get Out' is also timely in a number of ways. After viewing, what immediately came to mind are representations of blackness. One trope is that ‘positive' media representations are necessary to counteract the bad, so that a thug can't represent black people in general when you have a doctor starring in a series, too. However, I would argue that positive representations can be just as dangerous when they neither speak truth to power nor reflect inner truths or knowledge created in subjects racialised as black. Then, of course, is the question of authenticity: who has the right to tell black stories? Glad to not ask if director Jordan Peele is really black, what should be asked is what is he telling about black manhood, masculinity and desire when that body is in a white, progressive context? But I'm not sure I will ask that either, because the film does such an excellent job of moving the body and story away from institutions and into the home of liberal white America.

A surprising revelation in the film is an uncomfortable element of a particular form of multiculturalism in which racial diversity is welcome, as long as you're Christie. Characterised as Barbie's black friend, she is essentially chocolate Barbie with brown hair. She doesn't have a different world view, history or smaller pool of romantic partners due to deindustrialisation and ghettoisation. In this brand, diversity is bringing something desirable to the dominant group which, ironically, strengthens and legitimises their culture. All the more better if it's beautiful, delicious or entertaining. It's also convenient: one can absorb the most accessible parts of a culture without ever having to share power or recognise the more toxic elements of that culture that results from structural inequality. It's blues without the pain, passion without the heart.

So please, go see ‘Get Out'. See it twice.

Our Picks + Crooklyn

Abla Kandalaft, Akua Gyamfi, Coco Green — 2022-03-01T11:23:00Z

We're back!! We took a couple of months' break for me to get over the chaos of the first few weeks of having a newborn (my second - still chaotic!).

We're delighted to have Akua Gyamfi join us this week to discuss her work and her top picks. Akua is the founder of The British Blacklist . She's also the creator of the TBB Talks & Your Aunties Could Never Podcasts, as well as co-creator of The Circle Podcast & Web series.

Akua's top picks include the Prince Of Bel-Air reboot and the film she chose to discuss is Spike Lee's Crooklyn. We discuss the tone of the film, the depiction of familial relationships and female characters, the fate of daughter Troy, Black cultural output in the US and the UK, the prevalence of Black American popular culture. We also share anecdotes about MC Hammer and get schooled about what the Bay Area is!

Here's a useful link to Tonetalks, which is relevant to our discussion.

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Our Picks + The Closer and Passing

Abla Kandalaft, Coco Green — 2021-11-23T13:59:34Z

We jumped straight into this week's picks:

Dave Chappelle's Netflix show The Closer - we discuss the various contentious issues that had been raised, the concept of punching down - or up - , taking offence, who holds power and critiques of whiteness.

Passing - Does Rebecca Hall's adaptation live up to the book? We discuss casting choices, the American specificity of the phenomenon of passing and the director's perspective on it.

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Abla Kandalaft, Anna Smith, Coco Green — 2021-06-03T10:08:46Z

*We're skipping ep 23 given the relevance of ep 24 to this month's releases - normal service will resume in 2 weeks!*

This week, our guest is Anna Smith, leading film critic and broadcaster and host of the popular podcast Girls On Film. Our focus is women as lead characters in sexually-charged noir films from the 90s to the present day - to the new spate of films that belong to what Anna calls Bubblegum Noir, using Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman as a starting point. We also discuss new release Gillian Wallace Horvat's I Blame Society. You can follow Anna on Twitter @annasmithjourno.

Anna's pick of the week is Joanna Scanlan's new film After Love, which is currently on the big screen. Abla's picks include Palestinian arthouse director Elia Suleiman's filmography, available for free for a limited period as an entertaining, moving and actually very informative way into understanding Palestine and the history of Palestinians. As this is limited in time, another release worth flagging is Abby Martin's hugely powerful film Gaza Fights For Freedom, which is now free to watch online! And a series worth watching (if you still haven't been convinced by all the good publicity) is HBO dark crime drama Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet with yet another impeccable performance.

myDylarama

Nina Turner, Operation Varsity Blues & Black Student Debt

Revisiting 2017! The Art Of Loving / Get Out

Our Picks + Crooklyn

Our Picks + The Closer and Passing

Top Picks + Malignant: In praise of creature features

Our Picks + Little Fires Everywhere *UPDATED*

Our Picks + Zola

Our Picks + Slasher: Solstice

Our Picks + MLMs and On Becoming A God In Central Florida

Our Picks + Bubblegum Noir & Promising Young Woman

Our Picks + Little Fires Everywhere UPDATED