Author Archives: Gail Choice

Congratulations to “12 Years a Slave” for winning Best Motion Picture in the Drama category beating “Captain Phillips,” “Gravity,” “Philomena” and “Rush.”

Get ready for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” new face of comedy. To be more exact, new Black female face of comedy. Sasheer Zamata was recently selected to fill the void of a Black female presence on the long-running series after actress/comedian Maya Rudolph left some six years ago.

There is a very short list of notable Black comediennes who have reached the superstardom level, and only Academy award winner Whoopi Goldberg comes to mind immediately.

Mark your calendars for the onslaught of 2013 Holiday movies that are coming your way. “The Best Man Holiday” got the Christmas season off to a great start. Because of its success, Hollywood movers and shakers will no longer snub their noses at films that have a storyline and Black cast, the movie demonstrated that we too have a story to tell, and people are willing to pay money to see it.

It came as no surprise to Black audiences that “The Best Man Holiday” was a box office winner, but to mainstream critics and the Hollywood hierarchy it apparently was a big surprise.

In 1999, director Malcom D. Lee ushered in the film “The Best Man” which became the “must see” movie of the time. It was funny, touching and reflected a part of the young African American lifestyle without guns a blazing, and Black mothers crying for their dead sons.

Hopefully you’ve been able to view Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross” on PBS. The series began Oct. 22 and will conclude Nov. 26.

“American Promise” is an honest and compelling look at the lives and education of two young African American male children over a 12-year-period, from kindergarten to high school graduation. This is the first time I’ve seen a documentary of this nature, and I found it fascinating and yes, a real eye-opener.