Black films that changed the game

It's Been a Minute

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🗓️ 12 November 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

It's a big week in Black cinema as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hit theaters Friday. But on the same day, another film dropped that may be just as powerful in its message about Black moviemaking. Is This Black Enough For You? pays homage to the decades of creativity that made the celebrated Marvel movie possible – and deeply influenced cinema as we know it.

Host Brittany Luse sits down with Elvis Mitchell, the longtime film critic who directed the documentary. They dig into the ingenuity of Black filmmakers through the 1960s and '70s, the overlooked contributions of Blaxploitation films and the one Black classic that led to the demise of an era.

Then, Brittany talks about a different kind of homage with Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle – the brains behind the sitcom South Side and the variety show send-up Sherman's Showcase. The comedy duo reveal why writing jokes around specific references can appeal to all kinds of audiences, and how parody can be a form of love.

You can follow us on Twitter @npritsbeenamin and email us at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR.
0:05.5	I'm Brittany Luce.
0:07.3	It's a big weekend for Black Cinema.
0:09.6	The new Black Panther movie is now in theaters and another groundbreaking movie drop this weekend.
0:15.3	It's one of the most thoughtful, ambitious, and inventive celebrations of Black Cinema
0:19.9	or American Cinema I've ever seen.
0:22.6	It's called, is that Black enough for you?
0:25.0	It changes it more since it has several meanings.
0:29.8	Is that Black enough for you?
0:32.0	It ain't what it's going to be.
0:35.0	It's the history and the cultural ramifications of Black Film from 1968 to 1978.
0:42.3	That's the director and creator, Elvis Mitchell.
0:45.1	He's one of the most prominent film critics of our time and he also happens to be the host
0:50.3	of the treatment on KCRW.
0:53.0	Is that Black enough for you?
0:55.0	Is his new Netflix documentary?
0:56.3	And it has completely retooled how I think about Black Cinema from that time.
1:00.8	The same way that these movies, that period, that get talked about so much, you consider
1:06.2	to be not just movies but revolutionary in terms of what they do with the culture.
1:11.3	These Black films were too.
1:13.6	I talked to Elvis about the innovation of Black filmmakers from the 60s and 70s.
1:18.2	Why Blacks' Plotation Films don't get their due?
	...

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