So one year has passed--one year of the pandemic (which actually arrived in the US in December 2019 or perhaps January 2020, to be a bit more factual--since I began recording the films I watched during the dog days of Covid-19's devastating rampage, which is not over, let me state in no uncertain terms, though we now have more effective vaccines and greater knowledge about how it spreads, infects, and so on. As I noted in March of last year, I began watching films (I always watch TV shows) because I was struggling to read for pleasure or get through anything not work-related and thus required; my anxiety was off the charts but I found I could sit through films. I have catalogued thus far many of the ones I watched, though I'm sure I missed quite a few few, but reviewing the list, it really represents quite a range in terms of style and approach, with a strong emphasis, as I noted last year, on features and shorts, and far less on documentaries. (My cinematic mind is akin to my literary one, it seems, with a preference for poetry and fiction over nonfiction.)
Here is my list for March of this year:
One Night in Miami* (imagine Dr. King, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and Sam Cooke all convened for one night in Miami -- enough said)
You Only Live Once* (the 1937 version, not the more recent one)
A New Leaf (this movie, directed by Elaine May, is so odd and awful it's actually quite interesting)
The Palm Beach Story* (Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, classic Hollywood divorce shenanigans)
Song of Freedom* (beautiful Paul Robeson film)
Rock 'n Roll High School* (an old fave)
Boneshaker* (a short, by Nuotoma Bodomo)
The Pleasure of Love* (Oh, Nelly Kaplan....!)
Other People (Molly Shannon is the main reason to watch this)
The Lady Eve* (Barbara Stanwyck & Henry Fonda one of her iconic roles)
Sullivan's Travels* (Veronica Lake in one of her iconic roles)
The Legend of Nigger Charley* (Fred Williamson stars as an escaped, self-empowered enslaved man, pursued by a bounty hunter)
Sergeant Rutledge* (Woody Strode in a career-defining performance as a soldier accused of raping a White woman)
Posse* (an old fave)
Kevin Jerome Everson films* - We Demand, Fastest Man in the State, Black Bus Stop
Owusu films* - Drexciya, Reluctantly Queer, Pelourinho: They Don't Really Care about Us
Plastic Bag* (Rahmin Bahrami's short about a...a plastic bag)
Putney Swope* (a successful racial satire of the kind we rarely see today)
Queen of Diamonds (Nina Menkes film, did little for me)
Permanent Vacation* (an early Jim Jarmusch film that gives a glimpse at what was to come in his work, as well as the New York of its era (1980))
The Reflecting Skin* (a vampire movie with a twist - eerie & refreshing)
The Inland Sea* (visually striking film about one of Japan's interior seas)
Insignificance* (Nicolas Roeg's unusual film that somehow works)
Love The One You're With* (the 2021 Black gay Sampson McCormick film about a couple's dying relationship)
Red Carpet, Hashtags & Heartbreak (a Black gay dramedy)
[Wyatt Cenac's commentary on Criterion Channel]
