Retro Docs and Black August; Upcoming Grant and Fellowship Opportunities, and More! | Dream Chase Media | August 1, 2024
Got Love for Retro Docs? There is something uniquely captivating about older documentary films. Perhaps it’s nostalgia for the raw, unpolished, and sometimes uneven aesthetic of the 90s and 2000s documentaries recorded on VHS and Mini-DV tapes, which played a significant role in my formative years. These films were the ones that inspired me to create documentaries myself.
With Black August upon us, what better occasion to revisit some of these classic documentary gems? Black August is a month dedicated to honoring, reflecting, and organizing against Black oppression, particularly in relation to incarceration and the surveillance of Black activism. It serves as a time to sharpen ourselves mentally and physically to become effective changemakers by studying texts, fasting, and abstaining from drugs and alcohol.
In my view, it’s also an opportunity to breathe new life into the documentary films that have captured and inspired action in the struggle for justice.
With that, I offer you five documentary films to watch during Black August:
This is still my favorite documentary about the Panthers. It’s rich with historical footage and interviews of BPP leaders, and offers a clear story arch of their formation, expansion, impact, and dissolution.
You may have read Assata’s book, but did you know there is a documentary of her story? This one is a true gem. Through multiple interviews with Assata herself in Cuba, as well as archival interviews, she shares her entire story from her own perspective.?
This was the first historical documentary I watched outside of school, completely on my own. All I remember was that I couldn’t believe the audacity of it all.
This one is still a classic and is known for its influence in waking Americans up to the injustice of the prison system through powerful narrative storytelling from inmates inside America’s largest maximum security prison - 18,000 acres - the size of Manhattan, which also happens to sit on a “former” slave plantation and traces its roots back to reconstruction.?
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Pete O'Neal, a young Black Panther in Kansas City, Missouri, was arrested for transporting a gun across state lines. One year later, O'Neal fled the charge, and for over 30 years, he has lived in Tanzania. This film shows his day to day life in Tanzania, and features Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, who also moved to Tanzania upon his release from prison. This one is a joy to watch.
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Check out this profile of the innovative and imaginative Puerto Rican artist Daniel Lind-Ramos from Art21’s “Everyday Icons” series.