black is king, nommer 37 and birthday shenanigans
'we were beauty before they knew what beauty was'
Hi,
Hope you are well!
This week has been a little crazy for me, it was my birthday on Sunday, and my sister gave me a series of surprises so that I got to see my friends despite the COVID-ness of it all. A lot of social distance tears were shed. I wrote about the experience in a Twitter thread here if you want to know the deets or are looking for ideas for a lockdown birthday for someone else.
But because I’ve been distracted with birthday things I haven’t had time to consume anything extra and provide my unsolicited views so the newsletter will be on the short side today. But I did watch Beyonce’s Black is King and I wanted to get that convo going.
If you have any questions that you would like me to answer in a future newsletter, please pop it in the comments, and I’ll try and do so.
Also, if you have any comments or POV’s of what I’ve spoken about this week, you can throw your 2c in the comments, I welcome any opportunity to engage - it’s lockdown, I’m lonely.
black is king
I’m not going to lie even though I love and respect Ms Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter, I wasn’t that excited to watch Black Is King. The reason was mainly that I thought it would be one long music video and I always get so bored during music videos (except the ones that have fun stories to it). But boy did I have to eat my words once I actually sat down to watch Black Is King.
I was enthralled from beginning to end. I cried. I was moved, I was floored, and I will never mistrust Beyonce’s ability to educate and entertain again. There are so many amazing Black pop culture and music critics who have spoken about the film so I’m not going to say much else. I do however feel that it is important, that it provided so much representation, so much self-affirmation, so much celebration of the African culture across the diaspora. Plus it was so great to see the different and diverse landscapes of Africa as well as a range of South African artists represented. We honestly deserve this.
Between the musical performances (which included Busiswa and Moonchild Sannelly), the acting, the poetry of Warsan Shire, it was a cinematic feast for the eyes, a cultural reset, if you will.
nommer 37
Okay so I’m about three years behind on this, but I don’t really gravitate towards action movies, even though I really enjoyed Rear Window I probably wouldn’t have watched that either if I wasn’t studying. But my dad wanted me to put on an action film and so I thought I might as well check this out.
It is an excellent film by Nosipho Dumisa about the effects of gangsterism on a community and something that many of us that live on the flats can attest and relate to - the fear, the helplessness, the dream of something better. And only did it have a solid script and great direction, the cinematography and the production design were top top class.
Gambit Films, who also created Blood and Water and Ellen: The Ellen Pakkies Story, is the production company that is doing the things right now. Their ability to interweave socially conscious filmmaking and sophisticated technical quality makes me so hopeful for what is to come in the South African film industry.
Even a day after we had seen the film (which is about a man in a wheelchair who witnesses a crime) my parents sat around the fire (literally, we had a fire going in the fireplace) and discussed the themes of the film – gangsterism, drugs, money – and how it has impacted our communities, and how attractive it looked to many young boys we know. We have seen many movies together during lockdown, but the fact that a day later it was still on all of our minds, was a testament to the story that Nosipho Dumisa told.
You can watch Nommer 37 on Showmax now.
other things that are on my mind this week:
If you looking for a show to creep you TF out, I watched and reviewed Evil on DStv Now for Channel24 and I had quite a few sleepless nights.
I am also loving Brie Larson’s cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘The 1’ because they are two blondes that I love. You can watch the video here.
It’s Women’s Month in South Africa, and it’s a difficult thing to celebrate when our gender-based violence stats are so high and every day we hear news about women in our communities who have been murdered. A friend of mine, Nikki wrote such an excellent post about this here:
crushing on:
Honestly, I couldn’t talk about Taylor Swift on the podcast and not bring on Tash Montlake. But other than TS, we also spoke about horror movies and series, the film industry in South Africa and much more.
It was such a fun conversation, you can listen to it here.