And we’re live!!! Yay! We made it folks, I’m happy to say.

Shadow And Act has now officially joined the indieWIRE Network. Click the image above to our new home @ http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact, where you will find us from now on.

Also, be sure to please change your bookmark links, your RSS feeds (HERE), etc.

Our Twitter and Facebook accounts remains the same, so if you’re already a fan on Facebook, or a follower on Twitter, there’s nothing more you have to do.

This current site will remain up for some time so you’ll still be able to revisit old posts. Just don’t hang around here for too long!

Without further ado, head on over to our new address.

Thank you all and cheers!

Here’s to what’s next!

As announced last week Friday, Shadow And Act has now officially joined the indieWIRE Network. We’ve been working hard on the transition, which is partly why I’ve been MIA for the last couple of days, but it’s all done now, and we’re live on the indieWIRE Network as of RIGHT NOW!

So, please change your bookmark links, your RSS feeds, etc, to reflect the new URL, which is http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact, where you will find us from now on.

Our Twitter and Facebook accounts remains the same, so if you’re already a fan on Facebook, or a follower on Twitter, there’s nothing more you have to do.

This current site will remain up for some time so you’ll still be able to revisit old posts. Just don’t hang around here for too long!

Without further ado, head on over to our new address (HERE) and jump in! As the day progresses, content will be added there, so don’t fret.

Thank you all and cheers!

Here’s to what’s next!

Tonight’s topics on the list:

The Help. Are we being fair about the film or are we having too many “knee jerk” reactions based on the subject matter and issues with the author?

Overrated black actors and actresses. We always talk about the “underrated” thespians on this blog but this time we’re going to chat about those who constantly get the gigs despite lacking obvious acting skills. We’re naming NAMES!

Can black films sell overseas? A topic that probably requires a separate show but we’ll touch on some theories tonight.

You can tune into the live show HERE. Also, don’t forget to join us in the chat room. We want to hear from you!

For those who can’t listen live, the show will be available for download shortly after.

See you tonight!

The show follows to enterprising twenty-somethings, Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam (Victor Rasuk) as they hustle their way through New York City determined to achieve their version of the American dream by making a name for themselves in the fashion scene.

Luis Guzman plays Cam’s cousin Rene Calderon who has his own ambitions of developing a new high energy drink called Rasta-Monsta. Other cast members include Martha Plimpton, Lake Bell, Shannyn Sossamon and Eddie Kaye Thomas.

La Salle will play Everton Thompson, an educated Jamaican community activist who throws a wrench in the growth of Rene’s company.

Joe Pantoliano has also been added to the cast playing Felix Di Florio.

African American science fiction, fantasy, and horror—all of which fall under speculative fiction—has been developing for over a century now.  Its tradition has its roots throughout the African Diaspora, but for Americans the voyage into a fantastical world has held a special appeal. Rising out of a need to escape from the lasting essence of slavery, the emergence of Jim Crow, and second class citizenry, utopian fiction provided hope for a better future.

Over the years the genre has expanded, maintaining social consciousness but also expanding beyond the conventions of our reality. The products of this ever-expanding universe, a hidden universe, have been documented in M. Asli Dukan’s Invisible Universe: A History of Blackness in Speculative Fiction. As we’ve talked about in prior posts (here and here), the filmmaker is still in the process of finishing this important film, but we wanted to have a chat with her  to find out who and what lives in the Invisible Universe.

Newark, New Jersey native M. Alsi Dukan started production on Invisible Universe by happenstance when she attended a Howard University black speculative fiction conference in 2003. In attendance were the likes of Tananarive Due, Octavia E. Butler, Steven Barnes, and Nalo Hopkinson. Before heading down to the conference Asli contacted the organizer of the event and asked if she could film it.Of course the answer was “yes”, and she became the  documentarian for the weekend conference. Seemingly unintamidated by their status, Asli approached several of the authors for interviews.

M. Asli Dukan with author Sam Delany

I guess the excitement and the importance of [the documentary] kind of took over any fear I had. I went up to everybody, and you know, people didn’t know me—they didn’t know me at the time. And, you know, they were like “yes, yes, I’ll give you my agent’s email,” and that kind of thing. But I was persistent.  I just kept pushing along and the project kept me going, it’s like the first time it’s being done. It kind of didn’t really occur to me until, well, in hind-sight.

Her persistence paid off, and with interviews booked, she began rigorous work on her project, which she considers a thesis of sorts.

As I started to research the writers and their work, I did a little more research in general about black representation in science fiction in literature. I was more of a movie fan when I was younger than a literature fan, and a whole new world started to open up to me. Things that I didn’t know existed before. And I thought it would be a more interesting project to cover film and literature. And basically that’s how it started.

Over time, as she began delving into research and tracking down both established and new authors, Asli found a welcoming support in the late prolific author Octavia E. Butler.

Asli with author Octavia E. Butler

Octavia was our treasure, for sure. And a true indeed science fiction fan. She said when she was a child she used to go to the library and read every [science fiction] book out there–as a child.  Before Octavia passed away, I had become a friend of hers. I had followed her around to conferences and interviewed her. And she knew me by my first name, if she saw me she knew me. I talked to her on the phone a couple times, we emailed each other. Octavia was a very interesting woman. She used to say that she was not anti-social, but asocial; she was just naturally a person who was to herself. I don’t know if you’ve seen her in talks, where she seemed maybe not open and warm, but she really was she was just very shy. Once she got to know you she was very warm and loving, and open, and a teacher—a great person to know, and to listen to you talk.

Answering a Question

For those of us who love speculative fiction, and all that it encompasses, the question of how black people fit into the paradigm of the genre is often posed. Invisible Universe seeks to provide an answer, pulling from a rich timeline that goes back more than a century. Asli recalls such works as Martin Delaney’s slave rebellion novel Blake or the Huts of America, as an example of utopian fiction, then moves forward in time to the present.

The title [Invisible Universe] in my mind kind of explains what the theme is. People just in general ask about science fiction, fantasy, horror, and how black representation has been associated with it. In my research I found that there are a lot of contributions by black creators in the genre of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. And [this documentary] is to say that we are a major part of the genres. So while we are invisible to maybe the popular culture, we are a universe nonetheless, we’re there.

Asli found that black authors used the genres as not only a natural way to express their hopes and desires of a better world for themselves and their people, but also as a way to include themselves into an emerging genre that had overlooked them.

While the genres were going through a process of being created and growing, and excluding representations of blackness in general, there were black folk who recognized that omission and used maybe, for instance, the techniques of utopian fiction to include themselves, to include us. Utopian fiction at the turn of the century, the early 1900s, was very popular type of fiction that looked to the future, to utopian societies that were better than the one we were living in. And maybe they didn’t call their work “utopian fiction”, but they wrote about futures where black folks were treated equally, or they were free. It’s been a conscious inclusion of black people by black writers.

The timeline for Invisible Universe is divided into six sections, following the evolution and forms speculative fiction genre. Asli starts with utopian fiction, then moves on to zombie fiction (esp. films), science fiction, blaxploitation and mythology, superheroes in comic books, and modern fiction.

Looking at our history in this country, coming out of slavery and being forced into illiteracy for so long, when black people got into the position to do more writing, it was around the time when science fiction started to burgeon a little bit more. All cultures have mythical stories, black Americans had mythology too, we told stories about cosmology, shape-shifting, magic, and alien abduction.

Through Invisible Universe Asli hopes to inform wide audiences, but she has a special interest in educating black youth on the history and promise of the genre for themselves. Not short on big ideas and the moxie to see them through Asli recalls that, even so, reaffirmation through fictionwithout boundaries, might have shaped her life differently.

When I was a young person I loved science fiction movies, but I always saw that I wasn’t represented. And it was hard, it was a hard kind of balance between loving something so much—[something] that looked to the future, that saw different societies, different things that could be for human beings—and not really seeing yourself in those images reflected back at you. I think that if this documentary was out when I was young, it would’ve given me not just pride or hope for the future, but it might have changed my life, about what I thought I could do as an African American. I could see myself as an astronaut, or I could see myself as a captain of a space station. It wouldn’t have been so weird for me to say “I want to do that”. I might have changed my life, giving me some hope that anything is possible.

The Home Stretch

M. Asli Dukan has primarily worked on this film by herself, bringing along temporary players here and there. She’s drawn from a number of financial sources, including fiscal sponsorship, fundraisers, merchandise sales, and applying for a number of grants.  This labor of love has meant many sacrifices in time and money, but I get the feeling that Ms. Dukan wouldn’t have it any other way. In this last phase of production, she’s looking to add the essential finishing touches.

While I am an editor, and I have equipment to edit, post-production is a large undertaking to get something polished, it takes a lot of time and money. It’s just getting all the material gathered up, good sound, good music, good images, color correction, and all that stuff that needs to be done by people outside of myself [laughs]. And also there are going to be clips in the movies in the project, and just dealing with the legal aspects [of that].

Asli’s currently working on another campaign through Fractured Atlas (for fiscal sponsorship) and IndieGoGo (which is partnered with Fractured Atlas) to raise finishing funds for her documentary.  Once this new campaign is up and running I’ll be sure to post it here at Shadow and Act.

For all of you speculative fiction fans that have been waiting for a compelling documentary that explores the history (and the future) in this expansive genre, be sure to follow and lend support to this wonderful project.

Alisha from Daniel Citron on Vimeo.

It was going to be a general entertainment channel running a wide range of scripted, unscripted and news programming including: drama and comedy series, movies, animation, reality, politics, sports and entertainment news, children’s educational and teen programming along with “responsible” hip-hop music videos.

A company statement claimed the network would provide…”positive content for a black and brown culture.” Supposedly, production had already begun and a website had been implemented.

Advisory board members for the network included Oscar winner Denzel Washington, Vault Load Films president Jim Finkl, NAACP executive director Vicangelo Bullock, NBA player Derek Anderson, hip-hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc, entrepreneur Olatokunbo Betiku and real estate mogul Curtis Oakes.

Master P was elated to announce the venture stating…”I believe that there is a market in our community for a new diverse network that provides a new brand of superior programming that caters to all aspects of television, from reality to original programming.”

This network was going to pounce BET and shake up the stronghold it had on us. In short, it seemed promising at the very least.

Then, out of nowhere, talk had diminished and POOF…the project was gone. No grand statements from Denzel. No unified front from the advisory committee explaining new investors on board. No all-star cast of a new sitcom chatting it up with Oprah. No trash talking comedian announcing a late night show. No lifestyle, all-in-one new hostess to look forward to. Nothing. Just dead.

Hearing about Bounce TV, the new network being launched by Andrew Young and Martin Luther King III, caused some major reservation but I’m hopeful.

So does anyone know what happened to BBTV?

This will probably be as close as most of you will ever get to seeing Sanaa Lathan in Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynn Nottage’s new play By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. No, I’m not rubbing it in, just stating the obvious.

In the play, currently previewing New York’s Second Stage Theater, Sanaa plays the titular Vera Stark, described as “a black maid in Hollywood who pursues her dream of making it in the pictures while also grappling with racial stereotypes through decades of the 20th century,” and will focus primarily on the relationship between Stark and her boss, a white Hollywood star, played by Stephanie J. Block (whose Broadway resume includes the musical Wicked).

The official synopsis: “A seventy-year journey into the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold onto her career. When both land roles in the same Southern epic, the story behind the cameras leaves Vera with a controversial legacy scholars will debate for years to come.”

Its remaining cast includes Tony Award winner Karen Olivo (West Side Story), Tony Award nominee Daniel Breaker (for Passing Strange), Kimberly Hebert Gregory, and Kevin Isola.

Directed by Jo Bonney (The Break of Noon, Fat Pig), the show officially opens on May 9 at Second Stage Theater, off-Broadway, NYC.

Tickets are on sale as follows: Adults $75; Senior $67.50; Youth Advance $30; Student RUSH $18.

I’m sure I’ll be seeing this some time after it opens, and, of course, I’ll share my thoughts afterward.

By the way, just as Nottage’s Ruined is going to receive the film treatment, don’t be surprised if By the Way, Meet Vera Stark also eventually meets a similar fate.

In the below behind-the-scenes look at the play, the cast and crew shoot a film sequence which, from what I understand, is shown at some point in the play. As Nottage notes, it’s a mixed-media production.

Need I say more? Spike Lee’s follow-up to When The Levees Broke, titled, If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise, is now officially available on DVD. I don’t see any info regarding a Blu-ray release.

Cost? $17. It’s a 2-disc set with audio commentary, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews.

Click the image above to order your copy. I preordered mine last week.

And, by the way, Spike will be holding a DVD signing event at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York City, tomorrow, Wednesday, April 20. He promised, via Twitter, to sign every single copy presented to him, so if you can’ pick up yours, and get Spike’s John Hancock for posterity. It’ll probably be worth a lot some day

Here’s episode 3 of the new animated series called The LeBrons (based on characters two-time NBA MVP LeBron James played in past Nike commercials), which was initially announced in January. If you missed them, watch the first episode HERE, and the second HERE.