First meeting of 2010!

Ok Soul of Cinema Brothas and Sistas! Here we go with our first meeting of the year!

The Featured Film for the month of January is.....

Hollywood Shuffle


directed by Robert Townsend









Where: Highland Mills Cafe 2909 North Davidson St., Charlotte, NC

When: January 9, 2010

Time: 5:30 pm (Please note the new time!)




Come on out and join the fun with a free movie and a delicious dinner along with good conversation and good friends!



Check out the movie clip!





OMGosh! Check this one out!

Soul of Cinema Family

My Soul of Cinema Family,

2oo9 is coming to a close and I just want to tell all of our Soul of Cinema Movie Review family....THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We have had some very good times this year. From our very first meeting in my home watching the movie Cover to eating fried fish and greens at Sadie's listening to the soulful poetic lyrics to For Colored Girls to ending this year at the Highland Mills Cafe watching This Christmas. And we brought the house down!

When Soul of Cinema was just an idea in my head I had no idea that the people who supported this idea so would touch my heart. You guys have been my support and my inspiration and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And to top it all off, one of our members, Charles Rorie, put together this video of our last meeting. He told me that he wanted the world to see us through his eyes. And he felt that the song, Lioness on the Rise, was appropriate to describe the ladies in the group. I certainly agree! This video brought tears to my eyes. I saw us smiling and beautiful. And these pictures take me back to memories to previous meetings and I can't stop smiling. Thank you Charles for your creative appreciation. There is no other like you, believe that!

And there is no better group of people in this world than my Soul of Cinema family. And you better believe that too! I hope you enjoy the video and if you like it please post a comment!

Love, Peace and Sooouuul of Cinema,

TamaRa Nzadi

Movie for the month of December

Jazz in the Diamond District


starring Wood Harris and Clifton Powell

Join us for our last meeting of 2009

Where: Highland Mills Cafe

2909 N. Davidson St.

Charlotte, NC 28205

Time: 6pm

Free movie, delicious food and great conversation!

Come do something out of the ordinary!

This event will take us out of 2009 and into 2010!

We will have:

* A live performance by our songstress Soul of Cinema Sista Kim Fraizer!

* Free dvd and movie give-aways!

* and a Toys for Tots Tree for donations!

About the Movie!

When Jasmine Jazz Morgan (introducing Monique Cameron) loses her mother to a long-time battle with lung cancer, she can only focus on one thing pursuing her dream of becoming a famous singer. Ignoring the wishes of her father, Blair Morgan (Clifton Powell, RAY), a strict doctor who prefers that she return to college, Jazz spends the summer entrenched in the hyper-sexualized, drug-influenced Washington, D.C., music scene, dragging along her naive younger sister, Leah (introducing Erica Chamblee).One night, after an impromptu audition, Jazz is invited to join a local Go-go band (music by Likeblood Entertainment, Uncalled 4 Experience) that is managed by a laid back barber, Gabe (Wood Harris, REMEMBER THE TITANS) and supported with drug money provided by the lead MC, Flight (introducing Andre' Strong). With ease, she falls in line with the band and in love with the stage and together they reach new heights of popularity. But just as quickly as her success builds so does the pressure and Jazz recklessly tries to maintain control.

Movie Review for Precious

*SEE MOVIE TRAILER AT THE END OF THIS POST*

Precious

starring Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe, MO'Nique, Paula Patton and Mariah Carey.

directed by Lee Daniels

with executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry

This film is based on the novel Push written by African-American author, Sapphire. This is an emotionally gripping story of a young black teenage girl living in Harlem. She has been abused in more ways one could imagine by the very people who were suppose to love and take care of her. Her life is hard, however, she finds solace in a program that is geared to help troubled teen girls finish school and find a new direction in life. This young girl soon finds, from her teacher, classmates, social workers and others around her, that there are people who love and care about her and through it all she finds enough to love herself and her children.

This movie is a tear jerker. I mean, enough to jerk the eyeballs out the socket! I could sit here and type all night about this film and I still would not express everything this movie made me feel. This is a straight no chaser kind of film. Gabourey Sidibe is wonderful! She played her character very well. It was believable. Every aspect of this film was believable. Though, the subject matter was hard to digest, it tells a story of many young girls. Girls who suffer and continue to suffer physical, sexual and emotional abuse. I'm not mad at all about it.

There was no glamour in this film. No make-up or Maybeline! Never saw Mariah look that "plain Jane" before! Although, Paula Patton needed no make-up and I'm sure her hubby Robin Thicke is not complaining! MO'Nique! She played the crazy, emotionally umbalanced, bitter mother. She did her thing! As a matter of fact, everytime I saw her on the screen she made my stomach hurt!

This film will take you through every emotion imaginable. Even though this is a serious drama, there are some light-hearted moments that will make you chuckle and laugh. Plus, Lenny Kravitz made me want to get back into nursing sick people! Lee Daniels brought the same fire as he brought to Monster's Ball, which earned Halle Barry an Oscar win! Maybe, there's another one here? I don't know but his directing in this film was phenomenal! I loved it. I am already planning to see it a second time.

If you have seen this movie, tell us what you think! Post your comment.

Movie Review for November

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned

staring LAWRENCE FISHBURNE

If you have ever been incarcerated and was faced with the challenges of creating a new life in the free world then you would understand the plight of Socrates Fortlow (Lawrence Fishburne). Always Outnumbered is a film adaptation of the novel by the same title by Walter Mosely.

Socrates plays judge and jury as he protects his community and fights social and economic prejudice as an ex-con and also finds himself worthy of being loved by a beautiful woman (Natalie Cole). Other talented actors in this film are, Cicely Tyson, Bill Nun (Radio Raheem from School Daze), Issiah Washington (Dr. Preston Burke from Grey's Anatomy), Paula Jai Parker (Hustle and Flow) and the ever so smooth, Bill Duke. Um, um, um. This has got to be one of the best dramatic films I have seen of Lawrence Fishburne.

Come on out and enjoy the fun!

When: Saturday, November 7, 2009

Where: Highland Mills Cafe

2909 N Davidson St, Suite 200

Charlotte, NC 28205

Time: 6pm

Come out and enjoy a free movie, delicious food, engaging conversations and a chance to win free a pair of movie tickets! The movie will start promptly at 6:30, so please arrive early so you can get a good seat and order your dinner. If you have questions about the event please contact me, TamaRa Nzadi at 704-281-4477 or email me at soulofcinema@yahoo.com.

Chris Rock's Documentary Good Hair Opens This Weekend

All of our Soul of Cinema Movie Review members, the Chris Rock documentary is here and is opening this Friday! We are going to be there! If you are going to see it too, please post your review and critique of the film.

Synopsis:

When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl's head! Director Jeff Stilson’s camera followed the funnyman, and the result is Good Hair, a wonderfully insightful and entertaining, yet remarkably serious, documentary about African American hair culture.An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of black people. Celebrities such as Ice-T, Kerry Washington, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Maya Angelou, and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter’s question. What he discovers is that black hair is a big business that doesn’t always benefit the black community and little Lola’s question might well be bigger than his ability to convince her that the stuff on top of her head is nowhere near as important as what is inside.

courtesy of Sundance Film Festival

Check out the trailer!

Soul of Cinema Star for October

Forest Whitaker
Actor, director, producer and Igbo chieftain, Forest Whitaker, is a native of Longview, Texas. He played defensive tackle in high school which he was later granted an athletic scholarship to play at Cal Poly Pomona. He later transferred to University of Southern California where he excelled in the performing arts. He debuted on the big screen at the age of 21 in the comedy, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” where he played Charles Jefferson, as what? A football player. However, his acting talents bum rushed him on his cinematic journey staring in films, such as, “North and South”, “Platoon”, “Good Morning Vietnam”, and Clint Eastwood’s directorial project of the life and career of jazz legend Charlie “Bird” Parker, “Bird”, a film for which he won the Cannes Film Festival award for best actor and a Golden Globe nomination.

His repertoire of the characters he has played in later films is quite colorful. Among them were a kidnapped British soldier with a questionable sexual preference in the “Crying Game”, a gay fashion designer in “Ready to Wear”, a geeky alien hunter in “Species”, and a mafia hit man who follows the codes of the Samurai warrior in “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai”. He started his creative ventures behind the camera by starring and co-producing the movie, “Rage in Harlem”, with Gregory Hines and Robin Givens, and made his successful directorial debut in the national black woman’s theme movie, “Waiting to Exhale”, starring Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon. A few of his most recent and more notable works include, “The Last King of Scotland” where he plays the brutal Ugandan president, Idi Amin, a role for which he won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in 2007, “The Great Debaters”, “Vantage Point” and “Where the Wild Things Are” as the voice of Ira. Included in his upcoming works are, “Repo Men” with Liev Schreiber, “My Own Love Song” with Renee Zellweger, “The Experiment” with Twilight’s, Cam Gigandet.

Aside from being married to the beautiful former model, Keisha Whitaker and the father of four adorable children, he created his own multimedia company, Spirit Dance Entertainment, which produced movies such as , “The First Daughter” and the 2002 Emmy Award winning film, “Door to Door”. Forest was given a star on the Hollywood Walk in April of 2007. Forest Whitaker, has done extensive humanitarian work, he has been involved with organizations like, Penny Lane, an organization that provides assistance to abused teenagers. PETA and Farm Sanctuary are organizations that protect animals' rights. During the last couple of years, he has become a spokesperson for Hope North Ugandan orphanage and Human Rights Watch. Oh yeah, if you were ever wondering about that suspicious looking eye, it is a condition that is called ptosis or drooping eyelid. Whitaker has considered corrective surgery, not for cosmetic reasons but because it is affecting his sight. “Put a li’l bit of that barbeque sauce on dat eye and wake it up!” (Mike Epps, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins) And yes, through genetic DNA testing, Whitaker traced his roots back to the Nkwere people of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria and was honored with the chieftain title at the African Movie Academy Awards. Let’s Hear It For The Honorable Igbo Chieftain, Nwannedinamba of Nkwerre, (which means, A Brother in a Foreign Land). You are the Soul of Cinema Star of October!