Black History Month: "Free" Movies & Books of the Week

It is vital for the African American narrative to be directed and not dictated by the dominant culture. Thus, The American Mastodon Publication will recommend weekly popular entertainment this American Black History Month 2023. After the death of Tyre Nichols, Black America was forced to confront the issue of Black on Black violence in service of the dominant culture, and this issue is one of the greatest threats to our peace, while providing the greatest defense for the popular dominant culture. Thus, this week, the films and novels presented will navigate the premise of the violent world, which Africans in the Diaspora were thrust into immediately upon departure from the Fatherland. Viewer discretion is advised!

Films

Black Venus (2010) Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and starring Yahima Torres. (Available on Tubi)

Two years ago, I had the honor to have a brief discussion with the Cuban Sister, Yahima Torres, who stars in this film. She is a blessing to the Arts, and a testament of the experience across the Americas of the Africans in the Diaspora. This film was one of the few to bring me to tears, and the revelation that is experienced during this piece of theatre, is quite unique. Torres performance, defined the experience of every African, no, every Human, of the spurious Race called Negro from the River Gir & Nile, living in an European societie... If you are European, or Spurious American/Australian/Afrikaner/Canadian, White; African looking to know what the Enslaved experienced upon leaving our Beloved Homeland; Black but lacking knowledge, and you want to know what it is like to be Black in your European society, behold my film of the week! Then, do not ask the question again, but let your convictions like those of the mortified and courageous Abolitionists guide you in "liberte', egalite', and fraternite'" of the Original Man and Woman on Earth, living among you... And if you are Black, Cry and even, Be angry, but do not fear. Because you are caught between a Holy War, A Jihad, and a Clash of Civilizations, so The Black Man must again become Men among Men, for future sake! Warning, adults only please...

2. Birth of A Nation (2016) Directed and starring Nate Parker (Available on Tubi)

The original Birth of a Nation in 1915, is historic as the first major Hollywood Blockbuster in American History, being showcased at the White House by the then President, Woodrow Wilson. The film, revealed the achilles heel and the crux of American society, race and violence, using the Ku Klux Klan as defenders of American values. In 2016, this story was revisited and deconstructed from the opposite point of view, from the oppressed. This is another film which allows the viewer the riveting experience of emotion, race and violence, through the story of the rebellion leader, Nat Turner. The topic of religion and the use of religion in the Americas in terms of the African in the Diaspora is quite particular and exposes a valid question. 

 

3. Boyz N The Hood (1991) Directed by John Singleton (Available on Amazon Prime for a cost!)

Finally, our last film recommendation of the week, is a classic African American film, which dives into Black America, centuries into direct violence and longstanding injustice as the people themselves, begin to implode from the sheer lack of humanity experienced here in the American Diaspora due to the greed & the inability to comprehend inter-generational injustice by the White Capitalist Militant Patriarchical Supremacy Hegemony. Imagine any group of people experiencing the most horrendous incidents with an appeal for justice but being actively denied for centuries. That group would surely self implode and develop a psychology of violence and self destruction for survival. Thus, it is most important to comprehend that Black on Black violence in America is a direct consequence of justice denial as policy within this nation and the other nations of the Americas. Broken families, drugs, active denial of self knowledge and violence became the reflection of American values to Black America. Boyz N the Hood, is a survival story of the Black male in America, today. 

Novels

The American Mastodon Publication will recommend novels & short stories based on authors and their works. This week, we recognize one of our favorite historical writers and the founder of the Underground Railroad, William Wells Brown. Brown, is credited with writing the first novel by an African American called, Clotel, or The President's Daughter. This story is so tragic that the subject is taboo in American popular discourse because it involves a Founding Father. William Wells Brown writes about the violence and the strange career, Africans find themselves living in the United States. There are two great literary devices William Wells Brown helps develop, the Slave Narrative, and the Tragic Mulatto, whose experience is marred by violence, rape, & injustice. There is no better professor of the American experience than this week's author to discuss the topic of American violence. William Wells Brown

 

The Narrative of William Wells Brown

 

Clotel or, The President's Daughter

 

Last Words:

Violence is the means in which the American society, North, Central, and South was forged by the European Kingdoms. Violence against nature, against the Native, against the African, and violence against their own impoverished European brethren for pacification of the realm. This Black History Month 2023, in order to understand Black on Black violence, it is important to understand the source and the strange career in which the curiosity of the African became a violent obsession, and last a traumatic experience for humanity. "The greatest trick of the devil is to trick the people into thinking there is no devil." The existence of the European American Empire is the greatest trick in human history and in order for it to continue, violence must be the chief weapon of control. Then, propaganda and control of the mind. Ultimately, it is the Native or the African, who must break away from his abuser and extreme admirer for his own sanity or risk the psychosis of self destruction, self implosion, a grand societal suicide, which is American Black on Black violence. It can be said, that Africans fight among themselves since the dawn of civilization and this is true. However, the people on the Fatherland continent, then and even today, do not referred to themselves, as the Roman provincial designation, Africans, nor does the source of their conflicts begin with the Holy Wars of Jihad or the Crusades, masking the arms of European conquest, Kingdoms, and Empires. Tribal wars on the Fatherland continent revolve around the classic querrels among brothers... Sisters, resources, or land. The violence in the Americas is just plain evil for dominion.

 

Sources:

Black Venus

Birth of A Nation

Boyz N The Hood

The Narrative of William Wells Brown

Clotel or, The President's Daughter