New Movie: Precious

Make sure you go check out the movie "Precious" this weekend! Check out this all-star line up:
Mariah Carey, Monique, Paula Patton and even Lenny Kravitz and financially backed by Oprah and Tyler Perry...

This one better be good...from the hype, I'm sure it is!

New Movie: Ciara stars in 'Mama I Want to Sing'

Presented by BET Networks, the musical, 'Mama, I Want To Sing' starring singer Ciara and actress Lynn Whitfield will screen on Sept. 26. According to AOL BLACK VOICES, the movie isn’t completely finished but will still screen during the Film Festival. Peep the trailer above.

New Trailer: Good Hair

Good Hair
by gamesith90

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.

Rock 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.

BET is turning up the heat!

Cooking class at Philadelphia's Frankford High School is all about composing salads, sculpting vegetables and weathering teacher Wilma Stephenson, who occasionally boils over. "Get your brain upscale!" Stephenson commands her students, whom she harangues and harasses in the present so they just might have a future.

Stephenson is the irascible star -- there's no way around it -- of "Pressure Cooker," a year-in-the-life documentary about the kids of Frankford's culinary arts class and their teacher, who runs the program the way Rommel ran his desert campaign. Gordon Ramsay? The abusive TV chef would be reduced to an unhappy puddle of butter by the imperious Stephenson, although in the end she'd probably wipe his nose and buy him a new spatula.

The film, directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker, follows Stephenson's class a semester after her students have won more than $750,000 in scholarships -- at a school where 40 percent of students don't make it to their senior year. Consistently successful in getting her graduates out of the inner city and into such culinary cooking colleges as the Art Institute of Atlanta, the Culinary Institute of America and Monroe College in New Rochelle, N.Y., she is no-nonsense, all business. Her manner may be brusque, but her students are responsive. And what you see in the course of the movie is what every educational trash-talker in America says schools should be doing, usually without providing any means to do it.

As good as she is to her kids, Stephenson admits she was "horrible" to her directors. "We stayed away from her as much as possible in the kitchen," Grausman said, laughing. "When I first went to her to make the film, she signed on, but she didn't really understand what we were going to do. We kept trying to explain it to her, but I don't think she ever really got it. She thought we were going to be there for a couple of days of shooting. Not a couple of days a week for a year."

read the full article here:

Documentary: HBO's Prom Night in Mississippi

Check out this preview of the documentary Prom Night In Mississippi, a documentary based on a high school that, up until a year ago had two separate proms, one for the white kids and the other for the blacks!

In 1997, Morgan Freeman offered to pay for the senior prom at Charleston High School under one condition: the prom had to be racially integrated. After that offer was ignored, Freeman returned eleven years later and the school board accepted. Charleston High School had its first-ever integrated prom in 2008 (until then, blacks and whites had separate proms).

The documentary follows students, teachers, and parents as they lead up to the big day - which, doesn’t come without much opposition in a town where deep rooted racism is still planted. This should be really interesting to watch! Prom Night in Mississippi premieres @ 9PM ET/PT on Monday, July 20th on HBO.

And the countdown begins.....

Disney has officially released the trailer for The Princess and the Frog. The new film will introduce the newest Disney princess, Tiana, a young African-American girl living amid the charming elegance and grandeur of the fabled French Quarter.

New Movie: American Violet

The film tells the story of a woman arrested and accused of dealing drugs and her crusade to clear her name.

Six years ago, writer-producer Bill Haney was driving home during rush hour in Boston when he heard a National Public Radio story about Regina Kelly, a young African American woman -- a single mother with four daughters -- in the small Texas town of Hearne who was unjustly arrested during a raid on the projects where she lived. She was accused of dealing drugs.

The district attorney gave her the option of either a plea deal -- if she took the deal she wouldn't be allowed to vote and would lose most of her rights -- or going to jail for 25 years. Instead of conceding, the 24-year-old woman contested the charges and, after they were dismissed, teamed with the ACLU to file a discrimination suit against the D.A. and local police.

"She was basically given a 'Sophie's Choice,' " says Haney. "I began to cry and started crying so much I couldn't drive. I had kids myself, and the idea this sort of institutionalized casual cruelty was happening to a mother and young girls, it so infuriated and upset me."

Haney went to Texas and spent a lot of time with Kelly, her children and the attorneys, filming long interviews with them, as well as going through some 50,000 pages of legal documents.

"Regina was pregnant at 13, and the year I went there, in the African American high school, 169 kids entered as freshmen and only three had graduated," Haney says. "None went to college. The United States has the largest prison population in the world. Texas has the most people in prison of any place in the U.S. The long, dark hand of the criminal justice system is very clear when you spend time in the projects."

Haney says Kelly trusted him immediately. "I always felt a great responsibility to the story," he says. "She hadn't a lot of positive experiences with men, so for her to be as open and exposed as she was with me, I think that was really courageous."

"You have a choice when certain things happen to you in your life. She could have just taken the plea bargain and it would have been over. But she learned how she felt about being a citizen. . . . I think that's the sort of something we saw recently with our elections. People, once they kind of get fired up and decide they are going to change some things, you actually can."

New Movie: The Princess and the Frog

Disney Consumer Products and actress Anika Noni Rose, voice of Princess Tiana, unveiled a new toy line inspired by the upcoming film, “The Princess and the Frog.” The event was held at the American International Toy Fair in New York City earlier this week. Opening Holiday 2009, The Princess and the Frog is a magical fairytale set in New Orleans that marks Disney’s return to musicals and the warmth and grandeur of 2D hand drawn animation. It also marks the first time Disney has ever had an African-American princess.
View the trailer:

Chris Rock's documentary "Good Hair" entered into Sundance Film Festival

"Good Hair," one of 16 films in Sundance's U.S. documentary competition, follows Rock from the Bronner brothers show to neighborhood salons, businesses dealing in hair-care products and the streets of India, where human hair is a huge export industry for hair weaves.

"I thought, wow, this would make a great movie, but that was like 15 years ago, and no one was making funny documentaries 15 years ago," Rock said in an interview Tuesday alongside Nia Long, one of many actresses and other celebrities Rock interviews in the film.

"So you cut to now, and I have daughters, and I'm really dealing with them and their hair a lot, and my friends have daughters, and we talk about our daughters' hair issues. I kind of saw where to go at it, and now people are making funny documentaries," he said.

"I was kind of scared to come to Sundance in a sense, because I think this is the blackest movie ever made," said Rock, a producer and co-writer on the film. "So I was kind of scared to come to Utah, because it's so white."

But Rock said Sundance crowds have given "Good Hair" an enthusiastic reception, bolstering his hopes that it can find a broad audience. Produced by HBO, "Good Hair" eventually will air on the cable channel, but Rock and his collaborators are considering a theatrical release first.

While loaded with the 43-year-old actor-comedian's wisecracking humor, "Good Hair" also raises serious questions about identity and equality among black women who feel they need long, straight, silky hair to fit into white society.

New Movie: Push-Based on the novel by Sapphire

Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire, is the story of Claireece Precious Jones, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child. She endures unimaginable hardships in her young life: abused by her mother and raped by her father.

The film won numerous awards at this years Sundance Film Festival and was recently picked up by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Winfrey said in a statement. “The moment I saw Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, I knew I wanted to do whatever I could to encourage other people to see this movie."

Upcoming: New Aaliyah movie?

It seems like a new movie about the life of singer Aaliyah is in the works. The director of the upcoming Aaliyah movie Bill Condon has given some info on the movie, including Canadian R&B/pop singer Keshia Chante. According to the NY Post:

“We are going to great extremities to make this movie perfect. We have [Keisha] Chante in extensive training studying, speaking with family members, watching personal footage and in choreography training with Aaliyah’s choreographer and dear friend Fatima Robinson,” he told the New York Post. “This movie will be seamless the same way it was for Selena fans who enjoyed Jennifer Lopez.”

New Movie: Madea Goes to Jail Trailer

Directed, written, and starring Perry himself as Madea, the film also features Derek Luke, Keshia Knight Pulliam, David Mann, Tamala Mann, Ronreaco Lee, Ion Overman, Vanessa Ferlito, Viola Davis, Sophia Vergara, Robin Coleman, and Bobbi Baker.

At long last, Madea returns to the big screen in "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail." This time America's favorite irreverent, pistol-packin' grandmomma is raising hell behind bars and lobbying for her freedom...Hallelujer!

New Movie: The Secret Lives of Bees Trailer

Check out the new movie featuring Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson.

Set in South Carolina in 1964, the film is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping and more. It is based on the bestselling novel by Sue Monk Kidd. It will hit theaters on October 17th.

New Movie: The Secret Lives of Bees

Check out this new movie starring Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson.

New Trailer: The Longshots

The Longshots follows the true story of Jasmine Plummer (Keke Palmer) who, at the age of eleven, became the first female to play in Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history.

The movie is due for release July 25th and also stars Jill Marie Jones, Tasha Smith, and David Banner.

Disney's The Princess and the Frog

Disney released the teaser trailer for their 48th animated musical “The Princess and the Frog” this week. The film based off the classic fairy tale The Frog Princess, is set in New Orleans during the 1920s with Disney’s first Black princess Tiana. The movie is set to hit theaters on Christmas of 2009…

New Trailer: Tyler Perry's A Family That Preys

The Family That Preys movie trailer
Uploaded by some_trailers

The Family That Preys is an upcoming 2008 comedy-drama film written and directed by Tyler Perry, who also co-produced and co-stars. The film starring Alfre Woodard, Kathy Bates, Sanaa Lathan.

The film focuses on "two families from different sides of the tracks that become intimately involved in love and business". All I can say about this is that this is going to be SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD!!!! The release date is set for September!!!

Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys to star in new movie, "The Secret Lives of Bees"

Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson has signed to star in a movie adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's acclaimed 2003 novel "The Secret Life of Bees."

Hudson, who won an Oscar for "Dreamgirls", will play the friend of the film's central character, a 14-year-old girl who runs away from her abusive father and is taken in by a trio of bee-keeping sisters.

Queen Latifah and British actress Sophie Okonedo, nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 for "Hotel Rwanda" would play two of the sisters, while singer-actress Alicia Keys will play the third.

The release date of the film is set to be October 15th. I'm really looking forward to this one... make sure you all check it out!

Photo: www.cocoalounge.com

Update on upcoming Disney movie

The Princess and the Frog, a currently-in-development fairy tale, is being closely watched, not only because it is said to represent Disney's first 2D-animated feature since 2004's Home on the Range, but it is also the first with African-American characters! The animated feature will be a musical set in 1920s New Orleans. The lead characters are said to include 19-year-old heroine Tiana (voiced by Dreamgirls' Anika Noni Rose); Charlotte La Bouff, a spoiled 18-year-old southern debutante (Broadway veteran Jennifer Cody); villain Dr. Facilier, a voodoo magician and Mama Odie, a 200-year-old voodoo priest.

In a departure from the norm, three of the four are African American characters. No release date has been set, but traditionally animated films have traditionally taken about four years from first news to reaching the big screen, making this unlikely to show up until 2010 at the earliest.

It's about time Disney!!!

High School Musical 3 starts filming in April

The "High School Musical" gang is returning to Utah this month for their senior year.
Unlike its predecessors, the third installment in the series will be filmed during the school year at East High School in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen says setting up will begin in a couple weeks and shooting will start toward the end of the month. He says much of the filming for "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" will take place before and after school to minimize disruptions.The first two movies brought $8 million and 180 jobs to the state during filming. The third project is slated to cost $13 million.