Neuigkeiten

The sled-like American cars floating down the streets of downtown Raleigh, N.C. in the dazzling sunlight give the era away, as do the hairstyles of the protesters picketing outside the courthouse — young, black men and women wearing Afros, white men and women with long hair.

It was August 1975, and Joan Little was about to be acquitted of first-degree murder.

The silent video footage shot by Duane Jackson, a volunteer with the Winston-Salem Black Panther Party, chronicles the multiracial movement to support Little, as protesters picketed outside the courthouse during her trial and after her release. It has been newly unearthed and screened in Winston-Salem for the first time last month.

Little had been serving a sentence for larceny in the Beaufort County jail when her white jailer, Clarence Alligood, was found stabbed to death with an ice pick, his pants down at his ankles and semen on his leg.

Albany, N.Y. — Dozens of celebrities may be running afoul of the law as they unite under the banner of one group that is seeking to prevent a method of gas drilling in New York state.

Artists Against Fracking opposes hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and boasts members including Yoko Ono and actors Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon.

The group says forcing water and chemicals deep into shale deposits to extract gas threatens drinking water and the environment. The group's website implores, "Tell Governor Cuomo: Don't Frack New York."

But the group and nearly 200 entertainers who are gaining attention and support in the dispute, which is splitting New Yorkers, aren't registered lobbyists, according to a search by The Associated Press of the database of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics. State law is designed to disclose who is trying to influence government action, how much money they are spending and where the money's going.

Getty Images Martin Luther King at the Savoy Hotel in 1964.

To help mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we asked NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous to recommend three movies worth viewing that honor the life and legacy of the civil rights giant.

The Martin Luther King holiday stirs the conscience deeply. We are moved by Dr. King’s memory and legend for so many reasons. Some of us marched with him. Many of us remember the pain that...

No celebrity supports the "Occupy" movement more fervently Russell Simmons, founder of DefJam and GlobalGrind.com and author of Super Rich: A Guide To Having It All. Not only has he visited Occupy Wall Street nearly every day since the protests began, but he has started on a cross-country tour of different protest sites to gather grassroots support for his proposed Constitutional amendment that would ban private donations to candidates running for federal public office.

He recently told The Huffington Post that this could be one of the most important things he has ever done, explained why he is trying to change the Constitution and why people should take him seriously.

You are a very successful businessman. Some might even call you part of the one percent. Why are you bothering with the Occupy movement?

It's part of human kindness and I feel it is my moral duty to do this.

In adapting the Timothy Tyson’s memoir Blood Done Sign My Name, which details the events surrounding the racially charged murder of an African-American Vietnam veteran in North Carolina in 1970, writer-director Jeb Stuart seems to have sought the most banal and commonplace elements, rather than focusing on the details that might illuminate the past and the present. Stuart, whose writing credits include Die Hard and The Fugitive, splits the movie’s perspective, albeit not evenly, between budding activist Ben Chavis (Nate Parker), later an organizer of the Million Man March and currently Russell Simmons’ business partner, and Tyson’s ...

Since I know I’ll be one of the few people who have actually seen this film, which is getting a small, very limited theatrical release before it’ll eventually come out on DVD, I thought I would at least say a few things about it. So I know that we all have had the experience when someone asks you your opinion about about a recent film and you say: “Yeah…well it was O.K. you know….I mean it’s wasn’t bad but it was….you know….you know….you know…..ah…. It’s all right I guess“ Well that’s how I felt about Blood Done Sign My Name. No bad, not awful, but a perfectly mediocre, tepid movie. It doesn’t stand out in any way, but sort of plods along with no real dramatic tension or drive whatsoever. The kind of film you forget about while watching it.

A clip from Blood Done Sign My Name, the upcoming drama that focuses on a Civil Rights-era murder trial in the South and how a local high school teacher factors into the civil unrest surrounding it. In the clip below, Ben Chavis (Nate Parker) decides to teach his student through actions rather than words.

I previously profiled the film here, synopsis and trailer included. Click Here to read that post. The film hits theatres this month.

Oh, look... new video content! What we have here is a clip from "Blood Done Sign My Name," an upcoming drama writter and directed by "Die Hard" and "The Fugitive" scribe Jeb Stuart. The story focuses on a Civil Rights-era murder trial in the South and, specifically, how a local high school teacher factors into the civil unrest surrounding it. In the clip below, we watch as Ben Chavis (Nate Parker) decides to teach his student through actions rather than words.

By Harvey Karten - In 1954 the United States Supreme Court declared racial segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. In 1964, President Johnson, who had more influence with the Congress than the current chief executive, got a major civil rights act passed far reaching and had tremendous long-term impacts on the whole country. It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the southern U.S. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring.

Blood Done Sign My Name (Paladin)

Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey Karten

Grade: B+

Directed by: Jeb Stuart

Written By: Jeb Stuart, adapted from Tim Tyson's book

Cast: Michael Rooker, Rick Schroder, Omar Benson Miller, Nick Searcy, Afemo Omilami, Lela Rochon, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Gattlin Griffith

Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 1/25/10

Opens: February 19, 2010

You wouldn't know this by watching Jeb Stuart's riveting film,...