News

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research

My screening series Amnesiascope partners again with Rohmer Fits for an encore presentation of Éric Rohmer shorts on Sunday.

Paris Theater

“Big & Loud!” returns with 70mm prints of Vertigo, Phantom Thread, and Boogie Nights, along with The Abyss, Close Encounters, and films by Don Hertzfeldt.

Bam

The controversial, remarkable The Spook Who Sat By the Door continues in a new restoration.

Roxy Cinema

Amalia Ulman has programmed prints of If… and The Holy Girl; “Explosive Cinema” offers First Reformed and The Battle of Algiers.

Film at Lincoln Center

As an essential restoration of Shinji Somai’s Moving continues, The Stranger and the Fog begins a run.

Museum of the Moving Image

Speed Racer and A Silent Voice have screenings.

Anthology Film Archives

Films by Buñuel, Chaplin, and Cocteau screen in “Essential Cinema“; Funeral Parade of Roses shows this Friday.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

The controversial, remarkable The Spook Who Sat By the Door plays in a new restoration.

Roxy Cinema

Fidelio, our four-film program with Chapo Trap House’s Movie Mindset, has an encore with Eyes Wide Shut on a spectacular 35mm print this Saturday; Amalia Ulman has programmed prints of The Piano Teacher and The Holy Girl.

Film at Lincoln Center

An essential restoration of Shinji Somai’s Moving continues.

Museum of the Moving Image

Erich von Stroheim’s Greed plays on 35mm with live accompaniment this Sunday; Alice in the Cities, Insiang, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and The Muppet Movie have screenings.

Paris Theater

“Big & Loud!” returns with 70mm prints of Vertigo and Boogie Nights, along with The Abyss, Close Encounters, and Days of Heaven.

Film Forum

A new restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy begins playing; Army of Shadows continues.

Kobi Libii’s debut feature The American Society of Magical Negroes starts on a promising note. Aren, a spindly and awkward artist (an endearing Justice Smith) loiters near a yarn sculpture in a gallery. He seems lost in the sea of roving patrons and bustling waiters. It takes a second for us to realize that Aren created the meditative wool work and is struggling to sell it to the mostly white collectors attending this group show. They find the abstract piece illegible; they repeatedly ask about the material (“Is it … yarn?”) while maintaining a distance. These brief encounters are a clever jab by Libii at a visual art world historically enamored of Black figurative artists.

Minor drama ensues after Aren is mistaken for a server by a patron and unceremoniously fired by his gallerist. Before he can think straight, the dejected artist finds himself touring the gothic halls of The American Society of Magical Negroes,...

The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a forgotten but essential piece of Black Cinema, shining a light on systemic issues and remaining relevant today. The film depicts a Black man who infiltrates the CIA, learns their secrets, and uses that knowledge to start a revolution against racial biases and government oppression. Despite its impact, the film was suppressed and remains difficult to find, but references in music and a TV adaptation in development could introduce its story to a new generation.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door remains one of the most important movies ever made. Before Radio Raheem’s death started the riot that woke American audiences to the reality of police brutality, before director Spike Lee showed us what white America really thinks of Black culture in Bamboozled, this forgotten film from the 70s showed it all, and did it in a way that felt motivational and empowering.

Ramin Bahrani, Oscar-nominated writer/director of The White Tiger, discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The White Tiger (2021)

Man Push Cart (2005)

Chop Shop (2007)

99 Homes (2015)

The Boys From Fengkuei (1983)

The Time To Live And The Time To Die (1985)

The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

La Terra Trema (1948)

Umberto D (1952)

Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987)

Nomadland (2020)

The Runner (1984)

Bashu, the Little Stranger (1989)

A Moment Of Innocence a.k.a. Bread And Flower Pot (1996)

The House Is Black (1963)

The Conversation (1974)

Mean Streets (1973)

Nashville (1975)

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972)

The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Paris, Texas (1984)

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Vagabond (1985)

Luzzu (2021)

Bait (2019)

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

Abigail’s Party (1977)

Meantime (1983)

Fish Tank (2009)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Malcolm X (1992)

Nothing But A Man (1964)

Goodbye Solo (2008)

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)

Dekalog (1989)

The Double Life Of Veronique...

Christina Jackson (Outsiders) has been tapped as the female lead opposite Y’lan Noel in The Spook Who Sat by the Door, FX’s drama pilot based on Sam Greenlee’s spy novel, which is executive produced by Lee Daniels.

Written by Leigh Dana Jackson and to be directed by Gerard McMurray, The Spook Who Sat by the Door tells at the fictional story of Dan Freeman (Noel), who has just been hired as the only Black operative in the CIA. He is a patriot, a Vietnam vet, and secretly, a Black Revolutionary.

Jackson will play Joy Freeman, an up-and-coming attorney committed to making a difference in her community and Dan’s (Noel) wife.

Greenlee’s book, published in 1969, was turned into a 1973 feature film, in which the roles of Dan Freeman and Joy Freeman were played by Lawrence Cook and Janet League, respectively.

2020-21 FX Pilots & Series Orders

The Spook Who Sat by the Door...

Christina Jackson has been cast in a leading role in the FX pilot based on the Sam Greenlee novel “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” Variety has learned.

The project was ordered to pilot at FX in February. Jackson will star opposite series lead Y’lan Noel. She will play Joy Freeman, an up-and-coming attorney committed to making a difference in her community and Dan’s (Noel) wife.

“The Spook Who Sat By The Door” was previously adapted into a film in 1973 with Lawrence Cook in the lead role. The story follows Dan Freeman, the fictional first African American CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s. The story chronicles the quest of Freeman, who was recruited as part of an affirmative-action program. After a very competitive selection process he trains in high-level combat and espionage. However, following this arduous training, this model recruit is rewarded with a...

Insecure alum Y’lan Noel is entering the spy game: The actor will star in the FX drama pilot The Spook Who Sat by the Door, from executive producer Lee Daniels (Empire) and writer/showrunner Leigh Dana Jackson (Raising Dion), per The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on the novel by Sam Greenlee, the 1960s-set project follows Dan Freeman (Noel), the first Black operative in the CIA. He is a patriot, a Vietnam veteran and, secretly, a revolutionary. In the book, which is based in part on Greenlee’s experience at the United States Information Agency, Freeman goes through high-level combat and espionage training,...

Y’lan Noel has been cast as Dan Freeman, the protagonist in the FX adaptation of Sam Greenlee’s spy novel, “The Spook Who Sat By the Door,” which is being executive produced by Lee Daniels. The project is in pilot production at the premium cabler.

In “Spook,” the fictional Freeman is the first Black CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s, who has trained in high-level combat and espionage. He is described as “a patriot, a Vietnam vet, and secretly, a Black Revolutionary.”

Noel, known for playing Daniel in Issa Rae’s “Insecure” on HBO, was most recently in the Stella Maghie romantic drama “The Photograph” from Universal Pictures last year alongside Rae, Lakeith Stanfield and Chelsea Peretti. He can also be seen in the upcoming Mo McRae-directed “A Lot of Nothing” opposite Cleopatra Coleman and Lex Scott Davis. Noel was previously in Meghie’s indie...

Insecure alum Y’lan Noel has been tapped as the lead in The Spook Who Sat by the Door, FX’s drama pilot based on Sam Greenlee’s spy novel, which is executive produced by Lee Daniels.

Written by Leigh Dana Jackson and to be directed by Gerard McMurray, The Spook Who Sat by the Door tells at the fictional story of Dan Freeman (Noel), who has just been hired as the only Black operative in the CIA. He is a patriot, a Vietnam vet, and secretly, a Black Revolutionary.

The project reunites Noel and McMurray after Noel headlined the 2018 Universal feature The First Purge, the prequel to the Purge franchise, which McMurray directed.

Greenlee’s book was published in 1969 and turned into a feature film in 1973, in which Lawrence Cook starred as Dan Freeman.

2020-21 FX Pilots & Series Orders

The Spook Who Sat by the Door is produced by 20th Television.

FX has cast the lead for its drama pilot The Spook Who Sat by the Door.

Insecure alum Y’lan Noel will star in the project from Lee Daniels, writer/showrunner Leigh Dana Jackson (Raising Dion, Foundation) and director Gerard MacMurray (Burning Sands, The First Purge). The drama, based on a 1969 novel by Sam Greenlee, follows Dan Freeman (Noel), the first Black officer in the CIA — a patriot, a Vietnam veteran and, secretly, a revolutionary.

Based in part on Greenlee’s own experience at the United States Information Agency, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is set in the 1960s and follows ...

FX has ordered a pilot based on the Octavia E. Butler novel “Kindred.”

The pilot will be written and executive produced by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Courtney Lee-Mitchell, who acquired the rights to the novel in 2008, will also executive produce along with “The Americans” creators Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, as well as Darren Aronofsky via Protozoa Pictures. Ernestine Walker and Merrilee Heifetz serve as co-executive producers. FX Productions will produce.

“Since my first encounter with the novel nearly two decades ago, there have been few, if any, books and even fewer authors who have meant as much to me as ‘Kindred’ and Octavia Butler,” said Jacobs-Jenkins. “It has been the highlight and honor of my career thus far to try and finally bring this timeless story to life – and especially at FX, whose catalogue of bold, thought-provoking, and cutting-edge television has been an endless source of inspiration and delight.”

The project centers on Dana,...

Lee Daniels is moving into the spy genre, according to The Hollywood Reporter, as he’ll executive produce a series adaptation of the Sam Greenlee novel “The Spook Who Sat By Door” with “The First Purge” director Gerard McMurray handling the show’s pilot. Leigh Dana Jackson will be the series showrunner, writer, and executive producer on the CIA project. Jackson previously worked on “24: Legacy” and Apple TV+‘s ambitious sci-fi series “Foundation,” an adaptation of the beloved literary universe created by visionary author Isaac Asimov.

Read More: ‘Stealth’: Lee Daniels To Direct Superhero Film From The Creator Of ‘The Walking Dead’

Daniels is best known for “Precious,” “The Bulter,” the Fox series “Empire,” and his upcoming directorial effort “The United States vs.

Continue reading ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’: Lee Daniels Producing Spy Drama For FX With Gerard McMurray Directing The Pilot at The Playlist.

FX has ordered a pilot for a series adaptation of Sam Greenlee’s spy novel “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” Variety has learned.

The adaptation of the book will be written by Leigh Dana Jackson, who will also serve as executive producer and showrunner. Lee Daniels and Marc Velez will also executive produce on behalf of Lee Daniels Entertainment. The book was originally optioned through the Daniels’ Inclusion Fund. Gerard McMurray will direct the pilot in addition to executive producing. 20th Television will produce.

“’The Spook Who Sat By the Door’ was my dad’s favorite book,” said Daniels. “He’d be so proud that I’m doing this and even prouder that I’m doing this with Gerard and Dana—two bold and brilliant Black storytellers.”

“The Spook Who Sat By The Door” was previously adapted into a film in 1973 with Lawrence Cook in the lead role.

FX has picked up a pilot for a series adaptation of Sam Greenlee’s “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” the cable network announced Monday. Lee Daniels will executive produce the series.

The 1969 novel tells the fictional story of the first Black CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s. Greenlee’s book, considered a major work of the Black nationalist movement during the civil rights era, was previously adapted for the screen in 1973, with Lawrence Cook starring as the novel’s protagonist, Dan Freeman.

Per FX, “The story chronicles the quest of Freeman, who was recruited as part of an affirmative-action program. After a very competitive selection process he trains in high-level combat and espionage. However, following this arduous training, this model recruit is rewarded with a post in the reprographics (aka photocopying) department, ‘left by the door’ as a token of the CIA’s ‘racial equality.

FX is moving forward with its adaptation of The Spook Who Sat By the Door – ordering a pilot for the project.

The project, which is exec produced by Lee Daniels, was written by Foundation and Raising Dion co-exec producer Leigh Dana Jackson and will be directed by The Twilight Zone and The First Purge director Gerard McMurray.

Produced by 20th Television and optioned through Lee Daniels’ Inclusion Fund, it comes almost 18 months after Deadline revealed the project was in development.

Based on Sam Greenlee’s spy novel, the series will look at the fictional story of Dan Freeman, the first African American CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s.

The story chronicles the quest of Freeman, who was recruited as part of an affirmative-action program. After a very competitive selection process he trains in high-level combat and espionage. However, following this arduous training, this model recruit is...

Lee Daniels is expanding his Disney footprint to FX.

The Empire co-creator is attached to executive produce The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a spy drama that has been ordered to pilot at the Disney-backed basic cable network.

Leigh Dana Jackson (Raising Dion, Foundation) penned the script and will serve as showrunner on the drama, which is based on the novel by Sam Greenlee. Gerard McMurray (Burning Sands) will exec produce and direct the pilot. Daniels will exec produce the potential series via his overall deal with Disney’s 20th Television. The book was optioned through Daniels’ inclusion fund....

Lee Daniels is expanding his Disney footprint to FX.

The Empire co-creator is attached to executive produce The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a spy drama that has been ordered to pilot at the Disney-backed basic cable network.

Leigh Dana Jackson (Raising Dion, Foundation) penned the script and will serve as showrunner on the drama, which is based on the novel by Sam Greenlee. Gerard McMurray (Burning Sands) will exec produce and direct the pilot. Daniels will exec produce the potential series via his overall deal with Disney’s 20th Television. The book was optioned through Daniels’ inclusion fund....

The confused, frightened, complying face of a young black boy as two Metropolitan police stop, search, and humiliate him on the street: This is one of the first things we see in Red, White, and Blue, the third in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe pentalogy, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. It’s an image that grows even more charged in hindsight, a few scenes (spanning years) later, when the boy’s father — who’d swooped in to save him in that earlier encounter — is badly beaten by the police...

Easily the best family-oriented black experience movie of the early 1970s, the Third World Cinema Corporation’s first film features Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones in a funny, endearing saga of life in the welfare system, with human feeling and compassion to spare. But the triumphant socially progressive movie fails the 2020 diversity test — its primary producer, cameraman, writers and director are white. Are we still allowed to enjoy it?

Claudine

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1052

1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 13, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Diahann Carroll, James Earl Jones, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Tamu Blackwell, David Kruger, Yvette Curtis, Eric Jones, Socorro Stephens.

Cinematography: Gayne Rescher

Film Editor: Louis San Andres

Original Music: Curtis Mayfield

Written by Lester Pine and Tina Pine

Produced by J. Lloyd Grant, Hannah Weinstein

Directed by John Berry

In 1974 Claudine impressed this viewer quite a bit. I hadn’t seen many really good...

Sean Donovan looks at two films from NYFF's "Revivals" section...

The major film festivals of the world, New York included, take as much responsibility for cinema’s past as its future. Alongside new hyped arthouse projects, festivals program curios from the past that may have fallen through the cracks or not received their due recognition in their day. In other instances, festivals re-deploy older films to the contemporary moment in an act of deliberate commentary, the film speaking to culture in a way that feels freshly vital for 2020 (that is certainly the case of one of the selections profiled here). Over the past weekend, New York Film Fest virtual cinema uploaded two of their revival selections, Joyce Chopra’s Sundance-winning drama Smooth Talk (1985) and a Blaxploitation cult film The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973). Both are canny, fascinating picks from the NYFF, and well worth the revisit in 2020...

The temporary removal of the Oscar-winning drama is renewing a conversation about the film industry’s murky past and its effect on society at large

There is a scene in 1974’s underground blaxploitation-era film The Spook Who Sat by the Door where a group of black militants comically mock the ubiquity of Gone With the Wind-like imagery that is so embedded within American culture. As the others laugh out loud at the performative racism essential to this historical representation, the film’s main character, Freeman, expounds on the larger meaning of such things: “You have just played out the American Dream. And now we’re going to turn it into a nightmare.”

Related: Gone With the Wind dropped from HBO Max over depiction of slavery...

The rage and anger at police violence and systemic racism is not just a week, a year, or even decades old. It is centuries in the making. And in order to understand and meaningfully contribute to the movement, audiences will need to educate themselves on the racist and socioeconomic inequities that nurture the environment that allows these injustices to thrive.

From Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), to Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” filmmakers have tackled this subject with tense and angry films made in reaction to the status quo. They unpack the onscreen racist ideology that began with D.W. Griffith’s incendiary “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), and highlight the realities of a society in which racial disparities permeate and undermine an entire system’s effectiveness.

These are bold and provocative films that serve as overdue tonic for a society that has long been saturated with incomplete depictions of black people,...

Exclusive: HBO Max is in the early development stage of a feature adaptation for the Trottle novella, which was co-written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, who is the Nyt bestselling author of The Fireman and Strange Weather. Leigh Dana Jackson, a co-executive producer on the Netflix series Raising Dion, will write the screenplay, which will be produced by David S. Goyer and Keith Levine through their Phantom Four label.

Throttle follows a father and son led biker gang who get terrorized by a big rig truck on an isolated stretch of the American desert. The short story was first published in 2009 in an anthology titled He Is Legend and was followed by a 2012 comic book adaptation from Idw Publishing.

Hill’s second novel, Horns, was made into a feature film starring Daniel Radcliffe, and his third one, NOS4A2, was adapted into a TV series on AMC with...

Normally, IndieWire’s Stream of the Day feature focuses on movies that you can watch at home. Today, we’re using this space to call out a few that should be available, but aren’t. At one time or another, we have all probably experienced this frustrating conundrum: You want to watch a movie or TV show that sneaks its way into your consciousness, or was recommended by a trusted source, and, like most people, you first try the streaming services — especially in the current environment — but none of them carry it, not even as a rental or purchase on Amazon or iTunes. That’s especially true for films from black filmmakers.

For example, none of the films from key L.A. Rebellion filmmaker, Haile Gerima are available to stream on any platform, nor is Ivan Dixon’s classic “The Spook Who Sat By the Door” (1973), or Jessie Maple’s 1981 film “Will,...

Paula Kelly, the actress, singer and dancer who starred in the film version of Sweet Charity and earned an Emmy nomination for her turn on Night Court, has died. She was 77.

Kelly died Sunday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Whittier, California, a publicist for her family and Los Angeles' Ebony Repertory Theatre announced.

Kelly also appeared in such movies as The Andromeda Strain (1971), Cool Breeze (1972), Top of the Heap (1972), The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), Soylent Green (1973), Uptown Saturday Night (1974) — as Leggy Peggy — and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986).

After playing the dancer Helene ...

Paula Kelly, the actress, singer and dancer who starred in the film version of Sweet Charity and earned an Emmy nomination for her turn on Night Court, has died. She was 77.

Kelly died Sunday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Whittier, California, a publicist for her family and Los Angeles' Ebony Repertory Theatre announced.

Kelly also appeared in such movies as The Andromeda Strain (1971), Cool Breeze (1972), Top of the Heap (1972), The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), Soylent Green (1973), Uptown Saturday Night (1974) — as Leggy Peggy — and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986).

After playing the dancer Helene ...

Exclusive: The final season of Empire debuts tonight on Fox, but co-creator Lee Daniels is planning for the post-Lyons future with a new version of a seminal satire and thriller for FX.

Having optioned Sam Greenlee’s spy novel The Spook Who Sat By The Door in the summer of 2018 for a potential TV series, Lee Daniel’s production company has now named Leigh Dana Jackson to adopt the CIA tale for the small screen, I’ve learned. The 24: Legacy producer and Raising Dion co-ep will executive producer the intended series, as well as write it.

This new Tswsbtd is currently in development at the now Disney-owned John Landgraf-run cabler.

Having been born in 1969 as an acclaimed novel of the first African-American brought on board by the Agency and the tokenism and discrimination at the heart of that hire, the often scathing and provocative Tswsbtd was also made into a controversial 1973 film.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

A Vincente Minnelli retrospective is underway.

The Cremator has been restored.

Alphaville and Holy Motors have late-night showings, while The Golden Voyage of Sinbad screens in the morning.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door plays on Sunday.

Film Forum

Martin Scorsese and Jay Cocks have curated a series of two-for one double features.

Actor Ivan Dixon was a favorite of Rod Serling's, who cast him in The Twilight Zone twice. Dixon was black, and Serling fought to get minorities on TV in roles that weren't defined only by race. Dixon went on to become a prolific TV director himself, and made two features. Trouble Man (1972) is a not-particularly-ambitious blacksploitation pic that does everything it sets out to do with efficiency. The following year's The Spook Who Sat by the Door aims much, much higher, telling an epic, politically-charged story spanning years and leaping from Langley to Chicago. "Spook": racist epithet for an African American. Slang term for a spy. The set-up: a beleaguered politician decides to divert criticism by accusing the CIA of racism: they have no Black agents. So a recruitment drive is started, but many within the organization don't intend to allow any of the applicants to succeed. Most...

Lee Daniels Entertainment has optioned Sam Greenlee’s spy novel The Spook Who Sat By The Door to develop as a series based on the book and the 1970s cult classic blakxpoitation film of the same name, with Fox 21 Television Studios.

A search is out for a writer. Based on the book, the potential series looks at the fictional story of Dan Freeman, the first African American CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s. The story chronicles the quest of Freeman, who was recruited as part of an affirmative-action program. After a very competitive selection process he trains in high-level combat and espionage. However, following this arduous training, this model recruit is rewarded with a post in the reprographics (aka photocopying) department, ‘left by the door’ as a token of the CIA’s ‘racial equality’.

Greenlee’s novel was first published in March 1969 by Allison & Busby in the UK,...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Godard’s work in the Dziga Vertov Group is the centerpiece of a new series.

A restoration of Wanda plays alongside McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Spook Who Sat By the Door.

Bam

A new series highlights the first female filmmakers.

Prints of Raging Bull and a (supposedly) worthwhile companion screen on Saturday.

Quad Cinema...

The late Sam Greenlee (author of “The Spook Who Sat By The Door”), who died in May 2014, was never one to mince words, especially when it came to dishing on the state of what we call “black cinema,” and the film industry… Continue Reading →...

“Cause it’s War, Honky!”

Celebrate Banned Books Week at the Central Library! The Spook Who Sat By The Door screens Saturday, October 1st at The St. Louis Public Library Central Branch (1301 Olive Street St. Louis) at 1pm as part of “Banned Books Week”. This is a Free event. The film will be introduced by Calvin Wilson from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and will be followed by Q & A led by Wilson.

In order to improve his standing with Black voters, a White Senator starts a campaign for the CIA to recruit Black agents. However, all are graded on a curve and doomed to fail, save for a soft-spoken veteran named Dan Freeman. After grueling training in guerrilla warfare, clandestine operations and unarmed combat, he is assigned a meager job as the CIA’s token Black employee. After five years of racist and stereotyped treatment by his superiors, he...

The late Sam Greenlee (author of "The Spook Who Sat By The Door"), who died last May, was never one to mince words, especially when it came to dishing on the state of what we call "black cinema," and the film industry overall. The author and activist, who died in his home in Chicago in May 2014, was a fearless political firebrand, and elder statesman at 83 years old, at the time of his death. And his words still resonate. I'd say Melvin Van Peebles' "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" is often the cinematic reference point for radical, subversive black cinema during one of the more contentious periods in American history. But I...

Long time readers of S&A will already be familiar with the below video clip of a very frank Sam Greenlee (author of The Spook Who Sat By The Door) dishing on the state of what we call "black cinema." As some of you know by now, I post this once a year, usually right around Oscar time; and I'm posting it again today, for those who haven't seen it, as well as a reminder for those who already have; but also because Greenlee has sadly passed away. Ebony magazine is reporting that the author and activist died in his home in Chicago, earlier today, according to Pemon Remi, longtime mentee of Greenlee's and Director of Educational Services and Public Programs at Chicago's...

Here at S&A we’ve covered Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise And Fall of The Spook Who Sat By The Door a number times, before and after it gained prominence in the film market. For those unaware, this documentary tells the story behind the making of the cult-favorite movie The Spook Who Sat By The Door, with interviews centering around Sam Greenlee, the writer of the original book and screenplay, along with film co-stars Paul Butler, J.A. Preston and the late director Ivan Dixon’s wife Berlie Dixon, among other notables. The directors of this telling documentary are Christine Acham and Cliff Ward. Christine Acham received her PhD in Critical Studies from the USC School of...

Here at S&A we’ve covered Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise And Fall of The Spook Who Sat By The Door a number times, before and after it gained prominence in the film market. For those unaware, this documentary tells the story behind the making of the cult-favorite movie The Spook Who Sat By The Door, with interviews centering around Sam Greenlee, the writer of the original book and screenplay, along with film co-stars Paul Butler, J.A. Preston and the late director Ivan Dixon’s wife Berlie Dixon, among other notables. The directors of this telling documentary are Christine Acham and Cliff Ward. Christine Acham received her PhD in Critical Studies from the USC...

Long time readers of S&A will already be familiar with the below video clip of a very frank Sam Greenlee (The Spook Who Sat By The Door) dishing on the state of "black cinema". As some of you know by now, I post this once a year, usually right around Oscar time; and I'm posting it again this year, for those who haven't seen it, as well as a reminder for those who already have. I could post this every year quite frankly, and it Still would be topical (which is quite sad) next year, the year after that, and so on... until something drastic happens to bring about real change, that is. It fits nicely into the myriad of conversations we've had on...

Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat by the Door is screening on the Documentary Channel (Dish Network Channel 197; Direct TV Channel 267) tomorrow Friday 8th 8:00-9:15pm and 11:00-12:15pm. It will also screen on Wednesday 13th 10-11:15 a.m. and 2-3:15 p.m. Please tune in!!!!!! Words from the film's Facebook page, so an opportunity to see it, if you haven't, and if you have the Documentary Channel. University of California-Davis film professor, Christine Acham's documentary on the making of the Ivan Dixon-directed political firebrand of a film, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, adapted from Sam Greenlee's novel, is titled Infiltrating...

The Hollywood Reporter A former sitcom writer "kvells and kvetches" about The Guilt Trip and Parental Guidance starring Babs and Bette

PopWatch Mark Harris on Hollywood's love of gun violence. I highly recommend reading this but I highly caution Not reading the comments because as per usual the gun crazies come out. They'd have us all packing and I so don't want to live in their preferred world.

Cinema Blend Katey & Eric on 12 Unfairly Overlooked Movies of 2012 from Hello I Must Be Going (Yay, Melanie!) through Cosmopolis

Awards Daily Whoa. Ann Dowd is footing the bill for her own Oscar campaign.

The Hollywood Reporter talks to Emayatzy Corinealdi on her breakthrough in Middle of Nowhere. You know. I've been trying not to talk about this because I can't figure out a way to say it that doesn't sound indelicate but in some ways I really hate falling in love with...

The National Film Registry has added 25 more films that will be preserved in the Library of Congress. To be included in the registry the film needs to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” They have to be at least ten years old and are chosen from a list of films nominated by the public.

There's some great films that have been added this year. We've got the original 3:10 to Yuma, The Matrix, A Christmas Story, A League of Their Own, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Dirty Harry, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and several more.

Check out the full list of films that were added this year below, and you can head over to the Registry website to nominate films that you think should be added in 2013!

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Considered to be one of the best westerns of the 1950s, “3:10 to Yuma” has gained in stature since its original release as...

Every year, The National Film Preservation Board selects 25 films to be added to the National Film Registry. These movies will be housed in the Library of Congress, and will be carefully preserved as part of American history. This year, the Board's selections included Dirty Harry, The Matrix, Two-Lane Blacktop, Slacker, The Spook Who Sat By the Door, A Christmas Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and A League of Their Own. Personally, I'm surprised The Big Lebowski and Die Hard still haven't made it in, especially when a movie like A League of Their Own can make it in. I love A League of Their Own, but it hasn't had anywhere near the cultural impact as Lebowski or Die Hard. Hit the jump for the full list of films. If you want to know more about the National Film Registry, you should check out the documentary These Amazing Shadows. Click here to read my review.

The Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 motion pictures that have been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Glad to see The Spook Who Sat By The Door on this list of 25 film, selected because they are deemend “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. Also worth noting is the 1914 film adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. "Established by Congress in 1989, the National Film Registry spotlights the importance of preserving America’s unparalleled film heritage," said the Librarian of Congress James H. Billington....

As a writer, but also a big fan of this site, I take time to read through the comments from readers as much as I can, to get a sense of what general perceptions on whatever a post is about. And I'm always taken aback when I read comments that belittle, or look down on actors and/or filmmakers especially, who are chasing the proverbial "Hollywood Dream," as if there's something antithetical about being black And wanting to work within the Hollywood studio system. Is there? I was reminded of the below video clip (posted previously on this site) of a very frank Sam Greenlee (The Spook Who Sat By The Door) dishing on the state of what we call "black...

Grindhouse Trailer Classics Vol. 3

Introduced by Kim Newman | Produced by Marc Morris, Jake West

Nucleus Films follow up the critically acclaimed first two volumes in the Grindhouse Trailer Classics series with this all-new third volume, featuring even more outrageous and crazy trailers for movies from the heady days of cult and exploitation cinema, the likes of which have sadly been lost in this day and age of Hollywood blockbusters and high definition entertainment.

Throwing politically correctness out the window, the trailers in this third epic volume run the gamut from sexploitation movies (which seem to have an obsession with swinging Sweden and the activities which apparently go on there), biker movies, blackploitation classics – who doesn’t want to watch The Spook Who Sat By the Door?, martial arts masterpieces such as Deadly China Doll and Revenge of the Ninja, good old nazispolitation (Nazi Love Camp 27 I’m looking at you...

I was just alerted to another article on CNN also written by Lisa Respers France, who wrote the White Actors Snagging Minority Roles Causes Furor piece which I was featured in, and which I mentioned on this blog Here. This, an addendum you could call it, is titled, Minority Filmmakers Struggle To Get Projects Made, Seen. It was posted on CNN’s website yesterday, and, just like the former, it’s been circulating rapidly across the web. From the title, I think you can deduce what the article’s focus is – a few matters we’ve discussed previously on this blog, so you should be familiar.

However, I’d like to draw your attention to a specific item within the piece that I took notice of – specifically, the opening mention of a University of California-Davis film professor, Christine Acham, who’s working on a documentary about the making of the...

The Spook Who Sat by the Door is one of the greatest titles for a film, possibly ever, not only because it's memorable but because it serves as a warning. It's not just that the main character is a black man who happens to be a government agent (cough cough, "spook"), but also because he "sat by the door," which refers to the early days of Affirmative Action when blacks would be seated near entrances so businesses can brag about integration. Regardless of the seating arrangement, however, this is one black man who takes the lesson to heart and walks out the door equipped to hold his own. He is the token nightmare.

A joke, which I first heard on The Wire, but sounds familiar enough that I'm sure it had other origins:

Q: What is the scariest thing in America?

A: A nigga with a library card.

This highly...

The Spook Who Sat by the Door is one of the greatest titles for a film, possibly ever, not only because it's memorable but because it serves as a warning. It's not just that the main character is a black man who happens to be a government agent (cough cough, "spook"), but also because he "sat by the door," which refers to the early days of Affirmative Action when blacks would be seated near entrances so businesses can brag about integration. Regardless of the seating arrangement, however, this is one black man who takes the lesson to heart and walks out the door equipped to hold his own. He is the token nightmare.

A joke, which I first heard on The Wire, but sounds familiar enough that I'm sure it had other origins:

Q: What is the scariest thing in America?

A: A nigga with a library card.

This highly...