Wakanda Con, 2018. Via The Movie Blog

Black on Both Sides: Grappling with BLM in Movies

Five years since the movement for black lives kicked off, all of us are reflecting on our collective history and arriving at partial conclusions. Some of these conclusions take the form of film, hip hop, poetry, literature, murals and visual art. We believe popular culture is a reflection of the material conditions around (and within) us––a form of theory making and a method for understanding our world. 2018 gave us several films that echoed BLM, by making explicit its contradictions and tendencies. At the risk of oversimplifying, we can divide the best of these films into two categories: liberal and revolutionary. Each mirrors a material tendency that emerged within BLM.

Analyses of Blomkamp’s District 9 & Abrams’ Star Trek

-BaoYunCheng I wrote these analyses immediately following the releases of these two summer blockbuster sci-fi films. My Analysis of Peter Jackson/Neill Blomkamp’s District 9: District 9 is one of the more entertaining films of our generation. Despite its elaborate critique on systematic racism, though, the movie itself prescribes liberal racism and elitism to overcome the