Linda Stirling Unmasked: The Black Whip




AGORA
: Dragged from her chariot by a mob of fanatical vigilante Christian monks, the revered astronomer was stripped naked, skinned to her bones with sharp oyster shells, stoned and burned alive as possibly the first executed witch in history. A kind of purge that was apparently big business back then.


CRITICAL WOMEN HEADLINES

10/28/10

Noomi Rapace Kicks The Hornets' Nest

Swedish actress Noomi Rapace talks tattoos, female empowerment, sexual healing and visiting dark places inside herself.

Listen To Noomi Rapace Interview Here:


'...The film begins in earnest as members of a long-dormant shadow conspiracy are roused into action...the elusive men of power who've been violating her for decades. Lisbeth, small of frame and strange of hair, is a figure of explosive violence and implosive psychic wounds.'

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
San Antonio Express-News
Hearst Newspapers

10/27/10

Beyond The Sacrificial Good Woman: Black Feminism And Freethought

HE SAID....
BLACK VENUS (VENUS NOIRE) 'The film captures the dehumanization of this woman. Many of the scenes are tough to take in. Yahima Torres is magnificent in her portrayal of Sarah. She portrays Sarah's life as unbearable. Yet she shows the tender scenes as a humanized woman who was virtually regarded as an animal, according to the ideology of the day...' CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE FAMILY AFFAIR
'I was hoping filmmaker Colvard would have more professional and/or clinical interviews to thoroughly explain and explore the problems these people unknowingly live with these issues, and how they can ultimately overcome the effects of broken lives...'
CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE  Gerald Wright National Association of Black Journalists HDfest.com Film Showcase SHE SAID....

By Sikivu Hutchinson In the 1997 film The Apostle Robert Duvall plays a white Southern Christian fundamentalist preacher and murderer on the lam seeking redemption. The film is literally cluttered with images of devout blacks, from black women swaying in the breeze at a big tent church revival to a particularly indelible church scene of dozens of black men chanting “Jesus” in rapturous response to Duvall’s pulpit-pounding call. I found The Apostle perversely fascinating because it trotted out this totally revisionist romanticized narrative of black obeisance to yet another charismatic but flawed white renegade savior figure in Louisiana (where, contrary to Hollywood flim-flammery, most of the congregations are racially segregated). These popular fantasies of black religiosity always seem to revolve around images of good, matronly black women eternally quivering with a strategic “Amen” or “can I get a witness;” subject to break out into a Blues Brothers back flip down the church aisle at any moment.
CONTINUE TO READ ARTICLE HERE Sikivu Hutchinson is the editor of Blackfemlens, a journal of progressive commentary and literature, and the author of  Mortal Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics and Secular America. She is member of the Women Film Critics Circle, a commentator on Pacifica's Some Of Us Are Brave on KPFK 90.7FM, and a reporter for the LA Women's Desk of the WBAI Radio Women's Collective in NY. Listen to blackfemlens commentaries on Fridays, 6:25pm LA Time, at http://kpfk.org.

We visit two major Housing Crisis Hotspots. Jimmy McMillan [left of Andrew Cuomo], famously flamboyant founder of The Rent Is Too Damn High Party, stops by to share landlord from hell intrigue he's confronted in NYC. The Vietnam veteran, rapper and persistent candidate out of nowhere standing up to all those millionaire designer politicians, is now intent on taking his bid to the 2012 US presidential election, and he'll tell us how and why.

And...This week marks the 6th anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and where homelessness, along with the ever looming threat of another hurricane to come, apparently continues in its wake. Famed SNL funnyman and the many voices of The Simpsons Harry Shearer turns serious, with his documentary The Big Uneasy, about the man-made Katrina cataclysm and coverups in his native New Orleans, while NPR refused to listen. And the suppressed history of a disaster that was not so natural after all.

Hosts: Mary Ann Miller and Prairie Miller

10/26/10

Conviction: Sisterhood Straightens Out The Criminal Justice System



JAN LISA HUTTNER ON OSCAR SNUB FOR CONVICTION

READ JAN LISA HUTTNER CONVICTION FILMMAKER INTERVIEWS HERE

'...As a narrative feature, the goal of a film like Conviction is to use the tools and techniques of cinema to go beyond fact in order to elucidate the human condition. This it does brilliantly, making Conviction one of the very best films I’ve seen so far in 2010.'

READ REVIEW HERE 

Jan Lisa Huttner is a member of The Women Film Critics Circle and The Chicago Film Critics Association. She writes for The Hot Pink Pen, WomenArts.org and Films For Two.


'...How can you not sympathize with a woman who isn't merely a figment of some screenwriter's imagination but an actual human being who displays such fortitude and faith? And though there's something a little mechanical in Swank's Best-Actress-y repertoire, she makes us forget that she's a Hollywood actress playing make-believe. Art imitates life, and what a powerful movie it made.'

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

S. Jhoanna Robledo
Common Sense Media

10/25/10

Female Film Icons Honored

Film Icons De Havilland, Bisset, O'Hara, Kerr & Caron Elevated By BFI, TCM & French Legion Of Honor

By Penelope Andrew

As late summer transformed into autumn, milestones in classic film, which focused primarily on iconic leading ladies, dominated the news and will be remembered as bittersweet. Some of international cinema's most important figures such as Patricia Neal, Claude Chabrol, Arthur Penn, and Tony Curtis passed away, while others were honored and celebrated.
 
O'Hara Turns 90

The indomitable Maureen O'Hara turned 90 on August 17, 2010. Like her contemporary Olivia de Havilland, 94, she appears to have sipped from the Fountain of Youth given the festive,  birthday photos published in the Irish press.

Penelope Andrewis a NYC-based writer who contributes to The Huffington Post, WestView News, and Critical Women on Film. She is a member of the Women Film Critics Circle.