Fear of a Black Hat
Spotlight on Black Cinema
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1h 28m
Leaving February 1
Directed by Rusty Cundieff | 88 mins | 1993
Overshadowed somewhat at the time of its release by another gangsta rap mockumentary send-up of the same year, the Chris Rock vehicle "CB4," Cundieff’s shoestring-budget feature debut gets just as many laughs at a fraction of the price, following sociologist Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons) as she discovers, for her graduate thesis, the world of hardcore hip-hop outfit N.W.H. (a burlesqued N.W.A.), a trio with a gift for assigning socially relevant meanings to their vulgar and misogynistic lyrics and a penchant for losing their white managers (like Spinal Tap drummers) under bizarre circumstances. Come for the rat-a-tat one-liners (“We anti-violent. Anyone says different, I’ll bust a cap in their ass”), stay for such classic tunes as “Fuck the Security Guards” and P.M. Dawn parody “I’m Just a Human.”
Up Next in Spotlight on Black Cinema
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Ganja & Hess
Directed by Bill Gunn | 113 mins | 1973
Cut by timid distributors and inappropriately marketed as grindhouse blaxploitation, this eerie, sui generis work by utterly iconoclastic director Bill Gunn ("Personal Problems") is, in its original form, nothing short of a masterpiece of ‘70s American cine... -
The Black Sea
Directed by Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden | 93 mins | 2024
A compassionate, convivial, and deeply humane improvised comedy from Moselle ("The Wolfpack", "Skate Kitchen") and co-director Harden, inspired by the latter’s own experiences, "The Black Sea" stars Harden—also providing original ...
