January 10, 2019 

By Lapacazo Sandoval 

Contributing Writer 

 

Pam Grier (“Foxy Brown,” “Coffy,” “The L Word”)—the 69 year-young iconic beauty wants to make something crystal clear, and that is the fact that she loves Brown Sugar, not the sugary ingredient used to flavor desserts, coffee, and tea but Brown Sugar the network which features the biggest collection of “the baddest African-American movies of all-time.”

 

Focused like a high beam in a thunderstorm Grier has been on a publicity tour this month to talk about Brown Sugar’s Holiday special gift subscription rate which is only $42/1-yr which is a bargain particularly when you add in the recently launched on Xfinity X1, which provides more access to films and documentaries, with offers like “Monster’s Ball,” “Cooley High,” “Super Fly,” and more!

 

A beauty with brains to match, Grier’s had a front row seat to how Hollywood has changed for people of color. In fact, she’s a true trailblazer for hundreds of Black actresses and her films “Brown Sugar” “Foxy Brown,” “Coffy,” “Sheba, Baby,” and “Friday Foster” just to name a few.

 

She earned the producers and studios millions of dollars. Her characters were tough, strong, and at the center of their own stories. To call these films blaxploitation is “missing the point” on so many levels. In 1997 when “Jackie Brown,” Quentin Tarantino’s custom-made vehicle, was released many critics imagined that it would revive her career like “Pulp Fiction” did for John Travolta. It did not and Grier wasn’t surprised.

 

Here’s what Pam Grier the official ambassador and spokesperson for Brown Sugar had to share about Hollywood, life and her future.

 

L.A. Watts Times (LAWT):  Hello Ms. Grier, happy holidays! How are you?

 

Pam Grier (PG):  Hello, L.A. Watts Times. I am great. Are you prepared for the holidays?

 

LAWT: Yikes, no. Are you?

 

PG: (laughing) Yes. I’m prepared to celebrate all year round. Every day is Christmas. If you wake up breathing you are going to have a good day. I have relatives in my family that are aging, matter of fact my mother, who is in her 90’s could not watch a lot of my movies [“Brown Sugar” “Foxy Brown,” “Coffy,” “Sheba, Baby,”] but now with Brown Sugar, she can watch them all. She loves it! We are having these Brown Sugar film festivals and just to see her face light up, seeing all these films that feature Black people, well — it’s something.

 

Brown Sugar is one of the best streaming services to see the legends.

 

LAWT: You are the official ambassador of Brown Sugar, correct?

 

PG:  When Jonathan Katz  the President [& CEO] of Bounce TV came to me, after hearing me talk about important it was to have more African-American and Afro-centric films of our culture represented … we must continue to have our brand recognized.  Brand recognition is sustainability … because of Brown Sugar showing over 300 movies and concerts … it inspires filmmakers.  It’s historical and entertaining. 

 

LAWT: You really know a lot about the business side of showbiz?  What was it like then as compared to now?

 

PG: Well to begin with my films stayed in the theaters for a long time. Some owners thought that our films stayed too long but we were making money.  I remember one of my friends, Jack Silverman of the Silverman Theaters, who said, ‘Pam, your movies are so popular, white moviemakers are going to get mad at you because they’re staying over and over and over again.’ And so out of that necessity came genius; they started creating the multi-theater complex, where you could have a Black film, a Western, a Disney Mary Poppins, Asian films.

 

Did you know I also told Spike Lee years ago about “BlacKkKlansman”?

 

LAWT: And what did Mr. Lee say, then?

 

PG:  Here’s how it happened. The brother who wrote the book (Ron Stallworth) lives about 40 miles from me... I sent [Ron Stallworth] the book [Black Klansman] years ago to Spike [Lee] to make. Years ago and his comment was ‘no one is going to believe a Black Klansman.’ Well, he was wrong. 

 

LAWT: You mentioned that Brown Sugar has impacted your family. How?

 

PG:  My mother is aging and it gives me joy to see her catch up on all of the titles that are available on Brown Sugar. Growing up she was always working. She didn’t have time to go to a movie. She didn’t even get to see my movies then.  There are a lot of interesting people in my life.  My great, great grandmother had a sugar beet farm and a hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the Black West. She’s from the underground railroad.

 

LAWT: What’s next?  Are you working with any young screenwriters to bring your story to life?

 

PG: Yes, I am actually. Thank you for asking.  I’m working with a team to create a documentary [on my life] and if you read my book [“Foxy: My Life in Three Acts”] you will see just how many great characters there are in my story.  I am also doing a series called “Bless This Mess” for FOX. We just finished the pilot.   I wrote a screenplay called “Fried Chicken Chronicles” which I want to direct.

 

LAWT: Can you share any details about “Fried Chicken Chronicles”?

 

PG: (laughing) It makes you hungry, right?  It’s about a family of women in the 1970’s. We’ve been divided by a patriarchal community; church and such and society and such and we pull together to reach a common goal. I can’t tell you any more.

 

LAWT: That sounds beautiful.

 

PG:  Thank you.

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pamgrier 

January 10, 2019 

LAWT News Service 

 

Education & Leadership Institute (ESP) is pleased to announce that its 2nd Annual BOSS Weekend, including the Showcase of BOSS and the BOSS™ Awards, is set for Friday, January 25 and Saturday, January 26, 2019, respectively. The Showcase, for 200-300 area students and 20-30 business, education and sport industry professionals, will involve a day of exploration of sport and related career and entrepreneurial pathways and success strategies.

 

Rams great Jackie Slater will deliver the luncheon keynote.

 

The BOSS Awards, a celebration of the power of sport to change lives, will highlight the accomplishments of business, education and sport industry professionals including Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero; Klutch Sports’ Rich Paul (LeBron, Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons, et al); LBUSD Board Member Dr. Felton Williams; Dodgers’ VP of External Affairs, Naomi Rodriguez; Fox Sports’ Marcellus Wiley; the Marriott’s Imran Ahmed and a TBD LA Chargers’ executive.

 

Our BOSS Weekend is the annual fundraiser for year-round and multi-year “process” we call BOSS™ that responds to the fact that nearly ¾ of the boys of color here in Southern CA (and in most urban centers across the country) are exiting high school WITHOUT MEETING 4-year college entrance requirements.

 

Tickets are still available and can be purchased online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boss-awards-tickets51364948945. Only ticketed guests will be permitted at the event.

 

To consider opportunities to support (ad, table, sponsorship, in-kind donation) the annual fundraiser, please go to https://www.espeli.org/ wpcontent/uploads/2018/09/BOSS-Awards-Deck-2019.pdf

January 10, 2019 

By Dwight Brown 

NNPA News Wire Film Critic 

 

It was an historic power grab. Not the Republicans taking back the White House after a controversial, razor-thin win by George W. Bush over Al Gore. It was the vice president-elect, Dick Cheney, out-maneuvering George Jr. and becoming the puppet master. Cheney: “No one has shown the world the true power of the presidency.” If one quarter of this searing and satirical film is true, the filmmakers may have made a mistake titling the film Vice. Some viewers may think this bio/drama should have been called Dick.

 

Writer/director Adam McKay is no stranger to politics and news-related projects. He won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for “The Big Short,” a comic exposé on the mortgage scandal that brought on the 2007 recession. As a former writer on “Saturday Night Live,” he turned current events into biting satire. That skill comes in handy with his innate handling of a bleak period in time that most people would like to forget but are still curious about the behind-the-scenes scoop. With a well-researched script, Adams tackles the sordid details of a cunning, ambitious man who ran the country into the ground.

 

Hats off to McKay and the casting director (“Francine Maisler,” “The Revenant”) for assembling a stellar ensemble: Chameleon actor Christian Bale (“The Machinist,” “Rescue Dawn,” “The Dark Knight”) embodies Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney in every frame. Yes, he gained the weight, grayed his hair and donned the glasses. But the full effect of his uncanny portrayal is in his low, gravelly voice, the bent over head, slouching posture and very deliberate walk that evoke the film’s central figure in the eeriest way. It’s an impressive transformation, not to be confused with being an impersonation. For many audience members, Bale’s uncanny Cheney aura is the image of the VP that will linger.

 

Though Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “Moon”) doesn’t look like George W. Bush, his interpretation of the party boy turned governor and gullible president is dead-on. The friendly Texas accent and accommodating demeanor sets him up to be the naïve rooster who invites a fox into his henhouse. Amy Adams gives certain power to the very demanding, king-maker wife Lynne Cheney. Steve Carell’s depiction of Donald Rumsfeld—businessman, congressman, White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense and co-architect of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—rings true.

 

The rest of the key players in the Nixon/Ford/Bush administrations are recreated with distinct performances aided by McKay’s instinctual direction: Condoleezza Rice (LisaGay Hamilton); Scooter Libby (Justin Kirk); Gerald Ford (Bill Camp); Rush Limbaugh (Bob Stephenson); Roger Ailes (Kyle S. More); Liz Cheney (Lily Rabe), Mary Cheney (Alison Pill) and Colin Powell (Tyler Perry).

 

If that long list of characters seems vaguely familiar but you don’t quite remember who was zooming who, then Vice will set you straight. Not only does it give a closeup view of Dick Cheney and his agenda, it threads together all the people and machinations that led the country into a misguided war in the aftermath of 9/11 and a severe financial crisis.

 

McKay’s script is clear. It’s easy enough to follow the trail of lies, deceit and power plays. Easy to track Cheney’s backstory and the high and low points in his life: flunked out of Yale, a blue-collar job, an internship in Nixon administration, heart attacks, adjusting to having a lesbian daughter and a stint as the CEO of Halliburton, the company that received a billions-of-dollars no-bid contract for reconstruction work in Iraq.

 

McKay’s wink and nod direction makes a trainload of facts, figures and individuals easy to digest. Even if what he is presenting is obviously one-sided and almost as pitiless as the main character. The writer/director’s very smirky comic touch adds a teaspoon of sugar to some very bitter medicine.

 

Looking over McKay’s shoulder is the very skilled editor Hank Corwin (“The Big Short”) who masterfully pieces together humorous, dramatic and informative scenes with cutaways to provocative images (e.g. a heart beating on its own) into a visually engaging montage.

 

The artful photography is courtesy of cinematographer Greig Fraser’s (“Lion”) discerning eye. Susan Matheson’s (“The Big Short”) costume design screams Republican: She must have depleted Brooks Brothers entire stash of dowdy gray suits. In the few moments when the proceedings lose verve, Nicholas Britell’s (“Moon­light”) over-the-top musical score pipes in and raises the energy level back to mild hysteria.

 

Red state audiences will yawn. Blue state audiences will be outraged and see parallels with the current administration. What both sides of the aisle will witness is a barrage of revealing information about politicians and events that significantly changed history—not necessarily for the better.

 

Visit NNPA News Wire Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com and BlackPressUSA.com.