A change is gonna come

Last night Chris and I watched Hairspray.
Its a fun loving, sing songing movie set in Baltimore in 1962.Tracy Turnblad is a "pleasantly plump" (her own words) teen who loves to dance and gets the opportunity to be a dancer on the Corny Collins show. Once on the show she discovers that the black kids are only allowed to dance on the show once a month. Her belief in racial integration leads her to speak out, take risks in a way that will change her live and the lives of those around her forever. All wrapped up in some groovy tunes and some funky dance moves.
Like all musical movies, Hairspray is fun and ecletic, and you wonder how these actors manage to keep a straight face while their colleagues burst into song mid dialogue. I loved the actors, John Travolta and Christopher Walken are great, and I love it whenever Queen Latifah is back.

Somewhere near the end of the film, there was this somber moment that settled on Chris and I. It didn't come down to a speech or a song. The film has these blink and you miss them moments which sobers up about the pain of racial segregation, the inevitability of change in that era, and yet the incredible resistance.
Chris started talking about Reggie, a mature African- American student he studied with at Fuller. They had a conversation about segregation once. What it was like to live in those days, every day. How it felt. Reggie talked. Chris listened.
Chris turned and said
"Sometimes we don't realise what a statement we are in this culture."

Obviously, we've had our fair share of abuse since getting together, from both black and white, though the abuse (unprintable) has consistently been directed at me. The UK had its dark days too. Signs on the doorways of rental properties etc " No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs". Rivers of Blood and Cricket Tests. Not a pretty picture. I digress.

But we didn't have segregation.
One day I took the girls to meet Chris down at Fuller for lunch. I met Reggie and a few other African- American mature students. There's a look in the eyes of people who have lived through days you could never understand. There was a warmth in their eyes and smile. An element of suprise as they watched our little family. Who knows what they were thinking, feeling. Maybe they saw history and the future at the same time. It was only a moment, one of those blink and you will miss it moments where you have the privilege of seeing someone's soul, their life hopes and dreams in their eyes.


Our film ended singing and dancing, prophesying of a change that would come no matter what.
Democrats will choose between a white woman or a black man to lead them to the White House. A Republic African American woman is the 66th US Secretary of State. People make statements and fall in love cross culturally every day.
There is a long way to go, lots of changes that need to take place here in the US. Lots of healing, progress, equality needed - across racial divides that are not just about Black and While, but many cultures, many colours.

But a change is gonna come.

Amazing Grace

I'm not one to cry at films, but I saw Amazing Grace on the flight over to the UK and I was sobbing by the end of the credits. Amazing Grace recounts the story of William Wilberforce and his fight to see slavery abolished. It was one of those films with lots of powerful one liners, that if you weren't in a plane in the dark, you'd write them down and quote them as your own profundities...

The film challenged me on lots of levels. The fact that Wilberforce was gripped by this ONE thing, that consumes him, that defined him, spoke of the level of focus and commitment. The perseverance, the persistence the depth of conviction.

This was someone whose contribution (alongside others) actually changed the world, literally. For Wilberforce changing the world was not an aspiration or a platitude. It was his life. Talk about faithful. Wilberforce is a role model of faith in action, of a commitment to justice, that spanned decades.

So I sobbed. Probably because I was challenged and inspired. And because I am grateful.

Er... Rated R?

Sometimes it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Even if the toddler doesn't think so. So fever or no fever, it was time to move Tia on from The Wiggles. I just needed a break from Dorothy the Dinosaur and Henry the Octopus. So I search around in our cupboards for something else, and get really excited when I stumble across The Jungle Book.

Great ! the Bare necessities and all that, Tia loves animals, singing and dancing.What could be better?
We sit down to watch.The film score lasts forever and sounds a bit more menacing than i remember...

Tia is starting to look bored. And I am beginning to feel oddly uncomfortable.So I pick up the dvd case, to read all the info:
"memorable music, imaginative adventure... a treat for all ages!"
then i look down at the rating.


It's rated R! Like Babel, rated R, like The Departed rated R, like Silence of the Lambs rated R.

For what you might proclaim?

"Strong Pervasive Violence, brief language, and a scene of sexuality content"

Is it me, or is that not the Jungle Book you remember? For the love of all that is good, pure and straightforward, for the love of Disney, for crying out loud - what is going on????
Anyway I wasn't going to watch to find out. Mowgli or no Mowgli - I am not going to watch and R rated movie with my daughter, especially not for the next - er 18 years!
So we got the Wiggles back out, and settled down for a bit more of Dorothy the dinosaur and Henry the Octupus. We're Wiggles all the way, God love 'em.

Happyness is a thing called...

One of the most powerful films I think I've seen - The Pursuit of Happyness.
It retells a year in the story of Chris Gardner , now a multi- millionaire entreprenuer and philanthropist, then - a father raising his son in nightmare circumstances and against the odds. Its a magnificent portrait of fatherhood, of dignity in the midst of adversity and struggle.

And who'd have thought that the Fresh Prince of Bell Air, Will Smith would rise to the challenge of the title role? Will somebody give the man an Oscar (possibly not since all the money is on Forrest Whittaker's portrayal of the lovely - not - Idi Amin).

My favourite scene is the final frame, as Will and his son (played by Smith's own son) walk down the street playing together. A tall African American man walks past, head raised high, resplendent, almost regal. Confident and dignified. The two men acknowledge one another, and Smith watches the man walk on. The past and the present day Chris Gardner captured in a single moment in time.

And I'm Telling You...

In another life, I'd have been on Broadway singing my guts out in musicals...

Last night Chris and I watched Dreamgirls. It's the film version of the musical which parallels/is loosely based on/is strangely similar to the rise of the Supremes.
Jamie Foxx was back in fine voice, but Eddie Murphy's character (a James Brownesque type) and vocals were fantastic. Beyonce did a fine job as Deena Jones (the Diana Ross character). But Jennifer Hudson - an American Idol finalist was unstoppable as Effie White.

Alongside the fab costumes and amazing vocals, Dreamgirls touches on the cost for black artists trying to make it in the mainstream in the 60's and 70's.So that they could be heard, (instead of their songs being covered by white musicians) artists needed to look a certain way, slimmer, paler, with straighter hair. Sound certain way - calmer, more accessible. They needed to write a certain kind of song - non political. Yet somewhere along the line, the cost of breaking through, of crossing into the promised land as it were, cost some of them something of their soul...
Curtis starts out with noble ambitions that eventually consumes him and his integrity. The "Thunder" is used as a stepping stone, and never gets to sing the songs that truly reflect him, and eventually presses his own self destruct button. Deena finds fame and stardom, but loses her self. And after many setbacks and trials Effie finally manages to "make it" on the terms that she always believed she should - with her Afro, dark skin, shapely figure and the full bodied voice of a DIVA.

It's just a film, with a multi- talented ensemble cast, but it certainly got me thinking of the cost of success, of pioneering something new, of crossing over into the promised land...It's not black and white...it's tough, ruthless sometimes, definitely sacrificial, not for the faint-hearted.
Amazing soundtrack, though.

Inconvenient

Convenience is something that it seems like the US has down to a fine art. Appliances and gadgets that make life so much easier. Drive thru ATM's for cash (not that you ever need cash when you have convenient things like cards in your wallet. Drive thru fast food outlets, even drive thru Starbucks when you'd love to sit down for a coffee, but you just didn't have the time.

Chris and I watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth the other day.
It's the first film I've fallen asleep in, largely because sleep is generally in short supply these days and because the film is essentially a lecture. But we were so drawn in by the content we watched it again, wide awake.

I was never majorly into environmental issues, beyond the basic stuff of recycling,picking up litter, not using too much water, and being kind to trees. Probably because I thought if I was going to invest my emotional energy in something I would do something that was more people focused than plant life focussed. How naive was I?

As I listened in and Al Gore spelled out the effects of the environment on the world around us, especially the two - thirds world... I got a bit of a wake up call to say the least. It was no longer an issue I could be a passive observer on, not if I cared.
And especially not here where consumption happens on a rather ridiculous scale.

At the end of the DVD there's this kind of environmental altar call - totally a preaching for a response moment. Like, OK so you've watched this - how will you respond? Do you want to change your life?
We didn't get on our knees or anything, but we did find ourselves saying "Yes" out loud.

It is inconvenient to look beyond my comfort zone.
Incovenient to research environmental issues, to lobby for change. To use cloth diapers, to change the way we live as a family.
Its inconvenient to change. Inconvenient to care. Inconvenient to act.

But flip me, I've got to ask myself some serious questions if as a Christian I am not prepared to change my life when it has such a devastating effect on other parts of the world simply because it is inconvenient. True?