WEST BRATTLEBORO — Enough with documentaries, this month All Souls Church will screen a full-length, commercial feature film on Sunday, Jan. 27, as the next offering in its series “Looking Inward at White Power and Privilege.”
“BlackKKKlansman,” the acclaimed 2018 film directed by Spike Lee and starring John David Washington and Adam Driver, will be shown for free starting at noon and will be followed by a discussion.
Before the film, the church will provide a free light lunch of chili and corn bread at 11:30 a.m. The film series, now in its second year, is presented by the church’s Social and Environmental Action Committee (SEAC). The church is located at 29 South Street in West Brattleboro.
“BlackKKKlansman” portrays the true story of Ron Stallworth, a black police officer who, in the 1970s, successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan.
Like other films in this series, this work includes some challenging content that is not appropriate for children. Child care is available upon request. Anyone with questions, or who wants childcare may call Karen Tyler at 413-824-8960.
Viewers can appreciate the film on several levels simultaneously.
For example, some viewers focus on the message. Writes Richard Lawson in Vanity Fair, “‘BlacKkKlansman”s joke is an indictment of complacency particularly that of white liberals who’d rather not confront the distressing fact that not much has changed in 40 years, beyond a restyling of old, old ideology.”
Meanwhile, others are entranced by Lee’s craftsmanship. A.O. Scott, writing in the New York Times, said Lee’s “fearless embrace of contradiction gives “BlacKkKlansman” its velocity and heft. It is worth pausing to admire its sheer, dazzling craft, the deftness of its tonal shifts — from polemical to playful, from humorous to horrific, from blaxploitation to Classical Hollywood and back again — and the quality of its portraiture.
The online movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, which gave the film a 95% positive rating, observes that “‘BlackKKKlansman’ uses history to offer bitingly trenchant commentary on current events — and brings out some of Spike Lee’s hardest-hitting work in decades.”
Go see it!
I recently grabbed a copy of this and watched it. (I’ve been in a Spike Lee mood for a while, trying to collect used copies of his older films, mostly.)
It’s a good film. Very entertaining, lots of humor, good drama/action… a bit of everything. His “innovation” for this one is placing the historical (true) story into context. Much has been made of the ending, and how it ties us to today’s events. Not as much as been made of the opening montage that shows us how we got here. I liked both bookends, and it didn’t feel too heavy handed or preachy.
Who are we? What do we want to become?
Lee is one of our era’s best film directors. If you haven’t seen this, take the time.