Black Panther!!! The movie is awesome! Some like it because it is ‘black centric’; some like it because it is Marvel; but most like it because it really is ‘mad’ cool. Start with the technology, the gadgets, the applications and adaptations of technology, feels like a back in the day Star Trek with the ‘beam me up Scotty’ stuff, just mad cool. Gotta give it to the technology teams who created these ideas. The story line has the classic good vs evil framework but at multiple levels: the traditional king ritual or rival vs rival; good vs evil, the protagonists who would try to take from this great nation for their own personal benefit; and good vs evil framed by women who represent the core security and men who would destabilize just to conquer. The second intriguing aspect is the conflict of tradition and innovation and the short and long term impact of the choice. Yes, this is vague…trying to stay inside the lines of spoiler alert…but we are hoping to inspire our readers to see the movie!
Reggie Hudlin and Ryan Coogler
Reggie Hudlin completely revived Black Panther, the character for Marvel comics, back in the day. At that time he had been named President of BET. Hudlin hired by Marvel to write a Black Panther series chose to completely rethink the character, The Black Panther. Hudlin’s run on the comic introduced major plotlines, including the landmark marriage of Black Panther and Storm, as well as the creation of T’Challa’s half-sister Princess Shuri, portrayed by Letitia Wright in the upcoming film. Meanwhile, the Black Panther animated series, which aired its sole season in 2011, was the first time a ‘black series’ has ever aired on television, also under the executive leadership of Reggie Hudlin. These last two sentences are from the article in Vulture magazine! Not to diminish in anyway the amazing accomplishment of Ryan Coogler…it would not be entirely representative without an acknowledgement of Reggie Hudlin.
Ryan Coogler
Ryan Coogler’s debut film was Fruitvale, a feature film that won at Sundance. For Black Panther, he is both the screenwriter and the director working with familiar actors but with a very heavy ‘dose’ of CGI, VR and Digital Media. The integration of these technologies is ‘virtually’ (pun intended) seamless! Working with a familiar crew: Chadwick, Michael B Jordan and even Lupita N’yongo…Coogler introduced actors that were less familiar but certainly equally talented in their portrayals. The movie has great humor that parallels the seriousness of the challenges before them…there’s a fair amount of ‘black’ humor for the culturally astute…which makes for a great movie going experience.
Short Film
So what does this have to do with short film? Nothing, it is a great movie! And it totally dominates the movie airwaves of the week. However, both filmmakers began their careers making short film! Ryan Coogler made several short film including Locks, a short film made at the USC Film school in 2008.
Locks from The MY HERO Project on Vimeo.
Its a wonderful short film that definitely reflects Coogler’s sense of humanity.
Shoutout to our sister publication: Tinsel and Tine. Also, we are changing the look and feel of the blog, we will keep you posted!!!
