The Black List: Volume One (2008)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Writer:

Elvis Mitchell (writer)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Journalist Elvis Mitchell interviews twenty-two African American leaders, ranging from athletes and academics to politicians...

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	...	Himself
Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs	...	Himself
Thelma Golden	...	Herself
Louis Gossett Jr.	...	Himself
Charles Hailey	...	Himself
Bill T. Jones	...	Himself
Vernon E. Jordan Jr.	...	Himself (as Vernon Jordan)
Marc H. Morial	...	Himself
Toni Morrison	...	Herself
Suzan-Lori Parks	...	Herself
Colin Powell	...	Himself
Susan Rice	...	Herself
Al Sharpton	...	Himself
Russell Simmons	...	Himself
Lorna Simpson	...	Herself
Slash	...	Himself
Dawn Staley	...	Herself
Faye Wattleton	...	Herself
Keenen Ivory Wayans	...	Himself
Zane	...	Herself

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Perfect Day Films

Interesting Portrait of Black Diversity

Black List, which will run on HBO, ran this week at the SXSW Film Festival. The concept for the film is intriguing, but the ultimate execution is rather uneven. It is unclear what, if anything, Elvis Mitchell and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders are trying to say with this film.

They have gathered together 20 well-known African-Americans and had them speak in monologue form to the camera about the black experience. Some are celebrities, while others are successful, but with a lower public profiles. The interviews are interesting independently and many leave you wondering what else the interviewees said that was edited out. Most of the interviewees are from the worlds of politics, entertainment(music and acting), literature and sports. Academics and scientists are notably absent. They will probably show up in the promised volume 2.

They have reclaimed the negative term "Black List" as a positive concept, but it remains unclear what the film makers are trying to do with the film. The comments are, for the most part, interesting, sometimes quite insightful. However, they are also edited together in a somewhat random order. It is unclear what question or questions they are replying to. There is little sense of dialog among the interviewees. Because they have included 20 people, each one only gets 4 to 5 minutes of screen time which is presumably the most interesting clips from their longer interviews.

If their goal was to demonstrate to blacks and white that the African-American community is diverse and complicated, they have done that. However, the lack of connecting tissue between the interviews and the ideas seems to leave the film feeling a bit incomplete, confused, and somewhat unsatisfactory. However, perhaps that is the point. Perhaps the situation of African-Americans in the U.S. is a bit incomplete, confused, and somewhat unsatisfactory.