The Burden of History and the Phenomenal Women of “Miss Juneteenth”
A complex, realistic, and loving mother-daughter relationship is at the heart of this story about Black pageants and the fight for a better future.

The Green Deal, Europe’s new growth strategy, is Brussels' recipe to save the planet from climate collapse. With electric cars and renewables, the EU believes it can promote economic growth while protecting the planet. Is that possible? Green technologies require many critical metals that are supplied mainly by China. To reduce dependencies, politicians are in favor of reopening “green” mines in Europe. But people living in the areas are worried that their lives will be sacrificed for the energy transition. This is the case of Hector, a Spanish farmer, and Matti and Karin Niia, two Swedish reindeer herders. They are determined to fight against these projects that threaten their way of life. While the industry is lobbying for the adoption of an EU law on critical raw materials to facilitate the opening of new mines, Diego, from an environmental NGO, travels across Europe to investigate whether mining can ever be truly sustainable.
A complex, realistic, and loving mother-daughter relationship is at the heart of this story about Black pageants and the fight for a better future.
The three themes of lessons learned from HBO Max's Station Eleven are the same as the pandemic: love, regret, and art.
Intergenerational friendships and community can be so powerful, and this was a great example.
I write for a diversity-focused film review blog, so I’ll be honest: I really wanted to like Pretty Lethal. Starring Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Iris Apatow, Avantika, and Millicent Simmonds, Amazon Prime’s new thriller seemed like it would be a girl power movie about dancers with a horror action twist. Sort of a Suspiria for teens. But with shallow and unlikeable characters, a confusing plot, an overreliance on violence, and cringey dialogue, any fun the movie started out with was quickly lost. What was left was a faint echo of greater horror movies about dancers made before.
Disney has kept its word and allowed a new generation of Black and/or African storytellers to tell their own original stories. The question remains, will the public keep their word?