When Everybody Laughs 

Where is Lilo's face? Disney marketing sends a chilling signal: that even in 2025, an alien is more palatable and marketable than a brown girl.

A quiet film that does not demand your tears but earns them. It explores love that lingers, timing that fails, and the silence between what was and what could have been.

Telling a story about the French and Indian Wars from the perspective of the British prioritizes the perspective of the colonizers. 

The 2019 film, Vai, takes us through eight stories across the islands of Oceania. The settings are unbelievably beautiful, the cast is beautiful, the languages are beautiful, and the stories are beautiful…but heartbreaking.

In Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986), we follow the love life of powerful female protagonist Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) and explore the relationship dynamics she has with her partners. She sees three men simultaneously: Greer Childs, (John Canada Terrell) Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), and Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks). Though an 80’s film, She’s Gotta Have It is surprisingly progressive with its themes of female sexuality, although at some points in the film it is handled clumsily. Overall Nola is an incredibly compelling character especially for modern women, as we as a society acknowledge female sensuality more and more without the negative stigma.

‘Candyman’ (2021) builds upon the original 1992 film by presenting the myth of Candyman not only as an example of black pain, but as an opportunity for black vengeance.