Archive for September 2020
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Filmmakers Must Be Free to Tell the Stories They Want
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images; Frazer Harrison/Getty Images The Hollywood Reporter columnist disagrees with director Lulu Wang’s assertion that only a Chinese director should tell the story of classical pianist Lang Lang: “The key for any artist is to find the common humanity we all share.” When it was recently announced that Ron Howard would direct a biopic of…
Read MoreOp-Ed: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: It’s great that athletes are speaking out. But some of them are spouting nonsense
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings is an amazing athlete. But her recent Instagram posts about being “brave” for not wearing a mask while shopping were ignorant and dangerous.(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) After years of being told to “shut up and play,” athletes have finally fought their way out of the…
Read MoreKareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Real Superpower of Hollywood’s Black Genre Heroes
Illustration by Jaya Nicely Hollywood’s usual reaction to social protest is to produce a few sincere dramas about the African American experience, but “the real measure of a group’s acceptance by society is when its people are celebrated in popular culture.” When Black Lives Matter started rocking, Hollywood came a-knocking. Considered the largest protest in…
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