Zenzelé Soa-Clarke Archives

American Fiction Offers a New Spin on the Challenges Facing Black Artists

Director Cord Jefferson tackles Percival Everett’s 2001, novel Erasure

February 12, 2024 • by Zenzelé Soa-Clarke

Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction is garnering praise this awards season for its satirical approach to Black representation...

Netflix Revives the Genre of the “Blaxploitation” Film to Attract Black Subscribers

They Cloned Tyrone tries to turn the colonization of Black Americans into a LOL comedy

December 18, 2023 • by Zenzelé Soa-Clarke

As a genre, Blaxploitation films were often morally ambiguous: though made for and by Black filmmakers and audiences, and sometimes depicting a kind of dead-end domestic colonialism, the films often normalized misogynistic treatment of Black women and uncritical ideals of Black capitalism....

A Pioneering Palestinian Film Offers a Quantum of Solace

For those who question the capacity of rap to deliver powerful positive messages of social change, Slingshot Hip Hop supplies an answer

November 29, 2023 • by Zenzelé Soa-Clarke

Slingshot Hip Hop ends with a pan-Palestinian concert in the West Bank—minus the one rap group Israeli officers wouldn’t let exit Gaza. Even in their absence, the other groups maintain optimism: a belief that things can change, including people's minds. ...