My Courses

In the early hours of Tuesday, February 17, 2026, the Reverend Jesse Jackson left us at the age of 84. No one can claim shock at receiving the news, due to Jackson’s advanced years and the numerous health difficulties that beset him in the last decades of his life. And yet, his taking leave of…

There are often projects whose complexity and importance I find difficult to fathom. How does one, for instance, distill the history of Black film into 100 titles? How does one define “Black” separately and in conjunction with “film”? Should a movie be helmed by a Black director to be considered a Black work? What about…

The great documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman lived 96 years, long enough to watch the world remake itself many times over. Most of his movies were studies of communities, subcultures, and pursuits, and were titled after the institutions, locations or jobs they depicted: “Hospital,” “Basic Training,” “Juvenile Court,” “Primate” (about animal testing”, “Canal Zone,” “La Comédie-Française…

Every year, the Oscars get it wrong. By “it,” I mean the nominations and, later, the winners—and by “wrong,” I mean that their choices fail to completely line up with your own personal favorites. Naturally, then, it’s inevitable that a degree of discontent is baked into the proceedings, leaving film fans complaining about the omissions…