Ernest Hardy

Skid Row; Credit: Courtesy Pan African Film Festival

Pan African Film Festival: Homeless Rappers, Freedom Fighters

Ernest Hardy
His heart was in the right place, undoubtedly. But Skid Row, the documentary film in which former Fugees member Pras goes undercover as a homeless man on the streets of downtown L.A.'s Skid Row armed (supposedly but not really) only with a hidden camera, is pretty awful. A selection at......

Revolutionary Road

Ernest Hardy
In her essay, “One Year After,” which assesses post-9/11 America, Susan Sontag makes note of “. . . freedom fighters once called terrorists (as was the French Resistance by the Vichy government, and the ANC and Nelson Mandela by the apartheid South African government) but subsequently relabeled by history.” American history hasn’t......
Chet Baker

Bruce Weber Gets Lost Again With Chet Baker

Ernest Hardy
The spanking-new 35 mm print of Let’s Get Lost, Bruce Weber’s 1988 cult documentary, underscores the otherworldly beauty of the film — a lush, black-and-white valentine to jazz legend Chet Baker. The film itself, while centered on Baker, also unearths the Rosetta stone of Weber’s own aesthetic and careerlong obsessions:......
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N.W.A: Compton's Most Vaunted a Hard Act to Follow

Ernest Hardy
“Here’s a li’l somethin’ ’bout a nigga like me...” —First line, third track, heart of the matter: “Gangsta Gangsta”Cali pride personified: (Clockwise from top left) Dr. Dre, Yella, MC Ren, Eazy E and Ice Cube When N.W.A dropped Straight Outta Compton 20 years ago, their hood reportage functioned as art......

LGBT People of Color Film Festival

Ernest Hardy
From the screening of classics both familiar (writer-director Cheryl Dunye’s 1996 crowd-pleaser, The Watermelon Woman) and little seen (Sergio Toledo’s 1987 Brazilian film, Vera), to bubbly new romantic comedies (Japanese director Koji Kawano’s Love My Life), the films of this year’s Fusion film festival represent women in such a powerful......
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Fall Harvest

Ernest Hardy
The contrived media beef between 50 Cent and Kanye West in the weeks preceding the September 11th release of their latest CDs (Curtis and Graduation, respectiv...
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Music

Ernest Hardy
The contrived media beef between 50 Cent and Kanye West in the weeks preceding the September 11th release of their latest CDs (Curtis and Graduation, respective...

Music

Ernest Hardy
The contrived media beef between 50 Cent and Kanye West in the weeks preceding the September 11th release of their latest CDs (Curtis and Graduation, respective...

Pointed Shoots

Ernest Hardy
This year’s Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival shows the event, now in its 11th year, having settled into a comfortable groove, programmed with many films that are good but few that are mandatory viewing. As with most film festivals, the documentary section is the strongest, and two titles that......