Save the Last Dance

Save the Last Dance (2001)
Plot: Sara Johnson (Julia Styles) dreams of becoming a professional ballerina. After the accidental death of her mother, Sara is forced to move from the Quiet suburbs to her fathers ghetto apartment in Chicagos south side. She gets transfered into a new school where she is one of the few white students there. She becomes friends with Chenille, and later falls in love with her brother Derek, who trains her for an audition with Julliard school of dance.

Negative comments on interracial love. friends of Derek don't approve on him dating a white girl. Telling him that he's "Snowflaking". Malakai tells Sara that she's milk which don't mix. Nikki says "I aint walking on eggshells just because you brought the brady bunch to the negro club."


Clip 1: As Julia and Derek are headed on a date on a subway. A middle age white woman shoots dirty looks at the two together. Sara and Derek respond by having fun and playing into it. This shows the racism of whites and how people can be close minded when looking at interracial relationships

Clip 2: Sara and Chenille discuss the fight she had with Nikki over Derek. But Chenille is surprisingly on Nikkis side saying "Here you come white so you gotta be right, and you take one of the few decent men we have left after jail, drugs, and drivebys that's what Nikki meant about you in our world."This statement displays the segregation. Just because Sara is a white female, Chenille and others believe they shouldn't be in love.

A Bronx Tale

A Bronx Tale is a 1993 American crime drama film set in the Bronx during the turbulent era of the 1960s. The film follows a young Italian-American teenager as his path in life is guided by two father figures who don't see eye on all the same morals.

Main Plot
The movie's protagonist, Calogero, witnesses Sonny, the neighborhood mob boss commit a murder, he honors the code of the streets and refuses to tell the cops. Sonny befriends him and introduces the impressionable youngster to the creature comforts that mob connections can bring. But though he idolizes Sonny, the boy loves and respects his decent, honest father. It takes a major tragedy for the 17-year-old boy to decide his true course in life.

Subplot
The movie takes place in 1968, where there still remained a high level of tension and dislike between Italians and African Americans, particularly Calogero's friends. Despite this tension Calogero pursues an interracial relationship with a black girl, who ends up being the sister to one of the kids Calogero's friends beat up.

Clip 1
Shows how racist Calegero's friends are and why he is so nervous to pursue an interracial relationship.
 (1:08)

Clip 2
Calegero talks to Sonny about thoughts on dating a black girl and his concerns about what his friends will think.

Clip 3
Before his date Calegero speaks with his father on dating a black and receives different feedback than from what Sonny told him.

Jungle Fever

Jungle Fever (June 7, 1991)

Jungle Fever is a film by Spike Lee that explores interracial love and how men and women in interracial couples are treated by their family, as well as society in general. Jungle Fever is about the relationship between Flipper (Wesley Snipes) and his temporary secretary Angela Tucci (Annabella Sciorra). They face ridicule from the people around them, and they suffer the consequences of having an interracial relationship in New York City.

In this clip we see three African American women in the film talking about Flipper and Interracial love in general. The two women are ganging up on the one for not only dating black men, and she defends herself. This conversation is possibly the best representation of women in a Spike Lee film. In other films the women seem to not be represented well, but in this clip the women these actresses are portraying are pretty accurate. Lee also puts in his own views on interracial love when the woman says that it's not about a man's skin color, she just wants a man that will love her.

The HBO trailer

A little background...

Mildred and Richard Loving

The Lovings lived in Virginia in 1958. They were married in Washington D.C. When they returned to their home, they were arrested and charged with violating the state's (Virginia's) "antimiscegenation statute." The state of Virginia did not allow interracial marriages.

The Lovings were sentenced to one year in prison. The judge said he would suspend the sentence if the Lovings left Virgina and did not return for 25 years.

The Lovings took their case to court. It made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where they won the right to be married. The Supreme Court stated that the "antimiscegenation statue" had no legitimate purpose. The court also found that under the 14th Amendment, the Lovings had the right to marry without the state's interference. 

image from: https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1440&bih=661&q=loving+v+virginia&oq=loving+v+&gs_l=img.3.0.0l4j0i24l6.1634.4904.0.6134.9.8.0.1.1.0.108.649.7j1.8.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.img.C3dTq9kpImM#imgrc=apPnEDJiy6J1QM%3A%3Bze5DDuDrxmmpYM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.slantmagazine.com%252Fimages%252Fhouse%252Ffestivals%252Flovingstory.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.slantmagazine.com%252Fhouse%252F2011%252F04%252Ffull-frame-documentary-film-festival-2011-the-loving-story%252F%3B550%3B245

facts from: http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1966/1966_395

Interpersonal Communication Theory

Interpersonal Communication is defined as the verbal and nonverbal interaction between two (or more) interdependent people. People from different cultures tend to communicate differently because of the different values each group has. Some are raised collectivist and some are individualistic. Crossing to cultures (in a romantic relationship) can create a lasting and positive relationship.

This theory applies to the films we watched because it focuses on the ways people interact with one another.


Source: DeVito, J. A., (2009). The Interpersonal Communication Book. Boston: Pearson. Print.

The Gatekeepers

We picked the top 12 distributors of movies in the United States and found that 11 of the CEOs were white. Only Tyler Perry (who created his own studio and founded his own company) was African American.

 Bob Iger, Disney

 Keith Rupert Murdoch, 20th Century Fox

James Joseph Murren, MGM

Ron Meyer, Universal

Brad Grey, Paramount

Doug Belgrad, Columbia

Valerie Van Galder, TriStar 

Michael Lynton, Sony

Jeff Robinov, Warner Bros.

Barry Meyer, New Line Cinema

Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks

Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry Studios

Disney - Bob Iger http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-03/more-companies-need-high-priced-ceos

20th Century Fox - Keith Rupert Murdoch http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=35867

MGM - James Joseph Murren http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/people.asp?ticker=MGM

Universal - Ron Meyer http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=804881

Paramount Pictures - Brad Grey http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=3573695

Columbia - Doug Belgrad http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=8033824

TriStar Pictures - Valerie Van Galder http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=7913345

Sony Pictures - Michael Lynton http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/seniormanagementteam/michaellynton.html

Warner Bros. Pictures - Jeff Robinov http://www.timewarner.com/our-company/management/executives-by-business/warner-bros-entertainment/

New Line Cinema - Barry Meyer http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=681753

Dreamworks - Jeffrey Katzenberg http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-employee-love-poem-dreamworks-ceo-jeffrey-katzenberg-2012-12

Tyler Perry Studios - Tyler Perry http://www.blackentrepreneurprofile.com/profile-full/archive/2008/july/article/tyler-perry/

 

Malibu's Most Wanted - the trailer

Love, Interracial Love: The Bond Girls

In total, there have been five African American Bond girls. One was the love interest, two were the antagonists, one was a minor character, and the newest one is Miss Moneypenny.

Halle Berry in James Bond

Rosie Carver, Live and Let Die

Grace Jones, A View to a Kill

Diamonds are Forever

Skyfall

Just some food for thought.

And let's not even get started on the MEN who have (and have not) played Bond...

http://www.bondmovies.com/girls.shtml
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/
videos from www.youtube.com

Malibu's Most Wanted

At a house party, Tech sends B-Rad to a back bedroom with two girls. He seems to approve of B-Rad's taste in women, as long as they aren't Shondra.

But when Tech catches Shondra trying to help B-Rad with his shot foot, and thinks she is giving B-Rad a blow job.

Malibu’s Most Wanted. 2003. Warner Bros. Motion picture. John Whitesell. Director.
picture from:https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1440&bih=661&q=malibu%27s+most+wanted&oq=malibu%27s+mo&gs_l=img.3.0.0l10.1124.5768.0.6742.13.7.1.5.5.0.172.694.5j2.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.9.img.fRYk4fqRYwQ#imgrc=BMYPXGVHkEr_lM%3A%3Bd0gL2PloJ56jZM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fimg2-3.timeinc.net%252Few%252Fdynamic%252Fimgs%252F080617%252Fjamie-kennedy_l.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ew.com%252Few%252Fgallery%252F0%252C%252C20207830_20471315%252C00.html%3B400%3B300

Malibu's Most Wanted

B-Rad and Shondra meet when he is "kidnapped" by Sean (aka Bloodbath) and PJ (aka Tree). B-Rad falls in love.

Shondra recently broke up with Tech. We meet Tech in a club. He's upset because Shondra broke up with him. He's even more upset by the fact that Shondra seems to have taken up with B-Rad. Tech threatens B-Rad. He tips him over a railing and chokes him.

When another gang member makes a comment about how "fine Shondra is," Tech knocks him flat and proclaims, "I'm gonna go bag me a white boy!"

Malibu’s Most Wanted. 2003. Warner Bros. Motion picture. John Whitesell. Director.
picture from: https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1440&bih=661&q=malibu%27s+most+wanted&oq=malibu%27s+mo&gs_l=img.3.0.0l10.1124.5768.0.6742.13.7.1.5.5.0.172.694.5j2.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.9.img.fRYk4fqRYwQ#imgrc=PDU53nd-oLLTJM%3A%3BxLolK59MhWb6uM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.movpins.com%252Fbig%252FMV5BMjMwNjg2NjQwM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTEzNDQyNw%252Fstill-of-jamie-kennedy-and-regina-hall-in-malibu%2526x26%253Bx27%253Bs-most-wanted.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.movpins.com%252FdHQwMzI4MDk5%252Fmalibu%252Fstill-205697024%3B1998%3B1329

First Siting: A Taste of Honey

1961 Movie Poster

Jimmy & Jo

Jo and Jimmy meet when she takes a walk along the canal after school. She has hurt her knee, and Jimmy offers to patch it up. They kiss. After a "family vacation" Jo returns to find Jimmy waiting for her. His ship is leaving port the next day. They spend the night together.  It is later revealed that Jo is pregnant. She decides to keep the baby.

 http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/439975/synopsis.html