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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2017)
Page 4 BLACK HISTORY MONTH February 22, 2017 My Top 10 Films of 2016 o PinionAted This year, J udge by d arleen o rtega there’s more overlap with the Oscars I see more than 150 films each year, including all the films nomi- nated for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Documentary and nearly all those nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best For- eign Language Film. This year my list of the 10 best films out of all of those I saw shares more over- lap than usual with the Academy Awards -- perhaps in part because of the pressure on Hollywood to notice the work of artists of color, which tend to dominate my list. Often the most remarkable work is done from the margins, never more so than in times of increased oppression and flux. So here's the whole list, with fuller descriptions and links below: "Moonlight": This is that rare year when a universally acclaimed film deserved and received an Os- car nomination along with a lot of other awards -- and, in an un- precedented twist, a movie that lauded on African American men and boys at a level of complexity “Moonlight,” portrays African-American males as beautifully com- plex and not reduced to the flimsy stereotypes so often presented on-screen. The Oscar-nominated movie is the best film of 2016 as rated by Opinionated Judge Darleen Ortega, the Portland Observ- er’s film reviewer. that we rarely see on screen. Take TOP 10 FILMS FOR 2016: a note: It is written and directed by 1. Moonlight two black men. Lifting up the sto- 2. I Am Not Your Negro ries of those at the margins must 3. 13th include a commitment to giving 4. Two Trains Running them agency to tell their own sto- 5. Fences ries. If this film loses out in the 6. Presenting Princess Shaw best picture and director catego- 7. Zootopia ry to the vastly overrated "La La 8. Loving Land," my voice will be included 9. Paterson in the chorus of groans you may 10. Aquarius hear. [Not rated; nominated for, and should win, Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Maher- shala Ali), Best Cinematogra- phy, Best Film Editing (co-editor Joi McMillon is the first African American woman nominated for an editing award!), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Ac- tress (Naomie Harris) and Best Original Score. Moonlight is also on the top 10 lists of at least 189 other film critics.] "I Am Not Your Negro" is so powerful and so resonant that it is really too much to absorb in one viewing. Director Raoul Peck has assembled the script from only the words of James Baldwin to pro- vide a window into race and rac- ism in America that is truly with- out parallel; every view moments I wanted to pause to absorb the profundity of what had just been spoken. Much is in Baldwin's own voice, including footage from an astounding 1968 television inter- view by Dick Cavett that would have been mind-blowing if it had happened yesterday; the rest of Baldwin's words are uttered by Samuel L. Jackson. The power of the words is aided by images assembled from the civil rights era but also from the current day. Baldwin speaks prophetically -- and by that I do not mean predic- tively, but in a voice so clear and true that it is outside time, even now decades after he uttered them. Baldwin is mindful of his loca- tion as what he terms a "witness," rather than someone attempting to lead a social movement; he lived a significant period of time in Eu- rope and returned to engage with the American civil rights struggle largely from the position of astute observer and friend to its leaders. The clairvoyance he displays from that vantage point makes the case for the prophet, and specifically, this prophet, an African Ameri- can gay man. This film is the best documentary I have seen in a very, very long time, and I expect to re- turn to it again and again. [Rated PG-13 for disturbing violent im- ages, thematic material, language and brief nudity; nominated for, and should win, the Academy Award for Best Documentary Fea- ture; on at least 26 other critics' top 10 lists.] C ontinued on P age 7