There have been numerous engaging documentaries focusing on visual artists: Tish Murtha. Maybe the film medium naturally comes alive when presenting exceptionally powerful still images. Here we have one more outstanding case, by filmmaker Yemi Bamiro, chronicling the extraordinary career of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, musician and civil rights advocate who represented a special artistic-political perspective.
Together with his sibling Elombe, he virtually invented the expression “Black Is Beautiful” in the 1960s by capturing the Grandassa Models in New York: emerging Black women who transformed into the groundbreaking archetype for aesthetics, abandoning traditional cosmetic products and the established white ideal of female beauty.
The Power of Three Words
The iconic phrase transformed into a transformative call to action, an visionary memorable manifesto for progress. Merely declaring that African Americans radiated beauty emerged as a empowering influence in society, activism and culture. The photographer emerged as a key figure in the Black power pan-Africanist cause by documenting the sports icon prior to his historic Zaire bout in 1974.
He was appointed the primary visual documentarian for the band's continental journey, and subsequently was named the resident artist for the historic Harlem venue, building an extraordinary collection of African American artists. Together with Elombe, he was the key organizer behind securing the anti-apartheid icon to speak in the community.
Historical Recognition
His son the younger Brathwaite shares the personal mission to secure proper recognition for his family heritage after he was unjustly ignored in the prestigious Smithsonian institution, opened by Barack Obama in 2016.
The film additionally explores the deeply tragic genesis of the artist's dedication to visual storytelling: the shocking pictures of Emmett Till, the teenage African American lynching victim whose bereaved parent boldly requested an uncovered casket so the horrific reality of bigoted brutality might not be hidden.
Amidst Sorrow to Hope
From this image of violence, Brathwaite found a form of transformative realization that guided him toward images of community. His work powerfully conveyed empowering beauty and typically nuanced in approach: he curated a innovative iconography of pride through which political movements could mobilize.
It is an inspiring testament of cultural impact that persists in inspire through the years.
