There have been many engaging features highlighting image makers: Vivian Maier. Perhaps cinematic storytelling naturally comes alive when presenting particularly vivid visual compositions. Here comes one more outstanding instance, by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, exploring the remarkable life's work of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, musician and social justice champion who exemplified a distinct artistic-political perspective.
Alongside his family member Elombe, he virtually invented the slogan “Black Is Beautiful” in the mid-century era by capturing the Grandassa Models in New York: young African American women who transformed into the transformative archetype for beauty, moving beyond conventional beauty standards and the predominant white standard of female beauty.
The Power of a Simple Phrase
The iconic phrase became a powerful call to action, an brilliant three-word prose poem for change. Simply declaring that people of color were beautiful proved to be a transformative influence in society, politics and culture. Brathwaite grew into integral to the civil rights pan-Africanist struggle by documenting the legendary boxer before his iconic championship fight in the seventies.
He became the exclusive photographer for the band's continental journey, and subsequently assumed the role of the official visual chronicler for the historic Harlem venue, assembling an incredible portfolio of African American artists. Alongside his sibling, he became the key organizer behind bringing the anti-apartheid icon to address the public in Harlem.
Historical Recognition
His son the younger Brathwaite is interviewed the their quest to achieve appropriate credit for his family heritage after he was painfully overlooked in the nation's capital's cultural museum, opened by the former president in this century.
The film further reveals the inexpressibly painful origin of the photographer's interest in visual storytelling: the horrendous photographs of Emmett Till, the adolescent African American lynching victim whose mourning family member courageously requested an open coffin so the horrific reality of bigoted brutality could not be covered up.
Amidst Sorrow to Beauty
From this image of violence, the visionary discovered a form of profound understanding that guided him toward photographs of community. His photographs beautifully expressed community pride and typically nuanced in approach: he curated a fresh symbolic representation of strength around which political movements could mobilize.
This represents an exhilarating record of creative genius that persists in empower across generations.
