Film Love’s Civil Rights program continues ‘NOW!’
February 25, 2009 at 3:32 pm by Curt Holman in A&E, EventsFilm Love’s Black History month program, “Civil Rights on Film: Rare Films on African-American Life, 1941-1967,” continues on Friday and Saturday. The third evening, “The Fierce Urgency of Now” (Fri., Feb. 27, 8 p.m. at Eyedrum) puts the spotlight on such civil rights leaders as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. “My Name is Jason Holliday…” (Sat., Feb. 28, 8 p.m. at Emory University’s White Hall) offers a showcase of Portrait of Jason, a recently restored, cinematic portrait of a loquacious gay cabaret performer and raconteur.
In addition to the entirety of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, one of the liveliest films on the Feb. 27 bill is Santiago Alvarez’s six-minute “NOW!” which dates to 1965 yet qualifies as an early example of the music video form. Alvarez juxtaposes two swinging versions of “Hava Nagila” (one sung passionate political lyrics by Lena Horne) with shocking images of police brutality and other moments from the Civil Rights movement. It loses a little bit in the Youtube window, but remains a striking call to action:
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