Saturday, February 28, 2009

Medicine for Melancholy

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San Francisco has ten Black people.

Okay, it has more than ten Black people, but the scarcity
of Negro's in the city of St. Francis was ever present
throughout the film, Medicine for Melancholy.


When I lived in Oakland last year, there were a few times that I
felt like the only Black girl on Mission street. I made due by hanging
out in Revolution Cafe and blogging.

Medicine for Melancholy is about what happens when two
Black people, a man and a woman,
have a one night stand in San Francisco,
and stumble through spending the rest of the weekend
together. Talk about attack of the borderless relationships.

But it is also about gentrification, class identity, interracial
relationships, infidelity, work and Blackness.

The sound track is awesome, I spotted a Madlib joint,
and the credits confirmed it.

In fact, I don't think I have seen Black people in a city, in a Black
and white theatrical release, since Spike's She's Gotta Have It.

I won't give the end away, but I will say that I am happy that
the woman had agency. Awesome.


5 comments:

ahnka said...

It's a shame I flaked and missed the NY screening.
But the trailer still holds my attention. Guess I'll have to wait for the DVD.

I remember when I visited a friend in San Francisco. I walked all over San Francisco and was pleasantly surprised to never be the only Black girl no matter where I went. Of course, that was outside of the stores and apartment buildings. $ means everything everywhere don't it?

"The city is beautiful. You shouldn't have to be upper middle class to be a part of that." That's how I feel about Brooklyn, a little more, every day.

Model Minority said...

Ahnka,

Thank you for stopping by and for sharing.

"The city is beautiful. You shouldn't have to be upper middle class to be a part of that." That's how I feel about Brooklyn, a little more, every day.
=======
Don't eeevvvvven get me started.

Notice, he didn't say MIDDLE CLASS, he said UPPER middle....

That's how you feel about Brooklyn, thats how I feel about being Black. In addition to relaunching Model Minority, I am working on a site about gentrification.

Stay tuned...

A.u.n.t. Jackie said...

My brother turned me on to this a while back. My city of birth has changed so very much. It was filled with black enclaves and neighborhoods of hard working black folks, who migrated away from the city little by little into the burbs and away from city life.

Black folks are still in the city, all over The Point, 3rd Street, still a few left in Filmore, but they aren't trying to be the poster children for gentrification either.

I love the City, but it's a strange bird these days and I don't know if the way that industry is headed black folks will be returning. Long gone are the days or Long Shoremen and good Government jobs that attracted black folks to Richmond and SF in the 50s...

Model Minority said...

Black Folks love a good government job hunh?

Lols.

A.u.n.t. Jackie said...

Well if you look at the fact that in the late 40s and 50s most of the black folks migrating to California were doing so to escape back breaking manual labor, a good Government job meant a desk, some air in the summer and heat in the winter. A whole lot better than sharecropping!

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