History has seen many engaging documentaries highlighting photographers: Vivian Maier. It could be the documentary format particularly shines when showcasing exceptionally powerful still images. Here comes another exceptional example, from writer-director Yemi Bamiro, chronicling the extraordinary career of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, performer and African American activist who represented a special politico-aesthetic vision.
Alongside his sibling Elombe, he effectively created the expression “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the 1960s by documenting the Grandassa Models in the cultural epicenter: emerging women of color who emerged as the transformative template for visual appeal, abandoning conventional beauty standards and the predominant Caucasian standard of womanhood.
The Influence of a Simple Phrase
Black Is Beautiful transformed into a radical call to action, an visionary three-word manifesto for progress. Merely to assert that people of color possessed beauty became a empowering force in art, activism and the arts. The photographer became integral to the social justice African diaspora movement by capturing images of the legendary boxer before his legendary Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.
He became the official photographer for the Jackson 5's international performances, and subsequently became the resident artist for the historic Harlem venue, creating an amazing archive of African American artists. Together with his brother, he was the driving force behind securing the South African leader to address the public in New York.
Historical Recognition
The photographer's offspring the younger Brathwaite shares the their quest to achieve appropriate credit for his parent's achievements after he was hurtfully excluded in the nation's capital's National Museum of African American History and Culture, established by the former president in recent years.
The film further reveals the profoundly sorrowful origin of Brathwaite's passion for visual storytelling: the horrendous pictures of Emmett Till, the adolescent civil rights tragic figure whose bereaved parent courageously requested an open coffin so the violent nature of bigoted brutality might not be hidden.
Amidst Sorrow to Empowerment
In this representation of violence, Brathwaite discovered a kind of anti-epiphany that led him toward visual representations of community. His work were eloquent of empowering beauty and typically nuanced in approach: he established a new iconography of strength through which activist groups could gather.
The documentary stands as an inspiring record of artistic vision that still inspire across generations.
