History has seen countless fascinating documentaries highlighting image makers: Tish Murtha. It could be cinematic storytelling truly excels when presenting particularly vivid visual compositions. Here arrives a new outstanding instance, by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, exploring the remarkable career of Kwame Brathwaite—an artist, musician and civil rights advocate who represented a special politico-aesthetic vision.
In partnership with his family member Elombe, he effectively created the slogan “Black Is Beautiful” in the mid-century era by capturing the Grandassa Models in the cultural epicenter: youthful Black women who transformed into the groundbreaking template for beauty, abandoning typical grooming practices and the predominant white ideal of female beauty.
The Power of a Revolutionary Slogan
This powerful statement became a powerful rallying cry, an brilliant concise manifesto for progress. Just to assert that people of color possessed beauty became a transformative power in art, politics and creative expression. The artist emerged as integral to the social justice pan-Africanist cause by documenting Muhammad Ali before his iconic Zaire bout in 1974.
He served as the exclusive image creator for the Jackson 5's international performances, and later was named the resident artist for the historic Apollo theatre, building an amazing archive of black musicians. Alongside his brother, he was the key organizer behind securing the anti-apartheid icon to speak in Harlem.
Family Legacy
His son Kwame Jr shares the family's mission to secure due acknowledgment for his father's legacy after he was unjustly overlooked in the nation's capital's Smithsonian institution, opened by the political leader in recent years.
The film further reveals the inexpressibly painful origin of the artist's passion for image making: the disturbing photographs of the young victim, the teenage African American lynching victim whose mourning family member boldly requested an open coffin so the violent nature of bigoted brutality would not be hidden.
Through Darkness to Empowerment
Through this representation of horror, the visionary discovered a kind of anti-epiphany that led him toward photographs of community. His photographs powerfully conveyed community pride and often not overtly political: he curated a innovative iconography of empowerment around which social causes could unite.
It is an inspiring chronicle of artistic vision that continues to inspire through the years.
