History has seen numerous engaging features focusing on photographers: Tish Murtha. Maybe the film medium naturally comes alive when presenting remarkably striking visual compositions. Here comes another remarkable example, from writer-director Yemi Bamiro, exploring the impressive life's work of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, musician and African American activist who represented a special artistic-political approach.
Alongside his sibling Elombe, he virtually invented the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” during the 1960s by capturing the Grandassa Models in Harlem: emerging women of color who transformed into the sensational archetype for beauty, rejecting traditional cosmetic products and the established white ideal of femininity.
The Influence of a Revolutionary Slogan
Black Is Beautiful became a powerful unifying message, an visionary three-word declaration for transformation. Merely declaring that people of color were beautiful became a transformative power in society, social movements and creative expression. Brathwaite emerged as integral to the social justice pan-Africanist movement by documenting the sports icon leading up to his legendary Zaire bout in the seventies.
He was appointed the exclusive visual documentarian for the Jackson 5's continental journey, and later assumed the role of the resident artist for the historic Apollo theatre, building an extraordinary collection of musical pioneers. Together with Elombe, he was the key organizer behind bringing the South African leader to appear in New York.
Family Legacy
Brathwaite's son his namesake is interviewed the family's quest to achieve due acknowledgment for his parent's achievements after he was hurtfully ignored in Washington DC's cultural museum, established by the former president in 2016.
The film also recounts the profoundly sorrowful genesis of the artist's dedication to photography: the disturbing pictures of the young victim, the adolescent civil rights murder victim whose grieving mother boldly demanded an open coffin so the horrific reality of bigoted brutality could not be hidden.
Through Darkness to Empowerment
Through this representation of violence, Brathwaite discovered a form of anti-epiphany that led him toward images of community. His images powerfully conveyed celebratory strength and typically nuanced in approach: he developed a innovative visual language of empowerment through which social causes could mobilize.
The documentary stands as an inspiring testament of creative genius that persists in inspire across generations.
