History has seen countless engaging films about visual artists: Vivian Maier. It could be the film medium truly excels when displaying particularly vivid photographs. Today comes one more exceptional instance, directed by writer-director Yemi Bamiro, chronicling the extraordinary career of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, musician and social justice champion who embodied a distinct artistic-political approach.
Together with his family member Elombe, he virtually invented the expression “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the sixties by photographing the Grandassa Models in Harlem: young Black women who became the sensational template for beauty, rejecting traditional grooming practices and the predominant Eurocentric standard of womanhood.
The Power of a Simple Phrase
This powerful statement evolved into a powerful call to action, an brilliant memorable manifesto for progress. Just declaring that people of color radiated beauty proved to be a liberating power in art, activism and culture. The artist grew into part of the civil rights pan-Africanist movement by documenting the sports icon before his legendary Zaire bout in the seventies.
He served as the primary photographer for the Jackson 5's international performances, and eventually assumed the role of the official visual chronicler for the legendary Harlem venue, assembling an extraordinary portfolio of musical pioneers. Alongside his brother, he emerged as the key organizer behind securing the South African leader to speak in Harlem.
Personal Journey
The photographer's offspring the younger Brathwaite recounts the family's mission to ensure appropriate credit for his parent's achievements after he was unjustly excluded in the prestigious cultural museum, opened by Barack Obama in recent years.
This documentary further reveals the profoundly sorrowful origin of the artist's interest in visual storytelling: the disturbing pictures of the lynching martyr, the teenage civil rights murder victim whose grieving mother boldly demanded an public viewing so the horrific reality of bigoted brutality would not be concealed.
Amidst Sorrow to Empowerment
From this vision of violence, the visionary encountered a kind of transformative realization that led him toward images of beauty. His images beautifully expressed empowering beauty and often not overtly political: he developed a fresh iconography of empowerment upon which political movements could mobilize.
This represents an exhilarating chronicle of artistic vision that continues to inspire through the years.