We have witnessed many engaging documentaries focusing on visual artists: Vivian Maier. Maybe the film medium truly excels when displaying particularly vivid photographs. Here arrives a new outstanding example, directed by filmmaker Yemi Bamiro, chronicling the extraordinary professional journey of Kwame Brathwaite—a photographer, musician and African American activist who exemplified a unique artistic-political perspective.
Alongside his brother Elombe, he effectively created the expression “Black Is Beautiful” during the mid-century era by capturing the Harlem models in Harlem: young African American women who emerged as the groundbreaking archetype for beauty, rejecting conventional beauty standards and the established Eurocentric standard of femininity.
The Power of a Simple Phrase
This powerful statement became a transformative call to action, an brilliant memorable manifesto for transformation. Just declaring that black people radiated beauty emerged as a transformative force in society, activism and culture. The artist became part of the social justice pan-Africanist struggle by photographing the sports icon before his historic Rumble in the Jungle in 1974.
He was appointed the official photographer for the Jackson 5's international performances, and eventually assumed the role of the resident artist for the legendary Apollo theatre, creating an incredible collection of musical pioneers. Together with his brother, he became the central figure behind securing the South African leader to speak in the community.
Personal Journey
Brathwaite's son the younger Brathwaite shares the personal mission to secure appropriate credit for his father's legacy after he was hurtfully ignored in Washington DC's cultural museum, opened by the political leader in recent years.
The film also recounts the profoundly sorrowful inspiration of the photographer's dedication to photography: the shocking photographs of the lynching martyr, the teenage African American tragic figure whose mourning family member courageously insisted on an open coffin so the horrific reality of bigoted brutality might not be covered up.
Amidst Sorrow to Beauty
In this vision of horror, the artist discovered a kind of profound understanding that led him toward images of beauty. His photographs were eloquent of empowering beauty and often not overtly political: he established a fresh symbolic representation of pride through which political movements could gather.
It is an exhilarating chronicle of artistic vision that still resonate across generations.
