Directing While Black: Filmmaker John Singleton is on the line to Arts Express to talk about his latest production as creator, writer and director of the dramatic series, Snowfall. Exploring the racist history of how the US deep government through the CIA, conspired to profit from spreading crack addiction and mass incarceration across Singleton's home turf of South Central and inner city LA, and beyond - to illegally raise funds for the Contras in Nicaragua in order to assault and obliterate the Sandinista socialist revolutionary government there. Singleton - as the first ever African American to be nominated for an Oscar, for Boyz N The Hood at the age of just twenty-four in 1991 -  describes his unique filmmaking approach as organic realism. And, walking away from his labor of love project, the biopic about the late rap icon Tupac Shakur, All Eyez On Me.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

** "Sicilians were expecting the Americans to land at any moment, which goes a long way toward explaining the fact that this collaboration between the Americans and the Mafia was already underway - And one of the things that the Americans did through this collaboration, was they legitimized the Mafia."

And, before the Contras and even ISIS, there was...the Italian Mafia!
Apparently the US government, no stranger to hiring criminals for their war crimes around the world - in particular invasions and occupations in the interests of US exceptionalism and empire building, while extinguishing left movements and eradicating notions of self-determination in other countries - cut their imperialist teeth on such practices by nurturing and empowering the Mafia in WW II Sicily. Which meant recruiting them under the official guise of the US military freeing those assassins and torturers as so-called political prisoners - with the intent of installing a Mafia controlled political regime. And, in an Italy which was on the brink of choosing a communist government instead. And so the Mafia went about eradicating at the behest of the US government, communists and other left partisans fighting Mussolini's fascists - and many of them veterans of the brigades battling Franco fascism during the Spanish Civil War.             

Shedding light on that shameful period in Italian - and US - history, is the writer, director and star of the darkly laced Italian comedy At War With Love, Pierfrancesco Diliberto - calling in while stuck in midtown traffic. And, what all of this had to do with the father of US organized crime, Lucky Luciano - and three Copacabana showgirls sent with him by the US government on his deportation back to Italy.

** "I am a woman carrying other women in my mouth - spirits demystified on my tongue, bodies haunted by pellet wounds in their chest."

Poetry Corner: African American movement poet Aja Monet reads from her work. A 'kaleidoscope of African American history' gleaned from wielding her art as a weapon for social justice. Along with her spoken word performance of 'My Mother Was A Freedom Fighter' at the January Women's March On Washington. Chris Butters reports.

** "We had a need, a desire to tell stories - with just an iPod, a mic, and some spooky stories."

Radio Drama Corner: The Fireside Mystery Theatre stops by Arts Express in performance. And Jack Shalom in a conversation with the creators and performers, Gus Rodriguez and Ali Silva. Dedicated to a revival of vintage radio drama in tribute to that captivating art form that once ruled the air waves - creating pictures with sound, 'suspense, lights out, and the comedy stuff too.'

A Family Man Review

It may be said that movie critics negotiate moral choices beyond their film analysis at hand, that inevitably entail notions of basic loyalties. In other words, is one writing on behalf of their audience, or driven by personal preferences [and given that most critics are older white middle class males, those biases aren't exactly representatively diverse or universal] when declaring a verdict on a movie.

Or third possibility, yielding to pressures - and yes, perks from film companies and their propaganda teams of publicists - along with those sub-contractors known as corporate and film advertisers financing publications and other outlets. So if you've ever doubted what you read in reviews as suspect critical points of view, no need to ponder further. And in the case of A Family Man - which could have benefitted from a less is more omission of its family illness narrative strand - as well as a less mundane title - the issues raised still dwarf those surrounding distractions in striking ways.

And if you've wondered why so many Hollywood actors have been flocking to small movies lately for far less pay, look no further than A Family Man. Where along with Gerard Butler, the emotionally and dramatically dedicated stellar cast includes Willem Dafoe, Gretchen Mol, Alfred Molina and Alison Brie. A labor of love production by Butler who stars in the film as well, A Family Man might be said to glean beyond its conventional foundation plot point of catastrophic disease, a vivid inquiry into pressing, disturbing socio-economic afflictions that tend to tacitly corrode a US society into deep denial of some of the officially sanctioned, ethically odious the way things are.

Butler plays Dane Jensen, an aggressive corporate headhunter who will stop at nothing to destroy others in his path, in pursuit of selfish ambition - and making money for his likewise relentlessly rabid company head played by Dafoe, in that strictly conviction-free zone. But with a painful dose of consciousness raising kicking in, courtesy of his young son (Max Jenkins) signifying a sensitively crafted metaphorical confrontation of art versus capitalism - and what should matter most in life. Along with eloquently conveyed referencing to the profoundly damaging fallout on so many lives of the fiercely competitive employment culture in this society - and the many indifferently discarded victims for younger or more carnivorous hopefuls waiting in the wings.

But which is not to say that the fractured, predatory broken culture predominating in this country today is confined to Wall Street style operatives. It's rather rampant within say, the film journalism world as well. Where beneath and behind the glossy, polished public face, those careerist mentality critics prowl with a sharks-in-the-water jockeying for oneupmanship by any questionable means necessary. And for whom any film, warts and all, bravely questioning what we've become as a morally tainted and twisted nation and people - may be too close for comfort in scratching against subconscious raw wounds.

Prairie Miller