Culture Writer, Audio Producer, Rotten Tomatoes-approved Film Critic đ„ hello@beandrea.com đ„ Bylines: NYTimes, Vanity Fair, NPR, Time, Hyperallergic and several others.
The return of Sundance and âThe Pod Generationâ
The Sundance Film Festival is returning to Park City, Utah, with a slate of more than 120 independent films making their debut to an in-person crowd for the first time in two years. The festival attracts filmmakers and actors from around the globe hoping to become the next âLittle Miss Sunshineâ or âGet Out.â
Centered Podcast
Fiction podcast created, written and directed by Beandrea July
Recent college grad Selah Copeland (Jerrika Hinton) is being groomed to takeover her mother's accounting business, but after a life-changing weekend away at a yoga retreat, she's considering other options. Centered is an audio drama about finding yourself on and off the mat.
One Night In Miami... Q&A with Regina King, Kemp Powers & Cast
Moderated a 2021 panel for Film at Lincoln Center with the director, screenwriter, and cast of ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI for Amazon Studios/Strategy PR.
If You Donât Watch Black Stories, You Donât Support Black Lives
âI love the fact that this is a Black-ass show,â said one woman on the call, âso we can have an angry person and a happy person, a sad person, a ratchet person. Give me everythingâthe whole window of emotions.â
I was sitting in on a regular Zoom meetup with 30 young Black professionals discussing the recent season finale of the HBO hit Insecure...
Love and Liberation on the Dance Floor
From their townhome in L.A.âs San Fernando Valley, professional dancers Sheopatra and YoE Apolinario nestle closely on the couch for our virtual interview. Itâs late July, and these partners in movementâand lifeâexude affection, even over Zoom. Itâs like entering into a warm hug.
YoE's face brightens when asked to describe her fiancĂ©e's dance style: âI feel like the ancestors come down through her body and they are guiding her movements,â she says. âIt feels like a sermon.â
'Running While Black' tells a new story about who belongs in the sport
Author Q& A with Alison Mariella DĂ©sir on her memoir "Running While Black"
CherryPop Podcast
Season 1: Co-created, Co-hosted, Produced, Edited and Mixed by Beandrea July
CherryPicks presents CherryPop: a podcast about women and sex onscreen. Tune in each week for our deep dives into some of the most compelling portrayals of female pleasure in film and television. Hosts Beandrea July and Meg McCarthy take listeners on a journey to celebrate feminine pleasure across a diverse and wide-ran
The Year Women Over 50 Reclaimed Their Right to Be Seen
Rather than ignore such characters as the film industry has often done in the past, mainstream and indie directors alike explored their lives, and sometimes the results were astonishing.
âYou Cannot Tell a Political Story in This MomentâŠWithout Foregrounding Race and Genderâ: A New Wave of Politics Documentaries Is Revolutionizing the Genre
In 2018, Democrat Liz Watson took a shot at flipping her red Indiana district blue. And filmmakers Wendy Sachs and Hannah Rosenzweig followed her every move. In their newly released Showtime documentary, Surge, viewers see Watson sign donor thank-you letters âLove, Liz,â and listen to her optimistic elementary-school-age daughter, Lila, say, âMan we could really win this.â
Critic's Picks: 10 Great Underseen Films About Black America
The vast majority of Hollywood films over the past hundred years were made by, about and for white people. The industryâs first blockbuster â 1915âs The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith â was a Ku Klux Klan propaganda film featuring white actors in blackface.
âPariahâ at 10: When Black Lesbian Characters Had the Spotlight
A look back at âPariah,â the coming-of-age drama from the writer-director Dee Rees on its 10th Anniversary.
Sharpening Our Oyster Knives Podcast w/ The Greenidge Sisters
A Black feminist discussion of the FX miniseries MRS. AMERICA starring Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba, Niecy Nash, Margo Martindale, Sarah Paulson.
Featuring The Greenidge Sisters: Kaitlyn, Kerri and Kirsten.
Produced, Edited, Mixed by Beandrea July
Obama, Ali, MLK: Redefining Black Masculinity at the Toronto Film Festival
Back in 2018, Green Book premiered to acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival, winning the People's Choice award and the admiration of seasoned white critics covering the festival. Once a wider cross-section of critics and moviegoers got to see it, of course, the response was considerably more divided.
GETTING TO KNOW TONI MORRISON (Starts at 18:30)
For KPCC's The Frame: In the new documentary, "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am," we learn about the woman behind the work to see how she got to this distinguished place in American culture. Directed by photographer and filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last January. Film critic Beandrea July reviewed it for Out magazine at the time. Now that itâs in theaters, she takes another look at the film with the help of a leading expert on Morrisonâs work.
The 1A Movie Club: Why âThe Helpâ Doesnât Help
While the fight for racial justice isnât new for many, some are searching for ways to become better allies and to understand systemic oppression for the first time. And theyâre turning to movies to help educate themselves.
Now, 2011âs âThe Helpâ has become the most-watched film on Netflix. But many Black people and critics say the film is not the movie you should be watching to better understand race relations.