Film Programmer, 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 Queen of L.A. Dance: Storm DeBarge
Itâs hard to think of a dancer who reps Los Angeles harder than Storm DeBarge. So when dance industry veteran Fatima Robinson needed a choreographer to bring authentic Westside flavor to the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, she knew exactly who could translate L.A. dance culture to the football field.
For DeBarge, a native Angeleno, the opportunity was the moment she had been working towardâas a movement artist, choreographer and director. In a show headlined by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, featurin...
The Gotham Pages: Brian Tyree Henry is Reclaiming His Name
Brian Tyree Henry has made a career of playing men under pressureâhaunted, hardened and often held back by systems much bigger than they are.
âHopefully, Iâll be in a love story sooner or later,â he jokes, âbecause, boy, am I tired of running for my life.â
Henry drops that line near the end of our conversation. Itâs funny, yesâbut also revealing of his nearly two decades in the business. It isnât always easy to live with the effects of what itâs like to embody these complex men, I guess.
âNo,...
âLuzâ Review: Is This Real Life? Inventive Virtual Reality Drama Needs a Beating Heart
In âLuz,â writer-director Flora Lau immerses viewers in the mystical world of a simulated reality game of the same name. Set in Chongqing, one of Chinaâs largest cities, the film follows Ren (Sandrine Pinna), a gallerist who travels to Paris to visit her stepmother, Sabine (Isabelle Huppert). Sabine, long divorced from Renâs father â a successful painter â has recently experienced fainting spells that have landed her in the hospital. Despite her serious health issues, she takes a laissez-fair...
âBLKNWS: Terms & Conditionsâ Review: Kahlil Josephâs Brilliant Essay Film Pushes Filmmaking Forward
The premiere of the genre-blurring feature âBLKNWS: Terms & Conditionsâ at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival is a drama in and of itself: just days before it was scheduled to screen, the rights-holder to the film pulled it from the festival. Then, a few days into the festival, a surprise sale of the rights to a new owner cleared the way for the film to screen after all. Neither Kahlil Joseph, the artist and filmmaker who directed the film, nor Shari Frilot, the Senior Film Programmer who introd...
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
'Running While Black' tells a new story about who belongs in the sport
Author Q& A with Alison Mariella Désir on her memoir "Running While Black"
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.