Hallelujah is a 1929 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical featuring an all-black cast directed by King Vidor and starring Daniel L. Haynes and Nina Mae McKinney. Filmed in Tennessee and Arkansas and chronicling the troubled quest of a sharecropper, Zeke Johnson (Haynes), and his relationship with the seductive Chick (McKinney), Hallelujah was one of the first films with an all-African American cast produced by a major studio. (Although frequently touted as Hollywood's first all-black cast musical, that distinction more properly belongs to Hearts in Dixie, which premiered several months earlier.) It was intended for a general audience and was considered so risky a venture by MGM that they required King Vidor to invest his own salary in the production. Vidor expressed an interest in "showing the Southern Negro as he is" and attempted to present a relatively non-stereotyped view of African-American life. Plot: A sharecropper decides to become a preacher after falling for a vamp from the city. Development: Years before creating Hallelujah, King Vidor had longed to make a film employing an all-African American cast. He had floated the idea around for years but "the studio kept turning the idea down". Vidor’s was in Europe during 1928 promoting his film The Crowd, when heard of talking motion pictures emerging in the United States. He wanted an all-African American cast to sing "Negro spirituals" after he had seen the success of it on Broadway. Vidor stated, "If stage plays with all Negro casts, and stories like those by Octavus Roy Cohen and others, could have such great success, why shouldn’t the screen make a successful Negro play?" Vidor was able to convince Nicholas Schenck, who was the president of MGM at the time, to get the movie made by framing it more as a film that depicted African American’s sexual deviance. Schenck put it simply to Vidor, "Well, if you think like that, I’ll let you make a picture about whores". Vidor received the inspiration to create this film based on real incidents he witnessed as a child during his time at home in the south. He observed: "I used to watch the Negroes in the South, which was my home. I studied their music, and I used to wonder at the pent-up romance in them". Vidor began shooting in Arkansas, Memphis and Southern California at the MGM studios. Hallelujah was King Vidor's first sound film, and combined sound recorded on location and sound recorded post-production in Hollywood. King Vidor was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for the film. Given the equipment available at the time, the film's soundtrack was a technical achievement, employing a much wider range of editing and mixing techniques than was generally used in "talkies" in this period. The Music: The film gives, in some sections, an authentic representation of black entertainment and religious music in the 1920s, though some of the sequences are Europeanized and over-arranged. A sequence which is of vital importance in the history of classic jazz is in the dancehall, where Nina Mae McKinney performs Irving Berlin's "Swanee Shuffle." Although actually filmed in a New York studio using black actors, the sequence gives an accurate representation of a low-life black dance-hall - part of the roots of classic jazz. Most Hollywood films of the period sanitized black music. Hallelujah and Black Stereotypes: Hallelujah was one of the early projects that gave African Americans significant roles in a movie, and though some contemporary film historians and archivists have said that it had "a freshness and truth that was not attained again for thirty years", a number of contemporary film historians and archivists agree that Hallelujah exhibits Vidor’s paternalistic view of rural blacks that included racial stereotyping. Reception: Exhibitors were worried that white audiences would stay away due to the black cast. They hosted two premieres, one in Manhattan and one in Harlem. The Black people who came to watch the film in Manhattan were forced to sit in the balcony. Hallelujah was commercially and critically successful. Photoplay praised the film for its depiction of African Americans and commented on the cast: "Every member of Vidor's cast is excellent. Although none of them ever worked before a camera or a microphone before, they give unstudied and remarkably spontaneous performances. That speaks a lot for Vidor's direction." Mordaunt Hall, in The New York Times, wrote approvingly of the all-Black cast, stating, "Hallelujah!, with its clever Negro cast, is one of the few talking pictures that is really a separate and distinct form of entertainment from a stage play". The combination of two groundbreaking aspects of the film, audible dialogue and an all-black cast, set the movie apart from its contemporaries. Hallelujah entered the public domain on January 1, 2025. Black Excellence:

For Queen and Country is a 1988 British-American crime drama film co-written and directed by Martin Stellman and starring Denzel Washington in Panavision. Washington stars as Reuben James, a Black British former paratrooper, who joined the British Army to escape the poverty of inner city London; Reuben fights in the Falklands War, and upon returning home he finds that society ignores and challenges him while trying to adjust to normal life. As you watch Reuben's hopes for the future fade away, there truly is no justice for the little man. This is a gritty, urban drama. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office flop. It has recently been reevaluated as a serious critique of Thatcherism and its effect in 1980's Britain. Storyline: Reuben, having been discharged from the British military, returns to London after a tour of duty in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, where he was decorated as a war Hero. However, given his vocation to his country, he finds interviews for jobs surprisingly difficult to arrange, even though they were sorted out by his careers officers in the army. Within time, he realizes his illustrious army record holds no sway in everyday life. Trivia: British schoolboy Stephen Lawrence, whose high-profile murder at a bus stop in 1993 led to accusations of institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police, appeared as an extra in this film. Reception: Leonard Maltin described the film as a "striking, laced-in-acid contemporary thriller of life in Thatcherite Britain". We do not own the rights to any of this film. This film is being used for historical and educational purposes only. No copyright infringement intended. Black Excellence:

Starring Denzel Washington, Dorian Healy, Amanda Redman

"Without Warning" available at 21 Savage online: Offset online: Metro Boomin online: (C) 2018 Slaughter Gang, LLC under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. With Quality Control Music/Motown Records/Capitol Records and Boominati Worldwide/Republic Records

"Zootopia 2" is available on Disney+ In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Zootopia 2,” rookie cops Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde find themselves on the twisting trail of a great mystery when Gary De’Snake arrives in Zootopia and turns the animal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before. 🌟 Every Magical Moment, Every Iconic Song: All Your Favorite Disney Hits, All Together: Music video by Shakira performing Zoo (From "Zootopia 2").© 2025 Walt Disney Records

Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar - Like That (Official Audio) "WE DON'T TRUST YOU" available at: Follow Future: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: Website: Spotify: Follow Metro Boomin: (C) 2024 Wilburn Holding Co. and Boominati Worldwide, under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. With Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

Listen to Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, Diddy, & 21 "Creepin" (Remix) now: Listen to Heroes & Villains Now: Connect with Metro Boomin: Music video by Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, 21 Savage, Diddy performing Creepin' (Remix). © 2023 Boominati Worldwide, LLC, under exclusive license to Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

Future - LIL DEMON (Official Music Video) "MIXTAPE PLUTO" available at: Follow Future: Website: Instagram: Twitter: Facebook: Spotify: (C) 2025 Wilburn Holding Co. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. DEMON

Official music video for The Weeknd “Gasoline”. Available now, on ‘Dawn FM’: ►

The "Harness Your Hopes" official music video, directed by Alex Ross Perry and starring Sophie Thatcher. "Harness Your Hopes" is featured on the re-issue of the 'Spit on a Stranger' EP, out now on Matador Records. Pre-order here: Revisit all of the original Pavement videos here: Lyrics: Harness your hopes on just one person You know, because a harness was only made for one Don't telegraph your passes, you'll end up with molasses Cauterized in syrup and syrup's not molasses And I'm checking out the asses, the assets that attract us To anything that moves, we're deep inside the groove And it's time to shake the rations 'cause someone's gonna cash in The movie starts at ten, the plot, it never ends Well, show me a word that rhymes with pavement And I won't kill your parents and roast them on a spit And don't you try to etch it or permanently sketch it Or you're gonna catch a bad, bad cold 'Cause the freaks have stormed the White House I lived inside a lighthouse It's on a scenic quay, it's, oh, so far away Far away from the beginning, the shroud is made of linen The goth kid has a hearse, the filly lost her purse Nun is to church, as the parrot is to perch And my heart's wide open, truly Leisure, a leisure suit is nothing It's nothing to be proud of in this late century And I'm asking you to hold me just like a morning paper Pinched between your pointer, your index, and your thumb It's a semi-automatic, believers are ecstatic You see the way they cling, the cold metallic sting And I'm living in a coma for Donna de Varona The harness made of hopes, the lovers on the ropes Earth-shaking, rattle-snaking Kiwis are a-home baking Minds wide open, truly Pavement: Matador Records: Credits: Starring Sophie Thatcher Director: Alex Ross Perry Producers: Bruno Vernaschi-Berman and Daniel April Co-Producers: Meg Vatterott and Eduardo Sobrino Director of Photography: Hil Steadman Production Designer: Emily Steiker-Epstein Art Assistants: Effie Frank and Bryan Duffy 1st AC: Colin Morris 2nd AC / Loader: Jade Alexia Gaffer: David Williamson Key Grip: Jonas Hayes Stylist: Holly McClintock Hair / Make-Up Design: Meraly Lopez Editor / Colorist / Archivist: Robert Kolodny Stills: Nikki Moriello Rear Projection: Rooftop Films, James Martin, John-Phillip Faienza Film: Kodak Scanning & Processing: Metropolis Film Works and Kodak Film Lab NYC Special Thanks to Gabe Spierer, Jay Giampietro, Matt Atwood, and Craig Butta A Penguin Fiasco and Gummy Films Production

Nina Live! Full Concert

Future - SKI (Official Music Video) "MIXTAPE PLUTO" available at: Follow Future: Website: Instagram: Twitter: Facebook: Spotify: (C) 2024 Wilburn Holding Co. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.

Future - California Girls (Official Music Video) "The Real Me" available at: Creative Director: Travis Scott Follow Future: Website: Instagram: Twitter: Facebook: Spotify: (C) 2026 Sahluna Management Company, Inc. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.