2013: Will Smith and screenwriter Randall Wallace, set to make "The Last Pharaoh"

The Egyptian Pharoah Taharqa: a member of the Nubian dynasty of Egypt, and he was more a ruler over the Kingdom of Kush. His reign can be dated from 690 BC to 664 BC. He was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt. Mentioned by Greek historian Strabo as one of the greatest military tacticians in the world. He's believed to be Tirhakah, King of Ethiopia, who's mentioned in the Old Testament (noted in the bible in 2 Kings 19:9; and Isaiah 37:9 as Tirhakah) who drove the Assyrian king Sennacherib away from destroying Jerusalem.



Taharqa wasn't just a fighter, he was devoted to peaceful works like restoring temples, and building sanctuaries all over Nubia and Egypt. Nevertheless, his biggest claim to fame is fighting the Assyrians, who invaded Egypt in 677. He didn't exactly defeat them -- they took the city of Memphis and established the 26th dynasty, and Taharqa was driven back to Nubia, where he died in 664.



This movie definitely has the potential of an action packed story because Egypt's history is replete with drama and adventure, but I'm curious as to how it's going to be fleshed out. With screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) at the helm, I am willing to bet that Taharqa will become a mixture of King Leonidas and William Wallace. The saving of Jerusalem is, I think, the high point of the story and has the most historical relevance ... but I'm sure it will romantically illustrate how he attempted to defend his homeland, and that's reportedly what the film will focus on.



My Conclusion: It will be very interesting to see Will Smith deliver in the history genre and it will have to do better than movies like Troy and Alexander. I will also say what most people won't say...that Will Smith is one of the lightest skinned, socially accepted black actors in Hollywood and he'll play one of the blackest of Pharoahs in Ancient Egypt; so he'll have to go work on his tan, but regardless, I couldn't think of anyone better because Will Smith is the biggest box office draw in the business and a movie of this kind needs his type of commercial appeal, he's black enough to pull if off...lol. Something the movie won't show you is how Historically, it was really the armies of Taharqa's nephew Tantamani who were the ones who briefly wrested control of Egypt from the Assyrians before being driven back to Nubia, making Tantamani, not Taharqa, the last Pharaoh of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, but oh well. Another point to bring up is this; President Obama's first term ends on January 20 2013, effectively though on November 4 2012 (if not re-elected). A month before or after the Mayan Doomsday of December 21, 2012. Just around this time is when Will Smith will galvanize the public mind around a black pharoah (symbolically this is Obama) as the last pharoah/president defending the homeland, against the Assyrians (who people will read as being the Arabs, i.e Iran and the Taliban). No one does prescriptive programming like Hollywood lol.



Follow @Iamindemand and join the conversation on Twitter Right Now!!!

Before Reaganomics and Crack Cocaine there was the indoctrination of inferiority

I posted this video because a white person politely asked me once: Why are black people seemingly lagging behind, why are so many on the bottom of the socio-economic scale?

Thought there are many articles that would state that there is an improvement in Black America, more black millionaires etc. It would shock many to know that in many communities the majority of black businesses were better off economically during segregation, and that after integration blacks suffered in a myriad of ways. Before Reaganomics and Crack Cocaine there was the indoctrination of inferiority. When the views of an entire nation is inculcated with the idea that blacks are buffoons, maids, and hired hands, well it's not hard to see what blacks would be faced with, the climb out of this indoctrination has been slow and hard.





Follow @Iamindemand and join the conversation on Twitter Right Now!!!

You have to have the MIND for Revolution...

Watching this old school movie takes me back to an idea I had last year...to start an "urbanized" paint ball culture to teach inner city youth about teamwork and tactical discipline. I'm really leaning towards doing this in the near future.





Follow @Iamindemand on Twitter Right Now!!!

The Nicholas Brothers: the standard for every dancer since

Th Nicholas brothers (Fayard and Harold) were the most talented and innovative dance team of their time and they have set the standard for every dancer since. Gregory Hines once said that if their biography was ever filmed, the dance sequences would have to be computer generated because no one would be able to perform their moves. This is their most famous routine from “stormy weather”.



Follow @Iamindemand on Twitter Right Now!!!

Stacey Muhammad: Film Director - "Out of Our Right Minds"

Via: jessemuhammad

Stacey Muhammad: I’ve been studying Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome and the writings of Dr. Joy Leary as well as books like “Rock My Soul, Black People and Self Esteem” by Professor Bell Hooks for quite some time and have long believed that the traumas Black people experienced in slavery were directly related to, and actually responsible for many of the psychosis, depressions and mental disorders we deal with today.

However, nothing could prepare me for this subject more than my own personal experience with depression a few years ago. Although it was short-lived, it was quickly debilitating and I knew that if my life were to ever get back on track I needed to figure out what was going on with me and with so many other brothers and sisters who were suffering in silence. What I learned during this time is that Black folks really don’t talk about depression and mental illness nearly as much as we need to. Black women often feel that we’ve endured so much that a diagnosis of depression isn’t something else we can add to our plate. But, it’s real and sisters are hurting and suffering and living unfulfilled lives for a myriad of reasons. So, this film explores what’s happening in the minds and in the hearts of Black women.

Black History Month & Black Cinema

What should one study?


In his pioneering rap poem, entitled Black History, by Gil Scott Heron :

I was wondering about our yesterdays and started digging through the rubble...And to say the least somebody went through a hell of a lot of trouble...to make sure that when we looked things up, we wouldn't fare too well...that we would come up with totally unreliable, portraits of ourselves.

Many groundbreaking thinkers understood that it was vital for African Americans to know their history, a people who were robbed of their cultures, religions, names, lands and material possessions. The tradition and practice of Black History month has extended to other areas around the globe, furnishing race-pride which has become the antidote for prejudice. The occasion was first called Black History Week, and it was begun in 1926 for Americans to learn what had been left out of their history textbooks and newspapers concerning African Americans - it's inventor was Dr. Carter G. Woodson. February was chosen to honor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays are both in that month; and that's probably why there is so much corresponding coverage on CNN about both Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln - drawing a comparison between the two presidents. I personally don't ascribe to the hype that is often placed on black history month as I did in years past, simply because I now view my history as a piece of world history. An evolution in the way that African history is distributed is what I look for now.

History of the lunch counter sit-ins
It's been done...over and over and over...LET'S EVOLVE


Because I'm a media-nerd, I've decided to give you Black History Web-surfers an interesting piece of history to look up. In 1915, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, this was to become the basis or foundation for what is Black History Month now. In that same year (1915) a film called "Birth of a Nation" was released. It was the most profitable American film of all time until Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarves came out in 1937. Imagine that...that this film virtually held box-office sales prisoner for an entire 23 years.

I remember seeing a clip of this film in a Wu-tang music video.


The film depicts a mid-19th century south plagued by mulattos and abolitionists who scheme to keep the white man down and raise up the black man in what is, to its intended audience, an obviously grotesque perversion of natural order. In government sessions, the reconstruction-empowered black politicians (played buffoonishly by white actors) take off their shoes and feast on fried chicken. Luckily, the chivalric Ku Klux Klan rides to the rescue.

This film was pretty much the accepted version of history until well after World War II. The film even received a special screening at the White House, where president Woodrow Wilson supposedly remarked, "It [the film] is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." The quote was later argued to be from someone else but the film was still marketed as "Federally-endorsed."

The same year Birth of a Nation was released, the Lincoln Motion Picture Company was founded in Nebraska. Organized by brothers George and Noble Johnson with the aim of encouraging black pride while upholding the social order of the day, it was the first company to produce what came to be known as "Race Movies," which tried to balance an accurate depiction of black folks' lives and at the same time actively promote a positive image. If you wanna learn more about this piece of black history - CHECK OUT this blog article.