Black History Month 2010 programming
Here are a few notable programs airing in February to celebrate Black History Month. Check back for further updates throughout the month.
Black Experience On Demand – On Demand (check your local cable system On Demand lineup for availability). In recognition of Black History Month in February, the nation’s content providers and cable companies are providing digital cable customers with On Demand access to hundreds of programs and movies, specifically focused on the black experience and history. Multiple genres of programming are available as a part of this “Black Experience On Demand” initiative, including movies, music, biographies, documentaries, news and television series. Shows will be accessible via the On Demand feature whenever the viewer chooses. Viewers can access these programs in a “Black Experience” or “Black History” folder from their Cable On Demand menus. Participating cable companies include Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Insight, Mediacom and Time Warner Cable. Click here to download a lineup of shows airing on certain On Demand channels.
Black Cinema On Demand — Movies on Demand (check your local cable system On Demand lineup for availability). During February, this new category of Movies on Demand includes some of the most acclaimed and influential films created by or featuring the most celebrated black directors, actors and themes. Movies include: How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Brown Sugar, Facing Ali, Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself, More Than a Game, Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, Amistad, Do the Right Thing, Ray, The Best Man, Malcolm X, The Color Purple, Akeelah and the Bee and Blood Diamond.
Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans — PBS; check your local listings throughout February. Lolis Eric Elie, a New Orleans newspaperman, takes viewers on a tour of the city in what becomes a reflection on the relevance of history folded into a love letter to his storied neighborhood, Faubourg Tremé. Arguably the oldest black neighborhood in America and the birthplace of jazz, Faubourg Tremé was home to the largest community of free black people in the Deep South during slavery and a hotbed of political ferment. Here, black and white, free and enslaved, rich and poor cohabitated, collaborated and clashed to create America’s first civil rights movement and a unique American culture.
Independent Lens: Banished
Independent Lens: “Banished” – PBS; check your local listings throughout February. This is the story of three counties that forcefully banished African-American families from their towns 100 years ago - and the descendents who return to learn a shocking history. [Read more →]
So sorry for missing last week’s recap. I was preoccupied covering a 
The mystery of Ray’s missing wallet deepens when he and Tanya head over to the house where he and Lenore conducted their transaction only to find she doesn’t live there. In fact, the elderly gentleman who answers the door has no idea who she is. Tanya tries to soothe Ray’s nerves, assuring him she’ll get to the bottom of it. She finally tracks down Lenore, who thinks Tanya has come to her apartment to attend brunch. After getting all huffy and indignant, Lenore returns Ray’s wallet but without any cash. Then she refuses to pay for his night of services and pretty much slams the door in poor T-Brain’s face.
It doesn’t take long to spot an Alexander Payne project. Whether he’s shooting in his native Omaha (Election, About Schmidt), California’s wine country (Sideways) or in this case, post-industrial Detroit, the director instills such a sense of place in everything he does that it becomes impossible to picture them happening anywhere else. With Hung, we open on Motor City landmarks being torn down and other sights of urban decay, while Ray Drecker begins his narration with, “Everything’s falling apart. And it all starts right here in Detroit, the headwaters of a river of failure.”