Event

Pharaoh Haqq Presents: Bamboozled

Bamboozled is a 2000 satirical film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning blackface makeup and the violent fall out from the show's success. The film was given a limited release by New Line Cinema during the fall of 2000, and was released on DVD the following year. It stars an ensemble cast including Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport, and Mos Def.

Critical reception was mixed, and the film was a box office bomb.

"Lees film traces a grim continuum between stereotypes old and new, connected by knotty skeins of institutional racism. Many critics at the time of the films release suggested that Lee had needlessly reopened old wounds; that the dark days of minstrelsy were comfortably behind us, and that we should move on. Yet Lees vision was not only necessary, it proved remarkably prescient." - Ashley Clark, The Guardian

"Spike Lee has grabbed a tiger by the tail in his scabrously risky new comedy... In going where few have dared to tread, ''Bamboozled'' is an almost oxymoronic entity, an important Hollywood movie. Its shelf life may not be long, nor will it probably be a big hit, since the laughter it provokes is the kind that makes you squirm. But that's what good satire is supposed to do. Out of discomfort can come insight. " - Stephen Holden, NY Times

Doors at 7. Screening at 8:30.