B-Flix By Bloomingdales Feature Short Films with Characters of Color
by Latoya Peterson
I got a flier for B-Flix as an insert in one of my fashion magazines. Apparently, Bloomingdales teamed up with Young Indies Films to put on a contest. Some of the films looks like they featured PoC, so I checked them out.
“Recession Special” was interesting eye candy, but not much plot wise. The lead actress Hina Abdullah was killing it visually:
Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy) uses the Bloomingdales’ plot line as a jumping off point for a tender interracial love story called “Tall Enough”:
“The Love Game” as a model character coded as Asian. I found this movie fairly boring, but it seems like the clear winner by a few million votes:
You can check out the rest of the movies and vote here.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Kelvin wrote:
Very cute. I voted for “Tall Enough”
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 12:49 pm ¶
Luis wrote:
That’s a shame. The first two were really much more sophisticated and subtle. The last one was terribly acted and extremely cliché. Then again, when has that ever stopped a mainstream audience.
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 1:05 pm ¶
Lola wrote:
I voted for “Tall Enough”.
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 1:33 pm ¶
Kisha wrote:
I loved them all. I also voted for “Tall Enough”.
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 2:42 pm ¶
Karen wrote:
I voted about 1000 times for Tall Enough. Seriously. *evil grin*
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 3:46 pm ¶
Karua wrote:
“Tall Enough” was definitely my favorite. No bias whatsoever for the fact that I’m also a black woman with an Asian guy *grin*
Also, I really liked Recession Special. Cute and interesting.
The last one was just dull and boring. Blah.
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 4:54 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
I actually laughed a lot watching The Love Game, for whatever reason. But I definitely like Recession Special much better, and just loooved Tall Enough. Love to see so many PoC, and a film close to my heart.
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 9:39 pm ¶
Joe wrote:
Speaking of short films featuring black women with asian men that have smart, progressive sociological points to make… anyone here seen “Dragon of Love”? No idea if it’s still up on the internet, but it probably is, and it’s wonderful.
“”That’s a shame. The first two were really much more sophisticated and subtle. The last one was terribly acted and extremely cliché. Then again, when has that ever stopped a mainstream audience.”"
My taste with the short films was more or less the same as yours, but the look-down-your-nose-at-the-plebeians elitism in the last sentence is a bit gratuitous and ugly.
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 3:35 am ¶
R. Prince wrote:
I voted for Tall Enough. Was I the only one who thought it was moving enough to cry? lol..
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 5:54 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@Joe –
I saw Dragon of Love! It showed at the APA Film Fest, and I think a lot of us fell out laughing. Though, I have to admit, I took it as the guys own comeuppance – he was clear about wanting a “real soul sista” with a big afro so both were playing into stereotypes (though she did go to hilarious extremes.)
Anyone else interested in the film can just google it – the full length version is on the sundance channel site somewhere.
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 7:48 am ¶
jmn wrote:
Here’s the link to “Dragon of Love:” http://www.sundancechannel.com/videos/230255530
Great video, but too bad the video is so small.
I, too, voted several hundred times for Tall Enough.
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 10:48 am ¶
Joe wrote:
“”Though, I have to admit, I took it as the guys own comeuppance – he was clear about wanting a “real soul sista” with a big afro so both were playing into stereotypes”"
That’s how I took it as well.
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 12:12 pm ¶
Alexis wrote:
“Tall Enough” was so cute! And like Karua, no bias here from a black girl (with a similar ‘do at that!) in a relationship w/ an Asian guy (Cambodian to be exact).
Posted 15 Oct 2009 at 7:04 pm ¶
jaye wrote:
“Tall Enough” made me want to cry too. To get me that invested in the characters in 6 minutes…
Didn’t like either of the other two films.
Posted 16 Oct 2009 at 4:38 am ¶