We have witnessed numerous fascinating documentaries highlighting image makers: Martin Parr. Maybe cinematic storytelling truly excels when displaying particularly vivid photographs. Here arrives one more exceptional example, directed by filmmaker Yemi Bamiro, chronicling the impressive professional journey of Kwame Brathwaite—a creative force, musician and African American activist who exemplified a special politico-aesthetic approach.
Alongside his family member Elombe, he virtually invented the expression “Black Is Beautiful” throughout the mid-century era by documenting the Harlem models in the cultural epicenter: young African American women who became the transformative template for aesthetics, rejecting typical beauty standards and the established white ideal of womanhood.
The Impact of a Simple Phrase
The iconic phrase became a transformative unifying message, an inspired three-word prose poem for transformation. Simply declaring that people of color were beautiful emerged as a liberating force in society, social movements and culture. The photographer became a key figure in the Black power pan-Africanist cause by capturing images of Muhammad Ali leading up to his iconic championship fight in 1974.
He became the official image creator for the band's continental journey, and eventually was named the house photographer for the legendary cultural institution, assembling an amazing collection of African American artists. Alongside Elombe, he emerged as the key organizer behind arranging for Nelson Mandela to appear in the community.
Historical Recognition
Brathwaite's son his namesake recounts the family's mission to secure due acknowledgment for his family heritage after he was unjustly ignored in Washington DC's cultural museum, opened by Barack Obama in this century.
This documentary also recounts the inexpressibly painful origin of the photographer's passion for image making: the disturbing images of the young victim, the young civil rights tragic figure whose bereaved parent boldly demanded an uncovered casket so the brutal truth of racist violence could not be concealed.
Through Darkness to Beauty
From this image of violence, the visionary encountered a type of transformative realization that led him toward visual representations of community. His images were eloquent of celebratory strength and typically nuanced in approach: he curated a fresh symbolic representation of empowerment around which social causes could mobilize.
The documentary stands as an inspiring record of creative genius that persists in empower across generations.
