Entertainment

Emmett Till movie shown in Black town pivotal to the story

Published

11 months ago

October 30, 2022

MOUND BAYOU, Miss. (AP) — The tiny, all-Black town of Mound Bayou became a safe haven for Emmett Till’s mother as she traveled to Mississippi to testify in the murder trial of two white men who lynched her son in 1955.

Hundreds of people — a good portion of Mound Bayou’s 1,500 residents — turned out Thursday evening to watch the movie “Till.” The feature film is going into wide release across the U.S. this weekend after being in limited release since Oct. 14.

“This place, this city, is very sacred to the story of Emmett Till,” one of the filmmakers, Keith Beauchamp, told the mostly Black audience in the gymnasium/auditorium of Mound Bayou’s John F. Kennedy High School.

The screening happened days after a bronze statue of Till was unveiled about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) away in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Beauchamp is one of the producers and writers of “Till,” which largely focuses on Mamie Till-Mobley’s reaction to the loss of her only child and her evolution into a civil rights leader. Her 14-year-old son had traveled from Chicago to Mississippi to visit relatives in August 1955, and white men kidnapped, tortured and killed him after accusations that he flirted with Carolyn Bryant, a white woman working in a country store.

Till-Mobley, who was named Mamie Bradley at the time of her son’s death, insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago so the world could see her son’s brutalized body. Jet magazine published photos.

An all-white, all-male jury in Tallahatchie County acquitted the shopkeeper’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother J.W. Milam just weeks after Till’s body was pulled from a river. The two men later confessed in an interview with “Look” magazine.

Mound Bayou was founded by formerly enslaved people in the cotton-growing Mississippi Delta in 1887 as a freestanding community where Black people could thrive amid the hostility of the Jim Crow era.

NAACP leaders, including Mississippi’s Medgar Evers, coordinated with Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a physician and entrepreneur in Mound Bayou, to provide safety and security for Till’s mother in the town. Mound Bayou also provided shelter for Black journalists who covering the trial 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) away in Sumner.

The lynching of Till galvanized the civil rights movement, and it has reverberated for generations with Black parents who tell their children to be careful in a country that has not shaken racism.

One of the Till relatives who attended the screening Thursday was 65-year-old Joe Stidhum, born two years after Till was killed. He said his grandfather and Till’s mother were brother and sister.

Stidhum said his mother was always strict on him as his 10 siblings as they were growing up in Mound Bayou, but “she didn’t tell us her side of it until we got older.” He said he was about 12 or 13 before he learned about Till’s violent death.

“Once we got up into teens, that’s when my mom kind of explained to us why she was so protective of us,” Stidhum said after the movie.

The closest cinema to Mound Bayou is more than 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) to the south, in Greenville, Mississippi.

Nobody has ever been convicted in Till’s lynching. The U.S. Justice Department has opened multiple investigations starting in 2004 after receiving inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living.

The Justice Department reopened an investigation in 2018 after a 2017 book quoted Carolyn Bryant — now remarried and named Carolyn Bryant Donham — saying she lied when she claimed Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances. Relatives have publicly denied Donham, who is in her 80s, recanted her allegations. The department closed that investigation in late 2021 without bringing charges.

Deborah Watts, another cousin of Till and co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, was among the people who found an unserved 1955 arrest warrant for “Mrs. Roy Bryant” earlier this year in a courthouse basement. In August, a Mississippi grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict Donham. Watts said Thursday that she still wants officials to serve the arrest warrant on Donham.

“Justice delayed since 1955 is justice denied,” Watts told The Associated Press. “Without any hate, malice or violence, we want the same thing any victim’s family would want, and that is that those that were responsible be held accountable. No one should be above the law.”

In March, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. After the movie screening, Beauchamp told the audience that he is all for honoring Till’s memory, but he wants more.

“If we’re looking for racial reconciliation in this country, it’s not going to happen with a statue or a law,” Beauchamp said. “We have to have truth and justice.”

Some in the crowd, sitting on blue plastic chairs and bleachers, nodded and said: “Alright. Alright.”

Entertainment

The Minions Take Over Tampa Bay on Their Way to Villain-Con at Universal Orlando Resort

Published

2 months ago

August 8, 2023

FNN NEWS

Photo: Universal Orlando Resort.

TAMPA BAY, Fla. — The beloved Minions from Illumination’s blockbuster film franchise made a detour through Tampa as they journey through Florida to get to Villain-Con – the largest convention for villains around the globe and the setting of Universal Orlando’s newest attraction, Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast. Located in the new Minion Land on Illumination Avenue, guests can blast their way to supervillain stardom when the attraction officially opens at Universal Orlando Resort on August 11, 2023.

Entertainment

Accuser who called Kevin Spacey ‘vile sexual predator’ admits he joked about incident

Published

3 months ago

July 10, 2023

FNN NEWS

Lucy North / AP Photo

LONDON (AP) — An aspiring actor who accused Kevin Spacey of being a “vile sexual predator” who drugged and assaulted him when he sought his mentorship acknowledged Monday that he later joked with friends that he might resort to having sex with the Oscar winner if he couldn’t find work.

The man testified that he used humor to cope with the trauma he experienced after he fell asleep or passed out at the Hollywood star’s flat and woke up to find Spacey performing oral sex on him.

“It became a running joke and that’s me running with the joke,” he said of the mockery he made of the incident for a “sense of catharsis.”

The man is the fourth and final alleged victim to accuse the two-time Academy Award winner at trial of sexual assaults in Britain between 2001 and 2013 when Spacey worked at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

Spacey, 63, is on trial in a London court on 12 charges that include sexual assault, indecent assault and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. He denies all the allegations, and his lawyer has suggested the accusers are looking for payouts from Spacey.

The witness said he hadn’t complained about Spacey for nearly a decade after the 2008 incident because he wanted to work in the industry. He said it was a David vs. Goliath kind of situation and he feared “getting slammed by his lawyers.”

During cross-examination, defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs confronted the witness with the jokes he later made about Spacey and apparent texts or calls he made to the star after the incident.

The man acknowledged he initially resisted requests by police for phone data and social media accounts but denied obstructing the investigation, which couldn’t find his records from the time of the incident.

He denied staying in contact with Spacey for four months after the incident despite data from the actor’s phone that appeared to show phone calls and text messages to the witness’ number.

The man vigorously rejected suggestions he made up the allegations because he was ashamed of engaging in sexual relations with Spacey.

“This line of questioning is offensive,” he said. “Nothing happened that was consensual.”

The Associated Press doesn’t typically name alleged victims of sex crimes and British law bars providing information that could reveal their identities.

The witness said that Spacey was one of his idols and that he wrote to the actor because he “craved inspiration” and hoped to meet up for a coffee and advice. He said he was stunned when Spacey called him several weeks later and invited him to meet later that night for a drink.

He said he had heard Spacey was gay and liked young straight men but was naïve when he accepted the actor’s invitation to go up to his flat in the Waterloo area of London.

Only after smoking some marijuana and drinking beer did he get the sense that Spacey had other intentions, the witness said. He said Spacey gave him a hug and nuzzled his head in the man’s crotch. He said he pushed Spacey away and tried to make conversation.

“I was made to feel like I was being circled by a shark,” he testified.

He said he felt like he was drugged and became sleepy. He said he woke up five or six hours later sprawled on the sofa with his pants open and Spacey kneeling over him with his head in his crotch.

In the man’s interview with police played for jurors, he became choked up as he provided details about the incident that he said he had never told friends. He said he pushed Spacey away and the actor told him to leave.

Gibbs questioned the man’s timeline with records from Spacey’s phone that appeared to show the actor called him during the time he claimed to be out cold on the sofa. Gibbs suggested Spacey phoned the witness while he was on his way home after having consensual contact, but the man said Spacey probably called him while he was unconscious to cover his tracks.

The man said he decided to come forward in 2017 after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct in the U.S. when the #MeToo movement erupted.

The man said he sued Spacey after an American lawyer told him he could win him $10 million, but denied he made up the allegations to cash in after years of financial struggles and a gambling problem that forced him to life off loans from friends and relatives.

He said he went to police after a friend told him he would be more credible if he reported a crime before filing suit.

The trial continues Tuesday before a jury of nine men and three women in Southwark Crown Court.

Spacey, who is free on unconditional bail, could face a prison sentence if he’s convicted.

One of Hollywood’s biggest names until sexual misconduct allegations derailed his career, Spacey won a best supporting actor Academy Award for the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects” and a lead actor Oscar for the 1999 movie “American Beauty.” He ran London’s Old Vic between 2004 and 2015.

Cannes Film Festival

PHOTOS: The Big Winners from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival

Published

4 months ago

May 28, 2023

Mellissa Thomas

French film director Justine Triet raises the Palme D'Or after her film, "Anatomie d’une chute" (Anatomy of a Fall), is announced the Palme D'Or winner during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival Sunday, May 28, 2023. Photo: Patience Eding for Florida National News.

CANNES, France (FNN) – The world’s most glamorous red carpet and festival finally wrapped up Sunday. Here’s the list of the big winners from this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Palme d’Or: Anatomie d’Une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall) by Justine Triet

French film director Justine Triet (2nd from right) and cast at a photocall for the "Anatomy of a Fall" film at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Justine Triet (2nd from right) and cast at a photocall for the “Anatomy of a Fall” film at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Grand Prix: The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer

Jonathan Glazer receives the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) for the "The zone of interest" during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival Sunday, May 28, 2023. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Jonathan Glazer receives the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) for “The zone of interest” during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival Sunday, May 28, 2023. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Best Director: Hûng Tran Anh for La Passion de Godin Bouffant

Director Tran Anh Hung receives the Best Director award for the film ‘La passion de Dodin Bouffant’ (The Pot au Feu), as he stands next to Pete Docter, Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios. Photo: Reuters.

Prix du Jury (Jury Prize): Les Feuilles Mortes, directed by Aki Kaurismaki

Jury (Jury Prize) for "Les Feuilles Mortes" during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Aki Kaurismaki (left) receives the Prix du Jury (Jury Prize) for “Les Feuilles Mortes” during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Best Screenplay: Yuji Sakamoto for Monster, directed by Hirokazu Kore Eda

Yuji Sakamoto receives the Best Screenplay Award for “Monster” during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Best Performance by an Actress: Merve Dizdar in Les Herbes Eches, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Merve Dizdar receives the Best Performance by an Actress award for “Les Herbes Eches” during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Best Performance by an Actor: Yakusho Koji in Perfect Days, directed by Wim WENDERS

Yakusho Koji receives the Best Performance by an Actor award for “Perfect Days” during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Patience Eding/Florida National News.

Palme d’Honneur: Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford

Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch presents Harrison Ford with the Palme d’Honneur (Honorary Palme d’Or) during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Cannes Film Festival.