After the success of Fences, Denzel Washington’s 2016 film, where he starred together with Viola Davis, it was just a matter of time until a new major adaptation of August Wilson’s works (more precisely, one based on one of the ten theater plays that compose the Pittsburgh Cycle, which explores the African-American experience of life in the past century) would see the light of day. I’m referring to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was released on Netflix towards the end of 2020 and was nominated for five Oscars at the beginning of this week, including two nominations for the actors performing the lead roles: one for Chadwick Boseman, who is the leading contender in his category, and Viola Davis, which makes her the most-nominated actress of color in history. George C. Wolfe’s film presents the jazz era from a perspective that is not white, one that was used to the point of exhaustion in numerous features, from The Great Gatsby to The Cotton Club, by placing a historical figure in the center of a fictitious story to illustrate the exploitation of black artists by white producers in those years.

Laura Mușat

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Film producer and founder of ADFR, she dreamed since she was little of having a magazine one day. Alongside her job as editor-in-chief, she writes the interview of the month. She loves animals, jazz music and films festivals.

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