DOPE ART HERE: Freedom in Motion

Remember when finding good 📺 🎥 🎵 wasn’t a second job? 

We do.

We're your plug for Dope Art Here, served fresh monthly 😘.

PS - NO SPOILERS HERE. We got you 😏

Welcome to the Dope Art Here experience: a quick mind quencher & snack for your artistic tastes.

WE CURATE ART AS DOPE AS YOU.

This month's spotlights!

• SOUL-STIRRING SUMMER LOVE: Andrew takes us into a dreamy South London summer with Louis Culture's BABE music video that'll make you want to melt into the screen.
• VINTAGE SWAGGER THERAPY: Justin shows us how SOUL TRAIN dancing classics help him feel alive when the simulation of adult life gets too heavy.
• RAW POWER: Adrienne finally filled her cinematic blind spot with GIRLFIGHT, a 25-year-old knockout punch to the heart that feels as relevant as ever.
• PERMISSION TO BE MESSY: Dara celebrates JOY RIDE, where women get to navigate complex identities while still having the freedom to make terrible decisions and grow from them.

I'm having a vision y'all: jaws with gleaming metal teeth widening and ripping through the constraints of a rubbery sheet, screaming. Joyful, feral, loud, angry.

As I sit with this month's selections, something hits me - as marginalized people we are so often FORCED into motion. Manual labor over desk jobs, taking the bus instead of affording cars, protests, protests, and protests still. Movement without choice.

I see in these pieces the brilliant ecstatic screaming of the hundreds we take with us when we can move on purpose. The freedom of moving or being still and growing and stopping when our own mind says so. In saying your rights end at the end of my fist and this dance line stops at the edge of our bodies and this movement stops when we say it stops and we ain't said stop yet.

I have a "I'm so glad I got to meet you" card in my kitchen from a friend of mine that says "Dance like everyone can go f*ck themselves." Forget "like no one's watching." The need to see.

~ dara

MUSIC: BABE - Louis Culture (dir. Ella Ezeike)

Summer love in 23 words. “We could be free - whatchu wanna do? I got some needs that you won’t excuse. Heart skips a beat and it’s over you.” 

It’s one of those long days that trails into a hot summer night…your lover’s arms are draped around your shoulders as you sit underneath tree and you realize you’re having one of those conversations with no end…but you know it began with a question about your childhood cartoon crush…or at least you think it did…

Director Ella Ezeike conjures the sense memory of summer love in the music video for Louis Culture’s “Babe” featuring Tora-i and Richie. Filmed with grace, love and care, this ballet of limbs, love in motion and longing is hypnotic. Quiet moments of connection and comfort. The tension and release of conflict. 

Every time I watch this video, I wish I could melt into the screen. 

3 minutes of a dream courtesy of South London. - Andrew

WATCH: BABE (YOUTUBE)

When the heat of summer love fades, when your brain starts freezing under endless work pressure, when this {gestures widely} is JUST A LOT, you need a different kind of movement medicine. Don't worry love, Justin's got your 'scrip (please imagine a Black man in a doctor coat handing you the following recommendation) ...

MUSIC: SOUL TRAIN (1973)

I'd imagine there are days when simple participation in adult responsibilities, intensified by passive media consumption, renders your soul temporarily lifeless... (or not? shout to you.) Shiddd, might be weeks or years for some. Either way, a soft rub on the back and corner-lipsy smile is in order. Whelp, on those days, slugging to retain my relative safe positioning within the simulation, I play something rather simple: Soul Train dancing classics. How the pinnacle of achievement, fame and privilege has not remained the act of dressing like the owner of the night while limberly swaggering directly into the camera in front of other beautiful, talented people on national television, I do not know, but little makes me feel more indirectly and directly alive than these relics. Some of my favorite moments ever captured. Practice in the bathroom, perfect in the world. - Justin

WATCH: THE PLAYLIST (YOUTUBE)

Bodies in joyful motion don't always look like lovers under trees or dancers in winking sequins. Sometimes they look like fists connecting with purpose. Like claiming space that wasn't meant for you, but needs your presence nonetheless. Adrienne found this knockout that's been hiding in plain sight...

MOVIE: GIRLFIGHT (2000)

Michelle Rodriguez surprised me when she hit a girl in the back of the head. 

Not a spoiler—it happens in the first few minutes of *Girlfight* (2000). Watching it at Rideback Ranch this week, I cringed, peeking through my fingers. I hate violence that feels real, and this did. The high school lockers, Michelle’s anger, the girl’s pain—it all felt like a jab to my jaw. 

But I was also in awe. The tight, brisk dialogue, the raw coming-of-age arc of a young woman finding her place in a boxing ring—it resonated now as much as it did for critics at Sundance 25 years ago. Every frame is meticulous, deliberate. 

How had I never seen this? Now that my cinematic blind spot is fixed, let me fix yours—with a knockout punch to the heart. - Adrienne

WATCH: GIRLFIGHT (CRITERION | APPLE TV+)

From throwing punches to throwing caution to the wind - there's something about watching women make messy, spectacular choices that makes me feel fucking alive. Which is exactly why this month I'm BEGGING you to watch:

MOVIE: JOYRIDE (2023)

There is power in truth and beauty in specificity. 

I saw the trailer for Joy Ride before watching the Blackening. I got little tinglies on my forearm and started bouncing in my chair, which are classic Dara happy stims. “I want to watch them make bad decisions, " I whispered to my mom, as I snuck out my phone and added the premier date to my calendar. And honey, the movie did. not. disappoint.

Treat yourself to something we rarely see: A coming of age that flips the script on who gets to be messy. White boys get to suspend adolescence for years without learning a damn thing, but here - it's our turn. It was a joy (heh) and a relief to watch these young women grow and regress and grow again at a time in life when we're pressured to have it together. What a privilege to see semi-grown women navigating trans-racial adoption, rural China, and personal connection with the permission to be goofy fuck ups, sex starved TV stars and genderqueer K Pop stans at the same time.

WATCH: JOYRIDE (STARZ | FANDANGO AT HOME)

BONUS! LOCAL EVENT FOR OUR LA READERS:

Filmmaker and photographer Ella Ezeike (featured above for directing BABE) has a short film featured in the ongoing exhibition at MOCA entitled “American Gurl: home—land, a presentation of six short film works that negotiate land, diaspora and displacement from artists including…Solange Knowles, Alima Lee, and Cauleen Smith.” (Runs through May 16th)

From hands thrown in battle to limbs locked in love - these pieces remind us that when we choose our own movement, we're claiming something that can't be taken away. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

A GIFT FOR YOU:

Remember, we want to hear from you! Since I'm steering the ship this month, here's my selfish request/bribe:

Send me your horror faves that don't get enough love and I'll send you my personal list of horror must-sees. Special features include!

1) No men with knives (bc we can just watch the news)
2) No monsters (bc monsters aren't real so they don't scare me but ghosts COULD BE REAL you know?)
3) Very short and useless commentary like "Movie: It's What's Inside; Note: mirrors and teens and what if Bandersnatch was a parfum and they sprayed it all over a movie and added a bisexual filter (these are compliments)" and "Movie: Censor; Note: Heeheeheehee."

Email me your picks at yo@dopearthere.com

Hit subscribe to join us for this ride.

Yours in chaos and joy,

~ dara