RIP: In Memoriam Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

Absolutely! And you can also elements of gospel (of the Sister Rosetta Tharpe kind) as well as elements of the blues, this woman was from Nutbush Tennessee and never abandoned that part of her. Even as she incorporated new sounds during her career, she never abandoned what she had built before.

[applcin]

 

[Soapsuds]

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[BetterForgotten]

I never watch the trash factory that is The View anymore, but someone sent me their opening segment today. What caught me was Sunny Hostin mentioning that in her years as a federal prosecutor (specializing in child sex crimes), she couldn't recount the number of times an abused woman or child told her that learning about Tina's story and seeing the example she set encouraged them to come forward and want better for themselves. I've seen that myself in conversations with various people whenever Tina is discussed as well.

I have to say, even without the legacy she's left behind in music/entertainment, if her lasting legacy was ultimately encouraging people (even if just one person) to deal with their trauma and want better for themselves - what more could she have asked for? That was a life well spent. 

[Vee]

Two unbelievable covers.

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[Vee]

I didn't see this posted with Shaffer, Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, etc. Apologies if it has been.

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A real full circle moment. Little Richard behind her visibly delighted is great.

For the ER fans, if you want to cry:

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Vee

[Taoboi]

I was wondering so thank you.

 

Wow at everybody's words and pictures and videos. 

 

I should be sleep, but I admit...Tina is on my mind. Even had a good cry. 

[DRW50]

@Vee

 

[Vee]

A legend for Ganja & Hess alone, but great in many things.

[DramatistDreamer]

Marlene Clark was also in Hal Ashby’s film The Landlord, a film, which besides never having gotten its fair due, really showed how luminous Diana Sands was as a leading woman and what possibilities were lost in her untimely death. Hopefully, Ms. Clark’s passing was peaceful.

Like @Veesaid, she was standout in a great many roles.

[DRW50]

I'm reluctant to post the link publicly, but if anyone wants to see her 1970 Bill Gunn film Stop!, that went unreleased and has stayed that way outside of a few screenings, PM me.

[Vee]

As I mentioned, I was at one of 'em! I never thought it'd turn up again.

And yes, @DramatistDreamer The Landlord is excellent. For those who don't know, Bill Gunn wrote and/or directed all of these. While Marlene Clark isn't in it, Gunn's public television soap opera, Personal Problems - shot on old-time video - was also restored and released not long ago and is now free to watch on Kanopy. I have talked about it here in the past, back when I first saw it during the Bill Gunn retro in which Stop was screened over a decade ago in NYC, but I highly recommend all of the above. I remember Stop being pretty good.

[DramatistDreamer]

@Vee In some of those “esteemed” art schools, I could never understand why the works of some filmmakers were never shown in class. They will show the likes of Bertolucci (who, yes, directed visual stunning films, but even then, the characterizations that showed up on screen were often highly problematic) but not a film like the Landlord, which was a film that had great performances as well as had a lot to say, some of those issues are not only still with us but have intensified. At least when I was in one of those schools I got a sense that there was not much interest in presenting students with those types of films if it centered on a situation in the U.S. In countries like Brazil or India, sure, but not in the great US of A.

Edited May 27, 2023 by DramatistDreamer

[Vee]

Yeah, Hal Ashby is held in fairly high esteem for auteurs of that era but The Landlord is definitely one of his films that regularly goes overlooked. The fact that it's a film that deals directly in issues of race vs. some of his more prominent and famous works like Harold or Maude or Being There doesn't seem like coincidence. (And Bill Gunn is an even more niche name - until recently, a lot of people I think assumed Ganja & Hess was just another sort of blaxploitation Dracula riff.)

I do wonder if Criterion will eventually pick up The Landlord. I've had the Warner Archive disc for years.

[DramatistDreamer]

Other Hal Ashby films are shown but not The Landlord and I believe there is a definite reason for that. Or at least a motive behind it. I can personally attest to this. Being There had a cult-like following among a certain group of instructors and students in the school I attended, but the Landlord never got so much as a mention.