Bessie (2015)Movies

BessieThe Color PurpleMa Rainey's Black BottomGet On UpPariahVanity FairArmond WhiteTelevisionHBO Bessie, the HBO biopic about early 20th century blues singer Bessie Smith (1894-1937) is a success for writer-director Dee Rees and star Queen Latifah in two unexpected but important ways. First: Rees and Latifah have made the most pro-lesbian mainstream American movie since Steven Spielberg’s 1985 The Color Purple. They portray Smith’s bi-sexual history with frank depictions of her attraction to women, shown as an accepted part of the era’s broadminded black demimonde. Even Smith‘s mentor Ma Rainey (Mo'Nique), who also likes the ladies and performs in butch drag, coyly asks Smith, “What you know about that?” Smith/Latifah smiles and responds: “Same...