S Reignite

Watching films can be such a communal experience - whether thats attending a screening  with friends or passionately discussing a film and what it represents. This idea of community and the different way these bonds are created is what unites the films in this programme. Stan Lathan’s Statues Hardly Ever Smile(1971) documents the experience of students local to the Brooklyn museum learning more about history. They contort their bodies with ease and imagination to describe their favourite works in the museum and equally manoeuvre themselves away from the box of expectations that were created for them. The short documentary film now also being available in the same museum allows the works of art from history and the young Brooklyn natives to continue to uplift the community. These same joyful experiences occur across the pond as Jessie Blue depicts in the eponymous barbershop, Fresh Cutz(2018) . The buzzing North London salon offers its young patrons a place to learn from their elders,

  MrBeast is one of the most popular YouTubers on the video platform with over 154 million subscribers on his main channel alone and I find his videos …. incredibly boring. I used to watch his videos at the height of the Team Trees project which was a campaign that saw the influencer plant trees for every dollar donated. But quickly I grew bored of his videos. The big production videos MrBeast and his team create are an impressive feat but often when I try to watch a video I end up clicking off because I’m not interested nor invested in the people starring in the videos. Many of MrBeast’s, real name Jimmy Donaldson, videos feature his subscribers who he regularly gifts substantial amounts of money. The only somewhat constant in the videos are MrBeast himself and his childhood friends who operate as supporters and jovial distractions for those competing in challenges. But still for me these big budget videos lacked personality.   Despite the tens of videos I’ve watched by the Amer

  The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his college season as well as a lingering injury are massive hurdles that block 7ft NBA prospect Makur Maker from success. These challenges aren’t made any easier by his coach’s constant overestimation of what Makur can bring to a team. Across Apple TV+’s five-episode docu-series, The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball , director Seth Gordon documents Makur Maker’s path to the 2021 NBA draft , during his one and done season at Howard University. Like many during 2020, Makur Maker wanted to do more after the death of George Floyd and following the global Black Lives Matter protests. For the teenage athlete, that was committing to play basketball for the Historically Black University – Howard, not one of the Big Six conference schools that an ESPN ranked 16 th prospect would be expected to go to. At Howard Makur hoped to take a on leadership role and put increased spotlight on the academic institution. But whatever status Maker had going int

  Earlier this month, the 65 th annual Grammy awards took place in Los Angeles and saw former member of One Direction and now successful solo artist, Harry Styles win Album of the Year for his third album Harry’s House . After he won there was immediate debate online about whether Beyoncé’s sixth album Renaissance was snubbed for the award. This argument was fuelled by fans who noted Beyoncé has never won the Album of the Year Grammy despite her influential albums Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016) being nominated in this category. In my opinion Beyoncé isn’t being snubbed by the Recording Academy, she is being pigeonholed. Although Beyoncé is the most decorated female artist in Grammy history, many of her wins have come in the R&B categories including, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), which to me is clearly a pop song. Adding to this, in the summer when Renaissance lead single Break My Soul came out, I was surprised to se

During a conversation with Phoenix Suns employees, NBA commissioner Adam Silver floated the idea of relegation to prevent NBA teams from tanking . Conversations around tanking are heightened this season as 7-foot 4 prospect Victor Wembanyama enters the 2023 draft. French prospect Victor Wembanyama is considered a franchise altering player. Credit: Houston Chronicle The French star has been described as an ‘alien’ by LeBron James and his exhibition game against fellow draft entry Scoot Henderson and the G League Ignite team only increased the hype around the player. In order to secure the best drafting odds to select the Frenchman, many NBA teams are thought to be purposefully losing games. To prevent this commissioner Silver suggested that relegation, a concept from European football, should be implemented in the American basketball league. It would mean the teams that win the least matches at the end of the season would be removed from the NBA and their space would be taken b

  On the 20 th of October commentary YouTubers Aba and Preach uploaded a video in response to recently deplatformed content creator Sneako who criticised the Canadian’s for not making a video speaking out against YouTube’s decision to delete his channels. Earlier this month Sneako‘s two YouTube channels were taken down after the New York based creator received three strikes on his livestreaming channel SHNEAKO where the streamer posted red pill content, talked negatively about women including aggressively simulating sex towards youtuber Chad Chad. Aba and Preach aren’t the first content creators Sneako, real name Nico Kenn De Balinthazy, has expressed discontent with. In late August the 24-year-old had an argument with KSI, Britain’s biggest YouTuber, on Twitter because Sneako was upset that KSI was celebrating Andrew Tate, fellow red pill content creator, being banned on  all popular social media sites. Andrew Tate and Sneako shaking hands. Credit: @sneako What it seems that S

  After watching the first British series of Married at First Sight, I thought it was one of the most authentic dating shows. The reality show aims to scientifically match applicants with someone they believe could be a suitable partner but the two only meet for the first time on their wedding day. From this day they attempt to build a connection and see if they can make it as a married couple. Married at First Sight UK series seven cast The selection process for the first season took over a year, there were only three couples, whose relationships were supported by five experts. I then went on to watch a couple of the early American seasons and the format was similar, although Americans reality TV stars seem naturally better at creating drama than the Brits. But as the show continued to expand globally, with more couples getting involved each season, it became less clear how authentic the selection process was and I became less interested in the programme. It doesn’t help that t