You haven’t read Push?  Read it now. You can catch clips from the film after the jump.

Director Lee Daniels’ adaptation of Sapphire’s critically acclaimed novel, Push, has been awarded several awards at Sundance 2009, chiefly best drama. It has also won the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, and A Special Jury Prize for Acting. 

Daniels also produced Monster’s Ball, which means he was the first African American sole producer of an Academy Award–winning film. 

Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe stars as Clareece ‘Precious’ Jones, who, according to Push’s publicity, is “a high-school girl with nothing working in her favor.”

If you’ve read the book, you know that is an immense understatement. Black girl lost was at Sundance, and has a review on her site.

The film also stars Paula Patton and Sherri Shepherd, as well pop culture favorites Lenny Kravitz, Mo’Nique, and Mariah Carey. Kravitz plays a nurse, Carey the social worker who finally reaches out to Precious, and Mo’Nique plays Precious’ abusive mother in what Reuters is already calling “a bravura performance.”

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I am on the board of directors of a small independent cinema. Here’s to working to make sure Push makes it into theaters! I’m sure the awards won’t hurt– but they aren’t everything.

Here’s a nice interview with director Daniels, with clips from the film. Did I mention you need to go and buy Push right now?

According to Rock’s publicity:

When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl’s head!

I have sneaking suspicion Rock knows, but I’m interested in seeing the film anyway!

Bellasugar has a nice definition of good hair, just in case you were wondering.

If you’ve never heard it yourself, labels of “good hair” and “bad hair” are often provided by strangers, stylists, and even loved ones in the Black community based on the texture, thickness, and the styling ease of one’s hair. Even though it’s not always said in a derogatory way, Chris Rock gathers stories and observations to find out exactly what this is, why it is, and what it means for the esteem of the people who receive these unwanted titles.

I know I’ve been saying it over and over again, but check out my post, which touches on the question of beauty in clack communities.  Bellasugar also has this clip, in which Rock says more about the film:

To be honest, I’m hard-pressed not to see this as pretty shameless. But, at the same time, my perusal of the comments at sites like Huffington Post gets me feeling a little bit suspicious in the other direction. Most of the comments there and elsewhere, are pretty, well, poopy. A little more mean in spirit than snark; a vague hostility whose target is unclear. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

While poking about, sussing out my thoughts, I come across this website, called Dolls Like Me.

I must say, in the context of this site, Sasha and Malia dolls resume being awesome. Now they remind me of all the dolls so many Americans have wanted to exist for so long: black dolls, relevant dolls, gasp– dolls like me!

(Or maybe you.)

As you might know, “like me” has a solid history as a catchphrase for describing the dilemmas faced by parents of non-white children in the United States. One of its most well-known uses is probably Bill Cosby’s PSA, “A Boy Like Me,” which describes the negative ways black children are affected by living a world in which cultural objects of affections–dolls, stars, book characters, for instance–are all white. 

Also, in 2007, a young black filmmaker named Kiri Davis picked up on the Cosby line, and produced a short independent film titled, “A Girl Like Me.”

(The Cosby and Davis videos are at the end of this post; I’ve also said more them here.)

So, I guess as with so many products in our world, it’s what we do with it that matters, right. So, yeah, you better go and buy a doll. For yourself, for that special someone, for Larry King’s son (did you see this, that after Obama’s inauguration, his son has declared that black is “in,” and that he wants to be black? Let me know how it works out, player.)

Here are the videos, first the Cosby video,

and then Kiri Davis’ film: