Good Morning, Felicia

Thinking back on HATM's Sunday night

Perhaps my favorite comment to get during our weekly Sunday night Historians At The Movies session is something like “Thanks for picking this. I never would’ve watched this on my own.” I love these moments, when you think that a little decision impacts someone far away, even in a little way. Hell, even I’m not immune to this. Just last week we hosted Marathon Man because Eric Rauchway apparently has a bone to pick with American dentists. Or just loves the 70s. Either way, history has not remembered the 1970s nor dental work particularly well. (Here’s a link to the start of that conversation, including Eric’s notes on the film.)

Tonight I picked 1995’s Friday for a few reasons, mostly because I really wanted diversity in what we showed (historical era/topic/region, etc.) and who we showed (filmmakers/actors/actresses). It’s an imperfect system. I’ll probably never fully be able to demonstrate the diversity of folks joining in each night, but hopefully people will understand that I’m trying and forgive when it takes a little while to get to something that maybe they want to see.

My memories of this film are rooted in watching this movie (along with Tombstone) at my friend Mike’s house. We must’ve worn through the VCR. Even now I’m thinking with impatience about rewinding video cassettes and dealing with tracking.

I can’t say now that we were aware then of the messages at play: about using comedy to get at life in Los Angeles, the role of local community in shepherding children into adulthood, that the cast and director were all people of color. I think as 19 year old kids in 1996 western Kentucky, all we saw were jokes about marijuana, sex, and violence.

But it’s odd on how those things stay with you. We talked throughout the viewing about the writing—Friday has to be among the most quoted films of its era, a testament to the pen and the delivery. So many people tonight learned where “Bye, Felicia” came from.

But that writing continually brings people back. And I think that over the last 27 years (how has it been that long), this film’s message about the centrality of community to the lives of those in South Central Los Angeles has had an opportunity to set in. Compared to another powerful film in which Ice Cube starred, 1991’s Boyz n the Hood, Friday is perhaps more enduring because it is easier to come back to. (At the same time, I am a huge fan of the earlier film; I’m hoping to get to show it on HATM at some point in time.)

This week is chock full of excitement. On Monday, I’ll be recording the third episode of the upcoming cast with Emily Contois and Zenia Kish, who are doing some really cool work on food in social media. They’ve recently released an edited volume about food and media that I think is pretty damn cool.

Finally, I’ll be headed to a wedding in Kentucky, which means I’ll be turning over the reins (or would that be reigns, all things considered) to my pal Craig Bruce Smith. He’ll be hosting #HATM next Sunday, October 16 with a viewing of From Russia With Love on Amazon Prime. I hope you can tune in.

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Y’all be good.