IN THE SPOTLIGHT: THE FILMS OF BYRON HURT
Over the years, MEF has been honored to serve as the exclusive educational distributor of award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt’s most acclaimed documentaries on media culture, masculinity, gender violence, and the cultural politics of race. Read more about these titles and click through to watch trailers below.
HAZING (2022)
In HAZING, Byron Hurt takes us inside the culture, tradition, and secrecy of hazing rituals in fraternities and sororities, sports teams, marching bands, the military, and beyond. Drawing on a range of voices, and his own experiences as a fraternity member, Hurt provides a deeply personal, nuanced, and empathetic portrait of a culture that can provide a sense of belonging even as it too often leads to violence, sexual degradation, binge drinking, institutional coverups, and debased notions of manhood. The film expertly waves together riveting first-hand testimonies from survivors of violent hazing rituals and family members of young people who lost their lives with penetrating insights from gender violence-prevention experts and campus professional staff. The result is an extraordinary teaching and prevention tool, one that has the potential to transform the way people in positions of leadership understand and respond to this urgent issue.
SOUL FOOD JUNKIES (2012)
In Soul Food Junkies, Hurt offers a fascinating exploration of the soul food tradition, its relevance to Black cultural identity, and its continuing popularity despite the known dangers of high-fat, high-calorie diets. Inspired by his father’s lifelong love affair with soul food even in the face of a life-threatening health crisis, Hurt discovers that the relationship between African Americans and dishes like ribs, grits, and fried chicken is deep-rooted and culturally based. At the same time, he moves beyond matters of culture and individual taste to show how the economics of the food industry have combined with socioeconomic conditions in predominantly Black neighborhoods to dramatically limit food choices. The result is an absorbing and ultimately inspiring look at the cultural politics of food and the complex interplay between identity, taste, corporate power, and health. Features soul food cooks, historians, doctors, and food justice movement activists.
HIP HOP: BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES (2006)
In Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes, Hurt, a longtime hip-hop fan, provides a riveting examination of manhood, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, and glamorized violence in hip-hop culture. Hurt pays tribute to the genius, artistry, and revolutionary political power of hip-hop while challenging the rap music industry to take responsibility for its deeply reactionary embrace of violent masculinity and retrograde gender norms. Critically acclaimed for its fearless engagement with sexual politics and the corporate exploitation of youth culture, the film features eye-opening interviews about gender, power, and the responsibility of artists with rappers such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Fat Joe, Chuck D, Jadakiss, and Busta Rhymes; cultural commentators such as Michael Eric Dyson, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Jelani Cobb, Kevin Powell, and Jackson Katz; and aspiring rappers and fans at hip-hop events around the country.
I AM A MAN: BLACK MASCULINITY IN AMERICA (1998)
In his debut feature documentary, I Am a Man, Hurt explores what it means to be a Black man in America. Traveling to more than fifteen cities and towns across the country, Hurt gathers reflections on Black masculinity from men and women from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and a host of leading scholars and cultural critics. The result is an engaging, probing, and refreshingly honest extended dialogue about how Black men experience the intersections of gender norms, racial politics, and institutional and socioeconomic power in America. Features bell hooks, Michael Eric Dyson, John Henrick Clarke, Kevin Powell, Andrew Young, Dr. Alvin Poussaint, MC Hammer, Jackson Katz, and many others.
