Today I got to sit in on a Judas And The Black Messiah summit and I learned so much! I was very fascinated with the panel discussion about pop culture and the impact with fashion from the upcoming film. The panel included Costume Designer Charlese Antoinette Jones, Rapper Chuck D and Model Ebonee Davis. It was moderated by Elaine Welteroth. I was totally intrigued to learn about the influence of fashion from the Black Panthers movement and how their style was purposefully different than supporters of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. They had no clue at the time that their look would become so iconic. Check out ten things that I learned inside…
- Costume Designer Charlese and Director Shaka King were already friends, so that made working on the film much easier.
- Charlese did extensive research for about a year before working on the movie. She relied on looking at tons of documentaries from the Rainbow Coalition and photos from Getty images from the 60’s.
- Charlese resourced 80% of the clothing from the 60’s era and had about 5 weeks to get the wardrobe together.
- Clothing for the film came from vintage shops from Cleveland, Cincinnati and the south.
- The film was shot in Cincinnati, Ohio so they worked with local vendors as well.
- The Chicago Black Panthers uniform was totally different from the Los Angeles Chapter. They all had their own looks. L.A. Panthers wore light blue shirts.
- Leather jackets were already stylish and worn in the 60’s and readily available. The Black Panthers just added dark sunglasses and USMI berets to their uniform. They wore this look to conceal their identities and for safety reasons.
- Berets represented international symbols of revolutionaries from the 60’s
- Fred and his comrades wore WW2 camo green jackets. Fred also wore a brown cord jacket and sometimes leather. Army jackets symbolized protest against the Vietnam war. When worn, the patches were removed once soldiers returned home from war.
- The Black Panthers had no idea that their style was cool, they wanted their look to be taken very serious. They had no idea that this would become an iconic look.
The film is in theaters on February 12th as well as available on HBO Max for 31 days from theatrical release.
Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo…louder than ever. I am a revolutionary! In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.
Chairman Fred was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside…and the inside. Facing prison, William O’Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal. Now a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.
Though his life was cut short, Fred Hampton’s impact has continued to reverberate. The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education.
And it was Chairman Fred in Chicago, who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition—joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment. “Judas and the Black Messiah” stars Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out,” “Widows,” “Black Panther”) as Fred Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield (“Atlanta,” “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”) as William O’Neal. The film also stars Jesse Plemons (“Vice,” “Game Night,” “The Post”), Dominique Fishback (“The Hate U Give,” “The Deuce”), Ashton Sanders (“The Equalizer 2,” “Moonlight”) and Martin Sheen (“The Departed,” TV’s “The West Wing,” TV’s “Grace & Frankie”). “Judas and the Black Messiah” is directed by Shaka King, marking his studio feature film directorial debut.
The project originated with King and his writing partner, Will Berson, who co-wrote the screenplay, and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas, who co-wrote the story with Berson & King. King, who has a long relationship with filmmaker Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther,” “Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”), pitched the film to Coogler and Charles D. King (“Just Mercy,” “Fences”), who are producing the film. The executive producers are Sev Ohanian, Zinzi Coogler, Kim Roth, Poppy Hanks, Ravi Mehta, Jeff Skoll, Anikah McLaren, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth, Ted Gidlow, and Niija Kuykendall.
The ensemble cast also includes Algee Smith (“The Hate U Give,” “Detroit”), Darrell Britt-Gibson (“Just Mercy,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Dominique Thorne (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Amari Cheatom (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.,” “Django Unchained”), Caleb Eberhardt (“The Post”), and Lil Rel Howery (“Get Out”). The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Sean Bobbitt (“12 Years a Slave,” “Widows”), production designer Sam Lisenco (“Shades of Blue”), editor Kristan Sprague (“Random Acts of Flyness”) and costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones (“Raising Dion”). The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with MACRO Films, Participant and BRON Creative, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
