By Frazier Moore, Television Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) --Norman Lear, age 94 and a native New Yorker, thought he knew a few things about the obstacles of housing in the Big Apple.
But when he began exploring the subject for "America Divided," Lear said he was "horrified at how little I knew. Someone making a reasonable living with two children can no longer afford to live in New York City."
Not only is rising costs from real-estate gentrification displacing working-class and even middle-class residents, but racial discrimination is a problem despite a fair-housing law that makes it illegal. On his episode, Lear goes undercover to expose real-estate agents who give preferential treatment to him, as a white man, over a black man seeking the same apartment.
Those were the insights Lear helps bring to viewers in his chapter of "American Divided," an eight-story, five-part series that premieres on the Epix channel on Sept. 30.
Lear – along with one of the series' creators, Solly Granatstein – appeared before TV reporters Saturday to represent the seven fellow major figures who explore their own issues of inequality that, in each case, was close to their heart. These correspondents also include Amy Poehler, Zach Galifianakis, Common, Rosario Dawson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Williams and America Ferrera. Additional issues they tackle include inequality in education, health care, labor, criminal justice and the political system.
Granatstein, whose credits include "60 Minutes" and the docuseries "Years of Living Dangerously," said he and his co-producers began with ideas for stories. "Then we targeted individuals who we knew were somehow connected with those issues."
He said more social problems and "substantive A-listers" were in the wings if the series scores a second season.
Lear, a legendary comedy titan, said this was his first experience in the role of a reporter.
What did he learn?
"I learned I'm a great reporter," he replied.
"It's true," Granatstein said.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More