[RECAP] MODULE 1: SEX, TRAUMA, AND GOING NUMB [February 2023-April 2023]

THE BLACK HORROR SURVIVORS MOVIE CHALLENGE

Module 1: Sex, Trauma, and Going Numb

Ava [Avie] M. Fields, MSCJ

BLACK HORROR SURVIVORS MOVIE CHALLENGE:AD

module 1 Strategy

Building Resources:

mind maps + Trailers + streaming locations

MODULE 1 GOAL

To map the relationship between horror films and racial justice.

BLACK HORROR SURVIVORS MOVIE CHALLENGE: participant data

PARTICIPANTS BY DECADES

PARTICIPANTS BY THEIR FAVORITE HORROR FILM

PARTICIPANTS: WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO GAIN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE?

PARTICIPANTS: LAYERS OF IDENTITY

PARTICIPANTS: ENGAGEMENT + Interaction

The movie challenge uses google classroom AND JOTFORM.

PARTICIPANTS: on Freaks [1932]

Customer testimony feedback experience rating online on lapto

Speech Bubble Hand drawn Comic Doodle Quote Box

This film is incredible! The way that it captures romance and manipulation with gender roles has a lot of nuance and shades of grey and layers. The characters primarily marginalized in society seem to be portrayed with more humanity and agency than you would expect from a film even now, much less back then. The strong man reminded me of the strong man from the movie "La Strada," which this film reminded me of in tone and some themes, and I also recommend it. Also, how the black man without limbs lit the cigarette casually was such a fuck you to people who infantilize people who are disabled. I'm curious about the backstory behind the making of this film and how the actors felt about it.

-Derek Eldridge [BHSMC PARTICIPANT]

THE TIMELINE

Over the next nine months, you will learn about the b-side of horror history, the depth of the genre's cultural significance, and the misappropriation of the horror genre as a deathhouse- when they are our only salvation.

We will explore what it means to apply REC ZOMBIE principles, values, and frameworks to our cultural foresight - and tangible ways to marry equity to pop culture as a commitment to impact over intent.

OUR MISSION

This is the first step in decolonizing our minds against the standard of harm we've attached to the black body and accepting horror as a sacred space. The Black Horror Survivors Movie Challenge is a living archive that maps America's obsession with the black body across key cultural/criminal historical moments. (EX: Candyman [1992] + Rodney King). This work frames the lived experiences and liberation of all people traditionally pushed to the borderlands.

We are broken, confused, and divided as a culture- but we are not helpless. This is our chance to rebuild the world we want- and it starts with where we find comfort, visibility, and authenticity.

CURRENT ParticipatION GUIDELINES

As part of this experience, we'll use one digital tool [Google Class] to facilitate virtual peer-to-peer learning and community building. If you need help getting set up, please don't hesitate to contact me directly using Google Class or thehorroradvocate@gmail.com. While there are no obligations to post/meet as a group, you're all encouraged to share thoughts and ask questions on the discussion board.

Due to low engagement on the platform, I'm drafting a new strategy that would work alongside participant schedules, experiences, and communications.

MODULEE 1: THE CURRICULUM

MODULE 1: SEX, TRAUMA, AND GOING NUMB

[February 2023-April 2023]

+ Silence of the Lambs [1991] +Dawn of the Dead [2004] +Night of the Demons [1988] +The People Under the Stairs [1991] + Saw VI [2009]+ Gothika [2003] +The Shining [1980] + Friday the 13th part 5 [1985] + 1408 [2007] +Psycho 4 [1990] +Death Proof [2007] + Doctor Sleep [2019] +Candyman [1992]

BHSMC RESOURCES

MODULE 1: CONTENT + Perspective

This module will focus on dissociation as the cure, the power of metaphysical disconnect, and how our bodies become the roadmap to someone else's agony. This starts with looking at past scenes as a precursor to the future.

going back to Go Forward: traumatic healing in Friday the13th part 5

In the fifth installment of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning(1985), we meet Reggie, one of the first child survivors in horror history. He is clever, brave, and resilient. To see him triumph in the face of violence was a much-needed relief for a country terrorized by targeted rage, a direct effect of the Atlanta Child Murders (1979–1981).

Let us also remember the birth of the superpredator in the late 80's/early 90's. This became popular around the United States, positing that a small population of impulsive (often urban, black, and brown-skinned) youth were willing to commit violent crimes without remorse. The criminologist and political scientist who proposed the idea predicted a significant increase in youth crime and violence. American lawmakers seized on this idea and implemented tough-on-crime legislation for juvenile offenders nationwide, including life without parole sentences.

For years, America watched a horror show of black bodies destroyed by a world sworn to protect them. Instead, we stacked their bodies and walked away. This humanizing portrait protects us from past, present, and future trauma. Reggie reminds us what is at stake when we sacrifice children to avoid responsibility.

+ YouTube [Primetime subscription] + Starz [Subscription] + Hulu [Premium subscription] + Sling Tv [Premium subscription] + The Roku Channel [Premium subscription] + Amazon Prime Video [Premium subscription] + Philo [Premium subscription] + Google Play Movies & TV [Rent for $2.99] + Redbox [Rent for $2.99] + Apple TV [Rent for $3.99] + Vudu [Rent for $3.99]

WHERE WE BEGIN: BLACK HORROR HISTORY AND THE LEGACY OF FREAKS [1932]

The Black Horror Survivors Movie Challenge asks you to search our history for the truth and to crush classic horror assumptions with facts and visuals. The film industry rejected FREAKS [1932] in one of the first cases of social redlining in academy awards history. This groundbreaking plot is so powerful that the audience cannot help but shift their allegiance to those we are typically told to diminish or dismiss.

+Amazon Prime Video [Premium subscription] + YouTube [Rent for $3.99] + Google Play Movies & TV[ Rent for $3.99] +Apple TV [Rent for $3.99] + Vudu [Rent for $3.99]+ HBO Max [Subscription]

IT CAME FROM WITHIN: 9/11 film trends and black horror

September 11, 2001, made a home for the power of pain, but it did not create it. Pain has always held us. Our souls have become minefields of self-destruction and pillars of what we aren't willing to do. We sell our bodies to others' conclusions and fight trauma by letting it destroy us. This module will focus on dissociation as the cure, the power of metaphysical disconnect, and how our bodies become the roadmap to someone else's agony.

THE HIGHEST-GROSSING HORROR FILM Post-9/11:

+ The Ring (2002): $129 million

In a post-9/11 world, we are franticly searching for a piece of our past, linking local and global, past and present, and offering unique approaches to managing contemporary challenges.

THE HIGHEST-GROSSING HORROR FILM PRE-9/11:

+ The Others [2OO1]: $96,522,687

In a pre-9/11 world, safety looked like locking your doors-- and that was enough. 'The Others' illustrates how we are profoundly disconnected from violence, as if a zip code, a key, or a curtain could keep the bad things away.

MODULE 2: PART 1-THE THIRD DEGREE/SEEKING PAIN ABROAD

[May 2023-JUNE 2023]

MODULE 2 STARTS NEXT WEEK! MAY 22. 2023.

MODULE 2: PART II SALT OF THE EARTH

[JULy 2023-August 2023]

+Aftershock[2012] +Cloverfield [2009] +Cloverfield 2 [2016] +The Thing [1982] + Anaconda [1997] +The Cave [2005] +Bones [1997] +Seven [1997] +Final Destination [2006] +The Devils Rejects [2005] + Halloween [2007] +Bodies! Bodies! Bodies! [2022]

+ Hostel [2005] + Hostel 2 [2007] + I Still Know What You Did Last Summer [1999] +Spell [2020] +And Soon the Darkness [2010] +The Ruins [2008]