Some Friday fun for those who want to play along…

It was one of the more refreshing aspects of 2011’s Attack The Block. In short, an alien invasion movie set in the *hood.* 

The plot-lines for almost every alien invasion film (whether broad and large scale, or more intimate) reminded me of an age-old question (actually more of a running joke) that’s been asked by others before me; and that is, why aliens in Hollywood movies never seem to land/crash/stowaway/get jiggy in predominantly black neighborhoods.

Why is that? 

A rhetorical question – with the running joke being that our handling of the situation would be far different from how our comrades on the other side tackle these extraterrestrial matters.

But other than the previously-mentioned Attack The Block, I also immediately remembered John Sayles’ 1984 classic allegorical tale, Brother From Another Planet, which starred Joe Morton – a film that is still, quite frankly, transgressive, even today.

I was, in part, reminded of this subject as I published the BlackStar Film Festival/King Britt event titled The Brother From Another Planet (re-contextualized) – read about it HERE, if you missed that post.

So the survey question is, other than Attack The Block and Brother From Another Planet, are there any other films you can think of that fit the above criteria – aliens landing/crashing/stowed away/getting jiggy with it/etc in predominantly black locales?

District 9 maybe? The aliens are forced to live in slum-like conditions, but their initial meeting with humans is in their space vessel, which hovers above the city (Johannesburg). So, I’m not so sure about that one.

But dig in folks. What else can you think of?

Have fun with it…