BAD DREAMSAs a senior citizen, a long-time reader of the Boston Phoenix, and an African-American, I found the title of your September 16 Back Talk, "Hood Dreams," to be inappropriate, in bad taste, and misleading. The community's dream is peace, security, love, and non-violence. Did the author of the headline read the interview or just react with this clever but racist out-of-context play on words, to Steve James's renowned Hoop Dreams? Also, why stereotype all people in these communities as hoods? Is the headline writer telegraphing his thinking and feelings? After all, the title of James's documentary, The Interrupters, documents the attempts of community members to end the violence and utilizes non-stereotypical documentary techniques to present the views, observations, and experiences of individuals in the communities. Thus, it avoids the so-called experts who, in many instances, from their ivory towers spread incorrect paradigms and stereotypes either unconsciously or with political intent.
JAMES RAYNOR
ROXBURY
CORRECTIONS
In our Fall Arts Preview (September 16), a photo in our theater preview of actor Jeffery Roberson gave an incorrect title for the play. The play is The Divine Sister, not The Sister Acts. The Divine Sister opens at SpeakEasy Stage on October 21.
In our September 30 cover story, "Boston's Rap Class of 2011," we incorrectly stated that Chilla Jones was a former church singer. In fact, his brother was a church/R&B singer, which inspired him to get into hip hop.
Related:
Review: The Invisible War, Review: Ballplayer: Pelotero, Interview: History lesson with Ken Burns, More 
- Review: The Invisible War
A few years ago, documentarian Kirby Dick read an article about rape among the troops and was shocked to see that no one had made a movie on the subject.
- Review: Ballplayer: Pelotero
Ballplayer initially declares that it is about dreams, ambition, and family struggles, but by focusing almost entirely on money and market values, it strikes out.
- Interview: History lesson with Ken Burns
Many recall the "wilding" incident in 1989, in which five non-white teenagers were convicted of raping and nearly killing a woman jogging in Central Park.
- Review: Neil Young Trunk Show
If a Neil Young neophyte can find himself rocking in a cinema seat to the spirited, soulful music performed in this second of a rumored triptych of Demme-directed, Young-starring concert documentaries, long-time fans are bound to break their armrests.
- Review: 45365
Festival favorite documents the "real America"
- Review: Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
This autopsy of an unfinished 1964 film by the great French director Henri-Georges Clouzot ( The Wages of Fear ) holds fascinations — and frustrations — for the avid franco-cinephile.
- Review: Last Train Home
Labor Day weekend at the Bourne Bridge has nothing on New Year's in China, when 130 million migrant workers leave the cities to visit their families in the sticks.
- As 'Superman' debuts, risks and rewards of school reform made plain
The documentary Waiting for "Superman" opens this week — an ambitious film that aims to bring the debate over education reform into every household.
- Interview: Zach Galifianakis
Zach Galifianakis is one of those comics whose genius does not quite fit on the big screen.
- Review: Boxing Gym
Whatever his subject matter, documentarian Frederick Wiseman has always been concerned with blood and sweat.
- Review: And Everything Is Going Fine (2010)
"Maybe I should just tell you some of the facts as I remember them," the late, acclaimed monologist and actor Spalding Gray says early on in Steven Soderbergh's documentary collage, And Everything is Going Fine .
- Less
Topics:
Letters
, racism, Steve James, documentary, More
, racism, Steve James, documentary, film, INTERVIEW, letters, Letter to the Editor, The Interrupters, Hoop Dreams, Less
