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Queen Sugar In the Media

Artsda

By Artsda
in Queen Sugar

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veronicalodge44

veronicalodge44

This video was posted last october (2016) but i just watched it yesterday and it's fantastic.  I thought other folks in this forum might also enjoy it—the actors talk a lot about their relationships to their characters, and there is some deep conversation about the spiritual and emotional aspects of the show's casting and production.

"An Afternoon with Ava DuVernay and the cast of Queen Sugar at the Writers Guild Foundation"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka4ZlKx-MU8

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jhlipton

jhlipton

Upon reflection, I find myself uncomfortably vexed at the paucity of compassion for those of us with less than stellar audiosensory equipment.  I do wish that those in charge, especially of a Writers' Guild, would consider being in our shoes ears place for a brief moment.

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NowVoyager

NowVoyager

Oookay.... I saw QS commercials, but I thought they were advertising the new season getting ready to start, not that it had already started. I'm late, but sitting down to four fresh episodes is exciting!

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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

There's a podcast about Queen Sugar called Bourbon & Bordelons. The podcast homepage is here (Soundcloud). If you have an RSS reader/app, you can also get the episode links here.

Warning: this show is generally SFW but there's maybe a couple instances of "mature" language.

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A.Ham

A.Ham

On 7/6/2019 at 1:19 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

There's a podcast about Queen Sugar called Bourbon & Bordelons. The podcast homepage is here (Soundcloud). If you have an RSS reader/app, you can also get the episode links here.

Thank you for sharing. I have listened to their discussion  for episodes 1, 2, and part of 3. I am enjoying it, but giving MAJOR side-eye to Corey for his inexplicable defense of Jimmy Dale. Talking about how we don’t know the whole story or some such. Give me a break. I know all I need to know about the character—he is a manipulating wife beater, he doesn’t deserve the time of day. There is never an excuse for partner violence, and any attempt at blaming the victim will alway get a big no from me.

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Empress1

Empress1

Quote

“Nova knows that secrets kill us. If she is going about it the right way is to be debated. But the idea that we need to be free and untether ourselves from things we’re told can’t be discussed in a family is what the underpinning approach to the book is,” [DuVernay] said.

But:

  • Nova isn't discussing her family's secrets with her family, she's discussing them with the world. She very pointedly DID NOT discuss them with her family, which is why they're (rightfully, IMO) so mad at her.
  • It's not just the telling, it's the editorializing she does - that shit she said about Charley was just ... mean. She's not telling these stories from an unbiased place.
  • Like 95% of the secrets in her book aren't hers to tell. It isn't her place to reveal Blue's paternity to the world so he has to hear about it on the playground. It isn't her place to reveal Charley's stuff with Davis. It isn't her place to tell Darla's addiction stories. It isn't her place to talk about her Aunt Vi's abusive relationship, putting her in physical danger. Her affair with Calvin and her weed dealing and her activism, those are her stories. Everything else is stolen.
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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

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It didn't occur to me until this episode that Nova is essentially a stand-in for Ava, so to read her comments in the article are interesting.     

Ava just became kinda problematic for me if she's suggesting that what Nova has done/is doing is okay because Truth Matters Above All.

I think what Nova is trading in is her version of the truth at the expense of her family's dignity and safety. While I agree that family secrets can often do more harm than good, note that she appointed herself the decider of which secrets to tell and how to tell them. She's arguably coming from a place of self-interest more than the interests of the people she harmed by claiming to want to help. I have a hard time seeing Ava defend that but allow that perhaps she didn't express her thoughts fully or adequately.

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Chick2Chic

Chick2Chic

4 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Nova isn't discussing her family's secrets with her family, she's discussing them with the world. She very pointedly DID NOT discuss them with her family, which is why they're (rightfully, IMO) so mad at her.

This. 

Nova actually bypassed talking to her family to tell the world their secrets. Its' like Ava isn't paying attention to her own show cause there is a big difference between what she is talking about and what Nova has done. 

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Chick2Chic

Chick2Chic

15 hours ago, ribboninthesky1 said:

It didn't occur to me until this episode that Nova is essentially a stand-in for Ava, so to read her comments in the article are interesting.     

She also uses Vi re: Lupus 

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gesundheit

gesundheit

There is nothing wrong with a writer taking inspiration from his/her own life and the lives of those around her to then write fiction. As we've all been saying from the jump, that would've been okay. And it's certainly okay that Ava does that. That said, she's not the showrunner and I imagine she's doing some work to stand up for him because she wants to back up her artists. In other words, she might be making more excuses for Nova than she actually buys into. I know she still has a creative say in the show but I suspect a lot of stuff goes in the can without her hand in it.

Nova could've written a wonderful novel. She chose to sell out her loved ones instead, and then act sanctimonious about it.

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ribboninthesky1

ribboninthesky1

11 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Ava just became kinda problematic for me if she's suggesting that what Nova has done/is doing is okay because Truth Matters Above All.

That's how I read it.  But I've had issues with Ava for awhile now, which is a whole other talk show.

6 hours ago, Chick2Chic said:

She also uses Vi re: Lupus 

You're right.  As gesundheit mentions, it's common for a writer to draw inspiration from all or part of their own life.  The difference for me is Vi feels like an actual character. Nova never has (to me).     

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jhlipton

jhlipton

On 8/1/2019 at 7:06 PM, Chick2Chic said:

Ava DuVernay explains Nova’s wild actions on ‘Queen Sugar’

https://thegrio.com/2019/07/31/ava-duvernay-explains-novas-wild-actions-on-queen-sugar/

Rutina says: "They can’t help but love who she is because her intention is good at the heart of it. She is trying to heal the community and trying to help."

Um, no, girl.  Her intentions were, as always, self-serving.  And she has nothing to help her family all this time.

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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

Wow, Rutina really doesn't seem to understand her character, does she? Or she's just spouting the party line. Probably just going off what people are saying on social media is a mistake because those are usually hardcore stans or haters. On other forums I've never seen a big pro-Nova stance--at least not after the early days of the show--and there certainly don't seem to be many people trying to defend her now.

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Empress1

Empress1

On 8/5/2019 at 3:01 PM, jhlipton said:

Um, no, girl.  Her intentions were, as always, self-serving.

I liked when, after Jimmy Dale left, Nova said "I didn't mean for this to happen" and Hollywood said "You never do." I can even believe that Nova THINKS she's doing good, but she never seems to realize (care?) that it comes at other people's expense (like the $10K she stole).

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Arcadiasw

Arcadiasw

On 8/2/2019 at 9:20 AM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Ava just became kinda problematic for me if she's suggesting that what Nova has done/is doing is okay because Truth Matters Above All.

I've been looking at Ava side eye since the colorism thing with Blue's paternity 

On 8/5/2019 at 8:21 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Wow, Rutina really doesn't seem to understand her character, does she? Or she's just spouting the party line. Probably just going off what people are saying on social media is a mistake because those are usually hardcore stans or haters. On other forums I've never seen a big pro-Nova stance--at least not after the early days of the show--and there certainly don't seem to be many people trying to defend her now.

Rutina wouldn't be the first actor to not understand the character she's playing but I think this is more of towing the party line.  

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Joimiaroxeu

Joimiaroxeu

Quote

There's a podcast about Queen Sugar called Bourbon & Bordelons. The podcast homepage is here (Soundcloud). If you have an RSS reader/app, you can also get the episode links here.

Warning: this show is generally SFW but there's maybe a couple instances of "mature" language.

Quoting myself to say I'm still recommending (and enjoying) this podcast, which is now being called just Bourbon &. The homepage is here (Soundcloud). If you have an RSS reader/app you can pick up the new Season Five podcast episodes here.

A bit of a spoiler if you're not at least through the first season five show episode, but the podcast commentators have an interesting discussion about head wraps and pillowcases and such, wrt what Calvin did.

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