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Movies / On DVD / Letter to the President
Letter to the President

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Letter to the President (2004)

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Reviews Counted:1

Fresh:1

Rotten:0

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Rated: R [See Full Rating] Language, some drug content and violent images

Runtime: 90 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

Synopsis: Thomas Gibson's insightful, prescient documentary frames current political and social issues in a dynamic way, targeting an audience mostly neglected by current discussions: Black youth. A hip hop... Thomas Gibson's insightful, prescient documentary frames current political and social issues in a dynamic way, targeting an audience mostly neglected by current discussions: Black youth. A hip hop FAHRENHEIT 9/11, LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT traces our current repressive government to Ronald Reagan's time in office, when rap music shifted into more political realms as it began to be a hot topic on the Senate floor. Gibson also provides startling links between the government and the sale of crack cocaine in the ghetto; ultimately, the film examines the myriad ways the current administration functions as a repressive agent of control within the Black community. Gibson incorporates interviews with average people as well as countless celebrities, including 50 Cent, KRS-1, Mystic, Amiri Baraka, Ghostface Killah. Narrated by Snoop Doggy Dog, the film also features appearances by Democratic presidential nominee Dennis Kucinich, social commentator Michael Eric Dyson, Larry Flynt, and Damon Dash. [More]

Starring: Dick Gregory, Chuck D, KRS-One, Common

Starring: Dick Gregory, Chuck D, KRS-One, Common, Guru

Director: Thomas Gibson

Director: Thomas Gibson
Producer: Russell Simmons
Composer: Quincy Jones

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Release:

Jun 28, 2005

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • This feature-length documentary showcases hip-hop's close-knit ties to America's social and political policies in the last thirty years. Even before hip-hop, black musical artists of the past have been at the forefront of civil rights and black power movements of the late '60s and '70s. See how those movements were destroyed by the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover, and witness rap's birth from those movements and its own progression from being music heard at weekend block parties to its lyrics being debated in the halls of Congress. Letter to the President delves deeply into President Ronald Reagan's policies that negatively affected minority communities and inspired pioneer rap artists such as Grandmaster Melle Mel and Run DMC to tell the whole world about it in song. Then in the "glamorous" '80s, as some people prospered and many minority communities suffered, artists such as Russell Simmons struggled to get laws overturned that targeted those minorities.
  • Source: Image Entertainment, Inc.
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    Reviews for Letter to the President

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    What’s not to love about a movie that features both Larry Flynt making fun of Bill O’Reilly and a professor of humanities quoting Biggie?

    Full Review Source: Hollywood Bitchslap | comment Comment
    06/28/05
    David Cornelius
    David Cornelius
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