Resilience Film Series: Da 5 Bloods
The second installment in the Notre Dame Instittue for Advanced Study's Resilience Film Series brings Spike Lee's film that namechecks and often bodychecks other filmic depictions of American greed, the Vietnam War, and how the two remain fused.
The references to heist films, America's attempt to finally win the Vietnam War via Hollywood (see, e.g., Rambo), and the dawn of TV war footage, give a swirling and useful vantage point for hindsight on how Black soldiers have been deployed, the worlds to which they returned, and the mental and physical spaces to which military service bound them. The story pulling that together sees four veterans return to Vietnam looking to give rest to a fallen fellow soldier (Chadwick Boseman) and to get rich from a long-buried treasure.
A panel discussion will occur after the screening featuring Mary Frances Phillips (NDIAS Faculty Fellow, Africana Studies), Fr. Aaron Michka (Former NDIAS Fellow, Anthropology), and Peter Cajka (Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, American Studies).
This event is free but ticketed. Free tickets are available at: https://performingarts.nd.edu/event/13973/da-5-bloods-2020/.