I don't know what my grandma was thinking allowing my cousin and I, just little kids at the time, to watch Friday like it was a family video. And then, once we were hooked to the violence and debauchery, she went and allowed us to get hooked to the following sequels - my favorite now being "Friday After Next". There is something hilarious and authentic about the Friday films.
I grew up in a house that I only realized was very afro-centric a couple of years ago - after I left for college. Growing up in small town South Carolina, nobody was going to tell you anything was afro-centric. But the lion paintings and the elephant figurines and the warm colored patterns gave it all away.
And so, Black film means to me a lens to see what Blackness is in America. Whether through hyperbolic comedy or normcore drama (oxymoron, I know), Black film, like other Black art forms, takes me to a place familiar to me. It makes me comfortable. Black film shows us the ghetto cousin or auntie. Black film gives us the comforting grandmother - the wholesome matriarch that brings family together whether in The Krumps or any film with Loretta Devine. Black film brings about some wild escapades such as A Johnson Family Vacation or any Tyler Perry film. Black film also grounds the cinematic lens in our specific Black experiences such as greek life in Spike Lee's School Daze or the famous Selma directed by Ava DuVernay. Even the ridiculousness of a young man being chased throughout a shopping complex by some ruthless gangsters is Black. One would wonder how you can racialize such an experience, but just watch Friday After Next and you'll see what I mean.
Me growing up watching Friday didn't do too much harm, but then again my grandma kept me with a bookshelf. I think the movie is a classic. The entire series is a classic, and I hope they don't push for another film. Black film is an important piece to our culture. Black film allows us to recreate our world as we see it; giving us a type of power over our narrative - one that we haven't always had.