Voodoo Macbeth

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Voodoo Macbeth

2022

1h 48m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

71%

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14 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

1936 Harlem is a neighborhood battered by economic strife and hardship. With FDR's New Deal providing funding for the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit, director Rose McClendon convinces co-director John Houseman to help her bring Shakespeare's "Macbeth" to the Harlem community at the Lafayette Theater -- with an all-Black cast. They choose for their groundbreaking production a gifted but untested 21-year-old director by the name of Orson Welles, whose reimagined Haitian vision for the Scottish play is as daring and fresh as the cast and crew themselves.

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William Bibbiani

TheWrap

10/22/2022

It’s attractively filmed and, mostly, solidly performed, taking some historical liberties but otherwise getting the gist of the tale out in the open for new generations to discover and appreciate.

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Joe Leydon

Variety

10/21/2022

The first-ever theatrical release from USC School of the Cinematic Arts enlists multiple directors to dramatize the 'Citizen Kane' director's Shakespearean collaboration with the Negro Theatre Unit.

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Beandrea July

New York Times

10/20/2022

“Voodoo Macbeth” proves itself to be a textbook white savior film and not much else.

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David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

02/10/2023

Like so many artists at present, taking the line of least resistance, Voodoo Macbeth’s makers largely project their own limited concerns and interests back into the past. The results are weak, flat and muddled.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

02/05/2023

2.5/4

Ambitious if occasionally awkward.

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Kenneth R. Morefield

1More Film Blog

01/06/2023

2/5

Welles comes across here as a bit of a naifish knave, a slightly less affable version of Shakespeare in Love‘s lovable idiot genius.

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Dagmawi Abebe

Director

Víctor Alonso-Berbel

Director

Roy Arwas

Director

Hannah Bang

Director

Christopher Beaton

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Agazi Desta

Director

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Synopsis

1936 Harlem is a neighborhood battered by economic strife and hardship. With FDR's New Deal providing funding for the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit, director Rose McClendon convinces co-director John Houseman to help her bring Shakespeare's "Macbeth" to the Harlem community at the Lafayette Theater -- with an all-Black cast. They choose for their groundbreaking production a gifted but untested 21-year-old director by the name of Orson Welles, whose reimagined Haitian vision for the Scottish play is as daring and fresh as the cast and crew themselves.

Director: Dagmawi Abebe, Víctor Alonso-Berbel, Roy Arwas, Hannah Bang, Christopher Beaton, Agazi Desta, Tiffany Kontoyiannis-Guillen, Zoë Alyce Salnave, Ernesto Sandoval, Sabina Vajraca
Producer: Miles Alva, Jason Phillips
Screenwriter: Agazi Desta, Jennifer Frazin, Morgan Milender, Molly Miller, Amri Rigby, Joel David Santner, Erica Sutherlin, Chris Tarricone
Distributor: Lightyear Entertainment
Production Co: Warner Bros. Pictures, Voodoo Macbeth, University of Southern Calfornia
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 21, 2022, Limited
Runtime: 1h 48m