Soul Food

Food is a beautiful and wonderfully complex puzzle piece of humanity. Food provides so more than just nourishment and nutrition. With a rich history across our world, it provides us with a sense of identity, a built tradition, a community, and a peace offering. This time of year in America is the perfect encapsulation of the power of food as we come together to join hands and embrace in family, friendship, and love. So today I'm bringing a subject to your table that embodies the same thing. A film about a family where love, tradition, and food unite them at the best and worst times.

So if you’re like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions they convey, then grab a glass of your preferred liquid and join me for the next little while. For me, that’s a glass of pinot noir from our friends at Winery. So sit back, relax, and let’s talk about the love of film. Welcome to Glazed Cinema.

Well folks, it's that time of year again...the Holiday season. I don't know about you, but Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday of the year. I love everything about it from the smell of leaves on the wind to the quiet morning before the day's festivities. Of course, the food is always the star of the show and I love to cook and bake, so it's a win-win in that regard too. My wife and I host Thanksgiving and we love to see family and enjoy an extended weekend together. Honestly, I could talk about my love for Thanksgiving for hours, so I'll put a limit on myself, but today's episode is in that same vein.

This is also a bittersweet time for me as well. Due to the holiday season being just a couple of days away, this will be the last episode of Season Two. I can't believe we're at this point in the year already, but here we are. I’ve had a blast this season and I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself too. After this episode I’ll be taking some time off to enjoy the holidays with my family and Glazed Cinema will be back with Season Three in early 2023. I'm working on some pretty cool things for next season that you might enjoy as well, so stay tuned for more on that.

For now though, let’s jump into our subject today. It’s a movie that shows the value of community and the connections made at the dinner table. A film with a lot of great aspects that make it a memorable and enjoyable experience.

Soul Food is a film that follows an African-American family from Chicago, told through the perspective of a young boy named Ahmad. Ahmad is a perceptive young man who adores his grandma, Big Momma Jo, the matriarch if the family. Through Ahmad we see the many angles of family and are introduced to all of the major players.

Soul Food follows a family that is going through a tough period. They are a close knit family who always gets together for Sunday meals and holidays.

Soul Food has I would say 3 equal parts...love, family, and tradition. All three of those pillars holds the ties that bind the family together. The tradition of the Sunday meal and the food enjoyed is where the title of our subject today comes from. Soul Food is a the cuisine of comfort food and one that holds a lot of weight in the African-American community. For those unfamiliar with the cuisine, I found a great article from Black Foodie titled "The Humble History of Soul Food", that explains this better than I can.

"Soul food takes its origins mostly from Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, a collection of states commonly referred to as the Deep South. During the Transatlantic Slave Trade, enslaved African people were given meager food rations that were low in quality and nutritional value. With these rations, enslaved people preserved African food traditions and adapted traditional recipes with the resources available. Over time, these recipes and techniques have become the soul food dishes we are familiar with today. This food genre, now associated with comfort and decadence, was born out of struggle and survival."

Soul Food has seen evolution take place through the years and unfortunately sometimes Soul Food gets mistaken or rather misrepresented as Black or Southern cuisine, when in fact it is something unique. There are main ingredients to Soul Food including fish, pork, chicken, greens, and sweet potatoes, legumes. There are some great dishes, but with my sweet tooth, my favorite soul food dishes are candied yams, banana pudding, and sweet potato pie.

Some of the first images of this film are shots of the cuisine served up at Sunday dinner at Big Momma Jo's house. Around the table are her immediate family and the characters that will drive the film forward. There are her three daughters Maxine, Teri, and Bird along with their husbands Miles, Samuel, and Lem. Then there's of course Big Momma and Ahmad as well. These eight make up the family and whose stories will interweave for the rest of the film.

The story is told through the youngest of the family, Ahmad, who is eleven years old. He introduces us to the members of the family one by one. There’s his mother, father, two aunts and uncles, and of course his grandmother, the matriarch of the family, Momma Joe, affectionately known as Big Momma. The film revolves around Big Momma, who always hosts Sunday dinner at her house for the family. Things change however, after she falls into a coma during a surgery to amputate her leg. Sunday dinners stop and the family’s rifts start to widen. Ahmad, sees a way to reunite them and tries to mend the wounds, by hosting a family dinner like old times.

Soul Food was written and directed by George Tillman Jr. and released in 1997 during the Golden Age of Black Cinema. At a time when other legendary films like Boyz N the Hood, Friday, Love Jones, and The Brothers were being released, Soul Food emerged with something to say. Tillman wrote the film based on his own experiences and love for Sunday dinners with his family. For some, including myself, extended family dinners happened more sporadically on occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and of course holidays. Sometimes we would get together to catch up as well, but nothing scheduled like what's shown here. For a lot of families though, weekly dinners are normal and something cherished and enjoyed. Tillman himself spoke of his inspiration for the film in an interview in the Milwaukee Journal. I’ll paraphrase his statement,

“My aunts would all be in the kitchen cooking and the men would be in the living room watching sports. There were a lot of bad Green Bay Packers football games on during that time, but it was a time for all of us to catch up. We would talk. There were no cellphones. We talked to each other and knew what was going on in each other’s lives. We need to get back to those traditions. I took those experiences and made it into a movie…My grandmother, loved having everyone around. She believed in good food, good conversation. Church and family. If you said you were coming over for Sunday dinner and you didn’t show, she would call and find out what was going on. My grandma was similar to Irma Hall, who played Mother Joe in the movie. My grandmother lost her husband in the 1960s, so it was important for her to keep us all together.”

Tillman's vision comes through brilliantly in the final product as well. Through stellar writing and fantastic acting, the movie is told with an intimacy and depth that is impactful and affecting. The characters are well fleshed out and feel authentic and familiar. Introduced as strangers at the beginning, by the end they feel like family, a testament to the great writing and execution of the plot.

The movie includes a great cast of skilled actors and actresses including Irma Hall. There's also Vivica A. Fox as Maxine, Nia Long as Bird, Mekhi Phifer as Lem, Vanessa Williams Teri, Michael Beach as Miles, and more. Everyone does a fantastic job in their roles and makes the family feel authentic, well rounded, and whole.

Every family has its trials and tribulations and the family in Soul Food is no different. Most of the time though reconciliations are made and everyone comes back together to embrace and make amends. This usually happens through the wisdom of the elders, like Big Momma Jo.

I'm gonna take us off script for a bit here, but I promise I'll circle back soon. The first time I watched this film I immediately connected with this family as I'm sure a lot of us can. My family also had a strong female role model at its center in my grandma. My mom is a lot like her too and has a lot of the same traits as my grandma. I know I'm fortunate in that regard and I'm very thankful and appreciative for both of their presence and impact in my life. Ma, Dad, I love you. Thanks for being you and for always supporting me. I don't think I can express how much you've done for me, my brother, and those around you. Like my ma, my grandma was a smart and caring woman who was very wise. My grandma was one of kind, as was my grandpa. We'd always go up to their house, practically each weekend to say hello and spend time together. They were like a beacon for us, a source of comfort. During holidays, my grandma would always host, cooking the most amazing meals for all of us. I always looked forward to holidays at grandma's. My grandma was also a very warm and loving person, a smile was never far away and she loved being with her family. I miss her presence as I'm sure all those who knew her also do. So when I watched Soul Food for the first time, I saw may grandma in Big Momma Joe and I could relate to Ahmad as well. I think that's why I like this movie so much is because I can see those I love in it.

Another great piece of the puzzle that makes this film successful is its soundtrack. With a list of great talent including the likes of Missy Elliot, Boys II Men, Jay-Z, K-Ci and Jo-Jo, Dru Hill, and Outkast. The soundtrack extended out of the movie as well and was extremely successful. When it debuted it topped out at number 4 on the Billboard Top 200, Number 1 on the Two R&B/Hip Hop Albums. Four singles also appeared on the Hot 100, making it a hugely successful effort by all involved.

Soul Food was a hit upon release, making almost 44 million dollars at the box office on a budget of just under 8 million dollars. The success of the film also spawned a television series as well, which lasted five seasons.

The first time I watched Soul Food I didn't quite know what to expect, but had heard good things. The allure of the complexities and celebration of family drew me in and when I pressed play, they're what kept me engaged and content. I was introduced to a family and by then end I felt like I knew them, almost a part of them you could say. Soul Food is a multi-dimensional film about family, perseverance, love, togetherness, and the communal table.

Thanksgiving is a time for us to come together and celebrate those around us and enjoy time and food as one. Soul Food is the film embodiment of that ideal and a reminder that love conquers all. So whether you’re celebrating the holiday with family, friends, or your community, I hope the holiday finds you well and happy.

If you’d like to watch Soul Food for yourself, you can find it on a variety of streaming services. At the time of this recording you can find it on HBO Max. HBO Max is a streaming service with a diverse catalog of TV and Film offerings and includes pricing tiers of $9.99 with ads or $14.99 ad-free. 

You can also find it on services like Prime Video, YouTube, GooglePlay, Apple TV, and Vudu for $3.99 to rent.

That’s all for this season of Glazed Cinema. We'll be back with new content and more episodes in the new year with the first episode of season three arriving on your platform of choice on February 1st.

If you like this podcast tell your friends or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Each week there will be new content including hints about episodes before they air. If you’d like to learn more about the podcast visit our website at glazedcinema.com. There you’ll find more info about the show and a place to submit ideas for future episodes as well. For film fans who are hearing impaired, the blog page on our website features each episode in written form as well. As always, thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time on February 1st, 2023 with another beverage and another fine film on Glazed Cinema.