Pixar’s Soul: ‘This film is really gonna heal a lot of things for people’
The animation studio is taking on life after death in its latest film, about a jazz musician who kicks the bucket. Clarisse Loughrey spoke to co-directors Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, composer Jon Batiste and producer Dana Murray about a production that fought to overcome the way “caricature has been weaponised against Black people” and replaced it with joy and compassion
Wednesday 23 December 2020 11:35
Three Texans Put Their Souls Into Pixar s Newest Film – Texas Monthly texasmonthly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from texasmonthly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
December 23, 2020
Lead character Joe Gardner, voiced by Jamie Foxx, in Pixar’s new animated film Soul.
Pixar
Just when the world could do with a little Pixar magic, Soul arrives.
The studio’s new animated feature, directed by Pete Docter, is arguably even bolder than his last – 2015’s Oscar-winning Inside Out.
While that film dramatised emotions like sadness and anger in a young girl’s body, Docter and his team are now tackling life’s Big Questions. Or as he explains: “What are we going through? What’s the world about? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?”
2020 has been a big year for Kemp Powers, the playwright behind two of the year’s most anticipated films. The first,
One Night in Miami, is based on his 2013 play of the same name and tells the story of a fictional meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke in a Miami hotel room in 1964. The second is
Soul,
Pixar’s chronicle of a soul finding its back to Earth from the afterlife, which though it’s for a vastly different audience shares a few similarities with
One Night, including questions about legacy and remembrance. Both are also, to varying degrees, Black films.
Guilford County Schools Leader Under Consideration For Education Secretary by Keri Brown (FILE) Superintendent of Guilford County Schools Dr. Sharon Contreras. KERI BROWN/WFDD
Several North Carolina educators are being considered for the next U.S. Education Secretary. One of them is Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to announce his pick to lead the U.S. Department of Education in the coming days. Dr. Sharon Contreras has been mentioned among other education leaders across the country. She’s served as superintendent of Guilford County Schools since 2016.
A district spokesperson says at this point, it’s premature to comment because Contreras hasn’t officially been contacted by the Biden transition team for the nomination. She says she’s honored to have her name mentioned by civil rights and education leaders in the press.