Ngozi Onwurah's Welcome II The Terrordome is an angry evocation on race relations in America, that uses a bleak, and uncompromising dystopian future landscape to comment on a host of issues related to race. Set in the Terrordome, a huge and impoverished ghetto where nearly all American Americans are forced to live, the story follows Spike and his sister Anjela two individuals attempting to make the best of their terrible situation. Much to the dismay of many, Spike is dating Jodie, a white woman, who is pregnant with his baby. Given the institutionalized racism that exists, Jodie's old boyfriend, a white man, doesn't take to kindly to her being with a black man, setting up a trap that sets off a volatile race war in the Terrordome. Ngozi Onwurah has created a powerful film about the state of the African American in contemporary society, arguing that the ghettos of America are simply the new form of segregation and slavery in society. Drawing from centuries of oppression, Ngozi Onwurah's Welcome to the Terrordome is a provocative piece of cinema from a director who is clearly sick and tired of the death and oppression of her people. Police brutality and institutionalized racism are a major component of this film, and I particularly liked the heavy use of spotlights and overhead lighting to visually create a world of oppression. Drug abuse, racism, violence, and poverty reign supreme in the Terrordome, a symbolic representation of modern day segregation. It should be mentioned that this is not a film for the faint of heart, as Ngozi Onwurah seems to throw all her pent up anger about race relations on screen with some truly haunting scenes of violence. While somewhat repetitive and certainly uncompromising in its depiction of the African American male in 20th century America, Welcome II The Terrordome showcases how extreme racial tension undoubtedly creates violence, being a message about the importance of equality that is obviously very much still a problem twenty years later.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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