La’Raye Francisco
April 12, 2020
Reel Food and World Cinema
Soul Food/ Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored

African American cuisine is shown throughout most of the film, Soul Food. The film shows the typical African American meal. It is common for African Americans to eat fried foods, especially fried chicken. In the film, Big Mama mentions a few of the foods she cooks. Green beans, sweet potato pie, and Southern fried chicken are mentioned. In Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored, Aunt Punk cooks some of the same foods that are shown in Soul Food. She cooks fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread, and sweet potato pie. According to Aunt Punk, this is what is needed to be considered “eating good” and I wholeheartedly agree with her.

The family’s gathering in Soul Food are a great representation of different holidays celebrated in the African American community. In the beginning of the film, Ahmad talks about the family coming over to eat with Big Mama. He mentions all the people, including distant cousins, relatives from all over, and even the reverend coming over to eat her food. This is a real thing that occurs in our culture. In the article, the author mentions how in Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored, one of the characters were grilling. The author mentions that grilling is something that most men have at one time or another performed at home or at a park. It is seen as “masculine.” Based on experience, this is mostly true. Although women do know how to grill, if there is a man around who is capable, he is doing the grilling.

Soul Food and Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored is one of my favorite movies we have watched so far in class. I believe it represents the African American culture so well. From the food, to the gatherings, to the behavior displayed by the characters, the director has it down to a T and hit the nail on the head.

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