John Dougherty

2 months ago | americamagazine.org | John Dougherty

Black history, as educators and activists remind us, is more than slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. It’s more than Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver and Malcolm X, too. History is more than dates and names: It’s human lives in all of their richness and complexity. Black History Month doesn’t exist solely to honor the past, but to celebrate the beauty and impact of Black lives and Black culture in the present. The point of Black History Month is that Black history is happening right now.

2 months ago | alaska-native-news.com | John Dougherty

The Alaska State Troopers, NTSB, and Alaska National Guard aircraft and personnel conducted recovery efforts Saturday at the site of the Bering Air plane crash. Two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, a Nome-based UH-60L Black Hawk, an HC -130J Combat King II and a team of pararescuemen worked to recover the victims.

2 months ago | americamagazine.org | John Dougherty

Early in Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006), ten-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) tells her soon-to-be-born brother a fairytale. In it, a blue rose that grants immortality grows at the peak of a tall mountain. No one dares to go near it, because its thorns are full of lethal poison. “Men talked amongst themselves about their fear of death and pain,” she says, “but never about the promise of eternal life.”It’s a dark fairytale, as is the film.

Jan 24, 2025 | americamagazine.org | John Dougherty

Is it a cop-out to honor David Lynch by reflecting on his least Lynchian film? Lynch, who passed away last week at the age of 78, was one of the most influential filmmakers, best known for dark, surrealist works like “Mulholland Drive” (2001), “Blue Velvet” (1986) and the television series “Twin Peaks.” The eponymous term “Lynchian” refers to the singular sense of dread and unease he could provoke by juxtaposing the mundane with the uncanny.

Jan 7, 2025 | americamagazine.org | John Dougherty

In 1930, Hollywood teamed up with the Catholic Church. The result was the Production Code, a censorship document that for almost 40 years dictated what movies could and could not depict. For Hollywood, it was a desperate attempt to avoid federal regulation, but for the Catholics who conceived, wrote and enforced the code, it was a chance to marry Catholic morality to popular culture and elevate the soul of a nation. To understand how this unlikely alliance began, we need to go back to 1921.