LA REBELLION: CREATING A NEW BLACK CINEMA (2013)
Introduction | Special Guests | Event Schedules | liquid blackness on the LA Rebellion Research Project | About the Artists
Introduction
Presented by:
Emory University’s Department of Film and Media Studies;
liquid blackness, for Georgia State University’s Department of Communication
and the Atlanta Film Festival
In association with UCLA Film & Television Archive and supported in part by grants from the Getty Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The series is curated by Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Shannon Kelley, and Jacqueline Stewart.
The “L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema” Tour is coming to Atlanta beginning on the weekend of October 25, 2013 and continuing until the weekend of November 22, 2013. This is the last stop of a Tour that began in September 2012 and the last chance to see these highly selected 36 films from the UCLA archive, all together and many in pristinely restored prints. The Tour is a way to celebrate not only these groundbreaking works, but also the filmmakers and the world they lived in. All films will be presented at Emory University’s White Hall, with the exception of the opening night, which will take place the Plaza Theatre. The Atlanta stop of the tour is presented by Emory University’s Department of Film and Media Studies, the Atlanta Film Festival, and liquid blackness. All screenings are free of charge. Filmmakers Haile Gerima, Zeinabu Irene Davis, Billy Woodberry, and Larry Clark have confirmed their participation as well as co-curators Jacqueline Stewart and Allyson Nadia Field.
To help further contextualize these important works of black cinema, the liquid blackness research group has organized a corresponding series of public conversations and “teach-ins” in significant sites around the city of Atlanta with the help and support of local artists and scholars.
Special Guests
Larry Clark is a filmmaker, painter, and professor at San Francisco State University. His art, particularly his jazz film Passing Through (1977), reflect his commitment to black musical traditions, practices of improvisation, and the political potential of the ensemble.
Zeinabu irene Davis is a director and producer whose contributions to the LA Rebellion offer a powerful feminist perspective to the group and its history. She is also a historian of the LA Rebellion who produced a documentary on the topic, Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema from UCLAthat includes intimate conversations with LA Rebellion filmmakers reflecting on their work and the meaning of black cinema.
Allyson Nadia Field, is a curator and scholar in the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. Her work focuses on African American cinema from the silent era to the contemporary moment with a particular emphasis on the role of black media/archives in the representation of social inequality.
Haile Gerima is a filmmaker and professor at Howard University. In addition to his highly influential films--including Bush Mama (1975) and Sankofa (1993)—Gerima’s mentorship at Howard influenced the work of a new generation of black filmmakers including Arthur Jafa, Bradford Young, Malik Sayeed, and Ernest Dickerson.
Jacqueline Stewart is a scholar and scholar in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. Her research and teaching explore African American film from early cinema to the present day and her work on black film audiences has helped expand film studies’ approach to spectatorship. Stewart is also the first African American host of Turner Classic Movies’ weekly programming series “Silent Sunday Nights,”
Billy Woodberry is filmmaker whose work appears across cultural spaces—from theaters to gallery installations. Woodberry’s film Bless Their Little Heart (1984) is considered an essential piece of Los Angeles filmmaking.
Event Schedules
Film Screenings**
WEEKEND I
Guests: Zeinabu irene Davis and L.A. Rebellion Tour co-curator Jacqueline Stewart
Friday, October 25, 2013 –7:00 pm
A Little Off Mark (Robert Wheaton, 1986)
My Brother’s Wedding (Charles Burnett, 1983)
Introduction by Alessandra Raengo, Associate Professor, Dept. of Communication, Georgia State University, Coordinator of liquid blackness
Panel: “The L.A. Rebellion: Historical, Cultural and Social Context”
Filmmaker and Professor Zeinabu Irene Davis, UC San Diego
Akinyele Umoja, Associate Professor, Chair of African American Studies, Georgia State University
Makungu Akinyela, Associate Professor, African American Studies, Georgia State University
Michele Prettyman Beverly, Adjunct Professor, Emory University, Georgia State University
Saturday, October 26, 2013 - 7:30 pm
Dark Exodus (Iverson White, 1985)
Compensation (Zeinabu irene Davis, 1999)
Q&A with filmmaker Zeinabu Irene Davis and L.A. Rebellion Tour co-curator, Professor Jacqueline Stewart, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago
The Saturday L.A. Rebellion Tour screening will be preceded by a 4pm screening of Zeinabu irene Davis’s documentary work-in-progress Spirits of Rebellion.
Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 4:00 pm
A Different Image (Alile Sharon Larkin, 1982)
Cycles (Zeinabu irene Davis, 1989)
Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite Of Purification (Barbara McCullough, 1979)
Grey Area (Monona Wali, 1981)
Q&A with filmmaker Zeinabu Irene Davis and L.A. Rebellion Tour co-curator, Jacqueline Stewart
WEEKEND II
Guests: Filmmaker Billy Woodberry and L.A. Rebellion Tour co-curator Allyson Nadia Field, Assistant Professor, School of Theater, Film and Television, UCLA
Friday, November 1, 7:30 pm
A Day in the Life of Willie Faust, or Death on the Installment Plan (Jamaa Fanaka, 1972)
Emma Mae (Jamaa Fanaka, 1976)
Q&A with filmmaker Billy Woodberry and co-curator Allyson Nadia Field, School of Theater, Film and Television, UCLA
Saturday, November 2, 7:30 pm
The Pocketbook (Billy Woodberry, 1980)
Bless Their Little Hearts (Billy Woodberry, 1984)
Q&A with filmmaker Billy Woodberry and co-curator Allyson Nadia Field
Sunday, November 3, 7:30 pm
Black Art, Black Artists (Elyseo Taylor, 1971)
Four Women (Julie Dash, 1975)
Define (O. Funmilayo Makarah, 1988)
Bellydancing —A History & An Art (Alicia Dhanifu, 1979)
Festival of Mask (Don Amis, 1982)
Welcome by Matthew Bernstein, Professor and Chair of Film and Media Studies Department, Emory University
Introduction by Carol Thompson, Curator of African Art at the High Museum
WEEKEND III
Guest: Filmmaker and Professor Haile Gerima
Friday, November 15, 7:30 pm
Child of Resistance (Haile Gerima, 1972)
Brick by Brick (Shirikiana Aina, 1982)
L.A. in My Mind (O. Funmilayo Makarah, 2006)
Excerpt from The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing (Carroll Parrott Blue, 2003)
Rain (Melvonna Ballenger, 1978)
Q&A with filmmaker Haile Gerima and Michele Prettyman Beverly
Saturday, November 16, 7:30 pm
Daydream Therapy (Bernard Nicolas, 1977)
Bush Mama (Haile Gerima, 1975)
Q&A with filmmaker Haile Gerima and Michele Prettyman Beverly
Sunday, November 17, 7:30 pm
Rich (S. Torriano Berry, 1982)
Shipley Street (Jacqueline Frazier, 1981)
Fragrance (Gay Abel-Bey, 1991)
Your Children Come Back To You (Alile Sharon Larkin, 1979)
WEEKEND IV
Guest: Filmmaker and Professor Larry Clark
Friday, November 22, 7:30 pm
Medea (Ben Caldwell, 1973)
I & I: An African Allegory (Ben Caldwell, 1979)
Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School (Don Amis, 1974)
As Above, So Below (Larry Clark, 1973)
Q&A with filmmaker Larry Clark and Michele Prettyman Beverly
Saturday, November 23, 7:30 pm
When It Rains (Charles Burnett, 1995)
Passing Through (Larry Clark, 1977)
Q&A with filmmaker Larry Clark and Alessandra Raengo
Sunday, November 24, 7:30 pm
The Diary of an African Nun (Julie Dash, 1977)
Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, 1991)
Introduction by Folashadé Alao, Assistant Professor, English and African American Studies Departments, University of South Carolina
Panel: “L.A. Rebellion and Visual Aesthetics”
Alessandra Raengo, Associate Professor, Dept. of Communication, Georgia State University
Cinque Hicks, Interim Editor of the International Review of African American Art
Conversations and Teach-Ins
WEEKEND I
Friday October 25, 2013
Post-Screening Gathering
Saturday, October 26th
Together with Arnika Dawkins Gallery, liquid blackness is co-hosting an informal conversation with L.A. Rebellion filmmaker Zeinabu Irene Davis on Saturday October 26 from 1:00-2:30pm. Davis will be sharing some excerpts from her forthcoming documentary on the L.A. Rebellion school of black cinema, Spirits of Rebellion and giving insight into her training, process, and experiences making films. Joined by film scholar Michele Prettyman (formerly Beverly), the conversation will offer a unique glimpse into her creative process and a reflection on this extraordinary group of filmmakers that the tour honors.
WEEKEND II
Saturday November 2, 2013
2:00-4:00pm
WonderRoot Community Arts Center
Teach-in with L.A. Rebellion Tour curator Allyson Nadia Field and filmmaker Billy Woodberry
Saturday November 2, 2013
Post-Screening Gathering
The Low Museum of Contemporary Culture
550 John Wesley Dobbs Ave, Atlanta, Georgia 30313
WEEKEND III
Friday November 15, 2013
Reception for Haile Gerima at King & Spalding Law Firm
Saturday November 16, 2013
2:30–4:00pm
Teach-in on the L.A. Rebellion followed by a community dialogue of how the issues of the L.A. Rebellion/films relate to present-day issues for Atlanta community
WEEKEND IV
November 23, 2013
Post-Screening Gathering
**Additional Funding Information
Bless Their Little Hearts: Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Packard Humanities Institute
I & I: An African Allegory: Preservation funded in part by a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation
Passing Through: Preservation funded in part by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Packard Humanities Institute
The Pocketbook: Preservation funded in part by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification: Preservation funded with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters Grant Program funded by The Film Foundation
The Diary of an African Nun: Preservation funded in part with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation