Part of L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema & Changing the Picture (2013)
Sunday, February 3, 2013, 6:00 p.m.

Sponsored by Time Warner Inc.
Program total running time: 112 mins

Dir. Alile Sharon Larkin. 1982, 51 mins. 16mm. With Adisa Anderson. A woman yearns to be recognized for more than her physical attributes. In cultivating the friendship of a male office mate, she aspires to a relationship with someone who can “see her as she is,” rather than see only what he wants to see.

Preceded by:
Cycles
Dir. Zeinabu irene Davis. 1989, 17 mins. Digital projection. With Stephanie Ingram. As a woman anxiously awaits her overdue period, she performs African-based rituals of purification. She cleans house and body, and calls on the spirits; the film combines beautifully intimate still and moving images of the woman’s body and home space with playful stop-motion sequences.

Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification
Dir. Barbara McCullough. 1979, 6 mins. 35mm. Made in collaboration with performer Yolanda Vidato. A pioneering work in Black feminist and experimental filmmaking, Water Ritual #1 was made in an area of Watts that had been cleared to make way for the I-105 freeway. Structured as a ritual for McCullough’s “participant-viewers,” Water Ritual #1 honors Black/Third World women’s beauty and self-possession.

Grey Area
Dir. Monona Wali. 1981, 38 mins. 16mm. From Black Panthers to young urban professionals, several members of a blighted neighborhood debate the causes and experience the stresses of cyclical poverty, as a bank commissions a film about its own supposedly good work in the community.


Free with Museum admission on a first-come, first-served basis. Museum members may reserve tickets in advance by calling 718 777 6800. For more information about becoming a Museum member and to join online, please click here.