African Film Festival at Indiana University
The New York African Film Festival selects titles from their lineup each year to travel across the US, widening the reach of emerging talent from the African film scene. Last month, the BFCA screened of four features and five shorts to IU Bloomington audiences. Eleven countries and nine languages were represented under the theme “Visions of Freedom.” Thank you to all who attended the screenings for laughing, crying, and engaging in thoughtful exchanges with us throughout the week. A special thanks as well to our sponsors: the African Studies Program, the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, and the Office of International Services. Expect to see African Film Festival programming again next year!
Nganji Mutiri Visits the BFCA
Filmmaker Nganji Mutiri joined us from Belgium during African Film Festival week for a screening of his film Juwaa (2021). Dr. Akin Adesokan moderated a Q&A that touched on the challenges of shooting an explicitly political film in the Congo, multiple script revisions, the visual artist behind the work onscreen, and more. Mutiri engaged the audience so well that many lingered afterward for one-on-one conversation and to pose for photos.
Nganji also toured the BFCA, paying particular attention to Charles Burnett’s materials. He also participated in an interview that we will store in the archive. We’re looking forward to your next film and visit, Nganji!
Visit and Donation from T. Michael Ford
In March, the BFCA accepted several generous donations from IU retiree and cinephile T. Michael Ford. Highlights include: VHS recordings of Dionne Warwick’s 1988 That’s What Friends Are For AIDs benefit concert and the 1987 biographical documentary Fats Waller: This Joint Is Jumpin’; mounted posters for the films The Walking Dead (1995) and Tales from the Hood (1995); and an original program from his attendance at the 1970 Broadway stage production of Purlie, starring Robert Guillaume and Patti Jo. The BFCA relies heavily on donors who often gift rare items that help fill in gaps in our collections. Mr. Ford, thank you for ensuring that these materials have a permanent archival home where they will be accessible to researchers and students!
Visit from filmmaker Brett Story
On March 22, we shared the magic of the BFCA with documentarian Brett Story! Story was on campus for a Jorgensen Guest Lecture and to screen her films The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) and The Hottest August (2019) at the IU Cinema.
Congratulations, Ja Quita!
March 26, 2024 marked Ja Quita Joy Roberts’ 10-year anniversary at the Black Film Center & Archive! Please celebrate her with us! Ja Quita began working at the BFCA under the leadership of Dr. Michael Martin and she has been an anchor as our Finance & Office Administrator, through several personnel transitions, renovations, acquisitions, events, and so much more. She is hardworking, thoughtful, and well-connected both on campus and in the broader Bloomington community. She came to town as a student in 1999 and is building a legacy here, raising her two ambitious children Javenique and JaQualon Roberts, founding and continuing to advise the Women of Color Leadership Institute (WOCLI), serving on the Union Board, and many other passions and duties that keep her busy!
Current BFCA director Dr. Novotny Lawrence gathered the team and beloved guests to surprise Ja Quita—a momentous feat considering she’s usually the one organizing the surprises. We love you, Ja Quita Joy! Congratulations, and thank you for ten years.
Dr. Akin Adesokan, Ja Quita Joy Roberts, Dr. Novotny Lawrence
Other Staff news: Dan is the new archivist!
We are thrilled to announce Dr. Dan Hassoun as our new Archivist! He has been working as the BFCA’s Assistant Archivist since 2021. Previously, he worked as an Archival Assistant in IU’s Moving Image Archive and as an Instructor for the Department of Communication & Culture and The Media School from 2013 to 2019. Congratulations, Dan! We love you!
BFCA Student Volunteer Program
We are looking for volunteers to help at the Black Film Center & Archive! Volunteers will have the opportunity to work with our collections, engage with filmmakers, and much more! If you’re interested in being part of our amazing BFCA team, please contact us at bfca@indiana.edu with “Volunteer” in the subject.
April‘s First Thursday Celebration April 4th, 2024
The Black Film Center & Archive participated in April‘s First Thursday celebration in the IU Auditorium’s Grand Foyer. We had several activities, BFCA swag, and more! It was wonderful meeting so many of you! Special thanks to IU Cinema’s Noni Ford for collaborating with us.
IU Day 2024 is April 17th!!
Join us virtually on our social media pages as we participate in the 2024 IU Day celebration on April 17th! The Black Film Center & Archive is the only repository in the world solely devoted to the collection, preservation, and commitment to making available historically and culturally significant films. Our research materials extend beyond the films, and include posters/promotional materials, personal papers and journals, interviews, books, photographs, and more. You can support our programs, outreach, and mission by clicking the link below and donating today! #IUday
Kathe Sandler’s A Question of Color
On April 20, the BFCA is debuting a new 4K restoration of Kathe Sandler’s film A Question of Color (1993) at the IU Cinema. One of the first documentaries to directly address issues of colorism within the Black community. IndieCollect used original elements donated to the BFCA by director Kathe Sandler to restore the landmark film. Dr. Sandler will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. Tickets are available at the IU Cinema.
BFCA’s zine – PERF #6 coming soon!
The next issue of PERF is on set design and has a funky neon design—you can’t miss this one! Learn the basics of location scouting, find out which films stir up a bit of set envy in our editors, and take a glimpse at logistical pages of Sidney Let’s Do It Again (1973) shooting script. This issue also features our Summer Film Challenge! If you’re spending time away from Bloomington and the BFCA in the coming months, you can still get your fill of Black film by participating.
The zine will be available in various locations around campus and the city, as well as in our office.
A Look Ahead: Summer Events
For our friends in Indianapolis and those willing to travel for note-worthy events, here are two dates to add to your summer calendar!
June 15 – Juneteenth Celebration at the Center for Black Literature & Culture
The central branch of the Indianapolis Public Library is home to the Center for Black Literature & Culture, which holds 10,000+ books, CDs, magazines, movies, and research tools showcasing Black history and culture. CBLC programs signature events for Juneteenth and there are always plenty of activities and wonderful people to meet. In addition to the on-site screening of Two Centuries of Black American Art (Carlton Moss, 1976) hosted by the BFCA, enjoy performances by CBLC Poet Laureate Januarie York, the African drummers of Siteaw Inc., and musician Jamie Johnson. NY Times Bestselling & USA Today Top 100 Author JaQuavis Coleman is the featured speaker.
June 22 – Indiana Youth Film Festival
Filmmaker and IU alum Deonna Weatherly established the Weatherhouse Institute to provide local young creatives hands-on experience in film and video production. This year, the Weatherhouse Institute is raising the bar with the inaugural Indiana Youth Film Festival. If you are a director between the ages of 12-24, there’s still time to submit! Find more information here. For everyone else, spread the word and come out to support the next generation of filmmakers right here in the state of Indiana! Your #1 source for Indy’s Hood Happenings, Precious Jewel will host.
BFCA Hours Update
Due to various projects and schedules, Fridays will be by appointment only. Please email us at bfca@IU.edu to schedule your appointment, today.
Social Media Highlights
Vinnette Justine Carroll
March 11 marked the birthday of pioneering playwright and theater director Vinnette Justine Carroll (1922-2002)! A lifelong advocate for African Americans in the arts, Ms. Carroll was best known as the first Black woman to direct a Broadway production with Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope in 1972. An occasional movie actor, Ms. Carroll appeared in the independent 1964 film One Potato, Two Potato, one of the first films to seriously address the taboo subject of interracial relationships.
(16mm screenshots from One Potato, Two Potato from the Michael T. Martin Collection; headshot from the Mary Perry Smith Collection)
Shola Lynch
On March 20, we wished a happy birthday to acclaimed filmmaker Shola Lynch (born 1969)! Ms. Lynch earned Master’s degrees in history and journalism and honed her filmmaking skills as a researcher and producer for Ken Burns and HBO Sports. She then directed her first documentary, Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed (2004), which focuses on pioneering congresswoman and presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm.
Her second feature, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2006), remains one of the most vital cinematic portraits of legendary activist Angela Davis. Ms. Lynch currently serves as the moving image curator at the NY Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2013, Ms. Lynch visited Indiana University to deliver a keynote at the Regeneration Conference. During her visit, she recorded an interview with then-BFCA director Michael T. Martin.
(Photos from the Black Film Center & Archive’s General Collection)
Khady Sylla
Happy birthday (March 27) to foundational Senegalese director Khady Sylla (1963-2013)! A teacher, activist against female genital mutilation, and author of several novels and short stories, Ms. Sylla began filmmaking in the 1990s under the mentorship of famed ethnographer Jean Rouch. Rarely seen in the U.S., her innovative documentaries Colobane Express (2000), An Open Window (2005), and The Silent Monologue (2008) offer poetic and reflexive portraits of domestic labor and mental illness among African women. At the time of her death, she was working with her sister on a documentary about their grandmother, which was released posthumously as A Single Word (2014).
(DVD screenshots from the Black Film Center & Archive’s General Collection)
Lillian Cumber
On April 1, we recognized the birthday of trailblazing film talent agent Lillian Cumber (1920-2002)! Working as a newspaper columnist and publicist for various firms over 25 years, Ms. Cumber recognized an egregious lack of representation for Black actors in the segregated Hollywood industry. In 1956, she left her job to found her own company, the Lil Cumber Attraction Agency, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a film talent rep (though it would take 5 years before her firm was officially recognized by the Screen Actors Guild). For her pioneering efforts to uplift others in the industry, Ms. Cumber was selected as one of the first inductees into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1974.
(Headshot from the Mary Perry Smith Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Collection)
In Memoriam
Louis Gossett, Jr.
The Black Film Center & Archive remembers beloved actor Louis Gossett Jr. (1936-2024), who passed on March 29. Though perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning role in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), making him the third Black actor to win an Oscar, Mr. Gossett enjoyed a long and eclectic career across music, stage, television, and film. Gossett had difficulty securing leading film roles despite his Oscar win, but his performances across domestic dramas (A Raisin in the Sun), comedies (Skin Game), horror (J.D.’s Revenge), sports dramas (Diggstown), and action films (the Iron Eagle series) testified to his versatility. He amassed a deeper resume on TV, most memorably as Fiddler in the original Roots miniseries (1977), in addition to dozens of TV movie credits that made him a familiar name to viewers throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. His final screen role was a cameo in 2023’s musical rendition of The Color Purple. Our condolences to his friends and family.
(16mm screenshots from A Raisin in the Sun and Skin Game, Umatic screenshot from Roots: One Year Later, and lobby card from J.D.’s Revenge all from the Black Film Center & Archive’s General Collection)
Leave a Reply