Confronting the Other, an exploration of Claire Denis’s work as a filmmaker to engage with various manifestations of Otherness, will be hosted at Indiana University and will feature a visit and conversation with Claire Denis, seven film screenings, and a poster exhibition at the BFC/A featuring posters of Denis’s films. Chocolat, I Can’t Sleep, Nenette… Read more »
Black Film Center & Archive
'Shirley Clarke’s Cool World' at the IU Cinema
Shirley Clarke’s Cool World, a series celebrating the filmmaking of Shirley Clarke, will screen three of the prodigious filmmaker’s features and host a lecture by Milestone Film’s Dennis Doros on Clarke’s contributions to independent cinema. The Connection (1962) will screen on Thursday, November 1st at 7:00pm, with Ornette: Made in America and Robert Frost: A… Read more »
‘Maestra’ at the IU Cinema
Maestra, a 2011 documentary by Catherine Murphy, will be shown at the IU Cinema on October 8th, at 7pm. From the IU Cinema homepage: In 1960, Cuba made an open call for volunteer teachers for the Cuban Literacy Campaign. Over 250,000 people volunteered, including thousands of very young women who achieved a degree of independence… Read more »
‘The Killing Floor’ – the True Story of Frank Custer – at the IU Cinema
Tonight – the 6th of September 2012 – and tomorrow, The Killing Floor (1984), directed by Bill Duke,will be showing at the IU Cinema. The synopsis from the IU Cinema website: The Killing Floor explores the conflicting loyalties of African-American stockyards workers in Chicago during the First World War. Starring Damon Leake and… Read more »
Casting ‘Regeneration’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Race Film
Stella Mayo – the ‘Sensational Colored Screen Beauty’ – won the lead as Violet Daniels in Regeneration, only after director Richard Norman had struggled for months to find a lead actress who would (a), ‘photograph well’ and (b), meet the salary requirements of Norman Studios, stricken by a sharp decrease in the market for race… Read more »
6th Native Film Series at the IU Cinema
The BFC/A is cosponsoring the 6th Native Film Series at the IU Cinema this semester. The series kicked off last week with Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s first feature On the Ice. As a surprise treat after the film, MacLean answered questions from the audience via videoconference. This Sunday, January 15, Melissa Bisagni of the Smithsonian’s National… Read more »
A Glimpse into the BFC/A's FESPACO Poster Collection, Part 5 – Ghanian Canvas Posters
When I first started working here, I knew I would be working primarily with the FESPACO poster collection. I naively assumed that they would all be made out of some sort of paper product and likely be mass-produced. Well, that turned out to be quite wrong since the BFC/A also has a small collection of… Read more »
A Glimpse into the BFC/A's FESPACO Poster Collection, Part 4 – It’s a Family Affair: The Ouedraogo Brothers of Burkina Faso
As in other industries, there are people who chose to work in film because their family members have had successful careers as actors, directors, or producers. The United States has the Barrymore and Huston families; France the Depardieus; and Italy has the Rossellinis. Africa has its own version of a successful filmmaking family: the Ouedraogos…. Read more »
A Glimpse into the BFC/A's FESPACO Poster Collection, Part 3 – FESPACO
Film festivals are important events for cinema since they bring exposure to filmmakers, support the local industry and community, and allow people in cinema to network with other professionals. There are a small number of film festivals in Africa such as those in Durban, Carthage, and Cairo. Part 3 will focus on the Panafrican Film… Read more »
A Glimpse into the BFC/A's FESPACO Poster Collection, Part 2 – African Films from the 1980s
Before I started my internship, I did not know much about the history of cinema in the African Diaspora. Over the past few months, I’ve noticed that international recognition of African films really picked up in the 1980s. Prior to this decade, international awards given to African films were sparse and often given to a… Read more »