Sponsored by Time Warner Inc.
Program total running time: 83 mins

Child of Resistance
Dir. Haile Gerima. 1972, 36 mins. 16mm. With Barbara O. Jones, James Dougall. Inspired by a dream Gerima had after seeing Angela Davis handcuffed on television, Child of Resistance follows a woman (Jones) who has been imprisoned as a result of her fight for social justice. Gerima explores the woman’s dreams of liberation and fears for her people through a series of abstractly rendered fantasies.

Preceded by:
Brick by Brick
Dir. Shirikiana Aina. 1982, 33 mins. Digital projection. With Lester Wakefield. Brick by Brick documents a late-1970s Washington, D.C., ignored by the media, from which poor Black residents are being pushed out. Images of monuments contrast with prescient images of gentrification and homelessness. An alternative is provided by the Seaton Street project, in which tenants have united to purchase buildings.

L.A. in My Mind
Dir. O. Funmilayo Makarah. 2006, 4 mins. Digital projection. A captivating montage of notable L.A. sites, laced with free-floating names of places and people and accompanied by street noises.

Rain
Dir. Melvonna Ballenger. 1978, 16 mins. Digitial projection. With Evlynne Braithwaite, Bernard Nicolas. Rain shows how awareness can lead to a more fulfilling life. A female typist goes from apathetic to empowered through the help of a man giving out political flyers on the street. Using John Coltrane’s song “After the Rain,” Ballenger’s narration meditates on rainy days and their promise of renewal.

The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing (excerpt)
Dirs. Carroll Parrott Blue, Kristy H. A. Kang. 2003, 10 mins. Digital projection. With Blue, Debbie Allen, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis (narrators). This evocative excerpt from the Labyrinth Project’s DVD-ROM, based on a memoir by Blue, leads viewers on a rich visual and textual exploration of Blue’s family history, and of the history of Houston’s Black community.


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