Taking the Helm: Black Filmmakers from Three Continents

From Oscar Micheaux to Melvin Van Peebles this survey highlights films by Black Directors from Africa, Europe and North America. This series will include a lecture by Black filmmaker, critic and curator Cameron Bailey. 

3 February - Body and Soul

Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1925, 82 minutes

Micheaux was the first and most important director of the independent African-American film circuit. Body and Soul, his silent feature with the great actor/singer Paul Robeson, is a controversial and disturbing take of an escaped convict who poses as a pastor in a small Southern town. Fully restored with a new score by the jazz group Honk, Wail and Moan, it is still a crucial landmark in the history of African-American filmmaking. 

10 February - Touki Bouki

Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal, 1973, 85 minutes

Described as the West African equivalent to Goin' Down the Road, Touki Bouki is the story of a young couple, Mory and Anta, who long to escape Dakar for the riches and dreams of Europe. In their quest, the duo manage to meet a cross-section of contemporary Senegalese society in a picaresque journey that lets the energy and hope of youth run up against the brusque economic realities of the post-colonial era.

24 February - Looking for Langston

Issac Julien, Britain, 1989, 60 minutes

Julien's fluid and stylish reconstruction of 1920's Harlem poet Langston Hughes is an icon for gay black men of today, but caused a sensation and bitter controversy with the Hughes estate. Only partly biographical, the film's grace and power make it a keystone in black filmmaking in Britain.

Black Girl

Ousemene Sembene, Senegal/France, 1968, 60 minutes

Author and pioneer African film director Sembene's first feature film is the austere story of a young Senegalese who works as a maid with an uncaring family in the South of France. Cutting back and forth between her frustrating, jobless life in her homeland, and her sad servitude in France, Sembene sharply contrasts the differences between African and European ways.

3 March - Daughters of the Dust

Julie Dash, USA, 1991, 114 minutes

The first feature-length drama directed by an African-American woman, this is a beautiful and fascinating turn-of-the-century tale of the Gullah, residents of the Sea Islands off South Carolina who retained much of their Ibo heritage from West Africa. As members of the Peazant family prepare to leave for various Northern destinations (including Nova Scotia), memories of their history merge with daily rituals to gently propel the narrative towards a new century.

10 March - Against the Tides: The Jones Family

Sylvia Hamilton, Canada, 1994, 58 minutes

Part of Almeta Speaks' Hymn to Freedom series, this portrait of the Truro-based African-Canadian Jones family by Sylvia Hamilton (Speak it! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia, Black Mother, Black Daughter) focuses on several generations of proud influential Nova Scotians, including columnist Joan Jones and activist/lawyer Rocky Jones.

17 March - The Watermelon Woman

Cheryl Dunye, USA, 1996, 85 minutes

This funny, inventive and sexy film is the ultimate African-American lesbian romantic comedy.  Dunye herself stars in this lively tale of a young black woman who discovers the unknown story of The Watermelon Woman, an extraordinary African-American film actress of the '30s, '40s and '50s. Meanwhile, her research turns her own domestic world upside down when she meets a mysterious glamour queen played by Guinevere Turner. 

24 March - Martin Van Peebles: Classified X

Melvin Van Peebles, USA/France, 1997, 50 minutes. The great African-American actor and director Melvin Van Peebles (The Watermelon Man, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song) takes a tour through the portrayal of blacks in Hollywood filmmaking from Thomas Edison to the present. Peebles confronts and analyses with wit and candor, leading up to a revealing discussion of his own crucial contribution to black filmmaking.

31 March - Planet of Junior Brown

Clement Virgo, Canada, 1997, 105 minutes

Toronto director Clement Virgo's second film is the fluid and unconventional tale of a young, obese piano prodigy and the strange fantastical cast-off world he inhabits while waiting to find a keyboard to practice on. With a supple cast of relatively unknown African-American and African-Canadian actors, along with a powerful cameo from Margot Kidder, Planet... is a moving tale of the redemptive power of the imagination.