Black on Screen: Films by Haile Gerima

Films by Haile Gerima is the second program in Stand up, Fight Back! the third season of Black on Screen, guest-curated by Maysles Documentary Center Executive Director, Kazembe Balagun. This season chronicles histories of Black-American and Afro-diasporic coalition building and resistance movements on screen, narrated by intersectional voices.

This program amplifies the work of Ethiopian filmmaker, Haile Gerima whose filmography dates back to the 1970’s. By the time Gerima graduated from film school at UCLA in 1976, he had made four films and alongside his peers at UCLA, would be canonized among a generation of contemporary Black filmmakers that rejected classic Hollywood Cinema in favor of Latin American, African, and European cinematic approaches. Today, Gerima’s films and those by his peers Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, among others, are now referred to as the L.A. Rebellion Film Movement.

This program will feature two films from this movement, beginning with Gerima’s 1973 short, A Child of Resistance, a film that depicts the social imprisonment of a Black woman. Next, we will screen Gerima’s 1993 feature length film, Sankofa, which follows a model (Oyafunmike Ogunlano) who after encountering a mystic, travels into the past and becomes enslaved.

Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

Black on Screen: A Century of Radical Visual Culture, captures 100 years of local and transnational Black movement work and artistic evolution on film. Sourced from The Schomburg’s collection and others, it takes a kaleidoscopic look at Black life and expression across diasporas, rendering a range of storytelling traditions that incite and inspire Black world-building. The Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division (MIRS, pronounced “meers”) at the Schomburg Center collects and preserves audio and moving image (AMI) materials related to the experiences of people of African descent. The division has amassed nearly 400 collections, approximately 5,000 square feet, in a variety of formats, which captures the gestures and sounds of major historical, artistic and cultural moments and influencers. While the strength is the Black American holdings there is considerable Caribbean and African representation in the collection.

This year, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture continues celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding! Join us all year long for a wide array of special events, exhibitions, and more as we celebrate this milestone and continue the legacy of Arturo Schomburg.

Schomburg100 | Exhibition | Special-Edition Library Card | Become a Member

#SchomburgLive

__________________________

FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early. We generally overbook to ensure a full house.

GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.

ACCESSIBLILITY Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Please note that personal and professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture