African American Auteurs

Lecturer: Jacqueline Stewart

From January 30 through May 8 the Gene Siskel Film Center offers a series of fourteen programs of films entitled African American Auteurs, with weekly lecture/discussions by Jacqueline Stewart, Associate Professor of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University and author of Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity.

The series is made possible in part through the sponsorship of American Airlines, the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Educational Underwriter, and is presented in cooperation with the School of the Art Institute’s Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Please note that, for the convenience of our audience, films are sometimes shown on both Friday and Tuesday; however, Jacqueline Stewart’s lectures accompany only the Tuesday screenings. Admission to all African American Auteurs programs is $4 to Film Center members; usual admission prices apply for non-members.

-- Martin Rubin

This series examines the work of four African American directors: Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, Charles Burnett, and Spike Lee. Looking at their substantial and diverse bodies of work, we explore the aesthetics and politics of African American filmmaking from the silent era to the present. We discuss the unique features of each director’s style, and their complex relationships to independent and commercial filmmaking practices. Along the way, we debate the usefulness of auteur-focused approaches, particularly in the study of films made by and for marginalized groups.

- Jacqueline Stewart

 

feature films

DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM, U.S.A.
1946, Spencer Williams, USA, 59 min.
With Francine Everett, Alfred Hawkins
JUKE JOINT
1947, Spencer Williams, USA, 68 min.
With Spencer Williams, July Jones

Two late films by actor-director Spencer Williams, an important creative force in the “race films” of the 1930s and 1940s: DIRTY GERTIE is Williams’s version of W. Somerset Maugham’s oft-filmed “Rain,” with the lovely Francine Everett as a Harlem stage star forced to flee to a Caribbean island, where she runs afoul of a puritanical preacher. In the rowdy JUKE JOINT, two hard-up con men arrive in a Texas town where they tangle with massive Mama Lou and her two daughters, demure Honey Dew and man-crazy Florida. Archival 35mm prints courtesy of the Library of Congress. (MR)

Tuesday, March 6, 6:00 pm

TO SLEEP WITH ANGER
1990, Charles Burnett, USA, 102 min.
With Danny Glover, Paul Butler

“A very entertaining, complex film.”--Vincent Canby, The New York Times
“Burnett’s acute and sensitive direction is free of hackneyed movie conventions; even something as simple as a hello is said differently from the way you’ve heard it in any other movie.”--Jonathan Rosenbaum, Reader

Burnett’s dark, semi-mystical comedy was too offbeat and unpredictable to succeed at the box office. Danny Glover delivers a sensational performance as Harry Mention, a folkloric Trickster who insinuates himself into a middle-class South Central household and proceeds to spread discord, doubt, and disease. Is he human or demon? And how can his hosts get rid of him? Archival 35mm print courtesy of the British Film Institute and Edward R. Pressman. (MR)

Tuesday, March 13, 6:00 pm

THE GLASS SHIELD
1995, Charles Burnett, USA, 108 min.
With Michael Boatman, Lori Petty, Ice Cube

“Heartfelt and persuasive. . . packs a mighty punch.”--Jonathan Rosenbaum, Reader

One of the most original and disturbing police thrillers, THE GLASS SHIELD avoids gratuitous violence, profanity, and supercop clichés in order to present a morally complex study of corruption and racial tension in the LAPD. Based on a true story, the plot details the rude awakening of an idealistic rookie cop (Boatman) who participates in a department cover-up, then has dangerous second thoughts. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, March 16, 8:00 pm
Tuesday, March 20, 6:00 pm

THE ANNIHILATION OF FISH
2001, Charles Burnett, USA, 108 min.
With Lynn Redgrave, James Earl Jones, Margot Kidder
WHEN IT RAINS
1995, Charles Burnett, USA, 13 min.

In the whimsical ANNIHILATION, a man and a woman, no longer young, each sustain their lives with an imaginary relationship. Poinsettia (Redgrave) considers herself engaged to the long-dead composer Puccini. Fish (Jones), a Jamaican man of formidable dignity, is regularly hauled off his pedestal by a demon. Poinsettia and Fish become neighbors, then sweethearts. But will their unseen friends stand for it? 35mm print courtesy of Charles Burnett. (BS)

Preceded by WHEN IT RAINS, Burnett’s lovely short about a pompous landlord, a desperate tenant, and the magical effects of a good jazz record. 16mm print courtesy of Charles Burnett. (MR)

Friday, March 23, 8:00 pm
Tuesday, March 27, 6:00 pm

Upcoming films in African American Auteurs:

March 30 and April 3
SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT
1986, Spike Lee, USA, 84 min.

April 6 and 10
DO THE RIGHT THING
1989, Spike Lee, USA, 120 min.

April 17
MALCOLM X
1992, Spike Lee, USA, 201 min.

April 20 and 24
BAMBOOZLED
2000, Spike Lee, USA, 135 min.

May 4 and 8
25TH HOUR
2002, Spike Lee, 2002, 134 min.