Talk To Me (2007) IN SOLIDARITY: SPOTLIGHTING BLACK FILM ARTISTS FREE film series In solidarity with the Black community—which Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m. continues to face pervasive discrimination, bigotry, July 7–Sept. 1, 2021 and violence—the George Eastman Museum spotlights the contributions of Black film artists Dryden Theatre with this series of nine motion pictures from 1930 at the Eastman Museum to the present. 900 East Ave Sponsored by: A partnership of the George Eastman Museum and: JUL A Soldier’s Story her freedom, particularly to date liberally. the congenial DJs the station is used to, but they went on to recording contracts. This (Norman Jewison, US 1984, She is seeing three men: the sweet Jamie he connects with the listeners and ratings documentary, Ava DuVernay’s first feature 07 101 min., 35mm) (Tommy Redmond Hicks), strapping model start to rise. Following the assassination film, is a loving look back at a place and Based on Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize– Greer (John Canada Terrell), and fast-talking of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the radio- time that can never be duplicated. winning play, this film looks at hatred bike messenger Mars Blackmon (Spike listening public turns to Petey for guidance within and beyond a US Army base in Lee). The men become jealous, and Nola through the ensuing riots. Yet even as his AUG Shaft Louisiana in 1944. While a squad of Black is asked to see only one exclusively. Now, fame grows, and he turns to television and 25 (Gordon Parks, US 1971, soldiers are waiting to be deployed, their she must make a choice—about her life and the stage, Petey has to question whose 100 min., 35mm) sergeant is murdered on his way back who she wants to be. Lee’s black-and-white dream he is following—Dewey’s or his own? Photographer, musician, and writer Gordon from the local watering hole. Captain aesthetic, ingenious shot choice and editing, Parks turned to filmmaking in the late ’60s, Davenport (Howard E. Rollins Jr.) is sent and fresh point of view make this one of the AUG The Story of a Three-Day Pass and his second film changed the landscape to investigate and encouraged to wrap it most stunning film debuts of all time. 11 (La Permission, Melvin Van Peebles, of cinema. Looking to cash in on the popular up quickly. Determined to file an accurate France 1968, 87 min., DCP, English, detective genre, Parks wanted to make a French w/ subtitles) report, Davenport follows the clues to a JUL Cabin in the Sky crowd-pleasing action film with a Black man surprising conclusion. The cast features 28 (Vincente Minnelli, US 1943, Stationed in France, American soldier as its hero. Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is a Robert Townsend, David Alan Grier, Art 98 min., 35mm) Turner (Harry Baird) is given a promotion private detective drawn into a kidnapping Evans, Patti LaBelle, Adolph Caesar, and Presented in a gorgeous sepia-toned and three-day pass, which he decides to case by Harlem gangster Bumpy Jonas Denzel Washington in a breakout, Oscar- print, this film follows Petunia Jackson spend in Paris. His wanderings lead him to (Moses Gunn). Shaft is wary of police nominated supporting role. (Ethel Waters) as she tries to convince her a nightclub, where he meets Miriam (Nicole involvement and ultimately gets involved husband, Joe (Eddie “Rochester” Anderson), Berger), a white shop clerk, and a romance in a turf war that requires him to take action. JUL Borderline to stop gambling and lead a good life. He blossoms. As Turner’s pass nears its end, Parks’s photographic eye captures the city (Kenneth Macpherson, complies but a relapse endangers his life, tensions rise and the consequences of an without adornment, while Isaac Hayes’s 14 UK 1930, 63 min., 35mm) and he feels the forces of good and evil interracial romance tear the couple apart. unforgettable, Oscar-winning score propels Melvin Van Peebles adapted his own novel Paul Robeson dominates the screen in battling for his soul. This wonderful MGM the on-screen action. for this film, using ingenious techniques this silent drama of infidelity and interracial musical features great jazz performers to reveal Turner’s inner dialogue, and romance. Pete and Adah (Robeson and his including Louis Armstrong and Lena Horne. SEPT The Last Black Man collaborating on the score with Mickey Baker. wife Eslanda Robeson) move to a village in Minnelli’s hypnotic direction and Busby 01 in San Francisco rural Switzerland. When Adah has an affair Berkeley’s choreography underscore the (Joe Talbot, US 2019, 121 min., DCP) use of dreams and hallucinations popular AUG This Is the Life with a white man and the village finds out, Third-generation San Franciscan Jimmie the couple’s seemingly idyllic existence is in 1940s Hollywood productions. (Ava DuVernay, US 2008, 18 97 min., DCP) (co-writer Jimmie Fails starring as a upended by submerged racism coming version of himself) lives with his friend The Good Life Health Food Centre is not to the surface. Macpherson, a novelist, AUG Talk to Me Mont (Jonathan Majors) and works as a (Kasi Lemmons, US 2007, a name that would immediately inspire photographer, and critic, uses avant-garde 04 nurse at a senior care facility. On Sundays, 118 min., 35mm) thoughts as fertile ground for a musical techniques to great effect, and Robeson Jimmie and Mont bus or skateboard to the revolution, but their weekly hip-hop open stands as a paragon of emotional pain. The importance of radio in the 1960s and house Jimmie’s grandfather built—but that mic nights are now the stuff of legend. Live piano accompaniment by Philip Carli. ’70s is explored in this biographical film his family lost due to rising taxes. Jimmie Out of this supportive atmosphere were about famous DC disc jockey Petey Greene fixes up the house when the current born new techniques and new movements JUL She’s Gotta Have It (Don Cheadle). Recently released from owners aren’t around, with the dream of that influenced West Coast hip-hop for (Spike Lee, US 1986, prison, golden-tongued Petey schemes his someday returning to his family’s legacy. 21 years. Artists such as Freestyle Fellowship, 84 min., 35mm) way into a radio job with executive Dewey A story of gentrification and the idea of Jurassic 5, Abstract Rude, and Aceyalone Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) is a Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Petey’s style is American legacy, this sensitive film deals got their start at the Good Life before Brooklyn-based graphic artist who relishes confrontational and crass, a far step from with the terrible cost of displacement. ALL FILMS ARE WEDNESDAYS at 7:30 PM DRYDEN THEATRE | George Eastman Museum | eastman.org/Dryden She’s Gotta Have It (1986) Cabin in the Sky (1943) Borderline (1930) A Soldier’s Story (1984) The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968) Shaft (1971) This Is the Life (2008) Image credits: Talk To Me (cover): Focus Features/Photofest © Focus Features; She’s Gotta Have It: Island Pictures/Photofest © Island Pictures; A Soldier’s Story: Columbia Pictures/ Photofest © Columbia Pictures; The Last Black Man in San Francisco: A24/Photofest © A24; The Story of a Three-Day Pass: Cinerama Releasing Corporation/Photofest © Sigma III Corp; Shaft: MGM/Photofest ©MGM.