Women of the L.A. Rebellion: Shorts Programme (18)

The screening on Sunday 1 December will be followed by a panel discussion with writer and programmer Rōgan Graham, Yaya Azariah Clarke and film scholar Giulia Rho, which will be chaired by writer and editor Laura Staab.

A revolutionary film movement that emerged from the UCLA Film School in the early 1970s, the so-called ‘L.A. Rebellion’ was a powerful and transformative chapter in the history of American cinema. A significant cultural and artistic response to the turbulent sociopolitical climate of the time, the films challenged prevailing norms of Black representation, forging a new African American cinematic language.

Often remembered for the pioneering work of male directors like Charles Burnett, this programme of shorts brings together short films by three ‘insurgent sisters’ of the LA Rebellion, featuring an early short by Julie Dash (who would go on to make the acclaimed feature Daughters of the Dust). Offering a specifically ‘womanist’ sensibility, Illusions, Cycles and A Different Image resist the images of Black womenhood produced by Hollywood and independent film of the time, reclaiming Black female subjectivity through poetic and playful cinematic reconstructions of time, space and the body.  

Timings:

15:00  Welcome (Alice Pember)

15:10  Shorts Programme

16:55  Comfort break

17:05  Panel discussion

18:00  Expected finish

A Different Image

Alile Sharon Larkin, 1982, USA, 52m.

An poetic portrait of a beautiful young African American attempting to escape her position as object and discover her true heritage. Through a sensitive and humorous story about her relationship with a man, the film makes provocative connections between racism and sexual stereotyping, showcasing the intersectional cinematic language pioneered by women of the LA Rebellion.

Illusions

Julie Dash, 1982, USA, 34m.

Set in Hollywood during WWII, Illusions tells the story of Mignon Duprée, a studio executive passing for white, and Ester Jeeter, an African American singer hired to dub the voice of a white movie star. The film is a gripping critique of the power of the movies to shape perception, exploring the multiple illusions created by Hollywood and the very illusion of racial identity. An early short by Julie Dash (who would go on to make the critically acclaimed Daughters of the Dust), the film conveys Dash’s sincere love of Hollywood cinema whilst presenting a radical, damning critique of the industry's racism.

Cycles

Zeinabu irene Davis, 1989, USA, 17m.

One of the first films made Zeinabu Irene Davis, an award winning director and producer who is still active today, Cycles (1989) is a playful, experimental film which focuses on an woman anxiously awaiting her overdue period. Combining beautifully intimate still and moving images of the woman’s body and home space with playful stop-motion sequences, the film presents a provocative exploration of African American experience as a collective unconscious and offers a rare on-screen engagement with the topic of periods.

Rōgan Graham is a writer and programmer from South London. Working broadly in film exhibition, her areas of interest are works by Women and Black filmmakers. In 2021 she edited the Clio Award winning FYC book for Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad. The founder of Divas Do Film, when she isn’t writing reviews, hosting Q&As or appearing on podcasts, she can be found on a soapbox talking about Mariah Carey.

Dr Giulia Rho has recently completed her PhD in Film Studies. Her research covers experimental women filmmakers and queer artists, especially those operating within the New York Avant Garde and LA Rebellion. Her work deals with post-structuralist feminist philosophy as well as theories of queer time and questions of archival memory and justice. Her writing has appeared in Frames Film Journal and Film-Philosophy.

Dr Laura Staab works as an Assistant Editor at MUBI. She holds a doctorate in film studies from King’s College London and writes regularly on art cinema and experimental film for Another Gaze, Notebook, and Sight & Sound.

Yaya Azariah Clarke is a British-born Jamaican writer and cultural producer specialising in Black visual and communal cultures. Their research spans contemporary Black short film across the diaspora, as well as the cultural output of Afro-Caribbean communities in Britain. Yaya has previously worked as a staff writer and programmer for It’s Nice That, and community researcher for Dulwich Picture Gallery. They are now a contributor at Creative Review and WePresent.