This initiative, for the month of September, has invited everyone to join in “this monthlong grassroots, D-I-Y, joyous celebration of abundance.” Focused of films, video art, and media created by women, the initiative provides an inspiring approach to dispersing cinema consistently underrepresented in our histories and theaters: put the people in charge of distribution.

To compliment this objective, this special screening is a collaboration with film programmer and educator Nzingha Kendall, who took the reigns of this program to focus on an especially underrepresented sect of film history: experimental film by black women. The program features work from the historically innovative “LA Rebellion” movement, alongside contemporary work by premiere filmmakers on the world stage and a UVA grad. There will be a discussion with the programmer following the screening.

PROGRAM:

Cycles (1989) — Zeinabu Irene Davis (17m)

Reluctantly Queer (2016) — Akosua Adoma Owusu (9m)

Spit on the Broom (2019) — Madeleine Hunt-Erlich (12m)

Molasses (2018) — Micah Ariel Watson (15m)

Nzingha Kendall is a is a film educator and programmer from the Washington, DC area with a deep commitment to promoting the work of independent women filmmakers—especially those of color. She programmed films at the Black Film Center/Archive and the Indiana University Cinema. She also makes experimental films that explore black women’s relationships to nature. Kendall is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia.

~free and open to all~