Dalhousie Screens First Films by Black Filmmakers

The Dalhousie Art Gallery marks African Heritage Month in February with a screening series of first films by black filmmakers. Curated by Ron Foley Macdonald, the screenings take place on Tuesday’s at 5 pm in the art gallery in the Rebecca Cohn building. Admission is free.

2 February – She’s Gotta Have It
Spike Lee, USA, 1986, 84 minutes. An independently-minded ’80s African-American female must choose between multiple suitors, one of them played by the director himself, in this precise and energetic debut feature from the now legendary filmmaker Spike Lee.

9 February – Dear White People
Justin Simien, USA, 2014, 108 minutes. Gender preferences, power structures, and race all get questioned in this riotous debut by the tart-tongued writer/director Justin Simien. Set on a contemporary American university campus, Dear White People is a very funny modern-day satire that includes pointed language and possibly offensive subject matter.

16 February – Losing Ground
Kathleen Collins, USA, 1982, 86 minutes. Recently rediscovered and restored by Milestone Films, Losing Ground predates the current round of indie African-American filmmaking by four years. The story of a female philosophy professor balancing a career against a marriage to her unfaithful artist husband, Losing Ground has been acclaimed as a landmark in Black filmmaking.