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LIMITED SERIES TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS FEB 10-25, 2023
Called back home by the possibility of reconciliation, Anna learns her family wants to arrange for her to marry a well-off man in a scheme to make them rich. Things get complicated when a friend from her past (Sammy Davis Jr.) returns. With unrestricted charisma, Sammy Davis Jr. and Eartha Kitt deliver performances unlike any other in their careers. The cast is rounded out by Frederick O’Neal, Rex Ingram, and Henry Scott. DIRECTED BY: Arnold Laven. WRITTEN BY: Philip Yordan. WITH: Eartha Kitt, Sammy Davis Jr., Frederick O’Neal, Henry Scott. 1958. 97 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm.
The Flying Ace with Midnight Shadow Sat, Feb 18 | 7:30pm | TMT The Flying Ace
In this fantastical whodunit of intrigue, a World War I pilot (Laurence Criner) returns home to find romance and mystery. Returning to his pre-war roots as a railroad detective, the flying ace investigates a large payroll robbery. Though Black Americans were not allowed to serve as armed forces pilots until well after the film’s completion, it is reasonable to suggest that this race film was an aspirational wonder—in terms of technical ability, romantic pursuits, and patriotism—for all who viewed it. DIRECTED BY: Richard E. Norman. WRITTEN BY: Richard E. Norman. WITH: Laurence Criner, Kathryn Boyd, Boise De Legge, Harold Platt. 1926. 65 min. USA. B&W. Silent. 35mm. Preserved by the Library of Congress. Midnight Shadow When Margret Wilson (Frances Redd), the object of her well-to-do parents’ affection, brings home a man who calls himself Prince Alihabad, trouble ensues when a land deed goes missing, and all fingers point to Alihabad. Blending comedy and mystery, this whodunit realizes the full possibility of the race picture. DIRECTED BY: George Randol. WITH: Frances Redd, Buck Woods, Richard Bates, Clinton Rosemond. 1939. 59 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm. Preserved by the Library of Congress.
Nothing But a Man with Several Friends Thu, Feb 16 | 7:30pm | TMT Nothing But a Man
This sensitive and affecting portrait of Black life in America’s South offers a look into love and tenderness as necessary tools of survival. Concerning the soul and plight for the dignity of Duff Anderson (Ivan Dixon)—laborer, father, and husband—the film navigates how socioeconomic factors shape one person’s world and love. Co-starring Abbey Lincoln, Nothing But a Man is a work of poetry. DIRECTED BY: Michael Roemer. WRITTEN BY: Michael Roemer, Robert Young. WITH: Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, Gloria Foster, Julius Harris. 1964. 92 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm. Preserved by the Library of Congress. Several Friends Charles Burnett’s first student film is a day-in-the-life story that captures the poetry and tenderness of the mundane among a group of Black friends from South Central LA. In this early work, Burnett paints a rich tapestry of Black life for which he is now famous. DIRECTED BY: Charles Burnett. WRITTEN BY: Charles Burnett. WITH: Andy Burnett, Eugene Cherry, Charles Bracy, Cassandra Wright. 1969. 21 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm. Preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Something Good - Negro Kiss Sun, Feb 19 | 3pm | TMT
Ten Minutes to Live with Short Films Sun, Feb 19 | 3pm | TMT Something Good - Negro Kiss
Hanging in the balance between cultural necessity and market demands is the courage to craft a story and cinematic world of your own design. As the Academy Museum’s milestone Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971 exhibition showcases, Black film pioneers were courageous enough to pursue that act despite structural and cultural barriers. The reward for their courage is a rich history that resists all categorization and convention. This series, covering the same timeline as the Regeneration exhibition, uses tenderness—pointed moments of affection—as a guide to navigate Black cinematic history. With touchstones such as the swoon-worthy moments of romantic love in Something Good - Negro Kiss (1898) to the acts of communal love and poetry of the everyday in Several Friends (1969), Try a Little Tenderness invites you to explore how tenderness allows us to touch Black cinema’s past and future.
Believed to be the earliest cinematic display of Black affection, this joyous embrace of tenderness between a well-suited man and a woman in an ornate dress reminds us all about the urgency of love and film preservation. DIRECTED BY: William Nicholas Selig. WITH: Gertie Brown, Saint Suttle. 1898. 1 min. USA. B&W. Silent. Digital. A Fool and His Money With the desire to win his well-off beloved on his mind, Sam Jones, a laborer, comes into heaps of cash after finding it by happenstance. The film is a cinematic illustration of the age-old adage, “a fool and his money are soon parted.” The recently discovered A Fool and His Money is both one of the earliest extended narrative works featuring an all-Black cast and one of the earliest works directed by a woman. DIRECTED BY: Alice Guy-Blaché. WITH: James Russell. 1912. 10 min. USA. B&W. Silent. 35mm. Preserved by the Library of Congress. Yamekraw This 1930 short is a visually inventive short featuring a close-knit Black community on the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia. At the heart of this musical drama is a young man who falls for a woman and follows her to the big city in a
Programmed and notes by Maya Cade, Guest Programmer.
Esse Mundo é Meu with That Man of Mine Fri, Feb 17 | 7:30pm | TMT Esse Mundo é Meu
by Sammy Davis Jr.’s production company and produced by Ike Jones, one of Hollywood’s earliest Black producers. DIRECTED BY: Leo Penn. WRITTEN BY: Les Pine, Tina Rome. WITH: Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson. 1966. 104 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm.
Paris Blues with A Man Called Adam Fri, Feb 10 | 7:30pm | TMT Paris Blues
Esse Mundo é Meu finds poetry in the everyday through multilayered imagery of two parallel romantic stories and the distinctive sounds of director Sérgio Ricardo’s music. A Black laborer, Toshino, hopes to save up enough money to win the woman he loves after a family misfortune leaves him penniless. The film celebrates love and all it can offer. DIRECTED BY: Sérgio Ricardo. WRITTEN BY: Sérgio Ricardo. WITH: Antonio Pitanga, Léa Bulcão, Sérgio Ricardo, Luiza Aparecida. 1964. 79 min. Brazil. B&W. Portuguese. Digital. That Man of Mine Featuring the swinging sounds of the all-woman band The International Sweethearts of Rhythm and a young Ruby Dee, the 1946 musical showcases tenderness in romance and community through a series of musical numbers. The loosely connected plot follows film producers hoping to cast a stand-out actress for their next film. DIRECTED BY: Leonard Anderson. WRITTEN BY: Les Hafner. WITH: Betty Haynes, Ruby Dee, Powell Lindsay, Rhina Harris. 1946. 56 min. USA. B&W. English. Digital. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive and the Library of Congress, with funding from the Women’s Film Preservation fund, the National Film Preservation Foundation, and the Monterey Pop Festival Foundation.
Set in Paris to the sounds of a Duke Ellington sonic lullaby, this jazz-infused drama starring Sidney Poitier takes the A-train to your heart. Eddie Cook (Poitier) is an expatriate jazz musician who finds love with Connie, an American girl (Diahann Carroll), and shelter from the United States in a “racially tolerant” Paris. With Paul Newman, Louis Armstrong, and Joanne Woodward rounding out the cast, this picture shows sensitivity toward romance and interracial friendship. DIRECTED BY: Martin Ritt. WRITTEN BY: Jack Sher, Grimes Grice, Walter Bernstein. ADAPTATION BY: Lulla Adler. WITH: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, Louis Armstrong. 1961. 98 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm. A Man Called Adam Loosely based on the life of Miles Davis, A Man Called Adam centers on a gifted trumpeter (Sammy Davis Jr.) on a self- destructive streak. With a lethal combination of deep personal misfortune, systemic racism, and alcoholism, Adam finds connection and hope with activist Claudia (Cicely Tyson in a role that predates her marriage to Miles Davis). A Man Called Adam also stars Ossie Davis and Louis Armstrong. The film was made
For Love of Ivy with Anna Lucasta Sat, Feb 11 | 7:30pm | TMT For Love of Ivy
With a story concocted by the film’s leading man Sidney Poitier, For Love of Ivy centers on the titular character (Abbey Lincoln), hoping to give up her role as a white family’s domestic and begin anew in a city. The family’s son takes it upon himself to find Ivy a partner as a ploy to convince her to stay. Her suitor has other plans. As romantic leads, the warmth between Sidney Poitier and Abbey Lincoln captures the heart. DIRECTED BY: Daniel Mann. WRITTEN BY: Robert Alan Aurther. WITH: Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges, Nan Martin. 1968. 102 min. USA. Color. English. Rated G. 35mm. Anna Lucasta After her bible-thumping and alcoholic father throws her out, Anna Lucasta (Eartha Kitt) turns to sex work to survive.
tender display of romantic and community love. DIRECTED BY: Murray Roth. WRITTEN BY: Stanley Ruah.
WITH: Jimmy Mordecai, Louise Cook. 1930. 9 min. USA. B&W. English. Digital. Restored by the Academy Film Archive through a generous grant from the estate of David Shepard, from elements in the Blackhawk Films / Lobster collection from the Library of Congress. Ten Minutes to Live With Oscar Micheaux’s loving gaze (and working through the transitions to talkies), varied textures of Black American life in the 1930s are put on screen in
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