6
7
animation, creating a dynamic and intimate portrait of the poet. This documentary short was digitally restored in 4K from the 16mm original negatives. Note by Academy Film Archive Short Film Preservationist Tessa Idlewine. DIRECTED BY: Mirra Bank. WITH: Nikki Giovanni. 1986. 29 min. USA. Color. English. DCP. Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and the Women’s Film Preservation Fund, with support from the Leon Levy Foundation. I Be Done Been Was Is | Restoration World Premiere Debra J. Robinson’s incisive documentary examines the obstacles faced by Black women in comedy through the observations and performances by comedians Alice Arthur, Rhonda Hansome, Jane Galvin Lewis, and Marsha Warfield. Intertwining live stand-up, candid interviews, and historical context featuring iconic predecessor Moms Mabley, the film presents a not-so-distant past illustrating what it means to navigate a field dominated by whiteness and masculinity as a Black woman. Digitally restored in 4K from the original 16mm negative. Note by Academy Film Archive Film Preservationist Cassie Blake. DIRECTED BY: Debra J. Robinson. WITH: Alice Arthur, Rhonda Hansome, Marsha Warfield, Jane Galvin Lewis. 1983. 58 min. USA. Color. English. 4K DCP. Restored in 2021 by the Academy Film Archive.
All films directed by Curt McDowell unless otherwise noted; all restored prints courtesy of the Academy Film Archive. Immense thanks to Melinda McDowell. Total program runtime: 74 min. Please note: this program contains explicit content. No one under 18 admitted. Ainslie Trailer | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere 1972. 2 min. USA. Color. English. 16mm. Confessions 1971. 11 min. USA. B&W. English. 16mm. Wieners & Buns Musical | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere 1972. 14 min. USA. B&W. English. 16mm. Ronnie | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere 1972. 4 min. USA. B&W. English. 16mm. Stinky-Butt | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere DIRECTED BY: Curt McDowell, Mark Ellinger. 1974. 3 min. USA. B&W. Sound. 16mm. Beaver Fever | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere
Not a Pretty Picture Thu, Dec 8 | 7pm | TMT | Restoration World Premiere In person: Martha Coolidge. Blurring the line between documentary and storytelling, Martha Coolidge’s compelling meta-narrative examines her own sexual assault in high school by a fellow classmate. Coolidge enlists actors to recreate the circumstances surrounding her rape and interviews her former roommate to illuminate the consequences and complexities of its aftermath. Hailed as “Brechtian” by critics, the film delves into the often- gendered psychology of rape as well as Coolidge’s own struggle to understand how and why the assault occurred. Digitally restored in 4K from original 16mm elements. Note by Academy Film Archive Film Preservationist Cassie Blake. DIRECTED BY: Martha Coolidge. WRITTEN BY: Martha Coolidge. WITH: Michele Manenti, Jim Carrington, Anne Mundstuk, Martha Coolidge. 1975. 83 min. USA. Color. English. 4K DCP. Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
Regrouping
Regrouping Fri, Dec 9 | 7pm | TMT | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere In person: Lizzie Borden. For her staunchly independent, radically feminist feature debut, independent filmmaker Lizzie Borden ( Working Girls , Born in Flames ) constructs a rich docu-fictional experiment with the members of a woman’s group, testing the limits of community and interrogating filmmaking as an art practice in the process. When the film premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 1976, it was one of just a handful of pictures in the program made by women. Finally restored to 16mm by Anthology Film Archives after decades of inaccessibility, Borden’s daring, original piece adds another fascinating page to the rich history of feminist films made across the globe in the 1970s. Note by Academy Museum Associate Director, Film Programs K.J. Relth-Miller. DIRECTED BY: Lizzie Borden. WITH: Kathryn Bigelow, Ariel Bock, Marion Cajori, Glenda Hydler. 1976. 80 min. USA. B&W. English. 16mm. Restored by Anthology Film Archives.
1974. 20 min. USA. B&W. English. 16mm. Loads | Restoration World Premiere 1980. 20 min. USA. B&W. English. 16mm.
O Sangue
O Sangue Thu, Dec 8 | 10pm | TMT | Los Angeles Restoration Premiere The first feature film of Portuguese writer-director Pedro Costa is a nocturnal drama about teen brothers whose life is turned upside down after their father’s death. Drawing heavily from the shadow worlds of directors Fritz Lang, Kenji Mizoguchi, Robert Bresson, Jacques Tourneur, and Nicholas Ray, Costa creates a crepuscular fairy tale set against wintry barren forests and desolate high rises. Opening with a literal slap to the face, O Sangue is one of cinema’s most poised debuts. Note by Academy Museum Senior Director, Film Programs Bernardo Rondeau.
The Confessions of Curt McDowell Fri, Dec 9 | 10pm | TMT In person: Melinda McDowell.
Hito Hata: Raise the Banner
Hito Hata: Raise the Banner Sat, Dec 10 | 3pm | TMT | Restoration World Premiere A landmark project, Hito Hata: Raise the Banner is the first feature-length film made about Asian Pacific Americans by Asian Pacific Americans. Produced by Visual Communications and co-directed by Robert Nakamura and Duane Kubo, the film stars Mako (Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for The Sand Pebbles ) as Oda, an elderly resident of Little Tokyo who reminisces on his life in the neighborhood, from his early days as a new immigrant through his time being interned during World War II to the rapid gentrification of downtown Los Angeles. Note by Academy Museum Senior Director, Film Programs Bernardo Rondeau. DIRECTED BY: Robert Nakamura, Duane Kubo. WRITTEN BY: John Esaki, Robert A. Nakamura. WITH: Mako, Pat Morita, Hiroshi Kashiwagi. 1980. 86 min. USA. Color. English and Japanese. DCP. The 4K restoration is funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation, with additional support from funders of the Visual Communications Archives (Aratani Foundation, California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, California Humanities, Haynes Foundation, and Mellon Foundation).
Come On, Cowboy!
Dirty, playful, bawdy, freaky, raunchy, sexy, brilliant, campy, punky, puerile, gross, glamorous…there are not enough evocative adjectives to accurately encompass the innumerable pleasures of Curt McDowell’s resolutely queer and radically multi-sexual body of film work in all its florid fecundity. A contemporary of John Waters and the Kuchar brothers, San Francisco-based McDowell produced a stimulating body of films between the late 1960s and his death in 1987 from HIV/AIDS, drawing vividly on his obsessions with sex, pop music, performance, comedy, melodrama, and the delicious dichotomy of the gorgeous and the grotesque. Most notorious for his nearly three-hour horror/comedy/porno/melodrama/ cult classic Thundercrack! (1975), McDowell also created numerous hilarious, intimate, audacious, and unexpectedly profound short films over his tragically short career. The Academy Film Archive has been home to Curt McDowell’s films since 2014, and since then has been actively working to restore his entire body of work. This program will feature an eclectic selection of these restorations, most showing for the first time in Los Angeles, and including the world premiere of the restoration of McDowell’s most provocative and acclaimed short film, Loads . Programmed and note by Academy Film Archive Senior Film Preservationist Mark Toscano.
Preservation Conversation: Come On, Cowboy! Mon, Dec 5 | 7:30pm | TMT | Restoration World Premiere Free for Museum Members. Previously thought to be lost, Come On, Cowboy! is an independent B-Western comedy that features an all-Black cast and stars Mantan Moreland and Mauryne Brent. Moreland plays a clumsy buffoon tasked with preparing a ranch for a friend’s wedding, which unbeknownst to him is being used as a hideout for a gang of gunslinging bandits. Although some of the characters undeniably fall into racial stereotypes of the time, it is important to note that these actors were able to assume roles that otherwise would have been relegated to white actors in mainstream Hollywood. Note by Academy Film Archive Preservation Archivist Brianna Toth. DIRECTED BY: Uncredited. WRITTEN BY: Uncredited. WITH: Mantan Moreland, Mauryne Brent, Johnny Lee, Flournoy E. Miller. 1949. 67 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP. Restoration by the Academy Film Archive and Blackhawk Films with funding from the estate of David Shepard from the only surviving 35mm nitrate print donated by Giancarlo Esposito and Laurence Fishburne.
DIRECTED BY: Pedro Costa. WRITTEN BY: Pedro Costa. WITH: Pedro Hestnes, Nuno Ferreira, Inês de Medeiros,
Luís Miguel Cintra. 1989. 99 min. Portugal. B&W. Portuguese. 4K DCP. This DCP results from a digitization of the original 35mm camera negative and from original 35mm monaural magnetic and optical sound elements preserved at Cinemateca Portuguesa, Museu do Cinema / ANIM. Negative 4K scan on wet gate Oxberry- Cineric scanner and audio recording supervised by Franco Bosco at ANIM. Digital grading and image restoration supervised by Carlos Almeida at IrmaLucia Efeitos Especiais, Lisbon. Colorist: Gonçalo Ferreira. Image Restoration: André Constantino, Ana Cunha. Uncompressed monaural soundtrack supervised by Hugo Leitão at Estúdio Espreita o Som, Lisbon. Image and sound restorations approved by the director, October 2021–February 2022. Special thanks to José Manuel Costa, Rui Machado – Cinemateca Portuguesa, Museu do Cinema / ANIM and Clarão Companhia Prod.
Powered by FlippingBook