Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971
February 4 -- June 23, 2024
Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI
In cooperation with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures…
Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 honors the legacy of African American filmmakers and actors from the dawn of cinema, through the golden age, and into the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. Inspired by and named after an independent 1923 all-Black-cast movie, Regeneration seeks to revive lost or forgotten films, filmmakers, and performers for a contemporary audience.
Explore — or revisit — a bittersweet part of American cinematic history, lost in plain sight but not by accident. In concurrence with the exhibit, The Detroit Film Theatre (Why, look! It's right next door!) will be showing a selection of 20^th^ century African American cinema gratis throughout the month of February.
The DFT's selection for this weekend (February 9-11)…
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The Bronze Buckaroo
USA, 1939, directed by Richard Kahn
Friday, February 9, 8:45pmThe Bronze Buckaroo finds frontiersman Bob Blake ([Detroit-born crooner Herb] Jeffries) pitted against the usual Western stock characters —horse rustlers, claim jumpers, and other cowboys not treating his gal with enough respect — but what makes the film an unexpected joy is the pure grace and gentle humor Jeffries brings to his singing role.
- Come early at 7 p.m. and hear singer and multi-instrumentalist Dr. Dom Flemons perform a tribute to Jeffries as part of his appearance at Friday Night Live!
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Within Our Gates
USA, 1920, directed by Oscar Micheaux
Saturday, Feb 10, 7:00pm
Within Our Gates is Oscar Micheaux earliest surviving film, a dense melodrama exploring the experience of multiple Black class divides in the years after WWI. Micheaux’s film follows Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer), a young bi-racial woman named whose family history was blighted by racial violence.- Within Our Gates will be presented with a live musical score, composed and performed by pianist Mike Jellick.
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Princess Tam Tam
FRA, 1932, directed by Edmond T. Gréville
Sunday Matinée, Feb 11, 2:00pm
[rr: Josephine Baker, "Black Venus", what 20^th^ century America was too blind to see, too hateful to appreciate, was ultimately «la république française»'s gain, *soupir*]In this film, Max (Albert Préjean) is a novelist who escapes his social-butterfly wife in Paris to vacation in Tunisia, where he becomes infatuated with a young shepherdess named Alwina (Baker). He decides to present her to French society as a Bedouin princess to elicit his wife’s jealousy. Princess Tam Tam was wildly popular throughout Europe but never granted an exhibition visa and went unseen by American audiences until it was rediscovered in 1989.
The Regenerations exhibit and all DFT films are gratis with general admission. General museum admission is free for residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties. For further information, please call (313) 833-7900 during visiting hours or visit https://dia.org .