A new film festival is on the scene. Los Angeles Festival of Movies (Lafm), co-presented by Mubi and Mezzanine, has announced the full line-up for its inaugural run, taking place April 4-7, 2024. Boasting 11 titles––including one world premiere, three 4K restorations, a featured artist talk, documentary series, and curated shorts program––screenings will take place at three recently opened venues on the east side of Los Angeles: Vidiots in Eagle Rock, 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown, and Now Instant Image Hall in Chinatown.
Among the lineup are some of our recent festival favorites: Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, India Donaldson’s Good One, the Ross brothers’ Gasoline Rainbow, and Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge 3. Closing the festival is the world premiere of Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharer’s Rap World.
“This lineup is a snapshot of the past and present landscape of independent cinema, and a group...
Among the lineup are some of our recent festival favorites: Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, India Donaldson’s Good One, the Ross brothers’ Gasoline Rainbow, and Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge 3. Closing the festival is the world premiere of Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharer’s Rap World.
“This lineup is a snapshot of the past and present landscape of independent cinema, and a group...
- 3/7/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ava DuVernay has only made five narrative features, but she’s one of the busiest women in Hollywood.
Before 2023, the California-born filmmaker’s last feature was her “A Wrinkle in Time” adaptation, released in theaters in 2018 — a five-year gap between releases that’s partially attributable to projects that sputtered in development like DC’s “New Gods” film and a Prince biopic. And yet, DuVernay has remained a constant presence during that relatively long gap, translating her numerous talents to producing and TV work. She created and directed the acclaimed Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” about the controversial Central Park Five case. Several other TV projects followed, including OWN’s “Cherish the Day,” Netflix’s “Colin in Black and White,” and The CW’s “Naomi.” But while many of those projects have been terrific, it’s great to see the director of great films like “Middle of Nowhere” and “Selma...
Before 2023, the California-born filmmaker’s last feature was her “A Wrinkle in Time” adaptation, released in theaters in 2018 — a five-year gap between releases that’s partially attributable to projects that sputtered in development like DC’s “New Gods” film and a Prince biopic. And yet, DuVernay has remained a constant presence during that relatively long gap, translating her numerous talents to producing and TV work. She created and directed the acclaimed Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” about the controversial Central Park Five case. Several other TV projects followed, including OWN’s “Cherish the Day,” Netflix’s “Colin in Black and White,” and The CW’s “Naomi.” But while many of those projects have been terrific, it’s great to see the director of great films like “Middle of Nowhere” and “Selma...
- 1/25/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Kino Lorber, at the Lumiére Festival and International Classic Film Market (Mifc) in Lyon with a number of new restorations, including Stanley Kubrick’s “Fear and Desire,” will next release Bridgett M. Davis’ 1996 drama “Naked Acts” and a complete retrospective of Oscar Micheaux, the first black filmmaker.
Also headed for release is “The Dragon Painter,” a rare, 1919 silent film with an all Asian cast, with the feel of an old Japanese film but entirely shot in the San Francisco area. It stars Sessue Hayakawa, who produced it himself, as well as his real-life wife Tsuru Aoki.
Kino Lorber is partnering with Milestone Films to release “The Dragon Painter” in 4K in 2024 with a new score.
Likewise set for a 4K release next year in partnership with Milestone is “Naked Acts,” which follows young Black actress Cicely, who is about to make her acting debut in a low budget film. As...
Also headed for release is “The Dragon Painter,” a rare, 1919 silent film with an all Asian cast, with the feel of an old Japanese film but entirely shot in the San Francisco area. It stars Sessue Hayakawa, who produced it himself, as well as his real-life wife Tsuru Aoki.
Kino Lorber is partnering with Milestone Films to release “The Dragon Painter” in 4K in 2024 with a new score.
Likewise set for a 4K release next year in partnership with Milestone is “Naked Acts,” which follows young Black actress Cicely, who is about to make her acting debut in a low budget film. As...
- 10/18/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
They Come in All Colors (Atria) by Malcolm Hansen
Agency: New Leaf
In the wake of Moonlight comes another coming-of-age tale about black masculinity, out in spring 2018. A biracial 13-year-old boy uprooted from his small Georgia hometown to a New York prep school in 1969 faces the effects of racism and his own anger, which threaten his future.
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? (Ecco) by Kathleen Collins
Agency: UTA
This posthumous collection from the overlooked African-American filmmaker (Losing Ground), who died in 1988, is popping up on year-end “best of” lists. The short stories, mainly...
Agency: New Leaf
In the wake of Moonlight comes another coming-of-age tale about black masculinity, out in spring 2018. A biracial 13-year-old boy uprooted from his small Georgia hometown to a New York prep school in 1969 faces the effects of racism and his own anger, which threaten his future.
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? (Ecco) by Kathleen Collins
Agency: UTA
This posthumous collection from the overlooked African-American filmmaker (Losing Ground), who died in 1988, is popping up on year-end “best of” lists. The short stories, mainly...
- 12/16/2016
- by Rebecca Ford and Andy Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kathleen Collins' Must-See Restored/Remastered 'Losing Ground' Hits Blu-Ray/DVD in 2-Disc Deluxe Set
I can only imagine what it must have felt like, watching this in the year of its initial release (1982), not-so-far removed from the previous decade in American cinema that was dominated by exploitation films - specifically Blaxploitation films. And while East Coaster Kathleen Collins didn't emerge from the celebrated L.A. Rebellion film movement, her work certainly contributed to what was then a new generation of upstart African and African American filmmakers, who created a "Black Cinema" that acted as an alternative to dominant classical Hollywood cinema - especially where representations of people of African descent were concerned. That "Losing Ground" still...
- 3/19/2016
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Kathleen Collins' name made a big cultural rebound with a single review in The New Yorker -- of an independent movie she wrote and directed in 1982. It's a confluence of important black theater and filmmaking talent -- Collins, Bill Gunn, Duane Jones, Billie Allen and, in the background, William Greaves and the history of film generated by African-Americans. Losing Ground Blu-ray The Milestone Cinematheque 1982 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Available at Milestone Films / Street Date April 5, 2016 / 39.99 Starring Seret Scott, Bill Gunn, Duane Jones, Billie Allen, Maritza Rivera, Noberto Kerner, Gary Bolling, Michelle Mais. Cinematography Ronald K. Gray Film Editor Ronald K. Gray, Kathleen Collins Original Music Michael Minard Produced by Kathleen Collins, Ronald K. Gray Written and Directed by Kathleen Collins
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Quick, name five film directors that are black women. Well, after seeing the glowing review for Losing Ground late last year in The New Yorker,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Quick, name five film directors that are black women. Well, after seeing the glowing review for Losing Ground late last year in The New Yorker,...
- 3/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This is definitely the time of year when film critic types (I’m sure you know who I mean) spend an inordinate amount of time leading up to awards season—and it all leads up to awards season, don’t it?—compiling lists and trying to convince anyone who will listen that it was a shitty year at the movies for anyone who liked something other than what they saw and liked. And ‘tis the season, or at least ‘thas (?) been in the recent past, for that most beloved of academic parlor games, bemoaning the death of cinema, which, if the sackcloth-and-ashes-clad among us are to be believed, is an increasingly detached and irrelevant art form in the process of being smothered under the wet, steaming blanket of American blockbuster-it is. And it’s going all malnourished from the siphoning off of all the talent back to TV, which, as everyone knows,...
- 1/9/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
As I wrote back in January of this year, there have always been black filmmakers, long before Spike Lee or John Singleton. In fact too many to mention just a few. But one significant black filmmaker who seems to have been overlooked, is playwright/professor/activist and filmmaker Kathleen Collins. Perhaps because her list of films only consists of two pictures, and that she died relatively young, at the age of 46, in 1988, after a long battle with breast cancer, she has sadly been overlooked for too long. But the feature film that made her a name, "Losing Ground," has unfortunately been seen by very few. It toured the film festival circuit during the early...
- 8/19/2015
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Film Society at Lincoln Center has extended its theatrical run for Kathleen Collins' 'Losing Ground,' for another week, due to popular demand, as the title of this post states! So, if you're in New York City, you're strongly encouraged to go see the film while you still can - on the big screen, which is significant. It's a film that never received a proper theatrical release, so this is one that's long overdue! Take advantage of this opportunity folks! My review of the film follows below, if you missed it when previously published. I can only imagine what it must have felt like, watching this in the year of its initial release (1982), not-so-far removed from the previous decade...
- 2/18/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Lincoln Center’s vital series “Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986″ kicks off today, including a week-long debut theatrical run of Kathleen Collins’ 1982 Losing Ground. Believed to be the first African-American woman to direct a feature film (1980’s The Cruz Brothers and Mrs. Molloy), Collins’ 1982 second and final feature has never received a regular theatrical run until now. The story of a philosophy professor (Sereh Scott) and her landscape painter husband (Ganja and Hess director Bill Gunn) in the middle of a transformative vacation in upstate New York, the film is described as a […]...
- 2/6/2015
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Lincoln Center’s vital series “Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986″ kicks off today, including a week-long debut theatrical run of Kathleen Collins’ 1982 Losing Ground. Believed to be the first African-American woman to direct a feature film (1980’s The Cruz Brothers and Mrs. Molloy), Collins’ 1982 second and final feature has never received a regular theatrical run until now. The story of a philosophy professor (Sereh Scott) and her landscape painter husband (Ganja and Hess director Bill Gunn) in the middle of a transformative vacation in upstate New York, the film is described as a […]...
- 2/6/2015
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
I can only imagine what it must have felt like, watching this in the year of its initial release (1982), not-so-far removed from the previous decade in American cinema that was dominated by exploitation films - specifically Blaxploitation films. And while East Coaster Kathleen Collins didn't emerge from the celebrated L.A. Rebellion film movement, her work certainly contributed to what was then a new generation of upstart African and African American filmmakers, who created a "Black Cinema" that acted as an alternative to dominant classical Hollywood cinema - especially where representations of people of African descent were concerned. That "Losing Ground" still...
- 2/6/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Kicking off today, Friday, February 6, 2015, is a must-attend series, presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center (NYC), titled "Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968–1986" - from the opener, Kathleen Collins' stately 1982 feature "Losing Ground" (read my review of the film here); to Ayoka Chenzira's humorous, though inciting short "black hair" travelogue, "Hair Piece A Film for Nappy-Headed People;" Camille Billops' devastating documentary on a young black woman's struggles to come to terms with her physically abusive father (dead at the time of the making of the film) as well as a mother, abused herself, unable...
- 2/6/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
I can only imagine what it must have felt like, watching this in the year of its initial release (1982), not-so-far removed from the previous decade in American cinema that was dominated by exploitation films - specifically Blaxploitation films. And while East Coaster Kathleen Collins didn't emerge from the celebrated L.A. Rebellion film movement, her work certainly contributed to what was then a new generation of upstart African and African American filmmakers, who created a "Black Cinema" that acted as an alternative to dominant classical Hollywood cinema - especially where representations of people of African descent were concerned. That "Losing Ground" still...
- 2/3/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
I spent part of my weekend watching screeners for films that are included in this upcoming, awesome series, presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center (NYC), titled "Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968–1986" - from the opener, Kathleen Collins' stately 1982 feature "Losing Ground" (read my review of the film here); to Ayoka Chenzira's humorous, though inciting short "black hair" travelogue, "Hair Piece A Film for Nappy-Headed People;" Camille Billops' devastating documentary on a young black woman's struggles to come to terms with her physically abusive father (dead at the time of the making of the film) as...
- 2/2/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
There’s no need to tell you that there have always been black filmmakers, long before Spike Lee; too many to mention just a few. But one significant person, who seems to have been overlooked, is playwright/professor/activist and filmmaker Kathleen Collins. Perhaps because her list of films only consists of two pictures, and that she died relatively young, at the age of 46, in 1988, after a long battle with breast cancer, she has sadly been overlooked for too long. But the feature film that made her a name, "Losing Ground," has sadly been very little seen by the public. It made the rounds of some film festivals during the early 1980’s, and yet,...
- 1/19/2015
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
There’s no need to tell you that there have always been black filmmakers, long before Spike Lee; too many to mention just a few. But one significant person, who seems to have been overlooked, is playwright/professor/activist and filmmaker Kathleen Collins. Perhaps because her list of films only consists of two pictures, and that she died relatively young, at the age of 46, in 1988, after a long battle with breast cancer, she has sadly been overlooked for too long. But the feature film that made her a name, "Losing Ground," has sadly been very little seen by the public. It made the rounds of some film festivals during the early 1980’s, and yet,...
- 1/13/2015
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
African American filmmaker, playwright and professor of film history and production, Kathleen Collins, died of cancer in September 1988. She was just 46 years old. She may be most known for Losing Ground, a 1982 TV movie she wrote and directed (starring Seret Scott, Bill Gunn, and Duane Jones), which played the international film festival circuit to much acclaim, and would eventually be restored and distributed by Milestone Films. The film is a dramedy about a black American philosophy professor, and her philandering artist husband who are facing marital problems. The husband rents a summer country house to celebrate a museum sale, and their idyll summer...
- 3/21/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
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