Spirits of Rebellion: Black Independent Cinema from Los Angeles
Leaving Soon
•
1h 41m
Leaving August 1
Directed by Zeinabu irene Davis | 101 mins | 2016
Davis’s documentary on the LA Rebellion, a surge of artistically ambitious, far-from-the-mainstream Black-American-directed films that came out of southern California—specifically, out of the UCLA film production program—beginning in the late ’70s, gets up close and personal with leading lights of the movement including Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, Billy Woodberry, Barbara McCullough, Ben Caldwell, and Davis herself, with those who witnessed it firsthand setting the record straight about the facts of the Rebellion and offering their individual answers to the question: “What is a Black film?” A rousing lesson in Black cinema history that looks forward to its future.
Up Next in Leaving Soon
-
Subway Riders
Leaving August 1
Directed by Amos Poe | 113 mins | 1981
A Pied Piper is terrorizing the city, luring victims with the sound of his saxophone blowing before blowing them away. A mood-drenched memento from Fun City NYC—invested with pungent ambience by future "Sugarbaby" DP Johanna Heer—"Subway Ri... -
The Foreigner
Leaving August 1
Directed by Amos Poe | 92 mins | 1978
Described by its director as an “anti-homage,” Poe’s noir-inflected tale follows a French secret agent (Eric Mitchell), arrived in NYC on a mission whose exact nature is unclear, and targeted by enemies whose grudges are equally ambiguous. S... -
The Inheritance
Leaving August 1
Directed by Ephraim Asili | 87 mins | 2020
Asili’s feature debut is a vivacious, fascinating, fierce and funny ensemble piece set almost entirely inside a West Philadelphia house in which a collective of Black artists and activists have convened, twining together their scripted ...
