PREVIOUSLY
Special guests in person!
Bessie Coleman, First Black Aviatrix
2018, Olivier Sarrazin, France, 53 min.
Film series:
25th Anniversary Black Harvest Film Festival
Showtimes:
- Sat, Aug 24th 5:15pm
- Tue, Aug 27th 6:00pm
Pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to receive a pilot's license. This classy French production uses excerpts from Coleman's journals and sweeping aerial views of the sites where she learned to fly to accompany commentary by experts centered in France and Chicago—the two most important venues in her flying career. Born to a family of Texas sharecroppers, in 1916 the 24-year-old Coleman moved to Chicago, where she embraced the dream of becoming a flier. American aviation schools were closed to both Blacks and women, but Chicago Defender publisher Robert S. Abbott encouraged her ambitions and helped sponsor a trip to France, where she learned to fly. Returning to the U.S., Coleman gained fame as a barnstorming pilot, until her life was cut short by an aviation accident at age 34. Buried in Chicago's Lincoln Cemetery, she remains an inspiration for African American aviators (including astronaut Mae Jemison, who carried a picture of Coleman on her first space mission). In English and French with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR) FF
The following guests are scheduled to appear for audience discussion:
Gigi Coleman Brooms, great-niece of Bessie Coleman and CEO/President of Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars;
Dr. Christopher Reed, Professor Emeritus of History at Roosevelt University and Resident Historian at the DuSable Museum;
Myiti Sengstacke-Rice, CEO/President of Chicago Defender Charities and great-grand-niece of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender;
Jean-Marc Giboux, director of photography for BESSIE COLEMAN, FIRST BLACK AVIATRIX (Saturday only);
Tammera Holmes, President/CEO of the AeroStar Consulting Corporation and winner of the Bessie Coleman Aviation Award (Saturday only).
VeeLa Gonzales, Archivist/Curator for the Robert Sengstacke Abbott Foundation (Tuesday only).
The Tuesday screening is a Movie Club event.
New restoration!
Between the Lines
1977, Joan Micklin Silver, USA, 101 min.
With John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum
Plays in:
Runs & Limited Engagements
Showtimes:
- Sat, Apr 6th 3:00pm
- Mon, Apr 8th 8:00pm
- Wed, Apr 10th 6:00pm
"More timely than ever. A zippy, lived-in dramedy."--Kate Erbland, Indiewire
"An American independent film classic...Micklin Silver's expertise at balancing humor and heartbreak in this adult coming-of-age story keeps the vibrant '70s portrait timeless."--Maya Montañez Smukler, Women and Hollywood
In the 1970s, Joan Micklin Silver established herself as one of leaders of an emerging group of independent women filmmakers, with a special aptitude for capturing subcultures and gender tensions in changing times. BETWEEN THE LINES, her second film (following the sleeper hit HESTER STREET), functions as both a time-capsule snapshot of the pre-Internet era and a prescient barometer of cultural trends that are still relevant today. This lively ensemble comedy-drama traces the workplace and bedroom conflicts among the staff of a Boston alt-weekly newspaper as it faces a corporate takeover. Silver provides a nuanced view of the declining counterculture, with an astute take on its marginalization of women who balk at being camp-followers in their boyfriend's career arcs. The film boasts a dazzling cast of up-and-comers about to make marks of varying duration, including Jeff Goldblum as a flakey rock critic, John Heard as a disillusioned star reporter, Lindsay Crouse as the talented photographer who is his off-and-on girlfriend, Stephen Collins as an arrogant would-be novelist, Marilu Henner as a stripper with substance, and Bruno Kirby as an over-eager cub reporter pursuing a dangerous story. New 2K DCP digital restoration. (MR);
The Wednesday screening is a Movie Club event where Tracy Baim, publisher of the Chicago Reader newspaper, will be facilitating conversation.