Film
And She Was Loved: A Suite of Sounds and Images for Toni Morrison
- 6PM
Programmers: Tayler Montague and Jessica Lynne
“This series of short films represent a call-and-response style interrogation of the many themes taken up by Toni Morrison and her unparalleled body of work. Moreover, in thinking about what scholar Daphne Brooks has called “Professor Morrison's generation of sisters who loved music and found their way into the listening booths of the record shop,” the evening's program opens and concludes with screenings of short performances by Nina Simone and Jessye Norman, two women for whom Morrison cared for and loved deeply.” —Tayler Montague and Jessica Lynne
Intro and post-screening discussion with Tayler Montague and Jessica Lynne
Go to the movies just once a month and a BAM membership pays for itself.
Dir. Nuotama Bodomo
2013, 12min
Shot in gloriously grainy Super 16mm, this poetic and thought-provoking portrait of the African immigrant experience in Louisiana stars Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis.
Dir. Maureen Blackwood
1988, 30min
Two actresses, one light-skinned, one dark-skinned, in a series of freewheeling, sometimes musical sketches exploring Black beauty standards.
Dir. Stefani Santoinge
2018, 8min, DCP
A poetic meditation on women’s work and the dreamlife of ants set to the words of Toni Morrison.
Dir. Carolyn Johnson & Larry Bullard
1978, 50min
The everyday lives of three Black American families with different approaches to their struggle for survival are represented through a mix of fiction and documentary scenes, a docudrama style inspired by the work of Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez.
Jessica Lynne is a writer and art critic. She is a founding editor of ARTS.BLACK, an online journal of art criticism from Black perspectives. Her writing has been featured in Art in America, The Believer, BOMB Magazine, The Nation, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a collection of essays about love, faith, and the American South.
Tayler Montague is a native New Yorker, writer, and curator. She has written for Film Comment, The Fader, Rookie Magazine, NYLON, Teen Vogue, Pitchfork, and other publications. She recently wrote and directed her first short film, In Sudden Darkness.
A program dedicated to the extraordinary life, career, and legacy of Audre Lorde.
Eisa Davis hosts an evening of reflection, followed by a dance party with DJ Reborn.
A program exploring adaptations of Toni Morrison’s work, featuring the film Beloved.