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L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema—Symposium

Daughters of the Dust  (1991)     

Saturday, November 12, 2011  |  Billy Wilder Theater

This one-day symposium organized by Allyson Nadia Field (UCLA) and Jacqueline Stewart (Northwestern University) is the first of its kind dedicated to the L.A. Rebellion, a key artistic movement of African American and African filmmakers who studied at UCLA between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Presented in conjunction with UCLA Film & Television Archive’s groundbreaking film exhibition, L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema, the symposium will reflect upon the rich and diverse work of these artists—including Carroll Parrott Blue, Charles Burnett, Ben Caldwell, Larry Clark, Julie Dash, Zeinabu irene Davis, Jamaa Fanaka, Jacqueline Frazier, Haile Gerima, Alile Sharon Larkin, Barbara McCullough and Billy Woodberry, among more than 40 others—who engaged in an unprecedented collective effort to re-imagine Black images in cinema. Attendees at this event will also have the opportunity to see rarely-viewed footage that is being preserved by the Archive.

Symposium Schedule

8:30 a.m. Coffee & Registration

9:00 a.m. Welcome & Screening, Allyson Nadia Field (UCLA) and Jacqueline Stewart (Northwestern University), symposium organizers.

9:45 a.m. Keynote, Clyde Taylor (NYU Emeritus).

10:30-12:00 p.m. Panel 1: "Black Film and Social Change: Representing Black Culture, Politics, and Labor Before and During the L.A. Rebellion." Chair: Jan-Christopher Horak (UCLA); David James (USC) and Samantha Sheppard (UCLA).

12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Break

1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Panel 2: "Creating Black Film Style: Black Arts, Music, and L.A. Rebellion Aesthetics." Chair: Allyson Nadia Field; Daniel Widener (UCSD), Morgan Woolsey (UCLA) and Cauleen Smith (filmmaker, UCLA alumna).

3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Coffee

3:30 – 5:15 p.m. Roundtable: "L.A. Rebellion: Then and Now." Chair: Jacqueline Stewart. Panelists: Ed Guerrero (NYU); Chuck Kleinhans (Northwestern University Emeritus/Jump Cut); Michael T. Martin (Indiana University/Black Camera); Clyde Taylor (NYU Emeritus); Monona Wali (filmmaker, UCLA alumna)

5:30 Break

7:30 Screening: Illusions (Julie Dash, 1982, 36 min.), Fragrance (Gay Abel-Bey, 1991, 38 min.), As Above, So Below (Larry Clark, 1973, 52 min.) and Rain (Melvonna Ballenger, 1978, 16 min.). Tickets for the evening's screening are available for purchase online or at the Billy Wilder Theater (TFT students, staff and faculty get in free).


We are very grateful for the generous support of our sponsors:

The Symposium is sponsored by Dean Teri Schwartz and UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television, Dean Barbara O'Keefe and Northwestern University's School of Communication, Jan-Christopher Horak and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Chair Barbara Boyle and UCLA's Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, UCLA's Program in Moving Image Archive Studies, Kathleen McHugh and UCLA's Center for the Study of Women, Elevate!, and the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. "L.A. Rebellion: Creating A New Black Cinema" is part of Pacific Standard Time, an initiative of the Getty, and has been made possible by a major grant from the Getty Foundation.  Generous support has been provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support has been provided by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the California Council for the Humanities.