With word of the impending heatpocalyspe, it might be worthwhile to spend as much time as possible in the comfort of an air-conditioned theater room.
It’ll be especially easy to do that this week, as the Oklahoma City Museum of Art brings us three selections from auteurs of black independent cinema. Though each was originally released in the ’80s, their influence wasn’t recognized until long after their respective premieres. Featuring the work of Spike Lee, Charles Burnett, and Kathleen Collins, OKCMOA’s silver screen will be the brief home of these undeniably important films.
My Brother’s Wedding
Director: Charles Burnett
7:30 p.m. Thursday
Improving your quality of life and retaining your culture don’t always go hand in hand, as Killer of Sheep director Charles Burnett illustrates in My Brother’s Wedding. The film traces Pierce (Everett Silas), a dry cleaner employee with a lack of ambition. When his brother Wendell (Monte Easter) marries a woman with a significantly higher status than his own, Pierce is forced to reconcile his appreciation for his heritage with an impending social shift he’s reluctant to accept.
Like Burnett’s aforementioned work, My Brother’s Wedding demonstrates his ability to organically capture the minority communities of L.A. in the late 20th century. Like his other films, My Brother’s Wedding only hit its stride decades after its release. Plagued by a difficult-to-watch initial cut, My Brother’s Wedding wasn’t seen for what it truly is until 2007 when it received a far more appropriate edit.
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She’s Gotta Have It
Director: Spike Lee
8 p.m. Friday
Like an urban Far from the Madding Crowd, She’s Gotta Have it follows Nola (Tracy Camilla Johns) as she nearly suffocates at the hands of three hopeful suitors. Though Nola finds something worth appreciating in each of the men, her own independence remains at the forefront of her mind — a concept the trio has a bit of difficulty wrapping their heads around.
She’s Gotta Have It, Lee’s first feature film, ushered in an era of independent cinema, contending that quality films can be made on a shoestring budget. It likewise revitalized Lee’s Brooklyn neighborhood with haste, as She’s Gotta Have It‘s commercial success instigated an artistic resurgence within the area.
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Losing Ground
Director: Kathleen Collins
5:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Headlining the series is Kathleen Collins’ Losing Ground, a dramatic comedy about falling out of love and the pursuit of “ecstasy.” Sara (Seret Scott) is a philosophy professor enthralled with an intellectual endeavor of existential proportions. At the same time, her husband, Victor (Bill Gunn), is far more concerned with studying humanity as it naturally appears. The disagreement spurs a gradual division between the couple as they dive deep into their respective fields.
Collins, who is cited as one of the first black women to direct a feature-length film, passed away long before Losing Ground‘s importance came to light. Still, its recent popularity serves as a testament to how the prevalence of a work can succeed artists long after their lifetimes. Losing Ground is momentous, and a must-see for any moviegoer bold enough to call themselves a cinephile.
