USA/2022—directed by Nancy Buirski | 101 minutes

A half century after its release, Midnight Cowboy remains one of the ground-breaking movies of the modern era. With electric performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as loners who join forces out of desperation, blacklist survivor Waldo Salt's brilliant screenplay and John Schlesinger's fearless direction, the 1969 film became the only X-rated release to ever win the Academy Award® for Best Picture. 

Its vivid yet compassionate depiction of an unsanitized New York City and its vulnerable inhabitants paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with adult themes. More than a documentary about Midnight Cowboy, Buirski’s film is a portrait of the gifted people behind a difficult masterpiece; New York in a time of cultural ferment; and the era that made a movie and the movie that made an era.

“Makes the case that the 1969 Best Picture winner is the key film of the era.” –Adam Solomons, IndieWire
 

Simon Shaheen, a Palestinian born in 1955, dazzles listeners as he deftly leaps from traditional Arab sounds to jazz and Western classical styles. His soaring technique, melodic ingenuity, and unparalleled grace have earned him international acclaim as a virtuoso on the oud and violin. Shaheen is one of the most significant Arab musicians, performers, and composers of his generation. His work incorporates and reflects a legacy of Arab music, while it forges ahead to new frontiers, bracing many different styles in the process.

This unique contribution to the world of arts was recognized in 1994 when Shaheen was honored with the prestigious National Heritage Award at the White House.  In 2022, he was honored with the Globalfest Artist Award, which acknowledges the impact Shaheen has had at home and abroad. 

Concert of Colors is metro Detroit’s free annual global music festival, an upbeat event celebrating diverse World music traditions-including the indigenous music of the Motor City. The festival also hosts the Forum on Community, Culture and Race, a series of conversations with artists, cultural and community leaders examining the role of the arts in overcoming social barriers.

For a complete schedule of Concert of Colors programs at the Detroit Institute of Arts and neighboring institutions visit the festival website.

Concert of Colors is produced through the partnership of  Culture Source, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, ACCESS,  University of Michigan – Detroit Center, Michigan Science Center, Detroit Historical Museum, College For Creative Studies, Hellenic Museum of Michigan, Third Man Records, Lowriders of Detroit, Science Gallery Detroit, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Midtown Inc., University of Michigan Dearborn, University of Michigan – Detroit, Arab American National Museum, WDET, The Scarab Club, International Institute of Metro Detroit and Marx Layne & Company.

Calvin Cooke was born into a musical family that belonged to the Church of the Living God, Jewell Dominion, an African American Holiness-Pentecostal church in which the electric steel guitar has been an important part of worship services since the late 1930's.  Nashville country steel guitarists have dubbed Cooke, the "B.B. King of gospel steel guitar." 

Cooke’s music is characterized by slow tempos and boogie rhythms.   He is one of the few "sacred steel" guitarists who regularly combines singing with his guitar work.   Cooke is accompanied by a group of veteran church musicians from Detroit.  His wife Grace on vocals, guitarist Jay Caver, bass guitarist Eddie Harmon, and drummer Ivan Shaw.

Sunday's event will take place outside on the DIA Lawn.

Concert of Colors is metro Detroit’s free annual global music festival, an upbeat event celebrating diverse World music traditions-including the indigenous music of the Motor City. The festival also hosts the Forum on Community, Culture and Race, a series of conversations with artists, cultural and community leaders examining the role of the arts in overcoming social barriers.

For a complete schedule of Concert of Colors programs at the Detroit Institute of Arts and neighboring institutions visit the festival website.

Concert of Colors is produced through the partnership of  Culture Source, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, ACCESS,  University of Michigan – Detroit Center, Michigan Science Center, Detroit Historical Museum, College For Creative Studies, Hellenic Museum of Michigan, Third Man Records, Lowriders of Detroit, Science Gallery Detroit, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Midtown Inc., University of Michigan Dearborn, University of Michigan – Detroit, Arab American National Museum, WDET, The Scarab Club, International Institute of Metro Detroit and Marx Layne & Company.

Highlife was a style of urban recreational dance popular in West Africa in the 1950s. It originated in James Barnor’s Ghana, where musicians adopted Western dance-band instruments at open-air nightclubs to celebrate the exuberant spirit of independence. Join the DIA’s High Life Dance Party with the Adom High Life Band and learn its graceful and expressive moves with instructor Sasu Amen Ra. 

Presented alongside the exhibition James Barnor: Accra/London—A Retrospective.

Image: James Barnor (Ghana, b. 1929). Tempos Band, birthday celebrations, Adabraka neighborhood, Accra, 1958 (printed 2010–20). Gelatin silver print. Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris.

© James Barnor, courtesy Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris.

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival began in 1992 as a joint effort between Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings and local religious institutions. Since then, the organization has brought some of the world’s most acclaimed chamber musicians to the city for a two-week Festival that occurs in venues across the metropolitan area. In 2023 the DIA will host Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival with a special Juneteenth performance by composer Carlos Simon. 

Having grown up in Atlanta, with a long lineage of preachers and connections to gospel music to inspire him, Simon proves that a well-composed song can indeed be a sermon. His compositions span genres – jazz, gospel, and contemporary classical music are noticeable influences – and can be found everywhere from film scores to concert music.

Simon is the current Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and frequently writes for the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, with the 2022/23 season seeing premieres with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Art Song Society and Minnesota Orchestra – a large-scale tribute to George Floyd and the ongoing movement for racial justice. These follow recent other commissions from the likes of New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and performances from Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and American Ballet Theatre.
 

USA/2023—directed by Alexandre O. Philippe | 108 minutes

Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe specializes in taking viewers deep inside their favorite movies. For his latest and richest project, he lifts the velvet curtain on iconic filmmaker David Lynch’s obsession with a single film – The Wizard of Oz – the 1939 classic that this mind-bending documentary argues is the foundational text for all of Lynch’s work. 

Red shoes, hollow winds, gossamer bubbles, innocents in big trouble, and a longing for home – these elements percolate continuously throughout Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks and more, which Lynch/Oz illustrates with striking and persuasive split-screen montages featuring beautifully restored footage. 

An impressive lineup of critics and directors, including Karyn Kusama, David Lowery, Amy Nicholson, and a joyously insightful John Waters, share their own unique takes on both Lynch and Oz, expanding the film’s scope from clever analysis to a larger meditation on the nature of creativity, and how the things we love form our visions of the world. 

Official Selection, 2023 Fantastic Fest and Tribeca Film Festival. 

“Witty, insightful and fascinating! A very enjoyable creative speculation.” –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

For this year's annual Mopper Lecture Dr. Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, will present “The Civic and the Global: the Cultural Mission of the Victoria & Albert Museum.” His lecture will focus on the V&A’s founding commitment to design, education and beauty. Tracing the museum’s genesis from its Victorian roots, Dr. Tristram Hunt will consider how the V&A’s civic foundations engendered a world-class collection; a growing family of nationwide museums; and a mission to inspire creative endeavor in each new generation. 

At a time of growing cultural divides, increased awareness of colonial legacies, and public demands for 
transparency and accountability in arts organizations, Dr. Hunt makes a powerful case for the continued civic 
mission of museums.

Sponsored by the Dr. Coleman Mopper Memorial Lecture Fund in collaboration with the Visiting Committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts and the European Paintings Council.

Whether we’re arguing over media bias, fighting for a favorite politician, or battling over social injustices, it often feels as if America – indeed the world – is a nearly constant state of conflict. And it seems the friction has only risen in recent years. In their own ways, each of these shorts explore how we’ve reached a place of strife and disunity, and what it feels like to live amidst the tumult.

Jade Helm

In 2015, the U.S. military conducted routine training across the American Southwest. But were these military exercises actually cover for something more sinister? Built on deep suspicions of the government and the mainstream media, a fearful backlash erupted in the Texas heartland, and the exercises, called Jade Helm 15, became a national news story — with a surprise ending that is still playing out today. Directed by Debi Cornwall. (2022)

Detroit Will Breathe

Produced in connection with the Detroit Will Breathe organization, the film captures George Floyd-inspired protests of summer 2020, weaving together footage from police body cameras, protesters and bystanders, as well as moving portraits of key protestors. The film provides an unprecedented and poignant look into what it means to be part of an integrated movement fighting for Black lives. Directed by Detroit/NYC-based filmmaker Kate Levy. 

You’ve Been Lied To

At a Warren polling place on Election Day 2020, the dialogue amongst demonstrators reveals just how extreme our political divide has become. Directed by metro Detroit native Mitch McCabe. (2023)

Liturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles

Against a radio backdrop of news about the war, Ukrainian sculptors known for creating sublime statues of angels, spiritual figures and the like instead build anti-tank obstacles to block the advancement of Russian troops. Directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. (2022)

Freep Film Festival celebrates its milestone 10th year bringing the best in documentaries to Detroit. The 2023 festival, which will be held April 26-30, will feature five days of programming at the Detroit Film Theatre including its opening night film. Screenings will include conversations with filmmakers and people featured in the films.  The festival’s focus is on documentaries with strong connections to Detroit or Michigan or films that resonate strongly with Midwest communities. For a complete list of the festival schedule go to freepfilmfestival.com