Celebrating Black Stories spotlights Black narratives that transcend national boundaries, culture, and language with films in English, French, Shona, and even ASL! Join a young astronomer during a lunar eclipse, a meaningful first visit to a barbershop, and witness the magic of a neighborhood castle all in one sitting with this immersive collection of films highlighting Black storytelling.  

These audience favorites and award-winning films, from the latest edition of New York International Children’s Film Festival, are sure to inspire curiosity and conversation for viewers big and small. In English or with English subtitles. (63 min.) 

Powerful films for ages 8 and up, in the DIA’s Lecture Hall.

(USA/2023—directed by Ava DuVernay) 

Join us for a special advance screening of this remarkable film. Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Ava DuVernay, Origin chronicles the tragedy and triumph of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson as she investigates a global phenomenon.

Portrayed by Academy Award® nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Wilkerson experiences both love and unfathomable personal loss as she crosses continents and cultures to write Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, a culture-shifting New York Times’ bestseller. Based on her book, this film explores the fight for a more humane future for all.

Experience it at the DFT prior to the film’s theatrical release. Official Selection, Venice, and Toronto Film Festivals. (135 min.) 

“An exhortation to use every heartbeat wisely.” —Stephanie Zacharek, Time
 

(Mexico/France/2023—directed by Lila Avilés)    

Seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) is helping her aunts prepare for her father’s surprise birthday party. As the house becomes increasingly boisterous, her father’s mysterious absence grows more and more concerning. 

“There isn’t a false note in the tender Mexican drama Tótem With intricate staging and camerawork, and an expressionistically warm palette — along with charming appearances from the natural world — writer-director Lila Avilés creates a richly textured, deeply compassionate portrait of a family that’s falling apart as one of the youngest members comes into consciousness.” –Manohla Dargis, The New York Times.

 In Spanish with English subtitles. (95 min.)
 

The Scar of Shame was one of only three feature films produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1926 and produced silent romantic melodramas that featured all-Black casts and were shown to Black audiences. Harry Henderson plays a classic pianist and Lucia Lynn Moses a would-be cabaret singer; star-crossed lovers kept apart by the class divisions between educated strivers and the working poor who succumb to poverty, alcoholism, and crime.

The ambition of The Scar of Shame was to present realistic Black characters with no resemblance to Hollywood stereotypes, and to depict the ways in which middle-class Blacks in the 1920s struggled to create new American identities without abandoning their community.  

This screening will include Mercy the Mummy Mumbled (1918), a silent short from the Ebony Comedies series produced by the General Film Company. It will be presented with a live musical score composed and performed by saxophonist Mike Monford. (82 min.) Free with museum admission. 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.   

Black History Month at the DIA is generously supported by Arn & Nancy Tellem.
 

(USA/1926—directed by Richard E. Norman) 

In The Flying Ace, the charismatic Laurence Criner stars as Captain Billy Stokes, a World War I pilot who returns home to find both romance and a plot involving a gang of payroll thieves. The fact that Black Americans were not permitted to serve as pilots in the US Armed Forces in 1926 did not stop writer-director Richard Norman from putting a valiant Black aviator at the center of his film.

His Florida-based Norman Pictures was one of the leading producers of race films alongside the Lincoln Motion Picture Company and the Micheaux Film Corporation. This remarkable film was preserved by the Library of Congress, and will be presented with a live score composed and performed by Alvin Waddles (piano), Marion Hayden (bass) and Vincent Chandler (trombone). Free with museum admission. (65 min.) 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.   
 

(USA/1928—directed by Richard D. Maurice)  

Silent film director and railway labor organizer Richard D. Maurice was born in Cuba in 1893, migrated to the US in 1903, and settled in Detroit where he worked as a tailor. In July 1920 he founded the Maurice Film Company at 184 High Street, and produced two feature films released a decade apart. Eleven P.M., his surviving feature, is a surreal melodrama in which a poor violinist named Sundaisy (Maurice) tries to protect an orphan girl (Wanda Maurice) who is victimized by petty criminals.

Many Black filmmakers during the silent era adopted stylistic conventions of Victorian theater, but Maurice's innovative use of location filming, extreme camera angles, fantasy imagery, and kaleidoscopic special effects closely resemble avant-garde European films of the 1920s. Eleven P.M. will be presented with a live musical score, composed and performed by pianist Alvin Waddles. (58 min.) 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

(France/1932—directed by Edmond T. Gréville) 

Known as the "Black Venus" during the zenith of her popularity in the 1920s and 30s, singer, dancer, and actor Josephine Baker was the first Black woman to become an international film star, and a legendary icon of beauty and rare courage. Baker achieved her success far from Hollywood; she moved to Paris and appeared in silent films there. After the introduction of sound, she starred in singing roles for French musicals including Zou-Zou (1934) and Princess Tam Tam.

In this film, Max (Albert Préjean) is a novelist who escapes his social-butterfly wife in Paris to vacation in Tunisia, where he becomes infatuated with a young shepherdess named Alwina (Baker). He decides to present her to French society as a Bedouin princess to elicit his wife’s jealousy. Princess Tam Tam was wildly popular throughout Europe but never granted an exhibition visa and went unseen by American audiences until it was rediscovered in 1989. (77 min.) Free with museum admission. 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
 

(USA/1939—directed by Richard Kahn) 

Herb Jeffries (1913-2014) was a mixed-race American actor from Detroit who became popular appearing in all-Black musical westerns in the late 1930s. With his matinee-idol good looks and velvety baritone voice, he enjoyed a long career as a jazz recording artist and toured with the likes of Earl Hines and Duke Ellington.

The Bronze Buckaroo finds frontiersman Bob Blake (Jeffries) pitted against the usual Western stock characters —horse rustlers, claim jumpers, and other cowboys not treating his gal with enough respect — but what makes the film an unexpected joy is the pure grace and gentle humor Jeffries brings to his singing role. (58 min.) Free with museum admission. 

Come early at 7 p.m. and hear singer and multi-instrumentalist Dr. Dom Flemons perform a tribute to Jeffries as part of his appearance at Friday Night Live! 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
 

(USA/1939—directed by Leo C. Popkin) 

Louise Beavers gives a commanding lead performance as the crusading Mother Barton in this race film long believed to be lost. Beavers plays a probation officer who comes to the defense of young inmate Freddie (Reginald Fenderson) and his pals (the Harlem Tuff Kids) who are subject to constant harassment at a corrupt reform school. The film’s director, Leo Popkin, is one of the three co-founders of the Million Dollar Productions company that produced and distributed films for Black audiences. Its other co-founders were Popkin’s brother Harry and writer-producer-actor Ralph Cooper, “The Dark Gable.”

This screening will be introduced by special guest Rhea Combs, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and co-curator of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. (68 min.) Free with museum admission. 

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.  
 

Take in the audience favorite and award-winning films from the 2023 New York International Children’s Film Festival! These amazing short films inspire curiosity and conversation for viewers big and small. With animation, live action, and documentary shorts, Kid Flicks programs offer a chance to explore new frontiers from around the world, across the street, and the ever-expanding boundaries of our own perspectives.  

Whether dreaming up the fantastical, like a spider’s goal to capture the moon, or the practical, like a young animator’s future stardom, the shorts in Kid Flicks One are sure to enchant and delight all audiences (but especially our youngest!) 65min.

Designed for ages 5 to 10, but fun for all ages. 

Registration encouraged.