(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.

The DFT welcomes back Little Bang Theory to perform a new score for Victor Sjostrom’s great silent film The Wind, made in 1928 and starring the incredible Lillian Gish as Letty Mason, a young woman who travels to a barren West Texas town and becomes enmeshed with rival lovers and jealous friends; all the while haunted by the never-ending wind that blows through the town.

Little Bang Theory is the brainchild of Detroit avant-garde music legend Frank Pahl, who with Terry Sarris and Doug Shimmin, form a mini-orchestra of bells, whistles and toy musical instruments that bring to life the timeless art of silent cinema. 
 

France / 2023|Dir. Frederick Wiseman

Legendary film documentary maker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the equally legendary La Maison Troisgros, the family-owned Paris restaurant that has held 3 Michelin stars for an unheard-of 55 years.

In his uniquely quiet, observational way, Wiseman goes inside the establishment, getting to know Troisgros family, and the chefs, food suppliers, vineyards, and servers that have built a world where a magical dining experience happens nightly—this time, before our eyes.

In French with English subtitles. (240 min.)
 

The trans writer and activist Paul B. Preciado used Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando, in which the title character starts life as a woman and then becomes a man, as a starting point in his documentary to look at the lives of trans people, past and present.

He cast 26 trans and non-binary people as different versions of Woolf’s famous gender nonconformist, using the book’s themes to talk about gender, social norms, and what it means to be trans.

In French with English subtitles. (98 min.) 

“A bracingly intelligent, delicate and detailed work.” –Screen International
 

India/2022 | Dir. S.S. Rajamouli

This exhilarating, action-packed spectacular was always conceived as a big-screen theatrical experience, and the DFT is proud to present it as it was intended to be seen!

Set in the 1920s before the fight for independence began, RRR (Rise Roar Revolt) imagines a fictional meeting between two real-life freedom fighters, set into motion when a young girl is stolen from her village by British soldiers.

With a powerful message, mind-boggling choreographed action sequences, and amazing musical numbers (including Naatu Naatu, winner of the 2023 Oscar® for Best Song), RRR is sheer big-screen joy from start to finish. To end the year properly, DFT audiences will have one more chance to see it as big and as loud as its creators intended. 

In Telugu and English with English subtitles (187 min.) 

“Such an irresistible and intoxicating celebration of cinematic excess that even after 187 minutes (including intermission or, as the title card announces, “InteRRRval”), you are left exhilarated, not exhausted.” —Joe Leydon, Variety

2023 | Dir: Aki Kaurismäki

Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and the first film in six years from Finland’s renowned Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past, Leningrad Cowboys Go America), Fallen Leaves follows Ansa and Holappa, two lonely people in dead-end jobs who meet at a karaoke club, followed by a first date in a movie theater, and onward toward romance — or not?

Kaurismäki’s films are sometimes described as deadpan, but that does them a disservice; he portrays his off-kilter characters with a deep empathy and affection.

In Finnish with English subtitles. (81 min.)  

“Kaurismäki’s beguiling and delightful cinephile comedy is romantic and sweet-natured, with springtime in its heart.” –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Dir. Rodrigo Moreno, 2023

Timid bank clerk Morán (Daniel Elías), fed up with his middle-management  job, walk into the vault, pack a bag with enough cash to get him to retirement, and walks out.

He knows there are security cameras, and the police are coming, so he stows the cash with his coworker Román (Esteban Bigliardi), who grudgingly agrees to hold onto the money until Morán gets out of prison in three and a half years, or so he hopes.

Moreno takes this familiar heist plot structure and builds out a very different kind of film, with pastoral interludes, characters whose lives mirror and double back, and more.  

“This is a deadpan comedy which strides off down its own confident, eccentric path…”  —The Guardian