#Blackmendream (2014) is a 45-minute experimental documentary that creates a virtual “safe space” through hashtagging, enabling Black males to pull apart emotional restrictions often denied through crossroads of race and gender.
Released as a short-term public work in December 2014 the film has received much critical acclaim (NPR, The Atlantic, Arts & America) and was listed by Tribeca Film Institute in 2015, as one of 10 films that exemplify the Black American experience. Most importantly, the call to action has encouraged posts across social media that are taking the shape of literary and visual forms of expression germane to race, identity, and psychological well-being.
Film. October 16. In conjunction with the film series Black Intimacy (https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/3877), artist Shikeith Cathey presents his experimental documentary #blackmendream (2014), followed by The Black Boy and the Tree (2016) and the premiere of his newest short film, A Drop of Sun Under the Earth (2017). Cathey will be joined by poet Rickey Laurentiis for a discussion of vulnerability and notions of black masculinity, and alternative means of defining and speaking about the self.
Time:
Monday, October 16, 7:00 p.m.
Location:
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019
(Please enter at 18 West 54 Street)
Ticket Prices:
Adult: $12.00
Senior: $10.00
Student: $8.00
This film accompanies Black Intimacy and Modern Mondays.
Black Intimacy explores the ways in which black familial, romantic, and platonic relationships have been portrayed onscreen, with a particular focus on black filmmakers' attempts at navigating between intimate, personal stories and more broadly political material. Given the legacy of American racial politics, can black love be portrayed onscreen without "making a statement" about race, or is it impossible for the personal to be separated from the political?
Comprising 16 films, two shorts, and a television episode, the series highlights the various ways in which love and relationships are colored by the political, across a wide spectrum of perspectives. Several of the films—Charles Burnett's “Killer of Sheep”, for instance—deal with a particular kind of black male figure and pay close attention to black male identity and struggle; films like Claudine, “A Warm December,” and “The Inkwell” portray very different types of black romances and family structures to illustrate a broader scope of love and relationships; the notion of how black women are treated as love interests and how their needs are explored and honored is at the heart of “Loosing Ground”; and black queer identity, intimacy, and vulnerability are front and center in “Looking for Langston” and “The Watermelon Woman.”
Organized by Adeze Wilford, Joint Fellow, Department of Film, MoMA, and The Studio Museum in Harlem.
The exhibition is supported by the Annual Film Fund.
