Hello, friends! This post is extremely lengthy. You may need to read it at the web link if it’s too long for your inbox. I have a world of additional information in the footnotes as well. Thank you so much for reading.

2025, like many years before it, has been a year of monumental loss. From genocides continuing to envelope every fraction of life; to mass layoffs and consolidation across industries; to the pioneering artists leaving us far too soon; this will be a year remembered for the ways the artistic roots have been disrupted from the soil that nourishes artistic spirit across generations. As the buds that remain, we must tend to the roots and plant new seeds with the stems blowing in the wind.

Through reflection of the pioneering Black media artists we’ve lost this year we also have a path to see the journey ahead. Below, I take a moment to memorialize pioneering Black artists seen throughout Black Film Archive and linking to their works in the Archive. As the year sails towards a new shore, I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on the ways life’s natural changes, like death, become a constant teacher… living alongside us helping us arrive to where we’ve always belonged.

S. Pearl Sharp (Saundra Sharp) — Poet, Artist, Friend

S. Pearl Sharp1 was a poet, actor, pioneering Black woman filmmaker who died on October 11, 2025. As a filmmaker she is best known for her experimental short “Back Inside Herself” starring Barbara O; as an actor she is best known co-starring in the 1970s TV show “Wonder Woman.” She was a poet in verse, style, and form. She was the glue of her community—filmmaking, L.A. poetry, and otherwise. She maintained her signature grace, curiosity, and rhythm throughout her 82 years of life.

S. Pearl Sharp was born Saundra Pearl Sharp on December 21, 1942 in Cleveland, Ohio to Clarence and Faythe Sharp. Her parents divorced when she was young but the family unit of mother and daughter were active, engaged members of their local NAACP chapter and church community; advocacy was a pillar that stayed foundational for S. Pearl’s artistry and career. Upon graduating from Cleveland’s John Adams High School in 1960, S. Pearl attended Bowling Green State University where she studied music education alongside Radio and Television for a year but New York City —and putting what she was studying into practice— called to her. Upon arriving in New York, she landed a role as a copywriter for TV Guide while honing in her acting craft under the tutelage of Al Fann2 and Minnie Gentry.3 S. Pearl, while studying under Al Fann, helped develop his formalized Theatrical ensemble. Her earliest acting work was on the stage, with early major credits including originating the role of Netta in J.E. Franklin’s stage play “Black Girl,” (1971)4 and as a chorus member in “Hello Dolly” alongside Pearl Bailey from 1967-1968. She left the all-Black production of “Hello Dolly” to make her motion picture film debut in Gordon Parks’s “The Learning Tree” (1969).

In 1967, she testified about the state of Black actors for the Kerner Commission5, government hearings into the institutionalized discrimination against Black people across industries, having already starred in the first commercial featuring all Black performers in 1966. As an artistic butterfly taking flight during the Black Arts Movement, her work took a new path after taking a workshop from noted Black Arts Movement poet John Oliver Killens. During this transformative time for the blooming artist and Black artistry as a whole, S. Pearl founded Togetherness Productions. Togetherness’s aim was to give greater opportunities to Black talent. With S. Pearl saying:

“I think the word is already out that I’m a trouble-maker… But you know who your allies are in this business and you rely on them for support. I would like to see blacks doing roles that don’t always show their oppression and fear. I would like to see films about our black heroes on the screen- films written and directed by us.”

Togetherness Productions spawned the Black performance group Poets & Performers in 1969.6 The literary performance quartet comprised of musicians, poets, and stage actors whose aim was to amplify their individual gifts to create a new sound. They held a Countee Cullen Poetry Festival and toured across the country with original poetry and prose. As a member of Poets and Performers, she fully cultivated her childhood gift of writing poetry that would remain the most important gift in her life.

Throughout the 1970s and early 80s, acting picked up for S. Pearl Sharp. She had starring roles in the television movies like The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened (1977) co-starring Jimmie Walker and Debbie Allen and Hollow Image (1980), co-starring Robert Hooks and Dick Anthony Williams. The dynamic actor also made a number of recurring roles on television series, including Eve on “Wonder Woman” alongside Lynda Carter; Cathy in the pioneering PBS Black soap opera “Our Story;”7 “St. Elsewhere” (1984-1987); and “Knots Landing” (1985). She also had a number of guest starring roles on the original Charlie’s Angels television show, “Benson,” “Diff’erent Strokes,” “Lou Grant” and countless others.

S. Pearl was also a leading commercial spokeswoman— representing nationwide brands such as Avon— and by the mid-70s, her work took her to Los Angeles which remained her home for the rest of her life. In Los Angeles, she continued to feed her poetic soul as the director of Lorraine Hansberry Playwrights Workshop and as co-founder of of the Black Anti-Defamation Coalition8 which monitored the image of Black Americans in media.

Performance was not the only place S. Pearl blazed a trail. She was also an essential figure in chronicling the history of Black artists. Navigating the inconstancies of a full-time acting career, S. Pearl worked as an editor for numerous independent Black presses, bookseller at Aquarian9 in Los Angeles—working as the head of the children’s department of what was then the longest continually Black-owned bookstore in the country, and writer. She’s edited essential works on Black film and video artists, written volumes of poetry, and wrote an acclaimed two-act play musical play SISTUHS, which toured the country. Her published work includes “Soft Song,” a work of poetry; “Dearly Beloved,” a one act play; “Black Women for Beginners,” an illustrated, witty history of Black women; among others.

By the 1980s, S. Pearl turned her focus to working behind the camera. As a director, she combined her lifetime of craft-making to merge the wonders of poetry, art, and history across her filmography. Her debut short is the poem-narrative hybrid wonder “Back Inside Herself,” (1984), remains a touchstone of Black women’s filmmaking. She followed up her debut with the animated short film “Picking Tribes” that was broadcast on PBS. The award-winning filmmaker also had a gift for documentary storytelling with her “Life is a Saxophone,” which chronicles the life of poet Kamau Daaood. The pioneering filmmaker also created numerous documentaries— including “The Healing Passage: Voices from the Water,” following the residue of slavery that follows Black life and considering the ways art can heal us— for public television with her signature prose and heart.

She was loved fiercely by a tribe of those who knew the true nature of her heart. Watch her works on Black Film Archive here.

On a personal note, I have had the pleasure of knowing S. Pearl Sharp since 2023. To know me is to know I have a cadre of Black art elders I keep close, I was honored to have S. Pearl in that number. She excelled in many ways, not least of them by being a kind-hearted friend. I will leave you with the last words she spoke to me: “We must carry on with our purpose and let it guide us.” I hope to continue to live in that vision.

Jimmy Cliff — Singer and Actor

“Have you heard the news?” begins Jimmy Cliff’s hit song “The News.” The news has reached far and wide that the legendary singer and actor passed on November 24, 2025 at 81. Cliff was a spirited performer who used music and the stage to chronicle Jamaica’s cultural and political revolution, and in doing so, brought reggae to the world. As the centerpiece of the legendary film, “The Harder They Come” Cliff plays Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin, a man who turns to petty crime when his music career comes to a standstill. The precision of elements coming together—central of which Cliff’s magnetism as performer— invents new rules for how film can be understood as a cultural magnet. Watch “The Harder They Come” here.

Souleymane Cissé - Legendary Director

The harmonic and beloved cinematic oeuvre of Souleymane Cissé sing songs that resist characterization but are tune to the spirt of African life. The legendary director was born and raised in in Bamako and used his cinematic eye to give shape to the full scope of West African beauty and plight. His artistic rise is in concert with the class of African filmmakers using the camera to capture liberation struggles on the continent. He is most recognized for Finye (1982) and 1987’s Yeelen, the winner of the Jury Prize in Cannes. Yeleen catapulted him to an international cinematic stage, often being dubbed the ‘greatest living African director’ and ‘the Father of African cinema.’

With a life dedicated to artistry, revelatory director Souleymane Cissé departure from this earthly plane is a monumental loss. The Malian director died on February 19, 2025 at 84.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner - Actor and Poet

The face that launched 1,000 crushes. Charismatic and beloved screen actor and poet Malcolm Jamal Warner departed too soon on July 20, 2025 at the age of 54. Rising to household name status as Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” his untimely death remains a shock to the millions who adored his antics on the screen. The actor who found success on shows like “Malcolm and Eddie,” co-starring Eddie Griffith and Dr. Alex Reed in “Reed Between the Lines,” co-starring Tracee Ellis Ross. The charmer consistently worked the fullness of his gifts throughout his noted filmography.

He can be seen in the Father Clements Story (1987).

Barry Michael Cooper - Screenwriter and director

There are pioneers who you may not know by name but their work is instantly recognizable. Barry Michael Cooper, the writer and producer who co-wote the 90s certified classic “New Jack City” (1991) passed in January 2025 at 66.

Cooper’s public writing career began as a critic for the famed Village Voice where he is credited with naming ‘New Jack Swing’ in an article surveying the burgeoning music and cultural movement. With his finger on the pulse, Quincy Jones came calling with an offer to fix up a script. That script, “New Jack City,” set Cooper on the Tinseltown path as the film helmed by Mario Van Peebles became cultural revolution of its own and set a tone for the Black cinema boom in the 1990s.

Lynn Hamilton - Actor

Lynn Hamilton was a beacon on the stage and screen. Her roots were planted in her hometown of Chicago’s The Goodman Theatre before spreading her wings to New York where she starred in Broadway and off-Broadway. Fate came calling to the tune of “Sanford and Son” where she played Fred Sanford’s up and down girlfriend in her best known role. As a silver screen actress she has held her own among the best of them with roles in 1972’s “Lady Sings the Blues” alongside Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams; 1972’s “Buck and the Preacher” alongside Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, and Harry Belafonte; and 1959’s “Shadows.”

James McEachin - Character Actor

James McEachin will be remembered for his measured presence on screen, often cast as the voice of sensibility. Passing on January 11, 2025, McEachin had roles in 1968’s “Uptight," “Buck and the Preacher,” and countless other credits.

Sly Stone - Cultural Icon

As the front man of Sly and the Family Stone, Sylvester Stewart transformed the course of cultural history. His musical lineage builds upon all that comes before it—the blues, gospel, and soul. Born in Texas and raised in Northern California, his church-trianed voice has reached every corner of cultural imagination. With endearing hits like “Everyday People,” “Family Affair,” “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” among endless others, his work continues to be the sound to cultural revolutions and cinematic language. His work has been the sonic soundscape for countless cinematic moments. As a cultural mainstay, he has been subject of specials like “Sly & The Family Stone: Swing in ‘70”.

Roberta Flack - Songtress of the Soul

To know love is to have reached the music of Roberta Flack. The songstress’s repertoire touches the heart, it gives animation to the indescribable depths of our souls. She is immortalized by the original act of putting language to the indescribable and lives again each time her music is played. As an artist of the heart, her work is the soundtrack to countless films; she also composed the music for 1981’s “Bustin’ Loose” starring Richard Pryor and Cicely Tyson.

6

Poets and Performance’s original members were poet Donald Green, pioneering poet and actor Norman Matlock (August 8, 1925 — September 30, 2015), Saundra Sharp, and master bassist Reggie Workman. The quartet was organized by Donald Green and S. Pearl in 1969 and toured the country.

Tomorrow, the film series I co-curated at the Museum of Modern Art, “When the World Broke Open: Katrina and Its Afterlives,” in commemoration of Hurricane Katrina’s 20th anniversary opens. I hope to see you there. The series runs from August 27 to September 21. Learn more here.

Every August I look at the calendar and wonder how another anniversary for Black Film Archive has passed. Four years of shifting the conversation around Black cinema and digital preservation of that heritage. This moment would not be possible without you all. I remain so, so, so, so, so grateful.

What does it mean to make Black film history accessible? Four years ago today, I launched BlackFilmArchive.com after spending significant time pondering this question. In the years that have passed, I have spoken with artists–Black film and video makers, audiences, producers, distributors, directors, craftspeople, and the infinite others that make the Black film ecosystem possible–refining my answer to that question. Since Black Film Archive’s launch, I’ve been asked many variations of three essential root questions. I try my best to answer these root questions in their fullness below… but you can feel free to ask me anything in the comments. Thank you all.

There have been a slew of modern Black box office failures. Who (or what) will solve Black cinema’s (marketing) crisis?

When Black Film Archive originally launched in August 2021, it stopped in 1979 in concert with the fact that 1978’s The Wiz, the most expensive musical up until that point, was a commercial and critical failure. We arrive to this moment with two particular trends in Hollywood happening. Black-produced Blaxploitations, cheaply made but high grossing flicks, upend Hollywood’s expectations of what box office success looks like and Hollywood searches for a way to reproduce that success. The film that leads that charge, Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), becomes a hit after Melvin Van Peebles leads his own cinema-shifting marketing campaign–stating that the film was ‘rated X by an all white jury’ and independently marketing directly to Black neighborhoods. His instincts are mirrored by what cinema’s early Black pioneers, like Oscar Micheaux, did for their films– taking the film cans from city to city, marketing their films outside of expectations for what their films can be. But as The Wiz shows, Hollywood will take some lessons from what underground movements are doing to distribute films but not all. After they admit defeat with releasing The Wiz and Blaxploitations saved Hollywood from a certain demise, Tinsel Town decided they had enough financial backing to move on. But their divestment from Black cinema birthed the 80s and 90s wave of independent Black cinema that came after it.. That once again, shook the foundation of Hollywood’s core.

Often the Hollywood dream factory will take the reward for showcasing a moment, but not the work to deliver it fully. There will be ponderances like we release all of our other films like this… why do Black films need special work? With this context noted, my answer is simple: The ‘savior’ Black cinema is searching for is its own, Black media makers have always known how to release their films for the audience they’ve created them for; Hollywood–and its calculations of success outside of Black sensibilities– often takes the power from Black artists to do so. Spike– who carried the torch Melvin Van Peebles created, with his own one-man marketing machine that –got his start in cinema after “The Wiz” prevented investment in Black works. He made a way out of no way to help usher in a new path for Black video makers… history tells us that another independent film reckoning is on the horizon. The solution we are seeking is in our past.

Black audiences have always treated box office participation in Black media like a civic duty. A savvy distributor or studio would know that it's essential to tap into that impulse to make a film’s release successful by all measures…

And finally, the consolidation of release mediums means that returning to nontraditional models of financing and production are essential to the future of the field. Simply, the solution is preserving Black artist’s creative freedom by any means possible, to each person’s ability.

What is up with all the trauma in Black film/media?

When I am asked this question on a panel, as I often am, I point to Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “Joy and Pain,” which states that joy and pain must co-exist to feel the other. Trauma, as it is often cornered into the catch all that has been applied to many facets of the Black experience, is psychological pain, works discussing slavery, or those who are down on their luck, et al.

Trauma in Black cinema–as has been widely discussed– often points to three works:

“Roots” –the widely beloved 1978 mini series that is the foundation of the mini-series as we know it today; the series was broken up into parts as a way to be buried after ABC did not believe in how the narrative was depicted; over 80% of the American public with a TV set in their home viewed the series live.

“12 Years a Slave” –-the 2013 film by Steve McQueen about Solomon Northorp’s odyssey as a free Black man who is sold into slavery and tries to reclaim his freedom. This work is often discussed with films released around the time like “Fruitivale Station.”

“The Color Purple” (1989) – an epic of Black women’s survival based on the book of the same name by Alice Walker. This film re-entered the conversation when the 2023 musical based on the same material was released.

When this chatter begins online it often is to the tune of how can I watch something beyond these types of films. Responding to this curiosity is what promoted Black Film Archive’s creation.1 But truthfully, depictions of ‘trauma’, as it rings in the minds of people, exist in Black life. Thinking about the three examples these conversations are tethered to: All three works brought new enlightenment to facets of Blackness: “Roots” ignited a generation’s passion for genealogy and understanding history; “The Color Purple” sparked cultural debate by the underdocumented history of Black women’s struggles and the need for visibility of our language and way; “12 Years A Slave” captured a moment in time to remind us that no avenue of Black life should be off limits (very few films focusing on slavery have ever been made contrary to popular belief.)

This conversation reminds me of Saidiya Hartman’s curiosities in “Scenes of Subjection:”2

“Are we witnesses who confirm the truth of what happened in the face of the world-destroying capacities of pain, the distortions of torture, the sheer unrepresentability of terror, and the repression of the dominant accounts? Or are we voyeurs fascinated with and repelled by exhibitions of terror and sufferance?”

Witnessing the truth and its Hollywood grandeur reminds us that freedom in film is framed through the eyes of those who have to work towards it, not in the master’s recounting of it. What is lost when we reduce the existence of pain as the totality of a cinematic experience? What happens when we are incurious about something that is deemed a negative expression? The terrors and the joys are interlinked. The presence of ‘trauma’ should not prevent us from engaging with art.

However, I find that often what people hope to say during this conversation is something to the tune of ‘How do we protect intracommunity knowledge and lived experiences in a world where white eyes are the decision-makers and gatekeepers?’ There is a consequential relationship between popularized images of Blackness and those who control its output; who is able to tell the story and what their intentionality is with the framing of images.

Aesthetic control of our image has been a foundational block of Black artistic creation since its genesis. An artistic curiosity that has sprung across time in response to the denial of Black humanity by white stereotypical mythmaking– the coon and its cousin myths– embedded into white cultural production at every level.By taking our image into our hands, Black artists suggest that controlling Black imagery is legacy work to render Black humanities and futures possible.

So, ultimately, I think the issue is not in and of itself trauma and negative images, I think it is commercial exploitation of white myths about Black life.

Why do we need sex on screen?

In 1955, Tan Magazine– a Johnson publication– asked “Will Hollywood Let Negroes Make Love?” in response to the Hollywood spectacle “Carmen Jones” (1954) that splashed across its cover.

James Baldwin, writes in his review of the film3, “Carmen Jones is one of the first and most explicit—and far and away the most self-conscious—weddings of sex and color which Hollywood has yet turned out.”

These two dynamics of conversation—explicit and implicit images of cinematic sex—continue to dominate our consciousness.

Sex is an expression of life. How it is displayed on screen shows you something about the character, setting, or circumstance. How people relate to each other in the height of passion—or lack there of— tells you as much as decoding the intricacies of setting and script. Passion is the point of life, sex is a display of that passion. Both implicit and explicit images of that belong on screen. After all, ‘Will Hollywood Let Negroes Make Love?’ The jury is still out.

Again, thank you all. And, please, ask me anything below (or in reply to this email.) Cheers!

VIRTUAL TALK: I am proud to be doing a FREE virtual archival workshop + film screening on Thursday, August 7 at 6 p.m. ET /3 p.m. PT with Kinfolk Tech. It is free to attend but you have to sign up for the Zoom Workshop here.

I, like many native New Orleanians1, bifurcate our lives pre and post Hurricane Katrina. The ‘once-in-a lifetime’ storm that ruptured New Orleans – put into worldwide focus its one-of-a-kind history as the site of political reckoning, cultural rendering, and unique racial hierarchical framework– and transformed the city into otherness overnight twenty years ago this month.

In the aftermath of the storm, my community was censured as an enemy of America’s promise– in the days’ after the August 28, 20052 storm, New Orleans was called America’s ‘Baghdad,’ and other deeply racialized epitaphs– as our very humanity was called into question, and the nation’s feigning responsibility for its hurt, poor, and disadvantaged was permanently abandoned.

Questions like ‘How could they not know to evacuate? Who would leave their children on the roofs of homes? Why are people stealing from businesses?’ littered news and public opinion. Many of the post-Katrina community assassinations waged against New Orleans’s poor and Black assume the government—local and national— was designed to provide and fully protect them… it assumes that disaster will heal and harmonize America’s racial and social inequities… it assumes that America’s ‘heart’ and other magical thinking can save us from climate rapture and man-made engulfings.

I have been reflecting on Hurricane Katrina my entire life. Memory is imperfect, we are constantly calculating who, how, and what we are… measuring it against stories we’ve told, truths we’ve abandoned, or fantasies we’ve conjured. I am of this storm, it has shaped me–my optimism, willingness to believe in people-powered change, and imagination of the future.

I have attempted to distill my thoughts on the past, present, and future of the storm we waged and the storms to come into film curation. For New York’s Museum of Modern Art, I have co-curated a series on Hurricane Katrina, “When the World Broke Open: Katrina and Its Afterlives,” premiering August 26 - September 21. The series focuses on Hollywood’s narratives of New Orleans pre and post storm, documentarian’s vision of the city’s richness and lost, and the ways this storm has become a measure of who is protected in the face of natural disaster.

When the World Broke Open: Katrina and Its Afterlives
Curated by Maya S. Cade and K. Austin Collins
Museum of Modern Art, August 26 - September 21. 

Series highlights:

Les Blank's "Always for Pleasure" (1978) - August 27

Spike Lee's Katrina Docs -- "When the Levees Broke" and "If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise" Playing in Full (!) Twice. (!) 

Treme (TV PILOT) - Following a conversation with star Wendell Pierce, creator David Simon, and me - September 6 

J.D.'s Revenge (1976) - A New Orleans-set Blaxploitation -- Sep. 6 & Sep. 13

Language fails to convey the feelings... Feeling without sustained action fails the people. If the people are failed, a community is, too.

Twenty years later, Katrina does not miraculously stand alone. From numerous storms engulfing the Carolinas, fires in California, flooding in New York City, and every natural and man made disaster fro and till, I am reminded that the rebuilding of New Orleans was only possible because of the people. As we reflect on 20 years post Katrina, here are some films3 on Black Film Archive to remember the New Orleans–and greater Gulf Coast– we lost:

Hurry Sundown (1967) dir. Otto Preminger

The Louisiana-shot melodrama is boiling over with racial tension as land—the selling and caring of it— comes to change the previously drawn color lines against a common class enemy. Starring Diahann Carroll, Robert Hooks, and Beah Richards, the overstuffed epic is Hollywood’s attempt to answer the ‘race problem’ that is boiling over outside of the dream factory.

Cane River (1982) dir. Horace Jenkins

“Cane River” is a charming love story set in the heart of Louisiana. Drawing on how colorism and class tensions shift the way of living for Black Southerners, Horace B. Jenkins’s only film is a socially penetrating film that will sweep you up into its loving gaze of Louisiana and romance’s promise.

Cajun Country (1991) dir. Alan Lomax

“Cajun Country” is an investigation into New Orleans’s unique racial— migration, colonization, cultural, and segregation— dynamics that created the cajun culture of Louisiana. With acuity, Lomax listens to the tune of the Native and Black music-makers that comprise the Cajun tune.

Home Movies: New Orleans

A panoramic view of 1950s New Orleans. Breaking through color lines, the camera is a visual guide of New Orleans as Black and white New Orleanians tend to their day’s doldrums, dreams, and visions across the great city.

May you all keep your heart about you. Do you have a Hurricane Katrina memory? I would love to hear them in the comments. If you’re in New York during the MoMA series I curated, I hope you’ll join me.

NYC: On Tuesday July 22 at 6 p.m., I will be leading a FREE archival imagination workshop + screening at MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art) in Brooklyn screening Ayoka Chenzira’s “MOTV (MY OWN TV),” a Milestone Film. Please join us.

When I first learned I was going to become the president/owner of Milestone Films, it was during the summer 2024 premiere run of “Naked Acts.” As the story goes— I had brought “Naked Acts”1 to Milestone Films and worked on every aspect of its release from press, design, and distribution strategy. Across the year of “Naked Acts,” the question from audiences across the world simply was: What are you following this up with? That eagerness for something with their name on it… wasn’t to rush me but to suggest that this work had filled a void and there was more work to be done. I would always respond with, ‘what would you like to see?’ Taking notes from the audience directly.

Fast forward to: A few weeks ago, a major milestone on my journey of becoming the president occurred: I acquired my first film.2 Milestone Films, focusing on repertory titles3 (and will continue to during my reign), means this acquisition is an older film that hasn’t received nationwide distribution before. The details of the film— directed by a Black director, with a Black writing team— won’t be the focus here. I will allow the film to have its own moment but my thinking, as promised in my announcement of becoming a film distributor, will be.

Some Personal News

Maya Cade

·

May 6, 2025

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Acquisition of any art work is a delicate dance of trust. Countless hours and people make the magic of movies happen, with varying degrees of pay or public understanding. There is a long history of filmworkers of color being burned by film distribution. When we consider that often these films are made outside of Hollywood’s expectations, financing, and public relations machine, they also aren’t a one sized fits all mold for distribution or exhibition.4 In the modern era, by the time distributors are aware of a repertory title for release, academics or public demand make it so distribution feels like a natural course of action.

Here are three essential things I’m asking myself as I forge ahead on this distribution path:

1. How do I honor the full legacy of film history? With the releases I am working on for my first year as President, there are varying degrees of public knowledge of them; with some having no public awareness at all. Distribution—and the acquisition of new films— often relies on other historical tools— positive New York Times reviews, big festival splashes, et al— to make the contextual shorthand easier for audiences to grasp onto. Honoring the legacy of films that have never received any historical recognition is harder work... Audiences have become accustomed to repertory films having a certain kind of anticipation but if I follow the path of exporting my curatorial taste to other institutions’s validation, only a certain type of film could be acquired. Honoring the legacy of the films I hope to release means breaking this chain of logic.

2. How do I allow a film to reach its intended audience? Like common convention for acquisition, there is common convention for how a repertory film should be released. Honoring the full legacy of films mean that I must believe there are more than one path for films to find their way. I am doing deep readings of the past to find new ways to exhibit films in the future.

3. How do I honor myself by understanding things take time? The “glamour” of this work— grand stories of rediscovery and new restorations— take time. Acquiring films is the first step among several before a movie, hopefully, reaches cinemas. The dance of trust and patience that filmworkers employ for cinema’s creation must also be applied to distribution. By honoring that things take time, we can also create individual strategies for each film that allows it to reach those who are anticipating the work even if they do not yet know it.

If you’ve followed my writing for any length of time, you’ll know that I am an optimist. As headlines roll on about the death of cinemas, I see unshakeable opportunities to engage audiences with film. The labor and birth of Black Film Archive has taught me, time and time again, that there will always be a way for audiences to cherish and engage meaningfully with art. Let us follow that path to new dimensions while honoring the paths that brought us here.

As I wrote in my announcement of the distribution diary, the focus of this newsletter will remain on Black Film Archive beyond a missive here or there on distribution. Also, I want to re-elevate something I wrote a year ago that has been on my mind to reshare:

For All We Know and For All We Cannot Yet See

Maya Cade

·

June 6, 2024

Growing up in the American South I thought often of the work belabored by matriarchs that shaped my home and heart. There was the mending, tending, and plowing work that kept the home in order; the heavy are the hands that bring life into each stitch, ditch and pitch that kept our families together; and the invisible thread of care, tenderness, and cour…

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In moments of societal and personal weakness, I refer back to June Jordan’s “Civil Wars,”1 her 1981 collection of writing. In the foreword she writes of an idea that was implanted in her after the 1964 Harlem Riots:

“It came to me that this condition, if it lasted, would mean that I had lost the point: not to resemble my enemies, not to dwarf my world, not to lose my willingness and ability to love.”

The Harlem Riots of 1964 began in response to the slaying of a 15-year-old Black boy, James Powell, at the hands of a NYPD officer. Powell’s offense? Gathering on a stoop after summer school classes. The murder of Powell sparked 6 days of protests across Harlem and Brooklyn. The demonstrations turned violent at the hands of the NYPD as they viscously beat countless residents who demanded justice. This is an inflection point we are all to familiar with as history mirrors our current moment.

June Jordan continues to write in reflection of the riots, “I resolved not to run on hatred but, instead, to use what I loved, words, for the sake of the people I loved. However, beyond my people, I did not know the content of my love: what was I for?”

Each moment working towards a revolution, we are infinitely becoming… who or what are we for? Perhaps you’ve asked yourself the same question as you march in the streets, lend a hand to a neighbor, check in on your community, and demand the freedoms of those we know and don’t. Agony of the unknown cannot dwarf us into invisibility. We are here and to be here means to know what’s done is never final as long as we maintain our hearts.

Los Angeles: The first Black Film Archive event in L.A. is happening at 7 p.m. on Juneteenth (6/19) at Philosophical Research Society. Bridgett M. Davis and I will gather for an intimate conversation on writing as freedom and the ways Davis has used her craft to chronicle Black truth and the intricacies of our soul through her career as a memorist (The World According to Fannie Davis) and filmmaker (“Naked Acts,” 1996). This will be our first public conversation since its been announced I will soon be her film distributor. I’m giving away two tickets to the event. Entry information below.2

+On 6/20 at 7:30, we will screen “Naked Acts” at Vidiots followed by a conversation with us. Each ticket purchase comes with a DVD of “Naked Acts” courtesy of Milestone Films :-)

In moments of noted societal harm and during fascism’s reign, I am often challenged on how can film reflect the wholeness of Black lives; queer lives. I think of June Jordan, the bisexual poet who makes the future feel tangible, as she witnessed the riots and committed herself to art-making or those who committed themselves to marching in the past and present. Before there is a final solution, there is an offering. As Essex Hemphill, legendary Black queer poet, writes in his poem “When My Brother Fell:”

“When my brother fell I picked up his weapons. I didn't question whether I could aim or be as precise as he.”

Film can often be that offering to reflect and contemplate the wholeness of queer lives as Black queer filmic works transcend the rigidity of form. The selections below— with films ranging from comedy and animation— offer visual windows you may not have seen before. Watch them as you tend to the world and make our future feel possible. View all the films on Black Film Archive here.

Greta’s Girls (1978) dir. Greta Schiller

In this narrative short, one of the first narrative films to focus on lesbians, we see the lives of a tender couple and their dog as they make a home and way out of New York City.

The Mark of Lilith (1986) dirs. Bruna Fionda. Polly Gladwin, and Zach Mack-Nataf

When Lillia encounters Zena (Pamela Lofton), a Black lesbian vampire, who is studying goddess across time and the horror genre, Lilla, a white bisexual vampire, is awakened from the slumber of life’s doldrums.

Greetings from Africa (1994) dir. Cheryl Dunye

Cheryl Dunye, playing a comedic version of herself, rolls her camera on this diaristic short addressing the tensions and pleasures of lesbian dating in the 1990s.

Adam (1996) dir. Andrea Stoops

“Adam” is a joyful exploration of gender identity. A young girl relishes in being mistaken for a boy on the playground in this claymation short.

If She Grows Up Gay (1983) dir. Karen Sloe

Jan, the working class mother at the center of this intimate documentary, comes to terms with the weight of the world, her queer identity, and choosing a life with her woman partner, Renee, as she raises her daughter.

View all the films on Black Film Archive here.

I’m giving away two tickets for Black Film Archive’s Juneteenth Philosophical Research Society event with Bridgett M. Davis. To enter, reply to this email in your inbox or write([email protected]) with the subject line “tickets.” I will pick two winners at random by Tuesday 6/17. Hope to see you there.

P.S. - Thank you all for your kind words on the announcement I will soon become the president / owner of Milestone Films. I am deeply appreciative.