SPIRITS OF REBELLION: Black Independent Cinema from Los Angeles

SPIRITS OF REBELLION: Black Independent Cinema from Los Angeles

    Price: $395.00

    Code: 2569

    Directed by Zeinabu Davis
    Co-produced, filmed & edited by D. Andy Rice
    2017, 101 minutes
    Purchase $395 | Classroom rental: $125
    Optional closed captions
    Call us at 212-685-6242 for special non-profit, public library, and K-12 pricing.

    Spirits of Rebellion: Black Independent Cinema from Los Angeles documents the lives and work of a small critically acclaimed group of black filmmakers and media artists known as the Los Angeles Rebellion, a group brought together through shared experiences as students in the UCLA film production MFA program between 1967 and 1992. Although relatively unknown, the Los Angeles Rebellion was the first collective of minority filmmakers in the US that aimed to reimagine the production process to represent, reflect on, and enrich the day to day lives of people in their own communities. It is now recognized as an important part of the Black Arts movement on the West Coast. Spirits of Rebellion offers the story of the movement in an accessible style through over 30 interviews with the filmmakers today as well as archival footage, clips from rarely seen films of the group, and reflections from leading scholars on film history and African-American cinema. The LA Rebellion filmmakers were headlined by:
    • Charles Burnett (To Sleep With Anger)
    • Carroll Parrott Blue (Dawn at My Back)
    • Ben Caldwell (I & I: An African Allegory)
    • Larry Clark (Passing Through)
    • Julie Dash, (Daughters of the Dust)
    • Jamaa Fanaka (Penitentiary)
    • Haile Gerima (Sankofa)
    • Alile Sharon Larkin (Dreadlocks and the Three Bears)
    • Barbara McCullough (Water Ritual)
    • Billy Woodberry (Bless Their Little Hearts)
    The filmmaking team of Spirits of Rebellion is available for speaking engagements. For more information, please contact us at (212) 685-6242.

    Subjects & Collections



    Festivals & Awards

    WINNER - "African Oscar", Best Documentary Diaspora Feature, African Movie Academy Awards 2016
    WINNER - Best Feature Documentary and Favorite Feature Documentary Audience Award, BlackStar Film Festival, 2016
    WINNER - Public Award for the Best Film by a Woman of Color, African Diaspora International Film Festival, 2016
    WINNER - Best Feature Documentary, San Diego Film Awards, 2017
    WINNER - Best Feature Documentary, University Film Video Association, 2017
    Honorable Mention, Best Feature Documentary, Richmond International Film Festival, 2017


    Reviews

    "The film is a true inspiration to any artist of color that wants to create anything of substance." - The Source

    "Timely and illuminating....part history lesson, part reminder of the looped and repeating cycles of these conversations – is not only deeply informative, but hugely inspiring" - Crave Online


    Further Reading

    UCLA Film and Television Archive Retrospective on the LA Rebellion

    L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema (2015), an edited volume on the movement with filmmaker interviews and scholarly articles, published by UC Press

    Trailer


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