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Alfreda’s Cinema & AFF Present: Let’s Just Do It Ourselves
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Event
Details
“Let’s Just Do It Ourselves” comes from the turn of phrase made popular by the ingenuity of Linda Goode Bryant and Just Above Midtown, a former NYC gallery that empowered Black artists, and is currently being revitalized in a MOMA retrospective. These words have long been a reaction for Black (women) artists when their work became embattled by the dominant narrative. Although timing is everything, Black women artists from years gone by aren’t done yet. Their art has come full circle and finally reached an audience feverish for its catalyzing insights. Actor and director Sandye Wilson began her career in the late 1980s at the center of New York’s Black Bohemian Renaissance, which gave rise to Spike Lee and others. Wilson’s short films, So Many Things to Consider (1996) and Not So Private (2004) poetically lay bare pleasure and desire in Black women’s lives. With little to no distribution, Wilson transitioned out of the arts and into a lesser creative field. We will screen Wilson’s works alongside Fronza Woods’s recently restored Killing Time (1979), to contextualize the creative lockout both women experienced in pursuit of longevity in filmmaking. This program is guest-programmed by Melissa Lyde (Alfreda’s Cinema) and co-presented by Alfreda’s Cinema and African Film Festival; for more info about Alfreda's Cinema, visit here.
Special programming
Q&A with Sandye Wilson, moderated by Melissa Lyde
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Films
Killing Time
Fronza Woods
/ USA / 1979
/ 15mins
An offbeat, wryly humorous look at the dilemma of a would-be suicide unable to find the right outfit to die in, Killing Time examines the personal habits, socialization, and complexities of life that keep us going.
So Many Things To Consider
Sandye Wilson
/ USA / 1996
/ 10mins
This film narrates a black woman’s eclectic experience growing up in New York City and explores her options in her search for a “good man”.
notsoprivate
Sandye Wilson
/ USA / 2004
/ 31mins
Candid testimonies from varying New York City women, including artist Carrie Mae Weems and Wilson, recount their earliest engagements with arousal, erotic pleasure, and feelings of objectivity in a society where Black girls are sexualized at an early age.
