Marquette Frye was only 21 years old when he was pulled over on a Wednesday night in August of 1965 for suspicion of drinking and driving. Things quickly escalated and the night ended with Frye’s mother and brother coming to the scene. A fight broke out resulting in their arrests.
This was the beginning of the Watts Riots that took place in Los Angeles, Ca. For six days thousands of people from the Watts neighborhood rioted through the streets creating havoc and chaos.
White Americans depicted black Americans involved in these riots as criminals, destroying their very own neighborhoods. To the black Americans, the riots were something completely different. They were about sticking together—rising up to a system they felt was corrupt.
Towards the end of the 1960s, while the Civil Rights Movement officially came to a close, one university was doing just that, beginning with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), whom began accepting all students of color into their School of Theater, Film and Television. The school’s “Ethno-communications” program helped give young black American students an opportunity to learn and produce films.
With a heated civil rights movement and Vietnam war still fresh on their minds, the young entrepreneurs that studied at the School of Theater began to create their own unique type of films. They exposed an alternative lifestyle, similar to the classical Hollywood cinema, but inspired by black culture and the issues Americans were facing.at that time.
The Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers and the UCLA Rebellion were terms that described this movement and it is now most commonly referred to as the L.A. Rebellion.
Two years ago, UCLA debuted the “L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema” tour that showcased some of these selected films in several cities throughout the country.
The tour began in California during late 2012 and it has since journeyed throughout the United States, hitting its last stop here in Atlanta, where the tour is still ongoing.
“I think this is a positive movement towards black films and the black movement,” sophomore nursing major Lanre Ojeikere said.
The Atlanta stop of the tour will be presented by Emory University’s department of film and media studies as well as the Atlanta Film Festival, and Liquid Blackness, a research project on blackness and aesthetics that is part of the department of communication at Georgia State.
Liquid Blackness’ focus as stated on their website is the “reflection on the aesthetic dimensions of blackness.” Their coordinator is Georgia State communications faculty member Alessandra Raengo, who is known for her book “On the Sleeve of the Visual.”
Exactly 36 films will be shown for the last time before they are put back into the UCLA archives this Nov. 24. The opening night took place at The Plaza Theater, while the rest of the screenings will continue to take place in Emory University’s White Hall.
Each weekend from Friday to Sunday, students as well as the Atlanta community will be able to watch these films for free, as well as interact with some of the filmmakers in a question and answer portion.
Those films being shown from Nov. 15 to 16 are “Child of Resistance,” “Daydream Therapy” and “Shipley Street.”
Filmmakers attending the rest of the tour will consist of Bill Woodberry, Haile Germia and Larry Clark.
Senior Darius McKinney appreciates that the tour is exposing African-American filmmakers and allowing viewers to “look back in history.”
“I think it is a positive achievement to show these films because they give our youth a recollection,” McKinney said.
Each film in the L.A. Rebellion series is something different, but unique, offering black American filming perspectives, according to the UCLA Film and Television archives. The films, produced with low-budget, 8 millimeter semi-automatic cameras, were able to cover a vast variety of topics. Students touched on traditional topics of love and war, but they also covered current events: underemployment, drugs, racism, and the fight for social justice.
The tour will conclude on Nov. 24 with the last two movies and a panel with Alessandra Raengo and Clinque Hicks, the interim editor of the International Review of African American Art.
Liquid Blackness will be hosting L.A. Rebellion conversations with viewers who can chat and discuss issues from the film and also present-day issues in Atlanta.
To check out these conversations, as well as find out more about the screenings, visit http://www.liquidblackness.com.
