Black Film Series Returns to Campus

After a one-year hiatus, the Black Independent Film Series last night came back to life in Emerson Hall.

Sponsored by the Harvard Black Cinema Society, the independent film series--established in 1980--showed two films last night and will-show two more both tonight and tomorrow night.

The screenings came one year after the series was cancelled because of lack of student interest, said Ronald Roach '85, who added that he revived the series to provide a voice for minority issues not found in "mainstream media" and to promote the work of Black film artists.

The six films currently being shown--some of which have won national and regional awards--focus on racial prejudice among light and dark-skinned Blacks, poverty in a ghetto, and sexism and racism among Black women comedians.

Filmmakers of four of the six films will participate in a panel discussion entitled "The Black American Filmmakers: A Contemporary Perspective" from 2-3:30 p.m. this afternoon in the Leverett House Junior Common Room.

The panel will include Debra Robinson, spike Lee, Warrington Hudlin, and Reginald Hudlin '83.

Roach said that he was impressed with the 1982 series and felt "that this was something Harvard should have done every year." He added that he was inspired by Reginald Hudlin, who helped start the series in 1980.

Reginald's brother, Warrington, was one of three Yale graduates to create the Black Filmmakers' Foundation, a Black film distributor and support organization that has sponsored film series in Berlin, Paris, and Amsterdam. Roach said that this organization helped him choose the films for the showings.

The filmmakers "are concerned about current political and social minority issues," as opposed to being solely profit-minded, said Warrington Hudlin.

"In many ways, Harvard is really giving new blood to black independent filmmaking," Warrington added.

The program is being funded by $545 in grants from the Office for the Arts and Education For Action and is being supplemented by a $1 admission charge. Tonight's showing begins at 7:30 p.m. in Emerson Hall. The films will be shown tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in the Carpenter Center.