Chicago’s Black Cinema House to screen films by Alile Sharon Larkin & Julie Dash this Friday, Jan. 16

Black Cinema House will screen Alile Sharon Larkin’s 1979 short film Your Children Come Back to You (16mm print courtesy of the Black Film Center/ Archive), followed by Julie Dash’s recently remastered Illusions (1982) this Friday, January 16, 7PM.

Still from Larkin’s Your Children Come Back to You

Both Larkin and Dash earned their MFA from UCLA’s School of Theater Film and Television (in 1982 and 1985 respectively), joining the first generation of Black filmmakers to graduate from the program, now collectively known as the L.A. Rebellion. The school’s “ethno communication” program was designed to be responsive to communities of color by providing access and training in media production. The remarkable roster of alumnae includes– in addition to Dash and Larkin– Haile Gerima, Zeinabu irene Davis, Larry Clark, and Charles Burnett.

Your Children Come Back to You presents a young girl’s perspective on social inequality as she is torn between her militant single mother, who struggles to make ends meet with welfare checks, and her assimilationist aunt, who wishes to provide bourgeois comforts for the girl. Larkin wrote, directed, and produced the striking, yet spare mediation, and Charles Burnett lent his visual skills as the film’s cinematographer and co-editor.

Julie Dash made Illusions just prior to her seminal feature, Daughters of the Dust. From the Women Make Movies Catalog: “Mignon Duprée, a Black woman studio executive who appears to be white and Ester Jeeter, an African American woman who is the singing voice for a white Hollywood star are forced to come to grips with a society that perpetuates false images as status quo.” Read more about the film and its recent digital remastering on Indiewire’s Shadow and Act blog.

Illusions Directed by Julie Dash (1982, 34 mins, 16mm/DVD)

Your Children Come Back to You (1979, 27 mins, 16mm)

Friday, January 16 | 7pm | Black Cinema House | 7200 S. Kimbark

Note on the BFC/A 16mm print of Your Children Come Back to You: In 2011 and 2012, BFC/A collaborated with UCLA to preserve two films by Alile Sharon Larkin through the LA Rebellion initiative.  BFC/A provided access to 16mm original picture negative A/B rolls and soundtrack negative for Your Children Come Back to You; and to 16mm original color reversal A/B rolls and full-coat magnetic track elements for A Different Image.  UCLA Senior Preservationist Ross Lipman and Fotokem Laboratory in Los Angeles produced a 16mm composite fine-grain master positive and two new 16mm projection prints for Children; and a 16mm color internegative, a soundtrack negative, and two new 16mm projection prints for Image.  One set of these newly-struck preservation prints was screened as part the LA Rebellion touring program and is held for research at UCLA Film and Television Archive; the second set is held at BFC/A.

Note from Black Cinema House: This screening is presented in conjunction with BCH Advisory Committee Chair Jacqueline Stewart’s University of Chicago class titled “African American Cinema Since 1970.” Doors open at 6:30pm. Seating is limited, so we ask that attendees RSVP in advance. Event Webpage