Sonic Textures, Shattered Scenes

This season from Nottingham Contemporary showcases truly groundbreaking cinema by artists and thinkers that expanded the ways the Black American experience could be represented, examined, and cherished.

These are experimental, personal, and radical films by academics, musicians, poets, writers, actors, photographers, and visual artists who changed cinema forever. In turns thrilling, cerebral, and sensuous, this diverse programme of films spanning various genres are united by invoking the richness of the lives we live.

In recent years many of these previously-overlooked films have been restored, and even re-cut, enabling new generations to see these films as they were originally intended.

Please note that many of the films in this season reflect historical attitudes that audiences may find outdated and offensive.

The season title is taken from the article Cosmic Freeze Frames: A Poetics of Bill Gunn by Carlos Valladares on gagosian.com (Spring 2021)

Upcoming Screenings

Ganja & Hess (1973)

6 Nov 2024 6.30pm

Dir. Bill Gunn version was unavailable for years, this edition represents the original release, restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation, and mastered in HD from a 35mm negative.

Losing Ground (1982)

13 Nov 6:30PM

Director Kathleen Collins was a poet, playwright, writer, filmmaker, director, civil rights activist, and educator. Losing Ground was the first US feature film made by a Black woman and she paved the way for others in this season.

My Brother's Wedding (1983)

20 Nov 6:30PM

Director Charles Burnett had not finished editing the film when its producers rushed through its premiere in 1983. Decades later, Pacific Film Archive restored the film and Milestone Film released a new version, re-edited by Burnett.

Drylongso (1998)

27 Nov 6:30PM
Pica, alarmed by the rate at which the young Black men around her are dying, attempts to preserve their existence in Polaroids for an art project as she believes they are “endangered species”.

Screening courtesy of Tape Collective

Eve's Bayou (1997)

4 Dec 6:30PM

Directed by Kasi Lemmon and set in 1960s Louisiana, an affluent African American family unravels following the infidelities of its charming patriarch. A coming-of-age tale told from the perspective of ten-year-old Eve.

Mo' Better Blues (1990)

11 Dec 6:30PM

Directed by Spike Lee, wrongly overlooked in Lee's jam-packed ouevre, Mo' Better Blues is a vivid ode to the art of jazz and its roots in the African American experience.

Sonic Textures, Shattered Scenes is supported by Film Hub Midlands Pitch Pots and BFI Film Audience Network, awarding funds from the National Lottery

Our Pitch Pots are available to help support a risk and try something new. Whether you are new to film exhibition and want to put on your first screening or an established cinema or community screen who wants to trial a new type of programming.

Our Pitch Pots are open for applications. You must be a member of Film Hub Midlands to receive our support, you can register now.

Sonic Textures, Shattered Scenes.