Billy Woodberry | |
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 Woodberry at the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2024 | |
| Born | 1950 |
| Alma mater | UCLA (MFA, 1982) [1] |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1979–present |
Billy Woodberry (born 1950) [2] is one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion (also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers). He is best known for directing the 1984 feature film, Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), which was honored at the Berlin International Film Festival. [1] [3]
Woodberry was born in Dallas, Texas. [1] In the 1970s, he enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Film School, where he produced and directed his earliest films. [1]
During his time at UCLA, Woodberry was a part of a Black Independent Film Movement, commonly referred to as the L.A. Rebellion. [4] The Movement consisted of a generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School in the late 1960s through the late 1980s. These independent filmmakers created a Black Cinema that provided an alternative to classical Hollywood cinema. The political and social discourse of 1967 and 1968 were vital in the establishment of this movement in filmmaking that would later be called the L.A. Rebellion. [5] This term was coined by film scholar Clyde Taylor, and the movement sought for a new aesthetic and mode of representation and narration that spoke to the realities of black existence.[ citation needed ] The films produced by this group of filmmakers were significantly relevant to the politics and culture of the 1960s. Woodberry's film Bless Their Little Hearts illustrates this in its examination of the tensions caused by class conflicts within an African American family. His film, along with those of Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, Charles Burnett, and numerous others, helped to create narratives that spoke to the black experience. [4] Critics have compared the films of the movement to Italian Neorealism films of the 1940s, Third World Cinema films of the late 1960s and 1970s, and the 1990s Iranian New Wave.
Billy Woodberry's earliest works include his UCLA student films The Pocketbook (1980) and Bless Their Little Hearts (1984). [6] Woodberry's short film The Pocketbook explores concepts of loneliness, as an abandoned child is forced to confront his situation after a botched robbery. [6] Adapted from Langston Hughes short story "Thank You, Ma’am," the film follows as the young boy reflects on his life, and reevaluates his decisions. The Pocketbook was released in 1980, and was dedicated to modernist photographers such as Paul Strand and Helen Levitt. [7] Drawing on their legacy, the film consists of high contrast black and white photography that “draws on the history of photography as a social practice.” [7] The original film was restored from its 16mm black and white negative and is currently held in the UCLA Film and Television Archive. [8] Woodberry has also appeared in Charles Burnett's When It Rains (1995) and Haile Gerima's Ashes to Embers (1982). He has provided narration for films such as Thom Andersen's Red Hollywood (1996) and James Benning's Four Corners (1998). [6]
Woodberry's feature film Bless Their Little Hearts was his master's thesis film at UCLA, and is based on a screenplay written by Charles Burnett. [9] Played by Nate Hardman and Kaycee Moore, the film's lead protagonist, Charlie and Andais Banks, grapple with financial hardships and constant stressors in their marriage. [9] Throughout the film the couple struggle to make ends meet, as Charlie struggles to find a job and Andais works to provide for the family. In many ways, the film addresses universal problems and occurrences that speak to socio-cultural effects of mass unemployment. [10]
Woodberry's latest film And when I die, I won't stay dead is a documentary about the life and work of the poet Bob Kaufman. The film had its world premiere in Vienna [11] and was presented at the opening night of MoMa's Doc Fortnight in 2016. [12] In this film Woodberry continues to address some of his major themes such as institutional wrongdoing (Kaufman ended up at Bellevue Hospital, where he was subjected to shock treatment); a close evocation of setting (North Beach scene in San Francisco) and the profound presentation of a complex, drifting character. [13]
Bless Their Little Hearts received the Interfilm ecumenical jury award at the Berlin Film Festival. [1]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that the film "works beautifully." [14]
"Its poetry lies in the exaltation of ordinary detail" is how Jim Ridley of the Village Voice described Bless Their Little Hearts in his 2008 review of the film. [15]
Bless Their Little Hearts was selected in 2013 by the National Film Registry to be included for preservation, deeming it culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. [16]
Julie Ethel Dash is an American filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author, and website producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA. Through their collective efforts, they sought to put an end to the prejudices of Hollywood by creating experimental and unconventional films. The main goal of these films was to create original Black stories and bring them to the main screens. After Dash had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Stemming from the film's success, Dash also released novels of the same title in 1992 and 1999. The film was later a key inspiration for Beyoncé's 2016 album Lemonade.
Charles Burnett is an American film director, film producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. His most popular films include Killer of Sheep (1978), My Brother's Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990), The Glass Shield (1994), and Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (2007). He has been involved in other types of motion pictures including shorts, documentaries, and a TV series.
Haile Gerima is an Ethiopian filmmaker who lives and works in the United States. He is a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. Since 1975, Haile has been a film professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is best known for Sankofa (1993), which won two awards.
Ashes and Embers is a 1982 American drama film directed by Haile Gerima and starring John Anderson.
Bush Mama is an American film made by Ethiopian-American director Haile Gerima, part of the L.A. Rebellion movement of political and experimental black cinema in the 1970s. It was released in 1979 though made earlier, in 1975.
Zeinabu irene Davis is an American filmmaker and professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. In 1985, she received her M.A in African studies at UCLA and went on to earn her M.F.A in Film and Television production in 1989. Davis is known as one of the graduates and filmmakers of the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African-American students who studied film at UCLA. Through their collective efforts, they sought to put an end to the prejudices of Hollywood by creating experimental and unconventional films. The main goal of these films was to create original Black stories and bring them to the main screens. Her works in film include short narratives, documentaries and experimental films that focus heavily on the African American female perspective.
Ben Caldwell (1945) is a Los Angeles-based arts educator and independent filmmaker.
The L.A. Rebellion film movement, sometimes referred to as the "Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers", or the UCLA Rebellion, refers to the new generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School in the late-1960s to the late-1980s and have created a black cinema that provides an alternative to classical Hollywood cinema.
Alile Sharon Larkin is an American film producer, writer and director. She is associated with the L.A. Rebellion, which is said to have "collectively imagined and created a Black cinema against the conventions of Hollywood and Blaxploitation film." Larkin is considered to be part of the second wave of these revolutionary black filmmakers, along with Julie Dash and Billy Woodberry. Larkin also co-founded the Black Filmmakers Collective.
Barbara O. Jones, also known as Barbarao, Barbara-O, and Barbara O., is an American actor from Ohio best known for her work in the films of the L.A. Rebellion movement of 1970s black filmmakers, starring in films by Haile Gerima and Julie Dash. She also appeared on television alongside Muhammad Ali in Freedom Road and had smaller roles in other films including Demon Seed and on television.
Bless Their Little Hearts is a 1984 American drama film produced and directed by Billy Woodberry and starring Nate Hardman. It was shot and written by Charles Burnett. The film had a limited theatrical release: it played for a week at the Royal in West Los Angeles and also at the Film Forum in New York.
Ross Lipman is an American restorationist, independent filmmaker and essayist. He is best known for his 2015 documentary Notfilm, his work with the Bruce Conner Family Trust and as Senior Film Restorationist at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, where he restored numerous independent and avant-garde works.
Barbara McCullough is a director, production manager and visual effects artist whose directorial works are associated with the Los Angeles School of Black independent filmmaking. She is best known for Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification (1979), Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space (1980), Fragments (1980), and World Saxophone Quartet (1980).
Carroll Parrott Blue was an American filmmaker, director and author. Based in Houston, Texas, she was part of the L.A. Rebellion film movement. She was noted for her documentary film and interactive multimedia works, particularly for her project The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing. Blue was a research professor at the University of Houston. She worked to preserve and celebrate the history of the African American community in Houston.
Shirikiana Aina is an American film director, cinematographer, producer, and writer. Shirikiana was born in Detroit, MI. She is a member of the LA Film Rebellion. She founded Mypheduh Films, Inc., a distribution company for independent Pan African Films. The company produced several features from the filmmakers of the LA Film Rebellion. She also co-founded Negod Gwad Productions, a nonprofit film company providing support to indie filmmakers. She has taught courses in script writing and film production at Howard University. She is married to film director Haile Gerima.
Thomas Marshall Penick was a writer and film editor who worked on numerous movies and projects, and was also a part of the L.A. Rebellion.
Melvonna "Mel" Marie Ballenger was an American director, producer, and writer who created activist short films, known for her involvement in the L.A. Rebellion film movement. She died at the age of 48 from breast cancer.
African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.
Minor cinema is a concept that is linked to film theory and defines and challenges the current hegemony in representations; a recent overview and recognition of the term can be found in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory (2013).
Kaycee Moore was an American actress. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, she was a member of the L.A. Rebellion, an alternative artistic movement developed at UCLA by Black filmmakers including Charles Burnett and Julie Dash.
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