A Different Image

Last updated
A Different Image
Directed by Alile Sharon Larkin
Written byAlile Sharon Larkin
Produced byAlile Sharon Larkin
Women Make Movies
StarringMargòt Saxton-Federella
Michael Adisa Anderson
Cinematography Charles Burnett
Edited byAlile Sharon Larkin
Charles BurnettRef?
Music byMunyungo Jackson
Release date
  • 1982 (1982)
Running time
52 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A Different Image is a 1982 American film directed, written, and edited by Alile Sharon Larkin that explores body image and societal beauty standards through the eyes of a young Black woman on a journey towards self-worth.

Contents

Summary

Alana (Margot Saxton-Federlla), an art student, explores sexuality, Western ideals of beauty, and her own self-worth in 1980's Los Angeles. [1] Vincent (Adisa Anderson), her long-time friend, feels pressure to turn their platonic relationship into a sexual one which further sparks Alana's frustration with western, patriarchal beauty standards and gender norms. [2]

Cast

Production

Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin is a 1989 documentary about the making of A Different Image [3]

Reception

The film is considered as a groundbreaking foray into a realistic character portrait of a young Black woman. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times heralded it as "...extraordinary, a fresh and clear expression of an acute sensibility. [4] "

Awards and recognition

Screenings

Preservation

The Black Film Center/Archive preserved A Different Image, which included 16mm original color reversal A/B rolls and full-coat magnetic track elements. They produced a 16mm color internegative, a soundtrack negative, and two new 16mm projection prints. [11]

The script of the film was published in a 1991 compilation of collected works called Screenplays of the African American Experience.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Killer of Sheep</i> 1978 American film

Killer of Sheep is a 1978 American drama film edited, filmed, written, produced, and directed by Charles Burnett. Shot primarily in 1972 and 1973, it was originally submitted by Burnett to the UCLA School of Film in 1977 as his Master of Fine Arts thesis. It features Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, and Charles Bracy, among others, in acting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Dash</span> American filmmaker and author (born 1962)

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 for its "cultural, historical and aesthetic significance". 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.

Wallace "Wally" Berman was an American experimental filmmaker, assemblage, and collage artist and a crucial figure in the history of post-war California art.

Swedish artist Gunvor Grundel Nelson was born in 1931 in Kristinehamn, Sweden, where she now resides. She has worked as an experimental filmmaker since the 1960s. Some of her most widely known works were created while she lived in the Bay Area in the mid-1960s and early 1970s, where she became well established among other artists in the avant-garde film circles of the 1960s and to the present. As of 2006, she has to her credit 20 films, five videos, and one video installation.

Haskell Vaughn Anderson III is an American film, television and theater actor. He is most known for his role in the 1989 martial arts film Kickboxer. He starred in the 1976 film Brotherhood of Death and appeared in the 2007 independent feature Boy and Dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Haiti</span> Filmmaking in Haiti

Haitian cinema includes the films and filmmakers of Haiti. The Haitian diaspora is active in the industry. Oppressive dictators and economic struggles have limited production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeinabu irene Davis</span> American filmmaker

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.

Black women filmmakers have made contributions throughout the history of film. According to Nsenga Burton, writer for The Root, "the film industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. In 2020, 74.6 percent of movie directors of theatrical films were white, showing a small decrease from the previous year. In terms of representation, 25.4 percent of film directors were of ethnic minority in 2020. Of the 25.4 percent of minority filmmakers, a small percentage was female.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Caldwell (filmmaker)</span> American film director

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Clark (filmmaker)</span> American film director

Larry Clark is an American filmmaker, known one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion. He directed the feature films Passing Through (1977) and Cutting Horse (2002). He is also a film professor in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Woodberry</span> American film director

Billy Woodberry is one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion. He is best known for directing the 1984 feature film, Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), which was honored at the Berlin International Film Festival.

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 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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carroll Parrott Blue</span> American film director

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.

Four Women is a 1975 short experimental film produced and directed by Julie Dash featuring music by Nina Simone.

I Am Somebody is a 1970 short political documentary by Madeline Anderson about black hospital workers on strike in Charleston, South Carolina. This was the first half-hour documentary film by an African-American woman in the film industry union. This film is one of the first to link black women and the fight for civil rights.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African American cinema</span> Films made by, for, or about black Americans

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.

Modernist film is related to the art and philosophy of modernism.

References

  1. Mumin, Nijla. ""A Different Image": Alile Sharon Larkin Retrospective (L.A. Rebellion Film Series) | IndieWire". www.indiewire.com.
  2. Field, Allyson (2015). L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema. Univ of California Press. ISBN   9780520960435.
  3. "Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin | UCLA Film & Television Archive". www.cinema.ucla.edu.
  4. "Women Make Movies | A Different Image". www.wmm.com.
  5. "SPLA | Alile Sharon Larkin". www.spla.pro.
  6. "Movie: A Different Image – Sembene Film Festival". www.sembenefilmfestival.org.
  7. ""A Different Image": Alile Sharon Larkin Retrospective (L.A. Rebellion Film Series)". shadowandact.com.
  8. "Madeline Anderson Shorts". BAM.org.
  9. "Afterimage: Madeline Anderson | BAMPFA". bampfa.org.
  10. "One Way or Another: Black Women's Cinema, 1970-1991". BAM.org.
  11. "Alile Sharon Larkin | Black Film Center/Archive". blackfilmcenterarchive.wordpress.com.