• Felicia

  • Noel’s Lemonade Stand

Black Interiors: Sweat

  • Headshots of members of the collective, The Black Aesthetic. From left: Ra Malika Imhotep, Leila Weefur, and Jamal Batts.
    In Conversation

    The Black Aesthetic is an Oakland-based organization whose mission is to curate a collective understanding of black visual culture. TBA members Jamal Batts, Ra Malika Imhotep, and Leila Weefur guest curated this program.

Sweat is evidence of labor. Tonight’s films reflect the inner worlds of black working people, asking us to consider not only the material outcomes of their efforts but the moments of tension, pleasure, communion, and delight that give “black labor power” its depths. An excerpt from Right On/Be Free featuring the Alvin Ailey dance company’s Judith Jamison transitions to scenes of black workers in protest in the documentary Finally Got the News, connecting radical black movement and movements, while the children in the animated Noel’s Lemonade Stand, the educational short The Blue Dashiki, and the experimental documentary Felicia consider economic collectivity, self-sufficiency, and proto–black feminist critique. We end with a short meditation on black werk: a fashion photo shoot.

The Black Aesthetic

Films in this Screening

Right On/Be Free (excerpt)

Sargon Tamimi, United States, 1971

FEATURING
Judith Jamison

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • Color
  • 16mm transferred to digital
  • 4 mins
source
  • BAMPFA

Finally Got the News

Stewart Bird, Peter Gessner, René Lichtman, United States, 1970

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • 16mm
  • 57 mins
source
  • BAMPFA
permission
  • Icarus Films
Additional Info
  • Produced in association with the League of Revolutionary Black Workers

Noel’s Lemonade Stand

Carol Munday Lawrence, Mitchell Rose, United States, 1981

FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Kathleen Collins
Based On
  • A story concept by Henry H. Roth

Print Info
  • Color
  • 16mm
  • 8 mins
source
  • BAMPFA

The Blue Dashiki: Jeffrey and His City Neighbors

Maclovia Rodriguez, United States, 1969

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • Color
  • 16mm
  • 13 mins
source
  • BAMPFA

Felicia

Bob Dickson, Alan Görg, Trevor Greenwood, United States, 1965

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 16mm
  • 12 mins
source
  • BAMPFA

Fashion photo shoot film roll

, late 1960s

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 16mm
  • 2 mins
source
  • BAMPFA
Additional Info
  • Filmmaker unknown