Black film showcase to kick off Saturday

Two years of working and planning will finally pay off for the Black Film Center and Archive with the launch of two months of programs exploring the history of African Americans in cinema.\n"We are very excited," said Audrey McCluskey, director of the Black Film Center and Archive. "The exhibit hopes to explore the history of people of African descent in cinematic form."\n"Imaging Blackness," an IU Art Museum display of black film posters, provides the framework for various programs. Running in the museum's Special Exhibitions Gallery from Saturday through to Dec. 21, the exhibit focuses on posters dating from 1915 to 2002, and provides a historical overview of critically important changes to African-American cinema. McCluskey served as guest curator. \n"It's a neat exhibit," said Michael McGerr, chair of the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. "It's beautiful."\nThe more than 50 posters show both the historical and artistic sides of African Americans in cinema. McCluskey finds it difficult to pick a favorite.\n"It's like asking what's your favorite child," she said.\n"Imaging Blackness" marks the first time the IU Art Museum has presented an exhibit with an African-American theme.\nTo celebrate the opening of the exhibit, Edward Mapp, professor emeritus of City College in New York, will present a lecture entitled, "African Americans in Cinema: An Enduring Odyssey." The talk will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Room 102 in the School of Fine Arts, with a reception following from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Thomas T. Solley Atrium of the IU Art Museum.\nMapp is a film scholar and co-author of "A Separate Cinema: Fifty Years of Black-Cast Posters." He donated some of the posters presented in the exhibit.\nThe Black Film Center and Archive, part of the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, opened in 1981 and is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The center will also present four film screenings at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoons through October and November in the Fine Arts Building, Room 102. On Oct. 19, documentary filmmaker William Greaves will present his film "Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey." Bunche, the first African American to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, was the Secretary General of the United Nations.\nTrica Keaton, assistant professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, will introduce "Little Senegal" Oct. 26. "Lumumba," a film by Raoul Peck, will be shown Nov. 9, with African American and African Diaspora Studies lecturer Natasha Vaubel presenting. McCluskey will introduce "Afrocentricity," a series of short films, on Nov. 16.\nA book talk, entitled "From Book to Screen: Walter Mosley's Cinematic Language in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned" will be presented by professor John A. McCluskey of African American and African Diaspora Studies Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the African American Culture Center Library. \nThe Black Film Center and Archive is hoping to reach a larger regional audience with its programs, McCluskey said.\nShe also works closely with the Monroe County Community Schools, hoping that teachers will integrate the exhibit into their regular classroom work.The Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies is excited to share the history of African Americans in cinema with the public.\n"The story of African Americans and film didn't begin with Halle Berry," McGerr said. "It really is a remarkable odyssey, and one of the most interesting stories in the development of modern American culture."\n-- Contact staff writer Jenny Kobiela at jkobiela@indiana.edu.