In collaboration with the Center for African and African American Studies and other members of the Black community, CU Boulder’s International Film Series celebrates Black History Month with a selection of films that highlight Black culture through cinema.
“Each film will be introduced by that title's sponsor and covers a wide range of topics, genres, styles and time periods, with the intent of introducing new audiences to these powerful films that too often are overlooked,” said Jason Phelps, program director of the International Film Series.
About the International Film Series
The International Film Series is Boulder's first arthouse series and has been locally programmed since 1941. The goal has always been to bring underrepresented films to new audiences, as well as celebrating cinema's legacy on our culture with screenings that don't always fit neatly into one category. It is also one of few places in the U.S. where the latest digital projection systems and reel-to-reel 35mm film projectors coexist peacefully to both honor the rich legacy of the past, the present and the future.
Black History Month film selections
A total of 10 films will be shown as part of the series, and students, faculty, staff and the Boulder community are invited to attend. All of the films will be shown in Muenzinger Auditorium on campus. Tickets are required and are available only at the door on the day of the showing.
The Photograph
Feb. 15 7:30 p.m.
“Through cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard's lens, The Photograph feels like a gentle throwback to romantic movies that left their audiences in good spirits as they filed out of the theater.”
Black Dynamite
Feb. 21 7:30 p.m.
This 2009 action comedy film stars Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson and Salli Richardson, and is a parody of and homage to the blaxploitation genre and its era.
Celebrating Black History Month at CU Boulder
Several events are set for February as the CU Boulder community celebrates Black History Month 2023. Plan to attend gatherings around campus, take in movie screenings, explore and learn through the University Libraries guide and more!
Bless Their Little Hearts
Feb. 22 7:30 p.m.
In this 1984 film, Charlie Banks (Nate Hardman) “views his chronic unemployment as a kind of spiritual trial. But day work and selling a few catfish can't sustain a family of five. While his wife Andais (Kaycee Moore) works to support them with dignity, Charlie finds comfort for his wounded sense of manhood in an affair that threatens his marriage and family.”
Till
Feb. 23 7:30 p.m.
This 2022 film follows Mamie Till-Bradley as she seeks justice and exposes the racism that led to the murder of her son, Emmitt Till, in 1955. Special introduction by CAAAS Director Reiland Rabaka.
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Feb. 24 7:30 p.m.
This 1971film—written, directed, produced, edited and starred in by Melvin Van Peebles—features music by Earth, Wind & Fire. The film's “incendiary politics are matched by Van Peebles's revolutionary style, in which jagged jump cuts, kaleidoscopic superimpositions and psychedelic sound design come together in a sustained howl of rage and defiance.”
Buck and the Preacher
Feb. 25 7:30 p.m.
“With his rousingly entertaining directorial debut, Sidney Poitier, alongside actor-producer Harry Belafonte, helped rewrite the history of the western, bringing Black heroes to a genre in which they had always been sorely underrepresented.”
Personal Problems
Feb. 26 2 p.m.
In this 1980 film, “operating in defiance of the racially exclusive Hollywood studio system, novelist Ishmael Reed, director Bill Gunn and a renegade group of artists banded together to film a ‘meta soap opera’ about the struggles of a working class African American couple in New York City.”
Boyz n the Hood
Feb. 27 7:30 p.m.
Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Morris Chestnut star in this 1991 film that follows the lives of three young males growing up in South Central Los Angeles.
Black Girl
Feb. 28 7:30 p.m.
“Black Girl tells the story of a Senegal nursery maid who returns to France with her white employers. But in France she finds their relationship altered. She is a housemaid, not a nurse, and the countless petty cruelties of the day pile up against her overwhelming loneliness for Dakar.”
The Woman King
March 1 7:30 p.m.
“The Woman King is a story about the Agojie, who were a real-life group of women that protected the West African Kingdom of Dahomey (now in southern Benin) in the 19th century.”
