curated by Andrea L. Battleground. Background image in a still from Bill Gunn’s Personal Problems
“It was strange to discover someone had written about these same raggedy streets I knew so well.” —Louise Meriwether, Daddy Was A Number Runner
“Don’t slouch. And put your head up.” —Colors
The second installment of this year’s “Made In Harlem” series widens the scope of what is considered a “Harlem story,” and reconsiders when that story ends. The three entries in this series feel as if they begin in medias res and end in a minor key. Regardless of length, of genre, of time period, this triptych presents Harlem tales as told by people who are living them. They are intimate, specific, and complicated. They are disinterested in myth; the reality is so much more interesting.
-Andrea L. Battleground
The series will run from June 11-18, with the exceptions of Personal Problems, which will be available until June 17.
FILM LINEUP
Personal Problems (1980, Bill Gunn, 165 minutes)
A genre-defying exploration of the soap opera form that reveals the trevails and conversations occurring among a Black family. The anchor of the story is the character Johnnie Mae Brown (a nursing aide at Harlem Hospital) and how she maneuvers the various roles of her life. Stars Vertamae Grosvenor and Walter Cotton, both of whom had Harlem connections as artists.
This screening is presented in collaboration with Artists Space as part of the exhibition “Till They Listen: Bill Gunn Directs America” and its program “The Films of Bill Gunn.”
Changing Face of Harlem (2014, Shawn Batey, 62 min)
Harlem residents, business owners, and politicians share their perspectives on the neighborhood's place as a site of cultural preservation while also in the wake of urban renewal programs and gentrification.
Colors (2019, Christopher Séda, 17 min.)
A heady tone-poem of a short that follows a troubled student, a tired mother, two distant brothers, and a desperate father, who are all neighbors in a Harlem housing project, as they navigate their circumstances and try to survive.
