Anthony Harvey, 1967, 55 min.
Dutchman is screening for $15 general seating / $25 priority on Friday, November 11th at 7:30PM at Harlem Stage
Presented in collaboration with Maysles Documentary Center, Harlem Stage presents the film, Dutchman, by Amiri Baraka, which is based on his 1964 OBIE Award-winning one act play of the same name that originally premiered at The Cherry Lane Theater.
Having a profound effect on theatergoers and critics, Baraka’s play, Dutchman, was adapted as a British film in 1967, produced by Gene Persson; directed by first-time director, Anthony Harvey (Academy Award nominee for his direction of the historical drama, The Lion In Winter); and starring acclaimed actor, Al Freeman, Jr., and two-time Academy Award-nominated actress, Shirley Knight.
Dutchman addresses interracial tension, sociopolitical awareness, and the relevance of African history and culture to blacks in the United States. Described by The New York Times, the play is “designed to shock with its language and its murderous rage… an explosion of hatred rather than a play. It puts into the mouth of its principal Negro character a scathing denunciation of all the white man’s good works, pretentions, and condescensions, proclaiming it bespeaks a promising, unsettling talent.” Widely recognized as Baraka’s greatest work in any genre, Dutchman, in both its thematic emphasis and dramatic structure, combines avant-garde rituals of irony, emotional power, and social insight; a commentary on a clash between characters from divergent social and philosophical backgrounds, both commenting on the internal divisions of individuals in American society, and both culminating in acts of violence that are at once realistic and symbolic.
Following the screening, Harlem Stage Artistic Director & CEO Pat Cruz will speak with writer, poet, and Black Arts Movement artist David Henderson about the film.
This program is part of Harlem Stage’s ongoing series, BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT: EXAMINED, which examines the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s to the 1970s, and its relationship to race, gender, sexuality, music, photography, film, poetry, theater, and dance, as well as its intersectionality with the larger Black Power Movement. The Black Arts Movement was a cultural movement led by Black artists, activists, and intellectuals that shaped the ideologies of Black identity, political beliefs, and African American culture.
