Dryden Theatre to present six complimentary screenings in February to celebrate Black History Month

In celebration of Black History Month, the Dryden Theatre will present six complimentary screenings, organized by the George Eastman Museum. Complimentary admission to all films is sponsored by Nocon & Associates, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC., and media partner 103.9 WDKX

Dates and Titles

• Saturday, February 1: Dahomey(2024) + Statues Also Die(1953)
  Statues Also Die, is a short documentary that exposes and criticizes the lack of consideration for African art in Europe. The film was censored in France for eight years because of its anti-colonial perspective. Dahomeyis a new immersive documentary that delves into issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination, and restitution.
   
• Thursday, February 6: Amazing Grace(2018)
  Amazing Gracefollows Aretha Franklin as she records her 1972 live gospel album of the same name. Part of the On the Backbeat: Black Music Documentariesseries.
   
• Thursday, February 13: Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959)
  Billed as "embarrassingly intimate," this film by photographer Bert Stern captures the thriving spirit of this truly American art form. Part of the On the Backbeat: Black Music Documentariesseries.
   
• Tuesday, February 18: Strange Victory(1948)
  Renowned director Leo Hurwitz argues that the Allies' triumph in the war constituted a "strange victory," considering that the battle against discriminatory governments represented no advancement in our own social landscape. This film includes graphic images from the Holocaust.
   
• Thursday, February 20: 20 Feet from Stardom(2013)
  This documentary focuses on four women-one who has finally broken through (Darlene Love), two who have never been given their due (Merry Clayton and Lisa Fischer), and one who is still striving to make her mark in music (Judith Hill). Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Part of the On the Backbeat: Black Music Documentariesseries.
   
• Thursday, February 27: Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)(2021)
  A documentary about the third and final Harlem Cultural Festival (1969). Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Part of the On the Backbeat: Black Music Documentariesseries. 
   

About On the Backbeat: Black Music Documentaries
Most American popular music through the nineteenth century emphasized the rhythm on the first or first-and-third beats of a four-beat frame. But in the late nineteenth century, and into the twentieth, rhythms based in African roots began to work their way into the mainstream, emphasizing the second or second-and-fourth beats of a four-beat frame, influencing worship music, jazz, and the blues. As the twentieth century continued, the backbeat became a defining element of both rhythm & blues and rock & roll. While the origin and the innovators most closely associated with backbeat came from drummers, so many of the artists out front behind the microphone we listen to today benefit from this beat.  This series samples the performances and stories of some of these artists from the 1950s to the twenty-first century.
 

About the Dryden Theatre
The 500-seat Dryden Theatre is the premier exhibition space for the art of cinema as championed and interpreted by theGeorge Eastman Museum.Presenting film screenings five days a week, the Dryden is devoted to showing all films in their original formats, thus honoring and reproducing their historical-and aesthetically supreme-modes of exhibition. It is one of the very few theaters in the world equipped for the projection of original nitrate film and makes nitrate film screenings part of its regular program.

About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world's oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 28,000 motion picture films, the world's preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program, and its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation's graduate program (a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. For more information, visit eastman.org.

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ATTN. Media: High-resolution images and captions can be found here.