By the 1990s, following in the wake of Spike Lee’s late-1980s successes, Hollywood slowly began acknowledging the financial viability of films about Black people through the eyes of Black directors. One of the benefits of this movement was a cycle of neo-noir films that shifted the focus from money and desire to race and racism. Many of these films came from actor-turned-directors, as this series will show. The protagonists of these films still transgress — private eyes doing bad things for a good purpose, bad cops perverting the system — but race colors how they are perceived, the obstructions they face, and how they navigate their worlds as a result. Journalist Julian Kimble has written insightfully about this cycle of films, anchored in the classic period of noir (sometimes explicitly), with a decidedly late-century perspective, and will be on-hand for the screening of Devil in a Blue Dress (February 4) to introduce the film and expand on his research.
Dates and Titles:
February 4: Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin, US 1995, 102 min., DCP)
February 18: Deep Cover (Bill Duke, US 1992, 107 min., DCP)
February 25: One False Move (Carl Franklin, US 1991, 105 min., DCP)
March 4: Out of Time (Carl Franklin, US 2003, 105 min., DCP)
Events in this Series
Out of Time (35mm)
Neo-Noir from Black DirectorsRe-teaming with Denzel Washington nearly a decade after Devil in a Blue Dress, director Carl Franklin trades in 1940s Los Angeles for the sweaty, post-millennial Florida Keys.
One False Move (DCP)
Neo-Noir from Black Directors “Remember what you told me about when you hear a whippoorwill? It means somebody’s gonna die.” Two groups of people are on a collision course with destiny. One is a trio of criminals from Los Angeles—brilliant psychopath Pluto Franklin, drug dealer Ray, and his girlfriend Fantasia.
Deep Cover (DCP)
Neo-Noir from Black Directors Blurring the lines between right and wrong, Russell Stevens (Laurence Fishburne) is recruited by the DEA to go undercover as a drug pusher, working his way up the distribution ladder to end the supply of cocaine at its source.
Devil in a Blue Dress (DCP)
Neo-Noir from Black Directors Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins mystery series finally got a film adaptation with a little help from Denzel Washington. Washington plays the post-World War II detective and served as a producer on the film, shepherding the book to the screen.