Looking for Langston [videorecording] : a meditation on Langston Hughes (1902-1967) and the Harlem Renaissance with the poetry of Essex Hemphill and Bruce Nugent (1906-1987) in memory of James Baldwin (1924-1987) / Sankofa Film and Video presents ; poetry and texts [by] James Baldwin, Essex Hemphill, Bruce Nugent, Hilton Als ; producer, Nadine Marsh-Edwards ; written and directed by Isaac Julien.
Format:
[videorecording] :
Publisher:
Sankofa Film and Video ;
Copyright Date:
2007
Description:
1 videodisc (60 min. [i.e. 45 min.]) : sd., b&w ; 4 3/4 in.
Ben Ellison (Alex), Matthew Baidoo (Beauty), Akim Mogaji (James), John Wilson (Karl), Dencil Williams (Marcus), Guy Burgess (Dean), James Dublin (Carlos), Harry Donaldson (Leatherboy); American voices, Erick Ray Evans, Essex Hemphill, Wayson Jones, Toni Morrison; British voice, Stuart Hall. Produced as a British motion picture in 1989. Special features: Commentary track with Isaac Julien & Nina Kellgren [optional audio feature]; Photo gallery [slide show] (7 min.); "The attendant" [featurette] (8 min.); Other Strand titles [previews] (9 min.).
Contents:
Opening -- Langston -- Shared secret -- Beauty -- Waking -- What happened? -- Hunger -- In vogue -- Wall of memory -- Fallen angels -- Collision -- Credits.
Summary:
This self-described meditation on the life of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes addresses the possible, possibly imagined, life of the author as a gay man. Both documentary and fantasy, it blends archival footage with black and white paeans to a life that might have been--a Harlem nightclub from the 1920s, a London nightspot from the late eighties, various dream sequences--foregrounding gay sexual desire, constructed of a meĢlange of materials. Looking for Langston is not a mainstream film, but a short film, an avant-garde film, a gay film, and a black British film. Indeed, the prospect of viewing the film can be an off-putting one, considering its competing narrative lines as documentary, reclamation of an aspect of black history, rumination on the AIDS crisis, or pure fantasy.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.