Join Sisters in Cinema in July as we continue our Sisters in the Center Screening Series. Each of the works screened are directed by a Black woman or nonbinary filmmaker featured in our Sisters in the Center Portrait Exhibit at the Media Arts Center.

All screening admissions are free and open to the public!
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PORTRAITS

DATE: JULY 27th

TIME: 2:30 - 4:00 PM

Portia Cobb - Who are You : An Oakland Story | 1991 | 5 minutes.

“Based on stories I gathered about a woman I saw once or twice when I first moved to Oakland from Southern California. Her story varied from person to person and what I found amusing was that people had different constructions in their mind about what she looked like, and how old she was and the reason for her mental illness. This short was completed as I exited film school and shot both in film and video. My crew happened to be members of a collective I helped to found in San Francisco "Focus Media Collective" We were filmmakers of Color united...don't remember what the "s" stood for now.” (Portia Cobb)

S. Pearl Sharp - Picking Tribes | 1988 | 7 minutes.

“In a heartfelt, and often hilarious, attempt to be more than ‘ordinary,’ a girl growing up in the 1940s tries to choose between her African-American and Native-American heritages. It is only when her beloved grandfather dies that she is able to reconcile the power of both her heritages and realizes her own uniqueness." -Moving Pictures Bulletin

Sharp uses vintage photographs and Carlos Spivey’s watercolor animation to create a spirited portrait of a girl’s search for identity.

O.Funmilayo Makarah - Creating a Different Image: Portrait of Alile Sharon Larkin | 1989 | 5 minutes.

“A jubilant affirmation of self-identity, Creating a Different Image is Alile Sharon Larkin in her own words defiantly declaring, ‘I am an artist.’”

Aarin Burch - Spin Cycle | 1989 | 5 minutes.

“This autobiographical look at filmmaking and romantic relationships sees the filmmaker reflecting on how to represent race, the ways her films might objectify women, and being pigeonholed as a Black lesbian filmmaker.” – Sojourner Truth Festival of the Arts (2023)

Ayoka Chenzira - Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People | 10 minutes.

Originally a stand-up comedy piece, this riotous, insightful satire uses animation and collage to convey the self-image predicaments black women experience when pressured to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards.

Monica Freeman - Valerie: A Woman, An Artist, A Philosophy of Life | 1975 | 15 minutes.

Explores some of the attitudes and insights of Valerie Maynard, an extremely gifted sculptor whose work is acclaimed in America and abroad.

Cheryl Fabio - Rainbow Black: Poet Sarah W. Fabio | 1976 | 30 minutes.

MA Thesis film; “Rainbow Black is a portrait of Sarah Webster Fabio, a poet whose favorite working image is the kaleidoscope. Fabio is interviewed in her apartment and is shown performing musical renditions of her poetry in a studio and teaching a Black poetry class at the University of Iowa.”

Sisters in Cinema Media Arts Center | 2310 E 75th St, Chicago, IL 60649

Sisters in the Center Screening Series: Portraits