Milwaukee Film Black History Month 2023
Black History Month is February, and Milwaukee Film will feature screenings, events, and conversations focused on the Black experience. The Black Lens program will curate the program.
Featured films include Fire Music, a feature-length documentary highlighting the brilliant architects behind the free jazz movement; Loudmouth, an unprecedented look into the life and work of longtime civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton; and the 1980s cult classic The Last Dragon, the martial arts comedy film produced by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records.
“I am looking forward to exploring how Black Film can continually be used as an agent to reimagine, re-inform, and reinvent the day-to-day realities for those in the diaspora,” said Marquise Mays, programmer for Milwaukee Film’s Black Lens program. “From historical documentaries, romantic comedies, music videos, and experimental expressions, the films for Black History Month seek to proclaim that Black film exists in its own solar system of infinite moments and futures.”
The February lineup will also include The Black Lens series Groove Theory, celebrating Black arts and culture through musical performance.; a reunion of popular local band Growing Nation; and the Valentine’s Day-themed “Black Love Through a Black Lens,” hosted by intimacy specialist Afrosexology. The new artist retrospective series “In Retrospect” will feature a moderated discussion about Grammy Award-nominated rapper Kendrick Lamar with music journalist Miles Marshall Lewis, author of Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar.
You can preview Milwaukee Film's Black History Month programming at the Black Lens Annual Affair at 7 p.m., Jan. 19 at The Ivy House (906 S. Barclay St.). The event will showcase film trailers, an eclectic local line-up backed by Brew City Soul Orchestra, complimentary appetizers and new Black Lens merchandise for sale.
For more information, consult Milwaukee Film’s website, mkefilm.org/bhm
