Bayard Rustin with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1956

6:30pm
Sunday January 17, 2010
South Dallas Cultural Center 3400 S. Fitzhugh Dallas, TX 75210

A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence.

Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. Five years in the making and the winner of numerous awards, BROTHER OUTSIDER presents a feature-length documentary portrait, focusing on Rustin’s activism for peace, racial equality, economic justice and human rights.

Rustin’s biography is particularly important for lesbian and gay Americans, highlighting the major contributions of a gay man to ending official segregation in America. Rustin stands at the confluence of the great struggles for civil, legal and human rights by African-Americans and lesbian and gay Americans. In a nation still torn by racial hatred and violence, bigotry against homosexuals, and extraordinary divides between rich and poor, his eloquent voice is needed today.

Immediately after the film there will be a talkback with local black queer activists leading a discussion about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of being openly queer in the fight for equal rights.

6:30pm
Sunday December 20, 2009
South Dallas Cultural Center 3400 S. Fitzhugh Dallas, TX 75210

Directed by: Thomas Allen Harris

VINTAGE Families of Value is an experimental documentary that looks at three
African American families through the eyes of lesbian and gay siblings –
including the filmmaker and his younger brother. In 1991, while his mother
and brother sit in the kitchen giving each other facials, the filmmaker sets up a
camera and for the first time asks his mother what she thinks of the fact that
her two and only sons are gay. What ensues is a conversation that moves from
sexuality to a discussion of ambivalence, fear and hope regarding family. Over
the course of five years, three groups of queer siblings use video cameras to
articulate the multiple narratives that coexist within the psychic space of family.
VINTAGE negotiates sexuality as a point of departure to explore these
relationships. For African Americans, autobiographical narratives constitute a
political strategy to re-write her/ histories. VINTAGE Families of Value crosses
the boundaries of truth time, gender and power, to create a portrait that is
simultaneously collective and autobiographical.

Immediately follow the screening of VINTAGE Families of Value, there will be a talkback with a panel of local black gay siblings. Special guest panelists are identical twins, Zachary and Gregory Shirley and sister and brother, Robin and Ryan Pruitt. They will join other panelists and discuss various issues surrounding black gay siblings.

Book of Numbers featuring Irma P. Hall

Friday November 20, 2009

8pm – $5 (donation)

South Dallas Cultural Center

3400 S. Fitzhugh Dallas, TX 75210

Black Cinematheque Dallas will have a special screening Friday November 20th, 2009 to acknowledge our own Queen of Stage & Screen, Ms. Irma P. Hall. Some of you may remember her very first screen debut in “Book Of Numbers” directed by Raymond St. Jacques. Filmed in Dallas’ formerly all-Black Thomas and Hall neighborhood (now renamed “Uptown”) , the film features a young Philip Michael-Thomas, Freda Payne and director/actor Raymond St. Jacques. Also appearing with Ms. Hall are many local Dallasites performing as “extras” including Leo Hassan, Willie Harris and Charles Raven Davis. Here’s the plot: in the 1930’s, two Black waiters leave their square jobs to set up a profitable number racket in rural Arkansas. Things are going great until their big-money operation attracts the attention of the jealous white criminals.
Come on out and join us for a fun-filled evening with Ms. Irma P. Hall and take a trip down Black Cinema memory lane!