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"A priceless cinematic time capsule ... as an L.A.-specific filmic event it's unlikely to be surpassed in the near future." —LA Weekly
"The L.A. Rebellion Returns" —Los Angeles Times
"A major curatorial initiative." —Frieze Magazine
Download the exhibition catalog (PDF)
Beginning in the late 1960s, a number of promising African and African American students entered the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, recruited under a concerted initiative to be more responsive to various communities of color. From that first class through the late 1980s, and continuing well beyond their college days, these filmmakers came to represent the first sustained undertaking to forge an alternative Black Cinema practice in the United States. Along the way, they created fascinating, provocative and visionary films that have earned an impressive array of awards and accolades at festivals around the world, in addition to blazing new paths into the commercial market.
Occasionally called the “Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers,” and perhaps more frequently “L.A. Rebellion,” the group’s significance is too far reaching to be fairly contained by any one name. In this exhibition, we proudly present more than fifty representative works that range from well-known films securely in the canon, to others seldom seen since school days. This series reveals a panoply of visions that do honor to individuals and the collective. Many films are presented here in new prints and restorations undertaken by UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Series programmed by Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Shannon Kelley and Jacqueline Stewart.
L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema is part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. This unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.
Thanks to: Getty Research Institute; Ann Philbin, Hammer Museum; Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum; Black Film Center/Archive, Indiana University; Charles Silver, Museum of Modern Art; Ayuko Babu, Pan African Film Festival; Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures Entertainment; Debra Zimmerman, Women Make Movies; Dennis Doros, Amy Heller, Milestone Films; Harris Tulchin; Larry Dodge; Cauleen Smith and the filmmakers of the L.A. Rebellion.
