Ted Sarandos

Miky Lee

Kimberly Steward

Jim Gianopulos

Patricia Bellinger Balzer

Jason Blum

Arnaud Boetsch

Laura Dern

David Dolby

Sidonie Seydoux Dumas

Sid Ganis

Olivier de Givenchy

Ray Halbritter

Tom Hanks

Dawn Hudson

Bill Kramer

David Linde

Eva Longoria

Ryan Murphy

Dominic Ng

Katherine L. Oliver

Alejandro Ramírez Magaña

David Rubin

Regina K. Scully

Emma Thomas

Kevin Yeaman

Doris Berger

Donald Bogle

Cara Caddoo

Rhea L. Combs

Terri Simone Francis

Michael Boyce Gillespie

Whoopi Goldberg

J. Raúl Guzmán

Shola Lynch

Ron Magliozzi

Ellen C. Scott

Jacqueline Stewart

Gary Dauphin

Lauren Girard

Erwin Hines

Yosuke Kitazawa

Kit Masaracchia

Adriana Siu de Olaso

Emily Rauber Rodriguez

Mike Schiro

Agnes Stauber

Chandini Tirunagaru

Connor Uretsky

Mike Vazquez

Savannah West

Dan Yalg

Something Good Negro Kiss

Bert Williams and Odessa Warren Grey in Lime Kiln Club Field Day (dir. Edwin Middleton, T. Hays Hunter, 1913), film stills. Courtesy Museum of Modern Art.

Bert Williams and Odessa Warren Grey in Lime Kiln Club Field Day

Louise Beavers in Reform School (dir. Leo C. Popkin, 1939), film still. Courtesy Academy Film Archive.

Fredi Washington (center) and Duke Ellington and his band in Black and Tan (1929). Core Collection, Production Files, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences


Fredi Washington (center) and Duke Ellington and his band in Black and Tan (1929)

Bill Robinson and Lena Horne in Stormy Weather (1943). Courtesy of Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Sidney Poitier with Diahann Carroll in Paris Blues (1961)

I am Somebody

After a spell in Europe, a young man returns to Côte d’Ivoire. Navigating the dual consciousness of Africans returning home, The Woman with the Knife is a multilayered tale of a man haunted by a woman with a dagger pointed at his sexual inhibition and hope for romantic pursuits.

Feb24 WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE Regeneration1-thumbnail

The Woman with the Knife, preceded by Borom Sarret

In his first film appearance, Duke Ellington plays a down-on-his-luck composer hoping to create his next masterpiece.

Feb 23 Black and Tan Regeneration-thumbnail

Sepia Cinderella with Short Films

Believed to be the earliest cinematic display of Black affection, this joyous embrace of tenderness between a well-suited man and a woman in an ornate dress reminds us all about the urgency of love and film preservation.

SOMETHING GOOD

Ten Minutes to Live with Short Films

In this fantastical whodunit of intrigue, a World War I pilot (Laurence Criner) returns home to find romance and mystery. Returning to his pre-war roots as a railroad detective, the flying ace investigates a large payroll robbery.

Feb18 FLYING ACE Regeneration1-thumbnail

The Flying Ace with Midnight Shadow

Esse Mundo é Meu finds poetry in the everyday through multilayered imagery of two parallel romantic stories and the distinctive sounds of director Sérgio Ricardo’s music.

Feb17 THAT MAN OF MINE Regeneration2-banner

Esse Mundo é Meu with That Man of Mine

Charles Burnett’s first student film is a day-in-the-life story that captures the poetry and tenderness of the mundane among a group of Black friends from South Central LA.

NOTHING BUT A MAN

Several Friends with Nothing But a Man

With a story concocted by the film’s leading man Sidney Poitier, For Love of Ivy centers on the titular character (Abbey Lincoln), hoping to give up her role as a white family’s domestic and begin anew in a city.

Feb11 FOR LOVE OF IVY Regeneration4-banner

For Love of Ivy with Anna Lucasta

Set in Paris to the sounds of a Duke Ellington sonic lullaby, this jazz-infused drama starring Sidney Poitier takes the A-train to your heart.

PARIS BLUES

Paris Blues with A Man Called Adam

Are you ready for a FREE museum day? As part of SoCal Museums’ Annual Free for All Day, the Academy Museum will host a Family Fun Day for visitors to participate in the Regeneration Summit for free all day. There will be a variety of engaging activities for visitors of all ages to learn, collaborate, and continue the celebration of our groundbreaking exhibition.

FAMILY-FUN-DAY

Free Family Fun Day

How can we work together to preserve the history and future legacy of Black people’s participation in American cinema? To answer this question, we’re convening some of Black cinema’s brightest stars and those dedicated to protecting its history for a full-day symposium.

Symposium (1)

Saturday Symposium

Head “around the block” to Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue as the Regeneration Summit opens with an evening block party experience. The entire Academy Museum will come alive with activities inspired by the museum’s exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971. Check out the schedule below and come celebrate with us!

Around the Block Party

A landmark of Black and American independent cinema that would send shock waves through the culture, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was Melvin Van Peebles’s second feature film.

Still from Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song with Black Chariot

Melvin Van Peebles’s edgy, angsty, romantic first feature could never have been made in the United States.

Still from La Permission

La Permission (The Story of a Three-Day Pass) with Nothing But a Man

Lorraine Hansberry’s play about a family’s struggles to improve their status after the death of their patriarch was the first work by a Black female playwright to be produced on Broadway.

Still from A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun with The Learning Tree

Harry Belafonte stars in this stylish widescreen noir that finds him squaring off against Robert Ryan, a tightly wound racist with a sadistic streak and dark pas

Still from Odds Against Tomorrow

Odds Against Tomorrow with The World, the Flesh and the Devil

Sidney Poitier was in his early 20s when he made his big - screen debut in this searing drama about a Black doctor who must provide treatment to a pair of racist brothers shot while committing a robbery.

Still from No Way Out

No Way Out with Native Son

Spencer Williams imagines W. Somerset Maugham&#39;s &quot;Miss Thompson” as a Caribbean cabaret fable.

Still from Dirty Gertie

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. with The Girl from Chicago

Nearly retired tap dancer Bill &quot;Corky&quot; Williamson (screen and stage legend Bill “Bojangles” Robinson ) recounts the welcome that he and his 15th New York Regiment band received when they returned from Europe after World War I

Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather with The Duke is Tops

The prolific screen actor Spencer Williams also wrote, produced, and directed a series of independent films, shot in and around Dallas, with all-Black casts

The Blood of Jesus with Hell-Bound Train

The Blood of Jesus with Hell-Bound Train

The first true Black gangster film, Dark Manhattan is the brainchild of its star and uncredited co-director, Ralph Cooper, also the founder of the Apollo Theater’s legendary Amateur Night

Still from Dark Manhattan

Dark Manhattan with Murder in Harlem

Paul Robeson is pure magnetism in this fascinating film adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s one-act play about a Caribbean dictator reflecting on his past as a Pullman porter in America.

Still from The Emperor Jones

The Emperor Jones with Princess Tam Tam

The charismatic Laurence Criner stars as Captain Billy Stokes—a World War I pilot who returns home to find both romance and a plot involving a gang of payroll thieves.

THE FLYING ACE

The Flying Ace

Louise Beavers gives a commanding lead performance as the crusading Mother Barton in this race film long believed to be lost, also known by its misleading re-release title Prison Bait. Beavers plays a probation officer who comes to the defense of young inmate Freddie (Reginald Fenderson) and his pals (the Harlem Tuff Kids) who are subject to constant harassment at a corrupt reform school.

Reform School

Reform School

The Nicholas Brothers in a scene from Stormy Weather, 1943, from left, Fayard Nicholas and Harold Nicholas. Photographic print, gelatin silver. Courtesy Margaret Herrick Library, ©Twentieth Century Fox

The Nicholas Brothers from Stormy Weather, 1943

Audiences will also be introduced to stars largely unknown to mainstream moviegoers alongside iconic screen legends.

Upcoming Events

Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 is the recipient of the 2018 Sotheby’s Prize. The Sotheby’s Prize was founded to support and encourage museums to break new ground by recognizing curatorial excellence and facilitating an upcoming exhibition that explores overlooked or underrepresented art history. The Sotheby’s Prize was awarded by a jury of museum curators and directors comprising Sir Nicholas Serota, Donna De Salvo, Okwui Enwezor (1963–2019), Connie Butler, Emilie Gordenker, and chaired by Allan Schwartzman.

Regeneration is made possible in part by major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Technology solutions generously provided by Christie®.

Lead support provided by Campari® and J. P. Morgan Private Bank.

Generous support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and Octavia Spencer.

Accompanying exhibition catalogue supported in part by a grant from Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

Academy Film Archive restorations are funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation.

Academy Museum Digital Engagement Platform sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Upcoming Events

Past Events