Upcoming Events

Film Program

The Woman with the Knife, preceded by Borom Sarret

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.

Film Program

Sepia Cinderella with Short Films

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

Film Program

Ten Minutes to Live 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.

Film Program

The Flying Ace with Midnight Shadow

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.

Film Program

Esse Mundo é Meu with That Man of Mine

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.

Film Program

Several Friends with Nothing But a Man

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.

Film Program

For Love of Ivy with Anna Lucasta

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. 

Film Program

Paris Blues with A Man Called Adam

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. 

Regeneration Summit

Free Family Fun Day

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.

Regeneration Summit

Saturday Symposium

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.

Regeneration Summit

Around the Block Party

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!

Film Program

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song with Black Chariot

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.

Film Program

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

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

Film Program

A Raisin in the Sun with The Learning Tree

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.

Film Program

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

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

Film Program

No Way Out with Native Son

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.

Film Program

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

Spencer Williams imagines W. Somerset Maugham's "Miss Thompson” as a Caribbean cabaret fable.

Film Program

Stormy Weather with The Duke is Tops

Nearly retired tap dancer Bill "Corky" 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

Film Program

The Blood of Jesus with Hell-Bound Train

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

Film Program

Dark Manhattan with Murder in Harlem

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

Film Program

The Emperor Jones with Princess Tam Tam

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.

Film Program

The Flying Ace

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.

Film Program

Reform School

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.