required viewing for folks who think champagne liberalism will wipe clean the hands of America’s original sin.
Cinemas
EN
"A 16mm cinematic exploration of African American intellectual, social, and political life at the University of Virginia during the 1970s. Conceived and written by UVA History Professor and author Claudrena Harold and directed by Harold and UVA Professor of Art, filmmaker/artist Kevin Jerome Everson, the film stars Erin Stewart (the bank teller/race driver in Everson's 2006 feature film "Cinnamon") as Vivian Gordon (the director of UVA's Black Studies program between 1975 and 1980). The film tells the story of African-American women and men who through their public and private gestures sought to create a beloved community that thrived on intellectual exchange, self-critique, and human warmth." - Trilobite-Arts-DAC, Claudrena Harold, Picture Palace Pictures
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7What people say
Another Everson film that shows a clear James Benning influence but uses those tools in a fresh and original way. Here as in Landscape Suicide there’s a long, highly realist (documentary in style more than narrative cinema, as if we’re watching the original act) recreation of an historical monologue followed by a repetition of the same speech, this time using the actual historical recording I assume, over a montage of scenes from campus life. But here the work is embedded in Black campus life at the university where the filmmaker actually works and teaches, and the actors in the recreation seem to be students and employees of that campus. It’s a self-exploration of a community’s own history and identity. Very interesting in that way, and the speech is very well written and delivered. I’m glad Everson ends the thing on a clip of an explicitly revolutionary Black Power march but there’s something of a disconnect between a speech from high ranking faculty at a wealthy institution and that suddenly moment of radical politics.
Dialectic echo chamber
Common questions
What is Sugarcoated Arsenic about?+
It is an experimental film that reconstructs the 1970s Black student experience at the University of Virginia through a 16mm archival-style lens.
Who directed Sugarcoated Arsenic?+
The film was co-directed by academic and author Claudrena Harold and filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson.
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