A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
Stills
16
Cast
Ben Ellison Alex
Matthew Baidoo Beauty
Akim Mogaji James
John Wilson Karl
Dencil Williams Marcus
Guy Burgess Dean
Dublin James Wahlberg Carlos Harry Donaldson Leatherboy
Jimmy Somerville Angel
Langston Hughes Self (archive footage)
Stuart Hall British (voice)Screenings in Brussels
No upcoming screenings.