Please join us at FilmScene for the continuation of "Out of the Archive: Envisioning Blackness," a monthly screening and discussion series that celebrates the vibrant  tradition of Black cinema by featuring rarely screened, newly restored, and archivally-engaged films. Tickets are pay-what-you-can (with students, in particular, encouraged to pick $0). Join us before each screening for a free dinner reception catered by local restaurants, and stay after each film for post-screening conversations with UI community members and, whenever possible, the filmmakers themselves. Dinner receptions start at 6:15 p.m., with all screenings following at 7 p.m.

Part of University of Iowa's Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Human Rights Week, our first event of 2024 is a very special screening of Oscar Micheaux's Body and Soul (1925) that will include live musical accompaniment by the Alvin Cobb Jr. Trio. Reserve your tickets at https://icfilmscene.org/. Make sure to come early for a dinner buffet catered by Oasis (free), and stay after the screening for an exciting conversation between Alvin Cobb Jr. and film historian Allyson Nadia Field, moderated by U of Iowa PhD student Uche Anomnachi.

Body and Soul: Paul Robeson stars in this film by the enterprising Oscar Micheaux, representing Micheaux's cynical view of clergymen as greedy manipulators of the vulnerable. Robeson plays twin brothers, one a Bible-thumping, alcohol-sipping, sexually predatory minister and the other an ordinary working man, both vying for the affection of a young woman who is trying to abide by the misguided wishes of her devout mother.

Co-presented by FilmScene’s African Diaspora Committee, the Out of the Archive series is made possible through generous support from the following University of Iowa departments and units: African American Studies Program, Black Visual Culture Group (Obermann Center Working Group), Carver College of Medicine, Center for Human Rights, College of Education, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Public Health, Department of Anthropology, Department of Cinematic Arts, Department of Communication Studies, Department of Dance, Department of English, Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, Department of History, Department of Religious Studies, Department of Rhetoric, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Department of Theatre Arts, Graduate DEI Program, Obermann Center of Advanced Studies, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, School of Library and Information Science, School of Music.

This program is also generously supported by Humanities Iowa. The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities Iowa.