African-American Film Series

The last screening of the film series titled, "Picturing Black History," will be shown tonight at 8:00 p.m. in Betts Auditorium, inside the School of Architecture building.

Tonight's screening, the last in the series, will be of "Black Is. Black Ain't," directed by Marlon Riggs. The film promises to be an interesting study of what it means to be black in present-day America, and how factors such as age, wealth, location and sexual orientation can affect the definition of blackness. It will also attempt to answer questions pertaining to whether there is a black identity, and if so, whether there is a formula in defining who is truly black.

The film series, which is being presented by the Program in African-American Studies, has highlighted the experiences of African-Americans from slavery to the present.

One of two films shown last Thursday night was a documentary titled, "The Language You Cry In," directed by Alvaro Toepke and Angel Serrano.

Shot in Georgia and Sierra Leone, the film recounted the work of anthropologists and linguists to trace the maintenance of historical and linguistic ties between African-Americans living in Georgia and their ancestors from 18th century Sierra Leone. A particularly compelling moment was when linguists were able to find a tiny village in Sierra Leone containing residents who recognized a song that was preserved and passed on to posterity by African-American residents of Georgia. "The Language You Cry In" was able to trace the remarkable links between ethnic Africans and their descendants in America and the emotional bond that can still be felt by both sides as a result of slavery.