Looking for Langston (1989)

Name: Looking for Langston
Genre: Drama
Released: 1989-10-31
Duration: 45 min
Rating: 48
Cast: Ben Ellison, Matthew Baidoo, Akim Mogaji, John Wilson, Dencil Williams

Movie

Audience Score

StarringBen EllisonMatthew BaidooAkim Mogaji

DirectorIsaac Julien

NR 45 minOct 31st, 1989Drama

Plot

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.

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