Looking For Langston

This film was very arty and I must admit, I was falling asleep in parts of it. Non-linear narratives with lots of sepia colored scenes and black and white long shots of actors lazing down a beach tend to do that to me. The poetry was cute. I kind of wish Isaac Julian had taken a more blended approach to his historical subject like the Hawaiian film I saw the day before.

I perked up towards the end of the film when I heard the familiar refrains of "Can You Feel It?" in the classic House anthem. The editing was spot on. The black crowd in a speakeasy basement were dancing to the energetic track while outside, a mob of white hooligans and cops were banging on the door in time to the music. The lyric in the song goes, "Too Black, Too Strong... Check this out" just as the cops break the door down. Then the music launches into a clavical roll as the mob runs down the stairs banging their nightsticks along the metal banister. The action and the soundtrack blended so seamlessly that it could have been a music video.

The two shorts screened afterward recycled some of the cast and some of the scenes and by the time it got to the Q&A at the end, I was more interested in counting the number of times Isaac Julian said the word "um" (59 in his longest answer!). On the way home, I was thinking about the correlation between his inability to clarify his thoughts before answering with his inability to tell a proper story in any of those films. Tuesday, I've tickets to see YOUNG SOUL REBELS and judging by the previews, it's actually a proper film with a begining, middle and end.

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