Looking for Langston
1989 · Movie · 45 min. · United Kingdom
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.
Direction Isaac Julien
Cast Ben Ellison · Matthew Baidoo · Akim Mogaji · John Wilson · Dencil Williams · Guy Burgess · James Dublin · Harry Donaldson · Jimmy Somerville
Soundtrack Wayson Jones · Trevor Mathison · Peter Spencer
Screenplay Isaac Julien
Cinematography Nina Kellgren
Original title Looking for Langston
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Not rated (FilmAffinity)
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