Cane River Virtual Q&A
Wednesday, October 21 at 7:00 pm: Q&A with lead actress Tommye Myrick, Programmer and Executive Director of The Luminal Theater Curtis Caesar John, moderated by JBFC Programmer Saidah Russell
About Cane River:
Written, produced, and directed by Emmy Award-winning documentarian Horace B. Jenkins, and crafted by an entirely African American cast and crew, Cane River is a racially-charged love story set in Natchitoches Parish, a “free community of color” in Louisiana. A budding, forbidden romance lays bare the tensions between two Black communities, the light-skinned, property-owning Creoles and the darker-skinned, more disenfranchised families of the area. This lyrical, visionary film disappeared for decades after Jenkins died suddenly following the film’s completion, robbing generations of a talented, vibrant new voice in African American cinema. Available now for the first time in forty years in a brand-new, state-of-the-art 4k restoration created by IndieCollect in association with the archive of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
You can watch Cane River in the JBFC’s Virtual Screening Room. Watch the film at your convenience, and then join us for a conversation with Curtis Caesar John on October 21!
Join the conversation in real time by tuning in to our YouTube channel!
Tommye Myrick has spent decades telling the stories of African American women and the disenfranchised through the Arts. She established an all African American Women’s Theatre Company called Voices in the Dark where she currently serves as Artistic Director. Operating out of New Orleans, Louisiana, Voices in the Dark has produced over 60 productions, receiving numerous awards and critical recognition. Most recently, Ms. Myrick mounted New Orleans’ first historical outdoor drama – Le Code Noir written by her and Mark R. Sumner. Le Code Noir premiered June 2019 in CONGO SQUARE to commemorate the tricentennial of the first slave ships to set port in Louisiana in 1719.
Curtis Caesar John has an extensive history in cinema and media. Along with founding The Luminal Theater, he also currently serves as a Programmer-at-Large for the Film Department of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where he programs the quarterly Caribbean Film Series (in partnership with the Caribbean Film Academy) and curates community-based film events. He recently served as Media Programmer for the multicultural movie & music app Project Catalyst. A filmmaker, film historian, and culture critic, Curtis also curates and produces tri-state based film events.
Presented in partnership with The Luminal Theater:
The Luminal Theater is a nomadic cinema that provides fully-curated exhibitions of diverse cinema and media of the Black/African diaspora (African-American, African, Caribbean, Afro-European, etc.), allowing these artists to present their work within our unique brand of shared audience experiences, centered in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy), Brooklyn, Central Brooklyn, and surrounding communities. In a rapidly-changing Brooklyn, we excel at keeping Black art alive through the cinematic arts.
Cane River is a part of REMIX: The Black Experience in Film, Media, and Art, which is presented with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
