8 Essential Project One Films From the L.A. Rebellion Film Movement
In 1968, the demographics of the film program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) began to shift to reflect the cultural realities of the city. Following the Watts Uprising, student organizers pushed for affirmative action policies to increase enrollment of students of color in the film program, leading to the launch of the university's "Ethno-Communications" program. The program recruited Asian American, Black, Latinx and Indigenous students and encouraged them to make projects grounded in their neighborhoods and histories.
From the late '60s to the mid-'80s, students like Eddie Wong, Julie Dash, Moctesuma Esparza, Sandy Osawa and many others, made films that resisted the propaganda and commercialization of Hollywood in favor of socially-engaged art that expressed their own visual aesthetics and rules.
Retroactively, these artists have been grouped together as the "L.A. Rebellion," a term coined by film scholar Clyde Tyler in 1986. Since then, L.A. Rebellion has taken on a life of its own, becoming a shorthand for the independent films made by socially-conscious Black filmmakers who actively resisted the racist depictions of Black life in mainstream media. What sticks out about this moment is the sense of collaboration occurring across cultures, genders, ideologies and more. Inspired by international movements like the French New Wave, Cinema Novo and Third Cinema, L.A. Rebellion students created works that traversed in and out of different genres and stylistic modes.
Some of these techniques were developed during Project One. A requirement for all film students, Project One films were created during the first semester of the program. Before taking any technical courses, students had to write, direct and edit an 8mm short film over 10 weeks.
In addition to crafting their own projects, L.A. Rebellion students would act as crew members on each other's films, serving as cinematographers or actors.
Today, Project One also functions as a valuable archive, collecting the very first film projects of artists like Ben Caldwell.
Below is a selection of shorts that reflect the L.A. Rebellion's engagement with experimentation, radical discourse, and everyday moments of splendor.
"The Kitchen" (1975) directed by Alile Sharon Larkin
Alile Sharon Larkin's "The Kitchen" presents a harrowing view of the corrosive effects of anti-Black racism on the psyche of a Black woman. The film centers on a young Black mother who is experiencing a psychotic breakdown. We first encounter the woman in the hallway of a mental institution, wearing a straight jacket and being led down the corridor by two indifferent orderlies. Shot in stark black and white, and without sound, the six-minute film traces the protagonist's fractured mindscape, jumping back and forth in time, as she grapples with the reality of her confinement while flashing back to the incidents that led to her institutionalization. Warped by European beauty standards, the protagonist is consumed by the supposed "unruliness" of her natural hair, which culminates in a tragic act against her daughter.
"Medea" (1973) directed by Ben Caldwell
Thick clouds stretch across the screen, accompanied by dissonant sounds. Abruptly, the camera cuts to the leaves of a bushy tree, shot from below. A shaky pan down towards the ground reveals the belly of a pregnant woman, as she lounges in the grass. So begins Ben Caldwell's "Medea," which unspools like a restless tone poem. Edited still images flash by, a frenetic montage that splices together histories of the African diaspora, from pre-colonial imagery to footage depicting American segregation and the civil rights movement. The interplay between the pregnant woman and the images create a loose narrative that enacts the cultural inheritances that will be passed on to the woman's unborn child.
Caldwell used an animation camera to collage his still images together, and edited the entire film in-camera.
"Wong Sinsaang" (1971) directed by Eddie Wong
On the surface, "Wong Sinsaang" chronicles the daily work routines of Eddie Wong's father, Wong Moon Tung, a Chinese immigrant who runs a laundry business in Hollywood. Wong uses documentary to meditate on the dualities of his father, who had to repress his feelings in order to survive the realities of white America, while also maintaining his own sense of dignity and self. In one scene, after complimenting the niceness of a white customer's shirt, the customer barks "Well, let's keep it that way."
Folded within these interactions are moments away from the laundromat, where Wong captures his father painting watercolors, writing poetry and calligraphy and performing kung-fu.
"The Single Parent Family: Images in Black" (1987) directed by Stormé Bright Sweet
Stormé Bright Sweet's documentary comprises of interviews with single parents in the Black community. Sweet explains that her topic was partially inspired by a woman from her childhood, a neighbor who took care of three rambunctious boys on her own following the accidental death of her husband. Intrigued by how she was able to remain calm and make due, Sweet embarked on this project to explore nuanced conversations around the experience of other single parents, from the challenges and unexpected joys to dealing with the judgment of others.
By encouraging her subjects to reveal their own stories, Sweet offers up alternative narratives of parenting and family.
"Hidden Memories" (1977) by Jacqueline Frazier
Blending color and black and white, Jacqueline Frazier's short depicts a high school senior, on the verge of attending college, who finds herself pregnant following a tryst with a local flirt. Frazier plays with voice-over and sound in order to place us within the interior landscape of our young narrator. When she tells her lover that she is pregnant, the word repeats on the soundtrack, becoming a haunting drone.
The horror of the abortion scene, a mix of ear-piercing screams and distorted faces, is joined by the fantasia of the color scenes that bookend the film, which depict an ambiguous happy ending that feels both idealistic and unsettling.
"Daydream Therapy" (1977) by Bernard Nicolas
"Daydream Therapy" riffs off of Nina Simone's spirited rendition of "Pirate Jenny." Here, Nicolas connects free time with revolutionary time, as the protagonist's dreams of class revenge set the stage for her own political awakening. The song centers on a hotel maid who dreams of disasters befalling the townspeople who have treated her poorly. Nicolas adapts this premise, focusing his short on a domestic worker who escapes into her fantasies as a tactic against the harassment of her white employer. As she goes about her day, the camera cuts to dream-like shots of glistening oceans and towering trees. These sequences intensify as they cut with her reality, culminating in a climactic moment where she envisions three youths enacting revenge on her cruel employer. In a final scene, she carries a copy of Kwame Nkrumah's "Class Struggle in Africa" as she marches back into the workplace with a newfound resolve.
"Hour Glass" (1971) directed Haile Gerima
"Hour Glass" also addresses the theme of political consciousness, and includes an extended dream sequence where the protagonist struggles to protect revolutionary leaders against assassination. Set at a predominantly white university, "Hour Glass" follows the political evolution of a Black college athlete. Gerima portrays basketball games as modern-day gladiator contests, where players put their bodies on the line for the entertainment of the audience, signaled by shots of white onlookers whose poses recall Roman emperors.
In contrast to this alienating environment, the protagonist's inner life is filled with the words of the Last Poets, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and Frantz Fanon. Their words trigger his decision to leave the institution in search of true community.
"Rain (Nyesha)" (1978) directed by Melvonna Ballenger
Using the music of Dionne Warwick, and John Coltrane, Melvonna Ballenger crafts a moving portrait of one woman's journey from apathy towards presence. "Rain (Nyesha)" follows a young typist as she commutes to her job in the rain. While waiting for the bus, she encounters an activist who passes her a flier that says, "Your liberation is my liberation."
From there, the protagonist muses on the many other meanings of the rain. Not only does it connote a sense of restoration, it also provides, for her, the space and time to gather your thoughts. Everything slows down in the rain, which can lead to small epiphanies. "Changing yourself often changes those around you," she reminds herself via voice over.
Learn more about the L.A. Rebellion in "Artbound” episode “L.A. Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement." Stream it for free on the PBS App, YouTube, or tune in on the following dates:
- Friday, Oct 20, 8:00 PM PDT on PBS SoCal
- Saturday, Oct 21, 2:00 AM PDT on PBS SoCal
- Sunday, Oct 22, 5:00 PM PDT on KCET
- Sunday, Oct 22, 9:00 PM PDT on PBS SoCal
