AFRICAN DIASPORA FILM CLUB AT MOAD | AILEY
Join us for our monthly series, The African Diaspora Film Club. Modeled after our African Book Club, we will meet once a month to discuss a film that we have all viewed in advance of the discussion. The conversation will be moderated by Cornelius Moore, co-director of California Newsreel and film series curator at MoAD. We will be choosing a selection of films, some previously screened at MoAD. You may have already seen it, or this may be your first introduction. In either case, join us for a lively discussion of the film.
This month we will be discussing AILEY (2021, Jamila Wignot, 83 mins).
We will not be screening the film. AILEY is available streaming on Hulu.
Director Jamila Wignot will join us for the discussion.
Alvin Ailey was a trailblazing pioneer who found salvation through dance. AILEY traces the full contours of this brilliant and enigmatic man whose search for the truth in movement resulted in enduring choreography that centers on the Black American experience with grace, strength, and unparalleled beauty. Told through Ailey’s own words and featuring evocative archival footage and interviews with those who intimately knew him, director Jamila Wignot weaves together a resonant biography of an elusive visionary.
Jamila Wignot is a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker. Her directing work includes the Peabody, Emmy and NAACP award-winning series The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (PBS), hosted by Henry Louis Gates; Town Hall (co-directed with Sierra Pettingill), a longitudinal portrait of Tea Party activists determined to unseat Barack Obama; and, for PBS’s American Experience series, the Peabody Award-winning Triangle Fire and Emmy-nominated Walt Whitman. Jamila’s producing credits include Sierra Pettengill’s forthcoming feature documentary Riotsville, U.S.A; W. Kamau Bell’s Bring The Pain (A&E); and the narrative feature A Stray (SXSW ‘16).
The African Diaspora Film Club is presented in partnership with Black Public Media
Black Public Media (BPM), formerly known as National Black Programming Consortium develops, produces, funds, and distributes media content about the African American and global Black experience. Our mission is to commit to a fully realized expression of democracy and we accomplish this by supporting diverse voices through training, education, and investment in visionary content makers.
For 40 years, BPM has addressed the needs of unserved and underserved audiences. BPM continues to address historical, contemporary, and systemic challenges that traditionally impede the development and distribution of black stories.
