First Black Cinema Arts Festival in New Orleans, 1973
New Orleans: Monastery Print Shop, 1973. New Orleans Cinema & Theatre Arts Festival Foundation. “New Orleans Cinema & Theatre Arts Festival Foundation…Presents New Orleans First Black Cinema Arts Festival. 7.25” x 10” in pictorial stapled wrappers (with 1939 photo of the façade of Rex Theatre for Colored People in Leland, Mississippi, by Marion Post Wolcott. [36 pp.]. About VG+, with a few small stains to rear wrapper.
Apparently unrecorded booklet for the inaugural New Orleans Black Cinema Festival in 1973 (which has continued for more than fifty years). The 1973 festival (which ran from October 25-31) was produced in conjunction with Film Buffs Institute and American Film Institute. The stated aims of the festival include “the preservation, collection, reviewing and cataloging of black cinema and folk films, with the intent of creating and establishing a film library and/or museum,” “promoting and encouraging the creation and production of Black Repertory Theater,” “the extension and production of modern world black cinema,” and “the promotion and presentation of Cultural and Performing Arts from the world black community.” The festival mission statement notes that “It is our hope and privilege, this year and in the years to come…to pay homage and do honor, along with you…to the expressions and lives of great Black artists.”
Contents include detailed listings of each day’s events, a film schedule (screenings took place at the Civic Theater and on the campuses of Xavier, Loyola, and Tulane), a congratulatory letter from the Mayor of New Orleans, a letter thanking ETRE Communications for their promotional and PR work on the festival, and advertisements for Falstaff and Jax beer, Stax Records, Central City Economic Opportunity Corps., Silver Thevis Music Company, and numerous Louisiana politicians and companies. The festival included a gala tribute to Paul Robeson with music by the Jazz Ensemble from Southern University, an evening featuring performances by Ethiopians Theater, Bashiki Project Theater, and the Free Southern Theater, and screenings of films including Hallelujah (1929), Imitation of Life (1934), Showboat (1936), Cabin in the Sky (1943), No Way Out (1950), Carmen Jones (1954), Porgy & Bess (1959), and Georgia Georgia (1971).
Scarce—no copies in commerce, auction records, or OCLC. Item #1229
Price: $1,250.00