“Losing Ground was not only ahead of its own time, but ours as well.” — Indie Wire
Losing Ground, one of the first feature-length motion pictures directed by a Black American woman and a National Film Registry inductee, tells the story of a Black female philosophy professor and her abstract painter husband drifting apart as they experience separate creative evolutions. It won first prize at the Figueroa International Film Festival in Portugal in 1982 but didn’t receive an official release until it was restored in 2015, long after director Kathleen Collins died from breast cancer in 1988.
“Losing Ground @ 40” is a two-day, multi-site program that brings together luminary Black women filmmakers, scholars, and curators to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the pathbreaking film, introduce new audiences to Collins’s innovative practice, and convene those long inspired by it.
Following a film screening and talkback at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Losing Ground @ 40: Panels and Reception will focus on discussions that explore the film, its themes, making, and legacy.
SCHEDULE:
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28
California African American Museum
1–2 p.m.: Roundtable 1—Philosophy and Ecstasy in Losing Ground
Featuring Georgetown professor and prolific author LaMonda Horton-Stallings Georgetown professor and author of The Afterlives of Kathleen Collins. Moderated by USC assistant professor A.E. Stevenson.
2–2:10 p.m.: Break with refreshments
2:10–3:10 p.m.: Roundtable 2—Form in Losing Ground and Black Independent Filmmaking
Featuring UCSD professor and documentary filmmaker Zeinabu irene Davis, UC Irvine professor Philana Payton, and Cornell University professor and author Samantha Noelle Sheppard. Moderated by USC Ph.D. candidate Alex Hack.
3:10–4 p.m.: Closing reception
Related Event:
Losing Ground Screening and Talkback
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Ted Mann Theater
6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
Friday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m.
Transportation will be available for USC students from the University Park Campus.
Free for USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP
$10 for General Public: PURCHASE TICKETS
Sign language interpreters will be present at both events.
Presented by USC Visions and Voices, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, and the California African American Museum. Co-organized by Adrienne Adams (American Studies and Ethnicity), A.E. Stevenson (Gender and Sexuality Studies), Alex Hack (Cinema and Media Studies), and Zakiyyah Iman Jackson (English). Co-sponsored by the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Africana Research Cluster.
