My Brother's Wedding

Ashes and Embers

Ashes and Embers is an original screenplay by Haile Gerima, about a Vietnam veteran, who, several years after the war, is struggling to come to terms with his role in the war, and his role as a Black person in America. He survives by working odd jobs in Washington, D.C. and living with his girlfriend and her son. When criticism of his alienated behavior come from her and a father figure too often, he runs to the streets or to his grandmother's rural house in Virginia. Her criticism and his memories of the past both send him fleeing again to Los Angeles, where he is surrounded by superficial people who have forgotten how to be compassionate human beings. It is here that the advice of his friends and grandmother combine to transform him from an embittered ex-soldier to a strong and confident man.

Daughters of the Dust

In 1902, an African-American family living on a sea island off the coast of South Carolina prepares to move to the North.

Killer of Sheep

An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.

Daydream Therapy

Daydream Therapy is set to Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of “Pirate Jenny” and concludes with Archie Shepp’s “Things Have Got to Change.” Filmed in Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey by activist-turned-filmmaker Bernard Nicolas as his first project at UCLA, this short film poetically envisions the fantasy life of a hotel worker whose daydreams provide an escape from workplace indignities. —Allyson Nadia Field

Penitentiary

A hitchhiker named Martel Gordone gets in a fight with two bikers over a prostitute, and one of the bikers is killed. Gordone is arrested and sent to prison, where he joins the prison's boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole and to establish his dominance over the prison's toughest gang.

Bush Mama

The story of Dorothy and her husband T.C. He is a discharged Vietnam veteran who thought he would return home to a "hero's welcome." Instead he is falsely arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Her life revolves around the welfare office and a community facing poverty and unemployment. As a result of the film's events, both the main characters become radicalized and Dorothy eventually turns to violence.

Emma Mae

A naive young woman moves from the South to stay with her aunt and uncle in Compton. As an outsider, she struggles at first to find her footing, but soon falls into the middle of a community of rebellious youth. She soon becomes more and more aware of the social injustices of the big city.

To Sleep with Anger

An enigmatic drifter from the South comes to visit an old acquaintance who now lives in South-Central LA.

Harvest: 3,000 Years

In this meditative film the everyday lives of poor Ethiopian peasants are shown using documentary as well as storytelling techniques, with its drama arising out of the timeless yet persistent issues of their lives.

Passing Through

Eddie Warmack, an African American jazz musician, is released from prison for the killing of a white gangster. Not willing to play for the mobsters who control the music industry, including clubs and recording studios, Warmack searches for his mentor and grandfather, the legendary jazz musician Poppa Harris.

Bless Their Little Hearts

Charlie Banks, chronically unemployed, struggles to find dignity and a meaning for life in the impoverished Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.

Gidget Meets Hondo

Filmed in response to the LAPD’s shooting of Eulia Love in 1979, Gidget Meets Hondo opens with stills taken by Bernard Nicolas of a demonstration against Love’s killing. Nicolas’ Gidget is a self-absorbed young white woman who remains clueless to the violence erupting around her, ultimately to her own peril. The film asks whether such police brutality would be tolerated if the victim were a middle-class white woman.

A River Runs Through It

The Maclean brothers, Paul and Norman, live a relatively idyllic life in rural Montana, spending much of their time fly fishing. The sons of a minister, the boys eventually part company when Norman moves east to attend college, leaving his rebellious brother to find trouble back home. When Norman finally returns, the siblings resume their fishing outings, and assess where they've been and where they're going.

Desert Hearts

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

Ciao bambino

Attilio is a 17-year-old boy living in the Traiano neighborhood of Naples. With his father having just been released from prison, in order to earn some money he agrees to be a guardian for Anastasia, a young prostitute from Eastern Europe. Progressively a feeling arises between the two that will push the boy to make choices.

L'albero

Bianca is 23 years old, and it already feels like too much. She has left her parents' home and is supposed to attend university, but she never goes. She has a few specific obsessions: the passing of time, cocaine, and Angelica. Since they started living together, everything seems to move faster, spiraling downwards. Even their friendship stumbles into addiction and becomes confused with love. Bianca keeps a notebook, jotting down notes for her books. Still, she wishes she could write everything in it: that youth is painful and already slipping away, that friendship breaks your heart, and that we constantly lose everything — and yet, maybe, in the end — between the night streets of Rome, the boys of Naples, and the tree that stands silently, visible through the window — nothing will be truly lost.

Daylight Fobbery

The Snail

Jim, a discharged sergeant, arrives in New York to find his mother has died. Grieving, he meets Elena at a bar. She offers him a place to stay, but he's too tired to respond. The next morning, Jim's childhood dream comes true.

The Island of Idealists

The peaceful balance of a family living in seclusion on an island at the mouth of the Po River is shattered by the unexpected arrival of two fugitives on the run after a robbery. The idealistic family, determined to guide the bandits back to the right path, decides to hide them from the police. This forced coexistence, marked by suspicion, seduction, and subtle deceptions, sparks a clash between two opposing worlds: the utopian purity of the family and the ruthless cynicism of crime

Arsa