Dutchman. 1966. UK/USA. Directed by Anthony Harvey. Screenplay by Amiri Baraka, based on his play (as LeRoi Jones). With Shirley Knight, Al Freeman Jr., Frank Lieberman. World premiere. Courtesy Janus Films. 55 min.
4K digital restoration from the original camera negative supervised by The Criterion Collection with Metropolis Post. The original monaural soundtrack was restored from the 1/4" magnetic track.
We Are Universal. 1971. USA. Directed by Billy Jackson. With Jesse Jackson, Quincy Jones, Nikki Giovanni. World premiere. 24 min.
Digital restoration by Pittsburgh Sound + Image, with digital transfers by MediaPreserve and funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
When Amiri Baraka’s explosive one-act play Dutchman premiered off Broadway in 1964, it outraged and electrified audiences in equal measure before winning an Obie Award as the best American play of the year, making Baraka the first Black playwright to receive this recognition. Despite its critical success, the play’s scalding critique of liberal racial politics proved too controversial for American film studios, leading producer Henry T. Weinstein to seek both financing and creative freedom in Britain. At London’s Twickenham Studios, first-time director Anthony Harvey, fresh from editing Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, transformed the theatrical material through sophisticated cutting and claustrophobic camerawork into a dynamic work of cinema, as a charged encounter between a buttoned-down Black professional (Al Freeman Jr., who originated the role on stage) and a dangerously seductive white woman (Shirley Knight) unfolds within a meticulously reconstructed New York City subway car.
Grove Press, the legendary publisher of avant-garde and politically radical literature, supported the film’s eventual American distribution through their nascent cinema division, though its circulation remained limited primarily to university film societies and urban art houses, and Dutchman virtually disappeared from view when Grove Press dissolved in 1985. This restoration restores the original luster of Gerry Turpin’s black-and-white cinematography.
We Are Universal is a 1971 documentary short, directed by the prolific filmmaker and activist Billy Jackson (Didn’t We Ramble On), that surveys African American arts and culture, drawing inspiration from the “Black Is Beautiful” movement. It features onscreen commentary from such prominent figures as Jesse Jackson, Quincy Jones, Nikki Giovanni, Babatunde Olatunji, Hugh Masekela, and Freddie Hubbard. Restored by Pittsburgh Sound + Image.