Euzhan Palcy (b. Martinique, 1958), who in 1989 became the first black woman director to have her work produced by a major Hollywood studio (with MGM’s A Dry White Season), explores themes of race, gender, and politics from a decidedly feminist perspective. This first U.S. retrospective of Palcy’s work includes a newly restored print of her Rue Cases-Nègres (Sugar Cane Alley), which won a Silver Lion award at the 1983 Venice Film Festival, along with the New York premieres of Les Mariées de I’isles Bourbon (2007), an historical epic about forced marriage in 17th-century France; Parcours de Dissident (2006), about the forgotten history of West Indian patriots during World War II; Siméon (1992), a musical comedy fairytale set in the Caribbean; and the biographical documentary Aime Cesaire, A Voice for History (1994). The series also features A Dry White Season (1989), a key film on South African apartheid; and the made-for-television productions Ruby Bridges (1998), about segregation in New Orleans from the perspective of a young child; and The Killing Yard (2001), which explores events surrounding the 1971 Attica prison uprising. Miss Palcy and special guests will introduce a number of programs in the series.
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, and Anne Morra, Associate Curator, Department of Film.
The exhibition is made possible by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art.