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SALUTE TO CLASSIC BLACK ACTRESSES Film Festival at Missouri History Museum Oct. 9-11 – We Are Movie Geeks

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SALUTE TO CLASSIC BLACK ACTRESSES Film Festival at Missouri History Museum Oct. 9-11

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Film was a particularly difficult industry for black actresses to break into. Hattie McDaniel was the first black actress to ever win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1939, for playing Mammy in GONE WITH THE WIND, opening the door for more black women to appear in prominent roles in film. Specifically for screenings in the 1940s South, where a black actress couldn’t play anything but a servant on screen, beautiful women like Lena Horne were given roles that were expendable, able to easily be cut out of films without affecting the plot. Eventually, movies would reflect the real-life improvements in race relations, leading to Halle Berry becoming the first black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar in 2001. The St. Louis Classic Black Film Festival is proud to present a new film festival celebrating the roles and careers of eight pioneering black actresses in a variety of films spanning four decades.

St. Louis Black Film Festival presents A SALUTE TO CLASSIC BLACK ACTRESSES. The 3-day film fest takes place at Missouri History Museum (5700 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112) October 9th through the 11th and will feature the films of black stars Cicely Tyson, Ruby Dee, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Pam Grier, Eartha Kitt, Diahann Carroll and Juanita Moore.

AARP members may attend each movie showing free of charge (One free entry per membership card) when they show their AARP membership card at the entrance. Visit AARP-St. Louis volunteers at our table at the St. Louis Classic Black Film Festival before each screening to learn more about what AARP is doing in the St. Louis region.

 

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The St. Louis Classic Black Film Festival was initially established as a vehicle for exposing Black cinema. The annual St. Louis Black Film Festival was green-lighted after recognition that though St. Louis is the largest city in Missouri, it did not have a viable Black film festival. Independent filmmakers with films featuring a Black, African American, African, or African Diaspora subject matter or that feature a Black, African, or African-American as a central or starring character find that SLTBFF offers an outstanding opportunity to present their film before sophisticated and eager audiences. The St. Louis Black Film Festival provides the Midwest with a forum for African American independent film and video, and also serves as an advocate for African American film and video production in the state of Missouri. The Festival seeks to introduce the best films and videos from the surrounding area to its culturally diverse, film-loving audiences.

Admission to each film is $5.00

Here’s the line-up for the St. Louis Black Film Festival‘s SALUTE TO CLASSIC BLACK ACTRESSES:

Friday October 9th:

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6pm Imitation of Life (1959) starring Juanita Moore

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7:50pm Anna Lucasta (1958) starring Eartha Kitt

Saturday October 10th:

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1pm Claudine (1974) starring Diahann Carroll

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2:40pm Cabin In The Sky (1943) starring Lena Horne

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4:20pm Carmen Jones (1954) starring Dorothy Dandridge

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6:20pm Sounder(1972) starring Cicely Tyson

Sunday October 11th:

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3:00pm The Jackie Robinson Story (1959) starring Ruby Dee

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5:00pm Foxy Brown (1974) starring Pam Grier

The St. Louis Classic Black Film Festival audiences are a mix of African-American, culturally diverse, sophisticated, film lovers and the SALUTE TO CLASSIC BLACK ACTRESSES will be a great way to celebrate the careers of these talented women!

A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/745076718954627/