Maya Angelou Film Programme: Georgia, Georgia

Maya Angelou Film Programme
Each year, ILFU highlights a selected author from the literary canon. This year’s icon is Maya Angelou (1928-2014), poet, writer, dancer, singer, filmmaker and civil rights activist. She had her international breakthrough with the autobiographical novel I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969) Angelou worked as a journalist in Cairo and Ghana, worked as an activist together with Dr. Martin Luther King, and President Bill Clinton asked her to read her now-famous poem ‘On the Pulse of the Morning’ at his inauguration. We will focus on Maya Angelou’s work for the coming year, and during the festival we will screen two of her exceptional films: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1979) and Georgia, Georgia (1972).

Georgia, Georgia (1972)
A curiosity in the oeuvre of Maya Angelou, Georgia Georgia is the first script she wrote, and also the first script by a Black screenwriter in cinema history. Diana Sands plays the popular Black singer Georgia, who travels to Sweden for a gig and has an affair with a White man. They quickly encounter the prejudices towards interracial relationships, and Georgia has more and more difficulty with the a-political, ‘whitewashed’ character she portrays in public. The film, directed by the Swede Stig Björkman and featuring Diana Sands and Dirk Benedict (from The A-Team), is a must-watch for fans of Maya Angelou’s work and themes.
In English, with subtitles

Tuesday, 28 September 19:00
introduction by writer and film journalist Basje Boer (Dutch spoken).

Wednesday, 29 September 19:00
introduction by journalist and writer Dominique van Varsseveld (Dutch spoken).

Friday, 1 October 19:00
introduction by film journalist Kevin Toma (Dutch spoken).

Louis Hartlooper Complex
There are a limited number of ticket available, so order today via hartlooper.nl