Losing Ground (1982)

Starring:

• Seret Scott
• Bill Gunn
• Duane Jones
• Billie Allen
• Maritza Rivera

Storyline

One of the first feature films directed by an African American woman, Kathleen Collins’s LOSING GROUND tells the story of a marriage between two remarkable people, both at a crossroads in their lives. Sara Rogers (Seret Scott), a black professor of philosophy, is embarking on an intellectual quest to understand “ecstasy” just as her painter husband, Victor (Bill Gunn), sets off on a more earthy exploration of joy. Over the course of a summer idyll in upstate New York, the two each experience profound emotional and romantic awakenings. Applying a deft comic touch to a deeply personal exploration of love, race, and gender, Collins crafts a charming, complex tale of personal discovery that, after decades of neglect, has reemerged as a still-fresh landmark of independent cinema.

Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom (1985, TV Movie)

Starring:

• Melba Moore
• Moses Gunn
• Glynn Turman
• Mary Alice
• Anna Maria Horsford
• Ned Beatty
• Carla Borelli
• Bruce McGill
• Jay Patterson
• Vyto Ruginis
• Rodrick F. Wimberly
• Oyafunmike Ogunlano

Storyline

This is the story of a hero, perhaps not a traditional hero, for one would not necessarily look upon a young, frail of health, free black woman from a well-to-do Philadelphia family in Civil War times as someone who would implicitly inspire the word "hero." But then, Charlotte Forten was an extraordinary young woman. As a part of President Lincoln's "great experiment," she journeyed south to Sea Island, where she sought to give newly freed black children a decent education and the chance for a better life. In many ways, the story is remarkable as the lady who lived it. For "Charlotte Forten's Mission" is the inspiring true story of one woman's courage and determination in a time of a world torn apart by the fear and prejudice that formed the Civil War.