CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/3/2022

Celebratory, dismaying and necessary, 'Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971' is reviewed in the 'Financial Times'

"The ugliness of bigotry makes the exhibition the more inspirational. There is beauty and power in seeing the faces of 51 black stars of the silver screen." On view now at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, and releasing October 18, 2022 in book form, Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 is reviewed in this week's Financial Times. Below is an excerpt of Mekeisha Madden Toby's excellent review.

Toby begins her review: "Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, one of the first major exhibitions to be held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, evokes the pride of cultural acknowledgment and serves as a dismaying reminder of the pernicious effects of racism and discrimination over the decades.

Occupying 11,000 sq ft and seven galleries of the museum, which opened in September 2021, this expansive and edifying exhibition delves into the social and political realities of black Americans, beginning at the birth of American cinema in the late 1890s (three and a half decades after legalized slavery ended).

Visitors can feast their eyes on scripts, historic photos and posters, and costumes including Lena Horne’s glamorously gold sequined evening gown from 1943’s Stormy Weather. It also includes a selection of 'soundies' (three-minute precursors to music videos), home movies, musicals, 'race films' — created for black audiences with all-black casts until the 1950s — and civil rights-inspired documentaries and independent offerings of the 1960s that eventually paved the way for the 'blaxploitation' era. …"

Read the full review here!