From Baby Jane to Bush Mama? The Rebellious Programming of Albert Johnson by Professor Josslyn Luckett
Thursday, April 20, 4pm PT/7 pm ET, Via Zoom
While the legendary UC Berkeley professor and long-time SF International Film Festival programmer is remembered for breaking out into songs from Hollywood musicals, a deeper look at his archives and writing reveal he was a significant (if overlooked) champion of the Black independent filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. This talk will take up the wide-reaching scope of Johnson’s criticism and suggest that well before the Library of Congress established a National Film Registry (1988), Johnson was perhaps seditiously demonstrating and defending the idea that “the range and diversity of American film heritage” must acknowledge both a Bette Davis and a Haile Gerima.
Josslyn Jeanine Luckett is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School, an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, and she is proudest of her B.A. in Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley. She is a contributing editor for Film Quarterly and a new member of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. She is also a screenwriter and recently joined the writing staff of Queen Sugar (OWN) for its seventh and final season.
