In May, the British Film Institute will hand long-overdue UK premieres to two landmark features of American cinema, Jessie Maple’s Will, the first feature-length independent film produced by a Black American woman, and Zeinabu irene Davis’s Compensation, a time-hopping fable often described by critics as among the greatest independent films in U.S. history.
Both titles will arrive in London in newly minted 4K form. They will screen as part of an intriguing repertory season at the BFI titled Black Debutantes: A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors, curated by independent writer, critic, and programmer Rógan Graham.
The season will also include rare UK screenings of titles like Cauleen Smith’s seminal, indie favorite Drylongso (1998), Kathleen Collins’s Losing Ground (1982), and Naked Acts by Bridgett M. Davis (1996).
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In her curatorial notes, Graham cites a broad frustration with the absence of Black women directors with filmographies robust enough to support a month-long solo programme as her inspiration for Black Debutantes. Indeed, many of Graham’s featured directors, including Cauleen Smith and Bridgett M. Davis, have only made one traditional feature-length movie throughout their careers. But in an interview with us prior to the launch, Graham explains how a year-long period of research expanded her programme’s scope and shifted her curatorial goals.
“I wanted it to feel way more like a celebration,” Graham says of Black Debutantes. “And in many cases, it was about allowing audiences to experience the inspiration behind a lot of contemporary work, like when Barry Jenkins talks about being inspired by Collins’s Losing Ground. You can actually come and see it here.”
As part of the season, Graham will also host a symposium titled Exhibiting Black Cinema, focused on the current challenges in archiving, restoring, and exhibiting Black cinema. Panelists will include Criterion’s Ashley Clark, Carmen Thompson of We Are Parable, and Isra Al Kassi of TAPE Collective.
Below, Graham speaks further about how her ambitious programme ended up at the BFI, how she landed some of her rare titles like Jessie Maple’s Will, and why the U.S. can often be a much more fertile ground for more expansive practices in film preservation.
Black Debutantes: A Collection of Early Works by Black Women Directors takes place at BFI Southbank from 1 – 31 May, with select titles on BFI Player from 5 May.
DEADLINE: Rógan, I know you as a great critic and writer. But you’re also a programmer?
RÓGAN GRAHAM: It’s funny because I got my first byline in 2019, and then a few months later, I enrolled in the Barbican Young Film Programmers scheme. It’s a programme where young programmers work together for nine months and put on a weekend film festival at the Barbican. I think I always wanted to programme stuff, insofar as I was always really bossy about what film we watched at the sleepover. I don’t come from a family of film people, so I didn’t know that programming was a job. It wasn’t until I got to university that it all clicked, and I’ve been working ever since. But this is my first fully formed season. So it’s quite anxiety-inducing because even though I’ve been dabbling since 2019, the first big thing I have my name on is at the British Film Institute.
DEADLINE: Did you grow up going to the BFI?
GRAHAM: No, I grew up going to Peckhamplex, which I still go to and love. I always loved films, but again, I didn’t come from a super film family. I remember I had a good friend in school, and her father would show us films like Goodfellas. We were probably too young, but he would be showing us from an academic POV that this is Martin Scorsese and this is a tracking shot. When I went to Nottingham University, I spent a lot of time at the Broadway Cinema, because it has similar prices to Peckhamplex and they showed more independent work. When I got back to London, I was constantly at the BFI.
DEADLINE: How did this Black Debutantes season at the BFI come about?
GRAHAM: So, it took me a while to find my areas of interest. I’ve always been interested in women filmmakers, not necessarily from a point of feeling represented by them. I’m just interested in other women’s perspectives on the world, whether I agree with them or not. So the work by women directors has always been a focus of mine. When I started writing, I was getting asked to review a lot of Black films, and I’d be the person to interview a black director. That was great, because I’m interested in Black filmmaking and the history of Black cinema. But I always had a feeling that I was only being asked because I’m Black. It was conflicting. Programming this season, I was sort of looking at America, which I often do, because I feel like their programming is a couple of years ahead of us.
DEADLINE: Yeah, I agree, places like Metrograph and BAM in New York. Or the American Cinematheque in LA are miles ahead of anything we’ve got over here.
GRAHAM: MoMA is great, too. I don’t know how every venue we’ve mentioned is funded, but I’m sure that also plays into the practicalities of what’s programmed. When it came to this season, I was looking at what was happening in America with films being restored, seeing my friends at a screening of Naked Acts, for example, and thinking, why can’t I watch it here? And then doing more research and seeing that Bridgett M. Davis only made that one feature. Or seeing something like Drylongso by Cauleen Smith, who continues to be an artist and filmmaker in her own right, but in terms of traditional features, hasn’t made another one. My initial approach was, why have all these women only made one feature? I wanted to put a season together that made you look at these great filmmakers who were allowed to fade away. There are lots of reasons why they didn’t make more work, and the industry ills are a big one, but as I researched more, it felt diminishing to say, ‘Look at these poor women who only got to do this.’ The focus quickly turned to look at the incredible impact these filmmakers had by only doing this one thing in the film space.
DEADLINE: Back to the BFI, so what did you pitch them this season, and they said yes?
GRAHAM: I don’t think they have a formal pitching process. But I had hosted an event a couple of years prior at the Barbican. It was a screening of Mariah Carey’s Glitter; another area of interest of mine is divas on screen. I invited a programmer from the BFI, and we stayed in touch. I would run ideas by her over coffee. I eventually pitched her this season. We were in development for over a year. The first list of films I had is maybe 80% different from what is currently on sale.
DEADLINE: There are so many great titles in this programme, many of which I’ll be seeing on a big screen for the first time, like Compensation, Jessie Maple’s Will, and Kathleen Collins’s Losing Ground.
GRAHAM: Yeah, almost all of these films I’ll be seeing for the first time on the big screen, too, which is sad, but exciting. If you want to see things, you’ve got to do it yourself. We’ve got the UK premiere of Compensation, which is exciting, and I’m sure it would have made its way over here eventually. But it’s really a thing of the Americans got in there, and we just have to sit on our hands and wait for someone to pluck one film or restoration out of the air. And then show it as a one-off screening in one venue in London.
DEADLINE: All of the films in the programme either deal directly with the lives of Black women or Black people generally, excluding Amma Asante’s first film, A Way of Life. Why did you include that film?
GRAHAM: It’s interesting because Amma Asante is arguably our most successful Black British woman filmmaker. I think it’s really interesting that she started with a working-class drama about racism set in Wales. But then she’s now known for her period dramas about biracial identity and interracial relationships. There was almost a decade between A Way of Life and Belle (2013), and people talk about Belle like it’s her debut, when it was her breakthrough. After that, the time between her films got shorter, which is a good thing. And A Way of Life is not a faultless film. I’m not trying to wave the flag that it’s a masterpiece. But why was a Black woman making a film about white racism in a community that she’s not necessarily part of? And why didn’t that go down well with people?. Why have historical dramas been more appealing?
DEADLINE: Tell me about the talk with Ashley Clark from Criterion, Carmen from We Are Parable, and Isra Al Kassi of Tape Collective.
GRAHAM: I invited Ashley on as a speaker for this panel, and then he was the one who put me in touch with Jessie Maples estate, and that’s how we were able to secure the UK premiere of Will. He spoke very highly of me and the season and assured them it’ll be in good hands, which it is. The fact that Ashley put in a good word means a lot. The work he’s done at Criterion is excellent and has certainly introduced me to so much cinema. Bringing Ashley, Carmen, and Isra Al Kassi together, I wanted to draw a through line from restoration and discovery to distribution and release. I mean, this season could only happen at the BFI because the BFI is programming a Tom Cruise season in May. So if Black Debutantes isn’t wildly popular, they’re able to offset their costs. If you go to any other venue that cannot secure Tom Cruise and cannot pull in that kind of revenue, then they can’t take that kind of risk, and Black Debutantes probably doesn’t happen. Speaking to Carmen from We Are Parable, they host incredibly successful events. But what has their journey been like when releasing films? Earth Mama won a BAFTA, which is incredible. But how did they get there? From working with venues, I know the challenges that cinemas face. But I also know how short-changed black films are.
DEADLINE: Will you take this programme elsewhere?
GRAHAM: I would absolutely love to if there are smaller regional venues that want to take the financial risk of showing these films. It’s such a shame I have to talk in these terms because even if there’s just one person who might come and buy a ticket, it’s worth it. But yes, I’d happily take the programme wherever.
