News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301Contact: Noliwe Rooks (609) 497-9295
E-mail (press only): Nrooks@princeton.eduJune 19, 2000
Princeton Conference to Address Race, Women and Film, Sept. 22-23
Actress Halle Berry to give keynote address
Princeton, N.J. -- Actress Halle Berry will give the keynote address in a two-day program at Princeton University entitled "Imitating Life: Women, Race, Film, 1932-2000." Berry will speak at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, in McCosh 10 on the Princeton campus.
The event, which is free and open to the public, begins earlier that day with showings of both the 1934 John Stahl and 1959 Douglas Sirk versions of the classic "women's weeper" Imitation of Life. Stahl's film represented the first serious treatment of the race question in a movie from a major Hollywood studio.
The movies, based on the 1932 story by Fannie Hurst, tell of two widows -- one black and one white -- who join forces to form one household to support their two young daughters. The book and movies explored the issues facing single mothers as well as biracial friendship and other race-based questions.
On Saturday, Sept. 23, Princeton's program continues with three panels of distinguished filmmakers and authors discussing issues of women, race and the Hollywood depiction of African-Americans on screen.
"Imitation of Life is an abiding bit of mid-twentieth century melodrama, which still attracts audiences black and white, old and young," said historian Nell Irvin Painter, director of Princeton University's Program in African-American Studies, who is organizing the conference. "It may be dated and flawed, but its subject matter and the story-around-the-story entwine with vital issues in race relations and women's advancement. This makes it a very appropriate sieve through which to filter these subjects.
"Even more," she said, "the works appeared at critical moments in the progress of race relations in the 1930s and 1950s. This makes it an excellent marker with which to assess and evaluate the distance society has traveled over the past 65 years and to survey the ground yet left to cover."
Ms. Berry won a Screen Actors Guild award and a Golden Globe award for her performance last year as Dorothy Dandridge in an HBO film about the actress. She also received the NAACP Image Award. "Ms. Berry is a thoughtful descendant of the conditions this conference addresses," Professor Painter said. "We are delighted she has agreed to appear."
In the first panel discussion at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Columbia University Professor Ann Douglas, author of the acclaimed Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s and The Feminization of American Culture will comment on presentations by Harlem Renaissance experts Thadious M. Davis and Cheryl Wall. They will cover such subjects as friendship across color lines; "passing" and the notion of the "tragic Mulatto;" black and white women's entrepreneurship in the novel and first film; and women as partners, employers and employees.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, producer and director Charles Burnett (To Sleep With Anger, Killer of Sheep, The Wedding) and filmmaker Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust, Illusions), along with authors Donald Bogle (Dorothy Dandridge, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks) and Jill Nelson (Volunteer Slavery, Straight-No Chaser) will examine how the film might be remade for today's audiences -- if it could be remade at all. The session is titled: "Imitation of Life: Our Way."
The final panel, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, will feature Professor Richard Dyer of the University of Warwick (White) and UCLA Professor Valerie Smith, with comment by film scholar Thomas Cripps (Making Movies Black). Together, they will examine the screen portrayal of African-Americans and issues of race and sex, as well as how legal and professional mores governing the entertainment industry come into play.
The program is being sponsored by Princeton's Program in African-American Studies, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. A full schedule is available at http://www.princeton.edu/~aasprog/imitatinglife.html.