Movie/Film

Made possible by the John H. Mitchell Television Programming Endowment. Premiering in 1990, In Living Color exploded onto the Fox Television Network, reinvigorating the sketch comedy genre by showcasing a multiracial ensemble unafraid of controversy. Created by trailblazing multi-hyphenate Keenen Ivory Wayans, the innovative series turned primetime into a cultural battlefield, uproariously harnessing satire and spectacle to explore issues of race, class and celebrity. In his book, The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance, author Artel Great situates In Living Color within the broader lineage of Black sketch comedy, illuminating how the innovative series served as an industrial weapon, seizing time, space and cultural power, often forcing America to laugh at what it preferred to ignore. In the process, the hit series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 1990. Helping to launch a breakout cast of highly gifted comedians that included David Alan Grier, Daymon Wayans, Kim Wayans, Tommy Davison, Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey, In Living Color introduced a lasting lexicon of original characters and catchphrases to pop culture, from Homey D. Clown (“Homey, don’t play that”) to Men on Film (“two snaps up”) that continue to resonate long after the series' final broadcast on Fox in 1994. Join us for a quartet of hilariously provocative episodes of In Living Color curated and introduced by author Artel Great.

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In person: Introduction by Artel Great, associate professor, San Francisco State University School of Cinema, and author of The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance. Here Eddie Murphy stands at the center of the Black Pack as Prince Akeem, heir to the throne of Zamunda, who leaves royal luxury for Queens, New York, in search of love on his own terms. The most commercially successful Black comedy feature of its era, this blockbuster is also a case study in power and authorship, as Murphy gives a tour de force performance of multiple characters and earns a “story by” credit. Ultimately, the film shows how box office clout enabled Black cultural specificity while embedding sharp critiques of race, class and respectability within mainstream studio comedy. Director: John Landis. Screenwriter: David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein. With: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones.

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In person: Introduction by Artel Great, associate professor, San Francisco State University School of Cinema, and author of The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance. Q&A with Great, The Five Heartbeats cast member Tico Wells and UCLA Associate Professor Scot Brown, Department of History.

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In person: Introduction by Artel Great, associate professor, San Francisco State University School of Cinema, and author of The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance. Q&A with Great and photographer Bruce Talamon. Harlem Nights marks the only film written, directed, produced by and starring Eddie Murphy. Set in 1930s Harlem, the film imagines a world of Black nightlife, entrepreneurship and survival amid gangsters and corrupt cops. Anchored by a jazzy score blending big band and Duke Ellington standards, the film unites three generations of Black comedy — Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor and Murphy — alongside an overflowing ensemble cast. Often misunderstood on release, Harlem Nights stands as a bold assertion of authorship and creative control, envisioning Black autonomy over space, style and destiny. Director/Screenwriter: Eddie Murphy. With: Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Jasmine Guy, Della Reese.

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Part of the 2026 UCLA Festival of Preservation. Screening 1 of 2 Hearst Metrotone News: "Porgy & Bess Opening" (excerpt) Year: 1959 Country: U.S. Runtime: 2 min. Digital. B&W. Silent. Screening 2 of 2 Black Girl Year: 1972 Country: U.S. Language: English Runtime: 97 min. Digital. Color. Named by Film Comment as one of the best restorations of 2025, director Ossie Davis’ third feature is finding its audience more than 50 years after its original release. The play on which the film is based, Black Girl, by J. E. Franklin, who wrote the screenplay, was already a landmark of Black theater after a record-setting off-Broadway run in 1971 that earned Franklin the Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright. Actor-turned-director Davis was coming off the box office success of his Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), an adaptation of Chester Himes’ politically charged detective novel that helped spark the Blaxploitation wave of the 1970s. In a contemporaneous interview, civil rights icon Davis nevertheless lamented the lack of films about the “trials and tribulations of the Black middle class.” For the family in Black Girl, the personal and cultural politics of upward mobility are central to the conflicts among three generations of Black women. The youngest, Billie Jean (Peggy Pettitt), strives to become a dancer, earning taunts from her half-sisters (Gloria Edwards, Lorette Greene). Their mother, Rose (Louise Stubbs), still stinging from her own mother’s indifference, has seemingly given up on her own children, placing her hopes in Netta (Leslie Uggams), a neighborhood girl she took in now studying for law school. Every member of the ensemble cast — including a swaggering Brock Peters as Rose’s ex — rises to the occasion as their characters clash in a cramped Venice, California, home, prompting Variety to declare Black Girl the best depiction of Black family life “since Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.” The film’s distributor, however, gave it an exploitation-style release, booking it in action houses with posters promising the same, leading the trade paper to complain the strategy would “keep away serious filmgoers who would have been rewarded by the fine directing and acting.” Black Girl now stands ready for rediscovery.—Paul Malcolm DCP. Production: Marconlee. Distribution: Cinerama Releasing. Producer: Robert H. Greenberg. Director: Ossie Davis. Screenwriter: J. E. Franklin. Based on the play by J. E. Franklin. Cinematographer: Glenwood J. Swanson. With: Brock Peters, Claudia McNeil, Leslie Uggams, Louise Stubbs, Peggy Pettitt. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation from 35mm acetate original picture and track negatives. Laboratory services by illuminate Hollywood, Audio Mechanics, Simon Daniel Sound, Fotokem. Special thanks to J. E. Franklin, Malika Nzinga.

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Year: 1969 Country: U.S. Language: English Runtime: 60 min. Digital. Color. With original commercials Hosted by comedian Redd Foxx, …& Beautiful was the first syndicated television special produced for African American audiences to be sponsored by a Black-owned company (Johnson Products, makers of Afro Sheen). Directed by trailblazer Mark Warren, the first African American to win an Emmy Award in a directing category (for his work on Laugh-In), the groundbreaking music-variety special offered viewers a rare primetime showcase foregrounding Black excellence and pride. Dynamically stylized with Afrocentric and psychedelic designs and costuming, the vibrant production represents an invaluable late-’60s audiovisual time capsule documenting the joy, liberation and empowerment of the Black Is Beautiful movement.—Mark Quigley DCP. Syndicated. Production: Western Video Production. Executive Producer: Richard Gottlieb. Producer: Mark Warren. Director: Mark Warren. Writer: Cal Wilson. With: Redd Foxx, Della Reese, Donald McKayle Dancers. Preservation funding provided by the John H. Mitchell Television Preservation Endowment. Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive from an original 2 in. videotape. Engineering services by CBS Media Exchange.

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In person: chef and restaurateur Alice Waters. Director Alfonso Arua’s Like Water for Chocolate was an arthouse sensation when first released and still defines the evocative power of food in film. Based on Laura Esquivel’s novel, its sensuous tale of forbidden love unfolds in early 20th-century Mexico when Tita is bound by family tradition to remain unmarried to care for her mother. Prevented from acting on her love for the handsome Pedro, she pours her passion and heartbreak into her cooking which has a magical, intoxicating effect on those who consume it. The intimacy of the heart and the intimacy of the kitchen transform culinary preparation into a powerful expression of desire, rebellion and yearning.—Senior Public Programmer Paul Malcolm Director: Alfonso Arau. Screenwriter: Laura Esquivel. With: Lumi Cavazos, Marco Leonardi, Regina Torné. 35mm print courtesy of the Sundance Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

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In person: Q&A with actor David Selby and historian Jim Pierson, editor of Dark Shadows Noir: Classic Black and White Photography From the Dan Curtis Productions Archive. Book signing with Pierson before the screening. Guest speaker Made possible by the John H. Mitchell Television Programming Endowment. Premiering on June 27, 1966, on ABC-TV, Dark Shadows (1966–71) represented an outré experiment in daytime television that became an unexpected breakout hit and evergreen cult classic. Created by horror-maestro Dan Curtis (The Night Stalker, Trilogy of Terror), the innovative soap opera, which initially struggled in the ratings, expanded greatly in popularity in its second year with the addition of a 175-year-old charismatic vampire character named Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). As the eerily atmospheric series evolved to fuse gothic supernatural elements and romance into complex storylines, it developed a passionate youth following and became a pop culture phenomenon. In the process, the videotaped series earned the distinction of being the first soap to spawn a theatrical motion picture spin-off, House of Dark Shadows (1970), and several additional feature films and reboots. The beloved original series ran for over 1,200 episodes before its abrupt cancellation in 1971. In the ensuing decades, the aura surrounding Dark Shadows has only intensified, with the influential program enjoying nearly constant reruns in syndication, luring an influx of new viewers into the mysterious, shadow-drenched world of the wealthy Collins family of fictional Collinsport, Maine. Join us for a celebration of Dark Shadows, exactly 60 years to the day of its premiere, including the debut episode and rare archival footage. Before the screening, historian Jim Pierson will sign copies of Dark Shadows Noir: Classic Black and White Photography from the Dan Curtis Productions Archive. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Dark Shadows star, actor David Selby, and Jim Pierson. Programmed and note written by John H. Mitchell Television Curator Mark Quigley.

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Presented by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum. The Billy Wilder Theater opens 15 minutes before each Family Flicks program.

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In person: director Karen Arthur; editor Carol Littleton; Paula Chambers, daughter of screenwriter and actor Joan Hotchkis; Eric Morris, acting teacher and director of the theatrical production of Legacy. Guest speaker Legacy is the story of Bissie Hapgood, a woman unraveling under the pressures of a vapid and materialistic society consumed with dinner-plate settings, soap operas and sexual frustration. The material originated as a one-woman show in 1973, written and performed by Joan Hotchkis, a versatile talent celebrated for her roles on television series including The Odd Couple and The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts. Karen Arthur, a first-time filmmaker, saw Hotchkis on stage and convinced the actor to adapt the screenplay and star in the film. Independently produced and financed, Legacy, like its peers Wanda (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), confounds 1970s Hollywood’s expectations with the introduction of a new kind of cinematic woman. Bissie stuns audiences with her honesty that is confrontational, yet heartfelt and a vulnerability that is never sentimental and always surprising. Legacy features an exceptional crew at the start of what would become a set of accomplished careers. Arthur, who would go on to direct The Mafu Cage (1978) and become a prolific television director, winning an Emmy Award for Cagney & Lacey, collaborated with cinematographer John Bailey (Ordinary People, 1980, In the Line of Fire, 1993) and editor Carol Littleton (E.T., 1982, The Manchurian Candidate, 2004). Note written by Archive Research and Study Center Officer Maya Montañez Smukler.

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Presented by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum. The Billy Wilder Theater opens 15 minutes before each Family Flicks program.

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