Milwaukee Film's Black History Month lineup includes in-person events, local premieres

Chris Foran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·3 min read
"Loudmouth," a new documentary focusing on Rev. Al Sharpton's role at the center of the national conversation about race, will have its local theatrical premiere as part of Milwaukee Film's Black History Month programming at the Oriental Theatre in February.
"Loudmouth," a new documentary focusing on Rev. Al Sharpton's role at the center of the national conversation about race, will have its local theatrical premiere as part of Milwaukee Film's Black History Month programming at the Oriental Theatre in February.

Programming in Milwaukee Film's fifth annual Black History Month lineup in February ranges from local premieres of documentaries and feature films reflecting a range of Black experiences to in-person events such as a conversation about Afrofuturism and a reunion of one of Milwaukee's best-known R&B/soul bands.

Milwaukee Film and its Black Lens program unveiled the 2023 lineup at an event Thursday night.

The movies are all showing at the Oriental Theatre, 2230 N. Farwell Ave. Tickets are $12. The lineup includes:

  • "The Big Payback": An alderwoman in Evanston, Illinois, leads the effort to pass the first slavery reparations bill in U.S. history, but will it survive? Showing at 7 p.m. Feb. 2. Local premiere.

  • "The Last Dragon": In New York City, a young martial arts prodigy seeks out a master who can get him to the ultimate level, but he has to get past the Shogun of Harlem first in this 1985 urban martial arts cult classic directed by Milwaukee native Michael Schultz. 7 p.m. Feb. 4.

  • "The African Desperate": In this coming-of-age comedy, a woman who's graduating from art school in 24 hours heads out on a road trip from New York to Chicago. 7 p.m. Feb. 9. Local premiere.

  • "Black Love Through a Black Lens Shorts": This Valentine's Day weekend program of short films celebrates Black love in its many forms. Noon Feb. 11.

  • "Loudmouth": Rev. Al Sharpton's three-decade career as an activist, outside and inside the system, is the focus of this new documentary. 7 p.m. Feb. 16. Local theatrical premiere.

  • "Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom": The story of the Juneteenth holiday is told through the eyes of a Black man learning about the holiday's history from the descendants of the people who found out about the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, in this documentary. Noon Feb. 18. Local premiere.

  • "Fire Music": This documentary explores and celebrates the free jazz movement of the 1960s and '70s, with music by legends including Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra and John Coltrane. 7 p.m. Feb. 23. Local premiere.

  • "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty": When a mystery woman stands him up, an artist sets out to re-examine that moment in time in writer-director Terence Nance's 2012 genre-busting comedy-drama. Noon Feb. 25. Local premiere.

Music giant Sun Ra is featured in "Fire Music," a new documentary about the free-jazz movement.
Music giant Sun Ra is featured in "Fire Music," a new documentary about the free-jazz movement.

The highlights in the schedule of in-person events in Milwaukee Film's Black History Month programming include:

  • "A Leap Into Afrofuturism": A look at the creative movement connecting literature, film, video games, anime and hip-hop through the lens of local creators. 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave.

  • "In Retrospective: The Life & Times of Kendrick Lamar": A conversation about the hip-hop giant's life and music with Miles Marshall Lewis, author of "Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar." 7 p.m. Feb. 17 at Company Brewing, 735 E. Center St.

  • "Groove Theory: Growing Nation": Groove Theory, Black Lens' music series, hosts the first reunion performance in more than a decade of Growing Nation, the soul/hip-hop fusion collective that got its start in Milwaukee in the mid-1990s. 8 p.m. Feb. 25 at The Cooperage. General-admission tickets are $30.

  • "For the Soul: A Narrated Food Tasting & Conversation": Bert Davis, president and CEO of America's Black Holocaust Museum, and Derek Mosley, the Milwaukee judge, longtime foodie and, starting Monday, director of Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, talk about the history of Black food culture in a special narrated tasting event. 5 p.m. Feb. 26 at 1034 N. Phillips Ave. Admission is $25.

The Milwaukee County Office of Equity is the presenting sponsor of Milwaukee Film's Black History Month programming. For more information, go to mkefilm.org/bhm.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Film unveils Black History Month events, local premieres