Past Film/Video | Visiting Filmmakers | Classics

A Dry White Season

(Euzhan Palcy, 1989)

Euzhan Palcy in person
Presented by the Wexner Center for the Arts and The Ohio State University Office of Academic Affairs

35MM Print

Info & Tickets

A white man and a Black man stand shaking hands in front of a large cactus.

Sep 26, 2025 7:00 PM

Film/Video Theater

$15 members
$20 general public
$18 students and adults 55 and over
Free for Ohio State students

Prices include all fees; fees waived for members and in-person purchases.

For ticketing questions please call the Visitor Desk at (614) 292-3535.

A limited number of listening devices are available upon request.

If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation to participate in this event, please email accessibility@wexarts.org or call (614) 688-3890. Visit our Accessibility page to learn more.

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An unflinching critique of apartheid in 1970s South Africa released in the final days of the unjust system.

A searing portrayal of brutal South African apartheid in 1976, A Dry White Season stars Donald Sutherland as a teacher mostly clueless about the horrors experienced by the Black people around him. After investigating acts of police brutality against the son of his gardener (Winston Ntshona), he gradually becomes radicalized, alienating his family and white friends and neighbors. Also with Susan Sarandon as a supportive journalist and Marlon Brando in a memorable turn as an anti-apartheid lawyer. Adapted from the novel by Andre Brink, A Dry White Season is the first film directed by a Black woman for a Hollywood studio. A Q&A with Palcy moderated by Ruun Nuur, a critic, curator, and producer, follows the screening. (107 mins., 35mm)

See the entire Euzhan Palcy lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
A Dry White Season, courtesy of Park Circus.

"With my camera I don’t shoot, I heal. I try to repair the wounds of history. One film at a time."

Euzhan Palcy

Know before you go

All nearby CampusParc garages are subject to special event parking during this event. The standard discounts for $5 parking for the public and free parking for members will not apply. Learn more about parking.

More about the filmmaker

Euzhan Palcy is a Martinican filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. Her groundbreaking career is comprised of many firsts. She is the first female and first Black director to receive a César Award (the French equivalent of an Academy Award) and a Silver Lion (for Best Director) at the Venice Film Festival, both in recognition of her 1983 film Sugar Cane Alley. She is the first Black woman to have a feature film produced by a Hollywood studio (A Dry White Season, 1989). In 1994 she received a John Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, and in 2022 she received an Honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In her prolific career in film and television, documentary and narrative, Palcy has continually depicted and examined issues of race and gender and interrogated the history and legacy of colonialism.