The Wexner Center for the Arts presents Cinema Revival 2022: A Festival of Film Restoration February 24–28

Thursday, February 24

Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.
(Spencer Williams, 1946)
Introduced by Ohio State Professor Ryan Friedman
5 PM—FREE

One of the few African American directors working in the 1930s and 40s, Spencer Williams was a key producer of “race films”—low budget movies made for Black audiences in an era of segregated cinemas. In Dirty Gertie, a celebrated showgirl from Harlem arrives on the fictional island of Rinidad to perform at a local nightclub, where she melts the hearts of the local men but also runs afoul of the local preacher. (65 mins, 35mm)

Friedman, a professor in Ohio State’s Department of English, has written extensively on early African American film including Dirty Gertie.

Hester Street
(Joan Micklin Silver, 1975)
Introduced by Tim Lanza, vice president and archivist, the Cohen Film Collection
7 PM

Carol Kane was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Gitl, a young woman who emigrates from Russia with her son to join up with her husband Yankel (Steven Keats) in the US, where he’s been living for three years. But when Gitl arrives, Yankel’s all-too enthusiastic embrace of his new life and Gitl’s reluctance to shed her traditional ways creates a strain between them. Joan Micklin Silver’s lovingly detailed depiction of Jewish immigrant life in New York City at the turn of the 20th century presents much of its dialogue in Yiddish. (89 mins, 4K DCP)

Friday, February 25

Murder in Harlem
(Oscar Micheaux, 1935)
4:30 PM—FREE

Oscar Micheaux “had come into Black filmmaking when it hardly existed, creating much of its origins and giving it ballast and a heartbeat,” wrote author Wil Haygood in his book Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World. In Micheaux’s Murder in Harlem, a Black night security guard is framed by police for the murder of a white woman in a story based on a notorious real-life case in 1913 Georgia, which preoccupied Micheaux. Murder in Harlem is his remake of his own 1921 film The Gunsaulus Mystery, which is now considered to be lost. (96 mins, XX DCP)

Written on the Wind
(Douglas Sirk, 1956)
7 PM
Introduced by Lee Kline, technical director, Criterion Collection

The hugely influential Douglas Sirk is best known for his Technicolor melodramas that portrayed the underbelly of 1950s Eisenhower America. Arguably his most soap-operatic film of the decade, Written on the Wind follows the downfall of a Texas oil baron because of his degenerate children. The all-star cast features Robert Stack, Oscar-winner Dorothy Malone, Lauren Bacall, and Rock Hudson. It's lurid! It’s subversive! It’s over the top! Don’t miss this chance to see it on the big screen! (99 mins, 4K DCP)

Saturday, February 26

Miracle in Milan
(Vittorio De Sica, 1951)
1:30 PM

Vittorio De Sica’s comic fantasy follow-up to Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan follows a grown orphan living in a Milan shantytown as he and his community fight back against being evicted by a greedy businessman (with a little supernatural help). Despite the film’s fantasy elements, Miracle in Milan is considered one of the great neorealist masterpieces. (101 mins, 4K DCP)

Sambizanga
(Sarah Maldoror, 1972)
4 PM

Set in 1961 before the Angolan War of Independence from Portugal, Sambizanga follows a wife and mother who tirelessly works for the release of her activist husband after he is jailed (and tortured) for trying to organize his coworkers against colonial rule. Director Sarah Maldoror (who died of COVID-19 in 2020 at the age of 90) worked as an assistant on Gillo Pontecorvo’s landmark The Battle of Algiers (1966) and, with Sambizanga, became one of the first women to direct a feature film in Africa. (102 mins, XX DCP)

Cinema Revival Reception
6 PM—FREE

Join fellow film enthusiasts and our special festival guests for an informal reception in the Wex lower lobby with a cash bar and light snacks.

Cinema Revival Roundtable
7 PM

A panel of restoration experts discuss recent restorations by their respective organizations and field audience questions about film restoration and preservation.

Participants: Lee Kline, technical director, Criterion Collection; Tim Lanza vice president and archivist, Cohen Film Collection; and Russell Smith, senior restoration artist, Criterion Collection

Mississippi Masala
(Mira Nair, 1991)
Introduced by Russell Smith, senior restoration artist, Criterion Collection
7:30 PM

A moving tale of culture, class and forbidden romance, Mississippi Masala stars Sarita Choudhury (currently seen on HBO’s And Just Like That...) as Mina, a young woman who's lived with her family in Mississippi since all Asians were expelled from Uganda in 1972. As her father tries to reclaim the family’s property in Africa, Mina falls for Demetrius (Denzel Washington), an African American carpet cleaner, but the couple must hide their interracial relationship. (118 mins, 4K DCP)

Before the screening, Russell Smith will discuss his close work on the restoration with the film’s cinematographer, Edward Lachman.

Sunday, February 27

Kummatty
(Govindan Aravindan, 1979)
Noon

Inspired by the folklore of the Malabar region of India, Kummatty follows a pied piper-like trickster (the Kummatty, or Bogeyman) who visits a small village each year to entertain the local children with songs, stories, and magic. Director Govindan Aravindan combined elements of documentary observation and moments of delightful fantasy, resulting in a tale that will entertain viewers of all ages. Produced in the Malayalam language. (90 mins, DCP)

Chameleon Street
(Wendell B. Harris, Jr., 1990)
2 PM
Introduced by David Marriott, cofounder, Arbelos Films

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival, Chameleon Street tells the next-to-impossible-to-believe true story of Douglas Street, a Michigan con artist who managed to pass himself off as a Time magazine reporter, a Yale student, a surgeon, and a corporate lawyer before the law caught up with him. Writer-director Wendell B. Harris also starred in this hilarious and penetrating look at how one Black man repeatedly transformed himself to navigate a white America. (94 mins, 4K)

The Olive Trees of Justice
(James Blue, 1962)
4 PM

American documentarian James Blue’s only narrative feature, The Olive Trees of Justice is also the only French film to have been shot during the Algerian War. Made under the pretense of shooting a documentary about the wine industry, the film instead portrays the struggle for Algerian independence, embodied by a “pied-noir” (Frenchman of Algerian descent) who returns to Algiers to visit his dying father. Inaugural winner of the Critics Prize at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. (81 mins, 4K DCP)

Monday, February 28

The Bloody Child
(Nina Menkes, 1996)
4 PM—FREE

In feminist filmmaker Nina Menkes’ cyclical, fragmented work, a young US Marine, recently back from serving in the Gulf War, is found digging a hole in the middle of the Mojave Desert. His car is found nearby with his wife’s bloody and lifeless body inside. As a female officer (played by the director’s sister, Tinka Menkes) oversees the investigation, The Bloody Child—based on a true story—explores the consequences of violence for military members and the people around them. (86 mins, 35mm)

Visitor information

Cinema Revival: A Festival of Film Restoration takes place February 24–28, 2022 at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N. High St. on the campus of The Ohio State University. Except when noted as free, single screening admission is $9 for adults, $7 for Wex members and seniors over 60, and $5 for students with ID. A festival pass is also available for $30 general admission, $25 for members and students; the pass includes access to all films plus a VIP Lounge.

Parking is available nearby at the Ohio Union South and Arps garages, as well as on-street, and the Wex is also accessible via COTA.

Up-to-date COVID-19 protocols for the center are available here.