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Looking for Langston

52 %|Oct 31, 1989|Drama

A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.

Featured Crew

Isaac Julien
Director
Nadine Marsh-Edwards
Producer
Robert Hargreaves
Editor
Peter Spencer
Original Music Composer
Wayson Jones
Original Music Composer
Nina Kellgren
Director of Photography
Derek Brown
Art Direction
Ronald Bailey
Sound mixer